Page:The Ancestor Number 1.djvu/166

 ii8 THE ANCESTOR social status of deponents — are all questions respecting which opinions of the highest value may be found in Minutes of Evidence. The cases or pleadings are of course not evidence, but in them may be found valuable expositions of law, subtle distinctions, and arguments of great advocates, afterwards celebrated judges. It has not appeared possible or desirable to state the subject in fuller detail. I have not noticed such cases as Annandale and Mar, the former beginning in 1796 and still pending, the latter not yet emancipated from the domain of personal quarrel. But I think I have written enough to indicate that there exists in peerage cases and evidence a mine of informa- tion, historical and personal, well worthy of being examined by all students of antiquity, law and romance. W. A. LINDSAY.