When we cannot check our witness we must regard what he tells us in the light of those instances which it is possible to fix firmly.
Among negative results I may mention an inquiry into the alleged death of a person named George Shekleton in a Masonic lodge at Calcutta.

Sir John Lambert, K.C.S.I.E., the commissioner of police at that place, very courteously made investigations at my suggestion, first at the coroner's court, but the records for the year 1880 are not now in existence, and, secondly, among the oldest police officers, but also without result.

I applied thereupon to Mr Robert William Shekleton, Q.C., J.P., inquiring whether any relative of his family had died under curious circumstances at Calcutta about the year 1880.

His answer is this:--"I never heard anything about the death of a George Shekleton in Calcutta.

My elder and younger brother were both living in Calcutta, and if any person of the same name had been living there I should have heard it from them.