§ How came you first to see Mr. Sheridan, or to go to Somerset-place? I was served with a Speaker's warrant from the house of commons by Mr. Boswell of Gosport; he applied to me several times for the letter I received from Mr. Drake.—Was any money or temptation held out to you by Mr. Boswell, or any other person, to give up that letter? When Mr. Boswell served me with the warrant, a day or two after he met me, and says, Mr. Harris, do you want any money? I said, no, Mr. Boswell. There was a gentleman by the name of Mr. Joseph, who keeps a shop at Gosport; he said, Harris, do you hear what Mr. Boswell said? I said, I do, sir; he then said, will you go up tonight with me in a post-chaise? I said, no, sir; I am going up, but I shall go up in the stage: I did not go up that night, but a night or two after. When I arrived in town on the 5th of Feb. I was not scarce half an hour in my house when Mr. Boswell and Mr. Jukes, the banker from Gosport, arrived at my house; they came and applied to me for the letter I had from Mr. Drake, signed R. B. Sheridan, Treasurer of the. Navy. I immediately went away; I told them to wait a little, I would let them know in a minute whether I would let them have it or not I made my way out of the house, and went over to Mr. Sheridan's house; I live in Holy well-street. When I went into Mr. Sheridan's, I saw Mr. Burgess, he was there, and I told him the case, that there were two gentlemen at my house; I have a letter so and so, which I have by me; there are two gentlemen want it: I do not know whether I do right to deliver that letter out of my hands, as I have a Speaker's warrant which I shall obey. I went away. Mr. Burgess told Mr. Jukes and Mr. Boswell that he would send them to Bow-street, if they came to inquire for the letter, Which they had no right to do; however they went away that day. At that time Mr. Burgess said, Mr. Harris, I shall come to you presently again; I said very well, sir. He came to me about an hour after; I said, how do you do, Mr. Burgess? he said, how, do you do Mr. Harris ? He said, I shall be very happy to see you this evening, about 5 o'clock; I said, I will attend you; I shall be at home. He came and asked, will you have the goodness to walk over to Mr. Sheridan's? I did, and took the letter with me, and showed it to Mr. Sheridan. After a few words I went home, and they applied for the letter again, and I told Mr. Burgess of it, 51 and Mr. Burgess and Mr. Sheridan advised me to let them have the letter, which I told them I could not by any means; as I had a warrant from the house of commons to produce it, I should certainly obey it. They said, they thought it could not be any harm for me to give it up; I said, I could not do any thing of the kind.—Did not Mr. Burgess advise you to deliver the letter to a messenger of this house? I do say so.—Had not you another letter, some considerable time before yon had this letter, purporting to be signed by Mr. Sheridan?. Yes, pretty near a month I dare say; being blotted, I showed it to my friends, and asked them what they thought of the letter? they said, if you can get one with the signature of it more plain, it will be better. I went back to Mr. Drake and said, I should thank you, Mr. Drake, if you could get a letter signed more plain by Mr. Sheridan, the Treasurer of the Navy; but that letter had M. P. to it, which I thought not proper, as there was no parliament.—What was the distance of time between your receiving the first and the second letter? About 3 months, when Mr. Drake was so long about giving me the other letter. I will tell you the particulars: I paid him for the letter, I gave him money for his trouble. I says, Mr. Drake, if you will get me a letter which will be of great service to me in my business, you shall not do it for nothing: he said, well, Harris, what will you give me? I said, will a 10l. note satisfy you? he said, yes, as you are a neighbour, I do not wish so much as that; I will be satisfied with 5; however, Mr. Drake has had to the amount of 51. 8s. of me for the letter.—When Mr. S. expressed his surprise at your believing it possible for him to have signed that letter, did you not state that admiral Colpoys and admiral Parker, and others had signed such letters? Yes, and I can name the parties; it is an usual thing for gentlemen to give such letters. There is the duke of Clarence; Mr. Zachariah has one.—Did you not go of yourself, voluntarily, and give your evidence to Mr. Graham? I certainly did. When I applied to Mr. S. I said I would advertise Mr. Drake, when I heard the letter was a forgery. Mr. S. said "it is a pity to do that; he will "receive his punishment." I wished several times to advertise him, because I could not find him.—Was any means taken by Mr. Drake to offer you money, or reward, to get that letter out of your possession? There is a gentleman of the name of Mr. 52 Dawes, who can prove that he offered me money; and he said he would take me to a place, and I should not come to any harm. He offered me 30 or 40; and I said, I would not for any sum give the letter out of my hands to any person.—To whom is the letter addressed? I have the letter; it is to captains and commanders of his majesty's ships of war. I have the letter here. He stated that the signature only was Mr. S's. writing.—[The letter was read, and is as follows:] " London, . Nov. 3, 1806.—Sir, The bearer is a respectable tradesman; and if you will permit him to serve the ship under your command, I am certain justice will be done to every man on board that employs him to fit him out with clothes, &c.; and in so doing you will greatly oblige your obedient, &c. R. B. Sheridan. Somerset Place, Treasurer of the Navy. To Captains and Commanders of His Majesty's Ships of War."—Had you yourself ever any personal knowledge of Mr. S's. hand-writing? No.—Had you ever the slightest intercourse with Mr. S. before this time? Never before the 5th of Feb. last.—Was the first or the second letter connected with any condition, that you should procure for Mr. S. any number of votes for the Westminster election? NO, not one; I am sorry to say that I did not get one vote.—To the best of your knowledge, what became of the first letter? I asked Mr. Drake what became of the first letter; and he said he destroyed it, because he did not think two should be in circulation.—You gave it back to Mr. Drake? Yes; I asked him how it became so blotted, and he said Mr. S. dried it with the cuff of his coat.—That was 3 or 4 months before the second letter was obtained? About a month, or 5 weeks.