The Press.
London, England, 1853-08-13 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

was cast away at sea on coming from Scotland, and lost all
los papers, and atnoagittthem a sort of licence fur marriage
iu Ireland, iu which the moue of Lovell was mentioned.
AM a good French scholar; can pronounce it well. Some of toy
letters are signed " 1.1.11.” 1 got the degree at Marischal Col-
lege, Aberdeen. " LL.D." means " a doctor learned in the law."
(Laughter.) I gut the degree for lectures I gave in the college.
I returned to England hi 1820, having been absent, it might be,
eight years. The Cooney I took lasted a long time ; 1 earued a
good deal by lecturing. In 10416 I had an idea who my fatliersas.
How do you spell whoa hom e. (Laughter.) 1 could
find you dictionaries in which it is an spelled.
How doyou spell " (let aside ”?—" Sett assid e." (Laughter.)
Sir F. TRESIGER: These words are so spelled four times in
his letters !—I spell them with two t'a and two s's from &learned
commentator. I have authority fur so spelling. I prefer spelling
" aside" " away." That is the way 1 think it ought to be spelled.
I knew in 1528 who toy father was as well as watt men can. I
think I made inquiries ht 1525 of individuals at Bristol, but did
not go near those individuals who saw no' when young. I had
not time to give a thought to such things; 1 attended to my lee-
tilling. I thought it useless to make inquiries, as I thought Sir
John was the elder brother. [ln a letter of the 13th Septenther,
1852, written to Mr. Gore lAngton, he said he could get the re-
ginter of his mother's burial, in 1797, at any time, the nano
being spelled .lane Smyth.) I went to Warminster in the begin-
ning of this year. I saw an entry of the burial ill the register
when I first went. When 1 went the second tonne the entry was
erased. The clergyman showed me the register. Will swear
there was than an entry of the date of February, 1790, of the
burial of Jane Smyth, aged 10. 1 went to another village to in-
quire, and on my return the entry was erased. and another name
was substituted. That second time I went with Mr. Catlin, and
the hook was let to 11* both for all hour together, nobody else
being there. This took place at the rectory.
The cross-examination was continued at much
length on the subject of spelling, many words being
stated on which it was elicited that the claimant's
notions of orthography were rather confused. The
object was to trace the authorship of the deed or
docutnent said to have been written by old Sir Hugh
Smyth in 1823, and on which the proof of his claim
might almost be said to turn. In that deed, which
was the first of which the plaintiff professed to know
anything, the word "rascality" was spelled with two
l's—" Rascallity;" the words "set aside," "sett
usside ;" and the name of the supposed attesting wit-
ness, Dobson, was spelled with two b's—" Dobbson ;"
anti " whom" with a final e—" whome." The deed
of 1823 was the most formal document; but it ap-
peared that when the plaintiffs agent went to search
for evidence to the handwriting of the attesting wit-
nesses, who were all dead, several persons were
found who, from the character of the handwriting in
the signature of Dobson, would have thought it was
his signature but for the two li Others said that
Edwards never wrote his name William in full, but
simply W. Singularly enough, some time after this
had been discovered, another deed, dated 1821, was
sent down from London by some anonymous friend.
It was ill substance the same as that of 1823, but a
little shorter, and in it Dobson was spelled right, with
one b ; and Edwards's Christian name was written
as he usually wrote it, with the initial W. only. The
plaintiff's cross-examination was afterwards directed
to the subject of the picture obtained from Provis,
and on the back of which an inscription had been
made to appear, as he stated, by the application of
acid. The inscription was, " Hugh Smyth, Esq., son
of Thomas Smyth, Esq., of Stapleton, county of
Gloucester, 1796." This picture, it was alleged, was
a picture of one of the lirovis family, and there were
two erasures on the back. Reverting to the docu-
ments dated 1822 and 1823, the claimant was cross-
examined as to the seals appended to them, and
which bore the arms of the Smyth family. He de-
dared that ho never saw either of the documents
before the 17th of March, and then took a "rubbing"
of the seal, which he transmitted to a London en-
graver and had a new seal mule. Tile engraver,
however, made a mistake, the motto having been cut
" Qui capit capitol.," instead of " Qui eapit capitur,"
and he then had another made. He swore he did not
.see the seal before the 17th of March on the deed.
A letter was, however, produced, written by the
plaintiff to a clergyman in Ireland, dated March 13,
and bearing an impression from the identical seal.
At this detection the claimant became confused,
turned pale, and asked leave to retire, which was,
however, refused.
The case bad now lasted from early on Monday
morning to the afternoon of Wednesday, anti the sot-
disant Sir Richard had been for more than twelve
hours under examination. At this moment a most
remarkable occurrence took place, leading to a dra-
matic "scene" in court, and an abrupt termination
to the case. It seems that a London tradesman,
upon reading on Tuesday evening a report of the
earlier proceedings in a daily paper, called certain
circumstances to mind, which he communicated by
electric telegraph to Gloucester on the following day.
The message reached Sir F. Thesiger at the critical
moment, and the information it conveyed was em-
bodied in the following question :
Did you on the 19th January last apply to a person at 301.
Oxforti-street, to engrave the ring with the Bandon crest, and
the brooch with the words "Jane (looking- ?
The articles referred to were those the plaintiff had
said he obtained in 1838 from Provis, and had re •
tamed as family relics ever since. Appearing now
to feel that his chame was gone, he returned a direct
affirmative to the question, whereupon the court
experienced a lively sensation. The spectators were
astounded, and Sir Frederick Thesiger himself sat