The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-02-03 00:00:00

THE TICHBORNE CASE.

The hearing of the case was resumed on Monday
morning—the eighty-first day of the trial.
•••• • • •

The Attorney-Gensral, in continuing his speech, said that
about June, 10,8, information reache,l the advisers ot the
plaintiff from Australia, and probably from other parts,
which made them very uncomfortable. This was shown lo a
letter horn Mr. I;,..gent. to Mr. Muse. slit the :loth of ./17 :le
to that year Sedge us wrote, exaitim; in the Moll of the plain-
tiff's son, and saying, "Sir Harry will stand a bad charice for
the baronetcy anyhow." Now, why should he have exalted
In the misfortune that had happened to a lad ei lio had been
horn with expectations of succeeding to the baronetcy and to
he estates? Me also said
olmes will not allow the Australian evidence to go out of
his Once. 1 have read them all over carefully, and it seems
evident some are speaking of Castro thinking he must be
Orton, others are, in fact, speaking of the real Orton, for
some call him Thomas Orton instead of Castro. Sir Roger's
trek is quite easy ; be has anly to go out to Australia
and the whole altair mill fall to pieces. lam not posed
by the Australian evidence, but I can see it only wants
chairing up.
In July follow ing the plaintiff took up the theory that he had
beeo picked up by the Themis, and there was a RM., of Ids
having drawn a cheque for £27 or £2O, but if se, where was
the cheque ? it would have been conclusive of the statement.
Besides, if he Ma w a cheque for the captain, why on earth
did he not draw for bimmlf also? Ni, doubt be was in the
bush ; hut ten ice within no long time he, according to his
own account, went to 711sIbelatte and being in want of
money, why could be not then have drawn upon one
of his accounts? Further, about this time Mr. Par-
nell, a very respectable person, and Captain Angell, who was
tamed meet the guardians of the plaint if' s children under the
Wang:l-Wawa will, dined with Mr. llolmes at his request,
and they 14 011111 tell the jury w hat they thought of the
plaintiff. The dowager having died in Mardi, in July the
plaintiff was ordered to deposit upon affidavit all the dowa-
ger's papers, and a number of paptra were so deposited. No
doubt the plaintiff had derived considerable information
from the papers so deposited, but the jury would judge for
themselves whether all the dowager's papers were depositml.
They knew that one inmortant letter was deposited
in a mutilated Mrm, and not one scnip of any diary of Roger
had been placed in the custody of the Court of Chancery.
The jury would Judge for themselves what proportion of the
documents had been kept, and they knew at all events that
livery important pocket-hook bad not beeu pnolueed until
the very last day id the hearing of tlie plaintiltis ease, iii
this part of the case it:tvloildblive been of the greatest value

i;they could hlive got Mr. Holmes's bill. It would hove
thrown a flood of light upon the deposit of the papers, and
it would have shown how the plaintiff came to assert that
he Chi Han lag mrreotypes were likenesses of himself which
had been taken at Southampton.
Ile had been OM to explain much by reference to the
l'aigent ant Rouse correspondence, but how much more
would have been explained if they hail hail all the corre.
ficondence with the (Atoms and others. About the period to
which he wee now referring. Captain Williamson, who had
slot known Roger, met the plaintiff in Hampshire, and he
would tell the jury that the plaintiff talked of the I;6th
Rifles, and said that they were a horse corps. In
September the Australian and Chilian Commisaions were
issued nod the plaintiff declared his intention of going out
with them. Homade an affidavit in which he stated that he
had made the necessary arrangements to be present at the
examination of the witnesses under those commissions that
he hail retained and paid counsel; that he had paid the
counsels passage-money and his own, and he distinctly swore
that it was his positive intention to carry out such arrange-
ments. Mr. Holmes also swore that his leading
counsel had advised that it was necessary and proper
that the plaintiff should go out upon those com-
missions. The jury knew that subsequently Mr. Holmes
stated in one of his letters that the plaintiff had told false-
hoods to account for his not going out to Chili and
Australia. The plaintiff said that a day or two before the
time came for leaving he got certificate. front Dr. Lipseomite
and Mr. Covey, at Alresford, that it would be dangerous
for him to leave Euglaud, and that this he communicated to
hit counsel. The statemeet, notwithstandieg this addition
to it, was left to rest upon the unsupported testimony of the
claimant alone, and even Dr. Lipseombe when in the witness
box was asked no ifamtion about the certificate.

fl he Lord Chief Justice : When the plaintiff said he com-
municated the certificate to he leading counsel, Mr. Ser-
ie:int Ifallantine asked who that WM, and the witness said
he did not know.

The Attorney-General His case was that the whole
statement was unfoundml, and that there haul been no
inch certifleate. On the 9th of October they started for
Rio : the plaintiff saying that his intention was, by the
advice of Mr. Scott and Mr. Marx, to go no farther than Lis-
bon, and to return from that place. This did not, however,
appear to be the truth, for the plaintiff wrote to Rouse from off
Mahon, 'lBO far we have had lovely weather I am quite well;
the erysipelas has disappeared. It is a remarkably fine ship,
with every comfort," and he could give no explanation of his
statement that he intended to come back from Lisbon. The
truth he should submit to the jury was this. The plaintiff did
suet know Brasil at all, and haul never been to Rio, and what he
wanteul was to get up Rio. and to obtain witnesses by finish-
ing upon persons who had known the real Roger, information
got from Roger's diaries and his correspondence, and from
Moore. Finding that the real Roger haul crossed the
ordilleras to the East coast, he thought that he would
get up the route by going up the reverse way. Chili
he knew, for he hail been for long at Melipilla, but
be never nteant to go to chili, where Orton must have
been very well known : he only meant to go as far
as lie did. that was about the foot of the Andes. Jules
Benoit abet Captain Oates were the two last persons living
who had ss.ll Roger on board the A•llo. Captain Oates was
the last Englishman who had been on board the Bella before
mho sailed. Ile had been examined Is. this country because
he was going abroad, and his proof vas totally inconsistent
with the story of the plaintiff as to his going on board the
Belle, and as to his state on board. The plaintiff got to Rio,
and thee, for some unaccountable reason, he said that he
ahould leave the rest of the party to go by the way that they
hail always intended to go, whilst he himself said that he
should go by land across the Cordilleras. Those who went by
sea reached Melipilla in due course, where Messrs. Hall and
Stephens waited for more than a month for the plaintiff,
who, however, never appeared. The plaintiff went as far as
Cordova, in the Argentine Republic, and he never went ally
farther. Captain Burton, the great traveller, was called to
prove having niet the plaintiff at Cordova : and the plaintiff
himself haul stated his ill-health prevented his coitus 00-
11 happened, however, that the captain kept a diary, and
he entered in It that the plaintiff told him not a word
about his health, but said that urgent letters had re-
called him to England. Now this could not possibly
be true, because nobody in England knew that the plaintiff
was going overland, and therefore could not write (ohs.,, at
cordova It would appear that before the plaintiff left Eng-
land, he hail paid. various sums under the cloak of secrecy to
the ortona. this might be one reason why the plaintiff did
uot like to leave England. because it would be dangerous to
go away and leave the demands ot the ortons nlifatigled ;
tor it did not appear that his advisers knew anything of his
onmection with the Ortons. As 110011 as he had left, the
Ortoina found the supplies cut off, and Charles Orton wrote
to the plaintiff's wife
" I have taken the liberty of writing to you to know if Sir
R. D. TichLonie has left any letters for a person named
Brand before he went away. If he has, I should feel inuch
obliged if yon would forward them to the above address, as
I think it strange that he diul not answer two letters that I
wrote him before he went. Please burn this as soon as you
have read it."

The claimant's wife could not read this, and in this way it
got into Mr. !UAW'S hands, and from him to Mr. Dolnies.
The claimant in his evidence said that he had allowed
Chaska Orton .k 5 a week, and he, finding that he could get no
money, went to Mr. Dobinson and stated that the claimant
was his brother. Ile stated this to Mr. Dobinson and to
I,rd Arundel. This statement reached the ears of the
plaintiffs advisers in his absence, and Raigent wrote to
Rouse on. the 9th of (Wither, and said
n It is a sad thing that Sir Roger will work in a roundabout
way, and will not be open and make a clean breast of every-
thing. Both letters are rather strange, and, considering the
numberless tricks carried on by the defendant, one cannot
help feeling suspicious. There is something in the Orton
lawiness that I cannot unravel. There is something we do
not know, and a great deal that wants to be explained. This

years

appears to be the woman who hot kit to Arthur orton,
about which the letter related that I saw a photograph copy
Pt at Holmes's, together with the 1.0. U. She admitted
H 5 her letter to you that Sir itoger-got into his trouble by
,-..ofurnunicating with the family. Now this is what the oppo-
sition has always stated—that they were Indebted to Sir
Roger's own/anxiety to find them out. Sir Unger showed me
a letter from the same woman about a week before he left,
and I thought it very familiar, and, I think, asked for
money. Row should Sir Roger know Emily?'
Mr. Holmes also wrote to Mr. Rouse
'f regret to say it is perfectly true that Charles (Kim has
made an affidavit that the claimant is his brother. I traced
this fellow out last Saturday, and got the statement from his
own lips. Ile stated that he I lid so at the Instance of
Whit-her mat ford Aristide% because Sir Roger did not
leave him any thingbefore his going abroad."
These circumstances and the fact that Orton hadbeen in South
America and can speak Spanish were, no doubt, "start-
ling statements " to the plaintiff's advisers. Mr. Holmes
also wrote that Charles /Koh had told him that soon after
Sir Roger had gone to Rio he had written to Lady Tichborne
for his allowance, and he seriously complained that letters
and information were kept back from him.
It was remarkable that Orton should have been in the
the ship which the plaintiff had told Mr.
Gillbes he bad sailid in from Ilavre to Valparaiso. The
plaintiffs advisers in this stress relied upon the affidavit of
Cater that he hail known Arthur Orton, a pock marked
man, and Thomas Castro, the plaintiff, living at the same
time at Wagga Waage, but on their communicating with him
It appeared that he had known the pock-marked man, and
that plaintiff thereupon said that that was Orton, and Cater
adopted this statement, and static an affidavit of its truth,
without, in fact, knowing anything Ow ut it himself.
The Attorney-General continued by reading several letters
which have already been published, and by making a number
of minute comments upon them ; and afterwards referred to
other incidents connected with the case, on which he also
commented, occupying the time until four o'clock, when the
Court was again adjourned.

The ego was resumed on Tuesday morning, when the
Attortimpflentral, after some preliminary observations, Mid
lie ould,noW make some comments as to Mr. Cater, his
testinut and the sort of person he was. lie said himself
in his 1 er of the 10th of December, 1065, to Mr. Rouse that
lie hail an a master baker at Wagga-Wagga for fifteen
fitontlai terminating in April last, and there became ac-
quainted with the person calling himself Sir Roger Charles
Tiehleatua, and prior to his leaving Wagga-WaggirSir Roger
placed halos hand a note marked Not to be opened till at
sea." Ire did open the note at sea, and found this in it, "At
any time you are in England, should you feel inclined for a
monthiplensure, go to Tichlierne, in Hampshire, inquire for
Sir Iteet Charles Tichborne, and you will find one who
Will make you a welcome guest." And then Cater said there
score partioglars of the plaintiff's colonial life which lie wan
desired not to mention. Then followed Caters description
of theeplah4itl's person. In addition to this they knew that
for a Hine Cater was a frequent visitor at the plaintiff's
house, end thst the plaintiff lent him money when he had
any, cater also made his affidavit, in which he stated his
knowledge of the plaintiff at Wagga-Wagga, and added, "in
the sante employ at 13113 same time there was another man
whom I w,a knew by the name of Arthur Orion, and who
Woe pitted with the small-pos." This affidavit was for a
considerable time a comfort to the plaintiff's friends as up-
tettin. She Orton theory, but it turned out afterwards
that rater himself did not knew that the name
,d the newton he referred to was Arthur Orton :
he was called " Arty " or something of the sort, and the
. lainiaet told him that that was Orton. The affidavit was
room in la* fuel Cater remained in this country until to-
WArild the end of 1070, yet this mistake was never pointed
out In a sup lets, atlidavit or in any other way; but the
allitimliefia the misstatement in it was allowed trf remain
upon Hie Mee of the enc, t without ally e.gilatiation
ever. (Merely, was allowed to leave this country without
tieing examined upon comtnission. It was true that he left
the aaidavit behind him, lint the plaintiff could not um it,
and it would not have been beard of led for the defenillhits
entinsil putting it in. On the 15th of February, 1571, lir.
Spofforth wrote to Cater, who was returning to Australia,
Ipm to inquire ~f Mr. Rubins, at Waggit•Wagge,
for Arent (Won's adilvise, and promising if he
hvetelit' •him hero in time far the trial £5OO
furlirton syul Kstiti for Cater. He did not know whether
they weve.to an ort6u ease or not, but if no ho would
remind the Miry that, Orton, it appeared had a llexinan
brother, alel if ever an orton Were put into the box, he
should take the liberty of calling Ms atteatua. to the letter
which award irtat referred to, lie coii!,l not tell whether
there NW any likeness ketween Roger and,the plaintiff, but
they all knew that there was often a passing likeness be-
tween two persons who had no connection with one another,
except by means of Adam. They also knew that one if two
men was sometimes tnietakt n for the other apart, ge when
the two were together the person who had been dettmen
was sutarisef at the absence of likeness.
-• • •

The l:isttry of ouricourta was foil of oases of deception in
which the deception had been practised upon rw.y Persons
"1 eon.* souse oat good tuultratamilug, 14ere was the
ease of a Mali named Martin Guerin who reprt.ented
himself to he the roal man of that IMMO who bad
gone away. The impcstor appeand, claimed the pTo-
pony, and even claimed the wife and lived with her
As many as 100 persons were deceived in reference to him,
until the real man returned and his identity was estab-
lished. Tito end of it was that the impostor was hanged
before the door of the real man's house hut the poor
woman was the worse treated, because her husband would
never forgive her, saying she must have known better.
There was another case, of a Huguenot nobleman during

the time of the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes, of whom
497 persons said that Ise was the real man. It was a ease to
which the Tichborne ease was nothing, for It lasted thirteen
years (A laugh.:, There was also the impostor Demetrius,
who claimed the throne of Russia in 1666, and persuaded
the mother to recognize him. She admitted afterwards
that she was partly persuaded or deceived, and afterwards
she had not the courage to undo the mischief that
her recognition had effected. The jury would find the story
in an unfinished play of Schiller : the last that he wrote.
In the time of the Emma or commodes, Quintilius Condianuis
and his brother were put to death, but afterwards a person
appeared who represented that he was Quintilius, and said
that he had escaped being put to death. The matter tunic
before the Emperor Peanuts, who questioned the then
claimant in Greek, a language which the real rani knew
well, and he tanivieted the claimant upon the ground of his
want of knowledge of that language alone. Perhaps Greek
was less easily forgotten than French; but he must say that
his own experience was the other way. (A laugh.)
Now as to the identification of the plaintiff in UM; case.
The ordinary practice in criminal cases was to exhibit the
person in question among a herd of other persons, and let
the witnesses pick him out but in this ease they had inter-
views prepared, witnesses prepared, and one of them at the
time intralaccil to the plaintiff. In court, also, the prop,
course to have pursued would have been to put 'first
into the witness-box the plaintiff, where the nit-
nesues could have seen him in action, and heart his
story before they gave their own testimony. The nega-
tive evidence in this case also was more than usually
strong, because all the witnesses were told whom they were
going to see, and had not to plek the plaintiff out from
a number of men. All the preparation and care which made
evidence of identification weak tended to make the nega-
tive evidence upon the point strong. Every witness for the
plaintiff had been invited to Identify him, while the wit-
nesses for the defendant had taken their course in spite of
invitation. Ile believed also that all the defendant's wit-
nesses hail seen the claimant in the box, and they would
give their testimony after having seen, heard, and examined
the manner of the man. Mr. Alfred and Mr. Henry `icy-
111011r, and other members of the family would speak most
pi.itively, and there would be hardly any alternative between
their speaking the truth and their being perjured,
for they surely had the best means of judging, and
could hardly be deceived. Nobody perhaps ex-
cepting lady Doughty knew Roger better than
Mr. Radcliffe, and both she anti Lady Doughty,
after having hail the fullest opportunity of judging from
seeing the plaintiff in court, and hearing him, would state
unhesitatingly that he was not Roger Tichborne.

A great part of the Attorney-General's other observations
were directed to an analysis of the evidence as it bore upon
the points of alleged similarity of certain physical develop-
ments ill the claimant as compared with Tit:lll.rue, and at
four o'clock the Court again adjourned.

On Wednesday morning the Attorney-General commenced
by referring at great length to the accident which occurred
to the eyelid of the real Roger Tichborne. While on the
voyage from Havre to Valparaiso in the Pauline he was
sk lag an albatross, when a lish-hook, whieh was am-
pended from a beam, went into his eyelid, and an operation
had to be performed to get it unit. In March, Bra, the
claimant was examined by Dr. Lipscomb°, and at that tide
he never made the slighest reference to this accident. It
was clear he did not do so simply because he knew nothing
about it. It was incredible that if he was the real
Roger Tichborne he should not have made some allusion
to this accident in 1667, consider-mg the great
importance that had since been attached to the affair. The
claimant bad since given different versiona as to how the
accident happened. At first he said lie was struck on the
eye by the wing of the albatross, but as his knowledge of
the accident grew more correct he altered this story, and
said that it was not caused by the bird at all, lint by a large
ftsh-hook. Moose, who was on board the vessel at the time,
and had been called as a witness on behalf of the claimant,
had no doubt told him this fact, and enabled him to give a
correct version of the occurrence. At all events, before
the claimant saw Moore he knew nothing of the real
circumstances of the accident. He subsequently tried to
explain the discrepancy by saying that he referred to two
different accidents. Ile said he wail struck on the left eye
by an albatross which W. struggling while being killed on
deck, and the accident through the flab-hook was to the
right eye. Moore had proved, however, that only one acci-
dent actually took place while the real Roger Tichborne was
on board the Paeli Ile, and an examination of the claimant
showed that there was only a mark upon one of his eyes.
'The confusion into which the claimant had got with respect
to this matter was perfectly inexplicable, assuming that he
was the real Roger Tichborne. The fact was that this story
of the mark on the eyelid had been fabricated, and was
utterly inconsistent with the truth. The same might be said
of the claimant'saccount of the marks on his ankles. The real
Roger Tichborne suffered much front asthma, and was ire-
fluently bled for it. One day while at Canterbury Colonel
Ilickerstatie entered his room, and found him lying on the
bed, gasping for breath and saying. " Bleed, bleed." Both
arms and ankles wear tried, but the blood would not foliow,
anti it was not until the temporal artery was opened that
relief could be obtained. The claimant admitted that he had
forgotten all shout the bleeding from the ankles until he was
reminded of it by McCann: and it was singular that at first
be only showml a mark upon one ankle, though he subse-
quently exhibited a mark of a totally different character on
the other ankle. The doctors who had examined these marks
would not swear that they might not have been of
very recent infliction, and the suggestion of the defence WAS
that they never were inflicted until after McCann had drawn
attention to the fact that the real abater Tichborne had been
Inert in the ankles, and would, therefore, have marks there.
Two eminent medical mien would be called who would state
that it was all rubbish ti say that the scan on the claimant
were such as would be left after bleeding in the ankles. As
to the arms, it was not pretended for one moment that the
claimant bad may marks upon them, yet it would be shown
conclusively that the real Rager Tiehborne waa bled over
and over again in the arms, and if alive most have marks up
to this day to show the fact.
The Attorney-General continued his observations as to the
scars and marks which were said to resemble those on Roger
Tichhome, remarking further, that he should prove what he
hoped, at least, the jury would think conclusive that Roger
Tichborne was largely tattooed, 'Whilst the claimant had no
such mark: and further, he swore that he never had had a
tattoo mark upon him. The story, however, was a long one,
and therefore he asked the jury to permit him at this pen hint
of his address to close for the present, and resume the sub-
ject the following morning.
The jury assented, and the court adjourned at twenty
minutes past three o'clock.