The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1872-03-16 00:00:00

THE CLAIMANT IN THE TICHBORNE
CASE. . .

Until Friday afternoon in last week, the Claimant
was allowed to provide himself with special viands out
of the money which he gave up when he was arrested;
but on that day the creditors under his bankruptcy. as-
serted their property in this sum (about £74) and since
then, he has had to content himself with the prison
diet, adapted under the directions of the surgeon to his
peculiar condition. The following notice, from the
solicitors to the bankruptcy of the late plaintiff, has
been served on Mr. Jonas, the Governor of the gaol,
as well as on the Sheriffs of London :
"We beg to give you notice that, on the 29th day of June,
1870, the above-named Roger Charles Doughty Tichborne was
duly adjudged bankrupt by the London Bankruptcy Court,
and that William flatlitt, Esq , a Registrar of the said Court,
was on the same day duly appointed trustee of the property
of the said bankrupt under such adjudication, and that the
said bankrupt has not obtained a discharge under his said
bankruptcy. And further, that the property which his been
taken by you, or by jour order, from the said bankrupt upon
his apprehension on a commitment for perjury, is the pro-
perty of the said trustee, and that you are requested not to
restore the same to the said bankrupt, nor to permit any part
thereof to be used for his maintenance or defence, or other
porn set, and that you will deliver the same only to the
said trustee, or as he may direct; otherwise you will be held
responsible for the same. '
In consequence of this order, the prisoner's privilege
of supplying himself with comforts and luxuries out of
the money which be had on his person when he was
arrested and brought to Newgate was stopped.

It is said that the trial cannot in any circumstances
come on at the next session of the C entral Criminal
Court, which will open on the Bth of April, and all that
can be done at that session will be to prefer such bill or
bills of indictment against the claimant as the
Solicitor to the Treasury may be advised can be
supported. If these bills are returned true bills,
the claimant would be entitled to a copy of the evidence
that wan adduced in support of them, and also
with copies of the indictments; and an application
would certainly be made for a postponement to consider
the charges, and to prepare evidence to rebut them.
Such an application as this would not be resisted on
behalf of the Crown, but it is not at all unlikely that
an application will be made, when the Court sits in
April, that the recognisances of the prosecution may
be respited until the next session, in order to afford
further time for consideration.

The members of the Gull Club have, it is said, con-
sidered the question whether the Claimant or
should not be allowed to remain on the books of the
club. Grounding the whole matter on the point of
identity, and leaving out of consideration the plaintiff's
own account of his conduct on several occasions, the
Gun Clubbas decided that, until their fellow-member
is proved not to be the real baronet, there is no just
cause for expelling him. Such is, in substance, the
resolution which is understood to have been formed on
Saturday, with the proviso that, if trustworthy wit-
nesses be placed in the box at the forthcoming trial,
who can positively swear that he is Arthur Orton,
he will be ignominiously turned out of the club.
The sporting aspect of the Tichbome case has beeu thus
elucidated "Although large MUIR of money were
wagered on the case' very little will have to change
hands, as all bets on the general issue are off, inasmuch
as a uonsuit does not decide the case. Those specu-
lators, however, who betted that the plaintiff would
obtain a verdict, lose their money, as do those who
wagered that the defendant would get a verdict. Those
who betted that the defendant's witnesses would not
prove the claimant to be Arthur Oiton will have to re-
ceive, as the Attorney -Generara statements on this
.point were unsupported by witnesses.
The Solicitor's Journal, in noticing the Tichborne
case, says :
" The Tichbome trial has afforded comparatively small
matter for comment In a legal journal. Some points of evi-
dence law we have discussed from time to tons as they .arose,
but these were few and rather unimportant. The striking
and unusual characteristics of the case were such as Monght
it within the range of our daily contemporaries rather than
our own. When an Issue of facts has occupied 102 days in
trial before judge and jury and then collapses in a nonsutt,
defendant's evidence only just entered upon and plaintiff's
counsel's reply of course to come, we can hardly wonder if
people ask one another, Must not the law be to blame
if two-thirds of such a case can ma to 102 days ?' Re-
member, too, that besides this monster trial at common law
there has been a mass of Chancery proceedings which there
Is no reason to suppose have been mare than usually inex-
pensive. Yet we are unable to saddle the present legal
procedure with any reproach for the extraordinary expense
and (titration of the trial of this issue. It seems the un-
avoidable misfortune of the defendants. If a man once
lived who, if now alive, would be entitled to your property,
and some one starts up exclaiming—' I am the man, and
the property is mine,' it is your misfortune that you must
defend yourself, and if the claimant manages to make the
question turn on a vast complication of evidence, your nun-
fortune is so much the great_o. ; yet it is difficult to see
how any change of procedure could prevent that any more
than it can wholly prevent mischievous rogues from in-
juring honest men, or can compel impecunious mischievous
rogues to pay for the damage they have done The
anggestion, indeed, has been made whether a prescrip-
tion ought not to run against individuals who remain
absent and not heard of beyond a certain number of years.
Under the Code Civil' the recovery of back rents from the
party in possession, under such circumstances, was limited
to one-fifth after 10 rears, and one-tenth after 15, nothing
being redeye cable after 30. It has been argued that a
perfectly silent absence beyond a certain time might reason-
ably, with some safeguards against fraud, be made a bar to
the claim for restitution of the corpus itself of the party's
property. A man who wilfully abstains from communica-
tion with his friends, It is said, deserves to lose his property,
and impostors' claims would be prevented. But Tiehborne
eases are happily not common enough to need any such
special provision as this, and moreover, it would be difficult
to fix a limit of time close enough to bar complicated im-
postures without risking injustice in many cases of unavoid-
able disappearance Oue suggestion evoked by the Tich.
borne case is really worth attention—viz , that it would be
well ifs Judge presiding at Nisi Pries could have the im
mediate aid of a Full Court on questions of admitting
evidence."
It is expected that an application will be made to
Vice-Chancellor Wickens in reference to the several
bills of complaint filed in Court of Chancery with re-
gard to the Tichborne estates. It will be recollected
that Vice-Chancellor Stuart, who preceded Vice-
Chancellor Wickens, directed the ejectment trial of
" Tichborne r. Lushington," and now that that case
has terminated in a nonsuit, is is probable that an
application will be made to the Court of Chancery
to dismiss the several bills, or to afford some relief to
the property, which has been under orders for some
years. It is said that the gross income of the estate is
about £24,000 a year, which has been accumulating
for a long period. The claimant might apply to the
Court of Common Pleas to proceed tc a new trial, but
it cculd only be allowed on payment of costs, and they
would amount, it is believed, to at least £lO,OOO. In
default of the payment of costs by the claimant the
will have to come out of the estates, as Colonel
was the mere nominal defendant in the

money ,
LusEmgton
proceedings.