Litchfield enquirer., 1869-04-08
| UNsUoCEssFUH IMPosTURE.
LONDON SOCIETY.

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 And now let us take another cause celebre It shall have . stroke of luck in. it. One day e. man was lounging about in the grounds of Ashton Haii. the fine old seat of the Smythes. He knew the place we'll. "A near relative Of his had been honsekeep- isr there for years He had made it his business to collect all the information he could respecting the family. The estate attached to the title were very. great. pro- sdncing . rent roll estimated not far from thirty thousand q year. The lord of these large possessions, in Q broken and uncer- which this man was prowling about the grounds was destined to be tho baronet's Last on earth. The following morning he was found dead in. his bed. That this man was in the grounds that day there is no danbt; the fact is proved and is uncon- tested. A remarkable sort of man quite middle aged. with great precision of dress and manner, sallow, Iron gray,e dressed in black; one who described himself as a This was stated-that this eventful evening he sought and obtained an interview the bar0net; that he annonn- oed himself as his nephew. the son of his eldest brother by 8 previous marriage, the rightfnl heir of the title and estates which he had so long improperly enjoyed The old man was thrown into such . state of
 perturbation that the visitor added that his object was to establish his rights for his family, and not to disturb him in pos. session. The baronet was unable to resist the proofs of relationship, and acknowl. edged his nephew. giving him Q fifty
 pound note, and promising to make an ar- rangement The shock, however. was too
 much for him, and he died next morning.
 Great doubt was throwa upon the statement whether this man, who called himself Sir Richard Hugh Smythe, and
 whom his enemies called John Provis, ever had this fatal interview with the baronet.
 However that may be, at his death the es-
 tates passed to his daughter Florence and
 her issue. The claimant, however, by no
 means lost sight of his case. He collected
 . great deal of oral testimony, not forget
 ting Bible, pictures, seals, rings, certifi-
 cates, calculated to sustain his cause. He
 was poor man, and had no means of
 pushing his claim. At last lawyers were
 found who lookel fayo ably On his cas C. and
 were willing to stake their money on it.
 Some mention was made of bond of 20. 900 pounds; and it was stated that for
 every pound advanced there was an annui- ty to be paid. The case eventually came
 on for trial at Gloucester before Mir. Jus
 tice Coleridge and . special jury. Mir. Bovill, the present Lord Chief Justice, in
 the absence of his seniors, Sir F. Kelley and MT. Heating, conducted the plaintiff s
 case, and Sir Frederick Thesiger led an ar- my of five counsel for the defendant The
 claim was that he was the son of Sir Hugh Smythe, who married Jane, the only daugh-
 ter of Count Vandenberg, by Jane daugh-
 ter of Major Goedkin of Court Macsher- ". s5ss.s7 s,..s .s5 -
 Sir Hugh Smythe gave his evidence with
 the utmost coolness. While his own coun- sel was examining him there was nothing to check the easy flow of autobiographic
 narrative. He recounted his earliest im- |pressions: How, while under the carpenter's roof of the name of Provis, he was treated like little lord in the village; how ladies | of the highest rank visited him; and how the Marchioness of Bath, when ho was on- y thirteen, gave him fifteen hundred pounds which had belonged to his mother, and various documents necessary to estab- fish his birth. He said that his reputed father, John Provis of Warminster, a car penter, gave him Q Bible, some iewelry belong to his mother, his fathers portrait anda brooch marked Jane Goodkin. It was also stated that he was for some time at Winchester school He gave an account how he had been lecturer on educational subjects, in this country and abroad, and then turned lecturer on oratory, and ac- tually iectured before the Queen at Buck ingham Palace. The truth of this state- ment was left untested. When, however, the witness got into the hands of Sir Fred
 erick Thesiger, there ensued one of the
 most memorable and searching cross ex-
 aminations known in forensic history. In the first place, the educational lecturer al- together broke down in his spelling. Ask to spell .'vicissitudes, " he spelt it ''vissici
 tudss; and when there was laugh he said
 he could give authority for such, spelling in the dictionaries. Asked to spell ssscru- tiny, z heEspelt il. ssserewtiny,' ' and insisted
 to the ejpdge that many persons spelt it in
 that way He spelt q whom ''whome. D
 and s'set asides ssett asside.' In his
 speaking he had the curious habitrof thus
 doubling his consonants; and one of the
 signaturest mpugned as . forgery, ,wasf' 'Dob-
 bson, '' instead of e.Dobson." 3 This false
 spelling constantly appeared in the gdocu- ments, and so impugned their authenticity.
 He got very restless as Sir Frederick s
 cross examination increased in severity.
 He .declared he would say nothing except
 in answer to aiquestion.7 He used some
 insulting expression to counsel. At one i time he sat down terrified and exhausted by the process of cross-examination. c An anonymous letter was sent to the judge, which he produced in court. urging that he ought not to be. unfairly pressed. At Isix o'clock in the evening the cross-exam-
 ination was suspended till the following morning. aIa4 I .i) = .zegaAgsofT
 The next morning . seiegraph;c dispatch
 reached Sir Frederick Thesiger from town. This was . signal instance of the. advanta- ges of publicity in trials and of the facili-
 ties afforded by the electric telegraph. II
 was said that the electric wines hanged
 John Iawell, and they were almost equally
 fatal to the cause of the pseudo baro- Inet. IA jeweller in Oxford street sent word
 that he could give some important informa- tion. q Mesmges were interchanged. and iSiT Frederick was requested to ask him whether he had not directed the name oi
 Goodkin to be engraved on . brooch. He now completely broke down under ex- animation. He turned very pale, and EAsked permission to leave the court to re-
 cruit himself [ Had he done this heEmight
 have escaped, and have avoided his coming doom. At last Sir Frederick put the terrible
 question whether he had not been in goal
 for horse e-stealing during some period oi