Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1874-04-10

apparently voluntarily TeSlBueu' Aet ne
came back so changed, so debased and de-
graded, that even his impatient mother
must have felt an intense and cruel disap-
pointment. BY his own confession, or the
assertions of his friends, he bad been sunk
in the lowest intemperance, his mind was
enfeebled, his memory impaired. He had
lost the common usages of cultivated So
ciety he could no longer write brief note
without the rudest errors he was grown
into gross and heavy figure and he as
serted that for twelve years he had lived
among the dissipated and depraved in Aus
tralia; that although the heir of great es-
tate, he had hired himself 10 farmer for a
few shilings week and that he had
kept a butchers shop, and carved out meat;
and he even admitted that he had been
guilty of acts he could not safely avow. He
had married during his absence an uned.
ucated woman, and brought with him his
family. Such was tho improbable story by
which he accounted for his long absence,
and satisfied the curiosity of Lady Itch
borne. She never for a moment doubted
its truth. Nor is italtogether II unparalleled.
The last Lord Byron died a common labor
er in a factory, reduced by intemperance
and vice to degradation beyond even that
of the Tichborne claimant and an Earl of
Aberdeen was recently drowned while
maintaining himself as a common sailor on
New England ship. 1t is not possible TO
say how far dissipated life and rude COM
pary may debase even the most refined
nature.
BY all the Tichbornes and the Scymours,
by nearly all who should have been the
most familiar with his features and his life,
except the mother, the person who assum-
ed the part of Roger Tichborne was pro-
nounced an imposter. Those whom he
called his aunts, cousins, and early friends
denied that he was their relative or 40
uuaintance, whose slight figure and not un-
polished manners they could distinctly re-
call. Yet what adds 20 the strangeness of
the case, should they be right, is the fact
that even his opposers admit that there are
some traces of resemblance in the coal Sc
swollen figure and countenance of the
claimant TO the Tichborne family and to
Roger and several of his early friends and
one at least of his relatives are convinced
that he is the true heir of Tichborne. He
| brought an action to recover the property,
and was defeated. His supposed mother, La
dy Tichborne, EN- barrassed by his expenses
and his extravaganza, by his follies and his
difficulties, had died suddenly in 1868.
He has since been tried for perjury, and
| such has been his round of falsehoods and
prevarications, Of plain sef-contradictions,
OF gross calumnies, and rude insults
to persons whom he should never have
assailed, that, even had he been the real
Sir Roger no one would regret that he had
forfeited his fortune and met a deserved
punishment. But proof seems to show that
the claimant is a certain Arthur Orton, q
butchers son, who went 10 Australia, and
| who has had some secret connection with
the Tichborne family. This is the first ex-
ample in history where a mothers instinct
has been mistaken or defed. Tho law o
human nature has been supposed TO be in
variable. The mother has never failed tC
be drawn to her offspring by an Irresistible
and secret tie. In every age the principle
has been acknowledged. The Greek TRACE
dams founded their most perfect plots up
on the restoration of the abandoned infants
the sudden recognition of ono who wa!
supposed to be lost forever. Solomon ap
pealed TO the maternal impulse. The LatiI
comic writer's followed the guidance of tn
Greeks, and touched their audierces by
display OF the swim recognition and III
natural sympathy of mother and child
The infant exposed on the wild hills O
Attica is known aner he has sprung up in
TO manhood, and has changed in everything
except nameless identity. The laws q
nature has formed the source OF endles
modern novels. plays, and poems. In fu
ture it must be laid aside. The mothe
can no longer be held an uncrriny judge c
the identity of her own offspring. g.-Hd'
pers' Weekly.