The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-09-08
A SINGULAR NARRATIVE.
Exchanwe.


 Exchange.
 The "Reverend George Frederick Wilfrid Ellis" who was some months ago Suffolk rector with a stipend of 500 pounds year, is now convict undergoing seven years at hard labor for forging the documents by which he procured acceptance as clergyman of the Established Church. His trial revealed one of the most curious in- stances of long-continued successful fraud that has ever been discovered. Beginning lite as the illegitimate child of a poor woman in Lincolnshire, he worked as a laborer and tailor till, by attending to his education, he secured place as assistant teacher in Roman Catholic school. It appears that his first fraud was In this oonnec- tion, for he passed himself on the Ro- man Catholic bishop as Roman Cath ollie, though not born or brought up in that creed. Alter awhile he left school and secured admission to the church of England from the present archbishop of Canterbury, then bishop of Truro. Without interference from any body he soon professed himself an Anglican clergyman, otficiated as cu- rate in several parts of England, and married so well that his wite's father was able to present him with the Sui folk living. His difficulty then was to secure the assent of the bishop of Norwich. To effect that he repre- sented himself as a converted priest, having heard that the church of Eng land will admit converted priests without ceremony or reordination. But the "Rev. George Frederick" had to procure documents certifying to his ordination as a Roman Catholic priest. These he forged in Latin co skillfully that they passed as genuine for five years. At length suspicion was somehow aroused, the Roman Catholic bishop whose name had been forged was communicated with, and tho whole fraud exposed with the re- suit above stated.
 It is remarked that the deceiver, for all his skill in fraud, was exceedingly stupid in that he took far more trouble to palm himself off as a con- verted priest than would have been requisite to obtain regular Anglican orders. He had had to live with un- blemished decency for many years; he had educated himself sufficiently for a clergyman's duties; he had acquired very good Latin and passed muster easily as theologian and preacher, But it is an old, true story that man must take great deal more pains to succeed in rascality for a while than in responsibility to the end of his days. With small percentage of the trouble burglar takes he might be come a successful mechanic. Some years ago an exceedingly bright and handy farmer in eastern Ontario set up as a counterfeiter, displaying won- derful ingenuity in devisiDg machinery and inventing alloys. Without the excitement of perpetrating fraud he had no disposition to cultivate his ,, mechanical talents, though they were , of a sort to yield him a large income and a fine position. The reports of crime are crowded with such instances To set their wits against the wits oi guardians of the law seems an ire sistible temptation to many who ap- ,, pear without wits except when so en- gagged. Perhaps we have all known individuals whose faculties seemed strengthened by danger, by the stress of misfortune, or by crisis far out oi the common. They rose to difficulty and were possessed by strange joy in their displays of force, skill or inven- , ton. It is conceivable that some men become habitual criminals by discov- ering that their faculties are so bright ened as to give pleasure in their exer- else by the consciousness of running tremendous risks. How else can one explain the strange conduct Of him who displays in crime much more than the industry and intellectual ability that would, as he knows well, yield him a great deal more than crime does? But there may be truth in what the alienists say-that all de- liberate criminals are essentially in- sane.