Richland beacon., 1888-10-13
4 Singular story.


Ni!ircd Ellis. whoWas some months
ago u Suffolk rector with n stipcn,;
of $500 II year. is now convict un-
dcr"olng seven wears at hard labor
Tor forging the document by which he
procured acceptance as Il clergyman
of The Established Church. His trial
revealed one of the most curious in
stances of lon@-continued successful
fraud that has ever been discovered.
beginning life as the illegitimatech child
of poor woman IN Lincolnshire.
lie worked us IL laborer and tailor.
till. 10y attending to his education. he
secured Il place us assistant teacher
in IL Roman Catholic school. 1t ap-
pears that his first fraud was
in this connection. for he passed HIM
self on the Roman Catholic Bishop
as n Roman Catholic. though not
born or brought up in that creed.
After awhile he left school and Sc
cured admission to the Church of
England from the present Archbishop
of'anterbury, then Bishop of Truro.
without interference from ANYBODY
he soon prOfessed himself an Angcli-
can clergyman. Oficiated us curate
in several parts of England, and
married so well that his wife's father
was able to present him with the
Suffolk living. His difficulty then
Was to secure the assent Ofthe Bishop
OF Norwich. TO effect that he repre-
sentcd himself as a converted priest.
having learned that the Church of
England will admit converted priests
Bithout ceremony or re-Ordination.
but the ''Rev. George Frederick" had
to procure documents certifying to
his ordination as Il Roman Catholic
priest. These he forged in Latin so
skillfully that they passed us genuine
for five years. At length suspicion
was somehow aroused. the X. {. Bis
hop whose name had been forged was
communicated with. and the whole
fraud exposed with the result above
stated.
Ii is remarked that the deceiver. for
al his skill in fraud, was exceedingly
stupid i'll 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
II clprgyman's duties; he had ac1uir-
ed very good Latin and passed mus
ter easily as theOlOgian and preach
er. But it is an old, true story that
II man must take a great deal more
pains to succeed in rascality for a
while than in respectability to the
end of his days. With small per-
centage of the trouble a burglartakes
he might become Il successful mech
anic. Some years ago an exceeding
ly bright and handy farmer in East
OntarlOr set up as cOunterfeiter,
wonderful ingenuity in de-
vising machinery and inventing al
!Oys. Without the excitement Ofper-
fraud he had no DISPOSE
ton to cultivate his mechanical
talents. though they We're of a
sort TO yield him large
income and IL fine position. The re-
ports of crime are crowded with such
instances. To set their wits of guar
lians of the law seems an irresistible
temptation to many who appear
wits except when SO engaged
Perhaps we have all known individ-
lals whose faculties seemed strength
med by danger, by the stress of mis-
Ortune, or by crisis far out of the
COMMON. They rose to difficulty
md were possessed by a strange Joy
n their displays of force, skill or in
1t is conceivable that some
nen become habitual criminals by
discovering that their faculties are
70 frightened as to give pleasure in
heir exercise by the consciousness
If running tremendous risks. How
'lse can one explain the strange con-
iuct of him who displays in crime
much more than the industry /
md intellectual ability that |
would. as he knows well, yield him
great deal more than crime does?
But there may be truth in what the |
llienists say-that all deliberate
are essentially insane.