The daily morning journal and courier., 1900-01-25
CASE OF MISTAKEN IDENTITY
AN EPISODE OF LONDON LEGAL
 LIFE.

|
 Nm Which a Faithful Clerk Saved th,
 Day.
 In writing the account of the marrow
 escape I had from liability to charge
 of professional negligence in the case
 of the wills of the two maiden sisters
 living at Croomedene, I was reminded
 of another incident which occurred tc me earlier in my career, before l left London for George town, in which George Croome, the brother of the old
 sisters, was concerned. I first became acquainted with the family through staying one summer in a charming viii lage on the border of the Ripping forest, in the county of Essex, about 25 miles out of London, at the time l was read ing up for my final examination. Of this village, Canon Croome their father, was the rector; an Acquaintance made casu- ally in the railway train ripened into in timacy; and when I started in practice in London, Canon Croome was the earli- est client whose name was recorded on my books.
 It was at this time that the worthy old clergyman consulted me as to the many claims made upon him by credit ors of his scapegrace con, George, and l felt compelled to advise him to let me persuade George to go and live abroad out of their reach, while I would en- l deavor to arrange terms with the most reasonable of them. So it was that one of the last acts l was called upon to do for the good old clergyman was to pre- 1 pare a will for him by which the income only of considerable capital sum was made payable to George by monthly payments at the discretion of trustees, and in case of the income becoming i alienated by act of law, such as bank | ruptcy, or by any act on Georges own part the payments of income were to be | suspended at the discretion of the trus- | tees, and handed over to his sisters. 1 One day, about the year 1865, old | Canon Croome had a sudden stroke, and died in few hours before George could be summoned home from abroad. I had arranged with all the honest creditors. Canon Croome had insisted on paying in full, all debts, for necessary expenses SA iA'fiot iiNccbi o eopd NelS pCyOIiN the strict Interpretation of the word necessary" but he sternly refused to pay gambling debts, or money claimed by professional money lenders. The principal debt hanging over Georges head was one to a notorious money lender named Grimes, of whom I will give a description later on; meanwhile l have pleasanter picture to draw of a really faithful clerk. What a blessing to lawyer really clever, trustworthy clerk Is! Such blessing possessed in the person of George Carter, who must at one time have been queer charac- ter in his way. He knew something of everything how and where he acquired his knowledge of all the shady corners and bypaths of the dark side of London life without getting his own personal character sullied passed my comprehen- sion. I knew nothing of his boyhood, he was 35 years old before I stumbled across him; by some little service I rendered to him, I had saved his home from being wrecked by a miserable moneylender. I had taken the matter up at the request of relative, and his gratitude to me for saving his wife from
 
 etituted fund upon which I could ever afterward rely whenever had to draw upon it. I can only say that when I had any difficulty before me, any prl- vate inquiry which had to be made among the shady byways of city life, any delicate little negotiation to be carried through for client, which was out of my line, George Carter could all ways be relied upon to get the matter through. We had a working under- standing between us; on his side he was never to pass over the border line of strict professional propriety, so as to jeopardize the good name which I was striving to acquire among my brethren in the profession; and on my side was never to be unduly inquisitive as to his method of working either before or after events, but to trust him implicitly.
 In a court running out of Old Broad | street, London. the man Grimes carried on his business, nominally that of a lawyer; his best friend would have felt constrained to admit that his personal character was shady---the members of | the legal profession who had to do busi- nees with him did not hesitate to call | him, in professional confidence, of | course, an unmitigated scoundrel. Taken | at an early age into the office of low class lawyer in London, he had succeed | ed in making himself so useful in the | office that his employer had. for the | sake of securing his continuous services, | given him his articles; and before the old mans death. which occurred soon after the five years apprenticeship came ', to an end Grimes had become fully | fedged attorney and solicitor, and, in few years after starting, had establish ed a reputation for smartness which soon procured for him a lucrative prac- tice in criminal cases. Not that his business had been confined exclusively to advocacy; by the skillful use of ready money loaned out in small sums at exorbitant interest to the needy and he had become a master in the occult science of making money beget money; and after few years he gave up advocacy and devoted his ener- gies of what he termed his private prac- tiop t1,oppu-lnu6{rr Tn thiS dp1ipatp |