Darlington & Richmond Herald. — 1874-01-03 (Darlington, Durham, England)

TELE TICHBORNE PERJURY TRIAL.  ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-NINTH DIY.  DR. KENEALY ON THE ORTON THEORY.  At the sitting of the Court for the 149th day, Mr Justice Mellor intimated that the Lord Chief Justice would shortly arrive. Dr. KENIALY : I will commence this morning by wishing you all "a happy New Year." (Laughter.) The FOREMAN: We wish the same to you, Doctor.  Dr. KENMLY : And to my client, in the words of the old law, I wish "a good deliverance." Dr. KIINELLY then proceeded to deal with the evidence of the witnesses who identified the defendant as the person., they knew in Australia as Castro.. Eight witnesses had deposed individuals. Castro and Orton being two distinct One remarkable fact wasthat Roger Tichborne being a very reserved. Man, the evidence went to show that Castro was a person of the same description. He did not agree with one witness, who said that the defendant was as bad as the bushrangers with whom he associated, because curiosity to experience their wild and adventurous life might have solely induced him to join in their pursuits, and probably, if he had gone the length of committing any serions offence he would have been discovered at Wagga-Wagga and brought to justice. On the other hand, Orton, who was an admitted and well-known bushranger, and probably also a murderer, doubtless pursued his calling in a more reckless, open, and undisguised manner, and this would account for hi a sadden disappearance in 1866, in order to escape the just vengeance of the law. How the defendant came to join with these men he could only imagine. Having mixed in the society of people of high rank and found nothing but vanity and disappointment—met with nothing but rebuffs, contempt, and scorn— he might have thought that for the mere sake of change and excitement he would rash into the opposite extreme, and to see the occupations and features of life amongst the most degraded classes. The eccentricities of the human mind were so various, that it was impossible to say to what lengths they might not go. But he nevertheless believed in the truth of the passage in one of the defendant's letters to Lady Tichborne, where he assured her that he had done nothing to disgrace himself. The Lord Chief Justice took his seat on the bench at a quarter after eleven o'clock. At the end of his summary of the defendant's Australian evidence, Dr. KENRALY contended that it would be unparalleled in the judical history of the country to hold, after such a vast preponderance, in number and weight, over the witnesses presented by the prosecution, that the defendant was Arthur Orton, and he claimed a complete and absolute victory for the defendant, as a matter of right, upon the Orton theory, against which the testimony was as overwhelming P. 4 the waves of the Atlantic. Turning next to the French witnesses, he said that not one of them was asked a single question as to any essential feature of Roger which was not alterable by age or health, or was inconsistent with the present appearance of the defendant. Dr. KENELLY afterwards referred to the Stoneyhurst evidence, and argued that it could not be relied upon as telling against the identity of the defendant with Roger Tichborne. The family and military evidence was reached by the learned counsel in the afternoon.