Year: 1860

specific evidence? Would you, as a magis-
trate, listen to such tale? Have you any
other reason for suspecting foul play?


! "'No,' said he, L certainly have not
! Il looked at my friend, and asked him if
he really had come eighty miles in conse-
quence of this dream. YES said he; L
can quite understand your wonder, but was
so impressed With the reality of what 1 saw
with my own eyes and heard with my own
cars, that 1 could not resist the desire felt
to consult some lawyer Of considerable ex-
periencc' What, in dreams? said L.
We'll, you may laugh at me, but really it
seems serious matter to my mind


"He came in the afternoon" said Cock
ayne, ito dine with me; l found his mind
still full of its reality, and he urged me to
send for that celebrated Bow street officer,
Townsend, to 60 down with him by the mail
that evening; but [ finally succeeded in
convincing him how dangerous it would be
to raise so serious an inquiry on the foun-
dation of dream, and | never heard more
on the subject from him.


"About ten years after this occurrence
my client died, and as my new partner, Mr..
Taylor, was going the circuit, it was ar
ranged that he should call on the executor
of my late client for small balance due to
me from the deceased. On Mr.. Taylor's
return home, while paying me the amount
he had received, he mentioned that the exc
cutor had related to him very singular
circumstance while dining with him.


II should here state that Mr.. T. was not
in partnership with me at the time Of my
late clients visit to London respecting his
dream, nor had [ ever related it to him.


Some conversation said Mr.. T., 'arose
after dinner, when the lady had retired, a.
bout dreams, when he mentioned to me a
very curious one of his own, that occurred
to him some years ago He did not call it
a dream, but insisted upon it that it was a
reality. He said that late one night he was
reading in his library, Tomline's Life of
Pitt which, said he, '"could not suggest
such a subject as was then presented to my
mind. While [ was reading, my light gra-
dually dimmed out, and well-known fami-
liar voice addressed me. I saw nothing.
The purport of the address was that the
friend whose funeral was going to attend
on the morrow had been put to death by his
medical attendant, who also contemplated
doing the same to his son, as, in case of the
sons decease, he would, as next relative,
succeed to the property, and was entreat-
i ed to take dp the maJ1er kept listening
but no more was said. The voice, felt
sure, was that Of my deceased friend. l
felt a shuddering creep over me. and after a
minutes pause [ shrieked out, who is
there? No answer was heard; so [ rose
from my chair, and with some tremor lighted
my candle, and sat down to think; but soon
after this my wife's bedroom bell rang, which
[ concluded was for nae, as it was very un-
usual with we to sit up so late. When I
got upstairs, my wife had dropped off to
sleep again, so l said nothing to her on the
subject; but early in the morning l rode
over to friend, who was the coroner, and
communicated to him my strange message
He severely ridiculed it. or rather me, for
entertaining such notion of a dream, which
he insisted it was; but at the same time he
cautioned me to keep it quiet, and not SUBJ
ject myself to an action for defamation. /
did keep the matter quite secret, and only
now venture to relate it, as the last of the
parties concerned, (the poor doctor), was
thrown from his horse and killed. Fairly
or foully, he had succeeded to the estate on
the decease of my old friends son."'


"On hearing this" said Mr. Cockayne,
Il related to Mr. Taylor my old clients sin
gular dream, and we concluded the matter
ought not to rest here; so finally deter
mined to go down and see the executor as..I
make cautious inquiry. I did so, and
found that the son had been attended by his
medical relative during long illness, which
ended in death, and tat he had succeeded
to the property as -at-law, without any
suspicion OF unfair treatment. then asked
1t my late client had ever mentioned to him
a particular dream relative to this matter.
He looked greatly surprised, but answered
IN the negative. [ then communicated to
him the dream as related to me, whereat his
astonishment was great indeed. After some
further consultation we determined to pro-
ceed together to the old coroner, and relate
it to him. We did so. and he was equally
astonished; but, after much serious consid-
GRAFTON, we concluded that it was altogether
dead case, and could not be resuscitated
to any practical purpose.


'Ihe coroner observed that it was most
singular instance of coincidence, possibly
arising from both the parties being led into
the same course of reflection, on the impro-
priety of medical relative being the sole
attendant upon two persons in whose death
ne was deeply interested, and it was decided
to avoid originating any public investiga-
tion. So the matter dropped"


The doctors family have since been de-
prived of the estate by contest in Chance
ry, wherein it was discovered that he had
established his heirship by forged docu-
ment, and that he was in fact illegitimate.
Roses AND THoRNEs.-We wonder what
this world would be to us if, throughout our
lives, we reposed on a bed of roses Should
we, in reality, feel more happy than when,
under the present social dispensation, we