of the fact that she had learned that Roger Tichborne had taken her daughter's honor, she had nevertheless shown him to the door with bland smiles and honeyed words. Captain Birkett, who perished with his ship, the "Bella," is now averred to have scuttled her for the sake of insurance, having first taken measures which he thought would secure his own safe escape from the sinking vessel. Who could conceive it possible that such vile and slanderous assertions could be uttered in a court of justice? Long ago the Chief Justice himself had illustrated the distinction between that which is allowed and that which is forbidden in advocacy-between the fas and the nefas of advocacy by the comparison of the sword of the warrior and the dagger of the assassin. The counsel for the defence had had the singular audacity to refer to this and to liken the conduct of the prosecution to the murderer's dagger. It seemed, said his Lordship, as though the learned counsel paraded that sentiment merely for the purpose of mockery, so utterly and entirely did he disregard it. The liberty of the bar, until this time, continued the Chief Justice, I had thought incapable of being abused; but I have now seen and heard it abused. I think the proper correction for it is censure from the bench, censure which I believe will meet, as certainly it deserves to meet, with the universal concurrence of the bar of England.

Coming, then, to the consideration of the case itself, the Chief Justice recited the questions to be determined by the jury.

The defendant's counsel had boldly challenged the verdict of the jury, not merely for the purpose of acquitting his client, but for the purpose of ensuring to him the restoration of his estates. "If you, by your verdict, should acquit him," said Dr. Kenealy, "such restoration must follow as a necessary consequence. The people of England will rise with unanimous fervor, and they will find the means to enable him immediately to recover the estates of which he has been dispossessed." But, said the Chief Justice, the verdict in this case brings after it no such consequence. The question is not so much whether the defendant is Roger Tichborne, as it is whether the Crown have proved that he is not that person.

The question is one of identity, a question difficult to prove in all cases, and exceptionally so here where the usual complications were doubled, for the identity of two persons was concerned

instead of only one. Four separate bodies of witnesses appeared, and neither of the four was inconsiderable in point of numbers. There were first the persons who knew Roger Tichborne, and who were divided into two sets, those who swore that defendant was Roger, and those who swore that he was not Roger. Then there were the witnesses who knew Arthur Orton, and they likewise were divided into the body of those who swore that the defendant was Orton, and the body of those who swore that the defendant was not Orton.

Fortunately it is not necessary to decide the case by resolving to adopt arbitrarily the opinion of any one of these four adverse bodies. For besides the expressions of opinions, there is a mass of facts in the case which may serve to guide the jury to a right conclusion. The life of Roger Tichborne has been portrayed in a manner which it is hard to think can mislead. This will have to be compared with the knowledge and recollections of the defendant. But beyond this, the jury had that to which his Lordship begged to direct their most vigilant and anxious attention. They had before them the conduct of the defendant; most of it admitted, and thus removed beyond the region of doubt. This must be examined, with the view to seeing how far it might seem to be compatible or reconcilable with his being Roger Tichborne. "The facts of Roger Tichborne's life, and the facts which enable us to judge of his character and conduct, his views and intentions, upon the one hand, and upon the other hand the conduct of the defendant when he comes forward and asserts himself to be Roger Tichborne, are, to my mind, that upon which you will have eventually to base your decision, and determine for yourselves the great issue involved in this inquiry."

The first thing, then, is to familiarize ourselves with the life of the real Roger Tichborne during the period of his known existence, so far as we can, and to consider the various circumstances of that life, personal, intellectual, moral, social; all that we have to make the sum and substance of the individual man. nately the means for doing this are great.

Fortu

One man may closely resemble another man physically, otherwise imposture of the kind here charged would be impossible: "but no two men were ever alike within." The defendant, it must reasonably be supposed, resembles in some respects in his person both Roger Tichborne and Arthur Orton. The evidence forces.

us to this conclusion. Indeed, said his Lordship, I have been more than once struck with the similarity, almost rising to identity, between the descriptions given by some witnesses of Roger, and the descriptions given by other witnesses of Orton. But if a person appears claiming to be a certain man, it is fair and necessary, in testing the truth of the claim, to ask whether he knows what has passed in the mind of the man he claims to be.

Hence no better test of the defendant's identity could be furnished than that deducible from his examination concerning his recollections of events known to have occurred in the life of the real Sir Roger. But the demands made against him in this matter must not be too strict. Trifling circumstances may well be forgotten altogether, or imperfectly or incorrectly remembered. What impresses itself upon one memory will not impress itself upon another. Different parts of the same transaction will abide in the minds of different persons. Half a dozen may remember what a seventh will forget. Yet there are things which a sane man cannot forget, and of which you are entitled to require that a man should display some knowledge. Though here, again, it must be acknowledged, that things of importance sometimes pass away, in whole or in part, from the mind.

if

But

you find a multitude of things, which it seems that a man cannot forget, all passing away, it is a weighty matter.

Nor should an opposite error be fallen into of believing the genuineness of the claim because the claimant remembers some apparently insignificant things. These may be acquired. Indeed, some such naturally would be acquired. For no man will come forward with such a claim without some means of asserting it. He will have found out something about the man he is declaring himself to be, either from confederates or otherwise; and amid the information he collects will be small details and slight facts.

From this general introduction his Lordship advanced to the summing up of the facts in the case. Unfortunately want of space will prevent the insertion here of even an outline of a charge which in the traits of clearness, precision, force, exhaustiveness, and a total absence of judicial fairness, probably exceeds any charge ever made to a jury. It is possible only to select a few points.

The letters written by Roger were examined with much care. From Stonyhurst he at first wrote in French, but afterward in

English; though the Chief Justice pointed out French idioms in his English letters, showing that he seemed to think in French and to translate, as it were, his ideas into English. These seemed in every respect the productions of an intelligent gentleman, generally free from any thing in the nature of awkwardness or inaccuracy, save only the occasional Gallicisms, and by no means more deficient in the matter than in the manner. On the contrary, they often contain historical and literary references, and detail a life in which study seems to have been by no means neglected. They show a lad evidently subject to fits of despondency and generally self-distrustful, but capable of being very resolute and persistent, of taking an independent course of action and of adhering to it resolutely after he had once determined upon it. The replies from friends and members of the family are constantly expressive not only of tenderness and affection but even of respect. The letters of the defendant, on the other hand, were those of a coarse, illiterate man, full of the worst vulgarisms in style, and sometimes also in matter.

But in speaking of the letters it should be remarked that the very singular error of spelling major with a g, thus, "Magor," committed once by Roger, was also noticeable in the letters of this defendant. Defendant also wrote "has" for "as," and the same odd blunder occurred twice in Roger's correspondence.

The defendant was extremely ignorant concerning the business affairs of the family. His counsel said it was because in all such matters he had submitted blindly and ignorantly to be guided by Gosford. What with charges and entails, life-interests and remainders, the estates were in a very complicated condition, and a scheme of much importance concerning them had been arranged in the family, to be carried into execution so soon as Roger should come of age. But at that time, when appealed to for his co-operation, which was indispensable, he refused to give his assent. He had other plans of his own, well matured, and upon which he was obstinately bent. The discussion which followed was long and warm. Roger, however, held the key to the situation and finally prevailed. His numerous letters relating to this affair evinced a complete mastery of all the details, and a clear-headed understanding of his own power in the matter, and of his own wishes. The Chief Justice said it would be for the jury to say whether so complete a forgetfulness as had been shown by the defendant in

respect of all these matters could reasonably be expected to occur. Especially with regard to the Upton property Roger had the plan of making it the seat of a second family, an offshoot from the main stem, by instating there his own second son, if he should ever have one, otherwise his younger brother, Alfred. Yet defendant had not only forgotten this favorite project, but in his Australian will had quite forgotten Upton itself.

As to his love affair with Miss Kate Doughty, it began, said his Lordship, in the summer of 1849, when the cousins met after the lapse of many years, in which they had not seen each other at all. Lady Doughty seems to have vacillated much as to the matter. It was the cause of a very long and frequent correspondence between herself and Roger. The objection to his addresses chiefly lay in his propensity for drink. The Chief Justice said that this evil habit seemed to have been much exaggerated by the defendant's counsel. Roger was far from being an habitual drunkard; only two or three instances of his having taken too much were shown; he drank no more than would have been considered a virtue in the preceding generation. But it must be acknowledged that in the letters exchanged between himself and his aunt she is continually warning and chiding; he almost as frequently appears excusing and resolving. With all due deference for his Lordship's opinion, we must say that a decided alcoholic flavor hangs around the memory of the youth.

The condition of doubt in which the lady's parents seem to have been themselves, and in which they certainly kept the young lovers, led to a long and most confidential correspondence between Roger and Lady Doughty, which continued for three years. The letters, of which ninety-six (or an average of nearly one per fortnight) had been preserved, were not of a kind to be easily forgotten; they were full of earnestness, argument, entreaty, advice, promises, negotiations; and, if the lady sometimes appears to a cold observer to have been disingenuous, the young man at least is full of ardent enthusiasm. With Gosford, also, a confidential correspondence was sedulously kept up. Yet, said the Chief Justice, as to all these letters written at this time and on this subject, the mind of the defendant is an utter and hopeless blank. The jury must consider and determine whether this degree of forgetfulness passed the limits of possibility.

The dates of the letters, and their contents, too, were most