THE TICHBORNE TRIAL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 526, 17 May 1872, Page 1 (Supplement)

THE TICHBORNE TRIAL.

—c —• HUMOROUS NOTES. —o — The enigmatical letters “ B. B. K.” should become as general, in use as “ 0. K.” are in America. They occur thus in a letter of “ The Claimant’ 1 to Mr. Gibbs, in Australia: —“ My reason for writing instead of seeing you personally is, I am really ashamed of troubling you so often. Your kindness will be remembered moie than a medal on my breast. V hat to do I know not. I don’t wish to leave the town before T receive letters from mother, which I hope will not be lopg first; but how to live in the meantime ] I don’t wish to impose upon your good nature for more cash ; but I wish you would speak to one of the storekeepers; I expect Sirs. Castro will be confined before Saturday ; and believe me, Sir, 1 am more like a manick tnau a B. B. K. when I think that I should have have a child born in such a hovel.” “My learned friends and myself have put our wits together to find’Dut what B. B. K. means. I think it must be a Baronet of the British Kingdom.” (Laughter.) Moore, the Butler. Cross-examined : Did you say the old lady recognised him; and did you say you had no doubt but that if they had sent over an Egyptian mummy, and ticketed it Rodger Tichborne, she would have recognised it as her soul In reply, witness stated it was quite likely he might have said so. Counsel: “ My learned friend has just reminded me that an Egyi tian mummy would have been more in the way of Mr. Baigent than the butler. Like a fine old English Gentleman “ He never dreamed of living the life of a country gentleman in England, which, as you have seen, he is so eminently fitted to adorn.” The Strawberry Mark. “ People go about saying it is not a fact they are going to prove that the claimant had a brown mark on his side—he must therefore be Roger Tichborne• but they forget to inquire whether Roger Tichborne had a brown mark or not. My learned friend, Mr. Hawkins, ever ready to light up a case with an illustration, reminds me of that pleasant interlude in ‘ Box and Cox.’ ‘ Have you a strawberry mark on your left arm V ‘No.’ ‘Then you‘must be my long-lost brother.’” Patience of the Jury. “I hope, gentlemen, you do not think these observations too long. I think them most important.” Foreman : “ I hope by this time you have ascertained that the jury have patience to hear you " Claimant’s Pocket-book Caused some amusement, as read by the Attorney-General: “ It goes on with a quantity of pencil writing, which has been struck out, but not so struck out but that I can read through it; and, as far as I can read, what comes next is ‘ Sir Rodger Charles Tichborne— Roger spelt with a “ d”— Tichborne Hall, Surrey.’ ” Lost. f “ Then there is a light and pleasant notice, ‘ Lost, September 13, this day, in Wagga Yagga. Those who find it are welcome to keep it. Two cases in the Small Debts Court—one for 3/. 155.; the other for 6/.’ We have got the records, and find that at the time Thomas Castro did lose a case, ond I dare say he would make anybody welcome to it who found it.” Wagga wagga Philosophy. ‘ ‘Then comes, in August, this dictum, signed in pencil, ‘ R. C. Tiehbourne, Bart.’ It is creditable, I must say. I do not know whether it is his own but it is a good piece of worldly philosophy. ‘ Some raon has plenty of money and no brains ; aud some men has plenty of brains and no money, purely men with plenty of money and no brains were made for men with plenty of brains aud no money.” “ I will tell you what I have heard. A man—l won’t suggest it was the claimant—was once cross-examined, and ho could not make much hand of it. He was breakfasting some days afterwards, with some of his friends, when he seemed to remember many things he did not say in cross-examina-tion. His friend said to him ; ‘ Why couldn’t you remember this the other day V and he replied, ‘ Do you think I am such a d—d fool as to tell all that to the d—d thief who was cross examining me V ” Left at Wapping. “On Christmas-day, 1866, he arrived at the Yicto.iia Docks, and went to Ford’s Hotel, whioh was much frequented by Catholics and by Lady Tichborne when she came to town, and to which he was no doubt directed by Bogle. Leaving his family there > he, the returned baronet, before seeing anyone, goes disguised-, at nine o’clock on Christmas night, to Wapping in a cab. and there, if you please, gentlemen, we will leave him till to-morrow morning.” The Jury. “ However little you may,be disposed to sympathise with me after your ex

perience in this trial, I must express ' my most earnest hope that juries never will be abolished.” The Lord Chief Justice- “The jury do not quite seem to concur.” The Attorney-General, “In any Act of Parliament that may be passed, I hope a privilegium will be granted to. the jurymen in the Tiehbourne •case, and that they may not be summoned again on a jury as long as they live.” The Lord Chief Justice : “ Without their own consent. ” The Attorney-General : “ Without their consent. But I hope, as long as I have am thing to do with the law, to see gentlemen like these in the box." When is a Man Old. “Well gentlemen, I have arrived at a time of life which makes me protest against a person of that age [sixty] being called or considered old. A man of those years is in his prime (Laughter) I object altogether to its being' supposed that a man on the shady-side of fifty is going to die. You may remember we had a scientific witness, whom his Lordship who wanted to make out that a person at fifty is old. Such an idea is scouted in all civilised society” (A laugh.) The Lord Chief Justice: “That was the witness who said that one hundred yeais is the average life of man” ( Laughter). Mr. Exigent's idea of a Gentleman. “Tie (Captain Fraser) raised himself from the ranks, and, because he is a man of honor and character, has been justly placed in the conventional position of a gentleman. Mr. Baigent runs down that man, and says with a sneer, “ Ob, he is no gentleman ; he rose from the ranks.” Mr. Baigent’s notion of rising in life is to marry Miss Plowden ” (Laughter). On Monday the Attorney General refen-ed to Mr. Baigent’s idea of who was a gentleman : Now, we have had ‘ the gentleman’s’ acts and deeds, and we have had ‘ the gentleman ’ himself before us, and I venture to differ from Mr. Baigent as to the propriety of that appellation (Laughter). It is this ‘ gentleman, ’ as Mr. Baigent calls him, who gave the following answers when questioned by me ; ‘ Did you tell Mr. Scott this was not your writing I—l did. Was that a lie 1 - Yes, it was.’ He says this was an aspersion upon the honor of a gentleman—one who with the greatest sangfroid said he had told a lie He was a gentleman who could tell a lie, at any rate (Laughter), and says, ‘ Remember, David says that every man was a liar,” The Lord Chief Justice :“ I think he said there was scriptural authority for the statement, not that David j made it.” I The Attorney General : “ But sure- i ly that is synonimous with saying I that King David said so ” The Lord Chief Justice ; “ Well j no. He did not put it in the way of j a quotation, but simply said there was 1 scriptural authority for the statement that all men were liars.” The Attorney General: “ Well, so there is (Laughter). But I ventured at the time to adopt the qualification which was made by a learned and witty C-inon of St. Paul’s, ‘ But Da vid said that in his haste, (Laughter). Let us hope that there is some qualification of the breadth of that statement (Laughter) But there is good rule in our law that you must always believe what a man says against himself ; and when Mr. Baigent says that all men are liars, it should be ac pted as true, at all events so far as it relates to Mr. Baigent.” (Laughter). “The OLD MELANCHOLY SMILE ” “ And as to the old melancholy smile, we have had twenty-one days’ experience of the plaintiff in this court, and I don’t know how far you think there was anything very winning or bewitching in his style or manner, or whether you could trace much of the melancholy smile, or any thing to produce an electric eGo t. (Laughter). You know he smiled in a melancholy way when he was asked to dinner, possibly because he knew the torture and agony that were in store for him.” (Laughter) Pleasant invitation to Lunch. “ Further, there is a flood of light shed on the ease by the capital stories of the miniature and the cock pheasant. I don’t know whether a cock pheasant suggests eating (laughter), but it is come so near the time that perhaps it will -be as well to take the cock pheasant for an afternoon repast, and then go on with the miniature.”