THE TICHBORNE CLAIMANT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 587, 18 July 1873, Page 3

THE TICHBORNE CLAIMANT.

O (Graphic.) Who would have thought, some six; or seven years ago, on reading a brief paragraph in the papers to tho effect that a claimant to the Tichborne estates had appeared in Australia, that a cause would arise out of that statement assnminggreatcr dimensions, and arousing more popular interest, than perhaps any trial on record ? Looking back to tho commencement of the affair, our surprise is as great as th'.t of tho Oriental fisherman when ho saw an immense genio come out of a little leaden casket. Everything connected with this case tends to bigness, the personal appearance of the Claimant being no exception to the rule, and even the side issues of this extraordinary inquiry assume aj portentous ifragnitude, just as the tributaries of tire mighty Amazon far exceed in size the principal rivers of smaller countries. In this place we need not do more than remind our readers that the Claimant, after a trial of unprecedented length, failed to convince a jury that he was the heir to the Tichborno estates, and he was then committed to Newgate on a charge of perjury and forgery, hut_was afterwards released on bail. His trial on the former of these charges began in tho Court of Queen’s Bench, Westminster Hall, on Wednesday, tho 23rd of April, and some idea of tho length to which it is likely to extend may be gathered from tho fact that tho opening speech of Xlr. Hawkins, the senior counsel for the prosecution, alone occupied a week. His address was chiefly of a biographical character, as ho first sketched tho life of llogor Charles Tiohhorae up to tho date of his disappearance on hoard the Delia, and then narrated tho history of Arthur Orton, who, according to the theory of tho prosecution, is identical with the Claimant.