GOSSIP ABOUT THE TICHBORNE CASE.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2691, 2 October 1871, Page 3

GOSSIP ABOUT THE TICHBORNE CASE.

Kefciring to the Tichborne case, a Loiulon correspondent writes : No two persons scim to be able to agree upon the cate. “What do you think of the c se ?” I asked of a barristerial friend who had been “watching” the case, as the phrase goes. “ Look yon,” ho replied, “ i have been in the ha'it of f.d'owing legal investigations for years, and therefore knew something o' < vidcnce, and you mav take my "word the man is an arrant impostor.” After him came another howigged acquaintance, to whom I propounded tiie same question. “Mark mu,” lie said, Eldon-like, “ I haven’t any prejudice. I look at the whole business from a judichl point of view, and the man who can’t see that he is the baronet is an ass, pure and simple that’s all.” Go where you will these are the conflicting opinions you hear—in court by persons who have heard evoiy word of the evidence, and out of court hy yprsons who wade through four columns of qinstions and answers every nro.ning, and ask for more. A fashionable lounge is ihe court. It is great fun for “the lounging classes.” They besiege the eouit, try the bribe and threaten, and use every stratagem to gain admittance. AVhafc does St. Martin’s le-Gran I do when Mr Monsell whiles away an old hour or so listening to the claimant’s examination ? Lord Chelmsford comes often, and the.So’ieitor-Gciicral’s venerable father also. The Lord Chiif Justice of England even, as soon as ids own c mrfc is closed, e< mes in and sit; out the hearing. Tim oilier visitors who come and go are the Prince of Tech, most handsome and popular of highnesses; the Marquis of Bute, who is in court with unfailing regularity, and who is an object of tender regard amongst the fair spectators ; Gcnoial Sir W. Codrington, who also seems to attend as a matter of duty ; Lord and Lady < leveland, the Duke and Duchess of Manchester, the Chancellor of thg Exchequer, and a host of wllter leas known breath os of “high life.” Next week, at least, will bo well nigh over before the claimant will he released—in the ordinary course of things—from Ihe scathing ordeal which he is undergoing. The idaiinant’s ma-ncT of answering is very deliberate. Yon can’t hurry him, nor to any strions extent worry him. The question is asked and a pause emu's. The witness is conentering, sometimes gazing roof of the oour£, as jf fo 4 . inspiration some times twisting his handkerchief into a variety of shapes, sometimes dmmining on tin: front of Ilia rude box but at any cost taking matters most deliberately. At lirst sight you would say he was a stiip.i l mm, a vulgarlooking man. lie is neither. 'I he S’oiicitorGeneral has more than once to bear witness to his shrewdness, to the aptitude with which he seizes upon a discrepancy and draws line distinctions, and to the ready answers he can give when he chooses. He is a man who tells the judge in s’uq; q pagse 'as this jhat his opponents neei] no counsel while Irs Jordsliip is on the bench, who beards the Solicitor-General a doy.en times a day, and often incurs hy Ids replies the censure of his own legal advisers. Believe not all (hat you hear of his defective pronunciation and farm-like appearance. As to the lirst, his happit of dropping hjs voice at the close of every schteiiec makes' the me or omission of the lettei- “hj” a very doubtful matter; as to the'second, I ecnld name a few hereditary peers wb (l > came over with the conquest, &c., who would gain a good deal of aristocratic demeanor and appearance by exchangingheads with him. He is frightfully fat—so ponderous, indeed, that when he enters the box his waistcoat buttons touch the front, while his rear seems to he entering the door of the court. Another metropolitan correspondent thus sketches the scene in court during the progress of this remarkable trial: —ln the wit-ness-box there, seated in a comfortable chair, sits the c'aimant —a huge mass of flesh aqd flabby |rtunanitiy. He answers the questions wjth''a cunning expression upon Ids bloated coiihtehailce, arid an easily-seen halfexpressed fear that every word he utters may be the next minute used against him. He watches the Solicitor-General half-timidly, half-detiantly, waiting for the question as a man waits for the finish of a disagreeable story. Once or twice he breaks out, and pctulcntly complains of the questions ; but gaye to ouo or two, which ary iHii^oytaut,

he answers a clogged “I can’t remember.” He remembers nothing; and these three words almo-t sum np the affirmative part of his evidence during the past week. Rut turn your eyes from the claimant to las vivisector, the Solicitor-Go a era I, and mark the difference. Contrast the calmness, the scarcely-concealed contempt, the full knowledge of detail, of the successful lawyer, with the unintellectual face, with it half simple half craven expression, of the baronet expectant ; if there be any truth in phrenology, physiognomy, and “ the eternal fitness of thing,” which we read about—allowing, too, fora “ rough life”— —lire claimant to a place in “Dehrett” is scarce worthy to black the shoes of his interrogator. You may think this strong and prejudiced, but I am giving you my impressions in court, and truth compels me thus to write. About the truth or falsity of the claim set up I say nothing the rough, uncultivated, ignorant, dissolute man might be the heir to a greater breadth of laud than that of (ho Tichborncs. But to return to the Solicitor-General: mark the cool, inclusive way he propounds his questions, the mas tcrly manner in which he urges homo assumption after assumption, the thorough sifting to which he subjects the claimant’s previous statements, and the unexpected turn he gives to a seemingly unimportant uery. Witness knew no one thing which •would fix his identity upon an unprejudiced stranger. Roger Tichborne knew music, talked, and wrote French, knew Latin, mixed in a hundred scenes and committed a hundred acts which would leave some impress upon the weakest memory ; but of all these —of the events of the first sixteen years of “his” life, claimant “cannot remember.” Tire other “counsel” arc grouped around there caper and watchful note-taking ; while the briefless muster iu strong force. The eleven martyrs iu the jury-box ar - e all gentlemen—l mean men of social position, and more than ordinary in'elligciue ; and they behave nobly. They listen with the patience of Job, and now that they have been freed from note-taking by the promise of a “copy” fivm the shorthand writer, they fix their undivided attention upon the claimant. The court is crowded, and to the front arc many noble and distinguished face:?, male and female. Each answer, each query is waited tor with the utmost aoxi.ty, and when a more than usually important “ point” has been caught up or a confession ext a ted, there is what the reporters call “sensation.” And still the ease seems endless. Ab hough, mrites the London correspondent of the DaiJi/ Chronic' c on Tuesday, the interest in this extraordinary trial shows few or no signs of flagging, opinions have changed very considerably since t'ac coinmen cmeut of the cross examination. As an it di a.t on of the tone of popular feeling it may be mentioned that the claimant was cheered as lie entered the court after luncheon on Tuesday. It is said that among the two hundred witnesses who will be callul tn the other side are the mother and brothers of Arthur Orton, who will swear that he is their son and brother, but that a sister cf that man will, on the contrary, swear that the claimant is not one of their family. Then, on <(if, that forty persons who went to foil ol v, itli Arthur Orton at Waj ping-arc ready to ho caked to swear that the claimant is that man. On the otlu r hand, there is an impression that if he is not the real Kir Roger, he is at any rate a natural son of the 'i ichboi ncs. '1 hese and many other rumois, cu titled to very little credence, are continually floating about.