THE TICHBORNE CASE.

Evening Star, Volume IX, Issue 2708, 21 October 1871, Page 2

THE TICHBORNE CASE.

A late Gippiland paper says that a resident of Sale, who knew both Orton and De Castro well, has declared that he could swear from the poitrait that the claimant is identical wi hj the De Castro he wan acquainted with here, and that if he chose he could give important evidence of conversations he held with him, in the course of which De Castro more than once hinted that .at some future time he would come into possession of a largo property. Loudon Punch, the mirror that reflects all that agitates the surface of London society, is every comical about the case. During the suspension of those exciting daily newspaper report of this wondrous trial, our comic friend goes in to supply the deficiency. Punch, does this in a way ‘hat might be laughed at in any other case than this one. We cannot conceive anything that might be stated about this case that could he ca'lmi improbable. The word is out of place applied to an affair that surpasses all Actions that fancy

I and imagination have hitherto manufactured. - That ‘truth is stranger than fiction’ will hardly apply to this case, for we know not what is truth in the whole of the misty, mazy, mysterious business, Punci manufactures a report of the progress of the case in court five years to come. The Chief Justice is brought into Westminster Hall by two footmen, and placed on a sofa in an invalid’s gown and slippers. His wig has long since been given up, being too much of a burden to the invalid. Two medical advisers and two nurse < attend in the anteroom. He apologises to the court that should he occasionally doze during the day it may be laid to the account of a feverish and sleepless night The Solicitor-General (of the time) is represented as leaning on two sticks, and producing to the court a telegram received from Australia sent by his j predecessor, the present Solicitor-General, who had been compelled as an invalid to | take the voyage thither for his shattered health’s sake. He was much bettered by the trip and the splendid climate, and eagerly perused daily the telegraphic report of the progress os the trial ! He was ready to cross-examiueauy one in Melbourne on the matter, as he had done the claimant five years ago. The foreman of the jury hands in medical certificates for five absentees, and thanks the air cushions provided for them. The claimant,a counsel is in an emaciated state, and an object of great sympathy as he sips his beef tea in court. Who shall say that the picture is not prophetic '! The prophecy of the receipt of daily telegraphic reports iu Australia will be fulfilled long before live years have passed.