THE TICHBORNE TRIAL.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1299, 15 April 1872, Page 2

THE TICHBORNE TRIAL.

We continue our ex tracts from the speech of the A tiovney General for the defence in the above ease, as furnished by the London correspondent of the Melbourne Argus: THE VISIT TO WAPPING. It was Christmas Day, 1866, that the claimant reached England, and then " the heir and the hope of the Tichbomes, the returned baronet, before seeing any one, went in a cab disguised, at 9 o'clock at night, to Wapping," the home of the. Ortons. Sir John Coleridge reached this important point on the fifth day of Ms speech and his narrative excited the keenest interest. I cannot better convey the facts than in his own words. First, however, he read a letter dated 1867 in which the plaintiff said—" They >ay I was born at Wapping. [Laughter]. T am very glad they have found a respectable part of London for me. T never remember having been there; but Mr Holmes tells me it is a very respectable part of London." That was "Wapping " a " respectable part of London," where he had never been in 1867. < k He could hardly have forgotten," said the Attorney-General, " that on Christmas Day, 1866, he went down there, and found himself at the Globe publichouse in the High stieet. The Globe, is within a few doors from where Old George Orion lived. The baronet is on the scene, muffled up- ma large pea coat, with a wrapper round his mouth, and a peaked cap ; so that only a small part of the face was shown. He enter- the bar of the Globe, calls for a glass of sherry, and is served. Then there is a little conversation with the landlady. Mrs Jackson is the landlady, and Mrs Fairhead is her mother." They are both alive and shall be brought before you. He walked up the passage at the Globe, as if he knew the house, although it was in ' Wapping,' where he had never been He asked Mrs Fairhead, «Can you give me any information about the Ortons?' She re]died that both old Orton and his wife were dead, and added that Mrs Jury, one of the sisters, was living with Mrs Tredgett. who was her sister —that they were living not very far off. The claimant said, ' I should like to have their address.' The address of Ohas. Orton was suggested to him But he said he did not wish particularlv to see Charles—he should like to see Mrs Jury and Mrs Tredgett. He asked if a very old gentleman named Oronin still kept the grocer's shop opposite, and whether a man named Wright, a ship-chandler, was living next" door to the Globe. Yet he had never before been in Wapping, and did not know anything about it. Then he asked about Mr Warran. Mrs Fairhead said she believed he was dead, and he replied he was rather sorry for it. Having looked at him, and had some little talk with him, one

of ihern &aid, • Why, yoU must be an Orton —surely you must.' * Oh ! no, I am not an Orton, but I am a great friend of the Ortons.' Then he said, * How is Phoebe J ury; I should like to know something about hevV They said they could not. tell him anything about her. Then he said he had been away from Wapping for fifteen years, and he should like to know wheie Mrs Tretfcett lived. He gets her address, and leaves the Globe public-house. The next thing heard of him was, that about nine o'clock he knocked at 67 Alexander-terrace, Pickett-street, East [ndia-road. It was* not Mrs Tredgett's house, which is very remarkable, but next door. He asks where she is. He is told she has gone out for the day,, and is keeping Christmas Day somewhere else ; and, as far as we know,, the claimant then leaves Wapping and returns to Fold's hotel (where, as he had learned from Bogle, Lady Tiehborne was in the habit of staying when in town) The next day—the 26th of December*—he stavts without having had his breakfast, for the purpose of going down to Wapping again. About 9 o'clock he knocks, not at the same house, but at the house at the other side of Mrs Tredgett's. He did not seem exactly to want to face Mrs Tredgett. He knocks at that door, and he gets. the address of Mrs Pardon, Mrs Tredgett's sister-in-law. To Mrs Pardon,. accordingly, he goes. He sees ber, and gives her his card—the card of the Fenian reporter Stevens (which he had obtained on board, during his voyage home.) I mean the American gentleman"*sent over to report upon the Fenians. He gave his card, 'W. ft. Stevens,' and with Mrs Pardon he had an interview of two hours' duration: He again asked for the address oi Mr.* Tredgett. There was still this curious disinclination to face Mrs Tredgett. Mrs Pardon says to him, * Why, you, must be an Orton.' 'Oh ! no, I am a friend of the Ortons—a reporter for an Australian paper, employed to report upon the Fenian movement in England and Ireland, and T should very much like to see Mrs Tredgett, because I have a commission from her brother to give her -ome money. 1 We'l, he produced a photograph of a woman and a child, and he said, 'This i> the photograph of the wife and child of Mrs Tiedgetts brother.' We know now that this was the photograph of his own wife and child. At last he gives. Mrs Pardon a letter to be delivered to Mrs Tredgett. He begged that ic should be delivered personally to her, and ' if you,' he said, ' are unable to do that, will you be so kind as to return it to the post office at G-ravesend, to an address which I will leave there.' This is the letter signed ' W. H. Stevens':— ' December 25, 1866. Dear MadamWill you kindly inform the lady for whom I left the letter with yon that if she will kindly communicate with me —[a laugh]—at once, she will hear of something to her advantage. Please send what information she can concerning a Miss Loader and her own family, and what has become of her brother Thomas's children— I remain vour's respectfully, W. H. Stevens. Address H. C. T, Post-office, Gravesend, and ti ey will forward it.' Now that is the first piece of writing of the claimant that we have since his return to England, except, I think, the address on the card. As you have heard,. it is under the signature of * W. H. S'evens,' is addressed to Arthur Orton V sister, desiring her to kindly 'communicate' with him at once—[laughter]— and to send what information she could. concerning a Miss Loader, whom we know was Arthur Orton's affianced, lover in former days. Why were the letters written in this way] Why was there a fictitious signature—a feigned hand? The hand is not the natural hand of the plaintiff, and the most perfect secreev is observed in dealing with Mrs Pardon and Mrs Tredgett. Theletter found its way to Mrs Tredgett's hands, and she replied, but the reply is not forthcoming. But weknow from the. plaintiff's answer, which I.am about to read to you,, to Mrs Jury, «hat that letter of Mrs Tredgett's must have contained. The plaintiif's letter is dated'7th inst., 1867, and runs thus :—' Dear Madam, i -—1 leceived your kind letter tins I morning. I am sorry to think ya»

should be so mistaken as to think I am vour brother.' Thus we see that, either from the handwriting, disguised as it was, or from what Mrs Pardon told Mrs Tredgett, the sistet of Orton had recognised the writer who signed as Stevens as her own brother. The plaintiff admitted that there was a letter to which this was an answer, but we can't get it; the plaintiff wont produce it."