THE TICHBORNE TRIAL.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 95, 22 April 1874, Page 2

THE TICHBORNE TRIAL.

The London correspondent of the Australasian writes as follows under date February 20: — The great Tichborne case, now on the very brink of its close, will at least be memorable for the displays of judicial and forensic oratory which it has drawn forth. The famous 23 days' speech of Sir John Coleridge — now Lord Coleridge, and Chief Justice of the Common Pleag — was remarkable for the closeness of its reasoning, tbe subtlety of its character sketches, and its numberless literary graces. Mr Hawkins's two speeches in this trial bave been unexcelled for their logical power, and for the masculine vigor of their attacks upon those whose folly or criminal connivance has given support and countenance to a stupendous fraud. Dr Kenealy's 46 days of rather desultory oratory will at least be remembered for the sublime audacity with which that learned counsel defied judges, jury, and common sense. There was something really grand in the daring with which he poured his abuse on everybody, from Cabinet Ministers down to the humblest witness who had, accordto him, been engaged in this infernal conspiracy against his client. When coupled with all this, he ventured to depict Roger Tichborne as the basest of the base, and the defendant, whom he presented as the same man, as one whosa perjury had been so flagrant and enormous that tbe very flagraocy and

enormity must be held to prove only that he was a man not to be judged by common stand-ids, everyone was constrained to admit that forsenic impudence had at last reached a height which had never been attained before, and was little likely ever to be attained again. But there are points of view other than those of high art or tbe curiosities of judical annuls from which these daring flights had to bo regarded. There is the public interest, for example, which does not consist either with an unblushing waste of time of judges and juries, or with a sort of terrorism over honest witnesses. It is obvious that the ends of justice might often be defeated if counsel be permitted, unrebuked, to vilify nnd blacken right and left indiscriminately, aud to make charges of a horrible and revolting kind against persons of unblemished reputation, without a shadow, or even a pretence of & shadow, of any evidence. Accordingly certain ominous tokens bad indicated that besides occasional remonstrances during the course of the trial, Sir Alexander Cockburn, most eloquent and dignified of all judge--, would pronounce a condemnation of tho defendant's counsel which to a man of high character aod position must be equivalent to a death-blow. How inevitable this seemed is indicated by the fact that never from tbe moment that the LcrJ Chief Justice began his address to the jury — now just three weeks ago, has Dr Kenealy once presented himself in Court to meet his punishment. Nor was the expectation long unfulfilled; the very opening of the address expreEsed in words of burning eloquence tho wonderment, tbe dißguat, anl the indignation with which not only the Lord Chief Justice, but his two venerable colleagues, had listened to the foul course of invective, the horrible and sweeping charges, tbe filthy and loathsome suggestions, and the absence of all decent respect towards the Bench which had formed such conspicuous features of Dr Kenenly's speech. The geueral opinion indeed appears to be that the conduct of that gentleman not ouly in these respects, but in putting into the wilnesa-box under highly Bii&picious circumstances persons who, like Luie and many others, have committed flagrant and impudent perjury, must be the subject of solemn enquiry, with a view, it the charges against him should be estab ished, of depriving him at least of his silk gown and his right to sit among Qieen's Counsel. But greater interest has attached to tho Lord Chief Justice's masterly survey of the vast field of evidence. Vast as it is, there is no inch of ground which bis searching mind has not investigated, no single feature which his marvellous memory has not ready at command. Day after day — as in his musical but firm, clear voice he dealt with letters, records, otal testimony — all (he undigested chaos assumed shape, what before seemed confusion becomes order. The relation of facts to facta, ihe relative bearing of conflicting testimony, the method by which inquiry should bo pursued, where probabilities may be. permitted to influence judgment, the comparative value of evidence of this and that class of witnesses, are matters for the first time made clear. And amidst all these tangled mazes how simple the truth seems to appear. Due weight is everywhere given to facts that tend in tbe defendant's favor, and yet the result is overwhelmingly against him. It may be safely said that no one of the most ordinary intellect who should follow his summary with the least attention could fail to come to the conviction, oot only that the man calling himself Tichborne is not Roger Tichborne, but that he is no oilier than i the butcher's son. Perhaps the finest portion of the address of tho Lord Chief Justice has been what may be called his portrait of the real Roger Tichborne, ior which RogerVown letters have furnished most of the details. It has suited Dr Kenealy to represent tha young man, who is identical, according to his theory, with his own client, as a poor miserable creature, weak in mind and body, ignorant, degraded, besotted, without a spark of good feeling or a sense l ,of moral duty. How otherwise, indeed, could he niako him accord with the defendant's confession ? How else could he exglain his basely Beducing a youDg girl of sixteen, the only child of his uncle and aunt, Sir Edward and Lady Doughty, and then, according to his false story/ after she had told him that she was enceinte, going away and not even making any enquiries about her fate ? How else could be make it credible tbat the habitual associate of low ruffians and criminals in the colonies was the same person ? The Lord Chief Justice, building laboriously from the materials before bim, has ] shown us a widely different man. Roger Tichborne was deficient neither in intellect nor in cultivation. .That he was delicate minded, considerate, capable of warm friendship and of deep affection, is now abundantly proved. AU the light that has been brought to bear upon his career — all the masses of correspondence that have been scanned on both sides, have revealed no serious stain upon his character. On the contrary, it has shown him scrupulous in points of honor, self-sacrificing, and generous. Even when he was wounded lo the quick by the obstacles placed by Lady Doughty in the way of his marriage, he adopted no vindictive step, but on the contrary, secretly took means of benefiting the family, who had, on the whole, treated him kindly, and with whom he hoped to be united by a more tender tie. Nor was be*

wauting in manly qualities. He had a business-like habit of looking after his own worldly "affairs; a resolute determination not to bo movoJ from what his own judgment suggested as the path of duly. He was, in short, a young man of immense euergy, and of an indexible will. It is the trick of couoset to pervert facts, and his travels in South America, which led to his tragic end, have been described as the result of a perverse determination lo go upon a wild and wandering expedition, none knew why, In his letters his reasons aro clearly revealod. Ha had long regarded South Americnn books of travel with a peculiar fascination, and he belonged to tho modern school of young Englishmen, who are not content with the mere round of the cities and picture galleries of Europe, but who have energy enough to visit dislant lands, and see wild sceuery aud strange life. All his letters when on his travels— and he wrote a volume full — evidence his intelligent interest not only in the grandeur of nature but in the manners and custom* of peoples. Whether ascending the mighty rivers of Brazil in a canoe with Indian attendants hundreds of miles in the interior in quest of those natural history objects which he preserved and sent home, or in studying the .r.l'itccture of cathedrals, or in visiting silver and copper mines, his industry was untiring. The distances which he got over in ten months are a sufficient answer to tho charge of slothful ease. He thought litlle of beiog in tho Baddle a dozen bours, or riding a distance of ninety miles light off. Thia is the besotted, indolent, brainless creature which Dr. Kenealy has so labored to impress upon the public miud. In truth, the only shadow of foundation for this view is some letters of Lidy Doughty, in which the worthy old aunt, manifestly over anxious about the morals of the young man whom her daughter loves, rales him upon the wild habits of military life, scolds him for reading French novels, an J expresses a not unnatural horror at Laving seen him at least on one occasion at Tichborne in a state of preter-uaturally high spirits, indicative of too much iudulgence at the dinner table. But why, asks tlie Lord Chief •Juatic?, should this young mnn of generally refined tastes and habits, who had a tbousand a year pocket-money and magnificent expectations — why should he, because ho had been shipwrecked and saved, suddenly determine to lead a life of dull prosaic hardship and privation ? He was always a diligent correspondent; even to the very moment of embarking in the Bella he despatr-hed long letters lo his numerous ciccle of friends, evidencing unabated interest in them and in life in England. Wby did he suddenly cease to correspond, and never write another line for 13 yeais? Oo his travels he had never dispensed with a servant. When the Engliah servant whom he took with him to Chili fell ill, he provided him with means, and engaged a French valet, who accompanied him the very hour of his re-embarkation. How came he io Australia, to.live in squalor and misery, the servant of others, in laborious and disagreeable toil ? Why did he take tc slaughtering and butchering, of all things ? Arthur Orton undoubtedly was a butcher, had been bred and born in that trade. But what did Lieutenant Tichborne, of the Carabineers, beir to the great estates and the ancient barony, what did he know about slaying oxen and cutting up joints of beef and mutton ? Why should he choose lo live in a hovel with his wife imploring Gibbes to save him from destitution by trifling loans when there was the great rent-roll wailing for him in Englaud ? No one has ever answered these questions, though the qiairaant has [put forth excuses which are either absurdly insufficient or demonstrably false. As the day of the verdict approaches the crowdß that hang about West-minster-hall all day increase, and extra precautions are token wit-in the court. In what is called the " Well," where the defendent sits, none but the attorneys in the case are now permitted to appear, and tickets for the galleries are not allowed to fall into the hands of uuknown persons. Day after day, the judges and counsel have received warniug letters of something terrible impending, and one juryman — threatened on both sides — has piteously complained tbat if he can put faith in his anonymous enemies, his life is not only doomed but it is doomed whichever way it goes. Of course there would be little chance of rescuing so stout a criminal, and personal attacks on judges and jurymen, at least after the verdict, would be of little avail. But in cases in which the popular mind is greatly excited, there, is as everyone knows, a natural tendeucy in all lunatics at large to busy their brains with the subject. For some days the; jury were annoyed by a wild seedylooking gentleman with a huge knotty stick, who had a fancy" for dogging their footsteps and muttering audibly, " Not guilty, ra*'nd ! Not guilty ! His own mother acknowledged him ! " This poor fellow was evidently insane, but he was not no insane but that be was well aware of the prudence of decamping when a policeman was approachiog. What people of this kind might do, or how far they might be used as tools by designing persons, no one, of course, could say j but the probabilities are that tbe object of all this excitement will go to the punishment that awaits him like a lamb into tbe old slaughterhouse in Wagga Wagga. {For remainder of News see fourth page.)

r, The JVaikato Times of Thursday last enys: — His Excellency J. Dv Cane, the Governor of Tasmania, will accompany Sir James. Fergusson to the Waikato. The vice-regal party will arrive, at -Ngaruawahia on Monday evening. We understand tbat it is the intention of the natives to ask His Excellency to allow theuj to paddle him from Taupiri io Ngaruawhia in their large war canoe, which is being decorated for the occasion. Ao unintelligible telegram was published last week respecting a special settlement proposed to be established near Taurauga. Tho matter is explained by the following paragraph from the Independent:— -Mr Stewart, a gentleman of standing and position in the North of Ireland, arrived in the Mongol on a visit to the Province of Auckland. His object, is -to ascertain what the Colony is as a field for emigration. The Bay of Plenty Times says tbat he would be able to induce forty or fifty families ot the farmer class, ail of them with sufficient then us to settle down and commence /arming on their own account, to emigrate, and also an Episcopalian clergyman and a doctor would acepmpany the party. The • Government, says the Southern Cross, have intimated that Tauran<_a would foim a very eligible site for the settlement, as the land is good, harbor good, distance' from the Thames Goldlields short, and steamers running regularly to and from Auckland. Mr O'Rorke proposed to tbe Superintendent " a block of 10.000 acies in order that these immigrants may have ample room for choice of selection, and Government would be prepared to enlarge the block to 20,000 acres if it was found that the first body of immigrants would be supplemented by the relations or friends of the former immigrants." High prices are given for frontages in George street, Sydney. A shop there, known as Sandon's, was lately sold by auction for £1700, being at the rate of £300 per foot, the highest price yet obtained for frontages in that favorite thoroughfare.