se letters
were signed, "W.H. Stephens," and they contained inquiries after the
Orton family, and also after Miss Mary Anne Loader, who was an old
sweetheart of Arthur Orton's, long resident in Wapping. They enclosed
as portraits of Arthur Orton's wife and child, certain photographic
likenesses which were clearly portraits of the Claimant's wife and
child; and though they purported to be written by "W.H. Stephens," a
friend of Arthur Orton's just arrived from Australia, it was suspected
that the letters--which were evidently in a feigned hand--were really
written by the Claimant. They manifested that desire for information
about Wapping folks, and particularly the Ortons, which the Claimant
was known to have exhibited on more occasions than one; and they
indicated a wish to get this information by a ruse, and without
permitting the writer to be seen. But the correspondence showed that
the sisters of Orton had discovered, or at least believed that they
had discovered, that the writer was in truth their brother Arthur. The
Claimant, however, being called in and questioned, solemnly affirmed
that the letters were "forgeries," designed by his enemies to "ruin
his cause." Nor was it until he was pressed in cross-examination,
three years later, that he reluctantly confessed that his charges of
forgery were false; and that, in fact, he, and no one else, had
written the Stephens' letters. The Claimant's solemn assurances did
not convince all his supporters at the meeting at the Swan, but they
satisfied some; and funds were still found for prosecuting the
Chancery, and next the great Common Law suit which was technically an
action for the purpose of ejecting Col. Lushington from Tichborne
house, which had been let to him. Col. Lushington was then a supporter
of the Claimant, and had not the least objection to be ejected. But
the action at once raised the question whether the Claimant had a
right to eject him. Of course that depended on whether he was, or was
not, the young man who was so long believed to have perished in the
"Bella;" and accordingly this was the issue that the jury had to try
on Thursday, the 11th of May, 1871, that Sergeant Ballantine rose to
address the jury on behalf of the Claimant, and it was not until the
6th of March, 1872, that the trial was concluded--the proceedings
having extended to 103 days. On both sides a large number of witnesses
were examined, many being persons of respectability, while some were