Some Memories of the Tichborne Case.

Bruce Herald, Volume XXXX, Issue 98, 23 December 1904, Page 3

Some Memories of the Tichborne Case.

♦ [By A. Chichele Plowdbn.] (Continued.) THE SUMMING UP. It was a thrilling moment at the trial when Sir Alexander Cockburn commenced his summing up. Perhaps the thrill slightly abated before the close, for there never could be much doubt of j the verdict, and a charge to the jury which occupied one hundred and eighty columns of the Times newspaper, required a good deal oi digesting. Nevertheless, the charge in itself was a masterpiece of lucid and faultless arrangement. Sir Alexander, rightly or wrongly, was reputed to enjoy in a special degree presiding over causes ceiebres ; and to some of us who watched he fairly seemed to revel in the developments of the trial. I have never seen an intellect so visibly on the stretch. You could almost see his mind working as he tollowed with unceasing vigilance every twist and turn of the evidence. Nothing was allowed to escape his attention j and when his / turn came to sum up, the skill with which he marshalled the facts was made the more impressive by the earnest elo quence with which he drove thejr full significance into the minds of the jury. From first to last it was a great effort, and worthy of the highest traditions of the Judicial Bench. THE JUDGES. In appearance Sir Alexander was below the normal height, but on the Bench this was not apparent. What was observable to everybody was the dignity of his deportment and his charm ' of voice and manner. There were moments — too many of them — when he had to listen to provocations from Dr Kenealy of the most trying nature, when that curiously misguided pers jn seemed to take a positive delight in transgressing every rule of decorum and in flinging insults at the Bench. With a weaker chief, or one less careful of the traditions of his Court, these scenes might easily have degenerated into wrangles which would have lowered in the public esteem the administration of justice. There was no fear of this with Sir Alexander. Although visibly moved on more than one occasion, he never allowed himself to lose his self-control, and his rebukes were delivered with a dignity and fitness of expression which, if they were lost on the individual to whom they were addressed, were recognised as just and appropriate by the great profession to which they both belonged. The colleagues of Sir Alexander were, as I have mentioned, Justices Mellor and Lush. These two judges were in strong contrast to each other : Mellor, perhaps a little ponderous, but sagacious and tair : Lush, not less fair, very accurate, and shape as a needle. A good story in connection with the latter is claimed by the Bar mess of more than one circuit. The mess, whichever it was, was entertaining, according to custom, the J udges of Assize, who chanced to be Judges Lush and Shee. As the toast list was being solemnly got through, a barrister, desirous of adding to the conviviality of the evening, rose with glass in hand and proposed a toast to " wine and women."

\ Being promptly rebuked by the leader ■ for such a breach of decorum, the unabashed proposer replied, " Very well, I will change the terms of my toast. Let us drink to the health of Lush and Shee." j THE COUNSEL. j If the judges wh.o presided at the j trial were worthy of the occasion, not I less so were the eminent counsel who ! had in their charge the conduct of the 1 case for the Crown. So far as the I public were concerned it was the control and guidance of the case by Mr Hawkins, his skill and his eloquence,, which were most in evidence They knew little of the immense work and labor, done mostly behind the scenes, which was thrown upon the junior counsel, notably Charles Bowen and.J J. C- Mathew, a pair whose names were often associated as destined sooner or later to attain high judicial rank. On Bowen, in particular, may be said to have fallen the burden and strain of the Tichborne case, as upon no other man. He was counsel in both trials, and it was to his genius and inspiration that much of the success of Sir John Coleridge's famous address to the jury was due. There never was any secret about t this, for no one was more ready to acknowledge it, in season and out of season, than Sir John Coleridge himself. Bowen was one of those men whose greatness may be said to have begun in school, and to have accompanied him through life. Few men have left behind them a more enviable record of literary and judicial excellence, combined as it was with a rare modesty and sweetness of nature ; and yet with all his intellectual superiority and culture there was a moment in his fortunes when his friends are said to have trembled for the high hopes that had been formed of his future. It is the. essence of a barrister's life that, no matter what his abilities may be, he cannot make a start in his profession without the triendly aid of a solicitor. There is no loophole of escape from this inflexible obligation. To the popular, successful advocate, who has got over this early difficulty and made his footing sure, solicitors will flock as patients flock to a fashionable, physician ; but it is different at the beginning of things. bowen's burglar. It is for the solicitor then to pick and choose, for he is not always guided in his choice by an extravagant admiration for the youth who has attained high University distinction. A double first or a senior wrangler is all very well, but neither is absolutely bound to succeed in the defence or prosecution of a prisoner. The fear with regard to Bowen was that he might fail to make the most of these early necessary chances. There was the danger that he might be too clever for the rough and tumble work of Quarter Sessions, that his delicate wit and fastidious taste might prove too much for the country attorney, and be a stumbling-block rather than a gain to himself. A solicitor is not to be blamed if he puts success before everything, and if the following delightful story of Bowen is true, he may be pardoned for thinking that if verdicts are to be imperilled by graceful sarcasm, the less of such sarcasm the better. "If you consider, gentlemen," Bowen is reported to have said in prosecuting a burglar who was caught on the roof of a house with the implements of his trade in his hand, " that the accused was on the roof of the house for the purpose of enjoying the midnight breeze,' and by pure accident happened to have about him the tools of a. housebreaker, with no distinct intention of employing them, you will, of course, acquit him." A recommendation which the jury promptly proceeded to carry out by a verdict of acquittal. A GREAT OBJECT-LKSSON. Here for the present I must end my memories of the Tichborne cas*. Looking back on it as a whole, it is impossible to avoid the sad reflection that no advance in human knowledge seems to afford any guarantee against an outburst of credulity which for the time being nothing can check or impede. The world may be likened to a great theatre, the stage of which is given up to any impostor who has the courage to stalk across it and claim it as his own. The only wonder is that the Claimants should have been so few and far between. It ought not to require j superhuman audacity to frame a lie, the success of which is more likely to be assured the further it departs from the truth. If the Claimant in the Tichborne case failed in the end, as he was bound to do, he would not have gone so near success as he did had his pretensions been more modest or his lies less thorough. The instinctive love of the marvellous which is planted so deep in human nature is hard to dislodge. There seems no hope of its final eradication except through the gradual enlightenment which may be hoped from the wider spread, of education. If the Tichborne case in the meantime, as a great object-lesson in human credulity, has hastened this advent by a single step, it will not have been without some service to humanity. (Concluded.) '