FAMOUS FORGERY

Evening Post, Volume CXVI, Issue 113, 9 November 1933, Page 22

FAMOUS FORGERY

The recent lengthy fire trial in London'has been responsible for recalling an incident of the famous Tichborne prosecution that, at the time, caused a sensation. Before the prosecution for forgery there was a- very long trial of Orton's claim for a writ, of ejectment before Chief Justice Bovill. The case dragged on for weeks, and. a letter was received by the Chief Justice purporting tp.be signed by(Algernon West, the Prime Minister's private secretary. The letter stated that Mr. Gladstone, who was then ■in power for the first time, had directed him to draw the attention of the presiding Judge to the ' 'protracted trial." The administration of justice, it stated, was a matter of great and common concern, and the process' of obtaining justice ought to be cheap, easy, and effectual. In the case in question, the very reverse had prevailed, it said, so that there was a great danger of a public scandal and the' certainty of British justice becoming a byword among all civilised nations. The letter was a forgery, but it succeeded for a time ia leading the Chief Justice to consider it as genuine, and caused him a great deal of anxiety.. -,