A LONDON MUNCHAUSEN.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XXXVI, Issue 11774, 29 October 1912, Page 2

A LONDON MUNCHAUSEN.

STORY OF AN AMAZING CHARLATAN. In the current number of the Corahill Magazine there is an interesting account of one of the most extraordinary charlatans who ever gulled "the Eternal Gullible,''' He died as recently as January 17thj 1&94, but, under the name or' Charles do Bourbon Prince of Mantua and Montferrat, his imposture reached its zenith in 1883. . This man's real name was Charles Ottley Groom, but early in his career he adopted the name of ''Napier of Merchiston," under which style ho. publish-■ ed in 1870 a strange work called "'The Book of Nature ana the Book of Man." five rears later he read before the British Association a paper upon a new; cure for intemperance by vegetarianishij and claimed,to have.brougnt back;:2V : drunkards to the moral patu with luta success. , i, : It was after tlmvthat he assumed the; title of Prmce of Mantua and Montr.; ferrat, basing a perfectly imaginary; claim upon a bogus pedigree, starting with. Adam, and passing by-way of Kips David and maliy- famous personages 3-rt'U. Cadwallader^, Prince iof \Vales. . The most amazing thing about this man w.asthat he never seems to have made any;, -money out of his imposture, but simply, played the prince to indulge his own. vanity and favors upon other people.' .-,;' ■- •.:'.- If one could believe a detailed: account of a banquetigiyen at Greenwich. on March 24th, 1879,, ho fewer than 7000 people assembled to do honor to the "Prince," who treated them to a;: vegetarian meal, served on gold and.silver plate which in its value rivalled the service at Windsor Castle.-; Three hundredof the'guests, many of them from distant parts of the world, had their travel-, ling and'hotel expenses paid, involving an expenditure of' nearly £ls,ooo—roii paper. The banquet was as imaginary.; as was the breakfast-giveri'ln'-iKe'same vear to 350 Welsh miners, who, out;.of, the fullness of their gratitude, presented his .Highness with, a beautiful illuminated address and nuggets valued at £20,000, the proceeds of Welsh goldmining. What really happened was that the prince had an ingenious press agent, perhaps the first of jhis race, who prevailed on certain newspapers to print, accounts of these marvellous ceremonies. '■ Another'enterprise in which Sir Groom engaged was to discover the existence oft; the Mantua and Montferrat Medal; Fund, alleged to nave been founded ;in; the fourteenth century by an ancestor,/ Louis Gonzaga, Captain of. Mantua/with the obejet of conferring recognition upon men eminent in arts, letters, and science. In the past this distinction had been conferred, among many others, upon Raphael. Michael Angelo, Dante,. Galileo/ Columbus', Milton, Shakespeare, Bacon, and Rubens. At a meeting of the Fund held at Exeter Hall in 1883, a letter from Shakespeare was actually read. At that meeting it was announced that the Mantua Medal had been conferred upon most- of the Englishmen then foremost in the arts, sciences, and literature. That itwas tent to. them is certainly true, and several of these eminent men : acknowledged the honor. Sir Richard Owen wrote: "I cannot sufficiently express to you the agreeable and grateful surprise with which-I found awaiting me this morning at the British Museum the beautiful' and costly evidence of your Grace's estimation of my services to science-" Buskin expressed "the .extreme joy" given him "in being received into the roll of those who have loved Italy and been thought dear to. her." Tennyson, Sir Frederick Leighton, Sir John Millais, and Cardinal Manning acknowledged'the honor in scarcely less glowing terms. Professor Hu'xley refused it. and so apparently did Mr Gladstone. ■ But the launching ot the Mantua Memorial "University Fund upon the public attention' was-the prince's supreme effort. He leniembercd that early in the eighteenth century one of his ancestors had left for educational purposes a sum of monev which, by accumulation, had increased to"£750,000, and he got-quite a number of reputable people to belieyehim. The non-existent trustees of the fund were.- it.*Lippears..-.anxious to utilifee the imaginary" savings in the establishment of a University where it was most wanted.' and as at this time Wales was clamoring for a University, what more natural than that the trustees £hould acknowledge the claims 'of ■ the Pruicipalitv? Public gatherings m support ot the movement were held, civic deputations waited upon the prince to urge the right of their boroughs' to favorable consideration, and a good deal ol jealousy was- aroused- between rival municipalities who wished to supply the site for the University. ._.-„. ~ At a meeting -in Exeter Hall in the middle of 1883 delegates from Walcs.proceeded with all seriousness to discuss the proposal, and Brecon and Wrexham hotly contested the superiority of;the attractions they.could severally offer to a Universitv. But this was the imposttor's final effort. With the packing up of his Bible, his sham portraits.bogus kev. and other paraphernalia at Exeter Hall the prince, with his secretaries, curators., pictures, collections,, museums", medals, and treasures, disappeared from view. He lived for more than ten vears in retirement, with the uemo- ; ries of his vast imposture for solace.