THE TICHBORNE BARONETCY.

Otago Witness, Issue 801, 6 April 1867, Page 16

THE TICHBORNE BARONETCY.

The official books record that Sir James Francis Doughty Tichborne, Baronet, of Tichborne, Hants, born in 1784, succeeded his brother as tenth baronet in 1853. He had at this time two sons, viz., Roger Charles, born 1829, " lost at sea off the coast of South America, in the spring of 1854;" and Alfred Joseph, born 4th September, 1839, who married in 1861 Teresa Mary, eldest daughter of Lord Arandel. There were of this family also two daughters, who died. Thus the eldest son and heir, Roger Charles, was, when his father became baronet in 1853, 24 years of age, and his younger brother, Alfred Joseph, was 14 years old. In 1862 the father died, but in the meantime the heir had gone away in 1864, and was reported " lost at sea," So the second or last surviving son took the title and estates. However, he had no son to succeed him, and when he died a few months ago it was thought by many that the title would be extinguished in that branch. But his lady bore a posthumous child, and great rejoicing was made when the infant was formally declared heir of the line. It is at this point that it becomes necessary to mention the most extraordinary facts cf this story. In the summer of last year

some of the Australian newspapers asserted that a man who had been for years living at a place called Wagga-Wagga under the name of Thomas De Castro, and keeping a "butchering establishment" there, had avowed himself to be really Roger Charles Tichborne, who had been supposed by all his iamily and friends to be " lost at sea off the coast of South America, in the spring of 1854," as the peerages recorded. This gentleman had married in his Australian home, the daughter of a labouring man, a plasterer, who lost his life by falling from a ladder against a half-finished house. It was said that Roger Charles Tichborne had become aware when first he reached Australia, after some years of wandering in America, that his youngest brother," to whom he was much attached, had, on the supposition of his death, succeeded to the title and estates which he himself might have claimed, and that he determined not to disturb his brother in the inheritance. He lived and worked under the name of Thomas De Castro in complete obscurity ; but when he heard from England that Sir Alfred Joseph Tichborne, Bart., had died, he made known his proper name, and declared his intention of proceeding to England. Intelligence was received in London on Wednesday night to the effect that the Australian settler had arrived at Tichborne park, near Alresford, Hants, had declared himself to be its master, as Sir Roger Ch3rle3 Tichborne, Bart, and that directly he arrived he was recognised and acknowledged by his tenantry and those of the neighborhood who knew him well. — Daily Telegraph. — The following particulars are added by the Pall Mall Gazette: "Early in 1866, thirteen years after the losa of the Bella, letters were received from her long lost son in Australia by his mother, the widow of Sir James, telling her how he had been picked up at sea by a ves?el called the Osprey, and had been conveyed to Australia, where he had ever since been earning his livelihood, first as a breaker of horses, and then as a butcher. Hearing accidentally trom an old negro emigrant, who had been servant to his uncle, the late Sir Edward Doughty, that his father, Sir James, was dead, Sir Roger determined to return to England and claim his inheritance ; and in England he has just arrived, accompanied by his wife and child, and by the negro, Andrew Bogle. Early on New Year's Day a member of the Tichborne fam ly, on entering the old family chapel at Tichborne, was surprised at the sight of Bogle, whom she instantly recognised, at his devotions in his accustomed corner. The old negro told the lady how he had fallen in with Sir Roger in Australia, and how there could not be the slightest doubt of his identity. His features are, it seems, much altered, to judge from his photograph which preceded him to England ; his figure is much altered, inasmuch as he left England in 1853 3 slim cornet of dragoons riding lOst 71b, and he returns to it in 1867 a burly butcher, weighing 183t Sib ; his handwriting, too, is very different from what it was when he last wrote from Rio ; but then time, climate, hardship, and the trade of a slaughterman, go far to accouut for many of these changes. No member of the Tichborne family has as yet seen Sir Rojer, who, on arriving in England, immediately proceeded to Paris to join his mother. Lady Tichborne is, of course, personally known to nobody in this country. That Andrew Bogle is what he represents himself to be, there can be no doubt. A few days will clear up whatever at present app a ars mysterious in this story, which is cither one of the most romantic incidents or ens of the most audacious attempts at imposture of the present day.

Tenacity of Life in a Flea. — A few days since one of th«se irritating little creatures attacked, says a correspondent of Hardwickes Science Gossip, a member of the genius Homo, and while in the act of piercing the skin, the individual placed the finger on it, and put it into a basin full of clean water. This was about 11 o'clock p.m. Next morning it was found at the bottom of the water, to all appearance quite dead. It was then put into an envelope, and paced in the gentleman's waistcoit pocket for inspection at his leisure. Au hour or two afterwards the envelope was examined, when out jumped the animal with all the agility for which the genus Palex are remarkable, after having been under water ten hours. Not beiug an amphibious anirxnl, I cannot understand upon, what principle it could escape drowning ; having spiracles and a tracheal system it would appear impossible that these should not fil' with water, and thua kill the little creature ; but it was not so ; it still lives.

M. Dentu, who has purchased the privilege of publishing the catalogue of the Paris Exhibition of 1867 for a sum of upwards of L 20,000. calculates that the cost of printing a million copies, with paper, advertising, &c , will be an additiona amount of L 12,000. The S3le of a million copies, at one franc each, will bring in L 40.000, and leave the enterprising publisher a net profit of about LBOOQ.