Charles Orton has made a clean breast of his collusion
with the pretensions of his brother Arthur, to a correspondent of the Daily 'Telegraph, having confessed with much naiveté that he should never have deserted his brother but for the want of punctuality shown in paying him the 160 a year promised him by the Claimant. He declares that he originally threatened to give. evidence .against the Claimant, in the hope of being silenced by an allowance ; -that he received the allowance, and that- many of •the notes paid to him by the Claimant have- been traced by the police to the bank at Alresford, whence they had been drawn by Arthur Orton in his character of Sir Roger Tichborne. In return for his allowance Charles- Orton signed statements declaring that he recognised no like- ness between the photograph of the Claimant and his brother Arthur ; and subsequently, that he saw no likeness between the Claimant himself and that brother. After his desertion to the enemy, his sisters, Mrs. Jury and Mrs. Tredgett,—who have been, receiving an allowance, according to Charles Orton,—regarl him as a traitor, and denounce his statement. On the whole, however, his confession reads exceedingly like the truth, though it does not add much to the strength of the case against the convict. A man who asserts that he manoeuvred for a bribe, made. false statements under the influence of the bribe, and turned round only when the payment of the bribe ceased, is hardly very good evidence, even when he tells the truth.
Previous page
