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and he was regarded, not only as an innocent and injured man, but as the rightful heir of the great family whose estates and honours he sought. It must be observed that, notwithstanding the forgery of the documents, there was a great mass of other evidence highly favourable to his preten

sions.

In 1820, Mr. Lindsay Crawfurd returned from New South Wales, and immediately renewed proceedings in furtherance of his claims. Many noblemen and eminent professional men encouraged him and supplied him with money and advice, and many thousand pounds were expended in collecting evidence, and preparing the case for the Lords' Committee of Privileges, to which it had been referred by the king. Lord Brougham was counsel in the cause, and he publicly declared his opinion that the claim was extremely well-founded.

Mr. Nugent Bell, Mr. William Kaye, and Sir Frederick Pollock, together with a host of eminent legal authorities, predicted certain success. The claimant thus supported, assumed the title of Earl of Crawford and Lindsay, and upon two occasions voted as such, at an election of Scottish peers, and was addressed by his assumed title, both verbally and by letter, by several peers then present. The most searching investigation was made by the friends

of the claimant, preparatory to the case being brought before the House of Lords, and no source from whence evidence could be obtained was left unexplored. In the midst of this the claimant died. This event caused a delay and an increase of expense. The claimant's son being abroad, more money had to be raised beyond the gratuitous aid already afforded, and terms were offered to parties willing to advance money on speculation. It would be tedious to enter into the details of the case. One point was of primary importance. Mr. Lindsay Crawfurd maintained that his ancestor, the Hon. James Lindsay Crawfurd had settled in Ireland, and that he died there between 1765 and 1770, leaving a family. On the other hand, Lord Glasgow, who, by this time, had succeeded Lady Mary as heir to the great family estates, insisted that the Hon. James Lindsay Crawfurd, instead of settling in Ireland, and dying there, had died in London, in 1745, and was buried, in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.

On the truth of these respective averments the question between the parties may be said to have depended. It was proved from the register of parish books of St. Martin's, that James Lindsay Crawford was buried there in 1745; and moreover, it was found, that, posterior to 1745, there were no letters from him that could be proved

to be genuine. Evidence also was brought forward which decidedly showed that the Hon. James Lindsay Crawford could not have been in Ireland at the time when the claimant alleged his ancestor to have been there, and that the claimant's acknowledged ancestor could not have been the Hon. James Lindsay Crawford.

On summing up all the evidence that was collected for the purpose of bringing the case for decision before the House of Lords, the opinion of the most eminent Scottish counsel was taken by the trustees of the Crawfurd claims. Two of these legal advisers were the present Lord Justice General MacNeil and Lord Rutherford. Their opinion was altogether adverse to Mr. Lindsay Crawfurd's claims, and they wound up by declaring "that from the facts now before us, we are satisfied that any further inquiry is perfectly hopeless and unnecessary." This opinion was given in 1839, and since that date no further steps have been taken to advance these extraordinary

case.

It may be mentioned as a curious circumstance that, when the original claimant died, a few years after the death of Lady Mary, Lord Glasgow allowed his body to be interred in the family mausoleum, side by side with his great adversary. This, doubtless, proceeded from the same chival

rous feeling which induced his lordship to give to this person while he lived free access to the family papers in order to substantiate his claim, notwithstanding his former bad reputation as an accomplice, or, as he himself asserted, a victim of forgers. Lord Glasgow was resolved that he would allow him, in every respect, fair play, and would not prejudge him.

Whatever may have been the real descent of John Lindsay Crawfurd, there is no doubt whatever that his ancestor, who settled in Ireland, stated himself to be the son of Lord Crawford, and that the members of his family were in the habit, during the latter part of last century, of visiting, as relatives, the noble family of Crawford in Scotland. These facts are clearly brought out by the strongest possible parole evidence. The real nature of the claim must now for ever remain a mystery. The most likely solution is, that the claimant's ancestor was an illegitimate brother of the Earl of Crawford.

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THE TWINS.

"These likened twins-in form and fancy one,
Were like affected, and like habit chose.
Their valour at Newhaven siege was known,
Where both encountered fiercely with their foes;
There one of both sore wounded lost his breath,
And t'other slain revenging brother's death."

"THERE are more things in heaven, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy," says the philosophic Prince, and with much truth. We have an instance of it in the tale of the Corsican Brothers, which has been rendered, by the inimitable acting of Mr. Charles Kean, so popular for the last twelvemonth, and which, in part at least, is not without an actual prototype. We have heard, we know not how truly, that the celebrated Louis Blanc sat for the portrait of the Corsican, though there is some difference in a leading event of the two stories, as related of the eminent French

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