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her appearance, and about Lord Ferrers, and whether he was at the ball or not? What does it signify in the case? everything! it is of the greatest importance; but I like to reserve my secret as long as I can, and I am almost sorry that I am obliged now to make a clean breast, and tell you everything. Gentlemen, Lord Ferrers returned from the Continent in the month of September, 1842, and in two days after his arrival, by his grandfather's death, he came to the title. Very soon after his return from abroad, he received, at different times, a variety of anonymous letters, evidently the production of a lady, all in the same hand, all breathing strains of the most ardent affection. He was not aware who this fair correspondent could be; he did not place the value on these letters which, if he had known what was likely to occur, he would have done, for he was rash enough to throw many of them behind the fire; and when it became important, as it did, to search for any that might have escaped destruction, melancholy to relate, only four, after the most careful search, could be found; but those four are not without their value; indeed, I almost think they are like the sibyls' books, they become more valuable from being fewer. Mrs. Smith has told us that her daughter began her correspondence with Lord Ferrers very soon after his arrival from abroad, and that the first letter she sent after his return was from Derby ; it was put into the Derby post-office. One was obliged to be a little guarded and cautious in this case, not to reveal everything at once, but to approach stealthily almost, and by degrees, and with cautious steps to one's object. I had before me at the time of Mrs. Smith's examination, two letters which had been received by Mrs. Cann, who has been mentioned as formerly Miss Needham, being the lady who marked one of the pocket handkerchiefs; and I had besides, the four anonymous letters, which were the only ones which had been saved, as I told you, from destruction. I presented, in the first place, to Mrs. Smith, one of the letters which had been received by Mrs. Cann; Do you believe that,' I said, 'to be your daughter's handwriting?' after a little hesitation, she said, 'she did. I then gave her one of the anonymous letters, beginning Dearest Washington. and I asked her whether that was her daughter's handwriting; she said, 'It was.' I then, in succession, put each anonymous letter into the hands of Mrs. Smith, and from her I received the same answer. She proved them all to be in her daughter's handwriting. Now we are approaching very nearly to the dénouement.

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"The first letter to which you will have the kindness to attend, the first letter which she wrote after his return from abroad-you will remember Lord, Ferrers returned at the end of September 1842-is said by Mrs. Smith to have been put into the Derby post office. The letter I am about to read is dated December 19th, 1842, and is in these words: 'My Lord,-Strange it may seem to you, no doubt, to receive a note from a stranger, and a lady too, but it signifies little to me, as I well know you will never know the writer of this letter, never see her ; now for what I have to tell you, it is this: there is a public ball at Tamworth every Christmas, generally about the 6th or 8th of January, go, I advise you, go; there will, to my knowledge, be a young lady at the ball, who I wish you to see and dance with; she is very beautiful, has dark hair and eyes, in short, she is haughty and graceful as a Spaniard, tall and majestic as a Circassian, beautiful as an Italian. I can say no more, you have only to see her to love her; that you must do; she is fit for the bride of a prince. Go, look well round the room, you will find her by this description; she may

wear one white rose in her dark hair; go early; if you see her not there, you will never see her, as she is like a violet hid midst many leaves, only to be found when sought for. I know she is young, and it is my wish she should have some one to protect her. From what I have heard, you must be that one, you and you alone; it is your destiny; therefore go at all risks. You will then be of age, with nothing to prevent you. I sometime knew your father. By the time you receive this I shall be on my way to (blank) far away. I have put this in the Derby post office; burn it when read, shew it to no one. Keep your own counsel, my Lord, and deem yourself happy in the idea of knowing one so talented, beautiful and young. Ask her to dance with you; fear not. And now I have fulfilled my mission, and shall rest in peace, more peaceful, though, did I know that you would meet this bright young girl. If you, like other men, love beauty, you will love her. Adieu, burn this letter, and remember she is my legacy to you. You have hurt your hand, I hear; I am sorry: farewell for ever. Isabel.' Do you understand the case now? Have I kept my faith with you? have I redeemed the pledge which I made in the opening of this case, that, however dark and mysterious it might appear, I would disperse all the shadows, and present it clearly and distinctly to your view! Here you have the very letter proved by the mother to be in her daughter's handwriting, put into the very post office described by the mother, exciting the curiosity of my Lord Ferrers by a minute, I am afraid not a faithful, description, except so far as the white rose and dark hair are concerned, of herself, endeavouring to procure an interview with him, addressing a letter with all that ingenuity which now it is shewn she is in possession of; and I now ask you whether, when I have admitted that letters were from time to time received by Lord Ferrers, directed to him-ay, and letters containing handkerchiefs too, which handkerchiefs I have produced, you have the slightest doubt that this artful girl, deceiving some, assisted, I fear by others, has been contriving, from the beginning to the end, a scheme of the most arrant falsehood, and of the grossest and most scandalous iniquity; and that, but from the various accidental circumstances which have intervened to shew where the truth is, and to protect justice and right, Lord Ferrers would have fallen a victim to the snares with which he was encompassed, his honour blasted, his reputation gone, and what would have been of trifling importance, his wealth invaded by this infamous attempt to forge and to fasten an engagement upon him.

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Gentlemen, I can prove, with regard to one of the letters, that a handkerchief came in it, and that it was an anonymous letter. I cannot prove it with regard to both; but I will prove these four different letters, which are in the handwriting of Miss Smith, to have come out of the possession of my Lord Ferrers; I will shew you, that when he was in town, and upon the very eve of his marriage, the anonymous letters continued, and that on the very day on which he was married, in the presence, I believe, of the mother of his bride, he actually received one of them, which he unfortunately destroyed, not contemplating that, so soon after that event, he would be called upon to defend himself against an action of this description, and would want all the proof which these extraordinary productions so strikingly afford.

"Now, just let me pass to some of the others. Gentlemen, here is another letter, dated June the 5th, also proved by Mrs. Smith to be

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her daughter's handwriting: Washington, beloved one, when shall I see you; when I behold the form of one dear to me, how dear! I will not say how often I wish for you. Hope lingers on, days pass away, and, alas! I only hear of you; you, whom some whisper strange things of; I believe them not, it cannot be; you must be high-minded, noble, generous, good; so have I fancied you; oh, that it may not be fancy only. You are young, and have no father or mother to guide your steps. The world, I am told, is deceitful and wicked;' who told her that? you have no one to advise you, to whisper words of affection and love; to watch over and be with you. You have some wealth and rank; if these could constitute happiness, then you might be happy; but your household hearth is not warmed by affection. Do you never feel lonely, nor wish for others but the gay and wild young men with whom you associate? Is there never a blank found in your heart? Do you never sigh for one to love you, one whom you could put faith and trust in ? Guardians you have had; they may still advise you, but they have their own, their children. You, my frequent thought, the one whom I cannot help but love, though apparently that one a stranger. Surely it seems fate. I cannot tear you from my heart, your image is ever present there; your welfare first thought of. Report says, you are going to wed with a lady of Wales; if so, may you be blessed and happy. I am aware we may never meet, never join hands together: and yet I cannot forget you. My heart of hearts,' so she calls it, is yours, and with you will rest. I can never love another, never give my hand without my heart. I am no Welsh lady.' I think the people of Wales may be rather gratified at that. Oh! I do not like what follows: but an English-woman.' She mentioned something of an Italian in a former letter. In thought and action, word and deed, and as an English-woman, do I love you, think of you. They say that the blood of a Ferrers is not good, and that the generations of the Shirleys have mostly been men of ignoble minds, with one or two exceptions. Washington, add to the honour of your family; disgrace not further your name. What would I give to see you now, to be with and near you always. Alas! in secret I write to you, in secret love you; would we could meet.' Meet! Why, in the spring of 1843 he had been under Mr. Smith's roof; at least, the little girl told us she had seen him in the drawing room there, leaning on the mantel-piece for five minutes, and her sister with him. 'Do you never visit Staunton ? will you not be there after the approaching Lichfield review, alone? Beloved one, adieu, adieu, ever, ever, your friend, Marie."

The other letters are in the same strain. After commenting on them, the Attorney General thus speaks in conclusion:

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My task is done; the case is proved to the very letter. And now, then, ask yourselves, knowing that Lord Ferrers could not by any possibility have written the letters which are imputed to him, and upon which the promise is to be attached: Ask yourselves who is the person who wrote those letters; who forged and fabricated them for the purpose of making him responsible? The likeness of the letters to Miss Smith's handwriting has already been proved by the mother; it struck Miss Neville immediately. That lady was also struck with the handwriting of the anonymous letters which have been proved by the mother to be her daughter's Talk of internal evidence, indeed! Look at the internal evidence to be extracted from these anonymous letters, and tell me whether you scarcely require distinct and direct proof of the handwriting;

whether the incidents themselves would not almost confirm the fact that they are the writing of the Plaintiff. Shall I then hesitate to arrive at the conclusion to which I am necessarily led by all these circumstances, step by step, and without a moment's pause? If I am required to say, You tell us that Lord Ferrers was not the writer of these letters; you say that the evidence is complete upon that subject, tell us then whom you mean to fasten them upon; whose you say was the hand, who the instrument that has fabricated them against him?' I say at once, fearlessly, they were written by Miss Smith herself, and they were written by her, artful and ingenious as she has shewn herself to be, under circumstances which mark the danger of once deviating from the paths of truth. Having flattered herself for some time that she might warm the heart of my Lord Ferrers, turning her day dreams into realities, inventing, perhaps innocently and unintentionally almost at first, the notion of his having given her any proofs of his attachment, and then finding herself so far involved as to be compelled to advance in the career of wickedness to prop up one falsehood by resorting to twenty others, and thus to weave her intricate web, in which, but for the most unexpected and providential circumstances, my Lord Ferrers must have been entangled, and from which he would in vain have attempted to escape."

Some evidence was then adduced on the part of the defendant, to disprove the handwriting of Lord Ferrers in the letters produced by the plaintiff. While this was going on, the Solicitor General came into court, and stated that in consequence of the four anonymous letters coming perfectly by surprise on the parties engaged for the Plaintiff, and on the members of her family, and in consequence of his being unable to explain them, he would elect that Miss Smith be nonsuited.

Thirteen of the letters produced by the Plaintiff, and the four letters tendered by the Defendant, were, at the request of the respective parties, impounded in court, Mr. Justice Wightman thus observing to the Jury:

"Gentlemen, unless those four letters are most amply accounted for and explained, it is impossible to believe that the letters purporting to be those of the Defendant could have been his: it is quite impossible! The Plaintiff was then nonsuited.

It may be right to here state that Miss Smith has since brought out a pamphlet intituled "A Statement of Facts respecting the cause of Smith v. The Earl Ferrers," published by John Ollivier, 59, Pall Mall, in 1846.

I'LL THINK OF THEE!

BY THOMAS RUSSELL.

I'LL think of thee! I'll think of thee!
Though thou'rt above me far-
As from this dark and dreary earth,
Is evening's first pale star:
But, though station may divide us,
And that face no more I see,
Still, whatever may betide us,

I will think of, think of thee!

I'll think of thee! I'll think of thee!
As one too bright, too fair—
To call my own-unworthy all,
Of virtues all so rare :
But thy presence all around me
Will ever flitting be,

And what ills soe'er surround me,
I will think of, think of thee!

I'll think of thee! I'll think of thee!
When pleasure gleams around,
I'll seek thy image in each scene,
Thy voice in every sound,

And when such spots my wearied heart
Would gladly, quickly flee,

I'll from their soul-less mirth depart,
And think of, think of thee!

I'll think of thee! I'll think of thee!
While life and strength endure,
And every thought of thy dear self,
Shall be, as thou art, pure:
And if to suffer want or pain,
Just Heaven my lot decree,

One glimpse of banished bliss to gain
I'll think of, think of thee!

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