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The lawyer's story, or, The orphan's wrongs. Maitland, James A..
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page: Illustration (TitlePage) [View Page Illustration (TitlePage) ]

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AN UNEXPECTED INTERVIEW. See chapter XXII

THE LAWYER'S STORY: OR, THE ORPHAN'S WRONGS.

BY A MEMBER OF THE NEW-YORK BAR.

NEW YORK: H. LONG & BROTHER, 48 ANN-STREET. CINCINNATI: H. B. PEARSON & CO., 17 EAST FOURTH-ST.

page: i (List of Illustrations) [View Page i (List of Illustrations) ]

ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the Year One Thousand Eight Hundred and Fifty-three, by H. LONG & BROTHER, in the Office of the Clerk of the District Court of the United States, for the Southern District of New York.

Illustrations.

  • I. LADY MARY IN THE DRAWING-ROOM AT ALTON CASTLE.
  • II. LADY MARY BESEECHING THE EARL TO FOREGO HIS DESIGNS REGARDING HER MARRIAGE WITH LORD HENRY FITZHERBERT.
  • III. THE BROTHER AND SISTER IN CONVERSATION AT MR. HUGHES' HOUSE.
  • IV. AN UNEXPECTED INTERVIEW.
page: ii-iii[View Page ii-iii]

THE LAWYER'S STORY;

OR, THE ORPHAN'S WRONGS.

BY A MEMBER OF THE NEW-YORK BAR.

Beautifully Illustrated.

The publishers have great pleasure in introducing this work to the public. As a family novel it is unexceptionable, while it will be found equally interesting and amusing by the casual reader. No tale has ever been written which has attained greater popularity or been more eagerly sought for while in the course of serial publication. The perusal of the introductory remarks will satisfy the reader that the Lawyer's Story contains incident of more than common interest.

SOME time ago, the following paragraph, copied from an English provincial newspaper, appeared in the New York Sunday Dispatch, and other journals of wide circulation:—

A MYSTERIOUS AFFAIR.—We find the following curious story in one of our English exchanges, and as it relates to a couple of Americans, we give it a place:—"The quiet little town of Hemmingford Abbotts, near St. Ives, Huntingtonshire, was recently visited by a young lady and gentleman from the United States, page: iv-v[View Page iv-v] under circumstances that have created considerable excitement in the neighborhood. The parties are brother and sister, and we believe are contestants for the large property known as the Fitzherbert Manor Lands, situated in this county, which estates have for a long time been in dispute. As will be recollected, this property was formerly Crown Land, and was given by George the Fourth, when Prince Regent, to Herbert Fitzherbert, Esq., who subsequently went to America. The right of the Prince to bestow Crown Land was contested, and the estate thrown into chancery. Herbert Fitzherbert died, we believe, in the United States, and his heirs at law, after the decision of the long contested suit, entered into possession of the property. These heirs were a son and daughter. The arrival of the new contestants for this property created quite a stir among the fashionable circles. So far, however, but little has leaked out in reference to the real object of our trans-Atlantic visitors, who created the unusual stir in the locality above indicated. One of our reporters called at the Hotel at which the strangers stopped, to gather the particulars, if possible, but found the parties had taken their departure very mysteriously, no one at the hotel having the slightest intimation of their business or their present whereabouts. It is said, upon what authority we know not, that a distinguished attorney from London accompanied them, and that some parties were subpœnaed to attend a private examination, but failed to appear, and have not since been heard of by their friends. Altogether there appears to be considerable mystery about this affair."

Shortly afterwards, a letter was received by the editor of the Dispatch from a Retired member of the New York Bar, who stated that he was perfectly acquainted with the history of the incident so mysteriously alluded to in the English journals, and who is the author of the narrative published by the title of the "Lawyer's Story," or the "Orphan's Wrongs."

Few narratives have surpassed the Lawyer's simple story in the intense interest it has excited. The attention of the reader is arrested immediately upon commencing the first chapter, and once having been commenced, the tale is read on with continually increasing interest to its conclusion.

The following is the letter alluded to, in which the author gives permission to the Editor of the Dispatch to publish the narrative:—

To the Editor of the ——.

SIR:—Noticing in the last number of the Sunday Dispatch, a paragraph copied from a Huntingtonshire (England) newspaper, headed a "Mysterious Affair," in which two Americans, brother and sister, are spoken of as playing a prominent part, I beg to inform you that I have had an intimate knowledge of the parties alluded to for the last ten years, and that I was the first person to cause an investigation to be made into their claims. For a short period also, I was professionally engaged in the case. I therefore can partially clear up the "Mystery" in which the matter, according to the reporter of the English paper, is involved. If you think proper I give you permission to publish the accompanying manuscript, containing the facts woven together in the form

page: vi-vii (Table of Contents) [View Page vi-vii (Table of Contents) ]

of a narrative. I have no interest in the matter; but as will be explained, my sympathies were from the first naturally enough enlisted in behalf of the American contestants, whose claims I considered indisputable, and I therefore watched every action pro and con that took place regarding their cause. Having retired from active practice, some six years since, I have made this case my hobby, and have but lately returned from Europe, where my services have voluntarily been rendered in behalf of the brother and sister. I am happy to say that the case has, after an arduous struggle, been decided in their favor, and that, so far as I know, they are now in secure and happy possession of the property it was sought to deprive them of. However, as I presume you will find the narrative to contain sufficient incident, and to possess sufficient interest to justify its publication, I will not anticipate the story. I give you my name in order to satisfy you that my statements are to be relied on; but it is not perhaps necessary that you should publish it, therefore I sign myself,

A RETIRED MEMBER OF THE NEW YORK BAR.

February 6th, 1853.

CONTENTS.

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