An Interesting Case of Disputed Identity. its rightful custody, and that at the date aforesaid the body of St. Edmund the King, or so much thereof as then remained, was seen and fully identified by the parties afore said. It is further believed that other records of the said Abbey will be produced to prove that after the alleged robbery of the sacred relic many notable miracles of healing con tinued to be wrought at the shrine of the said martyred king, notwithstanding the alleged abstraction of the saint's body, which miracles are vouched for by the records of the said Abbey, and are incompatible with the abstraction of the saint's' body. And rumor, which is always busy, says that the answer of the Holy Church will be to the effect following: It would be impious to deny the truth of the pious records of these holy monks; nevertheless, the fact is, that while the greater part of the body of the martyred saint was carried away to France, one portion thereof, to wit: one arm, was left behind in the said Abbey Church, which part was of itself fully competent to work miracles of healing, notwithstanding the abstraction of the rest of the body of the said saint and martyr. We hope we have herein laid before our readers the points of a most interesting issue of identity, gathered from the columns of English newspapers, now greatly disturb ing the minds of many English people, Catholic as well as Protestant. Might it not be well in so important an issue to invoke the assistance of experts who are well skilled in the sifting of evidence, through daily practice in the law courts of the temporal powers that be?
Now it so happens that among the
465
many contributors of large sums toward the erection of the new cathedral at Westminster is one whose name is a household word in every city and home in England, as a past-master of the science of sifting evidence, and of exposing fraud and imposition of every kind; we allude to Lord Brampton, better known to our readers as Mr. Justice Hawkins. Could his lordship be induced by the Holy Church (of which he is a member, and a pious member, too, if piety is to be measured b" the largeness of his contribution to the fund for the building of the new cathedral) to undertake, on this occasion only, the part of Devil's Advocate and dissect the evidence of the promoters and marshal the evidence of the respondents, and once more gladden the hearts of Eng lishmen by one of his masterly addresses, sifting the wheat from the chaff, the true from the false. If Mr. Justice Hawkins says he is convinced that the evidence of iden tity is unimpeachable, cadit quœstio in œtermim. But if, on the other hand, Mr. Justice Hawkins should pronounce that the evidence adduced by the promoters is wholly insufficient, and that there remains on his mind a strong impression that the remains in question are not truly the relics of the martyred king, the Roman Church will be spared the mortification of making an official pronouncement of their identity on insuf ficient evidence, and future generations will rise up to bless the pious memory of one who has hitherto been regarded by his countrymen as unequaled in his character of an honest judge and a fearless exposer of everything in the way of falsehood and de ception. JIagna est veritas.
