At the opening of the proceedings in the Druce case
on' Monday Mr. Atherley-Jones announced that Mr. Caldwell— the witness from America, who has left the country—being discredited, his evidence was entirely withdrawn. He also admitted, in reply to Mr. Plowden, that the evidence of Mrs. Hamilton corroborated the main part of Mr. Caldwell's evidence. Mr. Avory, who then opened the defence, com- mented on the action of counsel in persisting in the prose- cution after throwing overboard their chief witness. The case had grown out of a fiction put forward by a woman now confined in a lunatic asylum, and had developed into a fraudulent conspiracy ; and he asserted that every one of the promoters, and, in his opinion, every one of the subscribers, to the Druce-Portland companies was at this moment liable himself to be put into a criminal dock and charged with champerty and maintenance, and there could be no answer if they were so charged. After noting that the evidence of the doctor who saw Druce lying dead and the nurse who saw him die was available, Mr. Avory proceeded to review the evidence for the prosecution, the character of the witnesses, and the inconsistencies of the case. He stated in regard to the question of the grave that, if the interests of justice required such a step to be taken, Mr. Herbert Druce was perfectly willing, and his counsel would advise him, to have it opened in order once and for all to get rid of the story which has got about, and for which Mr. Robert Caldwell was apparently alone responsible, that there was lead in the coffin. In conclusion, he submitted that there was no case to go to a jury, but, if necessary, he was prepared to go on.
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