The Campbell divorce case : copious report of the trial / With numerous portraits of those concerned drawn from life by Harold Furniss.

Date:
1887
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Campbell divorce case : copious report of the trial / With numerous portraits of those concerned drawn from life by Harold Furniss. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    a is OOLIN CAMJ’BEIX 'there is one matter in connection with the Paris incidents which I must ■tall your attention to. Do you think Lord Colin Campbell’s attempt to Ireat his wife as a common prostitute in Paris was anything short of an ■outrage ? An attempt made, mark you, pending proceedings in this Court. I say it was an outrage, and anything more dishonest that Lord Colin’s ■statement on that occasion under his own hands I never saw. Sir Charles Russell was far too lenient in his remarks on the matter. The learned •Judge read the terms of the petition of Lord Colin to obtain the warrant •under which he proposed to consign his wife to St. Lazare, and said—Sir •Charles Russell very properly called your at tention to the fact that Lord •Colin suppressed the fact that when he was presenting that petition his •wife had obtained in an Lnglish Court of Justice a judicial separation, and -was entitled to move about at her discretion. He omits that. I can hardly conceive it was intentionally omitted, for it would be a material -fact for the Commissary of Police or other official to know that this •woman was lawfully separated from her husband by tl«; decree of an English Court of Justice. He goes on to say, “Your Petitioner has heard ’that he (Lord Blandford) pays her visits in her bed-room at the hotel. Moreover, on Friday last the man who was instructed to follow her went •up to the room occupied by the wife of your Petitioner, and knocked at ’the door ; the door was opened and he then saw her within the room •in her open chemise, stays, and petticoat, and in the same room was the .Duke of Marlborough, with his hat and with a letter in his hand.” Lord Colin has ascertained that Lord Blandford visits her in her 'bed-room, and, beyond that, he has ascertained that on one particular •occasion they were caught. Gentlemen, we have had here the man who was dogging her footsteps in Paris ; we have had the man ■who went up to that room. If Lord Colin had taken the trouble do ascertain the facts from his wife, he must have known it was utterly false that she was in the habit of being in her bed-room with the Duke of Marlborough. Yet he takes a step which might very well have landed Lady Colin Campbell, pending this suit, in a common prison. Take the •man’s own evidence. Who was in the room when the man went to the hotel 1 The lady’s mother. The lady’s mother is studiously left out in this statement. I say again I cannot conceive anything much more in- famous than to endeavour to put this lady into prison on such a statement, signed by the husband’s own hand. I pass away from the charges against Lord Blandford and Lady Colin to the other main charges, with which I will deal more shortly. I come to the case against Captain Shaw, and here again the principal witness is a domestic servant, O'Neill, and another servant named De Roche. O’Neill was the man who clinched the thing, if he is worthy of credit. With regard to O’Neill’s evidence, I never thought -that anything would come of the inspection of the keyhole ; but I will deal with it on the assumption that O’Neill might have seen what he says he did see, although this sort of evidence about lo king through a keyhole is not the sort of evidence one likes to rely upon. O’Neill, after he sees what lie says he did see, goes downstairs, and one would have thought under such circumstances lie would have communicated something to the cook, Annie Morrell. As nothing came of it, it is very possible the cook may have forgotten the incident altogether. But there are two matters with regard to this man’s evidence to which I must call your attention. He does not come before us in a very nice light, if his story is true. If this story about Captain Shaw is true, he knew that his mistress was an aban- doned woman, but he allowed the servant. Rose Baer, to be dismissed in