TRIED BY HIS PEERS.

Evening Star, Issue 11605, 19 July 1901, Page 6

TRIED BY HIS PEERS.

LORD RUSSELL BEFORE THE LORDS. RECEIVES THREE MONTHS' IMPRISONMENT FOR BIGAMY. Press Association—By Telegraph—Copyright LONDON, July 18. (Received July 19, af9.l-a.rn.) The trial of Earl Russell proved to be a great function. It was held in the Royal Gallery at Westminster. Peers appeared in their state robes, in company with eleven Judges. The absentees included the foremost members of the Government and of the Opposition, as well as the bench of bishops. Earl Russell pleaded guilty. «»He stated that he had consulted the best lawyers in America in regard to the validity of his action. The Court of Peers sentenced hdm to three months' imprisonment, but he will be treated as a firWclass misdemeanant. At the magisterial hearing at the Old Bailey of the charge preferred against Earl Russell, much evidence was given by American -witnesses. The most important testimony—that which decked the magistrates to send the case on for trial—was (riven by Judge Curlew, of the State of Nevada, who, in bis official capacity, performed the marriage ceremony for Earl Russell and Mrs J. G. Somervilje on tie same day that they respectively obtained Nevada divorces from their former marriages. Judge Curlew stated that Earl Russell's divorce from the Countess (nee Mabel Scott), granted by the Nevada Court, was invalid, owing to the fact that insufficient legal notice of the divorce proceedings had been given. Countess Russell (Mabel Edith Scott) married Earl Russell in 1890, and in December, 1891, presented a petition for judicial separation on the ground of cpelty. The petition was dismissed with costs. In 1895 she petitioned for restitution of conjugal rights, but the case was dismissed, and a decree of judicial separation was granted to Earl Russell. In 1896 Lady Scott, mother of Countess Russell, v was sentenced to eight months' imprisonment for criminal libel against Earl Russell. In 1899 Countess Russell appeared on the stage, and in the present year (after her husband's marriage with Mra Somerville) she. obtained a divorce from Trim.