OUR MAIL BUDGET.

Lyttelton Times, Volume LXVIII, Issue 8322, 9 November 1887, Page 2

OUR MAIL BUDGET.

THE HUGHES-HALLETT SCANDAL. A most extraordinary and painful scan* dal has, says the Pall Mall Gazette, been current for some time in all political and social circles about a member of the House of Commons. The scandal was well authenticated; but the circumstances were so revolting and so distressing that everyone trusted the story would be authoritatively contradicted. The member in question is Colonel Hughes-Hallett, who sits for Rochester, and, according to the Pall Mall, the rumours have proved correct. It appears that the gallant Colonel married in the year 1871 the widow of the late Lord Justice Selwyn. Lady Selwyn had a daughter and also a son—Captain C. W. Selwyn—who is now member for the Wisbech division of Cambridgeshire. On the death of his first wife (Lady Selwyn) Colonel Hughes-Hallett married, in 1882, an American lady—a daughter of Colonel von Schaumburg, of Philadelphia, United States. He still, however, remained on friendly terms with the family of his late wife, whose daughter (that is, his stepdaughter) he has now ruined. The intrigue was discovered by a third party when they were staying together at a country house, This young lady is about 22 years old; she is pretty and accomplished, and has a fortune of some JS'IO,OOO. She is, says the Pall Mall Gazette , expected some six months hence to become the mother of her stepfather’s child. Revolting as these circumstances are, it is said that Colonel Hughes-Hallett obtained possession of a large sum of money of the young lady’s. Directly the intelligence came to the ears of her brother he placed the matter in the hands of his solicitor, Mr George Lewis, whose absence abroad has caused the delay in taking steps in the affair. During this delay, however, the money has been repaid into Miss Selwyn’s account at her banker’s. To the above remarks Colonel HughesHallett has, through the Press Association, sent the following statement:— “ The statements are grossly untrue. I have never had any liaison with any stepdaughter of mine, and I repudiate the charge. The* Pall Mall Gazette has outraged the name of a young lady who is not my step-daughter, who is uo relation or connection of mine in any way, and to whom I have never even stood in loco 2>arentis at any time. With regard to the moneypart of the question. Miss Selwyn some time ago asked me to try to get her better interest for the sum of JJSOOO than she was getting at the time. She covenanted, by a deed now in my possession, to lend the money for five years; but some weeks ago her solicitors suddenly called this money in, and in less than 2*l hours the principal, with interest up to date, was handed to my solicitors for transference to hers.” The Press Association adds:— “ As a matter of fact the mother of Miss Selwyn was the first Lady Selwyn, whereas the late wife of Colonel HughesHallett was the second Lady Selwyn, who became a widow within five months of her marriage with Lord Justice Selwyn. Miss Selwyn is, therefore, not the step-daughter of Colonel Hughes-Hallett, but the daughter of Lord Justice Selwyn’s first wife.” Colonel Hughes-Hallett, it may be mentioned, is a comparatively new member of the House of Commons, having only sat since the close of 1885, when he was returned for the Cathedral City of Rochester and re-elected in the following year. Ten years previously he had contested Sandwich against Mr Henry Brassey and Lord Erabourne, but unsuccessfully. Since his election he has especially interested himself in Service affairs, and has been a pretty constant questioner on all military matters. On the Estimates, he has made several fairly effective speeches, and was becoming one of the recognised professional critics of the War Minister. After being educated at Brighton College and the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, he obtained a commission in the Royal Artillery when he came of age in 1850. He was originally intended for the East India Company’s Service, in which his father, the late Mr Charles Hughes-Hallett, held the position of a judge, but he preferred the profession of arms. Young Hughes-Hallett first served at Gibraltar and then exchanged to a field battery, stationed in Ireland. In 18G1- he was appointed to the Royal Horse Artillery, and in the autumn of 18G8 he was ordered out to Scinde and Beloochistan, whence he returned invalided two years later. Some time later he was appointed to the command of the 2nd Brigade North Irish Division Royal Artillery. From this he exchanged into the 2nd Brigade Southern Division Royal Horse Artillery, of which he is Lieutenant-Colonel Commanding and Hon. Colonel. THE DONCASTER RAILWAY ACCIDENT. The immunity from accidents which the railway system about Doncaster and neighbourhood has hitherto enjoyed—subject, as it is, at times to abnormal traffic—was rudely broken on Friday, Sept, IG, by one of the most terrible catastrophes in the records of railway enterprise in this country. A Midland excursion train from Sheffield to Doncaster, crowded with passengers on their way to see the race for the Doncaster Cup, was run into by a train from Liverpool to Hull at Hexthorpe, and over twenty persons killed and between sixty and seventy injured. Several of the closely packed carriages were telescoped, and the line was strewn with dead and dying, many of whom were shockingly mutilated. In its nature and its results the accident was very similar to one which occurred four or five and twenty years ago to two trains returning from the races at Ascot. Upon that occasion a special train, heavily laden with passengers from Ascot, was drawn up at Staines Junction, when a special not due to stop there dashed into it, a great number of people being killed. The immediate caus£ of this disaster is somewhat obscure, but the circumstances are exceedingly simple. The Midland train had been brought to a standstill for the purpose of collecting tickets at the Hexthorpe ticket platform, about two miles outside the central station at Doncaster, This ticket platform, it appears, is only used on exceptional occasions, when the pressure of the traffic converging upon Doncaster exceeds ordinary < limits. The ordinary trains run by it, and do not stop until they reach Doncaster itself. Behind the ticket platform is a sharp curve, and at the distance of about half a mile is the junction of the Manchester, Sheffield, and Lincolnshire Railway, used by the trains running from Manchester through Doncaster to Hull. While the Midland excursion train was standing at the platform, and the tickets were being collected, the guard of the train having left his van for the purpose of assisting in the collection of the tickets, a train from Manchester to Hull came up behind, and, the driver not having observed or having neglected, the signals which required him to stop before reaching the platform, ran into the standing train at a speed of some twenty miles an hour. The excursion train was crowded with passengers coming to Sheffield to attend the Doncaster races, and the rear carriages were smashed to splinters. The passengers in the Manchester train escaped with a shaking more or less severe; but the unfortunate occupants of the rear carriages of the Sheffield train were instantly overwhelmed with destruction. The Liverpool engine struck the end of the Midland special with terrific force. The woodwork of the carriages was smashed and splintered as if the material was the wood of a packing-case ; and the massive ironwork tyres and frames and wheels were twisted into many fantastic forms. The screeching of the escaping steam from the partially wrecked engine mingled with, and for a moment drowned, the agonising screams of the wretched beings imprisoned by the wreckage, and the groans of the many who had sustained terrible injuries. When the passengers who were unhurt had got out of the Midland train, a fearful : scene presented itself. Scores of people lay upon the railway lines, bleeding or dead, and many were wedged in among the splintered woodwork and other debris. The shrieks and groans of the living were most painful to hear, yet many of them :

were in such a position that it was impossible to release them until mechanical appliances arrived. Many of the were taken up shockingly mangled, arms and legs severed from the bodies; others were almost decapitated, and eotce were disembowelled. In several cases identification was only possible by the clothing. The bodies were laid out in a meadow adjoining the siding, and the injured were placed on carriage doors and window frames and conveyed to buildings in the neighbourhood. For a while discipline seemed lost and reason suspended among officials and escaped passengers alike. But the panie did not last long, and the work of succour and rescue was commenced and continued for hours with • method and courage. Attention was naturally first directed to the occupants of the end carriages, which suffered most. Of these, the van and two of the carriages, one a large composite of eight compartments, were completely wrecked, and cries and groans proceeding from the ruins gave painful evidence that many persons were buried beneath. Many of the uninjured passengers from both trains joined in the work of rescue, and within an hour nearly fifty persons were extricated and placed on the platform and in the nearest available buildings, where they received prompt and skilful attention at the hands of surgeons and physicians who had hurried to the spot from the neighbouring towns and villages. Many of the poor creatures were horribly mangled. Several had limbs torn off or crushed into shapelessness. An unusually large proportion of the injured were found to be suffering from serious wounds, and it was decided to send most of them to the Infirmary at Doncaster. Special carriages were accordingly kept running between Doncaster and Hexthorpe, and most of the more seriously injured were soon comfortably installed in the Infirmary. By four o’clock some twenty dead bodies had been recovered from the wreckage, and between fifty and sixty injured persons. The following message of condolence has been received from tbe Queen : — ,e To the Mayor of Doncaster.—The Queen is much grieved at the news of yesterday’s terrible accident, and is very desirous to hear as to the condition of the in jured, with whom, as well as with the families of those who were killed. Her Majesty deeply sympathises. (Signed) Major Bigge.” The Mayor replied as follows:—“To the Queen, Balmoral.—The Mayor of Doncaster thanks Her Majesty for her kind sympathy with the bereaved and injured in the deplorable railway accident of yesterday, and which he will communicate to them. There are yet several critical cases, but the majority of the sufferers continue to progress as favourably as can be expected. No deaths to-day.” GENERAL GORDON ON YAKOOB KHAN. At the present time, when the movements of Ayoob Khan have attracted attention to the Shere Ali branch of the Afghan reigning family, the following memorandum by General Gordon on the trial and abdication of Yakoob Khan, which he drew up in 1881 for a friend who had written a biography of that prince and has never been published, will, says the Times, be read with some interest. It will be remembered that our treatment of Yakoob was the chief cause of General Gordon’s resigning his post as private secretary to the Viceroy, Lord Ripon Yakoob was accused of concealing letters from the Russian Government and of entering into an alliance with the Maharajah of Cashmere to form a triple alliance. Where are these letters or proof of this intention ? They do not exist. Yakoob came out to Roberts of his own free Will. Ho was imprisoned; it was nothing remarkable that he was visited by an Afghan leader. Roberts and Cavagnari made the Treaty of Gandamak. It is absurd to say Yakoob wanted a European resident} it is against all reason to say he did. He was coerced into taking one. He was imprisoned, and a court of inquiry was held on him, composed of the President Macgregor, who was chief of the staff to the man who , made the treaty by which Cavagnari' to Cabul, and who had imprisoned Yakoob. This court of inquiry asked evidence concerning a man in prison which in the eyes of the Asiatics is equivalent to being already condemned. This court accumulated evidence utterly worthless in any court of justice, as will be seen if ever published. This court of inquiry found and sentenced him as guilty to exile. Was that their function ? If the secret papers are published it would he seen that the despatches from the Cabulese chiefs were couched in fair terms. They did not want to fight the English; they wanted their Ameer. Yakoob’s defence is splendid. He says in it: “If I had been guilty could I not have escaped to Herat ? whereas I put myself in your hands.” The following questions arise from this Court of Inquiry : Who fired the first shot from the Residency? Was the conduct of Cavagnari and his people discreet in a fanatical cry ? Were not the Governor - General and Roberts responsible for having forced Cavagnari on Yakoob against his (Takoob’s) protest ? Both Roberts and Lytton were as much on their trial as Yakoob. Yakoob was weak and timid in a critical moment, and he failed; but he did not incite this revolt. It was altogether against his interests to do so. What was the consequence of his unjust exile ? Why, all the troubles which happened since that date. Afghanistan was quiet j till we took her rule away it was a united Afghanistan. This mistake has cost .£10,000,000, all from the efforts to go on with an injustice. The Romans before their wars invoked all misery on themselves before the goddess Nemesis if their war was unjust. We did not invoke her, but she followed us. Between the time that the Tory Government went out and the new Viceroy, Ripon, had landed at Bombay, Lytton forced the hand of the Liberal Government by entering into negotiations with Abdurrahman and appointing the Valist Candahar, so endeavouring to prevent justice to Yakoob. —C. G. Gordon. HOW THE AMEER PUNISHED AN ALARMIST. The Homevjard Mail says-*Some strange stories have been told of the way in which Abdurrahman lords it over his people. Not long ago, we are told, the Ameer was Bitting in durbar discussing public affairs. The “ Home ” department had gone through their work. Orders had been issued to release certain persons from the sorrows of existence, when the durbar suddenly dashed into greater things, and began to talk about the English and the Russians. A man who had lately been introduced at Court, and was not well acquainted with bis Sovereign’s ways, remarked, ‘'Lord of the earth, let people say what they like, but this humble one has been scanning the political horizon with far-reaching eyes, and the Russians are comin§.” The lord of the earth smiled a sweet smile—some of the old courtiers who knew that smile also smiled—and, turning upon him vfifch the “ far-reaching eyes,” said, “ Bright jewel of our durbar, and sun of our understanding, art thou sure of this P” “ The lord of the earth is omniscient, and knows everything,” replied he. “ Well, to be sure, we do see things and know one or two things, but we are old now. Moreover, yon tree obstructs our view. However, thou art young; go thou, therefore, climb the tree, watch the Muscovite’s movements, and when he is very close upon us, come and inform us. The tree is high, so that thou shalt be enabled to see a long way off.” Forthwith the man was led to the tree, and made to climb to the topmost branches. To keep up his courage, if he gre'w weary of his post, a guard, with bayonets fixed, was told off’ to remain below. It is said the young man felt considerably elevated by his master’s huuflnr, and felt very exhilarated at three days’ contemplation of the beaHHhfe of nature, even from such a commacm* ' position, is apt to tire one, and so. he fell. They say he got hurt and died. No one dares to raise alarms in Cabul now.