THE STIRLING CASE.

Marlborough Express, Volume XLIII, Issue 97, 22 April 1909, Page 3

THE STIRLING CASE.

"SELFISH, IDLE LIVES."

LONDON, March 12. j The Stirling divorce case, in which Lord EanfuiiVs son, Viscount Northlaud, figured as a co-respondent, has been decided in favour of Mr Stirlino- and Mrs Atherton, and against Mrs Stirling and Viscount Northland. The case took up 18 days ot the full' time and energy of the Scottish High Court--an expenditure of time which Lord Guthrie, the judge, characterised as preposterous. Lord Guthrie's judgment was a scathing commentary on the lives of the* parties to the suit—"selfish, idle lives, containing nothing that was romantic, not much that was even mock heroic, and little that was legitimately interesting." The judge added that whatever might be said about Mr Stirling or Lord Northland, it was necessary to remember in considering the conduct of Mrs Stirling and Mrs Atherton that their mental endowments could not be ranked high, nor their common sense, good taste, or right feeling For instance, speaking about a visit to Paris, they gave the name of the Louvre not to the great museum and gallery but to a shop. Mrs Stirling, young and in good health, breakfasted in bed at 11 o'clock or at midday when resident in the country in the summer, her husband going regularly to business in London by a half-past eight train. At Amberk'V Cottage in the latter part of June and in July the only useful occupation of Mr and Mrs Stirling, Mrs Atherton, and Lord Northland &eem r ed to have consisted on Sunday in manicuring each others' nails.

FLIRTING WITH A STRANGER

When on a voyage alone in America, in July, taken in painful circumstances, brought about by herself, which threatened to break up her home, Mrs Stirling, according to her own account, spent her time on board the Adriatic in playing bridge with a total stranger, with whom she flirted and from whom she entertained an invitation to stay at his house. During the voyage her only letter to her husband was written to make a selfish proposal for a separation to suit her own convenience,

coupled with the condition that she should get an annual allowance of £720, apparently for the rest of her life. And after* the-break up of her home- in September, she- saw, and saw now, no unseemliness in frequenting restaurants and theatres with the man on account of whom she had separated herself from her husband arid child. NOT MUCH TO CHOOSE. In. their attitude towards luirnan life there was not-much to choose Lecwoen the actors in ill is squalid drama. All four, Scottish lahd, American ex-actress, IVer's turn, and divorcei1, appeared to have looked apon life merely as an opportunity for having a good time, rogaidlcoS of their duty to themsoives, to each other, to their children, and to thvir relatives, and indifferent to the good opinion 'of self-respecting people. They treated life as a comedy^ hut they had nvule- a pitiful tragedy of .it and a costly one. Tito judge held that Lord Northland had "failed to prove that his affection for Mrs Stirling was merely :i platonic!" His Lordship's view of the evidence involved disbelieving Lord Northland, who looked " a kindly, sensible, straightforward man " ; but in a case like that such disbelief was not difficult. Lord Northland might have preferred that Mrs Stirling should admit the charge, but if she resolved to defend, it was part of the code of honour of such a man to stand by the woman and see her through. ACTS OF INCREDIBLE FOLLY, No mere friendship or humanity could account in the case of a kindly man like Lord Northland for his playing with Mrs Stirling for a ring given to him by his own mother, nor, in the case of a sensible man like him, for his acts of almost incredible folly in relation to Mrs Stirling— going about with her openly when forbidden by her husband to communicate with her, and writing to her in private when he knew that he was being watched by detectives. And no mere friendship or humanity could account in the case of a straightforward man like him for the treachery to his old friend and the breaking " of promises which he scarcely attempted to deny. But if neither friendship nor humanity would avail as explanations, sexual pasion not under control would—the passion which had made of some of the most chivalrous characters in history, sacred and profane, not only adiilterers, but liars and murderers to boot.

The jury granted a divorce to Mr Stirling, on the ground of his wife's misconduct, and refused Mrs Stirling's petition. As Mrs Stirling and Lord Northland are appealing against the verdict, a good deal of the public time is likely to be consumed by the case.