MRS. BAILLIE'S HUSBAND.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXV, Issue 9032, 19 April 1888, Page 5

MRS. BAILLIE'S HUSBAND.

SOME PARTICULARS OF HIM.

A little information about the gentleman described as Mrs. Gordon Baillie's husband may be interesting. His full name is Richard Percival Bodeley Frost. In May, 1886, he was living at 30, Woburn Place, Russell Square, and. also had chambers at 5, Vorulam Buildings, Gray's Inn. His father was a clergyman, and his mother (riow a widow) is supposed to be possessed of some means. When he first made Mrs. Gordon Baillie's acquaintance is not precisely known, but probably it was some time during the year 1885. Early in 1886 however, he is found in connection with persons who were making it their business to pass the bills Mrs. Baillie was getting from old Sir Richard King, and at the same time posing in the city as a man of wealth and position, and entering into company speculations and contracts which required many thousands of pounds to carry out. It has since transpired that he was at the time utterly without means of his own. Nevertheless, some well-known bankers 'of Lombard-street, were somehow or other bamboozled into giving him references —and good ones, and by this means he was afforded the opportunity of floating a considerable amount of his own '' paper and so successful was he in this line of business, that, among other gentlemen taken in was a well-known city solicitor, who, although accounted particularly ' sharp, one ' fine morning "obliged" Mr. Frost with a cool thousand to go on with until - "those deuced trustees of mine fork out, you know." The end of it was, so far as this Mr. Frost was concerned, that before long he found himself in the Bankruptcy Court, at the instance of two of his dupes, with liabilities put down at £130,378 4s Id. He was, says the Pall. Mall Gazette, ' duly adjudicated a bankrupt on ' August 19, 1886. Needless, to say, he paid nothing in the pound, and is at present undischarged. It should be mentioned that a place called Barton Hall, in Staffordshire, once had the honour of receiving Mr. Frost and Mrs. Gordon Baillie as its tenants, and there they are reputed to have resided in very good style some time before the lady's departure for Australia.

The Scotsman, commenting on' the disclosures, says : —Mrs. Gordon Baillie began as Miss Sutherland, blossomed. into Miss Bruce, has been known by other names, and now has become a Highland landowner interested in the crofters. Her industry and spirit of adventure have not been approved by the law, which cruelly on one occasion, at least, gave her an opportunity of judging what prison life is like. She has won the hearts of many worthy men. , Bishop Sandford, in Australia, was convinced of the truth of her story. The Lord Provost of Edinburgh was wheedled into giving or getting her access to tho Calton gaol, to see the Clashmore prisoners there. That staid, judicious man, Professor Blackie, has been captured by her and bouquetted by her. This, however, is not wonderful. His heart is ever open to stories about the sorrows of the crofters, and Mrs. Gordon Baillie could give him plenty. She, clever woman, had made the discovery that the crofter agitation was profitable. Stories on the subject are greedily accepted by kindly but indiscriminating people. She has-been drawn and described by that wonderful production of Cockneydom, the Pall Mall Gazette, which, of course, accepted her on her own terms, and showed at once how good she was, and how evil were the doings of those who did not accept all that was said about the crofters by those who are interested in keeping up agitation in those quarters. It is a pity Mrs. Gordon Baillie did not attend the late Conference, at Dingwall, of the Free Church dignitaries and laymen. She would have thrilled them. . The immediate lesson ought not to be lost 011 the crofters. They may see that they are being traded upon, and their sufferings made a marketable commodity. That has been plain for some time mat. If those most concerned will but believe it, there is not much difference morally between Mrs. Gordon Baillie and some of the prominent " friends of the crofters."