THE BACCARAT SCANDAL

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 9318, 12 June 1891, Page 2

THE BACCARAT SCANDAL

By Electric Telegraph—Copyright. THE CHIEF JUSTICE’S SUMMING UP. THE PLAINTIFF RINDS CONSOLATION. THE PRINCE BLAMED ALL ROUND. THE TORIES ALARMED. OUTSPOKEN CRITICISM. (SPECIAL.) London, June 10. Lord Chief Justice Coleridge, in summing up in the baccarat case, said there was only one law for peasant and prince alike. He did not blame defendants for requesting Sir Win. Camming to sign a confession in order to shield the Prince of Wales from the scandal which they knew must arise it the facts were ever placed before a hard-judging world, which was not subservient to Royalty, as in the days of the Tudors and Stuarts. He doubted whether the plaintiff had not lost his head under the stress of the painful condition in which he was placed. The learned Judge went on to say that if the Prince of Wales and General Owen Williams had broken military rules they should be subjected to a military tribunal.

The Telegraph deplores the disclosures, which showed that baccarat has so deep a hold on its devotees as to induce them to carry about with them apparatus necessary for playing the game. The Chronicle condemns the verdict, and suggests the readiness displayed by the Prince of Wales to bo the prize guest of rich, vulgar families, and gratify their taste for the lowest type of gambling, has shocked and disgusted the people. The Welsh Baptist Conference, now sitting at Bangor, has passed a resolution deploring the gambling habits of the Prince of Wales.

Sir W. Gordon-Cumming, plaintiff in the baccarat case, was married to-day to Miss Gamer, a New York lady, possessing a fortune of L 20.000 a year. At the end of the trial be offered to break off the engagement.

(PEE PEESS ASSOCIATION.) (Received June 11, 7.30 p.m. London, June 10.

The whole of the press comments on the baccarat case have apparently fallen on the Prince of Wales.

The Provincial press and the London evening papers, like their morning contemporaries, severely censure the Prince for his conduct, and many of the papers warn His Royal Highness that he is only imperilling the monarchy by pursuing his fast career. The Tories fear that the disclosures made will seriously affect their chance of success at the forthcoming general election.

Quite a number of dissenting bodies have denounced the Prince of Wales because of his gambling habits. Every newspaper that has referred to the case has been rery outspoken in its criticism.