Disgraceful Conduct of a Clergyman.

Pahiatua Star and Eketahuna Advertiser, Volume 2, Issue 173, 17 February 1888, Page 3

Disgraceful Conduct of a Clergyman.

VS INJCItK.II HUSBAND’S REVENUE.

A -strange story emues from Ireland. 1 It is in iu own way quite as lothsomc ' •an • xlnbition of morals ami ; unbridled passions aa the Woburn place ! tract «lv. ami in this, as well as in the • lu r case, the revolver was appealed In. though fortunately without any mtioui result. It appears that a pistol-shot was In .ml from a cah which was driving ■! ■ Parliament Street, lHiblin, a faw <lays ago. Tlic police Were soon on tht .11 in-, ami ut once fouml that one of tint occupants of the cah. a Captain J’uin.t. i.a 1 lirnl at the othec, a clergylimit .1 lliggiuMiu, hut the hall hnl lo<l ..1 in a thick rug iwhich the Jailer lia«l wrap|at| roumi hum witho it |h le-trating the flesh. I'iie cah and its occii|uuits were brought to llie police station, ami. after examination before the Divim nal Magistrate. Captain Dunne « a - committed for trial, liail being refiiscl. In the course of the examination a ah- net ful sa-ries of facts was elicited. • sing to what a deplorable depth of moral degradation men who might lav claim to tho title of gentleman may descend. Tin pr >seciitor Higgiuson, a man a: out forty-five years of age, ami who hail at various times acted as Customlions clerk, clergyman (having been ordained at IMoeuifontceiu, in South Africa, in 1*771. man of business, and geiier.il /esc. had. it apjtears, after having already been divorced from his first wife, married al-out a year ago i Hon. Mrs Whyte-Melville, a woman of wealth ami position, whose liaiin he assumed ill addition to Ins uiit-uplHinions surname of Higgmson. Having thus improved his social ai d financial position, the lievorend Henry lYtcr Higgnisou Whyte-Mel-ville, who, amongst his other accomplishments. boasted that he thought no more of drinking whisky than of drinking water, and who had at least outs already been horse-whipped for in. tilling another man's wife, pruts led to graduate in the art of blackguardism. in which he was already such an adopt, by seducing lus lately married wife's friend and companion, tht daughter of Captain Dunne, who, by the way. is now a prominent Home liuler, though formerly Governor of t‘a -tlehar Gaol. It was fur this last i l pit ill, which tin- hardened scoundrel, in cross-examination, said he believed to he an act of charity, as Miss Dunne had been deserted by her father, tltal he was fired at by Duunc, who hail met linn that morning ou his arrival at Kingstown, taken possession of hi* person, conveyed him to a private lit/use, and there administered •• two lovely black eyes" and various other forms of (tersoual chastisement which one delights to read of in this particular vase. All of this, as one would have expected, the clerical Lothario bore, if not without a murmer, without any attempt to return the blows, consoling himself appan iitlyin the intervals of his penis! unnt by drinking whisky. It was only when Captain Dunne, on his wav with his prisoner to the detective office, presumably for the purpose of compelling h in to make statements that would lead to the recovery at his daughter, proceeded to t »irt mines by firing at him that the i liveable poltroon appealed to the for frot<ction. Captains Duum appears to come out of the matter by no means creditably, as. if the Kcv. Henry Pcter'a - tan-incuts are to be believed, he Lad practically deserted his daughter since slic was twelve years of age, bavin:; sent her out to the

wild* of Aracric* »* a steerage passenger with only i'll in her pocaet, and without a protector of any sort. ll wa- the unprotected and comparati\ely friendless slate of the girl, who is now twenty-eight years of age, which, according to the itev. lleury Peter, incited him to seduce her •• as an act of charity," happiness, according to Inin, usually resulting from seduction. He appears, among other things, to hate treated the fact that he was committing adultery with his own wife's friend as a mere trilling detail unworthy of consideration. Perhaps the saddest part of this shameful store is the fact that this despicable scoundrel, lost to all sense of shame, had married the wife mid hears the name of that perfect type of an Kiiglish gentleman —that Ilayard of the hunting field —the late Major tl. W. Whyte Melville,soldier, sportsman, and novelist.