LONDON CLUB SCANDAL.

Taranaki Herald, Volume XXXIX, Issue 8667, 2 January 1890, Page 3

LONDON CLUB SCANDAL.

ARISTOCRATIC PECCADILLOS. TWO ARRESTS. A London correspondent writes :—": — " The terrible scandal in aristocratic circles which has been talked of with bated breath in the West-end for the past couple of months has this week been revived in a more pointed fashion, and there is a possibility that the whole will be revealed ' in • the course of a trial at the Central Criminal Court either this month or nest. Certain persons are now awaiting trial, under a committal from Marlborough-etreet Police Court, for participation in the crimes charged ; and it is reported that since they have been in prison they have made statements incriminating men of high distinction, whose names are being bandied to and fro at the clubs. The latter are not v now in England, and it is only right to state that in the preliminary and necessarily semi-private proceedings at the police court they were not named. But a circumstance has occurred within the last three days which has caused the previous rumours once more to be emphasised, and no one j can now say where the proceedings will stop. The Star states :— We hear on good authority that two men of social standing have been arrested by Inspector Abberline in connection with the scandal in the West End. They have not been brought before the magistrate yet, but as Inspector Abberline was in the magistrate's private room on Tuesday, and several of the witnesses in the case were seen about the precincts of the Court, it is suggested that the case may have been heard in private. The society scandal is now so widely talked about (says a correspondent) that the desperate efforts which have been made to hush it up can hardly succeed. It may seem incredible, but it is nevertheless true, that some of the unhappy accomplices of the titled personages who are alleged to have been the principal offenders are at this moment undergoing imprisonment, their cases having been tried and disposed of with the most scrupulous secrecy. The magistrate before whom they were examined is said to have sat at an early hour in the morning, long before the usual time for commencing the business of his court, the evidence was given with such precautions against influential names oozing out that documents were produced, sworn to, and handed to the magistrate without anybody ascertaining what they were, or by whom they were written, and conviction and sentence followed. But for the action of a prominent public official, who insisted that justice should take its course, the matter would probably never have come before the courts at all, but now that it is in a sense public property it cannot be allowed to rest without some explanation as to why active steps were not taken to arrest the chief offenders until after they had fled from the country. It is stated on good authority that two persons of social standing are now in custody, and if that be the case, it is hardly possible to p- event disclosures which will till the public mind with horror. Mr Labouchere writes as follows in Truth:— The law must be equally administered — if not in Ireland, at least in England. A stort time ago several of the telegraph boys in the neighbourhood of Cavendish-square were found to be spending more money than they earned. Inquiry was made by the postal authorities, and it was discovered that they were supplied with money by a band of gentlemen who met at a house in Cavendish-street. The facts are in the hand* of the Home OfKce and of Scotland Yard ; but as some of the greatest hereditary names of the country are mixed up in the scandal every effort is being made to secure the immunity of the criminals. Indeed, 1 am creditably informed that the Home Office is throwing obstacles in the way of prompt action on the part of Scotland Yard, and trying to get the persons concerned out of the country before warrants are issued. The fall of Louis Phillippe was to a great extent due to the Due de Praslin having murdered his governess ; but the Due's crime compares favourably with that of these titled miscreants. It will be really 100 monstrous if crimes which, when committed by poor, ignorant men, lead to sentences of penal servitude, were to be done with impunity by those whom the Tory Government delights to honour. The names of the telegraph boys are known. The name of the person who let the house in Cavendish-street is known, and the names of those who frequented it are known. I warn Mr Marchant that if he does not take action in this matter there will be a heavy reckoning when Parliament meets. I have no sorts of sympathy with vigilance associations and other such private rensors of morals ; but between their prying action and the Home Ollice impeding the police and warning high-born criminals to get out of the jurisdiction of the British Courts in order to save thorn from prosecution, there is a wide difference.