The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1911. A DASTARDLY LIBEL.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14359, 3 February 1911, Page 4

The Timaru Herald. FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 3, 1911. A DASTARDLY LIBEL.

It is to be hoped that, Xrlth ilia' criminal conviction and sentenos to twelve months imprisontaeilli of the latest traducer —a seHxancQ all too short—the last will llafo been heard of the preposterous libel on our Sing involved in_ tho persistent story of a previous marriage, which was_ alleged to have been quashed, with his consent, on his betrothal to the present Queen. Mr W. T. Stead, to whom the late Kins - gave •" a most categorical, definite, f.nd emphatic repudiation of tho whole story," which was published a few months ago in the " Review of Reviews," and in part republished in this paper, has described this fiction as " the most amazing falsehood _of modern times." The marriage was alleged to have taken place _at Malta, when the present King was a young officer in the Navy, with no apparent prospects of succession. The man who has now been convicted of seditious libel for publishing the story seems u> have put the worst construction possible 011 the bogus facts. ft is more often represented that Imj supposed youthful marriage was quashed, alter the death of the Duke of Clarence, strongly against the will of the presw King, whose opposition was ;1leged to have been overruled by the repeated pressure ot Queen Victoria, who insisted oil his duty to hold State _eon.siderations paramount. It: is evidence of the absurdlv unsubstantial fabric of the libel that, the story has persisted in two tonus, the King's name being associated with two different ladies. I lie version which was followed in the latest instance speaks ot an early marriage with a daughtei ot . is

the death of Admiral Sir Georga Tryon, in _ 1893, when his ship, the Victoria, was rammed una sunk as the result of a mistaken order, given in manoeuvres, caused a much more dramatic and sensational aspect, to bo given to the fiction. The story or the alleged marriage was revived on the King's accession to tho throne, and we find it mentionod in this common form in the notioe of the now King's life which was published, in one of the most staid and most responsible of American dailies, on the occasion of his father's death: "Most people have heard the story of the prince's previous marriage, when ho was a young rfficer at Malta, to the daughter of liis commandcr-in-chief, Admiral Sir George Tryon. Tho publication of the story mado n tremendous stir, and it was denied by oil concerned. Not long after Hint Sir George Tryon, who had been deeply affected by the matter, iost his life on board his flagship, 1l)o Viotoria, when the vessel was rammed by the Camperdown, and sunk with several hundred men. There is every evidence that the second marriage, if it really was the second, the ' marriage oi State,' has turned out remarkably well." After tho King's accession, the story of a previous mar riag-e was denied in every detail on the strongest ecclesiastical authority, and finally its falseness was exposed, beyond the possibility of misconception, by Mr Stead, with the assistance of the late King Edward. It , seems incredible JJiat a rumour, so contradictory in its forms and so preposterous on the face of it, should nave been able to survive so long. It has been scotched repeatedly before, and wo hope that, by ihe exhaustive personal and documentary evidence adduced at Hun publio prosecution, aided by the King's own statement, tho dastardly aspersion has been killed outright.