ACTION FOR LIBEL

Waimate Daily Advertiser, Volume XXIV, 31 January 1927, Page 3

ACTION FOR LIBEL

THE GRANO OLD MAN. (Per Press Association—Copyright). LONDON, January 28. The Court was crowded with celebrities, who listened with fascination to the verbal duel, hour after hour, between Mr Norman Birkett, K.C. (Viscount Gladstone’s counsel), and Captain Wright, in the course of which Captain Wright said: “I am afraid some of my evidence might have pained Mrs Langtry, who is still alive. It is most annoying. I am sorry in that connection, more than that I cannot say. I would have done anything I could to avoid it.” The Judge: “You do not like reflecting on the living?” Captain Wright: “Not on women.” The. Judge: “You make an exception in the case of women?” Captain Wright: “About a woman personally.” Answering Mr Birkett, Captain Wright said: “My charge against Mr Gladstone is primarily one of hypocrasy, pretending to be what he was not.” Once when Captain Wright was strongly maintaining a point, the Judge said sternly: “Don’t shout; keep quiet please.” Captain Wright maintained that he did not base his charge specifically on Viscount Milner’s statement, but on the totality of evidence. There was a tense moment when Mr Birkett produced the birth and marriage certificates of Cecil Gladstone, of Eastbourne, showing he is a son of William Gladstone, merchant, and asked Captain Wright: “Do these documents influence your judgment about the legitimacy of Cecil Gladstone?”

Captain Wright: “They do, and they don’t. I cannot say they refute my viewpoint.” Mr Birkett: “Then these documents are falsehoods?” Captain Wright: “No.” He added that he was not aware that William Ewart Gladstone had a first cousin known as William. After handing Captain Wright a copy of Lodge’s peerage, Mr Birkett asked: “You now say he was an illegitimate son?” Captain Wright: “No.” The Judge: “Do you withdraw what you said about this certificate?” Captain Wright: “Yes, entirely.” Mr Birkett asked whether Dr. Greatorex had given the names and particulars of woman patients whose acquaintance Mr Gladstone is alleged to have tried to make on the streets. Captain Wright: “It would have been an extraordinary breach of professional etiquette.” Mr Birkett asked whether Captain Wright really believed Mr Gladstone altered the policy of England because of his relationship with Madame Novickoff.

Captain Wright: “I go further, and will prove it from your own documents. This was also the opinion of Lord Granville, his closest friend.” Mr Birkett: “Do you think it cowardly to slander a dead man?” Captain Wright stood back, dangled his monocle, and said: “I must give a long answer. All history is the register of crimes and follies, therefore all history is a slander of dead men. History cannot be abolished for the benefit of Mr Gladstone.”

The Judge: “That is no answer. Will you answer now?” Captain Wright: “Not if it is an historical matter you are writing.” The Judge: “Then your answer is: ‘No, I do not think it cowardly to slander the dead.’ ” Captain Wright said he was not aware Mr Gladstone spent considerable sums of money reclaiming fallen women.” “If you produce one or two girls Mr Gladstone ever reclaimed,” Captain Wright added, “I will admit I am wrong.” The case was adjourned till Tuesday. [Reflections on the moral character of the late W. E. Gladstone were made by Captain Peter Wright in his book “Portraits and Criticisms,” published recently. Viscount Gladstone, a son of the Limeral statesman, and a former Governor-General of South Africa, strongly objected to the statements in the book, describing it as “garbage,” and the author as “a liar, coward and fool." When Captain Wright refused to bring a libel action, Viscount Gladstone wrote to the committee of the Bath Club, of which Lord Desborough is chairman, and as a result Wright was expelled. He then brought a libel action against the club for wrongful dismissal, getting £25 damages on the grounds that he had never had a chance to state his case to the committee. The Hon. Harry Gladstone, a director of the P. and O. Company, was associated with Viscount Gladstone in his protest against the attack on their father's character. ]