AN ENGLISH SCANDAL.

Globe, Volume V, Issue 587, 6 May 1876, Page 3

AN ENGLISH SCANDAL.

WHAT AWAITS A COMPANION OF THE PRINCE OF WALES UPON HIS RETURN HOME.

{New York Sun )

There seems every prospect that the Prince of Wales will in a few weeks be once more in the midst of hia remarkable happy domestic circle. It would be well if as much could be said for all who accompanied h’m One of them is, on the contrary, destined to find that his wife has taken advantage of his absence to forget her marriage vows, and to assist in creating the greatest scandal of its kind which has occurred in BngUsh society since the revelations as to Lady Mordant. Five years ago there were celebrated in Westminster Abbey, at the same time, the

marriages of two beautiful sisters, the youngest daughters of the Duke of Abercoru. Lady Aberta Hamilton, the Prince Consort s god-daughter, became the wife of the Marquis of Blandford, and Lady Maude, Marchioness of Landsdowne. No marriage could have commenced, apparently, under brighter auspices ; but, unfortunately, so far as one of them was concerned, the happiness was of very short duration. Ihe misconduct of Lord Blandford towards his wife has for a long time been a matter of club and drawing room gossip. Of late they have been living apart, though without, any formal separation ; and those acquainted w : th his character will feel small surprise at the announcement of his e'opemcnt with the wife of another man. Nor will there be any excess of sympathy for that other man, inasmuch as he is the Earl of Aylcford. A weaker, more inferior specimen of his own or any other class could scarcely be found. When a little over ago, he married a giddy, extravagant girl, one of a family which has had a most pernicious influence on fashionable society, and soon after succeeded to his father’s title and estates. It was then found that ho had been for years borrowing on post obitsto s ’.ch an extent that had his liabilities to the Jews been paid in full he wou'd have scarcely had an income to support himself. So he sought the aid of Chancery, and the Lord Chancellor quashed the exorbitant ra l es charged, but, at the same time, made reflections of the most cutting severity on Lord Aylesford, Lord Selborue’s comments, however, served neither to make Lord Aylesford prudent, nor to cool thte friendliness of the Prince of Wales toward him. In 1872 the papers announced that the Prince, accompanied by Colonel Williams, Lady Aylosford’s brother in-Kw, had gone to Packington Hall, Lord Aylesford’s seat, where a very “fast" company, a battue, and a great ball awaited him. It was from Packington that the Prince and Princess last year proceeded to pay a state visit to Birmingham. Were further proof wanting of the Prince’s regard for Lord Aylesfurd, it may be found in the choice of him as one of his companions in India. It is the most unfortunate feature of the Prince of Wales’ life that he makes such a very bad choice of his friends. A rascally cardsharper like Major Harbord, and a foolish spendthrift like Lord Aylesford, nro admirably calculated to bring any one intimate with them into disrepute ; and these are only two out of many, little superior to them, with whom the Prince has been wont familiarly 7 to associate. This last scandal can hardly fail to result in a double divorce and it is to bo hoped may have fhe effect of awakening the Prince of Wales to a sense of the necessity of breaking finally away from that disreputable circle which brought so much discredit on him as “ the Marlborough House set.”