SCANDALS IN HIGH LIFE.

Grey River Argus, Volume VIII, Issue 569, 9 September 1869, Page 4

SCANDALS IN HIGH LIFE.

Some recent scandals have shown our aristocracy in an unenviable light. I mentioned in my last that the Duke of Newcastle had been ruined by turf speculations. When Mr Padwick levied upon the duke's mansion in Carlton House-ter-race, his grace's debt was L 95,000. About the same time Messrs Peters, the wellknown coachmakers, seized the duke's sporting stud at Clumber. Proceedings were taken in tlie Court of .Exchequer in the form of an interpleader issue, to determine whether Mr Padwick's execution on the duke's London mansion was a valid one, and also whether the horses seized by Messrs Peters were the property of Mr Padwick. Both questions were decided in favor of the latter, Messrs Peters having satisfied themselves that Mr Padwick's claim was a good one. It was stated that this gentleman was a loser to the extent of between L 60,000 and L 70,000 through the ruin which has fallen on the Duke of Newcastle. The sale in Carlton-terrace proved a wonder to the gaping crowd. The duke has since been adjudicated a bankrupt. It is now, I regret to add, a matter of public notoriety that the noble house of Westmoreland has reached the same deplorable condition as the houses of Hastings, Hamilton, and Newcastle ; and rumor points to a well-known baronet as running fast to the same end. The police have been making vigorous raids upon the betting shops ; but these cases show that the higher classes need as much protection as the lower from gambling, and justify the question which has been asked, Why should Tattersall's be excluded from the operation of the Betting-house Act 1 A newspaper called the Queen's Messenger has of late been publishing a series of scandalous articles on members of the aristocracy, from the Duke of Cambridge downwards. A Mr Grenville Murray, formerly Consul-General at Odessa, was suspected by Lord Carington to be the author of a libellous article reflecting on hi 3 father. He accordingly sought him out, found him on the steps of the Conservative Club, and struck him on the hat. Mr Murray, in return, summoned his Lordship to the Marlborough Police-court on a charge of assault, and also of provoking a duel. Lord Carington was committed for trial, and ordered to find bail, himself and his friends, to the very unusual amount of LBOOO. In the course of the inquiry, Mr Grenville Murray was severely cross-questioned as to his connexion with the Queen's Messenger, which is registered in his son's name, but declined, by his counsel's advice, to reply. He distinctly denied, however, having written tho article on Lord Carington, about whom he knew nothing. In the course of the investigation, Lord Carington's solicitor brought into the court a box containing " copy" of the Queen's Messenger, which was alleged to be in Mr Murray's handwriting. This box was declared to be " stoien property ;" and although Mr Newman, the attorney, avers that it came into his possession in a perfectly legal way, there was a rush made to regain possession of it, and for at least ten minutes the magistrate was compelled to be a witness of a desperate struggle, which has scandalised the town as almost without parallel in a court of justice.