LIBELLING THE KING.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 950, 4 February 1911, Page 4

LIBELLING THE KING.

MYLIUS CONVICTED. London, February 1. The trial ot Edward Mylius, charged with selling a paper called the Liberator, containing a libellous statement about King George, took place to-day. The prisoner conducted his own defence.

Lord Alverstone, Lord Chief Justice, refused the request of the accused to call the King as a witness.

The Attorney-General, Sir Rufus Isaacs, opened for the prosecution. “ The charge,” he said, “is one of seditious libel, which consisted in a statement to the effect that King George married a daughter of Admiral Sir Michael Culme Seymour in 1890, and that his wile and offspring born of the union had been foully abandoned in order that he could contract a bigamous marriage with Queen Mary.” Continuing, Sir Rufus Isaacs stated that the publisher of the Liberator wrote to the prisoner, proposing that a special bigamy Coronation number ot the paper should be issued. Admiral Seymour gave evidence that his younger daughter, Laura, died in 1859, aged twenty-two, unmarried. She had never spoken to the King, who was never at Malta while his daughter was there.

Mrs Napier, elder daughter of the Admiral, also gave evidence, denying the libel. Sir Arthur Bigge, Private Secretary to the King, gave a similar denial.

Mylius was found guilty on three counts of the indictment, and sentenced to twelve mouths’ imprisonment. The Attorney-General at the conclusion of the case, said he was authorised by the King to state publicly that he was never married, except to the Queen, and that be would have given evidence to this effect, but the Law Officers of the Crown had advised that such a course was unconstitutional.

Mr James, proprietor of the Liberator, is a nephew of Henry James, the American novelist. The Times referring to Mylius’ application that the King should be called to give evidence, says it is constitutionally impossible that the King, in whose name the proceedings were conducted, should be cited as a witness in his own courts.

London, Feb. 2

The article in the “ Liberator ” was headed : “Sanctified Bigamy, ’ and stated :

“ The facts offer a spectacle of the immorality of the monarchy in all its sickening monstrosity. King George’s bigamy was committed with the aid and authority of Anglican prelates. A Christian King, Defender of the Church, has a plurality of wives like a Mohammedan Sultan.” Careful search of the Malta register revealed nothing. Mylius demanded the King’s presence at the trial on the ground that an accused person ought to be confronted by his accuser, aud quoted authorities on procedure.

The Lord Chief Justice overruled this contention, stating that the Attorney-General had adopted the only possible course. Mylius refused to proceed without the King’s presence, and left the case to the jury, who returned a unanimous verdict.

The Lord Chief Justice, in passing sentence, said that apparently the defendant had published the libel in advocating a cause opposed to the Constitution, and added : “ Every honourable man aud woman in the civilised world will recoil with shame from the use of such weapons against anyone, especially a King to whom the Empire is devotedly attached.” He said the sentence was wholly inadequate, but it was the maximum that it was in his power to impose.

Mylius became associated with Mr James, proprietor of the “Liberator,” through Krishuavarma, the Indian National journalist, of “ India House ” notoriety.