AN INFAMOUS SEDITION

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 230, 3 February 1911, Page 5

AN INFAMOUS SEDITION

ALLEGATION AGAINST THE KING. HIS MAJESTY MARRIED BUT ONCE. By Cable—Press Association—Copyright. London, February 1. Mylius is conducting his own defence in the sedition case. The Lord Chief Justice, Baron Alverstone, refused accused's request to call the King as witness. Sir Rulus Isaacs opened for the prosecution. The charge is 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 wife and offspring born of the union had been foully abandoned in order that he could contract a bigamous marriage with Queen Mary. Sir R. Isaacs continued that the publisher of the Liberator wrote to prisoner proposing a special bigamy Coronation number.

Admiral Seymour gave evidence that , his youngest daughter Laura died in 1895, aged 22, unmarried. She never spoke to the King, who was never at Malta while his daughter was there. Mrs. Napier, eldest daughter of the Admiral, in her evidence denied the libel. Sir Arthur Bigge, private secretary to the King, gave a similar denial. Mylius was found guilty on three counts, and sentenced to twelve months' imprisonment.

The Times, referring to Mylius' application, states it was constitutionally impossible that the King, in whose name the proceedings were conducted, should be cited as a witness in his own courts.

THE KING'S STATEMENT. London, February 1. At the conclusion of the case against Mylius, the Attorney-General said that he had been authorised by the King to state publicly that he had never married anyone except the Queen, and that he would have given evidence to this effect, but the law officers had advised him that such an act would be unconstitutional. James, the proprietor of the Liberator, is a nephew of Henry James, the wellknown American novelist.

A " SCARE " SUBJECT. THE JURY'S UNANIMOUS VERDICT. AN INADEQUATE SENTENCE. Received 2, 9.15 p.m. London, February 2. The article in the "Liberator" was beaded "Sanctified Bigamy," and stated that the facts offer a spectacle of immorality of monarchy in all its sickening monstrosity. King George's bigamy was committed "with the aid and authority of the Anglican prelates of the Christian Church, and the Defender of the Church has a plurality of wifes like a Jlahommedan Sultan."

A careful search of the Malta register revealed nothing. Mylius demanded tlie King's presence, on the ground that an accused person ought to be confronted with his accuser. He quoted authorities for this procedure, but the judge overruled him, stating 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 brought in an unanimous verdict.

The judge, in sentencing him, said that apparently the defendant had published the libel in advocating 'his cause as opposed to the Constitution. The judge added that every honorable man and woman in the civilised world would recoil with shame from the use of such weapons against anyone, especially the King, to whom the Empire was devotedly attached. The sentence was wholly inadequate, but it was the maximum in his power. Mylius became associated with James through Krishnavarna, an Indian Nationalist journalist.

GENERAL JOURNALISTIC REJOICING. A SCURRILOUS PRODUCTION. ATTEMPT TO ROB ROYALTY OF RESPECT. Received 3, I.S a.m. London, February 2. The newspapers are unanimous in their rejoicing at the King's courageous determination to vindicate his personal honor. Mylius is a man of about thirty years of age, described as of uncertain nationality, under medium height, with small features, and an English accent. All the newspapers emphasise the scrupulous fairness of the procedure. Instead of a charge of seditious libel, which ■would have prevented a plea of justification, a charge of criminal libel was preferred, in order to give defendant every chance and enable the slander to be annihilated by sworn testimony. The correspondence read showed that James' republican sheet was intended to discredit monarchy wherever found, and especially in England. James, the proprietor, wrote to Mylius in October in reference to yesterday's libel: "I will publish the facts immediately, without awaiting further verification." He also wrote: "The only way to deal with the British monarchy is to cut away its respect. As soon as the people cease to respect it, the monarchy is done for." James sent parcels of the Liberator to Mylius in London, who posted them to army officers and others. The newspapers denounce James as a slanderous abettor, skulking in Paris. The groundless charge agp.inst Charles 11. and the declaration at Whitehall on June !), are quoted, and the punishments of John Udal! and Alexander Leigliton are recalled, contrasting with the lenienoy ol the present scntecce. -

ALLEGED MARRIAGE AT MALTA. AUTHORITATIVE DENIALS. In 1892 the Duke of Clarence died, and King George thereupon became heir-ap-parent to the Throne. The Duke of Clarence was betrothed to Princess May of Teck, and after his death a marriage was arranged between Princess May and King George (then Duke of York), which was duly solemnised on July fi, 1893. It has from time to time been alleged that when King George was a young sailor at Malta, with no hope of ever succeeding to the Throne, he married the daughter of a commoner. That marriage was legal enough then, but the death of his brother immediately made it void, and the prince had to separate from his first wife, who was provided for generously. AN ABSOLUTE FICTION. The Bishop of Durham, speaking last year at the reunion of past and present students of St. Hilda's College for Schoolmistresses at Durham, said it had been slanderously stated that King George had been secretly married to a lady not of Royal rank, and that his marriage with Queen Mary was therefore not legal. He wished to say with absolute confidence, from absolute knowledge, that this slander was an absolute fiction. The Archbishop of York, preaching at the church parade of the Yorkshire Hussars Yeomanry, said: "We may be tha ik-1 ful that King George is worthy of our personal loyalty, which you have to show, not only by wearing his uniform, but by speaking up for the King when you have the chance, and when you hear those backbiters who are not ashamed to say anything about their King. It belongs to your loyalty to stand up and defend him. You may thank God that your King George is an example to every man; of the kind and dutiful life which everyone of his citizens ought to live." "ROOT AND BRANCH AN UNTRUTH." : In the course of an address to a congregation of Friendlv Society members, the Dean of Norwich said: "We have now upon the Throne a King who, to my personal knowle lg->, is a man of intense self-sacrifice and high character. Against him one has heard brought two accusations, brought, as I think, by that part of society which is no society at all; but these things percolate down, and it is just as well that when speaking before a mass of people one should give the lie to those two accusations. In the first place, the Kins is sometimes accused of insobriety. You may take it from me, on undoubted autliurity, that that is 8 libel. As far as his close friends lui'-e noticed him, he has never been intempernte throughout his life, but, on the contrary, is more a man who, even from the point of view of health, has to be abstemious, and who has no desire to be anything else. I want you, generoushearied men, who you hear some light, stupid talk with regard to this irreverence to our King, to say wiVn absolute confidence that there is not a more sober, temperate, quiet-living man in this country than King George. The oclier accusation is still more unworthy. It is that prior to his marriage he had what is called a secret or morganatic marriage, with children by it. That is absolutely root and branch an untrati'. He has now undertaken the greatest responsibilities which any man can undertake, and I ask for him justice, fair dealing, confidence, loyalty, and love in his task."