The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1855-03-06
RIC h nj 0 ND, Va;
TUESDAY MORNING. MARCH 6. 1sE

accounts oi an extraordinary case of crime In
high life, in which the Marquis of Clanricarde
head of the noble family of De Burgh oi
Burkes, figures as the hero. recent suit in
the Irish Court of Chaneery, has brough,
the crime to light and the facts are all Sc,
forth in the opening speech of the Irish At
torney General, Mr.. Brewster. We proceed
to give condensed view of these facts.
In the young days of the Marquis of Clan
ricardo he met at the Assize balls, in his ma.
tive county of Galway, with "a singuarly
beautiful. but, as since shown, equally vicious
jade, Miss Catherine Kelly, known from
her extreme aversion to water, under the ra
ther dlsagreeable designation of Dirty Kitty
Kelly; This dirty Kitty at once attracted
the admlrlng gaze of young Clanricarde, who
neihg, IRON his rank and position, unwilling
to wed her himself, Joined in an intrigue to
palm her OFT upon good natured and vere
well looking noodle, MIR. Handbook, who
had recently come into possession of very
large estates, and had attached himself to the
fashionable train of Clanricarde. Haying
thus pleasantly disposed of matters amonS
his county friends, the young lord, like all of
his followers, repaired to the great centre of
pleasure-London. Here, though of sinpu-
larly unprepossessing presence, the far more
formidable weapons Of a soft tongue and
generous dash of bearing won for him the
affections of the daughter of the celebrated
George Canning, then in the full flush of po-
litcal triumph, to whom he was welded, and
was shortly after raised. through his new
connection, to British Peerage, as Baron
Somerhil, and TO Marquisate in the Peer
age of lrelsnd'
Lord Clanricarde's marriage, however,
does not seem to have imposed much re-
straint upon his gallantry, but these failings
touched lightly on his reputation, compared
,x-iAh thnr MI II hnrt TO
affixed to his name. Becoming acquainted
with MIR. John Aldo, who is described as a
soft youth, willing to pay well for good socie-
ty, he took him to the celebrated hotel at
Richmond, on the banks of the Thames call
ed The Star and Carter and, in company
with some confederates, victimized him at
the card table, othe tune of twenty four thou
sand pounds. Alojo was minor, and called
upon his trustees to pay the debt of honor,
which they refused, and took counter pro-
ceedings for a swindle. The prosecution,
however, was not proceeded with; Aldo paid
the money, and the noble Marquis pook eted
the proceeds. Public indignation was at the
time greatly excited; but the affair was soon
forgotten, and Clanricarde showing conside
rable smartness in the struggle between the
Wing and Conservative parties, he was re-
warded with the Embassy to st. Petersburg.
On the fall of the Peel Cabinet in '46, O'Con-
nell insisting on having one Irishman in the
Supreme Council of the nation, Clanricarde
was made Postmaster General. He is now
one of the personal followers of Palmersto1,
with whom, it is said, he is on terms of init
mate friendship, and it is believed he would
have formed one of the new Ministry, but
for the startling disclosure of infamy which
the proceedings In the case of Handbook and
De Burgh have disclosed to the world.
The narrative before US here returns to
Miss Kitty Kelly, dirty Kitty" who had
been transmitted into the rich Mrs. Hand
cock, and who, it seems, was leading her
husband dog life. The unfortunate gentle
man appears to have been kept on dirt and
low diet, which, however, are said TO be not
unfavora BILE to increase of population. In the
first four years oftheir marriage, three daugh-
ters were born to the house of Handbook, who
are describ bed as gentle and beautiful girls
s'From that time, l62S,' continues the nara
tive, "to the year 1910, Mrs Handbook bore
no child. During the winter of that year,
Lord Clanricarde, returning from the Court
of Nicholas, gathered his own gay little court
at the old family seat we have described, at
Portumna. Among the fair guests was his
early love, Mrs Handbook.
"On revient toujours
A ses preHiiers amours"
Sweet memories, no doubt, stole over their
senses, and some tender passages came up,
which were more agreeable to the lovers
than the lady's lord Stung by what he con
ceived his dlShOnOr, separation took place
Handbook repaired to London and to Paris.
and endeavored to seek, in the haunts of
pleasure, and an abandonment to vice, for
getfulness Of that life which the infamy of
his wife had stamped with wretchedness -
But his steps We're dogged by hounds laid on
the scent by Clanricarde and his wife. and
the very menials round his person were in
his pursuers' pay. The hour of death was
seized to introduce the private physician of
Clanricarde, DIR. Paris, and through his in
fluence, aided by an unconscious instrument.
his own child, will was extorted, leaving
all his property to Lord Clanricarde, in trust
for his three daughters, the lord being the
guardian of the property-the lady of those
to whom it was bequeathed, the one at the
time Cabinet Minister of England, the other
widow and mother.
"Up to this hour 1t was believed that Mrs. Hand
cock had but these three children and to Cianri.
carde only was it known II at long after separa iop
another child, when and where born the worlu
has not yet been told, appeared upon the scene-
lie was a son, called by the Clanrcarde yAmiIv
name OF DeBureh and in favor of this offsprinp of
Illicit love- this endsh mother conceived the plot
OF making away with her own and her husband s
children-chi'dren, too, whose gentieness and
beauty would have awakened pity In the rudest
heart. In this horrible design Lord Clanricarde
would appear 10 have been at least, silent acces
sorry. Lord Clanrlcarde, as guardian and trustee,
Immediately allowed this beresved widow fifteen
hundred pounds year. the house and demeenes,
and repeated sums to keep them in repair all of
which were perverted, with his knowledge, from
their supposed purpose, aud boarded for the bene-
fit OF his supposed child She repeatedly swore,
while hesptng up these piles. that che was pepni-
less TO clutch at more; and In ell these horrible
designs she was aided by Minister of Englard.-
No thought of pity ever checked their hands One
by one her gentle daughters fell before their de-
stroyers, victirns to inhuman process OF perse-
culion and starvation, the details of which make
the blood run cold. II bas been said that they
were placed under the influence of slow poison,
and her occasional declarations that che had 10
France acquired an art of poisoning by slow de
grees, which bafed all detection, and The scene at
her own horrid death bed, In which she refused TO
taste particle OF nourishment, or even let drop
of water rest on her parched lip, which did not
come from the hand of Sister OF Charity, give
strength to this impression Those who read the
morbid pictures of human deprayiiy presented by
Eugene Sue, deem them but the exaggerations OF
diseased imagination But in France there Is no
medium; women are either holy and beautiful, and
good as the dream Of the poet can make them, or
else stepped in highly wrought luxury OF depra-
witty which surpasses all that even the ruin OF Pom
peii tells. II 10 known that Lord Pembroke, the
brother Of Sidney Herbert, wss placed by French
tav ho had oruiil nAar