The Charleston daily news. [volume] (Charleston, S.C.) 1865-1873, 1868-01-07

lie pulse for a week, and, as at present,
furnish an opportunity for elaborate NOR
alization.
new chapter in the romance of "High
Life and Low Morals" has been written
and published, and the EARDLET-McGEE
case is already sensation beyond which
Miss BRADDoN herself could not hope to 60.
In 1859 EMILY FLORENCE MCGEE was
married to EARDIEY GIDEON CUII1NG card
LEY at Calvary Church, New York. Miss
MCGEE was the daughter of the British
Consul at Mobile,-JAMEs MCGEE, who was
dismissed during the war by Earl RUSSELL
for having sent out on British ship the
gold to pay the interest on the bonds of the
State of Alabama then due to English
bondholders. The man on whom the beau
tiful and oourted Miss MCGEE bestowed her
band was the son of Sir CULLINa EARDLEY,
Bart, gentleman of great wealth, con-
servative politics and strictly evangelical
principles. Soon after the arrival of the
married couple in England, Sir CuLI1Sa
EAaDLEY died, and the heir E. G. c. EARD-
LEY succeeded to the title and property.
The new baronet had been distressingly
profigate in his untitled days, and had
been pilloried in sPunch;" 80 that it was
only reasonable that he should squander
his money and disgrace his rank with the
rapidity of Bel-a:fars.psur or any other
hero of OuIDA's startling romanoes. In
less than four years E. G. G. E. was brought
to beggary, and his lady to wretchedness;
and, in October, 1868, formal deed OF
separation was signed in which the baronet
designated the lady as "my wiie." After
this, EARDLEY's life was embittered by
duns and bailifs. SK1TTLEs and CORA
PEARL were no longer at his elbow, aid he
would have been in French Jail to this
day had not the abolition of imprisonment
for debt in France thrown open his prison
doors. Again at liberty, he returned to the
London which had not missed him, and on
September IL, 1867, married one ELIZABETH
ALLEN, subscribing his name in the mar
riage register as "bachelor."
Lady EARDLEY's father, Mr.. MCGEE, is
now prosecuting EARDLEY for bigamy in
vindication of the honor and good fame OF
his child; and the bigamist baronet has
already been committed for trial. The de-
fence set up is that the New York marriage
was illegal, and that this can be deliberate
ly done is only credible on the supposition
that the case of YELvERToN U.s. LoNawoRTH
has practically settled that all marriages
not solemnized according to English forms,
in England are null and void. There is no
doubt, however, that the decision will be
in favor of the validity of the marriage
performed in New York according to the
laws of that State; otherwise every Amsri-
can marriage, in which either party was OF
English birth, would be declared void and
of no effect-a thing too monstrous to be
apprehended for moment
This is the tale of the bigamist baronet,
and it has touching moral. The Russian
Prince who turns out to have been vete-
ran billiard-maker, the French Count who
is discovered to have acquired his polished
manners while blacking boots in the Palais
been hair dresser in West End hotel or
a valet to a broken down nobleman, have
figured amusingly in fiction; and sensible
people have accustomed themselves at last
to inquire into the pretensions of the sol
disant nobleman before taking them to their
bosoms. But while such an ogre as EARD-
LEY can gobble up two unsuspecting ladies,
and while it is remembered that a few years
ago the last lineal descendent of STEPHEN
of Blois, King Of England, was sexton of a
church in London, it is not always safe for
q young American girl to cast her young
affections upon real heir to title,
or to commit her destiny to the care OF
o HOWARD or PLANTAGENET. There have
have been warnings and examples enough;
and if the gushing, artless, unsophisticated,
American maiden will persist in believing
the vows and protestations of men of whose
rectitude and principles she knows abso-
lutely nothing, then the American maiden
must expect to be aattered in the beginning,
feasted for while and cheated and cajoled
at last.