St. Paul daily globe., 1884-12-25
TITLED LONDON RUFFIANS
Glue Blooded Blackguards Protected
by the English Courts.
remarkable Career of William Frederick
Wlndham, the Grandson of Marquis.


ana that is where the trouble comes in. Ii,
Tor instance, so far forget myself as to roll
around Londoni drunk and uproarious in
the small hours Of the morning. shall prob
aoiy be arrested by the police and next day
nned; but if the Lord-knows-who chooses To
play similar games, he will be respectfully
helped home by an incorruptible constable,
anu the pubic will never hear anything Of
escapaue. In fact, the rules which apply to
pam Jones and Brown don't really apply at
all to Sir Nero This and Lord Heliogabalus
That, noreven to ''the sisters and the cousins
and the aunts" of those privileged beings
lou In America cannot easily realize TO what
an extent this rotteDness has eaten away into
English society. We 1atter ourselves that
judges are pure and beyond the reach Of
prejudice, and that British justice is per-
fectly i'm partial; but these things are not so.
And here is an illustration of what mean
IL will show you, first, how utterly contempt
lbie, both in mind and manners, some Of
Our sprigs of aristocracy are; second, how an
independent English jury can declare that
black is white in order to please the powerful
possessors Of old titles and large banking
balances; and, third, how in England what
would oe madness in ordinary men is merely
amiable eccentricity in people whose veins
are properly irrigated with blue blood.
THE PRANKs OF AN IDIOT
Many years ago William Howe Windham,
of Norfolk, married Lady Sophia Hervey, a
daughter of the Marquis of Br istol of that
day. He had by her one son, William Fred
erick, who was born in 1910, and who, con-
sequently, obtained his majority in 1861.
From infancy this youngster exhibited many
peculiarities of disposition, and when he be-
came OF age and entered upon the possession
of large estates and an income OF nearly
$5O, 200 per annum, one Of his first acts was
to marry woman of loose character, upon
whom he bestowed jewelry worth $4,000,
present annuity of 81 ,00D. and further an
nuity of 81, 800 contingent upon his coming
into some more property in 1869. He also
reeklessly and disadyantageously sold all the
timber on his lands, and, in short, conducted
himself in such way that at the suit OF one
OF his relatives commission de lunatico i,-
Qadrendo was issued to ascertain whether Will
lam Frederick Windham was or was not fit TO
manage his own affairs. Tns commission
was opened on Dec. l6 1861, and did not
close until Jan. 80 following. More than
one hundred and fifty witnesses were ex-
amined. and among the counsel engaged in
the case, part of which was heard in private,
were the present Lords .Coleridge aud Caicns.
Windham was at the time a rourd-faced.
bulet-headed fellow, with a snub nose and
slight deformity of the upper lip over which
he wore scrubby black mustAchs. He
looked like mnatic, and his behavior during
the whole of the proceedings was that OF a
man who was lost to all sense of decency;
80
which the most damning evidence was
adduced and never contradicted. the jury
found ''that Mr.. Wiudham is of sound mind
and capable of taking care Of himself and
his affairs" By what process of reasoning
they arrived at that conclusion it is difficult
to guess, but am quite certain that if the
subject of the trial had been the grandson.
net of a Marquis, but of a poor country
farmer, the verdict would have been against
his sanity. You may be interested in learn
Ing TO what lengths our aristocracy can 90
without being considered insane. Here,
therefore, are some
EXTRACTS FROM wINDHAM's RECORD.
And, mind you, l set down nothing but !
what was sworn to by people who could have
had no motive for committing perjury At
very early age he was fond of low COM |
panv and pursuits, ahd his tutor deposed |
that when he was seventeen he did not ap-
pear TO know the difference between truth
and falsehood. AT Eton, where he was edu-
cated-so far, at least as he was capable of
being educated at al-he exhibited the
greatest possible delight in gorgiug himself
On one occasion he ate no less than seven
teen eggs at breakfast. He was also fond |
of screeching and hooting in a way that was
calculated to alarm all who heard him. His |
habits were beastly in the extreme. He went |
into society improperly dressed; he gave way |
10 violent fits Of passion aud, when severely |
corrected, he would not merely cry, but |
would blubber like child. In 1857 he was |
taken to Spa, where he flung money about as |
If it were Of no value, and shortly afterwards |
be assumed the uniform of railroad official |
and nearly caused a serious accident by |
starting train at wrong minute. In 1860 |
he went for a long tour with Mr. Peatfield, |
who. judging by his evidence, must have |
had a rather lively time of it, Windham |
was always boisterous and noisy, and |
wherever he stayed the neighbors complained |
OF his opening the windows and shouting |
and yelling out TO them. He would initiate |
roosters and cats ana sing plantation melo- |
dies in the middle OF the night, dancing at |
the same time with great yigor in the soil |
tude Of his bedroom. More than once he |
jumped out of his bath and ran into the din
ing room without any clothes on, shrieking |
and bowling, and when his landady re-
monstrated with him
HE USED FRIGHTFUL LANGUAGE
and threatened to stab her with a table knife. |
He was also in the habit of ordering dinner |
for eight or ten people, and of then going |
out and not returning until midnight He |
once ordered a number Of boots to be made |
for him, directing that with every pair of !
boots two boot-trees should be sent him. and |
the bootmaker deposed that had the order
been executed Mr.. Windham would have |
become the happy owner OF forty pairs of boot
trees. Another of his manias was for giving |
strangers into custody. Yet this man was |
adjudged 10 be sane and ompetent to look |
after his o'Sn affairsl What was thought of |
the merits of the ease in quarters to which |
5dckstaiTs influence did not on that occasion |
penetrate, may be gathered from the words |
of Lord Chief Justice Knight Bruce who. in |
refusing TO relieve the alleged lunatic from |
the payment of costs of the inquiry said: |
"1he jury has decided that Mr.. Windham is |
not an imbecile, and do not mean to impugp |
tina decision, but l am not prepared to go /
further" The costs amounted to 500, 900, |
and the secret expenses of the case TO prob |
ably as much more, but l think that the YER
ulcG was cheap at InaI price, lor was IL not |
legal acknowledgement of the right of the
sristocracy to be judged according to special
code Of ethics! To parody Shakespeare:
That in the rich mans but a harmless freak,
Which in the poor man is fiat lunacy.
AND Ii is not only when society is in ques-
ton that the man with the blue blood comes |
OF better than his neighbors. The other day
that accomplished scoundrel, Lord st. Leo |
nards, who has deserted his wife, and who |
spends his life in a state of beastIy iutoxica-