Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-08-13
The Latest London Scandal.

A MEMBER OF A BRITISH ROYAL COMMISSION
ACCUSED OF MISLEADING GIRL.
The Pal Mall Gazette yesterday afternoon
published the following particulars of the Lon
don sensation mentioned in a cable dispatch tc
yesterdays STAR:
"a well-knOwn gentleman, who was recently
appointed a member of royal commission. was
met on the staircase OF his office in East India
avenue to-day, and soundly flogged by a gen.
tleman who publicly accused him of having
betrayed his daughter. The thrashng was pre-.
seeded by h, violent assault The angry father
does rat The father then logged him until
the stick broke, when persons interfered.
The man Who welded the stick is q Glasgow
gentleman named Francis. and the victim OF
the flagellatiOn is MIR. Pearce, the chief of the
great Glasgow shipbuilding firm of John Elder
4 Brothers. married man and q member OF
Lord Iddesleigh's new royal commission on the
depression OF trade. Mr.. Francis told the story
OF his wrongs as follows:
"This man Pearce was once nv most trusted
friend, and our intimacy was Of many years
standing. Five years ago. when my daughter
wa, was very beautiful girl Of seventeen, this VII
ance at my house to accomplish her ruin. He
persuaded her to secretly leave the school near
Glasgow which she was attending, took her to
London, and established her in handsome
private lodging. At first he surrounded her
with every luxury and gave her regular allow.
norance of the fate or hiding place of my daugh.
ter, and, after a thorough search. aided by
detectives, at last gave NJ. all hope OF dnding
ner and mourned for her as dead. But the liber-
tine gradually tired of his victim, and her
allowances dwindled down to nothing. She
managed to live for some time by pawning or
| selling her jewelry and wardrobe but finally
she appealed to him in desperation tn give her
at least the means to keep herself alive until
she could procure employment Her appeals
became troublesome, and he proceeded to get
rio OF her In the brutal aud outrageous way
which the English lunacy laws make only too
easy for any rich rutfian. By fraud and force
she was removed to u private mad house and
confined there as an insane woman. '.It was
while she was In this bedlam that ! learned her
Iate, and ! obtained her release. The doctors
admitted to me that she was not mad, and had
not been mad but had been laboring under
terrible mental excitement, amounting to hys.
uria, when brought to the asylum. Afterward
she had lapsed into state of listless, despair.
Ing apathy, and as the doctors did not know
snat she had any friends except the man who
mad had her confined there, and as her board
asylum. - .
To-day" continued Mr.. Francis, 81 met thai
man accidentally in London. My wrong
rusned upon my mind and almost blinded me
Win rage. could have killed him where be
s sos u WIN no more conjunction than would
gave him q chance for bis life. I offered t.
NEE! MIN in . duel on the continent. He re-
inse0. Then thrashed him until my stick
. Droke IN my hand and the crowd rushed be
tween Us, when he escaped"
I. rearce, who Is q muscular, handsome
=. miadie age, and fully six feet high, wqf
al seen He did not suffer any serio,il
oa permanent injury by the assault. He refused
~ sly snytning about the origin OF the trouble
DoyonQ admitting that IL was on account Of Mr.
mi Shc,s u, daughter, and denying that he had