Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-03-20
AN EARL'S BAD DEBTS.
Threatened With Prison for Misap.
propriating Trust Funds
HIS son GRINDS A HAND ORGAN,
And the Earl Always Disclaimed RESPONSE
bility for His Being.
A DUKE SUED BY HIS UNFILIAL son
rBY CABLE TO THE pIsPArcH.l

j
LONDON, March 19.-ICopyright. 1.-The
sentence of five years penal servitude passed
upon Mr.. Hastings, NJ. P, last week, served
to remind good many people that the po-
sition of trustee is an extremely onerous
one, and that the laws relating to the Office
are very severe A trustee in this country
must tread warily, or he will soon get into
thorny paths.
The Hastings case was one of deliberate
fraud, and left little room for sympathy ex-
cept for the four children whose money he
converted to his own use. But this week
two other trustees have been before the
courts who are entitled to considerable COM
miseration and are receiving it.
Years ago Earl Poulett and Mr. F. R.
Knollys were appointed trustees of young
Lord Aylesford. A sum of e939, 600 passed
through their hands, and when they came to
wind up their accounts the sum of EOS, 600
was disallowed by the Court of Chancery.
This technical deficiency was caused mainly
by the trustees paving of certain debts OF
Lord Aylesford with which they were not
empowered to deal, and Earl Poulett and
Mr.. Knollys were called upon to make it
good between them.
An Earl Who Couldn't Pay Up.
Poor Knollvs, however, became bankrupt,
and was not worth legal powder and shot,
but Earl Poulett, being peer of the realm,
seemed fair game, and an order was OBJ
tanned against him to pay the sum of
e9S.4 ass, and interest to the amount of
eI9,000 The Earl did not paw the money,
and Yesterday counsel asked that he should
be sent to prison in default Gross negli-
gence was alleged and admitted, but no i'm
putation Of fraud was made or suggested.
In the course of legal arguments it tran
spired that Earl Poulett's estates were so
mortgaged that there was deficiency in
the accounts; that is to say, the rents would
not not pay the mortgage money, and the
earl is living on money given him by rela-
tives, which money is not under his control.
Justice North decided that the earl really
could not pay; that there had been no con-
tumacious refusal, and that the case was
not one in which an order should be enforced
bv imprisonment The earl had pleaded
privileges of Parliament as bar to impris-
onment over civil action, but no decision
was given on that plea, the poverty argu-
ment having been sufficient.
a viscount Who Grinds the Organ.
As Justice North, two or three years ago,
sent member of Parliament to prison for
failing to account for trust money, Earl
Poulett NAV consider himself lucky. His
son, Niscount Hinton, must have read the
case in the papers with a sore heart. Hinton
is the lord who earns an honest, but not
aristocratic living by grinding an organ in
the street. H was born in wedlock and is
legally Viscount Hinton and heir to the
earldom, but Earl Poulett has always dis
claimed responsibility for his being, as he
entered into this world three or four months
after his mother, ballet girl, was welded
to the Earl.
Everybody was aware that Viscount Hin
ton would not get shilling under his re-
puted fathers will, but it was supposed that
the family estates which would devolve
upon him would be worth something year.
1t must have caused a distinct shock to the
peripatetic Viscount to read that the rents
will not even pay the mortgage money.
Even his expectations are no longer mar
ketable, and the attractive prospective title
of eafl is of no value to him, for Hinton is
married to a maid of very low degree.
Suit of a Son Against His Father.
Another case exhibiting to common per-
sons the beautiful family affections of the
British peerage came before the same Judge
Yesterday. The Duke of Sutherland, in ad-
dition to his large property in Scotland, en-
joys a life ownership of Trentham Park, in
England, beautiful estate consisting of
5000 acres producing rental OF $4,000
a year, but having married a second wife
his expenses have increased, and he has
been lately adding to his ducal income by
cutting down trees in Trentham estate, and
selling the timber.
The Marquis of Stafford, his eldest son,
having Intellectually demonstrated, brought
an action u chancery against the Duke. The
Marquis maintained that his father was
wasting his sons prospective property, as
the trees cut down or marked for destruc-
tion were ornamental trees with which a
tenant for life had no right TO interfere
The Marquis therefore sought for an iniunc-
tion restraining the Duke from cutting down
timber on the Trentham estate. The Duke,
by his counsel, replied that the trees in
question were not ornamental timber, but
were grown as in other woods, for profit.
Arguments were heard yesterday and judg-
ment will be given Tuesday.