The herald., 1894-03-19
A PECULIAR TRIAL.

Since the Lady Mordaunt case, in which
H. r. H. the Prince of Wales figured,
about twenty-one years ago, there has
no Grim con trial possessing as many pc
culiar incidents as those which have
been brought out in the Pollard Breck-
inridge breach of promise case. Wash
ington society is said to be much inter-
ested and shocked at the developments
in this episode, and it is certainly not
strange that this should be SO. If it
shall be established as true that Col.
Breckinridge continued his criminal
relations with Miss Pollard three
months after he was secretly married
to Mrs. Wing. and promised to marry
Miss Pollard in the presence of wit
neeses after that event, it affords an in
stance of bsseness rarely recorded in
any court. 1t WAS bad enough to seduce
girl in short clothes, as plaintiff al
legged him to have done, but his playing
fast and loose with both his wife and his
victim is something altogether out of
the common. There is small surprise
in any quarter that his vile
should be determined to seek a
divorce at the end of the suit. The
liRison of more than middle-aged man
with a school girl is said to have been
intensified in its reprensible features by
the fact that she claims to have accom-
panied him often when he went to vari-
GUS places to deliver lectures before re-
ligious societies. The name OF Breokin-
ridge has occupied distinguished place
in the Presbyterian annals of the United
States, the celebrated DR.. Breckenridge,
an uncle, we think, of the colonel, be-
ing perhaps the foremost member of that
denomination both in moral char
aeter and ability. 1t is perhaps too
soon to form an absolutely conclusive
judgment as to the outcome of the case,
but it certainly looks damaging at this
stage, and it would requirea unanimous
verdict OF the jury to restore the colonel
to his old high estate. The defendant
was one of the curled darlinge of the
Democratic party, and no one was lis
tened to with more attention than
he by the boards of trade and cham
bers of commerce of the country,
from New York to New Orleans.
That a conviction would amount
to his political extinction cannot be
doubted. Whatever may be the prac-
tees of the modern world in such crimes
as those OF which Col. Breckenridge
stands accused, their professions are at
tuned to very high order Of morality,
both in the United States and England,
although it may be doubted whether the
rule is 80 inhexible on the continent.
Sir Charles Dixie, remarkably clever
statesman, simply annihilated his pub
lie career in England by an amour;
while Charles Stewart Parnell. by his
relations with the lady who afterwards
became his wife, disrupted the Irish
party, alienated Gladstone and ell the
Roman Catholic clergy of both England
and Ireland, and of the whole world, for
that matter, and was overwhelmed
with a etresm of bitterness that un.
doubtedly precipitsted his death.
uDllC beutlLubuG WAS not ALWAYS go
exigent, either in this country or Eng.
land, while in France and the other
continental nations the utmost laxity
prevailed. Aaron Burr was one of the
most conspicuous of American public
men, becoming vice. president and near
ly beating Thomas Jefferson for presl.
dent, although it was known that he
was man OF the most licentious habits.
Many other instances in American mis-.
tory could be given, and a harsh histo-
rian would spare neither Clay nor Web
ster. In England a spirit of public
decorum has prevailed during the past
hity years. 1t was British minister in
the time Of the Stuarts who allowed his
psrsmour to hold his horse while he
went into Hyde park and killed her
husband in duel. 1t is not stated that
ne suffsred much in public estimation
in consequence.
Bat it is doubtful whether even those
lax communities, in those free and easy
times, would have had anything but
contempt for the dupljcity of which il