The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1915-11-28
DERBY RIVALS KITCHENER IN HEARTS OF BRITISH
Ingenious Nature of His Successful
Plan for Obtaining Voluntary
Enlistments.
EnliStmentS.

historic house of Stanley would admit
In court that he had heard from Harry
Miner the accusations complained Of,
namely, Of abominablc cruelty toward
the Baroness, the case would he won.
But Lord Derby, who had vainly gone
abroad three times in order t. avoid
being mixed up in the affair. when he
finally entered the witness box de-
clared on oath that while II. recalled
vaguely having been told. 10y Harry
Miner that there was some trouble
between his niece, the Baroness de
Forest. and her husband, he could not
possibly remember having been told
any Of the particulars of the affair.
Indeed to all the questions put To him
he replied that his memory was at
fault.
The presiding Judge did not unduly
press him, n when he left the wit
ness box Sir Edward Clarke and the
other counsel for the plaintiff. apprcct-
ating the act that all the remaining
fifty or sixty witnesses. comprising
leading men and women of the Eng-
lish great world, would take their cue
from the Earl. and like him would fail
to remember having heard any libpllous
statements about the Baron. either
from Harry Miner or from Lady Ger
ard, announced that they declined to
proceed any further with the case, and
II was %thereupon dropped.
Lord Derby by his lapse Of mem-
DRY thus cut short at the very outset
of the trial "A lawsuit which threat
ened to develop into one of the great
est causes celebres in the annals of
British Jurisprudence. II was not
that the actual charges Of Baron 80
Forest were of m particular impor-
lance. But it was the number ana
rank OF the witnesses who had been
subppnaed by the Baron's lawyers.
including at least one royal prince,
and IL was proposed 20 submit each
one Of them to Il gruelling cross
examination which might have laid
bare many an oddly liable tn mis-
construction by the masses. In one
word. there was II prospect Of Eng
lish society being put on tho grill
and not only Of several distressing
family secrets being barred TO the
public. but also of people wholly m
nocent of wrongdolng being placed In
an entirely false light in the eyes Of
the entire world.
sometimes tho laws of honor and
those Of the land are in conflict with
one another. M when this occurs
the man of birth and breeding-aye.
I awould say more-tle man with
warm. red blood in his veins. no mat
ter what his rank. Is apt to give the
preference to what he considers the
requirements of honor, especially
when the fair name OF wuincn and thJ
happiness OF innocent parties are o N
cerned. Lord Derby. whose grand
father. tho fourteenth Of these 80.
called Catskin f.arls. declined the
throne Of Greece. and whose forlears
In the male line direct reisned -
sovereigns over the Isle Of Man. acted
as he did In the DE Forest versus
Miner Gerard trial in accordanrs
with the ethics of his class, and there
are few to-day. ave the plaintiff. d
man Of foreign origin and an adopted
son of the late Baron HirsCh. who ars
disposed to do anything else thar
warmly approve his attitude,
Had Lord Derby remembered, not
ono but many painful affairs would
have cnsued He avertcd them by vi,
forgetfulness. feeling that in the mat.
ter he conformed TO the laws OF honor
IL not TO those OF the land.