Evening star., 1923-06-22
Irish Duke Faces Police Court Trial
For Fraud and May Be Sent to Jail
By the MARaUIsE De FoNTENoY

By the MARQUIsE De FoNTENOY.
Ireland's premier duke, seventh of
his line, head of the historic house of
Fitzgerald, whose English peerages
entitle him to seat in the house of
lords at Westminster. and who served
in the great war as a lieutenant of
the Irish guards. has. after a series
of protracted hearings in Bow street
police court, In London, been COM
mitted for trial under heavy bail at
Old Bailey: that is to say, at New
gate. on criminal charges of purchas-
ing jewels and automobiles on cred
il, without notifying the vendors
that he was an undischarged bank
rupt, and then selling the automo-
biles and pawning the jewels without
paying for them. This, according to
the terms of English law. is a mis-
demeanor. and not felony.
If the offenses for which he is held
We're of the latter category, the po-
lice court magistrate would have
been obliged to commit him for trial
by the house of lords; that is to say,
by his fellow peers, sitting as the
highest tribunal OF the land, under
the presidency of a lord high stew
ard. appointed by the crown for the
occasion, and who, in accordance
with modern custom, would be the
lord high chancellor.
But the crimes laid at the door of
the young duke, who is thirty one
years of age. are misdemeanors, and,
owing to this, he will have to submit
to trial by the ordinary tribunals.
The offender is not free to choose
his own tribunal. and, contrary to
popular impression, trial by the
house of lords can hardly be con-
sidered as privilege, although de-
scribed as such. For peer, guilty
Of felony. has got to be tried by the
house of lords. whether he likes 1t or
not, while in cases of miSdemeano-
he cannot put forward any preten-
sions to trial by his fellow peers.
The last case of a trial for felony by
the house of lords was when, in 1901,
the present Earl Of Russell was
charged with a felony of bigamy for
having. as an Englishman, married in
America an American woman of the
name of Marion Somerville. on
the strength Of divorce which he
had obtained from his first wife at
Reno. without having secured from
the English tribunals any dissolution
Of the ties that bound him to his first
wife. AS his American divorce was
declined recognition by English law,
terry and with bigamy, and on the
latter count he was convicted of
bigamy by the house Of lords and sent
to prison for a year, or twelve
months. Other trials Of peers by the
house of lords were those of Earl Fer
f IL vl,
cious murder, and of the Lords Kill
marnock, Cromarty. and Balmerino,
on charges of high treason in connec-
tion with the last of the Stuart insur-
rections.
But the Duke Of Leinster will have
mitted Jointly with him for the frauds
of which he Is accused, and will have
to take his place beside them in the
prisoners dock Of Old Bailey; and will
be possibly even sent Off by the judge to
serve an Imprisonment with hard la
Dor, the first occasion of anything of
the kind with a duke during the last
few hundred years.
The duke, during the police court
hearings, at Bow street, gave lurid
account of the financial troubles
which he had undergone since he sue
tates on his brothers death last year.
He seems to have fallen into the
hands of shady adventures, who used
him for their own sinister purposes.
He conveyed the idea of being an
Irishman OF more than the ordinary
degree Of recklessness and extrava-
gance, without any vestige of moral
responsibility in monetary or COM
mercial transactions, while the evil
dence against his confederates, one
of whom, at any rate, was with him
on the occasion of his recent stay in
America, where at one time he was on
the stage, was very black, indeed.
The affair has gone SO far now that
1t is hopeless to look for any compro-
mise, and in the event of the duke
and his associates being held guilty
by the London jury, before whom he
will be tried, he will have to go to
Jail in one of the suburban peniten-
tiaries in London and serve a term Of
imprisonment with particularly hard
labor.
without relieving the governments
of Austro- Hungary, Czechoslovakia
and Poland Of the blame which they
have incurred by refraining from TAX
Ing and steps in the direction Of their
Joint obligation to provide for the
welfare Of ex-Empress Zita and of
her children. In compensation Of the
extensive estates and purely private
property Of herself. of her children
and Of her dead husband, which they
confscated at the time OF the reyolu-
ton in No .embel aad December OF