A hundred years ago
From the 'Spectator', 26 February 1870—Town has been interested and disgusted all the week with the great"Warwickshire Scandal",the Mor- daunt Divorce case Lady Mordaunt, wife of Sir Charles Mordaunt, daughter of Sir T. Mon- creiffe, and connected with endless aristocratic houses. confessed to her husband, just after the birth of her child, that she had been "wicked" with many men, including the Prince of Wales, Lord Cole. Sir F. Johnstone, Lord Newport, Captain Farquhar, and others, and that her child was Lord Cole's daughter. These statements were attributed by her friends to puerperal mania, but Sir Charles filed a bill for divorce. Pending the trial, Lady Mordaunt's friends affirmed that she had become mad, and that therefore no trial could be had, as she was unable to instruct attorneys. Sir Charles. on the other hand, argued that if mad now. which he denied. she was not mad when the citation was served, and he was entitled to relief. A prelimin- ary inquiry was therefore held into the question of sanity, but as it was essential to show that Lady Mordaunt had a motive for shamming madness, this expanded into a sort of rehearsal of the divorce case. The case, owing to the num- ber of persons accused, the Messalina character attributed to Lady Mordaunt, and the importa- tion into it of a question of disease, was an extraordinarily disagreeable one, but it ended on Friday in a verd;ct of insanity. Consequently, Sir C. Mordaunt will be compelled to apply for an Act under the old system, an Act being above' all rules.
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