The world has taken a profound interest during the last
week in the action for libel brought by a lady's-maid, Jane Jones, against the Duchess of Westminster,for writing, in answer to an application concerning her character, that when in the service of the Duchess, sh.ehadgone "quite out of her mind," after being.told that the Duchess was intending to get a foreign lady's-maid in her place. It was clear from the first that the Duchess's communi- cation was really a privileged one, and. that unless it could be established that in her account of her former lady's-maid she had falsified something with intent to injure her, the Duchess of Westminster's defence was quite sufficient. But the cross- examination of a live Duchess in Court is a rare treat to the British public, and the sang-froid with which she admitted that she was willing to give her former lady's-maid a fresh chance, at the cost of suppressing the story of the annoyances suffered from her, so long as the next employer was not of her own kith and kin, added piquancy to the case. After three days' trial, the verdict went for the Duke and Duchess, but not till the public had been much -gratified by discovering that a Duchess can write very slovenly letters, and that on her principles, neighbourliness is thus graduated,—first, take care of your own family ; next, of your discharged lady's-maid; and lastly only, of strangers, even though they be of your own order.
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