Two other trials which have excited much public attention began
and ended on Friday. Mr. G. W. Hastings, M.P. for East Worcestershire, and a man of the highest repute for philanthropy, pleaded " Guilty " to misappropriating 221,000 of trust-money—really 230,000—held under a will for the four children of Major Brown, who, said the Judge, are "practically left in want." Pleas in mitigation, especially the plea of age (66), were put in, many gentlemen testified to character, and Mr. Justice Smith passed a sentence of only five years' penal ser- vitude. Mr. Maitland F. Morland, a tutor at Oxford, also pleaded " Guilty " to a series of attempts to extort money by threats, and, being sixty-five years of age, received a sentence of ten years' penal servitude. This is the " blackmailing" case so widely talked of. The scheme of the prisoner appears to have been to accuse every rich man who had ever been in Oxford, of adultery, and to demand money for not taking the matter into Court. Before sentence was pronounced, the prisoner entirely exonerated his wife even from a knowledge of his letters ; and it seems clear that he had no evidence to produce of any sort. Indeed, in one case he threatened a Peer who was not only innocent, but had, as it happened, never so much as seen Oxford in his life. It is pretty clear that Judges have resolved, when prisoners plead" Guilty," to pass " temperate " sentences, which must be a great grievance to the evening papers.
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