London has this week been scandalized by the painful end
of a more painful trial. One A. Chaffers, an attorney, in 1869 declared before a magistrate that the wife of Sir Travers Twiss, the Queen's Advocate-General, had in 1858 been a prostitute in Regent Street under the name of Marie Gelas, and that he had himself lived with her, and forwarded this declaration to Sir Travers, adding that unless it were denied he would make the declaration public. It was made public, being sent to the Arch- bishop of Canterbury and others, and Sir Travers indicted Chaffers for a malicious libel with intent to extort money. In Court the accuser defended himself, and for days subjected Lady Twiss to the torture of filthy questions, which she met with a frank and bold denial. Witnesses came forward to prove her parentage, her history, her marriage to Sir Travers, her total want of iden- tity with Marie Gelas, and bribes offered by Chaffers to procure evidence. It seemed certain that he must be committed for trial, but on Wednesday Mr. Poland, the counsel employed by Sir T. Twills, announced that he could go no farther ; that Lady Twiss had refused to appear in Court again and had left London, and that the prosecution had ended. No explanation was offered as to the ground for this decision, which may have been caused by Lady Twiss's inability to endure further torture. The magis- trate was therefore compelled, to his own expressed disgust and the indignation of the whole country, to let Chaffers go. Another prosecutor, whom he had accused of bigamy, also withdrew, and it is still therefore doubtful whether he is a criminal in the eye of the law, or only " an object of contempt," as the magistrate said, " to all honest men."
