The plea of former Lieut.-Commander John S. Farnsworth, former the United States Navy, of nolo contendere in the case in which is being charged with espionage an interesting one. The accused, it Is reported, has been advised that by doing so he will avoid loss of eitizenship and civil rights. Such a plea Amounts to a confession of guilt and by making it the accused throws himself on the merey of the Court, connection with such a move there arises something of a paradox. Guilty of an offence. which. carries with ita heavy prison sentence and a loss of the rights above referred to, the accused, if the Court agrees with the opinion of his counsel, may escape some of the graver aspects of his punishment, even though he stil has to face a form of imprisonment, It he had pleaded not guilty, and had put the Slate to the expense of proving his culpability, the man would undoubtedly have been sonenced fully in accordance with his deserts, and a man who will betray his own country certainly does not deserve to be one of its citizens.
an unfortunate fact that even in services, where so much proud tradition prevails, there are occasionally to be found people who will be untrue to their salt, It ig a matter upon which both Great Britain and the United States can congratulate themsel occurrences are very rare.
Instance the transaction which has brought the prisoner within reach of the taw does not appear to have been of such seriousness as to earn for him the maximum sentence, and a shorter sentence may leave' him with some years in which to enjoy those other privileges which, but for hhis plea might have been withdrawn from him, though the royal forees under Argyll had been defeated in 1594 by Huntly and his fellow rebels at Glenlival, Huntly's castle of Strathbogie was blown up in the following year and the owner fled the country. On the exile's return in 1890 James I turned the other cheek, created him Marquis and made him Liewenant of the North, "Huntly's son and successor was not so fortunate in his loyalties Educated as a protestant, he faithfully served James T and Tater Charles maintaining that allegiance to the point of espousing the royalist cause in the Civil War, He distinguished himself in the field but his enemies were implacable when he was captured, They excepted him from the general amnesty and by order the Scots Parliament he was beheaded at Edinburgh. The late peer was the Lith Marquis of Huntly but sat in the House of Lord as Baron Meldrum, a title conferred on the Sth Marquis in 1815, The Marquisate and all other tifles now go to Mr. Douglas Charles Lindsey Gordon who ig in his fortieth year and lives at Godalming,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.