CHAPTER XXIX 



Scintillae Juris First Impression of Mr Justice Darling I assist at 

 his First Election The Consequences Contempt of Court 

 Bradlaugh and H. H. Asquith Admonition of Mr Justice 

 Hawkins Result of the Crown Prosecution Further 

 Troubles Prosecuted at Bow Street and the Old Bailey 

 for Libel Found Guilty The Conviction quashed' Civil 

 Action for the same Libel Verdict that it is no Libel at all 

 Costs irrecoverable 1500 sacrificed 



I FORGET exactly when it was, but it must- have 

 been in the early eighties when I was in Court 

 at Westminster and heard a very youthful-looking 

 junior counsel conducting a case with what seemed 

 to me quite remarkable ability. The result was that 

 when I was asked a week or two later by the late C. E. 

 Goldring (solicitor) if I could recommend any young 

 counsel, other than myself, as likely to do justice to a 

 brief, I replied that there was one whom I had recently 

 heard, and his name was Darling. Whether the present 

 Mr Justice Darling was briefed accordingly I forget, but 

 my recommendation was certainly given. 



Later on I was mixed up with this same Mr Darling 

 in a manner that had for me unfortunate results. In 

 the beginning of 1888, there had arisen a question about 

 the right of public meeting in Trafalgar Square. Various 

 riots had followed, and the Opposition was attacking 

 Lord Salisbury's Government on the subject. A man 

 named Peters had received a cheque for 25 from 

 Lord Salisbury for some perfectly legitimate object, 

 and Mr Bradlaugh happened to hear of this payment. 

 He thereupon publicly declared that Lord Salisbury had 

 given Peters 25 to assist in promoting the Trafalgar 

 Square riots, so as to bring the Opposition into disrepute, 



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