CONTEMPT OF COURT 309 



not permit him to take the brief, and we secured another 

 leader whose very name I have, at this distance of time, 

 forgotten, but he was a good man, and made a brave show 

 throughout the whole of one day before Manisty and 

 Hawkins, JJ. Now the latter of these was a bitter old 

 Radical, and it was easy to see we were in for trouble. 

 The first day's proceedings resulted in a verbatim report 

 of all my observations about Bradlaugh being published 

 in The Times and the other dailies, but at the close of 

 that first day Mr Justice Manisty had said to my counsel : 

 " I think, Mr , you had better consider before to- 

 morrow's sitting, what course you will pursue." 



This meant, of course, that we had to climb down and 

 cease fighting. I made an affidavit in the morning, 

 apologising to the Court, and saying I had never intended 

 to interfere with the course of justice, but simply to assist 

 at the Deptford election. This latter statement was in- 

 judicious, for it enraged Mr Justice Hawkins, and then, 

 after my counsel had said all he could for me, and Mr 

 Asquith had added that there was no desire on the part 

 of Mr Bradlaugh for extreme measures, I sat down in the 

 well of the court to await the result : and a somewhat 

 ominous incident had occurred as I was going to the 

 court that morning, for as I got into an omnibus at 

 Charing Cross, the conductor shouted lustily : " Holloway 

 Holloway ! " 



For more than twenty minutes the two judges conferred, 

 and I could see from his expression that if Sir Henry 

 Hawkins could have had his way, to Holloway I should 

 have gone : but Mr Justice Manisty was of milder mood, 

 and he was the senior judge : so at last they settled it 

 and proceeded to pronounce sentence. Manisty had 

 the first go, and as I sat watching him speak, he said : 

 " It is usual to stand up on these occasions " so up I 

 stood, like a boy at school, and begged pardon for my 

 oversight. Then he went on for a few minutes on the 

 vital importance of justice being done between parties, 

 and the iniquity of in any way interfering with this. 



