314 " MY KINGDOM FOR A HORSE ! " 



contrary to his custom, he went to Ascot races when the 

 trial came on, as it provokingly did, during Ascot week. 

 More than that, Mr Judd's absence was never discovered, 

 his counsel, Mr Besley, being ready with some excuse on 

 the few occasions when the Recorder inquired why Mr Judd 

 was not in court. 



The case lasted a day and a half, and the proceedings 

 were really laughable. The complainant appeared in a 

 large green tie to advertise his " all-for-Ireland " politics, 

 and various lights of Radicalism gave more or less foolish 

 evidence. Mr Stuart Headlam was closely questioned as 

 to his own political tenets, and whether he had not described 

 landlords as robbers. Altogether, it seemed that we were 

 going to have pretty nearly a walk-over, and the Recorder, 

 Sir Thomas Chambers, summed up so utterly in our 

 favour, that the result was so I thought a foregone 

 conclusion. 



Then the jury considered their verdict, and they did 

 not take a long time about it. The foreman was asked, 

 in the usual way, the decision and my name being 

 alphabetically first, I now heard the momentous question : 



WILLIAM ALLISON, 



Guilty or not guilty ? 



" Guilty ! " was the reply. 



Well, this was rather a " shocker," being so completely 

 unexpected ; but before I had time to think about it 

 they had run down the whole list of other defendants and 

 pronounced every one to be " guilty." 



The Recorder hardly concealed his astonishment at 

 the verdict, and he immediately discharged us all on our 

 own recognisances to come up for judgment when called 

 on. 



This, of course, amounted to nothing, or, as you might 

 say, a farthing damages in a civil case. I think the jury 

 must have resented the Recorder's summing up so strongly 

 in our favour : but, be that as it may, our case was the 

 last criminal libel ever tried under the law as it then was, 



