nderful
piece of art. The even beauty of his voice, the dignity of his manner,
the pathetic gravity with which he appealed to the jury to cast aside
all prejudice against the defendant, combined to render his charge one
of the great memories of my life.

The jury retired for half an hour, and returned with a verdict of Not
Guilty! Mr. Bradlaugh was deeply affected. I shook his hand without a
word, for I was speechless. I was inexpressibly glad that the enemy
had not crippled him in his parliamentary struggle, and that his recent
victory in the House of Lords, after years of litigation, was crowned by
a happy escape from their worst design.

Our trial took place the next week, and lasted only two days, as we had
no technical points to argue. Mr. Wheeler came up from Worcestershire
to see me. He was still very weak, and obviously suffering from intense
excitement. Still it was a pleasure to see his face and clasp his hand.

Sir Hardinge Giffard gloomed on us with his wintry face, but he left the
conduct of the case almost entirely to Mr. Maloney. The evidence against
us was overpowering, and we did not seriously contest it. Mr. Ramsey
read a brief speech after lunch, and precisely at two o'clock I rose to
make my defence, which lasted two hours and forty minutes.

The table before me was crowded with books and papers, and I held a
sheet of references that looked like a brief. My first step was to pay
Judge North an instalment of the debt I owed him.

"My lord, and gentlemen of the jury,--I am very happy, not to
stand in this position, but to learn what I had not learned
before--how a criminal trial should be conducted, notwithstanding
that two months ago I was tried in another court, and before
another judge. Fortunately, the learned counsel, who are conducting
this prosecution have not now a judge who will allow them to
walk out of court while he argues their brief for them in
their absence."

Lord Coleridge interrupted me. "You must learn one more lesson, Mr.
Foote, and that is, that one judge cannot hear another judge censured,
or even commended."

I was checkmated, but taking it with a good grace, I said:

"My lord, thank you for the correction. And I will simply
confine the observations I might have made on that subject to
the emphatic statement that I have learnt to-day, for the first
time--although this is the second time I have had to answer a