to Wakefield Prison, and a few days
later to Armley Jail, there to await his trial.

This began on February 4, and lasted one day. Mr. Justice Lopes, who had
tried vainly to persuade the Manchester Grand Jury to throw out the
bill in the case of the brothers Habron, was the presiding judge. Mr.
Campbell Foster, Q.C., led for the prosecution. Peace was defended by
Mr. Frank Lockwood, then rising into that popular success at the bar
which some fifteen years later made him Solicitor-General, and but for
his premature death would have raised him to even higher honours in his
profession.

In addressing the jury, both Mr. Campbell Foster and Mr. Lockwood took
occasion to protest against the recklessness with which the press of
the day, both high and low, had circulated stories and rumours about
the interesting convict. As early as November in 1878 one leading London
daily newspaper had said that "it was now established beyond doubt that
the burglar captured by Police Constable Robinson was one and the same
as the Banner Cross murderer." Since then, as the public excitement grew
and the facts of Peace's extraordinary career came to light, the press
had responded loyally to the demands of the greedy lovers of sensation,
and piled fiction on fact with generous profusion. "Never," said Mr.
Lockwood, "in the whole course of his experience--and he defied any
of his learned friends to quote an experience--had there been such an
attempt made on the part of those who should be most careful of all
others to preserve the liberties of their fellowmen and to preserve the
dignity of the tribunals of justice to determine the guilt of a man."
Peace exclaimed "Hear, hear!" as Mr. Lockwood went on to say that "for
the sake of snatching paltry pence from the public, these persons had
wickedly sought to prejudice the prisoner's life." Allowing for Mr.
Lockwood's zeal as an advocate, there can be no question that, had
Peace chosen or been in a position to take proceedings, more than one
newspaper had at this time laid itself open to prosecution for contempt
of Court. The Times was not far wrong in saying that, since Muller
murdered Mr. Briggs on the North London Railway and the poisonings of
William Palmer, no criminal case had created such excitement as that of
Charles Peace. The fact that property seemed to be no more sacred to him
than life aggravated in a singular degree the resentment of a commercial
people.

The first witness called by t