No arguments, no
expostulations would change the magistrate's decision. Amidst the
applause of the cowardly set that represented the British public
within the courthouse, he insisted that the handcuffs should remain
on; and then Mr. Jones, taking the only course left to a man of spirit
under the circumstances, threw down his brief and indignantly quitted
the desecrated justice hall. Fearing the consequences of leaving the
prisoners utterly undefended, Mr. Cottingham, the junior counsel for
the defence, refrained from following Mr. Jones's example, but he,
too, protested loudly, boldly, and indignantly against the cowardly
outrage, worthy of the worst days of the French monarchy, which
his clients were being subjected to. The whole investigation was in
keeping with the spirit evinced by the bench. The witnesses seemed
to come for the special purpose of swearing point-blank against the
hapless men in the dock, no matter at what cost to truth, and to take
a fiendish pleasure in assisting in securing their condemnation. One
of the witnesses was sure "the whole lot of them wanted to murder
everyone who had any property;" another assured his interrogator in
the dock that "he would go to see him hanged;" and a third had no
hesitation in acknowledging the attractions which the reward offered
by the government possessed for his mind.
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