The Tables Turned | Page 5

case is so free from intricacy, gentlemen, that I
need not call your attention to any of the details of that evidence. You
must either accept it as a whole and bring in a verdict of guilty, or your
verdict must be one which would be tantamount to accusing the
sergeant and constables of wilful and corrupt perjury; and I may add,
wanton perjury; as there could be no possible reason for these officers
departing from the strict line of truth. Gentlemen I leave you to your
deliberations.
Foreman of Jury. My lord, we have already made up our minds. Your
lordship need not leave the Court: we find the woman guilty.
_J. N_. (_gravely nodding his head_). It now remains for me to give

sentence. Prisoner at the bar, you have been convicted by a jury of your
countrymen--
A Voice. That's a lie! You convicted her: you were judge and jury both.
_J. N_. (_in a fury_). Officer, you are a disgrace to your coat! Arrest
that man, I say. I would have had the Court cleared long ago, but that I
hoped that you would have arrested the ruffian if I gave him a chance
of repeating his--his crime.
[The USHER makes his usual promenade.
_J. N_. You have been convicted by a jury of your countrymen of
stealing three loaves of bread; and I do not see how in the face of the
evidence they could have come to any other verdict. Convicted of such
a serious offence, this is not the time and place to reproach you with
other misconduct; and yet I could almost regret that it is not possible to
put you once more in the dock, and try you for conspiracy and
incitement to riot; as in my own mind I have no doubt that you are in
collusion with the ruffianly revolutionists, who, judging from their
accent, are foreigners of a low type, and who, while this case has been
proceeding, have been stimulating their bloodstained souls to further
horrors by the most indecent verbal violence. And I must here take the
opportunity of remarking that such occurrences could not now be
occurring, but for the ill-judged leniency of even a Tory Government in
permitting that pest of society the unrespectable foreigner to congregate
in this metropolis.
A Voice. What do they do with you, you blooming old idiot, when you
goes abroad and waddles through the Loover?
_J. N_. Another of them! another of those scarcely articulate foreigners!
This is a most dangerous plot! Officer, arrest everybody present except
the officials. I will make an example of everybody: I will commit them
all.
_Mr. H_. (leaning over to JUDGE). I don't see how it can be done, my
lord. Let it alone: there's a Socialist prisoner coming next; you can

make him pay for all.
_J. N_. Oh! there is, is there? All right--all right. I'll go and get a bit of
lunch (_offering to rise_).
Clerk. Beg pardon, my lord, but you haven't sentenced the prisoner.
_J. N_. Oh, ah! Yes. Oh, eighteen months' hard labour.
_M. P_. Six months for each loaf that I didn't steal! Well, God help the
poor in a free country! Won't you save all further trouble by hanging
me, my lord? Or if you won't hang me, at least hang my children:
they'll live to be a nuisance to you else.
_J. N_. Remove the woman. Call the next case. (_Aside_: And look
sharp: I want to get away.)
[Case of JOHN or JACK FREEMAN called.]
_Mr. H_. I am for the prosecution, my lord.
_J. N_. Is the prisoner defended?
Jack Freeman. Not I.
_J. N_. Hold your tongue, sir! I did not ask you. Now, brother
Hungary.
_Mr. H_. Once more, my lord and gentlemen of the Jury, I rise to
address you; and, gentlemen, I must congratulate you on having the
honour of assisting on two State trials on one day; for again I am
instructed by the Secretary of State for the Home Department to
prosecute the prisoner. He is charged with sedition and incitement to
riot and murder, and also with obstructing the Queen's Highway. I shall
bring forward overwhelming evidence to prove the latter
offence--which is, indeed, the easiest of all offences to be proved, since
the wisdom of the law has ordained that it can be committed without
obstructing anything or anybody. As for the other, and what we may
excusably consider the more serious offence, the evidence will, I feel

sure, leave no doubt in your minds concerning the guilt of the prisoner.
I must now give you a few facts in explanation of this case. You may
not know, gentlemen of the Jury, that in the midst of the profound
peace which this glorious empire now enjoys;