Mr.
Maloney had obtained an illegal order from the Lord Mayor to inspect Mr.
Bradlaugh's bank account, and armed with this order, which, even if it were legal, would not have extended beyond the limits of the City, this enterprising barrister had overhauled the books of the St.John's Wood Branch of the London and South-Western Bank.

Lord Coleridge's astonishment at this unheard-of proceeding was only equalled by his trenchant sarcasm on the Lord Mayor as a legal functionary, and his bitter cold sneer at Mr.Maloney, who, it further appeared, had actually played the part of an amateur detective, by setting street policemen to watch Mr.Bradlaugh's entries and exits from his publishing office.
On the following Friday, July 21, the hearing of our case was resumed.
We were all committed for trial at the Old Bailey, with the exception of Mr.Whittle, the printer, against whom the prosecution was abandoned on the ground that he had ceased to print the _Freethinker_.

This was an unpleasant fact, and alas! it was only one of a good many I shall have to relate presently.
Before our committal I essayed to read a brief protest against the prosecution, which I had carefully prepared.

In defiance of the statute, the Lord Mayor refused to hear it.

An altercation then ensued, and I should have insisted on my right unless stopped by brute force; but on his lordship promising that a copy should be attached to the depositions, I yielded in order to let Mr.Bradlaugh have a full opportunity of stigmatising Sir Henry Tyler, who had left his questionable business at Dashwood House during a part of the day, to gloat over the spectacle of his enemy in a criminal dock.
Some portions of my half-suppressed protest ought not to be omitted in this history.