Sir Hardinge Giffard had left the court, and his friend on the bench conducted his case for him.

He told the jury that I had wasted their time, and indulged in a number of other insults, which might be pardonable in a legal hack bent on earning his client's fee, but were scarcely consistent with the dignity and impartiality of a judge.

His tone was even worse than his words.

He had no sympathy with us in our desperate effort to defend our liberty against such overwhelming odds, nor did we solicit any; but we had a right to expect him to refrain from constant expressions of antipathy.

That, however, was not the whole of his offence against the rules of justice.