Charles Bradlaugh: a Record of His Life and Work, Volume 1 (of 2): With an Account of his Parliamentary Struggle, Politics and Teachings. Seventh EditionRobertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
History
Charles Bradlaugh: a Record of His Life and Work, Volume 1 (of 2): With an Account of his Parliamentary Struggle, Politics and Teachings. Seventh Edition
Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon)
Bradlaugh, Charles, 1833-1891
Monahan, was very indignant that my father should be allowed to conduct
the prosecution; he protested that heretofore the rule in that court
was that no one should be allowed to practise in that court unless
an attorney, or solicitor, or barrister. On the last occasion, the
counsel went on, as the prisoners had been apprehended only the night
before, and therefore, as there was not perhaps time to instruct a
professional man, Mr Bradlaugh had been allowed to appear. Other clerks
had been refused to appear, and he could not see why a different rule
should be adopted in this case. To expedite the business, he suggested
that the case should, according to ordinary practice, be conducted
by a solicitor or barrister. Mr Bradlaugh said he had appeared to
conduct cases for his employer in London police courts, and this was
a matter entirely within the discretion of the Court. He urged that
he alone was in possession of all the facts of the case, and that he
could not communicate his knowledge to any other person. Mr Maude (the
magistrate) remarked that it had been the general rule in that court
that parties should be represented either by counsel or solicitor, but
there was no rule without an exception, and looking at the peculiarity
of this case, he thought it would be very inconvenient now not to allow
Mr Bradlaugh to elicit the facts.
At a later stage of the proceedings a Mr Bent, who was watching the
case on behalf of another of the prisoners, objected, on the part of
the solicitors practising in the court, to Mr Bradlaugh, an attorney's
clerk, being allowed to appear, but the Bench overruled his objection.
In consequence of the medical evidence as to the condition of the
exhumed body, the charge of poisoning had, of course, to be entirely
abandoned, but in the March following James Monahan and two others were
charged with having, on 3rd August 1855, "feloniously forged a will
purporting to be the last will and testament of John Monahan, and with
having uttered the same, knowing it to be forged," and another was
charged with having feloniously been an accessory after the fact. The
jury found Monahan guilty, but acquitted the others. Keefe, the fourth
man, was then charged with having taken a false oath, and to this he
pleaded guilty.
In September 1857 my father moved from West Street to 3 Hedgers
Terrace, Cassland Road, Hackney, where I was born in the March of the
following year. He now began to think it was quite time to take some
definite steps towards the advancement of his position in life, and
with that object in view he wrote the following letter to Mr Rogers:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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