There was a fine array of learned counsel on both sides, among whom Sir Edward Clarke, K.C., Mr. J. Eldon Bankes, K.C., and Mr. Lewis Thomas (instructed by Messrs. Bird, Strode & Bird, solicitors) appeared for the plaintiffs; Mr. Crispe, K.C., and Mr. Swanton for the defendant Burrows; and Mr. Germaine, K.C., and Mr. G. A. Scott for the defendants, Messrs. R. A. Everett & Co. Defendants’ counsel opened the case by asking leave of the Court to withdraw his clients’ plea of justification, by which, in popular terms, he stated that Captain Burrows was unable to prove any of the monstrous accusations he had made against Captain De Keyser and his colleagues, in the book which contained the libels complained of. After this dramatic collapse of previous pretence, Sir Edward Clarke proceeded with the case as follows: May it please your Lordship.—Gentlemen of the Jury, I feel bound to preface the observations that I have to make to you upon this case by just a very short reference to what has taken place this morning. A very sudden transformation has occurred in the condition of the case, and in the issues which are to be put before you. In February last year Captain De Keyser, a gentleman who has served in the Belgian Army, and who has been employed in the Congo Free State, found himself compelled, by circumstances which I shall explain to you in a few minutes, to take the opportunity of bringing this action against Captain Burrows and against some London publishers in respect of accusations against him of the gravest possible kind—accusations dishonouring to his character as a man of honour and as a man of humanity, and dishonouring to him as an officer in the Belgian Army; and he brought his action in February last year. Thereupon, in the course of the year, Captain Burrows puts on a defence in the month of April or May, and Messrs. Everett & Company put on a defence in the month of August, in which they say that those accusations against Captain De Keyser were true; and what were called Particulars, to which, however, I need not now refer, were put in, in which it was alleged that Captain De Keyser had been guilty of infamous conduct as a servant of the Government of the Congo Free State. This case has gone on month after month. There have been questions as to the time when it should be tried, and those who were advising Captain De Keyser and those who are interested in this matter have had the anxious duty of taking care that it never could possibly be said that the Defendants did not have a fair opportunity of trial. The case stood over for a considerable time, and even so lately as when it was before the Lord Chief Justice there was a practical assent on the part of the Plaintiffs to the postponement of the case in order that no one should ever say that the Defendants had not the fullest opportunity of putting their case before you; and now, at this