She began by declaring that these proceedings had been taken "out of malice and for vexation," and "in order to lame, in an illegitimate way, a political enemy." In proof of this she cited the attitude of the Government towards the present women's movement from its very beginning three years before. She drew attention to the fact, which had been sworn to in the witness box, that Mr. Horace Smith had allowed himself to be coerced by the Government into settling, in conjunction with them, whether a certain lady charged in connection with this agitation, was guilty, and even the term of imprisonment which was to be inflicted upon her before the evidence had been heard. "Now, this policy of the Government of weighting the scales against us," Christabel declared, "is not of interest merely to us, but to the whole community. In the course of British history we have seen many struggles for the purification of our judicial system.... It has been left to the twentieth century--to these so-called democratic days--to see our judicial system corrupted for party ends. I am glad that we have been able to perform the public duty and service of doing something to attack this evil while it is in the bud...." Dealing with the form of the summons, she urged that, if she and her colleagues were guilty of any offence, it was that of illegal assembly, but the Government had not charged them with this offence, because they had wished to keep their trial in the police court and to prevent it from coming before a jury. "They believe, that by this means," she said, "they will succeed in prejudicing the public against us. We know perfectly well that up till recently the general public shunned the police court as a disgraceful place. Well, I think that by our presence here we have done something to relieve the police court of that unenviable reputation. We have done something to raise its status in the public eye."