Mr. Compton opposed in person, and showed
that this was absurd. The judge allowed them only four days to plead.
Issue being joined, Mr. Compton pushed on for trial, and the cause was
set down for the November term. Towards the end of the term Messrs.
Heathfield applied to one of the puisne judges for a postponement, on the
ground that a principal witness could not attend. Application was
supported by the attorney's affidavit, to the effect that Mr. Speers was
in Boulogne, and had written to him to say that he had met with a railway
accident, and feared he could not possibly come to England in less than a
month. A respectable French doctor confirmed this by certificate. Compton
opposed, but the judge would hardly hear him, and postponed the trial as
a matter of course; this carried it over the sittings into next term.
Alfred groaned, but bore it patiently; not so Dr. Sampson: he raged
against secret tribunals: "See how men deteriorate the moment they get
out of the full light of publeecity. What English judge, sitting in the
light of Shorthand, would admit 'Jack swears that Gill says' for legal
evidence.
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