n court, so no Queen's Counsel will come in
direct contact with a client, and must be "supported" by a barrister.
Ergo, any unfortunate having a case in court must fee two, if not three
legal sharks to represent him, if represented at all.

We employed as solicitor a Mr. David Howell of 105 Cheapside, and a
thoroughgoing, unprincipled rascal he proved to be. He was a small,
spare, undersized man, with little beady eyes, light complexion, red
hair, and stubby beard, and when he spoke it was with a thin reedy
voice. From first to last he managed our case in exactly the way the
prosecution would have desired. He bled us freely, and altogether we
paid him nearly $10,000, and our defense by our eight lawyers--four
Queen's Counsels and four barristers--was about the lamest and most
idiotic possible.

We early came to the unanimous conclusion that in our country Howell
would have had to face a jury for robbing us, and that but one of our
eight lawyers had ability enough to appear in a police court here to
conduct a hearing before an ordinary magistrate.

I do not propose to enter into the details of our preliminary hearings
before the Lord Mayor at the Mansion House, or of the trial. Both the
hearings and trial were sensational in the highest degree, and attracted
universal attention all over the English-speaking world. Full-page
pictures of the trial appeared in all the illustrated journals of Europe
and America, and our portraits were on sale everywhere.

After many hearings before Sir Sidney Waterlaw, we were finally
committed for trial.

Editorial from the London Times of Aug. 13, 1873:

THE BANK FORGERIES.

"Monday next has been fixed for the trial, and the depositions
taken before the Lord Mayor at the Justice Room of the Mansion
House by Mr. Oke, the chief clerk, have been printed for the
convenience of the presiding judge and of the counsel on both
sides. They extend over 242 folio pages, including the oral and
documentary evidence, and make of themselves a thick volume,
together with an elaborate index for ready reference. Within living
memory there has been no such case for length and importance heard
before any Lord Mayor of London in its preliminary stage, nor one
which excited a greater amount of public interest from first to
last. The Overend Gurney prosecution is the only one in late years
which at all approaches it in those respects, but in tha