3-021-711 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Westminster Election Petition: arrival of the judge and sheriffs at the Westminster Sessions-House, [London], 1869. 'The judicial inquiry into the alleged corrupt practices at the election of Mr. W. H. Smith for the city of Westminster commenced before Mr. Baron Martin, on Friday morning, at the Westminster Sessions House, Broad Sanctuary. The learned Judge was escorted thither by Mr. Alderman and Sheriff Cotton and Mr. Sheriff Hutton, who waited upon him at his residence in Eaton-square. A crowd of people, assembled outside the Sessions House, greeted the arrival of the carriages with some slight tokens of interest and approval. The proceedings of the Court...were on the second day removed to the Lords Justices' Court-room, in Westminster Hall; and, on Monday, to the Court of Exchequer, as there was not room in the Westminster Sessions House for the number of witnesses and other persons in attendance'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.