Mansion House Court of Justice

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1861 London Guide to Silversmiths Goldsmiths Jewelers Watchmakers Opticians
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GEORG JENSEN PAIR BEAKER STERLING SILVER LONDON 1958-
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Arthur H. Beavan continued his survey of London's Police Courts at the turn of the twentieth century in Imperial London, published in 1901, with a look at the Mansion House Justice Room:

The Court of Justice at the Mansion House is somewhat exceptional, and an hour may profitably be spent there any morning by the explorer.

Here there is some attempt at formality, the Lord sits in his gown and chain, and the officials are clad in a uniform.

In addition to the usual police court routine, there occasionally come before the Lord Mayor mercantile cases of the utmost importance; embezzlements on a gigantic scale, perhaps; Limited Liability cases; company-promoting; financial frauds; and criminal proceedings, such as the Overend, Gurney and Co. case in 1869.

What between eminent counsel and solicitors for the prosecution on the one side, and KC's and distinguished leading representatives for the defence on the other side of his chair inveighing one against the other and appealing to his judgment, etc, the chief magistrate in the City has no easy time of it, and the wonder is that he puts up with one quarter of the tall talk going on around him.

But to causes celebres there is frequently a comic side which renders them less unendurable, one of which I well remember.

Many years ago a certain Richard Banner Oakley started in the City a kind of banking establishment that offered advantages to the public in the way of high interest, which Mr. Edmund Yates' paper, the World, considered incompatible with security, and commenced a series of articles strongly condemnatory of the whole concern.

Mainly in consequence of these exposures, official suspicion was aroused, and Oakley was ultimately brought before the Lord Mayor on a charge of fraud.

In the course of the proceedings the detective gave evidence as to the arrest, and described in detail the contents of Oakley's pockets.

Amongst other articles, he produced a small Bible, and with imperturbable expression read aloud the inscription:

"To Richard Banner Oakley; a token of Christian esteem and affection from X.
In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.'"

Lord Mayor, Court, and spectators roared with laughter, in which, I must admit, even Oakley joined, but like the Sphinx, the "CD's" countenance remained unmoved.