The jury could not possibly find that the prisoner had not
deliberately and intentionally blown up the Albert Hall; the question
was: Could they find any extenuating circumstances which would permit of
an acquittal? Of course any sentence which the law might feel compelled
to inflict would be followed by an immediate pardon, but it was highly
desirable, from the Government's point of view, that the necessity for
such an exercise of clemency should not arise. A headlong pardon, on the
eve of a bye-election, with threats of a heavy voting defection if it
were withheld or even delayed, would not necessarily be a surrender, but
it would look like one. Opponents would be only too ready to attribute
ungenerous motives. Hence the anxiety in the crowded Court, and in the
little groups gathered round the tape-machines in Whitehall and Downing
Street and other affected centres.
The jury returned from considering their verdict; there was a flutter, an
excited murmur, a deathlike hush. The foreman delivered his message:
"The jury find the prisoner guilty of blowing up the Albert Hall. The
jury wish to add a rider drawing attention to the fact that a by-election
is pending in the Parliamentary division of Nemesis-on-Hand.
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