A solicitor and a barrister throw black paint or tar at a woman sitting at the feet of a statue of Justice. Colour lithograph by Tom Merry, 1892.

One of the "recent trials" at the Royal Courts of Justice was the libel suit, heard in June 1891, that had been brought by Sir William Gordon-Cumming against those who had accused him of cheating at cards in the "Tranby Croft affair": Gordon-Cumming lost the case, and the fairness of the judge's summing up was denied by many