on the adjournment. He managed to defeat the government by five votes. The Home Secretary then ordered the Commissioner of Police for the Metropolis, Sir Charles Warren, to undertake an inquiry. PC Endacott was suspended on 6 July and the Lord Chancellor began an inquiry into the conduct of Mr. Newton. The Metropolitan Police inquiry opened on 11 July and after six days of hearings concluded on 26 July. The report did not make any findings as to whether the arrest was justified (calling for the evidence to be tested in a court under oath), but Sir Charles Warren concluded "I am not prepared to say that I can see any grounds for accusing PC Endacott of wilful Perjury. However, that is a matter on which I think the Public Prosecutors should decide". Bowman and Cass had already begun a private prosecution of PC Endacott for perjury, and after due consideration the Law Officers wrote to their solicitors offering to take over the case, or permitting the case to go ahead under their direction. They chose the second option. Colleagues within the Metropolitan Police raised a subscription to pay for Endacott's defence. Meanwhile, the informal inquiry into the magistrate had concluded in secret, with the decision to give Newton a formal reprimand. Newton had relied for justification of his warning to Cass on a statute that allowed a magistrate to issue such a warning to a defendant who had been found guilty but whom the magistrate felt was undeserving of any sentence, and the Lord Chancellor's letter highlighted this as a mistake in law. Perjury case The Grand Jury found a true bill against PC Endacott for perjury on 13 September but the trial was postponed to the Michaelmas Term, eventually beginning on 31 October. On 1 November, Cass (now Mrs Langley) was called to give evidence; afterwards Mr. Justice Stephen heard a submission (in the absence of the jury) from the prosecution and ruled that the case was confined to whether PC Endacott committed perjury in saying that he had seen Cass three times before in Regent Street. The judge further said that in his own view, there was no evidence that Endacott had been wilfully mis-stating the truth: the most likely explanation was that he had been making an honest mistake. The Solicitor-General accepted that view and withdrew the prosecution. Mrs Langley and her defenders were not pleased