THE ISSUE OF THE STOCK EXCHANGE TRIAL.—LORD COCHRANE'S COMMITTAL TO
THE KING'S BENCH PRISON.—THE DEBATE UPON HIS CASE IN THE HOUSE OF
COMMONS, AND HIS SPEECH ON THAT OCCASION.—HIS EXPULSION FROM THE
HOUSE, AND RE-ELECTION AS MEMBER FOR WESTMINSTER.—THE WITHDRAWAL OF
HIS SENTENCE TO THE PILLORY.—THE REMOVAL OF HIS INSIGNIA AS A KNIGHT
OF THE BATH.
[1814.]
The famous and infamous Stock Exchange trial occupied the 8th and 9th
of June, 1814; but the sentence was deferred until the 21st of the
same month, in consequence of Lord Cochrane's demand for a new trial.
That demand was not complied with, in spite of the production
of overwhelming evidence to justify it; and the victim of Lord
Ellenborough and the tyrannical Government of the day was at once
conveyed to the King's Bench Prison. No time was lost in heaping upon
him all the indignities which, in accordance with precedent and in
excess of all precedent, might supplement his degradation.
The first was a notice of motion which would result in his expulsion
from the House of Commons. Lord Cochrane promptly availed himself of
the opening thus afforded for a public avowal of his innocence. To
the Hon. Charles Abbot, then Speaker of the House, he wrote from his
prison on the 23rd of June. "Sir," runs the letter, "I respectfully
entreat you to communicate to the Honourable House of Commons my
earnest desire and prayer that no question arising out of the late
convictions in the Court of King's Bench may be agitated without
affording me timely notice and full opportunity of attending in my
place for the justification of my character. From the House of Commons
I hope to obtain that justice of which too implicit reliance on the
consciousness of my innocence, and circumstances over which I had no
control, have hitherto deprived me. The painful situation in which I
am placed is known to the House, and I trust that I shall be enabled
to demonstrate that a more injured man has never sought redress
from those to whose justice I now appeal for the preservation of my
character and existence."
In compliance with that request, and with parliamentary rules, Lord
Cochrane was conveyed from the King's Bench Prison to the House of
Commons, and allowed to read a carefully-prepared statement of his
case, on the 5th of July, the day fixed for investigation of the
subject. From this statement it is not necessary to cite the clear
and conclusive recapitulation of the evidence adduced at the trial, or
refused admission therein because it was too convincing, in proof of
Lord Cochrane's innocence; but room must be found for some passages
illustrating the independent temper of the speaker and the perversions
of justice to which he fell a victim.
"I am not here, sir," he said, "to bespeak compassion or to pave the
way to pardon. Both ideas are alike repugnant to my feelings. That the
public in general have felt indignation at the sentence that has been
passed upon me does honour to their hearts, and tends still to make
my country dear to me, in spite of what I have suffered from the
malignity of persons in power. But, sir, I am not here to complain of
the hardship of my case or about the cruelty of judges, who, for
an act which was never till now ever known or thought to be a legal
offence, have laid upon me a sentence more heavy than they have
ever yet laid upon persons clearly convicted of the most horrid
of crimes—crimes of which nature herself cries aloud against the
commission. If, therefore, it was my object to complain of the cruelty
of my judges, I should bid the public look into the calendar, and see
if they could find a punishment like that inflicted on me; inflicted
by these same judges on any one of these unnatural wretches. It is
not, however, my business to complain of the cruelty of this sentence.
I am here to assert, for the third time, my innocence in the most
unqualified and solemn manner; I am here to expose the unfairness of
the proceedings against me previous to the trial, at the trial,
and subsequent to it; I am here to expose the long train of artful
villainies which have been practised against me hitherto with so much
success.
"I am persuaded, sir, that the House will easily perceive, and every
honourable man, I am sure, participate in my feelings, that the
fine, the imprisonment, the pillory—even that pillory to which I am
condemned—are nothing, that they weigh not as a feather, when put
in the balance against my desire to show that I have been unjustly
condemned. Therefore, sir, I trust that the House will give a fair and
impartial hearing to what I have to say respecting the conduct of
my enemies, to expose which conduct is a duty which I owe to my
constituents, and to my country, not less than to myself.
"In the first place, sir, I here, in the presence of this House, and
with the eyes of the country fixed upon me, most solemnly declare that
I am wholly innocent of the crime which has been laid to my
charge, and for which I have been condemned to the most infamous of
punishments. Having repeated this assertion of my innocence, I next
proceed to complain of the means that have been made use of to effect
my destruction. And first, sir, was it ever before known in this or in
any other country, that the prosecutor should form a sort of court of
his own erection, call witnesses before it of his own choosing, and,
under offers of great rewards, take minutes of the evidence of such
witnesses, and publish those minutes to the world under the forms and
appearances of a judicial proceeding? Was it ever before known, that
steps like these were taken previous to an indictment,—previous to
the bringing of an intended victim into a court of justice? Was there
ever before known so regular, so systematic a scheme for exciting
suspicion against a man, and for implanting an immovable prejudice
against him in the minds of a whole nation, previous to the preferring
a Bill of Indictment, in order that the grand jury, be it composed
of whomsoever it might, should be predisposed to find the bill? I ask
you, sir, and I ask the House, whether it was ever before known, that
means like these were resorted to, previous to a man's being legally
accused? But, sir, what must the world think, when they see some of
those to whom the welfare and the honour of the nation are committed
covertly co-operating with a Committee of the Stock Exchange, and
becoming their associates in so nefarious a scheme? Nevertheless, sir,
this fact is now notorious to the whole world. I must confess I was
not prepared to believe the thing possible."
Thereupon followed a detailed examination of the charges brought
against Lord Cochrane, and of the way in which those charges were
handled, special complaint being made concerning the malicious bearing
of Lord Ellenborough. "It must be in the recollection of the House,"
said Lord Cochrane, "as it is in that of the public, that he urged,
that he compelled, the counsel to enter upon my defence _after
midnight_, at the end of fifteen hours from the commencement of the
trial, when that counsel declared himself quite exhausted, and when
the jury, who were to decide, were in a state of such weariness as to
render attention to what was said totally impossible. The speeches
of the counsel being ended, the judge, at _half-past three in the
morning_, adjourned the court till ten; thus separating the evidence
from the argument, and reserving his own strength, and the strength
of my adversaries' advocates, for the close; giving to both the great
advantage of time to consider the reply, and to insert and arrange
arguments to meet those which had been urged in my defence."
All his treatment by Lord Ellenborough, as Lord Cochrane urged, was of
that sort, or worse. "Of all tyrannies, sir," he said, "the worst
is that which exercises its vengeance under the guise of judicial
proceedings, and especially if a jury make part of the means by which
its base purposes are effected. The man who is flung into prison, or
sent to the scaffold, at the nod of an avowed despotism, has at least
the consolation to know that his sufferings bring down upon that
despotism the execration of mankind; but he who is entrapped
and entangled in the meshes of a crafty and corrupt system of
jurisprudence; who is pursued imperceptibly by a law with leaden
feet and iron jaws; who is not put upon his trial till the ear of the
public has been poisoned, and its heart steeled against him,—falls,
at last, without being cheered with a hope of seeing his tyrants
execrated even by the warmest of his friends. In their principle, the
ancient and settled laws of England are excellent; but of late years,
so many injurious and fatal alterations in the law have taken place,
that any man who ventures to meddle with public affairs, and to oppose
persons in power, is sure and certain, sooner or later, to suffer in
some way or other.
"Sir, the punishment which the malice of my enemies has procured to be
inflicted on me is not, in my mind, worth a moment's reflection. The
judge supposed, apparently, that the sentence of the pillory would
disgrace and mortify me. I can assure him, and I now solemnly assure
this House, my constituents, and my country, that I would rather stand
in my own name, in the pillory, every day of my life, under such a
sentence, than I would sit upon the bench in the name and with the
real character of Lord Ellenborough for one single hour.
"Something has been said, sir, in this House, as I have heard, about
an application for a mitigation of my sentence, in a certain quarter,
where, it is observed, that mercy never failed to flow; but I can
assure the House that an application for pardon, extorted from me, is
one of the things which even a partial judge and a packed jury have
not the power to accomplish. No, sir; I will seek for, and I look for,
pardon _nowhere_, for _I have committed no crime_. I have sought for,
I still seek for, and I confidently expect JUSTICE; not, however, at
the hands of those by whose machinations I have been brought to
what they regard as my ruin, but at the hands of my enlightened and
virtuous constituents, to whose exertions the nation owes that there
is still a voice to cry out against that haughty and inexorable
tyranny which commands silence to all but parasites and hypocrites."
Thus ended Lord Cochrane's written argument. It was followed by, a few
words spoken on the spur of the moment: "Having so long occupied
its time, I will not trouble the House longer than to implore it to
investigate the circumstances of my case. I think I have stated enough
to induce it to call for the minutes of the trial. All I wish is an
inquiry. Many important facts yet remain to be considered, and I
trust that the House will not come to a decision with its eyes shut.
I entreat, I implore investigation. It is true that a sentence of a
court of law has been pronounced against me; but that punishment is
nothing, and will to me seem nothing, in comparison with what it is in
the power of the House to inflict. I have already suffered much;
but if after a deliberate and a fair investigation the House shall
determine that I am guilty, then let me be deserted and abandoned by
the world. I shall submit without repining to any the most dreadful
penalty that the House can assign. I solemnly declare before Almighty
God that I am ignorant of the whole transaction. Into the hearts of
men we cannot penetrate; we cannot dive into their inmost thoughts;
but my heart I lay open, and my most secret thoughts I disclose to
the House. I entreat the strictest scrutiny and a patient hearing. I
implore it at your hands, as an act of justice, and once more I call
upon my Maker, upon Almighty God, to bear witness that I am innocent.
He knows my heart, He knows all its secrets, and He knows that I am
innocent."
An animated debate followed upon that eloquent address. Viscount
Castlereagh complained that Lord Cochrane, instead of defending
himself, had only libelled Lord Ellenborough and the noblest
institutions of the land. Other speakers expressed similar opinions;
but others testified to the consistent character of Lord Cochrane,
rendering it impossible that he should be guilty of the offence
with which he was charged; and others again confessed that, having
previously had doubts in the matter, those doubts had been removed by
the high-minded tone and the powerful arguments of his defence. But in
the end the House adopted the view set forth by Lord Castlereagh; that
its duty was simply to accept the verdict of the Court of the King's
Bench, and, according to precedent, to expel the member declared
guilty by that court, without daring to revive the question of his
guilt or innocence; and that it would be better for an innocent man
thus to suffer, than for the House to assail "the bulwarks of English
liberty," by turning itself into a Star Chamber, or an Inquisition,
and attempting to interfere with "the regular administration of
justice." The proposal that Lord Cochrane's case should be referred to
a Select Committee was rejected without a division. The motion that he
should be expelled from the House was carried by a hundred and forty
members, against forty-four dissentients.
That new act of injustice, however, though it added much to Lord
Cochrane's suffering, brought him no fresh disgrace. It only led
to his triumphant re-election as member for Westminster, under
circumstances that were reasonably consoling to him. His seat having
been taken from him on the 5th of July, a great meeting of the
electors, attended by five thousand people, was held on the 11th.
It was there unanimously resolved that Lord Cochrane was perfectly
innocent of the Stock Exchange fraud, that he was a fit and proper
person to represent the City of Westminster in Parliament, and that
his re-election should be secured without any expense to him. Richard
Brinsley Sheridan, his stout opponent at the previous election, who
was now urged to oppose him again, honourably refused to do so; and
therefore the election passed without a contest. But contest would
only have added to its glory; unless, indeed, the people, over-zealous
in their expression of sympathy for their representative, had been
provoked thereby to violent exhibition of their temper. Even without
such provocation the turmoil of the re-election day, the 16th of July,
was great; angry crowds assembled in the streets, and menacing words
against the Government and its myrmidons were loudly uttered. The
wisdom of Sir Francis Burdett and other leaders of the popular party,
however, prevented anything worse than angry speech.
"Amongst all the occurrences of my life," said Lord Cochrane,
writing from the King's Bench Prison to thank the electors for their
confidence in him, "I can call to memory no one which has produced so
great a degree of exultation in my breast as this, that, after all the
machinations of corruption have been able to effect against me, the
citizens of Westminster have, with unanimous voice, pronounced me
worthy of continuing to be one of their representatives in Parliament.
With regard to the case, the agitation of which has been the cause
of this most gratifying result, I am in no apprehension as to the
opinions and feelings of the world, and especially of the people
of England, who, though they may be occasionally misled, are never
deliberately cruel or unjust. Only let it be said of me: 'The Stock
Exchange has accused; Lord Ellenborough has charged for guilty; the
special jury have found that guilt; the Court have sentenced to the
pillory; the House of Commons have expelled; and the Citizens of
Westminster have re-elected,'—only let this be the record placed
against my name, and I shall be proud to stand in the calendar of
criminals all the days of my life."
The worst part of the sentence passed upon Lord Cochrane, as has been
already said, was not carried out. The 10th of August had been fixed
as the day on which he was to stand in the pillory for an hour in
front of the Royal Exchange. But the danger of a disturbance among the
people, and of fierce opposition in the House of Commons hindered the
perpetration of this indignity. Some sentences of a letter addressed
to Lord Ebrington, deprecating his motion in Parliament for a
remission of this part of the sentence, are too characteristic,
however, to be left unquoted. "I did not expect," said Lord Cochrane,
"to be treated by your lordship as an object of mercy, on the grounds
of past services, or severity of sentence. I cannot allow myself to be
indebted to that tenderness of disposition which has led your lordship
to form an erroneous estimate of the amount of punishment due to the
crimes of which I have been accused; nor can I for a moment consent
that any past services of mine should be prostituted to the purpose of
protecting me from any part of the vengeance of the laws against which
I, if at all, have grossly offended. If I am guilty, I richly merit
the whole of the sentence that has been passed upon me. If innocent,
one penalty cannot be inflicted with more justice than another."
If the degradation of the pillory was remitted, another degradation
quite as painful to Lord Cochrane was substituted for it. His name
having, on the 25th of June, been struck off the list of naval
officers in the Admiralty, the Knights Companions of the Bath promptly
held a chapter to consider the propriety of expelling him from their
ranks. That was soon done, and no time was lost in making the insult
as thorough as possible. At one o'clock in the morning of the 11th
of August, the Bath King at Arms repaired to King Henry the Seventh's
Chapel in Westminster Abbey, and there, under a warrant signed by Lord
Sidmouth, the Secretary of State, removed the banner of Lord Cochrane,
which was suspended between those of Lord Beresford and Sir Brent
Spencer. His arms were next unscrewed, and his helmet, sword, and
other insignia were taken down from the stall. The banner was then
kicked out of the chapel and down the steps by the official, eager to
omit no possible indignity. It was an indignity unparalleled since the
establishment of the order in 1725.