THE JURY.

Thomas Brown, Church-row, Aldgate. }

Henry Septimus Wollaston, Devonshire-street. }

George Spedding, Upper Thames-street. }

George Miles, Gracechurch-street. }

John Parker, Broad-street. }

Lewis Loyd, Lothbury. }

John Peter Robinson, Austin Friars. } Merchants.

John Hodgson, New Broad-street. }

Thomas Wilson Hetherington, Nicholas-lane. }

Richard Hall, Lawrence-lane. }

Richard Cheesewright, King-street. }

John Green, Suffolk-lane. }

_The Indictment was opened by Mr._ ADOLPHUS.

Mr. GURNEY.

May it please your Lordship.

Gentlemen of the Jury.

It is my duty, as Counsel for this Prosecution, to state to you the

facts which I shall have to lay before you, and to apply those facts to

the several Defendants, and to the Charges contained in the Indictment,

which has been opened by my learned Friend; and, Gentlemen, I am sure

that it is unnecessary for me to request that you will dismiss from your

minds every thing that you may have heard upon this subject before you

entered that Box. It is one of the circumstances which necessarily

attends a free press, that many cases which come under the consideration

of a Court of Justice, shall previously have undergone some public

discussion; without blame to any one, that will sometimes occur from the

nature and publicity of the case itself. It does also sometimes occur,

that they who are accused, industriously circulate matters which they

consider as useful to their defence; and even on the very eve of trial,

force them into public notice. If any thing has fallen under your

observation, either on the one side or the other, I intreat you to lay

it totally aside; to come to the consideration of this subject with

cool, dispassionate, unprejudiced, unprepossessed minds, to attend to

the evidence that will be laid before you, and to that evidence

alone--by that evidence let the Defendants stand or fall.

Gentlemen, it would be very extraordinary indeed, if it could ever have

been supposed by any person, even the most ignorant, that this was not a

crime. It would be a disgrace to any civilized country, if its laws were

so defective. If that which has been done by these Defendants _in

conspiracy_, had been done by any one of them _singly_, it would have

been unquestionably a crime; but when done _by conspiracy_, it is a

crime of a more aggravated nature--_To circulate false news_, much more

_to conspire to circulate false news_ with intent to raise the price of

any commodity whatever, is, by the Law of England, a crime, and its

direct and immediate tendency is to the injury of the public. If it be

with intent to raise the price of the public funds of the country,

considering the immense magnitude of those funds, and, consequently, the

vast extent of the injury which may be produced, the offence is of a

higher description. The persons who must be necessarily injured in a

case of that kind, are various; the common _bona fide_ purchaser who

invests his money--the public, through the commissioners for the

redemption of the national debt--the persons whose affairs are under the

care of the Court of Chancery, and whose money is laid out by the

Accountant General, all these may be injured by a temporary rise of the

public funds, growing out of a conspiracy of this kind; and, Gentlemen,

this is no imaginary statement of mine, for it will appear to you

to-day, that all these persons were in fact injured by the temporary

rise produced by this conspiracy. Undoubtedly the public funds will be

affected by rumours, which may be considered as accidental; in

proportion as they are liable to that, it becomes more important to

protect them against fraud.

If this had been a conspiracy to circulate false rumours, merely to

abuse public credulity, it would not have been a trivial offence; but if

the object of the conspiracy be not merely to abuse public credulity,

but to raise the funds, in order that the conspirators may sell out of

those funds for their own advantage, and, consequently, to the injury of

others, in that case the offence assumes its most malignant

character--it is cold blooded fraud, and nothing else. It is then

susceptible of but one possible aggravation, and that is, if the

conspirators shall have endeavoured to poison the sources of official

intelligence, and to have made the officers of government the tools and

instruments of effectuating their fraud--Gentlemen, this offence, thus

aggravated, I charge upon the several Defendants upon this Record, and I

undertake to prove every one of them to be guilty.

Gentlemen, when I undertake to prove them to be guilty, you will not

expect that I shall give you proof by _direct evidence_, because, in the

nature of things, _direct evidence_ is absolutely impossible--they who

conspire do not admit into the chamber in which they form their plan,

any persons but those who participate in it; and, therefore, except

where they are betrayed by accomplices, in no such case can positive and

direct evidence be given. If there are any who imagine, that positive

and direct evidence is absolutely necessary to conviction, they are much

mistaken; it is a mistake, I believe, very common with those who commit

offences: they fancy that they are secure because they are not seen at

the moment; but you may prove their guilt as conclusively, perhaps even

more satisfactorily, by _circumstantial evidence_, as by any _direct

evidence_ that can possibly be given.

If direct and positive evidence were requisite to convict persons of

crimes, what security should we have for our lives against the _murderer

by poison_?--no man sees him mix the deadly draught, avowing his

purpose. No, he mixes it in secret, and administers it to his

unconscious victim as the draught of health; but yet he may be reached

by _circumstances_--he may be proved to have bought, or to have made the

poison; to have rinsed the bottle at a suspicious moment; to have given

false and contradictory accounts; and to have a deep interest in the

attainment of the object. What security should we have for our

habitations against the _midnight burglar_, who breaks into your house

and steals your property, without disturbing your rest or that of your

family, but whom you reach by proving him, shortly afterwards, in the

possession of your plate? What security should we have against the

_incendiary_, who is never seen in the act by any human eye, but whose

guilt, by a combination of circumstances over which he may have had no

controul, or part of which he may have contrived for his own security,

is as clearly established as if deposed to by the testimony of

eye-witnesses.

Gentlemen, by the same sort of evidence by which in these, and various

other cases, the lives of individuals are affected, I undertake to bring

home this case to the Defendants upon this Record. I undertake to shew,

that such a conspiracy did exist as this Indictment charges; and I

undertake to prove every one of these Defendants acting in furtherance

and execution of the conspiracy, so as to leave no more doubt upon your

minds, when you have heard the evidence, that they were all parties to

this conspiracy, than if you had witnesses before you who were present

with them in consultation, and heard them assign to each man the part

which he was to act.

Gentlemen, in the security in which we now repose, in the triumph in

which we are now indulging, it is difficult to carry back our minds to

the state of agonizing suspense in which we were at the critical time at

which this conspiracy took place. At that time the empire of him for

whom Europe itself appeared too small, was not confined within the

narrow limits of the Isle of Elba; he had been driven back, it is true,

from the extremity of Europe into France.--France itself was invaded,

and our illustrious Allies had made considerable progress towards Paris,

but they had been more than once repulsed, and one army had, by almost

super-human efforts, preserved itself from destruction; but the fortune

of war was uncertain; in this age of miracles, no man could tell what

would be the final event; and every one was waiting in breathless

expectation for the destruction of him (or at least of his power) who

had been so long the destroyer of his species. Gentlemen, at that most

critical moment, when the funds were so liable to be affected by every

event of the war, when they were liable to be affected still more by the

Negotiations at Chatillon, which were then pending--at that moment this

conspiracy with respect to the Funds took place; and you will bear this

in mind, Gentlemen, that if the false news were believed but for a

single hour, the mischief to the public would be done--the object of the

conspirators would be accomplished.

Gentlemen, the first person whom I shall have to present to you, as

bearing a principal part in this conspiracy; the main agent in its

execution, will be proved to be the Defendant, Charles Random de

Berenger;--he was a fit person to be selected for the purpose;--he was a

foreigner by birth; he had resided long in this country; he would pass

very well for an officer; he had been for fourteen or fifteen months a

prisoner for debt in the King's Bench, or rather within the Rules of the

King's Bench; he would be a convenient man afterwards to convey away; as

he would prefer a residence in any other country, because his creditors

resided in this.

You will find that he made his appearance a little after midnight of

Sunday, the 20th of February--the morning of Monday, the 21st of

February; at Dover; he was first seen in the street, enquiring for the

Ship Hotel; he was shewn to it, he knocked loudly at the door, and

obtained admittance; he was dressed in a grey military great coat, a

scarlet uniform, richly embroidered with gold lace, (the uniform of a

Staff Officer) a star on his breast, a silver medal suspended from his

neck, a dark fur cap with a broad gold lace, and he had a small

portmanteau; he announced himself as an Aid de Camp to Lord Cathcart,

just arrived from Paris; that he was the bearer of glorious news, that a

decisive battle had taken place, that Bonaparte was pursued and killed

by the Cossacks, that the Allied Sovereigns were actually in Paris, and

that now (that most welcome news to the Inhabitants of Dover) an

immediate Peace was certain. He desired to have a sheet of paper, that

he might write a letter to the Port-Admiral at Deal, Admiral Foley;

paper was furnished, and he sat down to write, and soon afterwards the

letter was dispatched to the Port-Admiral at Deal. Upon persons coming

round him and importuning him with questions, he pretended to be

extremely fatigued. He said he had travelled two or three nights. "Do

not pester me with questions, you will know it to-morrow from the

Port-Admiral." He ordered a post-chaise and four for London, and he

offered to pay with some gold Napoleons; the landlord of the inn did not

know exactly the value of a Napoleon, and scrupled to take them, upon

which this gentleman, rather inconsiderately, produced from his pocket

some one pound Bank of England notes, with those notes he paid for his

chaise, and he set off for London in the post-chaise and four. When he

arrived at Canterbury he rewarded his post-boys very liberally; he gave

each of them a Napoleon. A Napoleon, I dare say you know, is worth

eighteen or twenty shillings; he ordered horses on to Sittingbourn; the

same chaise brought him from Canterbury to London, and he gave Napoleons

to all his post-boys. It was difficult to say which was first upon the

road, this Colonel Du Bourg or other expresses which had been sent off

from Dover with this happy news, for as soon as this news was announced

all Dover was in agitation. Post-horses were ordered out, and I believe

some of the expresses reached London half an hour before this person

himself.

Gentlemen, it will be necessary that I should read to you the letter to

Admiral Foley, it is dated Dover, one o'clock A. M. February 21, 1814,

addressed to the Honorable J. Foley, Port-Admiral, Deal, &c. &c. &c.

signed R. Du Bourg, Lieutenant-Colonel and Aid de Camp to Lord Cathcart.

"SIR, I have the honor to acquaint you, that the L'Aigle from Calais,

Pierre Duquin, Master, has this moment landed me near Dover, to proceed

to the Capital with dispatches of the happiest nature. I have pledged my

honor that no harm shall come to the crew of L'Aigle; even with a flag

of truce they immediately stood for sea: should they be taken, I have to

intreat you immediately to liberate them, my anxiety will not allow me

to say more for your gratification, than that the Allies obtained a

final victory, that Bonaparte was overtaken by a party of Sachen's

Cossacks, who immediately slaid him, and divided his body between them.

General Platoff saved Paris from being reduced to ashes, the Allied

Sovereigns are there, and the white cockade is universal, an immediate

peace is certain; in the utmost haste, I entreat your consideration, and

have the honor to be, Sir, your most obedient humble Servant, R. Du

Bourg."

A post boy was sent over with this letter to Admiral Foley; he

delivered it to the Admiral between three and four o'clock, I think, and

nothing but the haziness of the morning which obstructed the working of

the telegraph, prevented the news reaching the Admiralty, in which case

the conspiracy in question, which was effectual to a great degree, would

have been complete, and all the expectations of the conspirators fully

realized.

Gentlemen, when Colonel Du Bourg, alias Mr. De Berenger, arrived at

Rochester, he saw the landlord Mr. Wright, he conversed with him a

considerable time, and to him he repeated this news. He ordered horses

on for Dartford, and gave Napoleons to the post boys, and when he

arrived at Dartford, he there repeated his news to the landlord and the

waiter, partly in the hearing of the post boys. When he set off from

Dartford he desired the post boys to drive as fast as possible; they did

so for the first three miles; when they arrived at Bexley Heath, the

road being within sight of the telegraph, he spoke to the post boys, and

told them they need not drive so fast, that his business was not so

pressing, as the telegraphs could not work; they told him they were sure

they could not work, that they knew the telegraphs all along the road.

In coming up Shooter's Hill, the post boys alighted from their horses

and walked by the side of the chaise. They were naturally very desirous

to know distinctly what the news was, and one of them said, "Pray Sir,

what is the news?--Oh it is all over--Bonaparte is killed--the Cossacks

fought for a share of his body; he was literally torn to pieces by the

Cossacks,"--he said, "I landed last night within two miles of Dover, and

the French boat immediately put to sea; I went to the Ship at Dover. I

wrote a letter to Admiral Foley, in order that he might forward the news

by the telegraph; I was obliged to do that--it was my duty;" and then

still more to put them in good humour, he handed out to them some wine,

which he had brought from Dover.--He said to them, do not talk of this

news as you go along--as soon as you have parted with me you may tell

who you please; by and by he said, Pray where can I get a hackney coach?

the first stand, the boy told him, was at the Bricklayer's Arms--"No, I

will not take one there;" then the Marsh Gate--"Very well, I will get

one there". When they crossed Saint George's Fields, the post boy, who

every now and then turned round for the gratification of looking at this

generous bearer of good news, observed that he pulled up the blind, and

seemed to avoid observation. He did not know what his reason might be

for that, and it did not strike him till afterwards. They tried to get a

hackney coach at the Three Stags, they could not, and they went on to

the Marsh Gate, there they found one coach, and one coach only; Colonel

Du Bourg stepped out of the post chaise into the hackney coach. He gave

each of the boys a gold Napoleon; he drove off, and away they went, as

happy as they could be, to spread every where this very glorious news.

This you will find to have been at about nine o'clock in the morning.

Gentlemen, you may very readily suppose that very soon after ten

o'clock, this news reached the Stock Exchange; whether through the post

boys or by the expresses sent up from Dover, it did reach the Stock

Exchange at a little after ten o'clock. Probably you know that business

commences at ten. At ten business commenced as it had left off on

Saturday; the price of Omnium for some time was 27-1/2. It began

extremely flat at 27-1/2--it went on 27-1/2--but in about a quarter of

an hour, accounts came that an officer from Paris had arrived at Dover,

and had come up in a post chaise and four to Government with this news,

which was recited in detail. The Funds immediately rose to

28--28-1/2--29 and 30, and on it went till about twelve o'clock, when no

letter coming from the Secretary of State to the Lord Mayor, people

began to doubt its truth, and from 30 Omnium fell to 29, and was getting

down, when between twelve and one o'clock there came the amplest

confirmation. This, Gentlemen, you will find to be auxiliary to the main

plot, and a very important auxiliary. In itself it would have been

absolutely nothing. There drove through the City, a post chaise and

four, with three persons in it, two of them dressed like French

Officers, in blue great coats, with white linings; they wore white

cockades, and their horses were decorated with laurel. As they went

along they dispersed little billets announcing this news. After a kind

of triumphal progress through the City, they turned to the left at

Bridge Street, went over Blackfriars Bridge, quitted the main road for

the New Cut, and when they had arrived near the Marsh Gate, within a

hundred yards of the spot at which Colonel Du Bourg had alighted, these

three gentlemen got out of their chaise, folded up their cocked hats,

put on round hats, and walked off.

Gentlemen, this you may suppose, indeed we all know, produced an emotion

in the City not to be described. There is nothing so contagious as

popular feeling, especially on a subject of great public interest. This

stamped certainty upon the news; this reached the Stock Exchange, and

the funds, which had begun to droop, revived; Omnium rose to 30, 31, 32

and 32-1/2. Thus it went on for a short time, till persons having been

sent to the West End of the Town, and it being found that no Messenger

had arrived at the Office of the Secretary of State with this

intelligence, it was discovered that this had been a gross and wicked

deception; and the Funds returned to very nearly their former level. But

there were very large sales made, and of course there were many persons

defrauded. The members of the Stock Exchange felt it, and felt it

deeply; and they appointed a Committee to investigate this business, and

to ascertain who were the parties to this fraud. That Committee pursued

the investigation with great industry, and they discovered that which I

shall lay before you in evidence. As the underplot is the shortest, I

may as well dispose of that first.--They ascertained that this second

post chaise had come from Northfleet, which is, you know, near

Gravesend. That Mr. Ralph Sandom, who is a Spirit Merchant, living at

Northfleet, but who was at that time also like Mr. De Berenger, a

prisoner within the rules of the King's Bench, and who kept within the

rules just as faithfully as Mr. De Berenger did, had sent, early in the

morning, to Dartford, for a post chaise and four, to be sent to him at

Northfleet, and for four horses to be ready to take him on to town; and

that Mr. Sandom; a Mr. Alexander M'Rae, a person in most desperate

circumstances; and Mr. Lyte, who is, I believe, a little Navy Agent, and

a very poor man, were the persons who had come in this post chaise; and

that M'Rae and Lyte were the two persons who were dressed in the uniform

of French Officers.

Gentlemen, they ascertained further, that Mr. M'Rae resided at a lodging

in Fetter Lane; that on Saturday the 19th of February, he had brought

into his lodgings a couple of great coats, blue lined with white, to

resemble the coats of French Officers; that he had white cockades made

up by his wife in the lodging, and upon enquiry being made by his

hostess what all this could mean, said, that it was _to take in the

flats_. He quitted his lodging in the afternoon of Sunday, stating that

he was going down to Gravesend by water; and he returned about two on

Monday, after having, as I stated, quitted the chaise at the Marsh Gate.

The great coat was speedily altered, by the white lining being taken out

and another lining put in its place, and the white cockades were burnt:

and Mr. M'Rae, who had been in the greatest distress for money, was, in

the course of that week, exulting in his success, boasting of the money

he had earned by that which he had done; and on being expostulated with

on the impropriety of that mode of getting money, said, "If I had not

somebody else would."

Gentlemen, the Committee discovered that Mr. M'Rae was a party to this

business at a still earlier period, and that it had been for some time

in preparation, that he had on the 14th (the Monday preceding) written a

letter to a person of the name of Vinn, appointing a meeting at the

Carolina Coffee-House for the next day. On the Tuesday Vinn met him. Mr.

Vinn speaks French very well, and Mr. M'Rae explained the business on

which he wished to converse with him; the funds were then in a critical

situation, it would be a very good thing if he would but personate a

French officer, and bring some good news to Town, and that a hundred

pounds were at his service. Mr. Vinn felt a little indignant at this

proposal being made to him, saying that he hoped what Mr. M'Rae knew of

him would have given him a different opinion of him; but Mr. M'Rae would

not let Mr. Vinn go without giving him some French phrases, which you

will find were the very phrases in these billets thrown out when they

passed through the City. It was therefore completely ascertained that

M'Rae was not only concerned as an actor in this under plot, carried on

by the chaise from Northfleet to London, but that he had so long before

as the Tuesday preceding, proposed to Vinn to do that which De Berenger

in fact did.

The Committee afterwards ascertained, that the immediate employer of the

persons in the Chaise was Mr. Holloway, a wine merchant, another

defendant, who independently of his concerns with those persons, chose

to have a little dealing in the funds himself, he had a small milkscore

of about forty-thousand pounds omnium, which he disposed of on that 21st

day of February, at a handsome profit.

Gentlemen, you will not fail to observe that this part of the plot

could have had no effect but for the foundation laid by the appearance

of the pretended officer at Dover and his journey to London; for a

post-chaise coming through the City with white cockades and laurel

branches would have had no effect except to excite laughter and

derision, but for the preparation made by De Berenger in the character

of Du Bourg; and when you find for the purpose of producing the same

effect, such a coincidence of plan, and such a coincidence of time, the

one the basis and the other the superstructure, although I shall not be

able to prove all the parties meeting together, conferring together,

consulting together, still it will be impossible to doubt that these are

two parts of one whole; that this is, in short, not two conspiracies,

but one and the same conspiracy.

Gentlemen, the enquiry respecting the chaise from Dover led to much more

important results. It was the first business of the Committee to learn

to what place this pretended Du Bourg went in the Hackney-coach from the

Marsh-gate. They found out the Hackney-coachman, and he informed them

that he was directed by Du Bourg to drive, and he did drive straight and

direct to No. 13, Green-street, the house of Lord Cochrane, and it is

not an immaterial consideration in this matter, a house in which Lord

Cochrane had resided but three days, a ready-furnished house which he

had taken of Mr. Durand, and a person must have been on intimate terms

with Lord Cochrane to know where he resided on Monday, Lord Cochrane

having gone into the house only on the Thursday evening preceding.

The Coachman further informed the Committee that when he stopped at this

house Du Bourg enquired for some person by the description, as he

thought, of Captain or Colonel, and that the answer given by the servant

was, that he was gone to breakfast in Cumberland-street.

Having proceeded thus far, the next thing for the Committee to discover

was whether Lord Cochrane was a person who could have any possible

interest in the success of this fraud. They pursued their enquiries upon

that subject, and they discovered, to their utter astonishment, that

this nobleman--this officer highly distinguished in the navy, then

lately appointed to an important command, and one should have supposed

his whole soul ingrossed in preparation for the active and important

service on which he was going--this Representative in Parliament for the

City of Westminster, bound by the most sacred of all duties, not to

involve himself in any situation by which his honest judgment could be

warped, and his parliamentary conduct influenced--they found Lord

Cochrane to have been a deep speculator in omnium; that he had been so

for one week only; that on that Monday morning he had a large balance on

hand, and that on that Monday morning he had sold out the whole of that

balance, and sold it at a profit.

When the Committee had learned thus much, they could not but feel that

it was impossible that it could be an accidental coincidence, that this

impostor, Du Bourg, should have alighted at the house of a person thus

deeply interested in the success of the imposition which he had

practised. But their enquiries and discoveries did not end there; they

found that Lord Cochrane had not acted alone in these stock proceedings;

that he was connected with two other persons, who were still more deep

in them, the one his uncle, Mr. Cochrane Johnstone (also a member of

parliament), and the other a Mr. Richard Gathorne Butt, formerly a clerk

in the Navy Office. They discovered that these persons were engaged

together in speculations of a magnitude perfectly astonishing. I have

the statement in my hand; but I do not think it requisite, in my address

to you, to go through all the particulars. Mr. Cochrane Johnstone and

Mr. Butt, who had commenced their stock speculations on the 8th of

February, a week earlier than Lord Cochrane, had dealt much more largely

even than he had. Their purchases were the same, their sales the same;

they seemed in these stock speculations to have but one soul. If one

bought twenty thousand, the other bought twenty thousand; if one bought

ninety-five thousand, the other bought ninety-five thousand; you will

find the act of one the act of the other; and you will find these three

persons, Lord Cochrane, Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, and Mr. Butt, having on

the Saturday preceding this Monday, a balance amounting in consols and

omnium to very nearly a million--reduced to consols, you will find it

amount to sixteen hundred thousand pounds; and on the morning of Monday,

on the arrival of this news, they all three sold--they sold all that

they had, every shilling of it; and, by a little accident in the hurry

of this great business, they sold rather more.

Gentlemen, it was discovered still further, that the principal agent in

these purchases and sales, was a Mr. Fearn, a stock broker; that Mr.

Butt was the active manager; that the directions for Lord Cochrane's

purchases and sales were made mostly by Mr. Butt, and were recognized by

his Lordship; that the payment for any loss (sustained by either of the

three) was made by Mr. Butt, and the receipt of any profit was by the

hand of Mr. Butt. They discovered that Mr. Cochrane Johnstone and Mr.

Butt, were in the habit of coming every morning at an early hour to

visit their broker, Mr. Fearn; that on the morning in question, they had

come at an early hour, in a hackney coach, and that Lord Cochrane, after

having breakfasted in Cumberland-street with Mr. Cochrane Johnstone and

Mr. Butt, came in the same hackney coach, at least as far as Snow-hill,

if he did not afterwards go on to the Stock Exchange. They discovered,

too, that Mr. Fearn was not the only broker they employed; they

employed a Mr. Smallbone, a Mr. Hichens, and a Mr. Richardson; they may

have employed twenty others that we know not of, because it has been

only by accident that the Committee learned their employment of Mr.

Richardson, for Mr. Richardson not being a member of the Stock Exchange,

the Committee had no controul over him to exact information from him.

Mr. Butt had employed Mr. Richardson on the Saturday preceding, to

purchase fifty thousand omnium, of which he the same day sold thirty;

and so anxious was Mr. Butt on that Saturday to be possessed of as much

stock as possible, that he endeavoured to persuade Mr. Richardson to

purchase one hundred and fifty thousand, but Mr. Richardson trembled at

the idea of making so large a speculation, and refused to go beyond the

fifty thousand.

You have these persons, then, linked together in such manner, as will

render them perfectly inseparable in these various stock transactions;

having dealt for some little time; having bought and having sold; having

this tremendous balance, this world of Stock, under which they were, on

the Saturday evening, bending and groaning, on the Monday morning they

had disburthened themselves completely of this with a profit of a little

more than ten thousand pounds. If the telegraph had worked, that ten

thousand would have been nearer a hundred thousand--that the telegraph

did not work, was not to be ascribed either to them or to their agent.

Gentlemen, when all this was ascertained, the Committee apprised those

who had appointed them of the result of their labours; they printed an

account for the information of the members of the Stock Exchange; they

then had some private information, that Du Bourg really was De Berenger;

but on enquiry for Mr. De Berenger, they found he was gone off; they had

not, therefore, any positive proof, and on that account they very

prudently said nothing upon the subject. When they had printed this

information, for the use of their own members only; it did get out, and

there were published in the newspapers some accounts of their reports,

some of them correct, and some of them incorrect, but sufficient

undoubtedly to direct the eyes of all men to these three individuals,

Lord Cochrane, Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, and Mr. Butt.

Lord Cochrane, Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, and Mr. Butt, felt that it was

requisite for them to give some explanation upon this subject. Mr. Butt

was extremely indignant at suspicions being thrown out respecting him,

he abused those who had libelled and slandered him, and threatened

prosecution, a threat which he has not executed, nor ever will. Mr.

Cochrane Johnstone, too, equally threatened prosecution, and he has

equally failed in the execution of his threat; but one fact stated by

the Committee, roused the indignation of Mr. Cochrane Johnstone. It had

been stated by the Committee, that whereas Mr. Cochrane Johnstone and

Mr. Butt, had been satisfied before the 21st of February with doing

business at the office of their agent, that on that morning they

commenced business at an office, taken by Mr. Cochrane Johnstone for the

use of Mr. Fearn, in Shorter's Court, Throgmorton-street, an office most

conveniently situated, just by the side door of the Stock Exchange

itself. This office consisted of three rooms, in one of which rooms were

Mr. Cochrane Johnstone and Mr. Butt; in a second Mr. Fearn, and in the

third a Mr. Lance, a person also employed by them; and the Committee

stated, from Mr. Fearn's information, that Mr. Cochrane Johnstone had

taken this office for Mr. Fearn, even without his (Mr. Fearn's)

knowledge.

Mr. Cochrane Johnstone was extremely angry at this; he declared it to be

a most unqualified falsehood, and that he was ready to swear positively,

that he never had done any such thing; that the office was Mr. Butt's,

and that Mr. Butt had given it up to Mr. Fearn; now that would not

signify much, for I will shew, that Mr. Butt and Mr. Cochrane Johnstone

are one and the same. Gentlemen, I am sorry to say, that after what I

have seen of Mr. Cochrane Johnstone's conduct in this transaction, I am

not surprised at his denying this, merely because his denial is in

contradiction to the fact, but I am surprised that he should dare to

deny it, when I have a contradiction not only by a witness, but by a

letter under his own hand. I will prove to you, by the owner of the

house, that Mr. Cochrane Johnstone did take this office; he not only

took this office, but he was desirous of taking the whole house; he had

taken the office before the 17th of February, and on the 17th of

February he called on Mr. Addis, who had the letting of the house, and

he wrote and left on his desk this letter: "Sir, I called again upon you

to know if you have power to sell the house, part of which I have

taken." This is Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, who is ready to swear that he

never took any office at all--"_part of which I have taken_." Gentlemen,

mark the remainder, and apply it to the morning of the 21st of

February.--"_As I find there are several persons in the house at

present, which is rather awkward, and makes it too public_--WALLS HAVE

EARS." Mr. Cochrane Johnstone and Mr. Butt did not like that their

consultations should be liable to be overheard--their guilt might then

be proved by other than circumstantial evidence. "If you have powers to

sell, I will immediately treat with you; have the goodness, therefore,

to leave the terms with your clerk, or send them to me at No. 18, Great

Cumberland-street. I will however call again this day, before I return

to the West end of the Town."

Gentlemen, that is the letter of Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, and so much for

Mr. Cochrane Johnstone's denial of his having taken the office in

Shorter's Court.

Gentlemen, besides this denial of the fact, and this offer to swear to

it, these Gentlemen chose to make some criticisms on the report printed

by the Committee of the Stock Exchange, and the first criticism was one

of great importance.--One person had said, that Colonel Du Bourg got out

of the post chaise into the hackney coach, and another person said, he

got into the hackney coach having just alighted from the post chaise,

and it was supposed that that was a material contradiction. You will

find the fact to be, that he stepped from the one into the other.

Another was, that one person called the great coat, a _mixture_, and

another called it _brown_. In truth it was a greyish mixture, a military

great coat.

Another was, that one person had called the lace on the cap _gold_, and

another called it _silver_. It happens to be a pale gold, which

according to the light in which you view it, will appear like either

gold or silver. I will produce to you a fac simile of both coat and cap.

But it was felt that these criticisms would not suffice. Lord Cochrane

must account for his visitor, and Lord Cochrane came forward with a

declaration upon this subject, in a manner, which, I confess, appears to

me most degrading. If a person of his rank thought fit to give any

declaration, I should have thought that the mode of giving it would have

been under the sanction of his honor. Lord Cochrane thought otherwise,

and he chose to give it under the half and half sanction of a _voluntary

affidavit_. I call it so, Gentlemen, for this reason, that although he

who makes a voluntary affidavit attests his God to its truth, he renders

himself amenable to no human tribunal for its falsehood, for no

indictment for perjury can be maintained upon a voluntary affidavit. I

wish that none of these voluntary affidavits were made; I wish that

Magistrates would not lend their respectable names to the use, or rather

to the abuse, which is made of these affidavits; for whether they are

employed to puff a quack medicine or a suspected character, they are I

believe, always used for the purpose of imposition.

Gentlemen, this affidavit I have before me, and I will prove the

publication of it upon Lord Cochrane, it is thus prefaced:

"Having obtained leave of absence to come to Town, in

consequence of scandalous paragraphs in the public papers, and

in consequence of having learnt that hand bills had been

affixed in the streets, in which (I have since seen) it is

asserted, that a person came to my house, No. 13,

Green-street, on the 21st day of February, in open day, and in

the dress in which he had committed a fraud, I feel it due to

myself to make the following deposition, that the public may

know the truth relative to the only person seen by me in

military uniform at my house on that day.