The public character which you have been reminded he possesses, would of itself repel such a charge as that which is made against him, though it were supported by much stronger evidence than has been offered in support of this indictment.
Gentlemen, I come now to the case of Mr. Cochrane Johnstone; and with respect to him, I find that the charge is attempted to be made out against him upon these grounds; first of all, that he was a very great speculator in the funds. Gentlemen, I charge again upon the Stock Exchange the same unfair mode of proceeding, with respect to Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, which they pursued in the case of Lord Cochrane: with respect to Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, they take up the case, I think, on the 8th, but my learned friend applied his observations principally to the 12th of February. Now, gentlemen, so far from that being a fair statement of the transaction, it appears most clearly, that Mr. Cochrane Johnstone had been speculating in the funds, and speculating as desperately from the month of November, as he was in this month of February. But another thing is pressed against Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, the largeness of his balance on the 21st of February, which is stated to be £.420,000; now, gentlemen, I am astonished that the Stock Exchange should instruct my learned friend to say any thing to you upon that subject, producing the account which they have produced; if Mr. Cochrane Johnstone had never had so large a balance before, there would have been something in the argument; but cast your eye up that page, and you will find that Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, who is supposed to have been desirous of getting a quantity of stock into his possession, to sell on the 21st of February, had on the 14th £.615,000; so that this gentleman, who is supposed by the prosecutor's case, to have meditated a fraud by the sale of stock on the 21st, is found reducing his balance immediately before that day from £.615,000 to £.420,000; to contrive and carry into execution such a trick as that which has been practised, must have taken many days. It certainly must have been in contemplation as early as the 14th, how then can the prosecutors account for Mr. Johnstone's conduct in selling between the 14th and 21st, if Mr. Cochrane was one of the persons who had been contriving to put into his possession all the stock that he could purchase, for the purpose of selling it on the 21st; this is so entirely inconsistent with what must have been the view of a man engaged in a transaction of this sort, that a view of this paper is sufficient to show that there could not have been such an intention; look at this paper, and you will see what he was in the habit of selling; look at his daily sales, and you will find that he began selling; on the 9th that he sold £.10,000, on the 10th £.105,000, on the 11th £.35,000, on the 14th £.100,000, on the 16th £.10,000, on the 17th £.19,500, and on the 19th, this gentleman, who is supposed to have meditated such a fraud as this on the Monday following, sells out £.18,000. Let any man in his senses, any man not carried away with the feelings which agitate the Stock Exchange, in consequence of their having been outwitted; for these sharps, who are called flats by one of the witnesses, did not like to be taken in by other sharps. Let any dispassionate man look at this paper, and say whether Mr. Johnstone could have contemplated the rise in the funds that took place on the 21st.
Gentlemen, it is said that he made a very large profit; that will not prove much, because he was making this sort of profit on several occasions before. What was the general habit of his business, as to the Stock Exchange? Why, that he was content with a very small profit, constantly telling his brokers, that whenever they could get a profit they were to sell, and he was acting in the very same way, until the day on which this transaction took place.
Gentlemen, I have also to observe particularly, that though he did go into the city on the Monday morning, he was in the habit of going every morning; he did not get there any earlier on that day than on any previous day, and so far from his being concerned in the sale of this stock, a very considerable quantity (Hichens speaks to £.50,000) had been sold before he or any one of these gentlemen came there; how is it possible therefore to say, from the circumstance of his being possessed of this stock, and selling it, that he was implicated in this transaction; on the contrary, I ask you, looking at the whole of this evidence, ask yourselves this plain question, whether he was not selling on the 21st upon the same principles as he had been selling to an immense amount on the preceding days on which sales had been had?
Gentlemen, with respect to profit, I believe that will appear somewhat different from what it has been stated, if you cast up the amount of profits. We are sought to be charged with a fraud. Why? because these three gentlemen all together made a sum of £.10,000, which, however, these gentlemen of the Stock Exchange have put their hands upon, and nobody is likely to get at, as they state it; I believe the whole did not amount to more than £.6,000, but the prosecutors state it at £.10,000, that is to be divided among the three, another person taking a share too; but if profits have any thing to do with it, you will find the sales made by Mr. Cochrane Johnstone alone on the 17th, produced a profit of above £.8,000; how, therefore, can you presume, merely from the circumstance of the profits made on the 21st, that he was connected with this conspiracy? Gentlemen, he was near the Stock Exchange, and if in the secret, he certainly would have availed himself of the practice to which I have alluded, namely, selling at a favourable moment, stock he was not in the possession of; all the brokers have been examined, and not one of them has been able to tell you of one single shilling stock sold by these gentlemen, or either of them, of which they were not actually in the possession. It is impossible, if he is so rapacious a man as to engage in a speculation to ruin his fortune and his character, to account for his not taking advantage of such a state of things.
Gentlemen, next to the profit made by Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, is his having been engaged to take a house for Mr. Fearn; and here I was led to expect that my learned friend would falsify the statement made upon oath by Mr. Cochrane Johnstone; he was to prove, that what he had sworn to, or offered to swear to, of his not having taken the house was untrue; it is enough for me to say, that that is not proved; it is an unfounded statement of my learned friend, proceeding from misinstructions which have been given to him by his clients; but on the subject of taking this house, my learned friend must have felt the distress of his case when he pressed it upon you.—Why, gentlemen, what are you desired to find? not that these parties were generally engaged in stock-jobbing transactions; not that these parties had conceived an intention of dealing for a continuance in the stocks; but that they had planned a scheme by which, at one stroke, they were to cheat all persons who came to engage with them in the Stock Exchange; the fraud was to be over in a single day; they wanted no office for that; that could be wanted only for the purpose of carrying on that scheme of stock-jobbing, which these persons began in November, and have actually continued long subsequent to the 21st of February; but does it not appear that my learned friend is wrong in his instructions. According to the papers we have seen (most improperly circulated) a house was taken for Mr. Fearn, without his knowing any thing about it; and Mr. Fearn found himself seated in the office, without knowing how he came there.—Does that turn out to be the fact? No; it turns out that Mr. Butt had an office before, which he did not like; Mr. Cochrane Johnstone took another office for Mr. Butt; Mr. Fearn came to look at Mr. Butt's office, liked it, and it was kept for him. In consequence of this, this office, which you are told was taken by Mr. Cochrane Johnstone for Mr. Fearn, without his knowledge, was taken by Mr. Fearn for himself, because he found the house to be a convenient one; and it was suggested to him by his friends, that such a house would be extremely convenient to them. Upon this, Mr. Butt agreed to give up one of the rooms he had, and allowed Mr. Fearn to take possession of that room. Gentlemen, there is another thing which proves that the taking of this house had nothing to do with this particular day; you find, that Mr. Fearn not only continued to possess these rooms, sticking up his name there, but that he liked them so well, he has since taken the whole house, and now continues to occupy it.
Gentlemen, what is the next head of evidence pressed against Mr. Cochrane Johnstone? It is, that Mr. Cochrane Johnstone called, and left a letter on Saturday the 26th, at the lodgings of Mr. De Berenger. Gentlemen, in the first place, I have to observe, that it was but very loosely and unsatisfactorily proved, that Mr. Cochrane Johnstone was at the house of Mr. De Berenger on that day; but I will admit it, for that is the best way, perhaps. I never have denied, that Mr. De Berenger was acquainted with Mr. Cochrane Johnstone; I never denied that they were in the habit of dining together, and if they were, where was the harm of his leaving a note at the house of Mr. De Berenger.
Gentlemen, I did expect, as there has been so much activity (an activity by the bye that has gone beyond the proper line) in seizing the papers of this gentleman, that we should have seen the letter that Mr. Johnstone left at De Berenger's; but no such letter is produced, and although the prosecutors have got possession of every paper belonging to De Berenger, not a scrap of paper has been produced in the handwriting of my clients; all that is proved is, that Mr. Cochrane Johnstone called upon De Berenger, as one acquaintance would call upon another. Gentlemen, God forbid, that because he does so, it should be conceived that he is a party with Mr. De Berenger in this scheme, if he has been concerned in it.
Gentlemen, the next attempt is this, and a miserable one it is; all possible means have been had recourse to, for making it out; for not only has Mr. Basil Cochrane's servant been subpœnaed by the Stock Exchange, to prove who are the persons dining at his house, but the females of this family have been subpœnaed to this place, and kept here for the purpose of proving the same facts which might have been admitted at any hour of the day, and not only subpœnaed, but that subpœna sent by a person whose presence was the most insulting of any one who could have been selected in this town, and who could have been selected for no other purpose than that of offering insult to the members of this family.
Gentlemen, the next circumstance in this case is, that some money was found in the chest of Mr. De Berenger, which certainly had passed through the hands of Mr. Cochrane Johnstone. Gentlemen, I think you have a clue already given you, by which you can account how De Berenger became possessed of Mr. Johnstone's money. But I shall offer other evidence on this part of the case; I will shew most satisfactorily how that money came into De Berenger's hands. You have had it proved already, that Mr. De Berenger is an extremely ingenious artist; you have had it proved, that he was engaged by Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, for the purpose of planning a new Ranelagh, to be called Vittoria, near Alsop's Buildings. Now, I will prove to you, by a witness I will call, that part of this money was paid by Mr. Cochrane Johnstone to De Berenger, for the plans he had drawn for Mr. Johnstone of the projected garden; and the remainder was lent to Mr. De Berenger on his note of hand, by Mr. Johnstone. Fifty pounds was advanced in September last, when the plans of the garden were begun; and £.200 more was paid in the month of February, the 25th or 26th of February. Mr. De Berenger, at the time he was paid for his plans, stated that his distresses were such, that though what he had received was all he had a right to ask of Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, in satisfaction of that which was due to him for what he had done at Vittoria Gardens, yet he hoped Mr. Cochrane Johnstone would advance him £.200 more, by way of loan. Mr. Cochrane Johnstone was exceedingly desirous of relieving the distresses of Mr. De Berenger; but he would not do it, unless he found he would be effectually relieved by the proposed loan. I will prove to you, therefore, that he took same days to consider of it; and on being satisfied on that point, he did lend De Berenger another £.200; and this money was paid in that manner to Mr. De Berenger and Mr. De Berenger has given his note for it, payable in six months.