Lord Ellenborough. Let all the Defendants stand committed, and be brought up to-morrow morning to receive the Judgment of the Court.
Court of King's Bench.
Tuesday, June 21, 1814.
Charles Random De Berenger, Lord Cochrane, Richard Gathorne Butt, Ralph Sandom, John Peter Holloway, and Henry Lyte were brought up pursuant to the order of the Court to receive judgment.
Mr. JUSTICE LE BLANC.
The six defendants, whose names have been now called, are to receive the judgment of the court, in consequence of a conviction upon an indictment for a conspiracy; that indictment, and the evidence which had been given upon the trial, on which trial the jury pronounced the several defendants guilty, was more particularly stated to the court yesterday, in the course of the discussion which took place. The sum of the offence charged in the indictment was, that these six defendants, together with two other persons, who do not now appear to abide the judgment of the law, had conspired together, by spreading false rumours and reports in different places, to occasion a rise in the price of the public funds of this country, on a particular day, and thereby to injure all those subjects who might purchase stock on that particular day; that was the sum of the charge contained in the several counts of the indictment on which the defendants were found guilty.
I will shortly advert to the circumstances of the case as they appeared in evidence. From that evidence it appeared, that some of the defendants had been, for a short time previous to the time when this conspiracy was put into execution, (namely the 21st of February,) largely speculating in the public funds of the country, and that at that time three of the defendants who now appear before the court, together with one of the defendants who does not appear, were either holders of stock, or persons who had contracted for the purchase of stock, to a very considerable amount. It appears, that on the 19th of February, which was on a Saturday, a person, not expressly spoken to by the witness, had purchased of a military accoutrement-maker in this town the dress, or at least part of the dress, and accoutrements, of a foreign officer, stating at that time, that it was designed for a person who was to appear in the character of a foreign officer, and that on the same day another person who was concerned in another part of the plot, had produced a small parcel at home which had been given to his wife, and the next morning (Sunday) had brought home two coats and two hats, evidently intended to fit out two persons with the appearance of foreign officers. Those are the first circumstances that appear previous to the day when this plan was to be put in execution.
The next period to be adverted to was the morning of Monday, the 21st of February, and on that morning, about a quarter after one o'clock in the morning, one of the defendants, Charles Random de Berenger, makes his appearance at the door of the Ship Inn at Dover, wearing the dress of a foreign officer, as described by four witnesses, who saw him at Dover with the scarlet uniform of a military officer under a grey great coat, and a military cap, the cap worn by military officers, applying to be furnished immediately with a chaise and four to proceed on his journey to town, holding himself out as a person who had just landed from a vessel come from the coast of France, and bringing very important intelligence of the success of engagements in that country, in which the Ruler of France had been defeated, with other circumstances not particularly necessary to be adverted to, and that the consequences would be in a very short time a peace between that country and this. He is expressly recognized and pointed out as being one of the defendants, Charles Random De Berenger, by four different persons who saw him at that time in the morning at the Ship Inn, where he continued for some time, while horses were preparing, having called for pen, ink and paper, to write a letter, as he professed, to be sent off to Admiral Foley, the Admiral commanding the ships stationed in the Downs, and while there actually dispatching a messenger with such letter to Admiral Foley, which is proved to be afterwards received by the Admiral, affecting to communicate this intelligence, and signing this by the affected name of De Bourg, as aid-de-camp, to what appears to be intended for Lord Cathcart.