From thence he is traced distinctly through the various stages where he changed horses, at Canterbury, Sittingbourn and Rochester, where he stopped and took some refreshment, and had some conversation with the landlord of the Crown Inn, who speaks to his dress at the time of the communication which he there made, similar to that which I have adverted to as having been made upon his first application for a chaise and horses at Dover. From thence he proceeds to Dartford, and from Dartford in like manner, the last stage, into London. The post-boy who drove him the last stage into town, besides speaking to his person, and all of them having picked out and fixed upon Charles Random De Berenger, whom they afterwards saw in court, as the person who had so travelled from Dover to London, having had opportunities, during the last stage, of seeing him while he was out of the carriage and walking up a hill, and while he conversed with them directing them to the place to which he should be driven. He inquired where he could first be set down, and could meet with a hackney coach; one place proposed by the postboy did not meet his approbation, he stating that it was attended with too much publicity, and he then directed himself to be driven to Lambeth where a hackney coach might be procured, and at the Marsh-gate turnpike at Lambeth he was ultimately set down, and stepped from the post-chaise into a hackney coach, and at that period he is spoken to positively, not only by the postboy who had driven him to that spot, but by the waterman who opened the door and put down the step of the hackney coach; he swears distinctly to his person and to his dress, that he had then a scarlet coat under a grey great-coat, with a military cap. From thence he directs himself to be driven to Grosvenor-square. Those are the orders given to the coachman when he gets into the coach, and then he directs the coachman to a particular house and number in Green-street, which was the house of one of the other defendants, Lord Cochrane, and into which house the coachman proves his having seen him enter in that dress first described by the witnesses at Dover, and confirmed by all the witnesses on his passage during his journey, namely, a red uniform coat under a grey great-coat. So much for that part of the transaction which relates to the spreading of false rumours and reports respecting what had happened in France, and the prospect of peace in the way from Dover to the place where he was last set down, the house of Lord Cochrane in Green-street on that same morning.
The other part of the plot or conspiracy was put in execution at somewhat a later date, by the efforts of some of the other defendants, namely, Holloway, M'Rae, Sandom, and Lyte, on that same Monday morning. The innkeeper at Dartford receives a note from Sandom, ordering a chaise to be sent to Northfleet, at a particular hour, to bring persons to Dartford, and to have four horses ready to convey them to London. Accordingly three persons, two of them, I think, described as wearing a military dress, and white cockades in their hats, come in that chaise to Dartford, from whence, with another chaise and four horses, the horses ornamented with laurel, and the men inside with white cockades in their hats, they drive at a quick pace to London, through some of the principal streets of London, over Blackfriars Bridge, and there directing to be set down at the same place, the Marsh-gate at Lambeth, they get into a hackney coach, and no more is heard of them. This seems to have been a counterpart—another branch of the plot, which was put into execution about two hours after the first chaise had arrived with the defendant De Berenger, and in that these persons are proved to have been concerned whom I have stated.
Immediately upon the arrival of De Berenger at the house of Lord Cochrane in Green-street, dressed as I have described, in the dress in which he was first observed at Dover, he appears to have dispatched a note to Lord Cochrane, who was not then at home, and that note is delivered to my Lord Cochrane at a place somewhere near Snowhill, where Lord Cochrane was at the time. What the contents of that note were, as the note has not itself been produced, we have no evidence. Upon that my Lord Cochrane immediately returns home in a coach. There is no doubt but the defendant De Berenger was then at the house of my Lord Cochrane, and there, before he leaves the house, with the privity and in the presence of my Lord Cochrane, he changes the uniform which he wore at the time, and in which he is proved to have entered clothed, and puts on a black coat of Lord Cochrane's; he exchanges his military cap for a round hat of Lord Cochrane's likewise, in the house, and then he gets into the hackney coach which had brought Lord Cochrane, and goes away in that dress, and in that coach, and on that same day, which is Monday the 21st of February, the whole of this property in the funds, or these contracts for stock in the funds (of which it is not now necessary to state the particular sums) which was held by Lord Cochrane, by Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, by Mr. Butt, and by Mr. Holloway, is sold by those persons at an advance which advance had been occasioned by that which had taken place in the course of the early part of that day.
The additional circumstances which are proved in evidence, and which I will only now shortly advert to, are those stated by the broker Fearn, who had been the purchaser and the seller of a considerable part of this stock for particularly three of the persons, Lord Cochrane, Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, and Mr. Butt; he was introduced by Mr. Butt to my Lord Cochrane and Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, and had managed, or appears to have had considerable hand in managing, these speculations in the funds.
In addition to that, it appears, that afterwards, I think, on the 27th of February, De Berenger disappears, and is some short time afterwards, the particular day was not, I believe, mentioned in evidence, apprehended, passing under a feigned name, at a distant part of the country, with considerable property at that time in his possession, having been before, up to the 21st of February, living as an insolvent within the rules of the King's Bench prison.
The question which is next material to be adverted to is, how far any of these circumstances implicate the defendants who are found guilty on this record. I have stated the circumstances with respect to the minor actors in this conspiracy. De Berenger, who was the actor and the propagator of the false rumours from Dover to London, and the other persons who were the propagators of these false rumours from Northfleet to London. It is singular that De Berenger should instantly drive, in the dress in which he travelled from Dover to London, to the house of my Lord Cochrane; should instantly send and have an interview with my Lord Cochrane; and that in the presence and with the knowledge of my Lord Cochrane, before he left his house, he should change that dress in which he had arrived, and should go away in a dress of my Lord Cochrane's: those are things which could not happen by accident; and the court see that they have not been accounted for in any satisfactory manner; and they certainly were not accounted for in a satisfactory manner to the minds of the jury, who have drawn the conclusion of guilt, by any explanation which was then given, either by word or upon oath. The manner in which it is attempted to be accounted for is, that De Berenger, who was but slightly known to my Lord Cochrane, had come at that time to him upon some other business; that as to the note which he sent to my Lord Cochrane, and which has not been produced, my Lord Cochrane at the time did not clearly perceive by whom it was signed, or from whom it came, and that he went home immediately upon receiving it, in expectation that it might be from an officer coming from abroad, bringing him an account of the health of a brother, who at that time, or shortly before, had been labouring under a dangerous illness; that note which was sent has not been produced, and no satisfactory evidence has been stated, either before the jury or since, upon the application which was made to the court for a new trial, to fix precisely the time when any account had been received by my Lord Cochrane of the illness of this brother, or holding out to him any expectation at what time, and by what means, he was likely to hear further accounts of him. If any such letter had been received, if it had come by a private hand, the person who brought it might have been called to show the information which he had received; if it had been brought by a ship, or by post, the mark on the direction and the envelope of that letter, would have given some explanation of it, but no such explanation has been held out either to the jury at the trial, or to the court since, on the opportunity which was afforded my Lord Cochrane yesterday of stating the grounds upon which he wished to have a new trial.
There is another circumstance in evidence which I have not yet adverted to, and it is this, it was proved in evidence, and I will not go through the particulars, that shortly before this 21st of February, namely, on the 16th of February, a broker, of the name of Smallbone, had drawn a bill on Jones, Loyd, and Co. in London, for the sum of 470l. 19s. 4d. payable to a number, upon which nothing arises, or to bearer; but that this bill, or check, was given to Lord Cochrane, so that it was in his hands; the money received for this check at the bankers, was proved in evidence to consist of particular bank notes; those bank notes were afterwards changed, and appear to have been changed industriously for other notes, by a person employed, I think by the defendant Butt, and part of the produce of this check had been employed by Lord Cochrane himself in the payment of a bill of a coal merchant of his, and a number of the small notes that had been produced by the change of some of the larger notes for which the check was changed, were traced to the hands of De Berenger himself; and many of them actually found in his possession, and in his trunk at the time he was shortly afterwards apprehended in a distant part of this kingdom; now this is a coincidence of circumstances which requires very satisfactorily to be accounted for, in order to raise a doubt in the mind of any one that there was a connection with respect to this transaction, and an intimate connection between the parties charged upon this indictment, I mean particularly the defendant, my Lord Cochrane, the defendant Butt, and the defendant De Berenger. Where we find that it is to the house of my Lord Cochrane that he comes immediately after having acted this part in spreading this rumour between Dover and London, and where the very notes that are found upon the person of De Berenger, before in insolvent circumstances, are part of the produce of that very draft which had actually been traced to the hand of Lord Cochrane, and by the intervention of another of the defendants, Butt, had likewise, I think, been through the hands of Mr. Cochrane Johnstone paid to this very De Berenger, and found in his possession when he had absconded, and was going by another name in a distant part of this country.
With respect to the other part of the transaction, when we find who were the persons who benefited by this plan, which has been so put into execution; that the persons who were connected together in speculating in the funds up to the very period of the 21st, and were then the holders of very considerable sums, or contracts for those sums, down to the morning of the 21st, got rid of all of them in the course of the 21st, and when those circumstances of connection which I have adverted to have been so clearly made out, and no satisfactory account given, nor any reason given to expect that a satisfactory account would be given, if a further opportunity of investigating it should have been afforded, how can the court come to any other conclusion if they have to exercise their judgment upon the fact, but the conclusion to which the jury have come, namely, that the defendants are guilty; that it was a conspiracy ingeniously and cunningly devised, extensive in its operation, most mischievous in its effect, and contrived for the wicked and the fraudulent purpose of enriching some few individuals at the expense of others, who might be induced to sell, and to buy property on that day, or who might be in a situation to be obliged to do it, which was the case with the suitors of the court of Chancery.
The offence of conspiracy is in itself always viewed in the eye of the law as a heinous offence; and where a number of persons connect themselves together in order to carry into execution a plan which one alone cannot carry into execution, and where that is done with the evident intention of fraud, to put money into the pockets of certain persons, and by that means to defraud others, such an offence is and always has been considered in the eye of the law as an infamous offence, and calling upon the court who are to administer the justice of the country for a punishment, as far as they can inflict it, proportionate to the infamy of the crime.
It is with pain that the court in passing sentence upon the defendants have to advert to those circumstances, which, applying to particular persons, appear to aggravate the guilt of the offence of which they have been convicted; it is painful for the court to observe, that among those who stand for judgment there should be any person whose situation from rank, connections, education, and every thing held honourable among mankind, ought to have felt himself so far above being connected with persons of the description with whom he has been connected, and mixing in traffic with which he has been mixed, which independently of the crime of which he has been convicted is disgraceful and disreputable to any man, I mean gambling in the funds to the amount and to the extent to which it is proved; it is painful for the court to have to animadvert upon such an offence in such a subject; and more painful to feel, that in the exercise of their duty they are bound to say, that the greater opportunity which a defendant had of knowing his duty, and the higher he felt in rank and in situation, and the less temptation he ought to have felt to have offended the laws of his country, in this respect the heavier falls the weight of guilt upon him.