The National Register.
London, England, 1814-07-10 00:00:00

438

THE NATIONAL_ REGISTER.

they (veld cause me to be tried by a special jury. Dr. Johnson, in '
reference to the happier times which Euglaud had seen, has these
Warr. :-
4, When sterling freedom circled Alfred's throne
" And Spies and Special Juries were unknown."
When, Sir, I first read these lines, I was wholly ignorant of what
special jury meant. I now understand the thing but too w ell ; and
I am not without hopes that that which bas now been practised, and
which could not have been practised without the aid of a special jury,
Wray, in the end, be the means of totally extirpating that intolerable
e% il. A special jury is composed of twelve persons taken out of for-
te•eight persons, who are selected by the Master of the Crown office.
It is notorions, Sir, that these special jurors follow the business as a
trade ; that they are paid a guinea each for every trial ; that it is
deemed a favour to be put upon the special jury list ; that persons
pay money to get upon that list ; that if they displease the judge,
care is taken to prevent them from serving again; or in other words,
to cut them off, or turn them outs from a profitable employment,
And is it this, Sir, which we call a jury of our country ? Have I been
tried by a jury of my cc:moat? No, Sir. • • •
• • • The institution of
special juries, an in,titiition unknown till times of modern date, and
repugnant to the laws of England, had its rise in a pretence, that in
matters of technical difficulty a common jury might not be com-
petent to tinders' and ; as in cases of insurance, shipping of goods, and
the like. But, what was there in this case that a common jury,
composed of tradesmen in the city of London, would not have un-
derstood? A common jury would surely have been competent to
decide upon my case as upon the caes of hundreds who are con-
demned to death upon the decision of such a jury in the same court,
where, to do me justice my case should have been tried. The
house are told that it is sufficient to have read the verdict against
me. By what principle of justice, or of reason, the house is to
proceed to inflict upon me a new punishment, without themselves
bearing and examioing. the evidence, I will not attempt to enquire.
If, Sir, the accusation against me had not brought the whole
conduct of my life tinder animadversion, I should not think it ne-
cessary to account for the manner in which my time has been em-
ployed since I was actively engaged in my professional duties.
The interval has not been idly spent, nor without a view to the
interests of my country. At an expense of nearly two thousand
pounds, for which I neither sought nor thought of remuneration, I
examined the situations and procured plans of the various impor-
tant ports and places in the l'e,cliterranean. I meditated and ma-
tured plates for the more effectual prosecution of the war. They
were approved, pronounced practicable, and considered infallible by
some of the most distinguished officers now living. I offered them
to miccessive administrations, and I also ctkred my services to put
them in execution. Subsequently, my attention was chiefly direct-
ed to the prosecution and perfection of an invention of considerable
pn!llic convenience and utility ; and on the very day of the offence
unexpectedly laid to my charge, I MB solely occupied in furthering •
this., at least, inoffensive object, without the slighest idea of the
mischief which that day was to bring forth. I had been appointed
to the command of his Majesty's Stip the Tonnant, and the loss of
that command, after expending more than a thousand pounds in
fitting for sea, is one of the many misfortunes in which this ground-
le -s accusation has involved me. To my duty on board that ship I
returns d on the Ist of March, and it was not till the Bth day of
that month that I found that my name was connected with the
frand, from the following paragraph in the public prints of the
7th :

We arc ulafi to hear that the Committee of the Stock Exchange
has made considerable progress in discovering the author: of the
late nefarious frawd ; and that they have ascertained that the pre-
trwled Colonel De llonr.gli went to the house of a gcntleman who has
a large stock jobbivg account. Though the Committer have post-
ed the following notice, yet we should hope that the gentleman
named thercii. were no parties to the deception practised. Thev
Cannot, however, take ton early an opportunity of clearing them-
ffel ves from all suspicion of having participated in the transaction :
Stock Exchange Committee room, Mardi 4.
- - - - -

• It is particularly requested, that all those members of the Stock
Exchange who transacted business, either directly or indirectly
• tor ;tic of the persons undermentioned, on Ilottilay, the list of
' Feb•nary last, will favour the Committee with an interview
• The )[nu. Cochrane Johnstone, Mr. fir. R. Butt, Lord Cochrane,
I Al r. Holloway, Mr. SPudon, Mr. 51'Rae.'
(-)ii reading' this paragraph, I lost no time (whatever may have
.
been insiima' tier leave of absence.
Qn cowing ' tre stateunta of al Unit

knew of the circumstances. It was said by the edatusel for the
prosecution, that he should have thought a nohleman would have
pledged his word and honour. If I had so pledged my ord and
honour, it would not have escaped that person's discernment that
I did not dare to make oath to the truth of my statement. The
Report of the Stock Exchange Commit tee was not d tilt two
days after my affidavit, and the description of the dress of the pre-
tended messenger, as given by them in their hand bill of the 7th,
to wit, a brown great-coat, and a red under coat, being. wholly
different from that in which De Berenger appeared before me,
which was a grey great coat and a green uniform, I firmly believed
that lie was not the same person ; and so impressed I paulished my
affidavit of the 11th ; and shortly after the affidavits of my servaota
as to the dress in which De Berenger appeared. 'these affidavits I
hold in my hand, and, it it is the pleasure of the house, I will read
them. Isaac Davies, Thomas Dewman, and Mary Turpin made
oath, than the upper coat was grey, and the collar and all that they
saw of the under coat was green. My affidavit of the 11th of
March was most unmercifully handled by the Counsel for the pros
sedition, and also by the Chief Justice. They insisted that I must
have known when I received the note, that it came from De Berenger.
My statement was,that while I was superintending work at 111r.King's
manufactory I received a note, but did not know that it came Irons
De Berenger, because the name was written so close to the bottom,
that I could not read it. It was triumphantly remarked, that this
note was not forthcoming. It was mentioned as a suspicions eira
cumstance, that I could not produce this note. The fact is, that I
tore it, and threw it down. I had not the smallest i:lea that it was
worth preserving--a note merely soliciting an interview which I
was immediately going to grant. What could it contain that the
writer himself could not inform me of ? For what purpose should I
preserve it ? If I had preserved it—it' I had brought it forth—what
would have been said? Why, Sir, that there could not be a more
suspicions circumstance—that I could never have been so careful of
an apparently insiguifieant scrap of paper, if I had not foreseen that
it might one day be called in question, or otherwise that it had been
subscrinently fabricated. I have to lament that I was not mote par-
ticular as to the important fact of my going away from the Lamp-
maker's, under the imp' ession that I was about to meet an officer
with distressing intelligence relative to my brother, the Hon. Major
Cochrane. I can now only supply the deficiency, by offering time
same statement and the same evidence which I tendered to the
Court of King's Bench when I made my second application for a
new trial. I then obses•ved, " that 3 was in apprehension of fatal
news respecting my brother then in France, from whom I had re-
ccived a letter but three days before, with the intelligence of his
being ill ; and I now tender you his affidavit, with the surgeon's
certificate, dated the 13th of February, which he brought horns
with him ; and, therefore, on receiving the note from Dc Berenger,
whose name I was unable to decipher ; and as that note announced
that the writer, who, I learnt from my servant, had the appear-
ance of an officer in the army, was desirous of seeing me, I hastened
to learn intelligence so anxiously expected ; nor had I the least
doubt that it related to my brother. I was too deeply impiftssed
with this idea, that the note was addressed to me by an officer who
had come with intelligeuce of my brother, to apprehend that it was
written by De Berenger, from whom I expected no communica-
tion, and with whose handwriting I was not familiar. All thatl
could afterwards recollect of the note, more than what is stated in
my affidavit, is, that he lout something to communicate which
would affect my feeling mind, or words to that effect, which con-
firmed my apprehensions that the writer was the messenger of fatal
news of my brother." The affidavit of my brother, as well as the
'certificate of the surgeon, were treated as fabrications : and with
respect to my brother's letter, the Judge would not believe that I
had received it, unless I could produce it, and stew him the post-
mark. It is known to all my friends, that I seldom preserve such
letters as are not likely to be of flame importance—but it was also
known to many of my friends that I had received such a letter.
And since my brother Colonel Cochrane's return from Ireland, I have
learnt that he did actually receive the letter inclosed from ; and
he is ready to prove it; and my other brother, Major Cochrane, has
sworn to the fact of having sent it. The lean:ed Judges would not
believe there was time for the arrival of such a letter between the
12th and 18th of February ; but I did not speak to the date of the
letter. I only said, that I received it on the 18th: and my brother
,
did not swear that it was written on the 1201, hut early in ha
binary. Now, I expressly stated, that my brother brought the. cer-
tificate home with him. It was granted to him on the 12111.0! 1:e•
bruary by the surgeons of his regiment, for the purpose of being
laid before a Board of Medical Officers to show the necessity of Ins
return to England: where he arrived snow time in March, and um,

ward to the contrary) in apply
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