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

JULY 10.

resides in Portman-squat e. in a very precarious state of health. The
authenticity of the certificate is unquestionable ; and it is more im-
portant, since it was ni.t obtained for the purpose of proving the
truth of my statement, but his the original certificate authorising
his retorn to England on account of ill health, and bears date nine
days prior to the ::Ist of February. It includes a period of six
weeks, namely, from the Ist of January : and yet the learned Judge
argued against the probability, nay, stated, that it was almost im-
possible, that I should have heard of his illness on the 17th of Fe-
bruary ! With respect to inv account of the conversation which
passed between De Berenger and myself, I submit to Ow house, that
it is not only true, but pet feetly probable. It was not necessary
that I should know the business which De Berenger had been
transacting, in order to belie% e that he had reasons for wishing to
quit the kingdom. His wish to go to America, and Sir Alexander
Cochrane's application in Isis behalf, were known to me, and clearly
proved on the trial : and the prosecutoes Counsel admitted De Be-
renger was in the rules of the King's Bench, and so involved in debt,
that he would rather reside in any country than this.. After the ap-
prehension of Mr. De Berenger, I did, by the advice of Mr. John.
stone, address to him a letter through the office of Lord Solmouth,
calling Nom him to state to the public his reasons for coshing to my
house on the v'lst of February —and he answered that " his object
was correctly detailed in my affidavit." I hold this original letter in
my lunch.
Relying upon the difference of the dress in which De Berenger
appeared before me from that described by the Stock Exchange
Committee, and on the assurance of Mr. Johnstone that De Be-
renger bad informed him that he could unequivocally prove an alibi
by at least a dozen credible witnesses, and believing that, at all
events, my own ismoeence mould prove nsv protection, I felt so
perketly secure as to the issue of the trial, that I gave no instroc-
tipos to counsel. attended no consultation, and never even read my
own brief; into which a fatal error was introduced ; but leaving
the whole business entirey its the hands of my Solicitor, I retired to
my noose in the country, and did slot retnin till two days previous
to the trial. His Lordship next complained that his ease had been
mixed wills that of Mr. Butt, -contrary to his express directions.
He denied and disproved, by a letter from his solicitor, Isis having
any concern in setting up De Borenger's alibi. As to De Berenges's
dress, his Lordship stated Ishii:elf to be now rrady to prove that it
was such as he had sworn it to be, and not suet& as Crane described,
and, regretted that his servants had not been called to prove his de-
poßition. He sent them to Goildhall for the purpose ; but an error
having crept into tho brief, wherein De Berenger's coat was de-
scribed to have been a red one with a green collar, though he (1
Cochrane) had sworn it to have been green, Mr. Serjeant Best re-
fused to examine thens. Ili __.s Lordship glanced at the probability
ghat Crane might be influenced by the reward of 2501. offered by
the Committee. He described Crane from the fallowing paragraph,
extracted from some paper :
" On Friday last William Crane, the driver of the hackney-coach
No. 782, was summoned before the Commissioners, upon a char,:e
of cruelty to his horses. The circumstances detailed were so shecNag
us induced the Commissioners to obserce, they never heard a more
atrocious case."

Now, Sir, I ask, continued his Lordship, is the evidence of an old
and faithful servant, who has been in one family 17 years, together
with the evidence of three other witnesses of unimpeached veracity,
to be outweighed in the balance by a wretch of this stamp ? On
the subject of thc bank-notes, found in De Berenger's possession,
which had been evehaoged for others that had once been his ; his
Lordship pledged himself to prove, that they were given by him to
Mr. Butt,' for bona fide payments, for money borrowed, and to
Messrs. Wilkinson and Crosthwaite, his Lordship's wine-merchants,
in whose cellars he was engaged. more than two hours, on the d.iy
the fraud was alledr,ed to have heen anmed, tasting wines to be
sent oti board the Tonnant. Having mentiotr.d Mr Butt, I take
this opportunity of stating, that my connection with the fowls
a:Ose from a conversation with that Gentleman in Oetc.ber la 4.
when the progress of the allies and the favourable aspect of affairs
induced him to recommend me to place my spare money in govern-
me, t securities. I told him, that I had disport! of it in private se-
curities and land. He then informed me that I might rain without
advancing, the principal, and offered to conduct the business for me.
He urged this proposal, which I then declined, being unwilling to
entor into spectilations which I did not understand. However, in
in the course of a few days, to my great surprise he brought me the
sum of 4301. as the profit on a speculation which he said he had
made for me. Not wanting the money, I desired him to sport with
it till he, had knit it. Between that veriod and the 19th of Feb.
the sum which he had gained for anti placed to my account, without

4.99

my control, amounted to 4.2001. I have witnessed many disinterested
acts of Mr. Butt, and I think him incapable of a dishooourble
action. His Lordship next proceeded to comment with great bit-
terness on the conduct of the noble Judge who tried the cause. (This
we must omit, as likewise his observations on the Jury]. %illy did
Lard Ellenborough, in his charge to the jury, (continued his Lord-
ship), take one part of my affidavit as true, and another as false ?
professes to quote from my affidavit as to the facts of my fur-
nishing De Berenger with a coat to wear instead of his uniform :
and put it to the Jury to consider " whether a man coming so dis.
guised, and going away with his disguise in a bundle, was not on a
dishonest errand ?" In all this Lord Ellenburough professes to
quote, and draw conclusions from my affidavit ; and he represents
me as acknowledging De Berenger to have come into my presents
disguised; and going away again with his disguise in a bundle I If
there be one word of this in my affidavit, then I am p'erjnrcd, and
Lord Ellenborough speaks truth. 1 stated, that De Berenger.
an officer in a rifle corps, called upon me in a green uniform ; and
this, the Judge submits to the Jury, is ka disguise, and a proof of
his coming on a dishonest errand I

" Having hunted down the game," continues this Chief Jastice,
the prosecutors at last sheaved whit became of his skin. And •
it is a very material fact, that the defendant Berenger strip-
ped himself at Lord Cochrane's." Whys is it muteriai
cause it is one of those facts, which a guilty man would Lave been
most anxious to conceal : and since this material fact inver enuld
have been known if I (Lord Cochrane) had not voluntarils divulged
it, it is chiefly important, as furnishing strong presumptive proof of
my innocence. [His Lordship then takes several detached parts of •
Lord Ellenborough's charge, on which he rematkvaith great free-
dom of invective. This we must pass over, for the reasons hefore
assigned.] His Lordship complained that it was not stated to the
Jury, that he was from home two hours after De Berenger.called ;
who had consequently time to change his dress, and had a portman-
teau with him to carry off his disguise, the. same probably in which
he carried it to Dover : that he (Lord C.) first disclosed the tact of
De Berenger's coining to his house On the proceedings that took
place atter the trial, his Lordship said,—l did think, that as the
witnesses who could materially have contributed to prove my inno-
cence of the charge had not been ex:mini:A; and aft I could sheer
that their not being examined originates' in error, and that such
error was not my own, that I had a just claim to a new trial. My
first application was rejected under the pretext of a Rule of Court
—which is, that no person. however innocent, if included with
others in an indictment for a conspiracy, and if the dill-lenity of
separating the cases are condemned, shall be allowed a s encasing,.
unless he eau catch his supposed associates, and compel theinto ac-
company item into Court—a condition which it hi as indispeusible as
impossible to pertiirm. As I could In inter see the wisdom nor
justice of this Rule of Court, I pressed stiy hard to be heard in he.
halt of my. ; but it so happened that another person, also
convicted of a conspiracy, had that very mornin; beets refused a
new trial ror a similar reason. On my second attempt to obtain a
new !rial. I was indeed permitted to speak ; and I have reason
to belicve that the statement• which I !ben read notivinced many
persons its court, and has since convinced many thffliqklidS out of
court, of my entire innocence. Of' the ditierent documents on
which my :notion for a new Iliad was fUlllPded, some were not per-
mated to be read, and others were only read to be rejected.
Among the latter was 111 V affidavit of the 11 th of June, to which
call the attention of the Hmse :

[The affidavit has been given in a fOrmer paper.]
Here, Sir, I submit, is ample refutation of the aspersions"cast upon
me from the Bench. I trust the House will now be satisfied, that I
lost no time in divulging all that passed, and did, a' the earliest
a tios,Able period, make a full demand of all that passed betwi en
me and pi. Ilerenger on the v.lst of February, and that he did not
appear before me iu the " costume of his crime." 01 all ty1111111ie(5
Sir, the wort is, that which exercises its reins mice under the
glllAe of judiciai proceedings, and especially if a filo y make part
of the means by which its base purposes are 016.10. The
who is flung into a prison, or sent to the.seatlAil, at the nod of «n
avowed despotism, has, at least, the consolation to know that Lo
•uffictin;s bring down upon that despotism the execratioo of man.
kind ; but he who is entrapped and fifiangl4d in the meshes of a
crafty 11,1141 corrupt system of inrispiudence; who is pursued imper-
ceptibly by a law with leaden ti et and iron jaws ; who. is not put
upon his trial till the ear of the pribliC has been P"6"1"11. amid i'4
heart steeled against him, falls at last,:witliont being (-ucre(' w't.t
a hope of seeinu his tyrants cwt.:Opt, even by the woolliest of
tilelid3. • In their principle, the ancient and settled law; of Etz.

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