The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-17 00:00:00

THE SOUTH-EASTERN COMPANY
AM) THE BOARD OF ORDNANCE.
EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE THE COMMITTEE.
Members present—Lord Ashley, Sir Charles Douglas, Mr.
Dun be, Mr. Tatton Egerton, Mr. Hawes, Mr. Hayter,
Mr, Olden, Mr. Pakington, Mr. Wilson Patten, Mr. Roebuck,
Mr. Sheridan, Mr. Tancred, Mr. Vernon, Lord Worsley.
Benjamin Hawes, Esq., in the chair.
Francis R. Bonham Esq., called in and examined.
Witness—ln making the application lam about to do to the
Committee, I trust you will allow me to preface it with a very
few observations.
Cita IRMA you allow me to precede what you are
going to say, by stating what the Committee have entrusted
me to communicate to you? It is their wish that the whole of
the evidence that is supposed to militate against you, in your
public capacity, should be in your hands, and that you should
have the full cognisance of all that has been alleged against
your public conduct ; if that has not been done, you are at
perfect liberty to wait till you have full cognisance of all that
has been said before the Committee, before you make any
statement.
Witness—l am exceedingly obliged to you ; I have had no
papers. My object in appearing here may b 3 considered
an improper object. I am told that I have forgone an ad-
vantage, and I am quite willing to forego that in the
anxiety that I have of setting myself right, or at least of
making such explanation, whether it be satisfactory or not,
as in my cross-examination or the evidence of ethers will
bear the test of truth. The object of my coming here
is to pray that I may be immediately examined ; and one
word I have to say upon that. It was late on Wednesday
when I heard that a statement was made as to the cheque.
I heard it -indirectly ; this Committee was sitting, and the
immediate impulse upon my mind was to send in to beg to
be examined at the moment ; but I felt that as you pro..
lrably were upon the other question, that is, immediately
upon the petition, it would be impertinent and improper
for me to occupy your time at that moment. It was
only last night that I heard in a way that may readily
occur by a gentleman that was examined, that the
question of the cheque was gone into. I immediately deter-
mined in my own mind to appear before the Committtee; the
advice of the only friend I consulted upon it was against it ;
he said, " You forego an advantage ; you should hear the
whole first." lam ready, however, to forego that advan-
tage, and I am perfectly willing to state the case, sub-
jecting my statement to the test of cross-examination
afterwards, and the statement of other witnesses who
may be examined. I am prepared to make a state-
ment of the .precise facts. The Committee will re-
member that the transaction was nine years ago. I have no
paper of any kind or sort. I think, however, my statement
will be so correct as to defy contradiction ; at the same
time, up to yesterday, when I saw Mr. Wray after his examina-
tion, I was mistaken as to one point which I am extremely
anxious to explain ; be set me right yesterday as to that. My
statement must be very short: In the early part of the session
of 1836, Mr. Wray, to whom I was under considerable
obligations (it is not nec2ssary to state them with any
explicitness), came to me and said, "I am very much
interested in the success of the South-Eastern Railway,
and I wish you would give us a lift ; and I want your
advice upon some points." I said, " Nly dear Wray, I owe
very great obligations to you, and I will do anything I can to
serve you." He said, " I should be very much obliged to you
if you would." And, npon that, I have not the least hesita-
tion as stating that I did all I could individually to assist Mr.
Wray in the object he had in view; that is, in plain terms,
I did what I could to assist him in passing that
Bill, both in and out of Parliament. Mr. Wray never
held out to me one word, nor did any conversation ever take
place, as to any advantage of any kind or sort that I was to
derive from it. I considered it a great personal advantage ;
I mean personal, with reference to the debt of gratitude that I
owed him ; I considered it a great pleasure to myself to do what
I could for him. There were some questions upon the French
lines where I gave them some advice, I will not say assistance,
because they were well able to assist themselves. -I
never had
any communication in any way with any members of the South-
Eastern Railway Committee. I never had from them directly
or indirectly, or from Mr. Wray, directly or indirectly, any offer
of any personal advantage to myself to be derived from it.
After that Bill was passed, Mr. Wray .came to me and
stated that the South-Eastern Railway Company felt that I had
been of use to them, great use to them, I think he said, and
that they had kept a quantity of reserved shares, which had not
been disposed of, and that they liad determined to appropriate
100 shares for my benefit. Mr. Wraj said," I know it will not be
convenient for you to hold these shares," Meaning, of course,
what I do not deny, that I am pot a rich man.. " I will hold
them for you, and I think I can derive some advantage from
them ;" and Mr. Wray, I think, about three weeks after-
wards (he will be able to tell you better), came to me and
said, " I have been able to make 3001. of those shares, which
I will give you." From beginning to end, so far as I know
of the transaction, I have no hesitation in stating that
that is the whole transaction. It is nine years ago, and I
had very mush forgotten it ; my impression was the other
day, that I had not received the 3001., but that, in point of
fact, as I owed Mr. Wray money, Mr. Wray had received the
300 i. for my benefit, liquidating the debt. That was any im-
?session ; but the day before yesterday, when I stated this to
Mr. Wray, he said, " You are wrong, depend upon it ; I gave
you the money, either in a cheque or money." And I said,
" If you did I have not the least recollection ; but as I never
meant to suppose fur a moment that I had not had the
benefit of it in some way, you are much more likely to know
than I am, and therefore I take it for granted, under
the circumstances, that I received the money." I have
not the least recollection of receiving it, but I take it for
granted that so it is. I cannot have the slightest doubt of
it, and I must take it for granted that he did give me the
cheque. I can only state again that, as to the transaction
itself, there was never, at the time I assisted him, the smallest
expectation on my mind of deriving any advantage from it ;
and of eourse, when I state this, the Committee will most
naturally and properly take care to ascertain that fact from other
quarters. I think I can undertake to say, net knowing who the
Directors of the South-Eastern Railway were at that time, so
much as this, that all those gentlemen will tell you the same. I
should hope so, for, upon my honour, I do not know their names,
not all of them ; but I challenge them all, from beginning to
end, to say that I had ever the slightest expectation of any
kind or sort, Attui Mr. Wray also ; and the proposal as to these
shares *as never made to me till after the Bill had passed, and
the shares I never received, inasmuch as it would not have
been convenient ;_ but the shares' worth, afterwards, I did re-
ceive from Mr. Wray; that is the transaction.
Was that the only sum which you so received from the
South-Eastern Company ?—Certainly, unequivocally the only
sum.
Have you read the petition which has been presented to the
House from the South-Eastern Railway Company ?—I have.
And, of course, therefore, you have read the letter, signed
" J. Hignett," dated " February 3, 1845 ?"—Yes.
I will read two passages in that letter :—" I spoke to Mr.
Bonham on the same point," that is, the allocation of forth-
coming shares, " but he feels some difficulty, as there is to be
an opposition in Parliament to your lines. You can send some
shares to him or not, as you please, and mark your letter, Pri-
vate,' and state that you do so at my suggestion." Have you any
explanation or observation to make upon that ?—Mr. Hignett
never spoke to me on the subject in any way. I had never
communicated with him upon it. I never heard of the ex-
istence of any letter written, as it appears, on the 3d February,
up to the receipt of this letter from Mr. Fearon. Upon my
honour, as a gentleman I was perfectly ignorant of the exist-
ence of such a letter till I received this letter from Mr. Fearon.
The witness read the same as follows :
" South-Eastern Railway-office, 35 a, Great George-
street, Westminster, June 26, 1845.
" Fa:* isel it my duty to inform you, that under the advice
of counsel, a letter addressed by Mr. Hignett, the solicitor of
the Bard to which you are attached, to the late Secretary of
the South-Eastern Railway Company, will be produced this
day at the sitting of the Committee on Group A ; your name
is mentioned in this letter, and it will no doubt appear desirable
to you that you should be present.—l have, &c.
( Signed) " JOHNitP. FEARON,
" Solicitor to the South-Eastern Railway Company.
" Francis R. Bonham, Esq., Ordnance-office, Pall-mall."
The 26th of June was Thursday ; Thursday is not a board day
at the Ordnance. lam there every morning, but I had
quitted the office, and by a mere accident connected with other
matters, I went there to see somebody at a quarter to three;
and if it had not been for that, I should not have found the
letter till the following day. It was of course too
late to go down to the Committee that day. I im-
mediately sent for Mr. Hignett, not having the
least idea to what the letter could refer, to in-
quire whether he was in the House ; they said he was not ;
soon afterwards Mr. Hignett saw me. I was a good
deal embarraLed and astonished, and felt in a difficulty
to know what to do. Neither of my colleagues, neither
Colonel Peel nor Captain Boldero, was in the House. Very
soon afterwards Captain Boldero came in, and brought a copy
of the letter addressed to him, and two or three minutes
afte:wards Mr. Hignett came in, in a state of great
agitation. I said to him, "I am very anxious to know
what this is. but I think all explanation had better be in
writing." He went out of the room, of course, immediately,
and I wept very soon to a club in the neighbourhood. I
said, " 1 shall be at the Carlton for some time." In about
an hoar or two afterwards I got a letter from Mr. Hignett ;
it was a confused letter, certainly, but the main point of the
letter was—. I de not like to put in the letter, because
you will have evidence enough to show you that I could not
have had anything to do with it. I will not put in that letter,
but I may say that Mr. Hignett wrote me a letter, expressing
his vexation, and so on, but saying that he was quite pre-
pared and ready to admit that he had never had any communi-
cation with me on she subject. The letter came about an hour
after I quitted the Ordnance-office. It came to the club. I
was in a private room in the club. I did not choose to remain
at the Ordnance, because I was afraid Mr. Hignett would come
op, I wished to be a*ay.
The Committee wish you to produce the letter which you
received from Mr. Hignett.
The letter was read as follows :
" Office of Ordnance, June 26, 1845.
" Sir—l have perused a letter addressed to you by Mr. J.
P. Fearon, solicitor to the South-Eastern Company, dated
this day, adverting to a letter stated to have been written by
me to the late Secretary of that Company, in which your
name is mentioned ; and in compliance with your desire to
be furnished with some explanation, I beg to state that I
remember applying for some new shares four or five months
ago, I having previously held some of the old shares in my own
name for individuals of my family; but I have no recollection
of having used your name in my letter to the secretary. Most
assuredly I had no authority from you to apply for shares in
your name, or on your behalf, neither had lever communicated
with you on the subject. If I did so, it must have been inad-
vertently, and very improperly no doubt, and I deeply regret
that the circumstance will occasion you much annoyance.
" I have, &c., " J. HIONETT.
" F. R. Bonham, Esq."
Soon after, Colonel Peel came in from the House of Com-
mons, and said to me " What upon earth is this story ?
There is a story down at the House about you?" and I im-
mediately pet the letter into his hands, and said, " My dear
Peel, all I can tell you is, upon my honour I never heard
one word open the subject. What is the matter? first let
me know what the story is." He said, " You had better write
to Mr. Lascelles to get a copy of the letter ;" and I had half
written a letter to Mr. Lascelles, when it occurred to me
that to write to Mr. Lascelles was perfectly absurd, inasmuch
as the Committee had refused to receive the letter, and there-
fore I could not get from him a copy of it ; but as Mr.
Fearon bad written to me a letter which, in the hurry of the
moment, I had forgotten to answer, the answerirg of Mr.
Fearon's letter would give me a. very good opportunity for in-
quiring for the letter ; I kept a hurried copy of the letter which
I wrote to Mr. Fearon; probably Mr. Fearon would put in the
original; this was the letter which I wrote to Mr. Fearon the
same evening. The witness read the same as follows :
" 35, Clarges-street, June 26, 1845.
" Sir,— On my return to the Ordnance office this afternoon
I found your letter, in which you state your intention of pro-
ducing a letter from Mr. Hignett to the secretary of the South-
Eastern Railway, in which letter my name is mentioned,
and I thank you for the courtesy of your communication ;
and I have since heard the substance of its contents, but I
should be glad to have a copy of the letter, in which I am,
f course, deeply interested. In the mean time, I can only
give the most solemn assurance that neither directly nor in-
directly was 111 r. Hignett authorised to use my name, or
make any application on my behalf, for any shares in any com-
pany, and that I had not the slightest notion that he had ever
done so.—l have, &e.
(Signed) " F. R. BONHAM.
" J. P. Pearbis, Esq."