Star.
London, England, 1814-06-10 00:00:00

ton ; the persons, however, who could contrive such
an account, had not the skill to cover all the circumi-
stances in a way artful enough to elude detection.—
A cheek was presented for payment, and several
large Bank-notes were received, which were after-
wards changed for one pound notes at the Bank, and'
those were given in payment to Mr. De Berenger,
when his demands would have been as readily and AS
correctly saticfied by a payment of the notes of one
hundred pounds each. When a defence like this
failed, it served only to make the grounds of convic-

tion clearer.
. Lord ELLet4sonouutr, addressing himself to the Jury,
said, this conspiracy was charged to have been com-
mitted by eight persons, against the Stock Exchange.
A conspiracy was a wicked contrivance and combina-
tion to do public or private mischief, which was to
be ascet taine.d by the actions of the contrivers, rather
than by their words, as it was not necessary to shew
that they had consulted together ; for if persons
broke into a house, one at one place, and one at ano-
ther, if they conducted themselves in a manner that
spewed they acted in concert, it was useless to prove
that they had contrived to commit the depredation.-
-The evidence, which, he was sorry it was his duty
to detail so minutely concerning the conduct of men
respectable from their stations in life, he would read
with all possible accuracy, as it contained a multitude
of circumqances, from which the guilt or innocence
of the defendants was to be inferred. They were

charged wilt conspiring, by artifice and contrivance,
to defraud the Members of the Stock Exchange, by
promulgating false news, with the intention that the
rumour should operate to the injury of the public, and
their -own advantage ; and it was actually proved,
that one Gentleman had purchased £15,000 of stock
when this extraordinary advance had taken place,
and, in fact, every one would be injured who became
a purchaser. The indictment stated, that all the de-
fendants were conscious that gain would be the conse-
quence of their endeavours ; and though some of them
did not appear as proprietors of stock, yet, as they en-
deavoured to render the fraud effectual, they were
considered as all combined in one act of conspiracy.
It would be for the Jury to say whether all those
persons concerned in the management of different
contrivances were not all engaged in one combina-
tion? One party, it appeared, were meanly disguised,
and decorated with worsted lace, while Du Bourg,
who appeared as the chief character, was babited as
an Aide-de-Camp, and his clothes very splendidly de-
corated ; and from the various parts which they per-
formed, it ought -to be examined whether they were
not perhaps connected in one scheme, by the artifice
of one person or more. The first question was, whe-
ther De Berenger was the man who appeared at Dover,
at one o'clock in the morning, of the 21st February,
as the harbinger of glorious intelligence, and who pro-
ceeded to London in the dress of a foreign officer ?
Much had been said about the letter from Dover, to
Admiral Foley, communicating these false news, but
had the telegraph been able to work, all the stock
which the defendants possessed would have been
sold at a most exorbitant price. On examining the
leper it appeared to be an artificial stiff hand ; one
part was written in an angular, unnatural, and sharp
hand ; and in another part it was written in a manner
free enough. Much had likewise been said concerning
the want of proof to connect this letter with Ds Be-
renger, but he had freely admitted it himself on his
way to Loncl,n to one of the past boys, and he con-
El riled its contents by repeatedly announcing that
Bonaparte was defeated and slain, and that the Bout-
bens were restored. 'this was great intelligence in-
deed, and appeared extremely well calculated to in-
crease the price cf Storl. s from 27 to Mt. With re-
spect to the identity of the man who committed this,
all the witnesses after sharply looking round the Court,
directly singled Mr. De Berenger out as the person
who spread this intelligence, and as they had all oppor-
tunities of observing him well, theirevidence respecting
his identity was as clear and satisfactory as any that
had bcen ever submitted to a Court; they differed a
little indeed about the colour of his cap, but all wet e
positive of his person. If thbse witnesses were not
bt lieved, then every man who had been convicted
at a criminal Court was murdered by the evidence,
for many were hanged on testimony not half so satis-
factory as this. It had been represented by those who
were anxious to set up an alibi, that Mr.De &Tenger
was elsewhere at the period of this transaction, but
their story was inconsistent and contradictory. The
evidence on the par; of the prosecution took up Mr.
De Berenger at Dover ; they found him knocking at
the door of an Inn, dressed and decorated like an
Aide-de-Camp. He wore a German cap wound
about with gold ribbaed, a military great coat
with one of scarlet below, a sash round his waist,
a star on his breast, and a medallion suspend-
ed from his bosom. He informed them that
he was the bearer of glorious news ; that Bonaparte
WAS defeated, followed, and killed by the Cos-
sacks, who fought for shares of his body as if it
had been gold. This information was speedily
carried to the metropolis, and the person who brought
it was very liberal of his good Napoleons on the road:
an unprecedented rise immediately took place in the
funds, and he was really concerned to hear such a
transaction called by the soft name of a hoax. At the
same time, other ons, disguised in a similar man-
ner, appeared at Dartford, spreading intelligence of
a similar kind, and this had been called the underplot
of the contrivance. The dress in which this adven-
ture had been effected was the first thing to be traced,
and it appeared that a parcel, containing two scarlet
coat-sleeves, a medallion, and a star, was dragged
from the bottom of the river Thames ; after having
hunted the animal down, they next found his skin.—
Lord Cochrane, in the affidavit made public on the
hh of March, first connected the name of Berenger
with this transaction ; for his Lordship represented,
that while he sat at breakfast he received a note, and
found that it came firm) Mr. De Berenger, who wan-
ted to converse with him on matters of imposance.—
He was dressed in a green uniform, and said he wan-
ted to call on Lord Yarmouth, but his dress rendered
it impossible ; his Lordship, however, furnished him
with suitable elcthes, and he put up his uniform in a
towel, and departed. Such was the account, and it
was for the Jury to consider whether a man coming
so disguised,. and going away again with his disguise
in a bundle, was not on a dishonest want ? But if
other witnesses were to be believed, that visitor went to
Lord Cochrane's house recently after having blazoned
the false news, decorated with 'a star, a medallion,
and..aressFsl in a scarlet coat.- The point to be cousi-

s,

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