The Statesman.
London, England, 1814-03-29 00:00:00

la
`r,- •

MR. COCHRANE JOHNSTONE'S

MENT.

Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, after having, for so-,
many years, experienced the persecutions of power;
after having so long had to endure the effects Of a
struggle of right against might ; after having hid to
encounter, from certain quarters, every species of,
foul play, that of subornation of witnesses, or, at
least, something very nearly bordering upon it, not
excepted ; after having, in short, by the most per-
severing malevolence, been obliged to descend from
those high views, to which his situation in life, and
every thing belonging to his character entitled him,
without presumption, to look ; after all this, he did
flatter hirnsi.lf, that it was not too much to hope,
that he iyould be permitted, in an humbler walk of
life, to exert, for the preservation of hiMself and
family, those powers of mind, • which all the persecu-
tions lie hatlendergone had not been able to subdue.
Eree in" this hope, however, he was, it appears, to
meet with disappointment; and the same unrelent-
ing sprit; the same mean, undermining, and viper-
tongued calumny; which had pursued him as a
Governor and a General, was still to haunt him in
ilicoussting.house and his walks upon the 'Change.
Butt in the present instance, as in every former
luttance, those who have thought proper unjustly
to aisait his character, will find, that however he
himself may suffer, he, at any rate, is not so to be
assailed with impunity.
ft'ls very clear, from all the circumstances, and
from every thing that has been alleged with regard
to rho recent Hoax, that Mr. Cochrane Johnstone
his been in no respect implicated, except upon mere
vague suspicion.
The person, or persons, practising the Hoax, have
not keen attempted to be traced to him, not even in
that ridiculous way in which it has heel) attempted
to trace one of them to another place. lii short, the
only two false assertion, made with respect to bim
'(cud all the assertions have been false, whethel• re-
garding him, or Lord Cochrane, or Mr. Butt); Ole !
only tutu assertions which, when looked into, affect
him, in any degree whatever, are these, that he took
an office expressly for the purpose of carrying on a
traffic in the Funds, and as. it were to be ready pre- I
pared for the Hoax when it should tnke place • and
that he did this without the knowledge of? Mr. I
Fenn!, the broker, who was to occupy that office.—
Mr. Johnstone, in answer to this assertion, declares
it to be a most unqualified falsehood ; the fact being,
that the office was given up to Mr. Fearn by Mr.
Butt, at the earnest solicitation of the former, and
merely to oblige him. Mr. Cochrane JOhnstonelay-
tug no itiferest whatever in the premises, either as pro-
prietor or renter.
As to the second assertion, that Mr. Cochrane.,
Johnstone ea% the purchaser of Stock to a large
amount, on Saturday, the 19th of February, and
that he had it all sold out trope morning of the Ist
of February, that is to say, on the morning of the
Hoax ;as too-this proposition, be must first observe, I
that it will hens be necessary to embrace in his an-
rover the cans of. Lord Cochrane -and Mr. Bett, as
well as his own, all three of them having been asserted
to hare Icted in Precisely the same manner, as far as
relates to thii buying and sealing. 'The Sub-Com-
asittee of the Stock Exchange, after having given
what they called the evidence of Mr. Hearn, and of
Mr. [lichens (that of Mr. Smallbone and. Mr. Rich-
ardson being of a trifling native, but precisely of the
same character), after having gone, under the names
of these Gentlemen, into a detail of monstrous
sums, conclude with a remark of their own in these
v. outs :

" From these statements it appears, that on the!
off,...rnaon of Saturday, Feb. 19, the three parties I
above mentioned, may be considered as having pur-
chased for the next settling days, the following sums i
viz." and then they proceed to the detail of sums,
making in the whole upwards of a Million of Stock,
'he whole of which, they add, 66 was sold OM the
morning of Feb. 21."
It is quite impossible, that the public should noway
have believed, from this most daring assertion, that
the whole of this Stock had been purchased upon the
Saturday, and sold.on the Monday; and if the pub.
tic did believe thief it was neat to impossible that
it ‘ltould not also have believed, viewing it In con- i
notion with the other assertions, sent NO ib the
pretended evidence of the same Sub-Commilieii'that
the three parties were all privy to the lloatit. int' I
Were guilty of what was called " an lufamowil thief
ippois the public."
TO whom, then, will that Public be disposed to
resift:lHr

apply their epithets of infamous and f ,bleat,
when Mr. Johnstone asserts, and declares that he
is reedy to prove upon the oaths of his Brokers,
and those of Lord Cochrane and Mr. Butt, that not
cue shilling's worth of Steck was purchased fdr any
one of the three, on Satarday, the 19th of Febru-
atly ; and that the Sub-Committee never were told
by Mr. Fearn and Mr. 'lichens, that the purchase
was made on the 19th of February ; nay more,
that the Sub-Committee had the accound of these
twos Brokers before them at the time; when they
agreed unanimously, as it appeared from their Re-
port, to send forth this abominable falsehood in
print. The truth is, that, instead of the 19th of
February, on which day nothing was purchased by
the parties, the Stock sold by them on the 21st had
been purchased by them on the 12th and 14th of
February, and a mere trifle on the 18th. If these
--‘...partie; had been privy to the Hoax' they would of
course have purchased largely Olt the 19th, and
they would have sold on the 21st from 331 to 35
Premium, but instead of which, they sold at an
• average of 291, being no more than abegt 1 pet
profit. It is, therefore, not reconciloable to
comitup sense to suppose that either of the parties
could have been privy to this Hoax. It should be
Oserved also, that if they had been Flu to the
Hoax they might have sold a Millie., or Millions

Tit it-

'--------
Hiehens, ite.both ready to prove upon thelr oaths
the truth of every word which he has here stated,
awl which statement he entertains not the smatlist
doubt wilt hi perfectly satisfactory to every unpre-
iudiced mind.