Widnes Examiner. — 1884-02-23 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

THE STORY OF CRIDIE.—Two years after his marriage there occurred one of the saddest incidents that ever fell to the lot of a noble, true-hearted man. A great fraud was perpetrated on the Stock Exchange, the price of funds having been raised by false intelligence of a victory of the Allied Armies. The bearer of the news was a man named De Bourg, or Beringer; this man was seen to enter Lord Cochrane's house, and it was notorious that a relative of Lord Cochrane's made an enormous sum of money by the panic. It was a golden opportunity ler the enemies of the gallant sailor to avenge themselves; they piled up report and rumour against him, and the result was he was brought to trial. Lord Chief Justice Ellenborough was undisgnisedly biassed in his judgment against the victim, and the charge, which was brutal in its severity, led to his being found guilty, and sentence was passed. The sentence was— te stand for one hour in the pillory in front of the Royal Exchange; to suffer a year's imprisonment in the King's Bench Prison; and to pay a fine of £1,000! The public voice was too strong to allow the first part of the sentence to be carried out, and it was rescinded; but Lord Cochrane was expelled from the House of Commons; his name was struck out from the Navy List and the roll of Knights of • the Bath; and his banner taken down from Westminster Abbey—and it is said was kicked down the steps by an official. Never was degradation more terribly coniplete. But the knowledge of his own innocence, the comfort of his brave • wife's faithful love, the sympathy of his constituents at Westminster, who immediately re-elected him, being confident that he was a victim of enmity, sustained him under the trial. Upon the £l,OOO note with which he paid:his fine, and which is still retained in the Bank of England, he wrote these words: "My health having suffered by long and close confinement, and my oppressors being resolved to deprive me of property or life, I submit to robbery to protect myself from murder, in the hope that I shall live to bring the delinquents to justice." This was written when he had completed his term of one year's imprisonment; prior to that, after nine months' incarceration, he escaped from the prison, fell from a height of 25 feet, and for some hours lay insensible. Then he crawled to the house of an old servant, and in a few days presented himself in Parliament, although a reward of 300 guineas was issued for his apprehension. He was dragged from the House of Commons by main force, and confined in a miserable cell in the prison, where he remained until his time expired. It is curious to us of this generation to know that each a state of things could be in existence only so few years ago. The men of Westminster believed him innocent, and, as we have said,l re-elected him, though still a prisoner; the great mass of the people, with whom he was popular, believed him inn°. cent; even Lord Ellenborough's mind miogave him, and his health failed, for he too, perchance, aeliev ed in his innocence; men of all shades of political ?pinion looked coldly upon the eminent lawyer, and for a time society shunned him. For all that, it was 45 years before Lord Cochrane had his innocence proved, and his good name and honours restored to him.—Heroes of Britain in Peace and War.  SAY'S COMPOUND OP LINSEED, Aniseed, Benega, Squill, Tutu, Ste., with Ohlorodyne, 9id„, is. ltd„ 28. 94., of Oheisaists. delvt.