till Monday evening. Davidson noticed that
when he left on the Monday he had a new great-
coat on.

But long before all this scoundrelism could be
brought to light, a rumour had got about that the
pretended De Bourg had been proved on the 21st
of February to have visited Lord Cochrane in
Green-street, in his sham dress, and fresh from
the successful trick. "At this time," says
Lord Cochrane, " I had joined the Tonnant at
Chatham, and was preparing to sail for the
South American station; but on learning the
injurious report, and being, moreover, indignant
that the perpetrator of the deception should
have dared to visit me, I determined to
denounce him, in order that, if he were really the
guilty person, his name should be made public
at the earliest possible moment, so that no time
should be lost in bringing the matter home to
him. In pursuance of this determination, I
obtained leave of absence from the ship. On
my return to town, I found that, though the
authorities were ignorant of the name of the
person who came to my house on the 21st of
February, public rumour did not hesitate to
impute to me complicity in his transactions.
I immediately consulted my legal advisers. The
result was, that an affidavit was prepared,
and submitted to an eminent barrister, Mr.
Gurney, to whom I disclosed every particular
relative to the visit of De Berenger, as well
as to my own previous, though very
unimportant, transactions in the public funds. I
was advised by him and my own solicitors to
confine myself simply to supplying the authorities
with the name of De Berenger, as the
person seen at my house in uniform on the
21st ultimo."

Lord Cochrane, a man of a fiery nature, of
severe honour, and of the most heroic courage,
scarcely knew how to strike the deadliest blow
at these mere vaporous rumours, so invisible yet
so poisonous. He at once drew up a minute
affidavit of how his time had been spent on the
fatal day, and disclosed the name of De Berenger.
The Tories, eager to impugn the honour
of so bitter an opponent, fell on him like flesh-
flies on a galled blood-horse. Castlereagh,
always small and malignant, remembered too
well the Westminster meetings, and the daring
conduct of Lord Cochrane upon Burdett's
committal to the Tower. The Tories were eager
to fly at his throat, and now there was a
chance. Lord Cochrane was held answerable,
with the others, for the fraud. The trial came
on at the Court of King's Bench on June 8,
1814.

Mr. Adolphus (Mr. Gurney's junior) opened
the pleadings on the part of the prosecution,
from which it appeared that this was an indictment
charging the different defendants, Random
De Berenger, the Honourable Sir Thomas
Cochrane (commonly called Lord Cochrane),
the Honourable Andrew Cochrane Johnston,
Richard Gathorn Butt, Ralph Sandon, Alexander
M'Rae, John Peter Holloway, and Henry
Lyle, with conspiring, in a variety of different
counts, by the raising of false reports, to raise
the funds to a higher price than they would
otherwise have borne, to the injury of the public,
and to the benefit of the conspirators. To
these various charges the defendants pleaded
"Not guilty."

Mr. Joseph Fearne, stockbroker, of 5,
Shorter's-court, close to the side door of the
Stock Exchange, deposed that Mr. Butt, Lord
Cochrane, and Mr. Cochrane Johnston, had all
rooms in the same house. He was introduced
to the two last gentlemen by Mr. Butt, and was
employed by them to make purchases in the
funds. He frequently saw them all three
together, and Lord Cochrane recognised Mr. Butt's
orders. From the 12th to the 19th, witness made
various purchases and sales for all three. On
the evening of the 19th, Lord Cochrane's balance,
in omnium alone, amounted to a hundred and
thirty-nine thousand pounds in his favour; Mr.
Cochrane Johnston's omnium amounted to about
a hundred and twenty thousand pounds, and his
consols account was that day about a hundred
thousand pounds; Mr. Butt's omnium, he
believed, was one hundred and fifty-four thousand
pounds, and his consols one hundred and sixty-
eight thousand pounds. On the morning of the
21st of February, he sold them all, both omnium
and consols. On that day he saw Mr. Butt and
Mr. Cochrane Johnston about ten. About
eleven the news came. He sold omnium first
at 26¼, and last at 30½. Consols rose from 70 5/8
to 72½. About two o'clock the funds fell again,
as the report was disbelieved. All three had
bought and sold to an enormous amount ever
since November. He was told to sell out whenever
he could get one per cent for their stock.
He often sold twenty thousand pounds and
thirty thousand pounds' worth of stock at a time.

Several stockbrokers deposed to Mr. Butt
and Mr. Cochrane Johnston making large
purchases a few days before the hoax, and on the
Monday selling to great advantage. Fifty-four
one-pound notes, found in the desk of De Berenger
when seized at Leith, formed part payment
of a cheque of Lord Cochrane, and had passed
through the hands of Mr. Cochrane Johnston.
A Mr. Le Marchant deposed that he was
acquainted with Captain De Berenger, who had
stated to him that he was about to go to
America with Lord Cochrane. The witness
asked him how he could do that under his
existing embarrassments? De Berenger explained
(about the 14th of February) that he had put
Lord Cochrane upon a scheme of raising large
sums of money by the funds, and that Lord
Cochrane had a private purse for his (De
Berenger's) use. This purse was composed
of a certain per-centage on the money
which his lordship made by De Berenger's
suggestions regarding the stocks. (All this,
probably, applied to Mr. Cochrane Johnston.)

Mr. Serjeant Best and Mr. Serjeant Pell
addressed the court on behalf of the defendants;
and Mr. Brougham called Lord Melville
and Colonel Torrens to prove Sir A.
Cochrane's exertions for De Berenger, whom