The Trial of Charles Random de Berenger, Sir Thomas Cochrane, commonly called Lord Cochrane, the Ho | Page 9

found one coach, and one coach only; Colonel Du Bourg stepped out of the post chaise into the hackney coach. He gave each of the boys a gold Napoleon; he drove off, and away they went, as happy as they could be, to spread every where this very glorious news. This you will find to have been at about nine o'clock in the morning.
Gentlemen, you may very readily suppose that very soon after ten o'clock, this news reached the Stock Exchange; whether through the post boys or by the expresses sent up from Dover, it did reach the Stock Exchange at a little after ten o'clock. Probably you know that business commences at ten. At ten business commenced as it had left off on Saturday; the price of Omnium for some time was 27-1/2. It began extremely flat at 27-1/2--it went on 27-1/2--but in about a quarter of an hour, accounts came that an officer from Paris had arrived at Dover, and had come up in a post chaise and four to Government with this news, which was recited in detail. The Funds immediately rose to 28--28-1/2--29 and 30, and on it went till about twelve o'clock, when no letter coming from the Secretary of State to the Lord Mayor, people began to doubt its truth, and from 30 Omnium fell to 29, and was getting down, when between twelve and one o'clock there came the amplest confirmation. This, Gentlemen, you will find to be auxiliary to the main plot, and a very important auxiliary. In itself it would have been absolutely nothing. There drove through the City, a post chaise and four, with three persons in it, two of them dressed like French Officers, in blue great coats, with white linings; they wore white cockades, and their horses were decorated with laurel. As they went along they dispersed little billets announcing this news. After a kind of triumphal progress through the City, they turned to the left at Bridge Street, went over Blackfriars Bridge, quitted the main road for the New Cut, and when they had arrived near the Marsh Gate, within a hundred yards of the spot at which Colonel Du Bourg had alighted, these three gentlemen got out of their chaise, folded up their cocked hats, put on round hats, and walked off.
Gentlemen, this you may suppose, indeed we all know, produced an emotion in the City not to be described. There is nothing so contagious as popular feeling, especially on a subject of great public interest. This stamped certainty upon the news; this reached the Stock Exchange, and the funds, which had begun to droop, revived; Omnium rose to 30, 31, 32 and 32-1/2. Thus it went on for a short time, till persons having been sent to the West End of the Town, and it being found that no Messenger had arrived at the Office of the Secretary of State with this intelligence, it was discovered that this had been a gross and wicked deception; and the Funds returned to very nearly their former level. But there were very large sales made, and of course there were many persons defrauded. The members of the Stock Exchange felt it, and felt it deeply; and they appointed a Committee to investigate this business, and to ascertain who were the parties to this fraud. That Committee pursued the investigation with great industry, and they discovered that which I shall lay before you in evidence. As the underplot is the shortest, I may as well dispose of that first.--They ascertained that this second post chaise had come from Northfleet, which is, you know, near Gravesend. That Mr. Ralph Sandom, who is a Spirit Merchant, living at Northfleet, but who was at that time also like Mr. De Berenger, a prisoner within the rules of the King's Bench, and who kept within the rules just as faithfully as Mr. De Berenger did, had sent, early in the morning, to Dartford, for a post chaise and four, to be sent to him at Northfleet, and for four horses to be ready to take him on to town; and that Mr. Sandom; a Mr. Alexander M'Rae, a person in most desperate circumstances; and Mr. Lyte, who is, I believe, a little Navy Agent, and a very poor man, were the persons who had come in this post chaise; and that M'Rae and Lyte were the two persons who were dressed in the uniform of French Officers.
Gentlemen, they ascertained further, that Mr. M'Rae resided at a lodging in Fetter Lane; that on Saturday the 19th of February, he had brought into his lodgings a couple of great coats, blue lined with white, to resemble the coats of French Officers; that he had white cockades made up by his wife in the lodging, and