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it is to trace a mail-coach in its progress | it had access, that very article of dress, from one town to another; and, I greatly which every consideration, connected with wonder, that it did not strike the Commit- a desire to keep himself clear of imputatée, that a man, so clever as the Hoaxertion, must necessarily have urged him to must have been, would naturally go to hide or destroy!The Bow-street ofsome intermediate house between the coach ficer is said, by the Committee, to have asand his place of refuge; betwen the coach serted, that the man servant of Lord Cochand the residence of his associates.The rane has been since sent away, and that he reader will observe, that we are here talk- hears, that the said man servant has been ing, not of a hasty and unadvised act; not sent into the country.Now, supposing of a thing done upon the spur of the mo- this to be true, and I merely suppose it for ment. We are talking of the execution of the sake of the argument (not believing one a scheme, which must have been the sub-word of the matter), the man must either ject of long deliberation amongst acute men. have been turned away, or, he must have They had had leisure to digest all the parts been sent out of the way, for fear he should of their plan, which was not difficult of give disagreeable evidence. If the former, execution, except in as far as related to the it is too ridiculous to suppose, for one moavoiding of detection. This must have inent, that his master thought him the debeen the thing to which all their skill was pository of a dangerous secret; if the latter, directed. And, with the knowledge of this is the country a place to hide a man in? in their minds, how could the Committee Or, is he gone to the mines, or to some caconclude, that a part of the plan would be vern in some wilderness in this woody and for the Hoaxer to go, in open day, directly desert island, where he is fed by ravens, as to a house, where he "appeared to be fami- the Prophet of old? Why not bring him "liar," and that the associate in the hoax forth, Mr. Sayers? Why not ferret him lived at that house?Upon the face of out?But, did it ever occur to any man the thing, this one single circumstance must in his senses, and particularly to the deep be conclusive, in the mind of any impartial contriver of a plot, to let a dangerous witman, that Lord Cochrane could have no ness out of his own hands? If my Lord participation in the hoax. But, the Cochrane had disguised the Hoaxer for the Hoaxer's fur cap was found at Lord Coch- purpose of avoiding detection, would he rane's house; another pretty good proof have called his servant to assist in the that his Lordship was wholly ignorant of work? Would he have suffered a servant the hoax; for, otherwise, having furnished to see the work of disguising going on? his associate, or, rather, his agent, as they Could he not have got the disguise and would have it, with a disguise, would he have fitted out the Hoaxer himself? What not have taken care to destroy, or hide this devil, what bungling imp could have remarkable cap; this memorial of Cockney prompted him to call in a footman, without gullibility? Dennis, in his most witty and the smallest necessity for it, and to make admirable critique on the stupid tragedy of him a party to a fact, which he had taken Cato, makes one burst one's sides with so much pains to hide from all the rest of laughter at his remarks on the circumstance the world?- -But, suppose all this to have of the conspirators coming from their own been the case. In spite of the incredibility, houses, in all parts of the town, to hold and almost the impossibility of it, suptheir conferences in Cato's Hall. "What! posing all this to have trappened, why here again," says he; can you, you fools, should this same footman be sent away? "find no other place than this to deliberate If my Lord Cochrane thought him faithful, on a plot against the governor?" But he, of course, could have no motive for Syphax and his associates were not half so getting him out of the way, seeing that no foolish as Lord Cochrane, supposing him to one had authority to question him upon have been a party to the hoax; for he, this oath touching the matter. If he thought deep-plotter, this grand schemer, has no him unfaithful, disposed or liable to betray scruple to bring his brother hoaxer to his his master, or apt to get drunk and to blab'; own house, and, in thre face of his servants, if watchfulness over him was necessary, if and even by their agency, to furnish him bribes were wanted to be supplied, where with a disguise, and then to take special could he have been so effectually watched, care to preserve, and leave hanging up in where could he have been kept so comhis hall, the famous fur-cap, in which the pletely out of the way of temptation, as Hoax had been performed; leave hanging under the roof of his master? Was it in his hall, or, at least, in some unluck-likely that that master, if he wished to ed part of his house, to which every one in keep locked up the lips of his footman,

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would have suffered that footman to ramble | of the Committee themselves. forth into the world with his pockets stuffed basis of that charge is the fact, which I, with money, to booze and blab in every for argument's sake, admit to be true, that pot-house and brothel at the West end of the Hoaxer went directly from the Dartford the town?It is said, and the circum-chaise to Lord Cochrane's house; and, if stance is dwelt on, that Mrs. Durand, who that fact, and the other facts, relating to lets the furnished house to Lord Cochrane, the cap, the footman, and Mrs. Durand, has been seen to wear the famous fur cap. be all true, the charge against his lordship So, here is Mrs. Durand, whom, the must be false, unless you can show, that, conspiralors," as the Times news-paper in this particular instance, human nature calls them, took care to provide before-hand underwent a complete revolution.-Now, as a witness against themselves! These then, as to Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, where conspirators beat hollow Syphax and his are we to look for the probabilities of his associates. They could not get a fur-cap having been concerned in the Hoax? You at any shop in London! They must needs will observe, reader, that the whole charge, have a fur-cap; and nothing will suit them as shown by the Committee, rests upon but the identical cap of Mrs. Durand, and the before-mentioned circumstances, and, a cap, too, that she had been in the habit if those circumstances themselves demolish of wearing publicly, and of so remarkable the charge with regard to Lord Cochrane, a description into the bargain, that her how can they affect Mr. Cochrane Johnneighbours knew it, at once, from all the stone? Had he been one of the " conother caps in the world!. -Mrs. Durand❝spirators," would he have brought the was a party with the conspirators, or she was not. If she was not, would they have borrowed or bought of her, living close in the neighbourhood, so remarkable a cap? If she was; if she was a party, and must have been anxious to avoid detection, would she have dressed the Hoaxer in her own notorious cap? If the Committee of the Stock Exchange could believe either of these propositions to be true, they must be persons so credulous and foolish as to merit no more attention than so many worms; and, if they believed them to be false, what are we to say of their stating them to the world as grounds of charge?-As far, therefore, as relates to my Lord Cochrane,every circumstance, brought forward and promulgated by this Committee with a view to throw odium on him, has a clearly contrary effect; and, upon their own showing, it is made appear, not only to have been improbable, but almost impossible, that his lordship should have been privy to the Hoax, supposing that gentleman to have been the Hoaxer who went to his house.- -My Lord Cochrane, in his affidavit, gives a very circumstantial, natural, and satisfactory account of the fur-cap and its wearer. But, though I would sooner believe his lordship's bare word than the oaths of all his aspersers put together, I will not appeal to that affidavit, which, if I had been to advise, would never have been made, it being my opinion, that it was beneath the character of his lordship to enter the lists, to put even his word in competition, with any thing that his aspersers were able to say, or publish. I will not appeal to the affidavit. I take the charge upon the showing

Hoaxer to the house of his Nephew? Would he, who is so attached to that Nephew, who lives upon such terms of kindness with him, have made his house, above all the houses in London, the entrepot of the Iloaxer? Would he not, on the contrary, have taken great care, that the Hoaxer should change his dress in no house, to which the name of Cochrane could be traced? Must he not have known, must he not have been well aware, that a natural association of ideas would, at once, have connected him with a hoaxer, taking refuge in the house of his nephew; and must not any man, and especially such a especially such a man as Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, have perceived all the consequences of so suspicious a circumstance? Was Mr. Cochrane Johnstone a likely man to borrow, or buy, the notorious fur-cap of Mrs. Durand? Was he a man to do this? I should as soon suspect him to be capable of borrowing, for the purpose, the wig of Lord Chathani out of Westminster Abbey, with the consent, in writing, of the Dean and Chapter-Well, then, what have we now remaining to prop up, to give a colour to, this stupid charge? Why, the fact, that my Lord Cochrane, his uncle and Mr. Butt, a gentleman, who, it seems, was connected with them in stock-business, took advantage of the rise, occasioned by the hoax, and sold out stock to a great amount, by which they gained 30,000l. I am sorry to see, from the affidavit of Lord Cochrane, that, as far as relates to him, this fact is false, and most sincerely hope it to be true as far as it relates to Mr. Cochrane Johnstone. But, I will, as I said before, rest nothing upon

have sold out at a certain gain, while not to sell exposed him to the chance of a loss?

-Reader, when you consider these circumstances, what need have you of furcaps and Mrs. Durands to account for this selling out? There were scores of persons to sell out as well as Mr. Cochrane Johnstone. Were they all concerned in the Hoax? Was nobody to doubt of the truth of such a humbug story, because some persons believed it? Because the rabble at the 'Change and in the streets believed that Napoleon had been torn piecemeal by the Cossacks, and, in spite of the dictates of reason, common sense, and known facts, believed that the people of Paris had hoisted the White Cockade, was Mr. Cochrane Johnstone to believe the same; and is he to be abused and most foully calumniated because he acted upon his disbelief? Really this is a mode of

known, I believe, in the annals of injustice; and, for my part, I am only sorry, that the accused parties should have thought it necessary to give to their accusers any other answer than that which might have been gathered from their silent contempt.

the affidavit, which, I repeat it, was an ill-advised act; and will, for argument's sake, take the fact for granted, in its very fullest extent. And, then, let me ask, whether, if they had been the authors of the hoax, they would have sold out all this stock in their own names? They might, in five minutes, have transferred it to their black-servant or chamber-maid, or to John of Noaks and Tom of Styles, and have sold it out in their names instead of their own. If they had been the authors of the hoax, they must necessarily; I do not say, probably, but necessarily, have been apprehensive, that the selling out of all their stock, and such an immense sum, would create suspicion and lead to a discovery, which, in the settling, would defeat their purpose; and, therefore, it is beyond the scope of credibility, that, if they had been the authors of the Hoax, they would have sold out in their own names, it being perfectly optional with them, whe-judging of the actions of men hitherto unther they should do so or not.But, they did sell out, and how came they to do so at that particular and lucky moment? There is a much better reason for this than any that the Committee of the Stock Exchange have been able to discover. The reason was, that the possessed information generally, and sagacity superior to the mass of Stock-dealers, or gamblers in the funds. Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, coming from the West end of the town, in the daily habit of conversing with military men, with well-informed persons out of the army, knowing the actual situation of the hostile armies, being able to form a probable conjecture as to the truth or falsehood of the report in circulation, was more likely than almost any person in London, or, at least, any person that I can think of, to form a correct estimate of the worth of the intelligence received. And, this is quite sufficient to account for his being, as I most anxiously hope he was, a fortunate He was gamester on the day of the Hoax. not a person to be so hoaxed; and that is the sum total of the grounds of charge against him. It is very natural for losers to be out of temper, and to find out an excuse for their losing and a pretence for not paying what they have lost; this may be the case in the present instance; but this is no ground for accusation against the win

ners.

-Without, however, supposing Mr. Cochrane Johnstone to be possessed of more than ordinary sagacity, what was there unnatural in his selling out? There was a certain gain presented itself, and was not that, of itself, inducement enough to sell out? Who but a fool would not

-I must stop here, for the present. In my next I will take up the questions, 1. whether it was peculiarly improper in my Lord Cochrane and his uncle to be concerned in dealings in the funds; 2. Whether my Lord Cochrane acted improperly as to Mr. Berenger; and 3. Whether Mr. Berenger, supposing him to have been the Hoaxer (and I shall admit the fact only for argument's sake) was guilty of any thing either unlawful or immoral, supposing gaming in general not to be immoral. With this latter admission, which the Stock gamblers, at any rate must make, I have no doubt of being able to shew, that all these three questions ought to be decided in the negative. Men are too apt, especially, when their pockets are touched, to rush on to conclusions without any examination into premises; but, to call names, to deal in insinuations and charges without being prepared with either facts or arguments, is to act the part of a Billingsgate Trull.

DUTCH AFFAIRS.—The failure of the recent attack upon the enemies' formidable position at Bergen-op-Zoom, is fraught with important and useful instruction to the people of this country, if they would only open their minds to receive it. In the Register of the 5th inst. I stated, that the troops which were sent to Holland under

the "gallant Graham," could never be ex- | immense sums of money, and, when the pected to effect any thing there which would business was every day assuming a more be of service to the common cause; and this unfavourable aspect, led to the slaughter of opinion I was led to form in consequence of thousands of our brave countrymen. It is observing, that the military operations idle to talk now of the Dutch people having which we were carrying on in that quarter, deceived us. It is folly to pretend that we were not supported by the Dutch, nor have been abandoned by the Allies; for it countenanced by any of the allied powers. is a well known fact, that the people of It would be base to exult over the dreadful Holland never called for our interference, disaster which has overwhelmed so many and that the Allies, if they were consulted families with despair. It would be cow- at all in our designs as to the House of ardly to censure the mode of conducting Orange, never gave these designs any counoperations, which terminated so fatally, tenance. These important and decisive merely because the result has not been at- facts are demonstrated by this circumstance tended with those benefical consequences alone that, in the assault made upon Ber which were expected by those who pro- gen-Op Zoom, there were no other troops jected the expedition. But while the rela- employed but the native troops of this tives of our brave countrymen who fell in country. Not even a Dutchman, in whose thefatal strife," who expired on that cause we fought so bravely, appeared to "bed of honour" which, now-a-days, is give us any support. That the Dutch and so much coveted; while these relatives are the Allies would act in this way, appeared deploring the loss of their fathers, their to me very probable when the first accounts sons, their nephews; while they are feeling of a counter-revolution in Holland renderthe bitter pangs which a separation, for ed the people here almost frantic; when the ever, from their dearest friends occasions, cry of Orange Boven resounded from the it appears to me proper that they should palace to the cottage; and when the whole not only feel their situation, but that they country was intoxicated with Dutch lishould also think; should also reflect, should berty. If this was my conjecture, with also carry in their minds the why and the the limited means of information which I wherefore that led to the dreadful catas- then possessed, how much more ought those trophe which they so deeply deplore. It is who had the chief management of the not my intention here to go back to the business, to have known better? And, commencement of the war, or to enter upon having that knowledge; being fully apan examination of the causes to which it has prised that the Hollanders manifested been ascribed, and which have been as va- a partiality in favor of the French Emrious as the changes of the cameleon's skin. peror, and would not take up arms for It is sufficient for my present purpose to re- the Prince of Orange, how came these men mind the reader of a fact to which I very to involve us in a contest which has ended lately directed his attention, namely, that so fatally? These are questions which those the endeavours of this country and the who feel the baneful effects of these meagreat sacrifices we were making of blood sures ought to ask themselves; ought not and treasure to bring about the restora- only to ask themselves, but ought also to tion of the Orange family in Holland, ask those who were the first to tell the would not be productive of any good, people of England, that this counter-revobecause the people of that country lution was "the result of the spontaneous seemed no way desirous to aid and assist and unanimous wish of the people of Holus in our views. The representations of land of all parties;" who were the foremost the state of the public mind there, with in crying up Dutch independence, and in which we were a few months ago amused, giving currency to opinions which, to our have turned out completely fallacious. We sad experience, we have found to be entirely no more hear of the "groaning of the groundless. The Courier writer by way Dutch under the weight of Bonapartean of consoling its readers for the disgraceful tyranny." The accounts which now reach termination of our interference in Dutch us are of a very different complexion. By affairs, "thanks God it has to discharge these we learn that the people of Holland but rarely, the task of communicating the appear to manifest a partiality rather failure of a British expedition." When than a hatred for the French.". Yet this servile journalist congratulated himself it was to assist these lovers of the French; in this way upon what he calls a rare octhese friends of Napoleon; these admirers currence, he seems to have forgot the very of his code of laws, that we sent British recent attempt against Antwerp, in which troops to Holland, lavished upon the Dutch we completely failed after the loss of many

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valuable lives, and he appears to have lost sight of the ever memorable Walcheren Expedition, which proved the grave of thousands of our best troops. To these might be added the Buenos Ayres, the Corunna, the Helder, and the Dunkirk disasters; the Quiberon and the Toulon Expeditions, besides a number of others equally fatal, a recurrence to which is sufficient to show that our failures, instead of being rare, have of late years been more numerous, and more disgraceful, than at any former period. But though they had been fewer in number and less disastrous, this circumstance could, in no view, alter the nature of our connexion with Holland, or afford a ground of justification to those who have so basely and so wantonly deceived us as to the state of the public mind in that country, and which has led to the terrible calamity that is so much and so generally lamented. Whether the Prince of Orange, when he set out for Holland, joined in the project to deceive others, or was himself deceived, it now seems that his Highness, who has been several months in that country, and must unques tionably have strained every nerve to excite an interest in his favour, appears at last to have formed a correct idea of public feeling, and to be convinced that he has no chance of succeeding in the competition he has set up with Napoleon; unless he concedes to the people as much at least as his rival has done; unless he gives them a constitution under which they will enjoy advantages equal to those enjoyed in France; and which will guarantee all their civil and religious rights as effectually as they were guaranteed under the Code Napoleon. Impressed with this conviction, he has caused a new constitution to be prepared, which, he says, is calculated to "secure the freedom of his subjects against all possible abuses:" which, he tells them, is "built upon their manners, their habits, and corresponding to the wants of the present time."-At first sight, the conduct of William of Orange, appears entitled to approbation. It was certainly a great effort in a prince, educated in the corrupt school where he acquired his notions of liberty and maxims of government, to bring his mind to acknowledge, that the people have rights which ought to be secured against all possible abuses, and that their manners, their habits, and their wants, are objects deserving the consideration of sovereigns. This, I confess, was ad mitting a principle which I little expected, would, at this time of day, have been re

cognised by the head of one of the old regular governments of Europe. It so much resembles my ideas of liberty that, if it were not for some other points connected with this Prince's sentiments, at least with what he has been advised to utter along with this declaration, I should be half inclined to consider him a real friend of freedom, such as I understand it to be, and which has procured for me, and many others who think as I do, the honourable title of jacobin. But though the Courier and the Times have been as severe in their abuse of the Prince of Orange for the sentiments he has uttered, as they could have been were he the most incorrigible of jacobins, I am free to admit, that it would be unjust and slanderous, nay libellous, to bestow that appellation upon this Prince. I say, William is not a jacobin, and, I think, his own words will bear me out in this assertion. He says, at the commencement of his Declaration, that he was invited to the Sovereignty by the people of Holland. I have heard of a meeting at Amsterdam of a few merchants, about a dozen or so, who were closely connected with this country, with whom the measure, of sending a deputation here to invite the Prince, altogether originated. Even this step they would not have dared to take, had not the state of the French Emperor's affairs at that time, obliged him to withdraw his troops from several of the towns in Holland. The indifference which the people have since shown to the Orange cause, renders it indisputable that they never were consulted in the business, and consequently that his Highness was not invited by them to assume the sovereignty. His Highness seems to have been rather unfortunate in that part of his appeal, where he speaks of the terrible experience which the Dutch have had of a foreign tyranny, and of their having sighed, of late years, under the most oppressive yoke; for, if this yoke had been so terrible, this tyranny so oppressive, how came it, when their tyrant and oppressor was overthrown at Leipsic, and forced to return to France with a mere handful of soldiers; how did it happen when he found it necessary to withdraw the greater part of his troops from Holland, and when the advance of innumerable and victorious legions guaranteed the integrity of the Netherlands? How was it, I ask, that the Dutch people, with such an opportunity of liberating themselves from the chains of Napo leon, did not avail themselves of it? How came they not to join in the general chase, which was intended to hunt down this op

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