The Trial of Charles Random de Berenger, Sir Thomas Cochrane Part 102

_A._ I do not keep a letter-book; but I keep my letters very regularly tied up.

_Mr. Scarlett._ You have heard the contents of the letter from De Berenger to Mr. Johnstone read.

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ That refers to some doc.u.ments in your hands, to serve as a security to Mr. Johnstone, in case he should require them?

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ Is it your usual practice, when letters of that sort are sent to you, to make the sort of endors.e.m.e.nt you have done when you lay the letters by?

_A._ It is.

_Lord Ellenborough._ I only asked him as to the inclosure. If I received a letter, I should endorse the date of my receiving it as authenticating the fact; but I should not put the endors.e.m.e.nt of the date upon the enclosure, for I know nothing of the date, whether it was received on that day or not; the gentlemen of the jury know whether that is the habit of business or not.

_A Juryman._ Is the date you have endorsed upon the enclosure, the date of your receiving it or the date of the letter?

_A._ The date of the letter.

_Lord Ellenborough._ Certainly it is not regular to authenticate the date of a letter, to which you are not privy; that is all my observation upon it.

_Mr. Scarlett._ Besides those plans you now produce, do you know whether there were other and subordinate plans drawn for the details of that same scheme?

_A._ Yes, there were.

[_Examined by Mr. Park._]

_Q._ You have been a great while the attorney of Mr. De Berenger, and known to him?

_A._ Five or six years.

_Q._ Were you known to him before you were known to Mr. Cochrane Johnstone?

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ Did you become security for the Rules for this gentleman before you knew Mr. Cochrane Johnstone?

_A._ Some months.

_Q._ Then it was not at Mr. Cochrane Johnstone's desire that you became a surety for the Rules for this person?

_A._ Certainly not.

_Q._ Was Mr. Cochrane, who, I understand from Mr. Brushoft, was your co-surety, any relation of Mr. Cochrane Johnstone?

_A._ No.

_Lord Ellenborough._ That has been proved over and over again; n.o.body made an observation upon it.

_Mr. Park._ I beg your Lords.h.i.+p's pardon; there could be no other motive, I conceive, in calling Mr. Brushoft.

_Lord Ellenborough._ I understood him to be called to prove, that Mr.

Tahourdin was a surety for the defendant; I never heard an observation made upon Mr. Cochrane, as being a relation.

_Mr. Park._ Are you acquainted with the hand-writing of your client, Mr.

De Berenger?

_A._ Perfectly.

_Q._ That letter, or those letters lying before his Lords.h.i.+p, which have been proved, I think you say they are his hand-writing?

_A._ There is only one.

_Q._ Have you ever seen that letter before you saw it yesterday?

(_handing to the witness the letter sent to Admiral Foley._)

_A._ Never; I just saw it yesterday, and that was all.

_Q._ Upon the knowledge you have of the hand-writing of Mr. De Berenger, is that, in your judgment, the hand-writing of Mr. De Berenger or not?

_A._ Certainly not.

_Lord Ellenborough._ Be upon your guard.

_Mr. Park._ Be upon your guard, and look at it attentively. You have many times seen and read his letters?

_A._ A thousand times, and received a thousand letters from him.

_Q._ And you do not believe it to be his hand-writing?

_A._ I do not indeed; it is not his hand-writing.

_Lord Ellenborough._ That is the Dover letter?

_Mr. Park._ Yes it is, my Lord. If your Lords.h.i.+p will look at that and the other letter, you will see a marked difference.

[_The witness compared the two letters._]

_Lord Ellenborough._ The gentleman may look at the two letters; but that furnishes no argument, for a person would certainly write a disguised hand at that time, if ever he did in his life. This gentleman does not go on belief that it is not, but he swears positively that it is not his hand-writing.

_Mr. Park._ Certainly, my Lord; and there is, on the other side, only Mr. Lavie. This gentleman having seen Mr. De Berenger write a thousand times, and received a thousand letters from him. Do you, in your judgment and conscience believe, that that is a disguised hand of Mr. De Berenger?

_A._ I do not.

_A Juryman._ Why did you take the two letters up to compare the two hand-writings, if you had no doubt in your mind?

_A._ I had no doubt at all of it.