The Trial of Charles Random de Berenger, Sir Thomas Cochrane Part 104

_Mr. Gurney._ I am quite content with that answer?

_Lord Ellenborough._ Mr. Park, would you like to look the Dover letter?

_Mr. Park._ I am no judge of hand-writing, my Lord.

_Lord Ellenborough._ That may be a concealed hand-writing, and I should think it extremely likely.

_Mr. Park._ I mean to call other witnesses to this; I have nothing to conceal in this case?

_Lord Ellenborough._ No; you announced to us that you flatly contradict the whole of the story as to Mr. De Berenger.

_Mr. Park._ Yes, I do my Lord; I observe this is all pencilling which has been shewn to you?

_A._ Yes, it is.

_Mr. Park._ Is this pencil writing in the same kind of character that a man writes when he writes with pen and ink; are you enabled to say from your knowledge of the hand-writing, whether it is or is not?

_A._ That it is which puzzles me more than any thing, its being in pencil.

_A Juryman._ We should like to see that road book.

_Mr. Park._ Does your Lords.h.i.+p think the jury have a right to see that; they cannot take it for the purpose of comparing with any thing else?

_Lord Ellenborough._ It is in evidence, being found in the desk of the defendant, they may look at each, if they please.

_General Campbell, sworn._

_Examined by Mr. Brougham._

_Q._ Do you know Mr. Cochrane Johnstone?

_A._ I do.

_Q._ Did you meet him in the month of September or October last, at a meeting or hunt in Scotland?

_A._ I met him the second week, I think in last October, at the Perth meeting.

_Q._ Did he at that time shew you some plans and prospectus of the new place of amus.e.m.e.nt, in the nature of a Ranelagh?

_A._ I saw in Mr. Cochrane Johnstone's hands, the prospectus of a new public place, he called it, to be erected in the Regent's Park, or the neighbourhood of the Regent's Park.

_Q._ Do you recollect the name he gave to it?

_A._ I think he called it Vittoria.

_Q._ Will you look at the prospectus, and see whether that is the same?

[_The prospectus was shewn to the witness._]

_A._ I believe this is a copy of the same that I saw.

_Q._ Look at the plan?

_A._ He did not shew me the plan.

_Q._ Did he shew this prospectus, and communicate to other persons at that meeting upon the subject of it, as well as you?

_A._ I cannot speak to that; he communicated to me in my own apartment or his own, I cannot recollect which.

[_Mr. Hopper was called, but did not answer._]

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ This gentleman was taken very ill, being kept here last night; if he comes by and by, I trust your Lords.h.i.+p will permit him to be examined out of his turn.

_Lord Ellenborough._ Certainly, at any period.

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ That is the case of the three defendants for whom I appear.

_The Right Honourable the Earl of Yarmouth sworn._

_Examined by Mr. Park._

_Q._ You are I believe, or were, the Colonel of the Duke of c.u.mberland's sharp-shooters?

_A._ Lieutenant-colonel commandant.

_Q._ It is called the corps of sharp-shooters?

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ Captain De Berenger was adjutant of that regiment, was he not?

_A._ He was a non-commissioned officer, acting adjutant.

_Q._ How long have you known Mr. De Berenger?

_A._ Ever since a few days after I was elected to command that corps; that was in the beginning of the year 1811; I cannot fix the day, very early in that year I know it was.

_Q._ Has your Lords.h.i.+p had opportunities of seeing Mr. De Berenger write, or of receiving letters from him, and of acting upon those letters from him.

_A._ I have received a great many letters from him, and have seen him write occasionally.

_Q._ And you have seen him, probably, on the subject of the contents of those letters?

_A._ Very frequently; two or three times I have seen him alter the regimental orders, and have received very many letters from him.

_Q._ Are you, from that opportunity that you have described, in a capacity to state to his Lords.h.i.+p and the jury, whether you are acquainted with his character of hand-writing?