The Trial of Charles Random de Berenger, Sir Thomas Cochrane Part 53

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ You have told us that on the morning of the 21st, you began to sell before the news came?

_A._ Yes.

_A Juryman._ He said before the rise took place.

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ You found when you came there in the morning, that the stocks had got to such a pitch as that you could sell consistently with the orders they had given you?

_A._ It was so.

_Lord Ellenborough._ At what hour was that?

_A._ Ten o'clock.

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ Did you not sell out very large sums before either of them came near the place that morning?

_A._ I think I had began to sell before they came, but I cannot say positively.

_Q._ Had you not sold to a considerable amount, if you can tax your memory with it, or refresh your memory by looking at any book?

_A._ I think I had.

_Q._ Can you tell us to what amount you had sold before any of them came?--I do not ask to a few s.h.i.+llings, we deal in thousands here.

_A._ I cannot positively say--I had done much before I saw either of them, for I was in the habit of doing twenty or thirty and reporting to them.

_Q._ Do you mean thousands?

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ You think you had sold considerably before you saw them?

_A._ I think I had.

_Lord Ellenborough._ Cannot you fix the time of your sale?

_Mr. Gurney._ I shall prove the prices every half hour.

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ I am not at all conversant in those things, never having speculated in stock at all, but I am told it is the practice sometimes to sell stock which the persons have not to transfer?

_A._ I have heard of such things.

_Q._ Consequently, if I had been at the Stock Exchange that morning, and had found the Omnium up at 34, which I believe it was that morning----

_Mr. Bolland._ No, thirty two.

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ If I had been at the Stock Exchange that morning, and had found the Omnium up at 32, and had known that the good news must soon turn out to be all invention, I might have sold if I had liked, a million of stock, according to the practice of the Stock Exchange, though I did not happen to have a sixpence.

_A._ It certainly might have been done.

_Q._ Is it not the practice for a man who wishes to gamble in the funds, to sell stock which he has not, when he thinks they will fall?

_A._ I know it is done.

_Q._ A man who thinks the stocks may fall, may sell stock he has not, to any person who thinks they may rise?

_A._ It certainly is done.

_Q._ Did either my Lord Cochrane, Mr. Cochrane Johnstone or Mr. b.u.t.t, make any such sales on that day to your knowledge, you having stated you were their Broker--do you know of their having sold on that day any stock which they had not purchased before?

_Lord Ellenborough._ Are you not putting this gentleman in a situation of peril?

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ If he admits it.

_Lord Ellenborough._ Why should you place him in such a situation to deny or affirm? This does not affect the charge.

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ I ask whether it was done by those persons?

_Lord Ellenborough._ But that would be done through a broker.

_Mr. Taddy._ If your Lords.h.i.+p will allow me to suggest on behalf of the witness, that in an action for the penalties, the question would be whether he knew they were possessed of the stock, or not, and this would go to make out his knowledge.

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ Do you know whether either of those persons on that day sold any stock or omnium, which they had not purchased before?

_Lord Ellenborough._ That question must be limited to any thing in which you have not had partic.i.p.ation in the way of sale, otherwise you may criminate yourself--having given you that caution, you may do as you please.

_A._ They did not.

_Lord Ellenborough._ That is not imputed to them.

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ The use I mean to make of it I have no objection to state now.

_Lord Ellenborough._ No, you need not, I leave it entirely to your judgment.

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ I think you told us before, those gentlemen told you, whenever the stock rose to one per cent, above what they had bought at, to sell.

_A._ Yes, they did.

_Q._ With respect to the taking of this office, when did you first see it?

_A._ In the course of the week anterior to the 21st of February.

_Q._ Mr. b.u.t.t had before an office in Sweeting's Alley.

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ He found that an inconvenient one and he took these rooms in Shorter's Court, he and Mr. Johnstone?