The Trial of Charles Random de Berenger, Sir Thomas Cochrane Part 61

_A._ It was generally attributed to the news that came through the city.

_Q._ You mean the chaise coming through the city?

_A._ Yes; it was generally believed it was a confirmation of the former report.

_Q._ Did that second rise which took place upon the chaise going through the city, extend still higher than it had been on the report of the arrival of the messenger?

_A._ I think it did.

_Cross-examined by Mr. Park._

_Q._ You are not under the same restraint as the other persons are, can you tell us whether these were real transactions, or only fict.i.tious ones which daily take place at the Stock Exchange?

_A._ The accounts which were given in, I think were given in for time, but I have only taken out the figures.

_Lord Ellenborough._ I should imagine the witness would say that from the magnitude of the accounts he would think they were for time?

_A._ Certainly.

_Mr. Park._ I want to know, for I have never had Omnium in my life, whether you are not competent to say from your knowledge of these accounts, that these are all what they call time bargains?

_A._ There is nothing stated upon the face of these accounts as to what days the purchases are made for; possibly they may be for time.

_Q._ I ask you whether from your knowledge of these accounts and the investigations you have made, they are not time bargains?

_Lord Ellenborough._ He has no personal knowledge of them, he can know nothing but from the magnitude of the sum, he may suppose they must have been time bargains.

_A._ Certainly; there is nothing upon the face of the accounts to lead to any such conclusion.

_Mr. James Wetenall, sworn._

_Examined by Mr. Gurney._

_Q._ I believe you are employed by the House to take the prices of the day at the Stock Exchange?

_A._ I am.

_Q._ At what price did Omnium leave off on Sat.u.r.day the 19th of February?

(_The Witness referred to a paper._)

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ Where do you get those accounts from?

_A._ I collect them from the Stock Exchange.

_Mr. Gurney._ Do you go about all day long taking the prices?

_A._ I collect them at different times in the course of the day.

_Q._ You go about taking an account from all the persons who are there?

_A._ I take them from different persons who are in the market.

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ This is a printed paper?

_A._ Yes.

_Mr. Gurney._ It is printed under your directions, I believe?

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ Is your original paper destroyed?

_A._ It is.

_Q._ Is this paper a copy from that of yours?

_A._ Yes.

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ Did you ever compare this with the paper on which you took down the prices?

_A._ Yes.

_Q._ Where do you get the contents of your written paper?

_A._ From the gentlemen in the Stock Exchange.

_Mr. Serjeant Best._ I submit that this paper cannot be evidence. The Witness states that he collects from the gentlemen in the Stock Exchange, the prices at which they buy and sell, from time to time, in the course of the day; he says he compares this printed paper with the original written paper; I am not objecting to that, but I submit, the written paper itself could not be evidence.

_Lord Ellenborough._ It is all hearsay, but it is the only evidence we can have; it is the only evidence we have of the price of sales of any description. I do not receive it as the precise thing, but as what is in the ordinary transactions of mankind received as proper information, and I suppose there is hardly a gentleman living who would not act on this paper.

_Mr. Gurney._ At what price did Omnium leave off on Sat.u.r.day the 19th of February?

_A._ 26-3/4.

_Lord Ellenborough._ Do you furnish the Bank with these papers?

_A._ Yes.

_Mr. Gurney._ Was that 26-3/4 the money price or the time price?

_A._ The money price.

_Q._ The time price, I believe, is about one per cent. higher?

_A._ In general.