Alexander Cochrane

“ He then went out to the West Indies in the Elephant, was put on board the Northumberland flagship of Sir Alexander Forrester Inglis Cochrane [q. v.] , and in September 1806 was appointed to command the Express on the Spanish Main and among the Leeward Islands till March 1808, when he joined the Belleisle as flag-lieutenant to Sir Alexander Cochrane. ”

“ During his absence, in 1794, conspiracies against Spain arose in Mexico and New Granada, and, these continuing, he went in 1794, armed by secret promises of assistance from Pitt, to help in fomenting them. They prospered for several years; and in 1806 Miranda obtained substantial aid from Sir Alexander Cochrane, Lord Cochrane's uncle, then the admiral in command of the West India station. But in 1806 Pitt died. The Whigs came into power, and with their coming occurred a change in the English policy. ”

“ I said I could not agree to the appointment, as far as the naval service was concerned, but I advised him to apply to the Secretary of State, or to the Commander in Chief; stating, that if they agreed to it, I should have no objection to let him accompany Sir Alexander. Lord Cochrane was appointed to the Tonnant, about the time Sir Alexander Cochrane sailed. I have no personal knowledge of Mr. De Berenger. ”

“ Basil Cochrane; you do not hear of him at all there, except about this Ranelagh; but you are desired from that to infer criminality.
But gentlemen, this is a most important transaction; my learned friend has told you he will more satisfactorily explain it by the evidence upon the subject; there is no doubt of the gentleman who sits before me being in distress of circumstances, but at the same time a most ingenious man; and having done various works of art for Mr. Cochrane Johnston, the latter thought himself indebted to him about two hundred pounds, and paid him the money. ”

“ A large naval force under the command of Sir Alexander Cochrane, having on board a strong body of troops, commanded by Major-General Ross, assembled in the Chesapeake in the beginning of Aug. 1814, waiting the arrival of a reinforcement from Bermuda. Their junction took place on the 11th, when the Commander-in-Chief was informed by Rear-Admiral Cockburn, that the American Commodore Barney, with the Baltimore flotilla, had taken shelter at the head of the Patuxent; of this circumstance advantage was taken as a pretext for ascending that river, with the avowed purpose of an attack upon Barney ”

“ Wright's evidence, and say if any thing can more strongly evince Lord Cochrane's [Pg 276] consciousness of his innocence, than the publication of this affidavit. Gentlemen, you have been told, and truly told that Lord Cochrane is a public character. From the high station in which he was born, and the still higher place in the eyes of his countrymen to which his public services have raised him, his lordship may, without indulging any blameable vanity, one day expect to fill one of the proudest situations in the country. ”

“ I believe no man would say of Lord Cochrane, that he had so utterly thrown off all regard to religion, to the sanction of an oath, properly so called, and to the responsibility he stands under in conscience, as that he would go before a magistrate and make an affidavit, because he could not be prosecuted. ”

“ Gentlemen, the only part of the evidence which has the least tendency to connect my Lord Cochrane, by means of the notes, with Mr. De Berenger, is the evidence that was given by a person of the name of Lance; there is not one other witness that attempts to state, that a single note traced from the hands of Lord Cochrane, ever was found in the hands of Mr. De Berenger ”

“ Is a man so circumstanced likely to commit so sordid a crime as that with which he is charged? No prospect of gain could hold out any temptation to Lord Cochrane to put in hazard what he now possesses. ”

“ In November the Belleisle returned to England, and, after being docked and refitted, was again sent out to the West Indies, where Sir Alexander Cochrane hoisted his flag on board her, Hargood changing into the Northumberland and taking home a large convoy ”

“ That Lord Cochrane is a brave man, that he has served his country well, no man will deny. Does Mr. Baily then, do the three other brokers, who demurred to the question put to them as to time bargains; do all this mass of people, constituting the Stock Exchange, now standing within the sound of my voice, mean to say, that because Lord Cochrane has acted so improperly (for I so consider it) as to enter into a time-bargain, therefore he is not to be believed upon his oath? If so, Gentlemen, the Stock Exchange and its doors must be shut up for ever ”

“ Alexander Cochrane, but profiting most by his own ready wit and hearty love of his profession. Having been promoted to the rank of lieutenant in 1794, he was made commander of the Speedy early in 1800. This little sloop, not larger than a coasting brig, but crowded with eighty-four men and six officers, seemed to be intended only for playing at war. Her whole armament consisted of fourteen 4-pounders. When her new commander tried to add to these a couple of 12-pounders, the deck proved too small and the timbers too weak for them, and they had to be returned. ”

“ Some apology is due to the reader, whose attention has been thus long withdrawn from other and more important matters, to follow the adventures of an humble individual like myself. The fault, however, of which I have been guilty may be at once repaired, when I inform him that on our arrival at Bermuda we found Sir Alexander Cochrane, in the Tonnant, of eighty guns, waiting to receive us, and to take the command of the whole fleet. The secret of our destination likewise, which up to that moment had been kept, transpired almost as soon as we cast anchor off the island ”

“ Gentlemen, that Lord Cochrane would have been incapable of deliberately engaging in any thing so wicked some time ago, I am [Pg 440] sure I as earnestly hope as I am desirous to believe; but you must see in what circumstances men are placed, when they do these things; Lord Cochrane had first found his way to the Stock Exchange, he had dealt largely in these speculations, which my learned friends have so liberally branded with the appellation of infamous; he had involved himself so deeply, that there was no way, but by this fraud of getting out of them ”

“ All his prospects, he said, had failed, and his last hope had vanished, of obtaining an appointment in America. He was unpleasantly circumstanced, on account of a sum which he could not pay, and if he could, that others would fall upon him for full £8000. He had no hope of benefiting his creditors in his present situation, or of assisting himself. That if I would take him with me he would immediately go on board and exercise the sharp-shooters, (which plan Sir Alexander Cochrane, I knew, had approved of.) ”

“ A more prudent letter than that, I defy any man in Lord Cochrane's situation to write. A guilty man catches at any twig, but Lord Cochrane does not answer this gentleman at first, and when pressed by a second letter, he tells him the reason; it is unsafe you and [Pg 290] I should meet, I cannot trust you, I am surrounded by scoundrels who are attempting to charge upon me a crime of which I know I am innocent. ”

“ It is sworn that they were made before eleven o'clock in the day. Why, Gentlemen, we are forgetting distances. If Lord Cochrane was set down at Snow-hill at ten in the morning, if he afterwards came back, as he did, to Green-street Grosvenor-square, being sent for by his servant or Mr. De Berenger, he could not be back before half-past ten or nearly eleven, and I defy all mankind to state how he could after that have communicated to the Stock Exchange, the news this gentleman was supposed to be dispersing abroad, so as to affect the price of stocks. ”

“ I, Sir Thomas Cochrane, commonly called Lord Cochrane, having been appointed by the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, to active service (at the request, I believe, of Sir Alexander Cochrane) when I had no expectation of being called on, I obtained leave of absence to settle my private affairs previous to quitting this country, and chiefly with a view to lodge a specification to a patent relative to a discovery for increasing the intensity of light. That in pursuance of my daily practice of superintending work that was executing for me, and knowing that my uncle, Mr. ”

“ Gentlemen, when this correspondence comes to be read by his lordship's officer, is it possible you can believe one word of that; he in this letter, which is the last my learned friend stated, and the only one on which I will comment, stated that he believed every thing that De Berenger had told him respecting Lord Cochrane, was false. If it was all false, as it respected Lord Cochrane, it was all false as it respected himself, for this man had no time-bargains as the other gentlemen had, he was to derive no immediate benefit, except as you believe that man. ”

“ COCHRANE, Sir JOHN (d. 1650?) soldier and diplomatist, was the eldest son of Alexander Blair, who on his marriage with Elizabeth, daughter of William Cochrane of Cochrane, assumed the name of Cochrane. ”

“ It is too ridiculous and absurd, says my learned friend, to suppose that Lord Cochrane should be coming back to see an officer. I hope, gentlemen, that will not appear to you to be absurd under the circumstances he has sworn to. I can hardly conceive a motive stronger on the mind of a brave man and a good officer for going back, than that stated by him. He was not acquainted with Mr. De Berenger's hand-writing, though Mr. Cochrane Johnstone was. Having a brother in Spain, he expected that he should receive accounts of him from a brother officer ”

“ What must those persons think of Lord Cochrane? who after this can consider him as implicated in the guilt of this conspiracy? the guilty men knowingly and advisedly point out to their prosecutors, the only course by which they can be hunted down; such guilty men must be men of too weak understandings to be answerable for their conduct either to God or their country. In the declaration that Lord Cochrane made to Mr. Wright, he did that justice to Mr. De [Pg 268] Berenger which his knowledge of that gentleman compelled him to do ”

“ I do not know every person I carry in my hackney-coach; this person, when I got to Green-street, I saw had a red coat underneath; the waterman opened the coach-door [Pg 478] for him to get in." So that he was within view of the waterman. "He had on a brown grey great coat, with brown fur cap."
Now, gentlemen, he is brought to the house of Lord Cochrane; further evidence arises afterwards upon the subject of his being there.
We will at present follow the dress to its conclusion. ”

“ The strangers, on observing the British frigates in pursuit of them, formed the line of battle a-head, and waited to receive them. At nine o’clock, Captain Cochrane ordered the Hussar, by signal, to engage the second ship of the enemy’s van, intending himself to attack the centre ship, which appeared the largest, and the two others that formed the rear. ”

“ Cochrane Johnstone, Mr. Butt, and Mr. De Berenger;—the first object he had in view, was to persuade the Stock Exchange that he knew the whole of their concern in the transaction. A pleasant sort of a gentleman, to ask the sum of £.10,000, to induce him to tell all that he knew, when no human being can doubt that all M'Rae knew was, that which has been proved by the witnesses, as to Sandom, Lyte and Holloway, namely; that M'Rae was in a chaise which passed through the City of London, coming from Northfleet. ”

“ The court has deliberated upon the case, and the court cannot, in this instance, feel itself justified in measuring out justice to one by a different measure from that in which justice would be measured out to others; the sentence therefore of the court upon you, the several defendants now upon the floor, is, That you, Sir Thomas Cochrane, otherwise called Lord Cochrane, and you Richard Gathorne Butt, do severally [Pg 600] pay to the King a fine of one thousand pounds each ”

“ Cochrane Johnstone answered De Berenger's letters." He is shewn a letter, and he says, "That is my answer to the letter of Mr. Cochrane Johnstone; I wrote it on the 23d of February."
There was a business to settle with Lady Mary Crawford Lindsay. There is a great deal of business certainly introduced into these letters, so much almost as to induce one [Pg 518] to think there is an artificial introduction of business, to give the appearance of reality to the letters; however, Mr. Tahourdin certainly swears that there were such transactions at that period. ”

“ Their purchases were the same, their sales the same; they seemed in these stock speculations to have but one soul. If one bought twenty thousand, the other bought twenty thousand; if one bought ninety-five thousand, the other bought ninety-five thousand; you will find the act of one the act of the other; and you will find these three persons, Lord Cochrane, Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, and Mr. Butt, having on the Saturday preceding this Monday, a balance amounting in consols and omnium to very nearly a million—reduced to consols, you will find it amount to sixteen hundred thousand pounds ”

“ An unfortunate succession of strong northerly gales, attended by a heavy swell, rendered it impossible to attempt the landing of the troops before the 8th, on which day that service was most ably performed under the superintendence of Captain Cochrane. The delays to which the fleet had been exposed, gave the enemy an opportunity to strengthen the naturally difficult coast. The whole garrison of Alexandria, amounting to about 3000 men, reinforced with many small detachments that had been observed to advance from the Rosetta branch of the Nile, was appointed for its defence. ”