yourselves
of this opportunity to effect the proposed discovery, and an object you
profess to have so much at heart, by concurring with me in such
contribution, I have the honor to be, Sir, your obedient humble Servant,
A. Cochrane Johnstone." And then there is Mr. M'Rae's letter inclosed,
addressed to Mr. Cochrane Johnstone. "Sir, I authorize the bearer of
this note to state to you that I am prepared to lay before the public
the names of the persons who planned and carried into effect the late
hoax practised at the Stock Exchange the 21st of February, provided you
accede to the terms which my friend will lay before you, I am, Sir, your
obedient servant, A. M'Rae." Mr. M'Rae's friend must have been the
bearer of some message, for you observe that Mr. Cochrane Johnstone's
letter states more than Mr. M'Rae's letter offers, Mr. Cochrane
Johnstone does not receive an answer, and that he considered as very ill
treatment. Six days afterwards he writes another letter, "Sir, I have to
request that you will be so good as to inform me what are the intentions
of the Stock Exchange on the subject of the letter which I addressed to
you, relative to the proposal of Mr. M'Rae; Lord Cochrane, Mr. Butt, and
myself are willing to subscribe L1,000 each, in aid of the L10,000
required by Mr. M'Rae."

Gentlemen, these letters call for more than one observation; I cannot
forbear to make one upon the term which Mr. Cochrane Johnstone employs
to describe this transaction--"A HOAX," a mere joke, a matter of
pleasantry. Gentlemen, a young, a giddy, an unthinking and careless man,
who had no concern in the transaction, and who had never been suspected
to have had any, might perhaps, in conversation, make use of that term;
but Mr. Cochrane Johnstone is not young, he is not giddy, he is not
unthinking, he is not inexperienced, he has seen much of the world, he
is a cautious man, he is a man of high and noble family, he knows that
he is suspected of having been a party in this transaction, and yet he
calls it a HOAX! I beg to know what word in Mr. Cochrane Johnstone's
vocabulary is to be found to express FRAUD? I presume he would call
obtaining money by false pretences, an indulgence of the imagination,
and playing with loaded dice, a mere exercise of ingenuity. Is it
possible for any innocent man, situated as Mr. Cochrane Johnstone then
was, to describe this foul fraud by the name by which Mr. Cochrane
Johnstone here describes it? But, Gentlemen, l