ersons in the house at
present, which is rather awkward, and makes it too public_--WALLS HAVE
EARS." Mr. Cochrane Johnstone and Mr. Butt did not like that their
consultations should be liable to be overheard--their guilt might then
be proved by other than circumstantial evidence. "If you have powers to
sell, I will immediately treat with you; have the goodness, therefore,
to leave the terms with your clerk, or send them to me at No. 18, Great
Cumberland-street. I will however call again this day, before I return
to the West end of the Town."

Gentlemen, that is the letter of Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, and so much for
Mr. Cochrane Johnstone's denial of his having taken the office in
Shorter's Court.

Gentlemen, besides this denial of the fact, and this offer to swear to
it, these Gentlemen chose to make some criticisms on the report printed
by the Committee of the Stock Exchange, and the first criticism was one
of great importance.--One person had said, that Colonel Du Bourg got out
of the post chaise into the hackney coach, and another person said, he
got into the hackney coach having just alighted from the post chaise,
and it was supposed that that was a material contradiction. You will
find the fact to be, that he stepped from the one into the other.

Another was, that one person called the great coat, a _mixture_, and
another called it _brown_. In truth it was a greyish mixture, a military
great coat.

Another was, that one person had called the lace on the cap _gold_, and
another called it _silver_. It happens to be a pale gold, which
according to the light in which you view it, will appear like either
gold or silver. I will produce to you a fac simile of both coat and cap.

But it was felt that these criticisms would not suffice. Lord Cochrane
must account for his visitor, and Lord Cochrane came forward with a
declaration upon this subject, in a manner, which, I confess, appears to
me most degrading. If a person of his rank thought fit to give any
declaration, I should have thought that the mode of giving it would have
been under the sanction of his honor. Lord Cochrane thought otherwise,
and he chose to give it under the half and half sanction of a _voluntary
affidavit_. I call it so, Gentlemen, for this reason, that although he
who makes a voluntary affidavit attests his God to its truth, he renders
himself amenable to no human tribunal for its falsehood, for no
indictment for perjury can be maintained upon a v