never yet
breathed upon; and I now hold my existence only in the determination to
remove an imputation, as groundless, as it is intolerable.

The evidence which I now tender to your Lordship, will aid me in
performing this duty towards myself, my rank, and my profession. I first
offer the affidavit, which I have repeated at a risk which I formerly
had no opportunity of encountering. I have been told, that I then
incurred the moral guilt of perjury, without exposing myself to the
legal penalties. I know nothing of such distinctions. I have repeated
the statement upon oath--and I am now answerable to the laws if I have
falsely sworn. The affidavits of three persons who saw De Berenger at my
house on the 21st of February, fully confirm my statement, and I have
only been prevented from bringing forward a fourth, by his sailing to a
distant situation, before I could possibly stop him for this purpose.

The grounds upon which I have been convicted are these:--That notes were
found in De Berenger's possession which had been changed for others,
that had once been in mine. That De Berenger came to my house after
returning from his expedition; and that my account of what passed at
this visit is contradicted by evidence.

The first ground has been clearly explained away; it amounts to nothing
more than that which may happen to any man who has money transactions.
Mr. Butt voluntarily made purchases and sales of stock for me, and
having received a small loan of money from him, I repaid him with bank
notes which he used for his own purposes. He says that he exchanged
these notes, and that a part of the notes which he received in exchange
he paid to Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, who states, that he gave them to De
Berenger in payment of some drawings; but with this story, whether true
or false, I have no manner of concern, and consequently no wish to
discuss it. In what way soever the notes which were received in exchange
for mine reached De Berenger, I can only say, that mine were given to
Mr. Butt in discharge of a _bona fide_ debt; and I have no knowledge
whatever of the uses to which he applied them.

De Berenger's coming to my house, I before accounted for upon the
supposition of his being unconcerned in the fraud; but is it not obvious
that he might have come there to facilitate his escape, by going
immediately on board of my ship, with the additional prospect of
obtaining employment in America? It has been said that there was a
s