 In these volumes is recounted the public life of my late father, from the period to which the narrative was brought down by himself, in his unfinished autobiography of a seaman. The completion of that work was prevented by his death, which occurred almost immediately after the publication of the second volume eight and a half years ago. I had hoped to supplement it sooner, but in this hope I have been thwarted. My father's papers were at the time of his death in the hands of a gentleman who had assisted him in the preparation of his autobiography, and to this gentleman was entrusted the completion of the work. This and other occupations, however, interfered, and after a lapse of about two years he died, leaving the papers of which no use had been made by him to fall into the possession of others. Only after long delay and considerable trouble and expense was I able to recover them and realise my long cherished purpose. Further delay in the publication of this book has arisen, from my having been compelled as my father's executor, to make three long and laborious journeys to Brazil which have engrossed much time. At length, however, I find myself able to pay the debt which I owe both to my father's memory and to the public by whom the autobiography of a seaman was read with so much interest. At the beginning of the year I placed all the necessary documents in the hands of my friend, Mr. H. R. Foxbourne, asking him to handle them with the same zeal of research and impartiality of judgement which he has shown in his already published works. I have also finished him with my own reminiscences of so much of my father's life as was personally known to me, and he has availed himself of all the help that could be obtained from other sources of information, both private and public. He has written the book to the best of his ability, and I have done my utmost to help him in making it as complete and accurate as possible. We hope that the late Earl of Dunn-Donald's life and character have been all the better delineated in that the work has grown out of the personal knowledge of his son and the unbiased judgement of a stranger. A long time having elapsed since the publication of the autobiography of a seaman, it has been thought well to give a brief recapitulation of its story in an opening chapter. The four following chapters recount my father's history during the five years following the Cruel Stock Exchange trial, the subject last treated of in the autobiography. It is not strange that the harsh treatment to which he was subjected should have led him into opposition, in which there was some violence, which he afterwards condemned against the government of his day. But if there were circumstances to be regretted in this portion of his career, it shows almost more plainly than any other with what strength of philanthropy he sought aid the poor and the oppressed. His occupations as chief admiral, first of Chile and afterwards of Brazil, were described by himself in two volumes, entitled A Narrative of the Services in Chile, Peru and Brazil. Therefore the seven chapters of the present work which describe those episodes have been made as concise as possible. Only the most memorable circumstances have been dwelt upon and the details introduced have been drawn to some extent from documents not included in the volumes referred to. There was no reason for abridgment in treating of my father's connection with Greece. In the service of that country he was less able to achieve beneficial results than in Chile and Brazil, but as on that ground he has been frequently traduced by critics and historians. It seemed especially important to show how his successes were greater than these critics and historians have represented and how his failures sprang from the faults of others and from misfortunes by which he was the chief sufferer. The documents left by him moreover afford abundant material for illustrating an eventful period in modern history. The chapters referring to Greece and Greek affairs accordingly enter with a special fullness into the circumstances of Lord Dundonald's life at this time and his connection with contemporary politics. Indeed other chapters recount all that was of most public interest in the thirty years of my father's life after his return from Greece, except during a brief period of active service in his profession when he had command of the British squadron in North American and West Indian waters, those thirty years were chiefly spent in efforts by scientific research, by mechanical experiment, and by persevering argument to increase the naval power of his country. And in efforts, no less zealous, to secure for himself that full reversal of the wrongful sentence passed upon him in a former generation which could only be attained by public restitution of the official rank and national honours of which he had been deprived. This restitution was begun by his Majesty King William IV and completed by our present most gracious Queen and the Prince Consort. By the kindnesses which he received from these illustrious persons, my father's later years were cheered and I can never cease to be profoundly grateful to my sovereign and her revered husband for the personal interest with which they listened to my prayer immediately after his death. Through their gracious influence the same banner of Bath that had been taken from him nearly fifty years before was restored to its place in Westminster Abbey and allowed to float over his remains at their time of burial. Thus the last stain upon my father's memory was wiped out. Dundonald, London, May 24th, 1869. End of Preface, recording by Timothy Ferguson, Gold Coast, Australia. Chapter 1 of The Life of Thomas Lord Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, completing the autobiography of a seaman, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information, or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Timothy Ferguson. The Life of Thomas Lord Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, Volume 1, by Henry Richard Fox-Born. Chapter 1, 1775-1814. Thomas Lord Cochrane, 10th Earl of Dundonald, was born at Ansefield in Lanark on the 14th of December, 1775, and died in London on the 31st of October, 1860. Shortly before his death, he wrote two volumes, styled The Autobiography of a Seaman, which set forth his history down to 1814, the fortieth year of his age. To these volumes, the present work, recounting his career, during the ensuing six-and-forty years, is intended to serve as a sequel. Before entering upon the later narrative, however, it will be necessary briefly to recapitulate the incidents that have already been detailed. The Earl of Dundonald was descended from a long line of knights and barons, chiefly resident in Renfrew and Aire, many of whom were men of Mark in Scottish history during the thirteenth and following centuries. Robert Cochrane was the especial favourite and foremost counsellor of James III, who made him Earl of Maher. But the favours heaped upon him, and perhaps a certain arrogance in the use of those favours, led to so much opposition from his peers and rivals that he was assassinated by them in 1480. Footnote, Pinkerton, the historian, gives some curious details, illustrating not only Robert Cochrane's character, but also the condition of government and society in Scotland for centuries ago. The Scottish army, he says, amounting to fifty thousand, had crowded to the Royal Banner at Borough Muir near Edinburgh, whence they marched to Santray and to Lorda, at which place they encamped between the church and the village. Cochrane, Earl of Maher, conducted the artillery. On the morning after their arrival at Lorda, the peers assembled in a secret council in the church and deliberated upon their designs of revenge. Cochrane, ignorant of their designs, left the royal presence to proceed to the council. The Earl was attended by three hundred men, armed with light battleaxes, and distinguished by his livery of white with black fillets. He was clothed in a riding cloak of black velvet, and wore a large chain of gold around his neck. His horn of the chase, or of battle, was adorned with gold and precious stones, and his helmet, overlaid with the same valuable metal, was born before him. Approaching the door of the church, he commanded an attendant to knock with authority, and Sir Robert Douglas, of Loch Leven, who guarded the passage, inquiring the name was answered, Tizai, the Earl of Maher. Cochrane and some of his friends were admitted. Angus advanced to him, and pulling the gold chain from his neck said, A rope will become thee better, while Douglas of Loch Leven seized his hunting-horn, declaring that he had been too long a hunter of mischief. Rather astonished than alarmed, Cochrane said, My lords, is it jest or earnest? To which they replied, It is good earnest, and so thou shalt find it. For thou and thy accomplices have too long abused our prince's favour, but no longer expect such advantage for thou and thy followers shall now reap the deserved reward. Having secured Maher, the lords dispatched the men-at-arms to the king's pavilion, conducted by two or three moderate leaders, who amused James, while their followers seized the favourites. Sir William Roger and others were instantly hanged over the bridge at Laoda. Cochrane was now brought out, his hands bound with a rope, and thus conducted to the bridge, and hanged above his fellows. Footnoted ends. Later signs of the family prospered, and in 1641 Sir William Cochrane was raised to the peerage as Lord Cochrane of Cowden by Charles I. For his adherence to the royal cause, this nobleman was fined £5,000 by the Long Parliament in 1654, and in recompense for his loyalty he was made First Earl of Dundonal by Charles II in 1668. His successors were faithful to the stewards, and thereby they suffered heavily. Archibald, the Ninth Earl, inheriting a patrimony much reduced by the loyalty and zeal of his ancestors, spent it all in the scientific pursuits to which he devoted himself, and in which he was the friendly rival of what priestly Cavendish and other leading chemists and mechanicians of two or three generations ago. His eldest son, heir to little more than a famous name and assurus and enterprising disposition, had to fight his own way in the world. Lord Cochrane, as the subject of these memoirs, was styled in courtesy until his accession to the peerage in 1831 was intended by his father for the army in which he received a captain's commission, but his own predilections were in favour of a seamen's life and accordingly, after brief schooling, he joined the Hind as a midshipman in June 1793 when he was nearly 18 years of age. During the next seven years he learned his craft in various ships and seas, being helped in many ways by his uncle, the Honourable 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 four-pounders. When her new commander tried to add to these a couple of twelve-pounders, the deck proved too small and the timbers too weak for them and they had to be returned. So little appution was his cabin that, to shave himself, Lord Cochrane was obliged to thrust his head out of the skylight and make a dressing-table of the quarter-deck. Yet the Speedy, ably commanded, was quite large enough to be of good service. Cruising in her along the Spanish coast, Lord Cochrane succeeded in capturing many gun-boats and merchantmen, and the enemy soon learnt to regard her with a special dread. On one memorable occasion, the sixth of May, 1801, he fell in with the Garmo, a Spanish frigate, furnished with six times as many men as were in the Speedy, and with seven times her weight of shot. Lord Cochrane, boldly advancing, locked his little craft in the enemy's rigging. It was, in miniature, a contest as unequal, as that by which Sir Francis Drake and his fellows overcame the great Armada of Spain in 1588 and with like result. The heavy shot of the Garmo riddled the Speedy's sails, but, passing overhead, did no mischief to her hulk or her men. During an hour there was desperate fighting with small arms, and twice the Spaniards tried in vain to board their sturdy little foe. Lord Cochrane then determined to meet them on their own deck, and the daring project was facilitated by one of the smart expedients in which he was never wanting. Before going into action, knowing, as he said, that the final struggle would be a desperate one, and calculating on the superstitious wonder, which forms an element in the Spanish character, he had ordered his crew to blacken their faces, and with this and the excitement of combat, more ferocious looking objects could scarcely be imagined. With these men following him he promptly gained the frigates' deck, and then their strong arms and hideous faces soon frightened the Spaniards into submission. The senior officer of the Garmo asked for a certificate of his bravery, and received one, testifying that he had conducted himself like a true Spaniard. To Spain, of course, this was no sarcasm, and on the strength of the document its holder soon obtained for the promotion. That achievement, which cost only three men's lives, led to consequences greater than could have been expected. Lord Cochrane, after three months' waiting, received the rank of post-captain, but his desire that the services of Lieutenant Parker, his second-in-command, should also be recompensed, led to a correspondence with Earl St. Vincent, which turned him from a jealous superior into a bitter enemy. In reply to Lord Cochrane's recommendation, Earl St. Vincent alleged that it was unusual to promote two officers for such a service, besides the small number of men killed on board the speedy did not warrant the application. Lord Cochrane answered with incautious honesty that his Lordship's reasons for not promoting Lieutenant Parker, because there were only three men killed on board the speedy, were in opposition to his Lordship's own promotion to an Oldham, as well as that of his flight captain to Knightwood, and his other officers to increase rank and honours, for that, in the battle from which his Lordship derived his title, there was only one man killed on board his own flagship. That was language too plain to be forgiven. In July, 1801, the speedy was captured by three French line of battleships, whose senior-in-command, Captain Palier, declined to accept the sword of an officer who had, as he said, for so many hours struggled against impossibility, and asked Lord Cochrane, though a prisoner, still to wear it. He however was refused employment as a commander of another ship. Thereupon, with characteristic energy, he devoted his force leisure, from professional pursuits, to a year of student life at Edinburgh, where in 1802, Lord Palmerston was his class fellow under Professor Dougald Stewart. This occupation however was disturbed by the renewal of war with France in 1803. Lord Cochrane, though with difficulty then obtained permission to return to active service, the Arab, one of the craziest little ships in the Navy, being assigned to him. On his representing that she was too rotten for use off the French coast, he was ordered to employ her in cruising in the North Sea, and protecting the fisheries northeast of the Orkneys, where, as he said, no vessel fished, and consequently there were no fisheries to protect. This ignominious work lasted for a year. It was brought to a close in December 1804, soon after the appointment of Lord Melville in succession to Earl St. Vincent, as First Lord of the Admiralty. By him, Lord Cochrane was transferred from the Arab to the palace, a new and smart frigate of 32 guns, and allowed to use her in a famous cruise of price-taking among the Azores and off the coast of Portugal. This was followed in 1806 by further work in the same frigate, the closing portion of which was especially memorable. Being off the Basque roads at the end of April, he fixed his attention upon a frigate, the Minerva, and three Briggs, forming an important part of the French squadron in the Mediterranean. After three weeks waiting, on the 14th of May, he saw the frigate and the Briggs approaching him, and probably prepared to attack them. He was not deterred by knowing that the Minerva alone, carrying 40 guns, was far stronger than the palace, which had also to withstand the force of the three Briggs, each with 16 guns, and to be prepared for fire from the batteries of the Alda A. This morning, when close to the Alda A, reconnoitering the French squadron, he wrote concisely to his admiral, it gave me great joy to find our late opponent, the Black Frigate, and her companions, the three Briggs, getting under sail. We formed high expectations that the long wished-for opportunity was at last arrived. The palace remained under Topsules by the wind to await them. At half past 11, a small, point-blank firing commenced on both sides, which were severely felt by the enemy. The main Topsule yard of one of the Briggs was cut through, and the frigate lost her aftersails. The batteries of the Alda A opened on the palace, and a cannonade continued, interrupted on our part only by the necessity we were under, to make various attacks to avoid the shoals. Till one o'clock, when our endeavour to gain the wind of the enemy and get between him and the batteries, proved successful. An effectual distance was now chosen. A few broadsides were poured in, the enemy's fire slackened. I ordered ours to cease, and directed Mr. Sutherland, the master, to run the frigate on board with the intention, effectually, to prevent her retreat. The enemy's side thrust our guns back into the ports. The hull were then discharged. The effect and crash were dreadful. Their decks were deserted. Three pistol shots were the unequal return. With confidence, I say that the frigate would have been lost to France, had not the unequal collision torn away our foretop must, jib-boom, fore and top midsails, spruceful yards, bumpkin, cathead, chainplates, forerigging, foresail, and bow-ranker, with which last I intended to hook on, but all proved insufficient. She would have yet been lost to France, had not the French admiral, seeing his frigate's four-yard gone, her rigging ruined, and the danger she was in sent two others to her assistance. The palace being a wreck, we came out with what sail we could set, and his majesty's sloop, the kingfisher, afterwards took us in tow. The exploit was nonetheless valiant in that it was partly a failure. The waiting times before and after that cruise were occupied by Lord Cochran with brief commencement of a parliamentary life. Long before this time, Lord Cochran had resolved on entering the House of Commons in order to expose the naval abuses, which were then rife, and which he had never been deterred by consideration of his own interests from boldly denouncing. He stood for Funneton in 1805 and was defeated through his refusal to vie with his opponent in the art of bribery. He contrived, however, to profit by corruption while he punished it. As soon as the election was over, he gave ten guineas to each of the constituents who had freely voted for him. The consequence of this was his triumphant return at the new election, which took place in July 1806. When his supporters asked for like payment to that maid in the previous instance, it was bluntly refused. The former gift, said Lord Cochran, was for your disinterested conduct in not taking the bribe of five pounds from the agents of my opponent. For me now to pay you would be a violation of my principles. A short cruise in the Basque roads prevented Lord Cochran from occupying in the House of Commons the seat thus won, and in April 1807, very soon after his return, Parliament was again dissolved. He then resolved to stand for Westminster with Sir Francis Baudet for his associate. Both were returned, and Lord Cochran held his seat for eleven years. In 1807, however, he had only time to bring forward two motions, respecting sinicures and naval abuses, which issued in violent but unproductive discussion when he received orders to join the fleet in the Mediterranean as captain of the Imperial use. Naval employment was grudgingly accorded to him, but it was thought wiser to give him work abroad than to suffer his free speech at home. This employment was marked by many brilliant deeds which procured for him on his surrendering his command of the Imperial use after 18 months duration. The reproach of having spent more sale, stores, gunpowder and shot than had been used by any other captain in the service. The most brilliant deed of all, one of the most brilliant deeds in the whole naval history of England was his well-known exploit in the Basque Roads on the 11th, 12th and 13th of April, 1809. Much against his will, he was persuaded by Lord Mulgrave at that time, First Lord of Admiralty, to bear the responsibility of attacking and attempting to destroy the French squadron by means of fire ships and explosion vessels. The project was opposed by Lord Gambier, the Admiral of the Fleet, as being at once hazardous, if not desperate, and a horrible and anti-Christian mode of warfare, and consequently, he gave no hearty cooperation. On Lord Cochrane devolved the whole duty of preparing for and executing the project. His own words will best tell the story. On the 11th of April, he said, it blew hard with a high sea. As all preparations were complete, I did not consider the state of the weather a justifiable impediment to the attack, so that after nightfall, the officers who volunteered to command the fire ships were assembled on board the Caledonia and supplied with instructions according to the plan previously laid down by myself. The Imperius had proceeded to the edge of the Boillard Shoal, close to which she anchored, with an explosion vessel made fast to her stern, it being my intention after firing the one of which I was about to take charge, to return to her for the other to be employed, as circumstances might require. At a short distance from the Imperius were anchored the frigates Agli, Unicorn and Pallas for the purpose of receiving the crews of the fire ships on their return, as well as to support the boats of the fleet, assembled alongside the Caesar to assist the fire ships. The boats of the fleet were not, however, for some reason or other, made use of at all. Having myself embarked on board the largest explosion vessel accompanied by Lieutenant Bissell and a volunteer crew of four men only, we led the way to the attack. The night was dark and as the wind was fair, though blowing hard, we soon neared the estimated position of the advanced French ships, for it was too dark to discern them. Judging our distance, therefore, as well as we could, with regard to the time the fuse was calculated to burn, the crew of four men entered the gig under the direction of Lieutenant Bissell, whilst I kindled the portfires and then descending into the boat, urged the men to pull for their lives, which they did with a will, though as wind and sea were strong against us without making the expected progress. To our consternation, the fuses, which had been constructed to burn 15 minutes, lasted little more than half that time when the vessel blew up, filling the air with shells, grenades and rockets, whilst the downward and lateral force of the explosion raised a solitary mountain of water, from the breaking of which, in all directions, our little boat narrowly escaped, being swamped. The explosion vessel did her work, the effect constituting one of the grandest artificial spectacles imaginable. For a moment, the sky was red with the lurid glare arising from the simultaneous ignition of 1500 barrels of powder. On this gigantic flash subsiding, the air seemed alive with shells, grenades, rockets and masses of timber, the wreck of the shattered vessel. The sea was convulsed as by an earthquake rising, as has been said in a huge wave on whose crest our boat was lifted like a cork and as suddenly dropped into a vast trough, out of which, as it closed upon us with the rush of a whirlpool, none expected to emerge. In a few moments, nothing but a heavy rolling sea had to be encountered, all having again become silence and darkness, readers note quote ends. In spite of its bursting too soon, the explosion vessel did excellent work, the strong boom composed of large spas bound by heavy chains and firmly anchored at various points in its length of more than a mile, which was supposed to constitute an impassable barrier between the English ships that were outside and the French ships locked behind it was broken in several parts. The enemy ships were thoroughly disorganized by the sudden and appalling occurrence of the explosion. In their alarm and confusion, many of them fired into one another and all might have been easily destroyed had the first success of the explosion vessel been properly followed up. Unfortunately, however, on returning to the imperialists, Lord Cochrane found that there had been gross mismanagement of the fire ships, which according to his plans, were to have been dispatched against various sections of the French fleet while it was too confused to protect itself. One of them fired at the wrong time and sent in a wrong direction, nearly destroyed the imperialists and caused the wasting of a second explosion vessel, which was meant to be held in reserve. The others, if not as mischievous in their effects, were almost as useless. Of all the fire ships, upwards of 20 in number, said Lord Cochrane, only four reached the enemy's position and not one did any damage. The imperialists lay three miles from the enemy so that one, which was near setting fire to her, became useless at the outset while several others were kindled a mile and a half to the windward of this or four miles and a half from the enemy. Of the remainder, many were at once rendered harmless from being brought to on the wrong tack. Six passed a mile to windward of the French fleet and one grounded on Oleron. Readers note quote ends. Though the full success of Lord Cochrane's scheme was thus prevented, however, the work done by it was considerable. As the fire ships began to light up the roads, he said, we could observe the enemy's fleet in great confusion. Without doubt, taking every fire ship for an explosion vessel and being deceived as to their distance, not only did the French make no effort to divert them from their course, but some of their ships cut their cables and were seen drifting away broadside onto the wind and tide, whilst others made sail as the only alternative to escape from what they evidently considered certain destruction. At daylight on the morning of the 12th, not a spar of the boom was anywhere visible and with the exception of the fordroyant and Cassade, the whole of the enemy's vessels were helplessly aground. The flagship La Oceanne, a three-decker, drawing the most water, lay outmost on the northwest edge of the palace's shoal nearest the deep water where she was most exposed to attack, whilst all, by the fall of the tide, were lying on their bilge with their bottoms completely exposed to shot and therefore beyond the possibility of resistance. There is no quote ends. The French fleet had not been destroyed, yet it was so paralysed by the shock that its utter defeat seemed easy to Lord Cochrane. To the mast of the Imperius, between six o'clock in the morning of the 12th and one in the afternoon, he hoisted signal after signal, urging Lord Gambier, who was with the main body of the fleet about fourteen miles off to make an attack, and growing desperate in his zeal, especially as every hour of delay was enabling the French to recover themselves and rendering success less sure, he suffered his single frigate to drift towards the enemy. I did not venture to make sail, wrote Lord Cochrane in his very modest account of this daring exploit, lest the movement might be seen from the flagship and a signal of recall should defeat my purpose of making an attack with the Imperius. My object being to compel the Commander-in-Chief vessels to our assistance. We drifted by the wind and tied slowly past the fortifications on aisle A, but though they fired at us with every gun that could be brought to bear, the distance was too great to inflict damage, proceeding thus till 1.30pm, we then suddenly made sail after the nearest of the enemy's vessels escaping. In order to divert our attention from the vessels we were pursuing, these having thrown their guns overboard, the Calcutta, a store ship carrying 56 guns, which was still ground, broadside on, began firing at us. Before proceeding further it became therefore necessary to attack her, and at 1.50pm we shortened sail and returned the fire. At 2pm the Imperius came to an anchor in five fathoms and veering to half a cable kept fast the spring, firing upon the Calcutta with our broadside and at the same time upon the Aquillon and Ville de Varserville two line of battleships each of 74 guns with our Vauxhall and bow guns, both these ships being a ground stern on in an opposite direction. After some time we had the satisfaction of observing several ships sent to our assistance, namely the Emerald, the Unicorn, the Indefatigable, the Valiant, the Revenge, the Palace, and the Agli. On seeing this the Captain and crew of the Calcutta abandoned their vessel of which the boats of the Imperius took possession before the vessel sent to our assistance came down. Soon after the arrival of the new ships the two other vessels were also forced to surrender. Most of the ships sent to his assistance returned to Lord Gambier on the 13th, Lord Cochrane seeing that it would be easy for him to do much further mischief made ready for the work on the morrow. But from this he was prevented by the inexcusable conduct of Lord Gambier who having discounted the attempt with the fire ships now not only refused to take part in the victory which his comrade had made possible but also hindered its achievement by him. Lord Cochrane had already overstepped the strict duty of a subordinate though only acting as became an English sailor. The fire ships with which he had been ordered to ruin the enemy's fleet had partly failed through the error of others. It was then he said a question with me whether I should disappoint the expectations of my country, be set down as a charlatan by the Admiralty whose hopes had been raised by my plan and have my future prospects destroyed or force an action which some had induced an easy commander in chief to believe impracticable. He did force on some fighting which was altogether disastrous to the enemy and rich in tokens of his unflinching heroism but it was in violation of repeated orders dubiously worded from Lord Gambier and when at last an order was issued in terms to distinct to allow any further evasion he had no alternative but to abandon the enterprise. He was at once sent back to England to be rewarded with much popular favour and with the knighthood of the order of the bath conferred by George III but to become the victim of an official persecution which, embittering his whole life lasted almost to its close. It must be admitted that this persecution was in great measure provoked by Lord Cochran's own fearless conduct. He was reasonably aggrieved at the effort made by the Admiralty authorities to attribute to Lord Gambier who had taken no part at all in the achievements in the Basque Roads or the merit of their success. To use his own caustic but accurate words, the only victory gained by Lord Gambier in Basque Roads was that of bringing his ships to anchor there whilst the enemy ships were quietly heaving off the banks on which they had been driven nine miles distant from the fleet. When for this proceeding it was determined to honour Lord Gambier with the thanks of the parliament Lord Cochran as a member for Westminster announced his intention of opposing the motion. As a bribe to silence he was offered an important command by Lord Mulgrave and it was proposed that his name should be included in the vote of thanks. The bribe being refused and the opposition persisted in Lord Gambier demanded a court marshal in which as he alleged to contravert the insinuations thrown out against him by Lord Cochran. The history of this court marshal its antecedents and its consequences furnishes an episode almost unique in the annals of official justice. As a preparation for it Lord Gambier in obedience to orders from the Admiralty supplemented his first account of the victory by another of entirely different tenor. In the first written on the spot he had avowed that he could not speak highly enough of Lord Cochran's vigor and gallantry in approaching the enemy. Conduct he said which could not be exceeded by any feet of valor hitherto achieved by the British navy. In the record written four weeks later and in London he altogether ignored Lord Cochran's services and transferred the entire merit to himself. The whole conduct of the court marshal was in keeping with that prelude. No effort was spared in stifling all the evidence on Lord Cochran's side and in inducing false testimony against him. Logbooks and witnesses alike were tampered with. In support of his scheme for annihilating the whole French fleet Lord Cochran produced in court a chart showing the relative position of the various points in a roads and of the overhanging fort which was to protect the French ships. This chart left lying upon the table was tacitly accepted by the authorities of the Admiralty as a trustworthy document and duly preserved among the official records. But at the time the court refused to receive it in evidence and adopted instead two falsified charts in which by the introduction of imaginary shoals and the narrowing of the channel to a roads from two miles to one the success of the scheme appeared impossible. Although this gross deception was more than suspected both then and afterwards by Lord Cochran his repeated applications to the Admiralty for permission to inspect the documents were steadily refused. It was not till more than fifty years after the period of the court-marshall that he was able to prove the scandalous fraud. Readers of the autobiography of a seaman need not be reminded of the copious and convincing evidence of the way in which he was treated by the court-marshall that was induced by Lord Dundonald in that work. The result of the court-marshall was of course such as from the first had been intended Lord Gambier was acquitted and unlimited blame was by inference thrown upon Lord Cochran. The coveted vote of thanks was promptly obtained from the House of Commons. Lord Cochran's proposal that the minutes of court-marshall be first investigated being, through ministerial influence, summarily rejected. These proceedings determined the course which men in power were to adopt and fix Lord Cochran's future. It was a future to be made up of cruel disregard and of revengeful persecution. Soon after the close of the trial the brave seaman applied to the Admiralty and the permission to rejoin his old frigate to the Imperius and accompanied his application with a bold plan of attacking the French fleet in the Shelte. He received an insulting answer to the effect that if he would be ready to quit the country in a week and then to occupy a position subordinate to that, which he had formally held his services would be accepted. On replying that his great desire to be employed in his profession made him willing to do anything and that all he wished for was a little longer time for preparation no further communication was vouched safe he was quietly superseded in the command of the Imperius and received no other ship. Out of this ill treatment however resulted some benefit to the nation. Lord Cochran employed much of his forced leisure during the next few years in exposing abuses that were overabundant and in strenuously advocating reform. In Parliament voting always with his friend Sir Francis Burdette and the Radical Party he limited his exertions to naval matters and such as were within his own experience. Herein there was plenty to occupy him and much of that is now amusing to look back upon. One scandalous grievance led to a memorable episode in his life. The many prizes taken by him in the Mediterranean which according to rule had been sent to the Maltese Admiralty Court for condemnation had been encumbered with such preposterous charges that instead of realising anything by his captures he was made out to be largely in debt to the court. The principal agent of this court was Mr Jackson who illegally held office as at the same time Marshal and Proctor. The consequence was said Lord Cochran that every prize placed in his hands as Proctor had to pass through his hands as Marshal whilst as Proctor it was further in his power to consult himself as Marshal. As often has he pleased and to any extent he pleased the amount of self-consultation may be imagined. As Proctor he charged for visiting himself and as Marshal he charged for receiving visits from himself. As Marshal he was paid for instructing himself and as Proctor he was paid for listening to his own instructions. Ten shillings and tuppence three farthings was the customary charge for an oath to the effect that he had served a munition on himself. Of the sheets composing the bill for services of these sorts presented to him Lord Cochran formed a roll which when unfolded and exhibited in Parliament stretched from the speakers table to the by of the house. Not content, however, with laughing at the official robberies committed upon him he determined early in 1811 to proceed to Malta and personally investigate the matter. Reaching Valletta along before he was expected he immediately presented himself at the courthouse and asked for a copy of the table of fees authorised by the Crown and which according to directions ought to have been placed conspicuously in the public room. The existence of such a document being denied he proceeded to hunt for it himself and after a long and careful search founded in and out of the way corner of the building. Having taken possession of it he was carrying off the prize which he intended to exhibit in the House of Commons in token of the extent to which he and others had been defrauded when he was arrested for contempt of court. He protested that the arrest was illegal seeing that as the court had not been sitting no insult could have been offered to it. The plea was not accepted and he was sent to jail. No ground for punishment, however, could be found against him and after refusing to help the authorities out of their embarrassment by going at large on bail and insisting on a proper exculpation or nothing at all he let himself out of window by means of a rope. A gig was waiting for him by which he was unable to overtake the packet boat that had quitted much shortly before to return to London and present the document seized by him to Parliament a month before the official report of his escapade reached home. This letter from the Duke of Kent to Lord Cochrane will help to show that even after the time of his admiralty persecution he was not without friends and admirers in high quarters. Kensington Palace, 7 July 1812 My dear lord, I trust the acquaintance I had the satisfaction to possess with your lordship and the long and intimate friendship subsisting between myself and your brother, Lieutenant Colonel Basil Cochrane will warrant my intruding upon you for the purpose of seconding the wishes of a young naval protégé of mine and I cannot help adding my earnest request that when your distinguished zeal and talents in your profession are again called into action by the government you will kindly oblige me by taking Lieutenant Edgar under your wing in protection. Here's a fine young man that I think would not disgrace the wardroom of your lordship's ship. I remain with my sincere regard, my dear lord, yours faithfully, Edward. The right honourable lord Cochrane readers note letter ends. The assignment of very different character occurred after an interval of nearly three years. This was in consequence of the famous stock exchange trial. The episode last treated of by the Earl of Dundonald in his autobiography and not quite recounted to the end, before death stayed his hand. From 1809 to 1813 Lord Cochrane was allowed to take no active part in the work of his profession, but at the close of the latter year, his uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane, having been selected to the command of the fleet on the North American station, appointed him as his flag captain, an appointment resting only with the commander in chief, and one with which the government could not interfere. It was always Lord Cochrane's belief that the implacable enmity of his foes in the Admiralty office, determined to prevent by irregular means, since no regular course was open to them, his return to naval work helped to bring about the cruel persecution by which his whole life was embittered. But it must be admitted that the dishonesty of one of his own kinsmen about which a chivalrous sense of honour caused him to be reticent, during nearly 50 years, conduced to this result. The chief agent of the fraud practised upon him was a foreigner named De Beringer. This man, clever and unscrupulous, had been associated with Mr. Cochrane Johnson, an uncle of Lord Cochrane's, in certain stock-jobbing transactions. In that, or in some other way, he became known to Lord Cochrane and to his other uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane, and being a smart chemist and pyrotechnist, it was proposed that he should accompany Lord Cochrane to North America and assist him in the trial of his recently-discovered method of attacking forts and fleets in a secret and irresistible manner. With that object, of course, claimed destined, Sir Alexander Cochrane sought the permission of the Admiralty to employ De Beringer as a teacher of sharpshooting in which he was a well-known adept. This was not granted, and near the end of 1813, Sir Alexander set sail for Halifax, leaving Lord Cochrane to follow in the Tonant, in charge of a convoy, and in getting the Tonant ready for sea, his lordship was busy during January and February 1814. In the former month, De Beringer sought him out and earnestly requested that his official appointment being refused, he might be taken aboard in a private capacity and allowed to rely upon the success of his work for recompense. Lord Cochrane declined to employ him without some sort of sanction from the Admiralty, and De Beringer left him with the avowed intention of doing his utmost to procure this sanction. He was otherwise occupied, being in urgent need of money, with which to avail the grasp of numerous creditors, he returned to his stock jobbing pursuits, if indeed he had not been engaging in them all along, using his proposal for employment under Cochrane as a blind or as a secondary resource. Instead of furthering his efforts to obtain this employment, he contrived a plan for causing a sudden rise in the funds, and thereby securing a large profit to himself and his accomplices. On the 20th of February, he presented himself at the ship hotel at Dover, disguised as a foreigner, and calling himself Colonel de Berg, professing to the effect that Bonaparte had been killed by the Cossacks, and that the Allied armies were in full march toward Paris, and that a speedy cessation of the war was certain. Thence he hurried up to London, and was traced to have gone on the following morning to Lord Cochrane's house. The ostensible object of that visit was to renew his application for employment on board the Tonant. The real object was by means of a trick to get possession of a hat and cloak, with which to disguise himself for fresh, and thus try to allude the pursuit of agents of the stock exchange, who would soon seek for his fraud. The disguise was given to him in all innocence, and might have been successful, had not Lord Cochrane on finding out grossly he had been deceived, volunteered to assist in punishing the culprit. Leaving the Tonant, in which he was about to start from Chatham, he returned to London, and gave full information as to his share in the transaction, with the view of furthering the cause of justice and clearing himself from all blame. That was prevented by as wanton a persecution, and as malicious perverting of the forms of justice, the principles of equity as the annals of English law, not often abused, even in a much less degree, can show. The straightforward evidence furnished by him was made the handle to an elaborate machinery of falsehood, and perjury, for affecting his own ruin. The solicitor, who had managed the cause of the Admiralty at the court-martial on Lord Gambier, and therein proved his skill was entrusted with the ugly work. By him, an elaborate case for persecution was trumped up, and Lord Cochrane hindered from sailing to North America, and from obtaining any other employment in the country's service, during four and thirty years, was, on the 8th of June, placed in the prisoner's dock at the court of King's Bench, on a charge of conspiring with his uncle, Mr Cochrane Johnson, with De Beringer, and with some other persons to defraud the stock exchange. Lord Ellenborough, who presided at the trial, delivered a charge which was even more virulent and more marked by political spite than was his want, and the two compliant jury brought in a verdict of guilty. Lord Cochrane vainly sought for a new trial, and vainly adduced abundant proof of his innocence. The chance of justice that is every Englishman's right was denied to him. He was sentenced to an hour's detention in the pillory at the entrance of the Royal Exchange, to a year's imprisonment in the King's Bench Prison, and to a fine of a thousand pounds. The first part of the sentence was not insisted upon as Sir Francis Baudet, Lord Cochrane's noble-hearted colleague, as member for Westminster, avowed his intention of standing also in the pillory if his friend was subjected to that indignity, and of encouraging the storm of popular indignation that without any such encouragement would probably have led to consequences which the government, already hated by all Englishmen who loved their birthright, dared not brook. But the unworthy vengeance of his prosecutors was amply satisfied in other ways. He had already suffered more than most men. Neglect, he said, I was accustomed to, but when an alleged offence was laid to my charge in which, on the honour of a man now on the brink of the grave, I had not the slightest participation, and from I never benefited, nor thought to benefit one farthing, and when this allegation was by political rancour and legal chicanery, consummated in an unmerited conviction, and an outrageous sentence, my heart for the first time sank within me as conscious of a below, the effect of which it has required all my energies to sustain. It is needless now to say anything in proof of Lord Cochrane's innocence of the charge brought against him. The world has long since reversed the verdict to past at Lord Cochrane's dictation that an officer and a gentleman of Lord Cochrane's reputation should have demeaned himself by becoming party to the fraud of which he was accused is, to say the least, improbable. That, if he had been guilty of that fraud, he should not have availed himself of the only benefit that could be derived from it by investing in the stocks when they were low, and selling out during the brief time of their artificial value is far more improbable. That when the fraud was perpetrated and its chief instrument was undiscovered, he should have the tonnons in order to expose him instead of taking him away from England and so almost ensuring the preservation of the secret is utterly impossible. His only faults were too great faith in his own innocence and a too surest desire to protect or rather to abstain from injuring his unworthy kinsmen. I must be distinctly understood, it was said by Lord Broom, in his historic sketches of British statesmen, to deny the accuracy of the opinion which Lord Ellenbra appears to have formed in this case, and to deeply lament guilty, which the jury returned after three hours' consultation and hesitation. If Lord Cochrane was at all aware of his uncle, Mr. Cochrane Johnson's proceedings, it was the whole extent of his privity to the fact. Having been one of the counsel engaged in the cause, I can speak with some confidence respecting it, and I take upon me to assert that Lord Cochrane's conviction was mainly owing to the extreme repugnance which he felt to giving up his uncle or taking those precautions for his own safety which would have operated against his relation. Even when he, the real criminal, had confessed his guilt by taking flight, and the other defenders were brought up for judgement, we the counsel could not persuade Lord Cochrane to shake himself loose from the contamination by abandoning him. Part of a letter addressed to The Earl of Dunn-Donald in 1859 on the anniversary of his 84th birthday, and shortly after the publication of the first volume of his autobiography of a semen, by the daughter of the man whose wrongdoing had conduced so terribly to his misfortunes, may he be fitly quoted. You are still active, still in health, says the writer. And you have just given the world a striking proof of the vigor of your mind and intellect. Many years I cannot wish for you, but may you live to finish your book, and if it please God, may you and I have a peaceful deathbed. We have both suffered much mental anguish, though in various degrees. For yours was indeed the hardest lot that an honourable man can be called to bear. Oh, my dear cousin, let me say once more, whilst we are still here, how ever since that miserable time I have felt that you suffered for my poor father's fault, how agonising that conviction was, how thankful I am that Tardy Justice was done you. May God return you fourfold for your generous, though misplaced, confidence in him, and for all your subsequent forbearance. Written out letter ends. Another extract from a letter, from one out of a multitude of tributes to the Earl of Dundonald's honourable bearing, which were tendered after his death, shall close this introductory chapter. Five years after the trial of Lord Cochran, wrote Sir Fitzroy Kelly, now Lord Chief Baron on 17 December 1860, I began to study for the bar, and very soon became acquainted with and interested in his case, and I have thought of it much and long during more than forty years, and I am profoundly convinced that, had he been defended singly and separately from the others accused, or had he at the last moment before judgement was pronounced, applied with competent legal advice and assistance for a new trial, he would have been unhesitatingly and honourably acquitted. We cannot blot out this dark page from our legal and judicial history. End of chapter one, recording by Timothy Ferguson, Gold Coast, Australia. Chapter two of The Life of Thomas Lord Cochran, 10th Earl of Dundonald, volume one, by Henry Richard Foxbourne, this LibriVox recording is in the public domain, recording by Timothy Ferguson. Chapter two 1814 The famous and infamous Stock Exchange trial occupied the 8th and 9th of June 1814, but the sentence was deferred until the 21st of the same month, in consequence of Lord Cochran's demand for a new trial. That demand was not applied with, in spite of the production of overwhelming evidence to justify it, and the victim of Lord Ellenborough and the tyrannical government of the day was at once conveyed to the King's Bench prison. No time was lost in heaping upon him all the indignities which, in accordance with precedent, and in accessible precedent, might supplement his degradation. The first was a notice of motion which would result in his expulsion from the House of Commons. Lord Cochran promptly filed himself of the opening thus afforded for a public avowal of his innocence. To the Honourable Charles Abbot, then Speaker of the House, he wrote from his prison on the 23rd of June. Sir, runs the letter, I respectfully entreat you to communicate to the Honourable House of Commons my earnest desire and prayer that no question arising out of the late convictions in the court of King's Bench may be agitated without affording me timely notice and full opportunity of attending in my place for the justification of my character. From the House of Commons I hope to obtain that justice, which, to implicit reliance on the consciousness of my innocence and circumstances over which I had no control, have hitherto deprived me. The painful situation in which I am placed is known to the House, and I trust that I shall be unable to demonstrate that a more injured man has never sought redress from those to whose justice I now appeal for the preservation of my character and existence. In compliance with that request and with parliamentary rules Lord Cochrane was conveyed from the King's Bench prison to the House of Commons and allowed to read a carefully prepared statement of his case on the 5th of July, the day fixed for investigation of the subject. From this statement it is not necessary to cite the clear and conclusive recapitulation of the evidence adduced at the trial or refused admission therein because it was too convincing of Lord Cochrane's innocence. But room must be found for some passages illustrating the independent temper of the speaker and the perversions of justice to which he fell a victim. I am not here, sir, he said. To bespeak compassion or to pave the way to pardon both ideas are alike repugnant to my feelings. That the public in general have felt indignation at the sentence that has been passed upon me does honour to their hearts and tends still to make my country dear to me in spite of what I have suffered from the malignity of persons in power. But, sir, I am not here to complain of the hardship of my case or about the cruelty of judges who, for an act which was never till now ever known or thought to be illegal offence have laid upon me a sentence more heavy than they have ever yet laid upon persons clearly convicted of the most horrid of crimes, crimes of which nature herself cries aloud against the commission. If therefore it was my object to complain of the cruelty of my judges, I should bid the public look into the calendar and see if they could find a punishment like that inflicted on me, inflicted by these same judges on any one of these unnatural wretches. It is not, however, my business to complain of the cruelty of this sentence I am here to assert for the third time my innocence in the most unqualified and solemn manner I am here to expose the unfairness of the proceedings against me, previous to the trial, at the trial, and subsequent to it. I am here to expose the long train of artful villainies which have been practised against me hitherto with so much success. I am persuaded, sir, that the house will easily perceive and every honourable man I am sure, participate in my feelings that the fine, the imprisonment, the pillory, even that pillory to which I am condemned, are nothing, that they weigh not as a feather when putting the balance against my desire to show that I have been unjustly condemned. Therefore, sir, I trust that the house will give a fair and impartial hearing to what I have to say respecting the conduct of my enemies, to expose which conduct is a duty which I owe to my constituents and to my country, not less than to myself. In the first place, sir, I hear in the presence of this house, and with the eyes of the country fixed upon me most solemnly declare that I am wholly innocent of the crime, which has been laid to my charge and for which I have been condemned to the most infamous of punishments. Having repeated this assertion of my innocence, I next proceed to complain of the means that have been made use of to effect my destruction. And first, sir, was it ever before known in this or in any other country that the prosecutor should form a sort of court of his own erection, call witnesses before it of his own choosing, and under offers of great rewards take minutes of the evidence of such witnesses and publish those minutes to the world under the forms and appearances of a judicial proceeding? Was it ever before known that steps like these were taken previous to an indictment, previous to the bringing of an intended victim into a court of justice? Was there ever before known so regular, so systematic a scheme for exciting suspicion against a man and for implanting an immovable prejudice against him in the minds of a whole nation, previous to the preferring of a bill of indictment in order that the grand jury, be it composed of whom so ever it might, should be predisposed to find the bill. I ask you, sir, and I ask the House whether it was ever before known that means like these were resorted to previous to a man's being legally accused. But, sir, what must the world think when they see some of those to whom the welfare and the honour of the nation are committed? Covertly cooperating with the Committee of the Stock Exchange and becoming their associates in so nefarious a scheme. Nevertheless, sir, this fact is now notorious to the whole world, I must confess I was not prepared to believe the thing possible." Thereupon followed a detailed examination of the charges brought against Lord Cochrane and of the way in which those charges were handled, special complaint being made concerning the malicious bearing of Lord Ellambra. It must be in the recollection of the House, Lord Cochrane, as it is in that of the public that he urged that he compelled the Council to enter upon my defence after midnight at the end of fifteen hours from the commencement of the trial, when that Council declared himself quite exhausted and when the jury who were to decide were in a state of such weariness as to render attention to what was said totally impossible. The speeches of the Council being ended, the judge at half past three in the morning, adjourned the court till ten, thus separating the evidence from the argument and reserving his own strength and the strength of my adversaries' advocates for the close, giving to both the great advantage of time to consider the reply and to insert and arrange arguments to meet those which had been urged in my defence." All his treatment by Lord Ellambra, as Lord Cochrane urged, was of that sort or worse. Of all tyrannies, sir, he said, the worst is that which exercises its vengeance under the guise of judicial proceedings, and especially if a jury make part of the means by which its base purposes are affected, the man who was flung into prison or sent to the scaffold at the nod of an avowed despotism has, at least, the consolation to know that his sufferings bring down upon that despotism the execration of mankind, but he who is entrapped and entangled in the meshes of a crafty and corrupt system of jurisprudence, who is pursued imperceptibly by a law with lead iron jaws, who is not put upon his trial till the ear of the public has been poisoned and its heart steeled against him falls at last, without being cheered with the hope of seeing his tyrants executed even by the warmest of his friends. In their principle, the ancient and settled laws of England are excellent, but of late years, so many injurious and fatal alterations in the law have taken place that any man who ventures to meddle with public affairs, and opposed persons in power is sure and certain sooner or later to suffer in some way or another. So the punishment which the malice of my enemies has procured to be inflicted on me is not, in my mind, worth a moment's reflection. The judge supposed, apparently, that the sentence of the pillory would disgrace and mortify me. I can assure him, and I now solemnly assure this house, my constituents and my country, that I would rather stand in my own name in the pillory every day of my life under such a sentence, than I would sit upon the bench in the name and with the real character of Lord Ellenbra for a single hour. Something has been said, sir, in this house as I have heard about an application for a mitigation of my sentence in a certain quarter where it is observed that mercy never failed to flow, but I can assure the house that an application for pardon extorted from me is one of the things which even a partial judge and a path to jury have not the power to accomplish. No, sir, I will seek for and I look for, pardon nowhere, for I have committed no crime. I have sought for, I still seek for, and I confidently expect justice, not, however, at the hands of those by whose machinations I have been brought to what they regard as my ruin, but at the hands of my enlightened and most was constituents to whose exertions the nation owes that there is still a voice to cry out against that haughty and inexorable tyranny which commands silence in all but parasites and hypocrites. Thus ended Lord Cochran's written argument, it was followed by a few words spoken on the spur of the moment, quote, having so long occupied its time I will not trouble the house longer than to implore it to investigate the circumstances of my case. I think I have stated enough to induce it to call for the minutes of the trial. All I wish is an inquiry. Many important facts yet remain to be considered and I trust that the house will not come to a decision with its eyes shut. I entreat, I implore investigation. It is true that a sentence of a court of law has been pronounced against me but that punishment is nothing and will, to me, seem nothing in comparison with what it is in the power of the house to inflict. I have already suffered much but if after a deliberate and a fair investigation the house shall determine that I am guilty then that may be deserted and abandoned by the world. I shall submit without repining to any the most dreadful penalty that the house can assign. I solemnly declare before Almighty God that I am ignorant of the whole transaction. Into the hearts of men we cannot penetrate, we cannot dive into their in most thoughts but my heart I lay open and my most secret thoughts I disclose to the house. I entreat the strictest scrutiny and a patient hearing. I implore at your hands as an act of justice and once more I call upon my maker, upon Almighty God to bear witness that I am innocent. He knows my heart, he knows all its secrets and he knows that I am innocent. An animated debate followed upon that eloquent address. Viscount Castle Ray complained that Lord Cochran instead of defending himself had only liable Lord Ellenborough and the noblest institutions of the land. Other speakers expressed similar opinions but others testified to the consistent character of Lord Cochran rendering it impossible that he should be guilty of the offence with which he was charged and others again confessed that having previously had doubts in the matter, those doubts had been removed by the high minded tone and the powerful arguments of his defence but in the end the house adopted the view set forth by Lord Castle Ray that its duty was simply to accept the verdict of the court of the King's Bench and according to precedent to expel the member declared guilty by that court without daring to revive the question of his guilt or innocence and that it would be better for an innocent man thus to suffer than for the house to assail the bulwarks of English liberty by turning itself into a star chamber or an inquisition and attempting to interfere with the regular administration of justice. The proposal that Lord Cochran's case be referred to a select committee was rejected without a division. The motion that he should be expelled from the house was carried by 140 members against 44 dissidents. That new act of injustice however though it added much to Lord Cochran's suffering brought him no fresh disgrace. It only then to his triumphant re-election as member for Westminster under circumstances that were reasonably consoling to him his seat having been taken from him on the 5th of July a great meeting of the electors attended by 5000 people was held on the 11th. It was there unanimously resolved that Lord Cochran was perfectly innocent of the stock exchange fraud that he was a fit and proper person to represent the city of Westminster in parliament and that his re-election should be secured without any expense to him. Richard Brinsley Sheridan his stout opponent at the previous election who was now urged to oppose him again honorably refused to do so and therefore the election passed without contest but contest would only have added to its glory unless indeed the people over zealous in their expression of sympathy for their representative had been provoked thereby to violent exhibition of their temper. Even without such provocation the turmoil of the re-election day the 16th of July was great angry crowds assembled in the streets and menacing words against the government and its mimadans were loudly uttered the wisdom of Sir Francis Burdett and other leaders of the popular party however prevented anything worse than angry speech. Amongst all the occurrences of my life said Lord Cochran writing from the King's bench prison to thank the electors for their confidence in him I can call to memory no one which has produced so great a degree of exaltation in my breast as this that after all that the machinations of corruption have been able to affect against me the citizens of Westminster have with unanimous voice pronounced me worthy of continuing to be one of their representatives in parliament with regard to the case the agitation of which has been the cause of this most gratifying result I am in no apprehension as to the opinions and feelings of the world and especially of the people of England who though they may be occasionally misled are never deliberately cruel or unjust only let it be said of me the stock exchange has accused Lord Ellenborough has charged for guilty the special jury have found that guilt the court have sentenced to the pillory the House of Commons have expelled and the citizens of Westminster have re-elected only let this be the record placed against my name and I shall be proud to stand in the calendar of criminals all the days of my life the worst part of the sentence passed upon Lord Cochran as has been already said was not carried out the 10th of August had been fixed as the day on which he was to stand in the pillory for an hour in front of the royal exchange but the danger of disturbance among the people and a fierce opposition in the House of Commons hindered the perpetration of this indignity some sentences of a letter addressed to Lord Ebrington deprecating his motion in parliament for a remission of this part of the sentence are too characteristic however to be left unquoted I did not expect said Lord Cochran to be treated by your lordship as an object of mercy on the grounds of past services or severity of sentence I cannot allow myself to be indebted to that tenderness of disposition which has led your lordship to form an erroneous estimate of the amount of punishment due to the crimes of which I have been accused nor can I for a moment consent that any past services of mine should be prostituted to the purpose of protecting me from any part of the vengeance of the laws against which I, if at all, have grossly offended if I am guilty I richly merit the whole of the sentence that has been passed upon me if innocent one penalty cannot be inflicted with more justice than another if the degradation of the pillory was remitted another degradation quite as painful to Lord Cochran was substituted for it his name having on the 25th of June been struck off the list of naval officers in the Admiralty the night's companions of the bath they held a chapter to consider the propriety of expelling him from their ranks that was soon done, and no time was lost in making the insult as thorough as possible at one o'clock in the morning on the 11th of August the bath, King at Arms, repaired to King Henry VII's chapel in Westminster Abbey and there under a warrant signed by Lord Sidmouth, the Secretary of State removed the banner of Lord Cochran which was suspended between those of Lord Beresford and Lord Brent Spencer his arms were next unscrewed and his helmet soared and other insignia were taken down from the stall the banner was then kicked out of the chapel and down the steps by the official eager to admit no possible indignity it was an indignity unparalleled since the establishment of the Order in 1725 End of Chapter 2 Recording by Timothy Ferguson, Gold Coast, Australia Chapter 3 of the Life of Thomas Lord Cochran 10th Earl of Dundon, V1 by Henry Richard Fox Bourne this LibriVox recording is in the public domain recording by Timothy Ferguson Chapter 3 1814-1815 During the first period of his imprisonment Lord Cochran was not treated with more than usual severity. Two rooms in the King's Bench Statehouse were provided for him in which of course all the expenses of his maintenance devolved upon himself he was led to understand that if he chose to ask for it he might have the privilege of the rules which would have allowed him on certain conditions a range of about half a mile round the prison but he did not choose to ask rather he said than seek any favour from the government he would lie in a dungeon all through the term of his unjust imprisonment throughout that period he resolutely avowed his perfect innocence to friends and foes alike and the consciousness of his innocence helped him to bear up under a degradation that to a nature as sensitive and chivalrous as his was doubly bitter good friends like Sir Francis Burdette came to cheer him in his solitude and overzealous yet honest friends like William Cobbett came to take counsel with him as to ways of keeping alive and quickening the popular indignation which without any stimulus from headstrong demagogues was strong enough on his behalf the tedium of his captivity was further relieved by his devotion to those scientific and mechanical pursuits which all through his life yielded employment very surleasing to himself and very profitable to the world while in the king's bench prison he was especially occupied in completing a plan for lighting the public streets by means of a lamp invented by him in which the main principle was the introduction of a steady current of fresh air into the globes whereby all the oil was fairly burnt and a brilliant light was always maintained in this way lamps much cheaper than those previously in use were found to have a far greater illuminating power early in October 1814 the lamps in St Ann's Parish Westminster, numbering 800 in all, were taken down and replaced by 400 constructed on Lord Cochran's plan and even political opponents spoke in acknowledgement of the excellent result of the change. Had it not been for the introduction of gas the superiority of these new lamps must soon have compelled their adoption all over London it is curious that the discovery of the illuminating power of gas, undoubtedly due to his father, should have superseded one of Lord Cochran's most promising inventions as soon as it had been brought to recognised perfection In such pursuits, nine months of the unjust imprisonment were passed Lord Cochran has hitherto borne all his hardships with great fortitude wrote one of his most intimate friends on the 10th of November and if there are any more in store for him I hope he will continue to be cheerful and courageous. His lordship always hopes for the best and is never afraid of the worst said the same authority on the 9th of December and therefore he is in good spirits readers note quote ends this fearless disposition led in March 1815 to a bold step which some of Lord Cochran's best friends deprecated knowing that he was unjustly imprisoned he conceived that since his re-election as member for Westminster the imprisonment was illegal as well as unjust in that it was contrary to the privilege of parliament. The law provides that no member of parliament can be imprisoned either for non-payment of fine to the king or for any other cause and treason, felony or refusing to give security for the peace it may be questioned whether in the presence of this law his first imprisonment even under the sentence of the court of King's Bench was legal but having been imprisoned and having been expelled from the House of Commons it is clear that his subsequent re-election could not interfere with the fulfilment of the sentence passed against him especially as he had not been able to make good his title to membership by taking the prescribed oaths and claiming a seat in the House he however acting as it would seem under the advice of William Cobbett and other unsafe councillors thought otherwise and considered that he was only vindicating a high constitutional principle against the exercise of despotic power by the government in making his escape from the King's Bench prison I did not quit these walls he said in a letter addressed to the electives of Westminster on the 12th of April to escape from personal oppression of my life to assert the right to liberty which as a member of the community I have never forfeited and that right which I received from you to attack in its very den the corruption which threatens to annihilate the liberties of us all I did not quit them to fly from the justice in my country but to expose the wickedness, fraud and hypocrisy of those who allude that justice by committing their enormities under the colour of its name I did not quit them from the childish motive of impatience under suffering I stayed long enough to evince that I could endure restraint as a pain but not as a penalty I stayed long enough to be certain that my persecutors were conscious of their injustice and to feel that my submission to their unmerited inflections was losing the dignity of resignation and sinking into the ignomious endurance of an insult The escape was affected on the 6th of March and by the same means which had proved successful in Lord Cochrane's retreat from the jail years before. His rooms in the King's bench prison being on the upper story of the building known as the State House were nearly as high as the wall which formed the prison boundary and the windows were only a few feet distant from it. The possibility of escape by this way however had never been contemplated and therefore the windows were unprotected by bars. Accordingly Lord Cochrane having been supplied from time to time by the same servant who aided him in Malta with a quantity of small strong rope managed soon after midnight and while the watchman going his rounds was in a distant part of the prison to get out of window and climb onto the roof of the building. Thence he threw a running noose over the iron spikes placed on the wall and exercising the agility that he had acquired during his Siemens occupations easily gained the summit to be somewhat discomforted by having to sit upon the iron spikes while he fastened his rope to one of them and prepared with its help to slip down to the pavement on the other side of the wall. The rope was not strong enough however to bear his weight it snapped when he was some 25 feet from the ground and caused him to fall with his back upon the stone pavement. There he lay in an almost unconscious state for a considerable time but no passerby observed him and before daylight he was able to crawl to the house of an old nurse of his eldest sons who gladly afforded him concealment. Long concealment was not intended by him if it had not been he said for the commotion excited by that obnoxious, injurious and arbitrary measure of the corn bill which began to event itself on the day of my departure from prison I should have lost no time in proceeding to the house of commons but conjecturing that the spirit of disturbance might derive some encouragement from my unexpected appearance at that time and having no inclination to promote tumult I resolved to defer my appearance at the house and if possible to conceal my departure from the prison until the order of the metropolis should be restored. To the same effect a letter was addressed by Lord Cochran to the speaker of the house of commons on the night of March. I respectfully request, he said therein, that you will state to the honourable the house of commons that I should immediately and personally have communicated to them my departure from the custody of Lord Ellenbra by whom I have been long most unjustly detained but I judged it better to endeavour to conceal my absence and to defer my appearance in the house until the public agitation excited by the corn bill should subside and I have further to request that you will also communicate to the house that it is my intention on an early day to present myself for the purpose of taking my seat and moving an inquiry into the conduct of Lord Ellenbra. On the day of that letter's delivery the 10th of March also famous as the day on which Bonaparte's escape from Elba was published in England Lord Cochran's jailers discovered that he was no longer in his prison immediately a human cry was raised this notice was issued quote escaped from the King's bench prison on Monday the 6th day of March instant Lord Cochran he is about 5 feet 11 inches in height readers note footnote he was really about 6 foot 2 inches in height and brought in proportion readers note footnote ends thin and narrow chested with sandy hair and full eyes, red whiskers and eyebrows whoever will apprehend and secure Lord Cochran in any of his Majesty's jails in the kingdom shall have a reward of 300 guineas from William Jones, Marshal of the King's Bench readers note quote end great search was made in consequence of that notice and Lord Cochran's disappearance was an 11 days wonder every newspaper had each day a new statement as to his whereabouts some declared that he had gone mad and as a madman's freak was hiding himself in some corner of the prison others that he was lodging at an apocrythory shop in London according to one report he had been seen at Hastings according to another at Farnham and according to another in Jersey while others declared he had been discovered in France and elsewhere on the continent none of the thousands in political spite or the hope of awards set in search of him thought of looking for him in his real resting place as soon as I had written to the speaker he said I went into Hampshire where I remained 11 days until within one day of my appearance in the House of Commons during that period I was occupied in regulating my affairs in that county and in writing about the county as was well known to the people of the neighborhood none of whom were base enough to be seduced by a bribe to deliver an injured man into the hands of his oppressors at his own house known as Holly Hill in the south of Hampshire Lord Cochran remained quietly though with no attempt to hide himself until the 20th March then he in fulfillment of his original purpose returned to London and on the following day entered the House of Commons at about two o'clock in the afternoon very great was the astonishment among the officials in attendance caused by his appearance addressed according to one of the newspaper reports in his usual costume grey pantaloons, frogged great coat etc and by some of them the intelligence of his arrival was promptly communicated to the Marshal of the King's Bench in the meanwhile considering himself safe within the precincts of the House at any rate he proceeded to occupy his customary seat to that it was objected that until he had taken the oaths and complied with the prescribed forms consequent on his re-election he had no right within the building he answered that he was willing to do this and to see that all was according to rule what at once to the Cork's office there it was pretended that the writ of his re-election had not yet been received and that it must first be procured from the Crown Office in Chancellery Lane awaiting the return of the messenger ostensibly dispatched for this purpose he again entered the House and there he was found at a few minutes before for by Mr Jones the Marshal who on receiving the information sent to him had hurried up with a bow street runner and some tip-staves the runner walking up to Lord Cochran and touching him on the shoulder bluntly claimed him as his prisoner Lord Cochran asked by what authority he dared to arrest a Member of Parliament in the House of Commons my Lord answered the man my authority is the public proclamation of the Marshal of the King's Bench prison offering a reward for your apprehension Lord Cochran declared that he neither acknowledged nor would yield to any such authority that he was there to resume his seat as one of the representatives of the City of Westminster and that any who dared to touch him would do so at their peril two tip-staves thereupon rudely seized him by the arms he again cautioned them that the Marshal of the King's Bench had no authority within those walls and that their conduct was altogether illegal the answer was that he had better go quietly his reply that he would not go at all other officers however came up after a short struggle he was overpowered and on his refusing to walk he was carried out of the house on the shoulders of the tip-staves and constables there was a halt however in this disgraceful march the Bow Street runner expressed a fear that Lord Cochran had firearms concealed under his clothes and he was accordingly taken into one of the committee rooms to be searched nothing more dangerous was found about him than a packet of snuff if I had thought of that before, said Lord Cochran not quite wisely you should have had it in your eyes on this incident was founded a foolish story to be told the next day amid a score of exaggerations and falsehoods in the government newspapers being asked why he had provided himself with such a quantity of snuff we there read he said he had bought a canister for the purpose of throwing it in the eyes of those who might attempt to secure him unless the opposing force should be too strong for resistance observing that he had found the use of a similar weapon when he was in the Bay of Rosas as he had thrown a mixture of lime sand etc upon the Frenchman who attempted to board his ship and found it effectual another zealous organ of the government added that he had also provided himself with a bottle of vitriol to be used in the same way had a pen knife been found in his pocket perhaps the marshal of the king's bench the bow street runner the tip-staves and the constables would all have fled deeming that the possession of so deadly an instrument made the retention of their captive too dangerous a thing to be attempted the snuff having been seized however he was again lodged on the officers' shoulders and so conveyed into the courtyard he then said that being now beyond the privilege of the house he was willing to proceed quietly a coach was called and he was taken back to the king's bench prison the indignity thus offered to him was small indeed in comparison with the indignity offered to the parliament of England in former times the slightest encroachment by the crown by the government or by any humbler part of the executive was fiercely resented and to this resentment some of the greatest and most memorable crises in the long fight for English liberty are due but rarely had there been a more flagrant never a more wanton infringement of the hard-won privileges of the house of commons had Lord Cochrane been detected and seized violently in some out-of-the-way hiding place the overzealous servants of the crown would have had some excuse for their conduct but in appearing publicly in the house he showed to all the world that he was no runaway from justice that he was willing to submit to its honest administration by honest hands that all he sought was a fair hearing and a fair judgment upon his case and that believing it impossible to obtain that through the elaborate machinery of oppression which then went by the name of administration of justice he now only asserted his right to the right of every Englishman and especially the right of a member of parliament to appeal from the agents of the law to call upon the legislators of his country to see whether he had not been wrongfully used by men who though practically too much their masters were in theory only their servants I did not go to the house of commons he said to complain about losses or sufferings about fine or imprisonment or property to the amount of ten times the fine of which I have been cheated by this malicious prosecution I did not go to the house to complain of the mockery of having been heard in my defence to the decision from which that defence was an appeal I did not go there to complain of those who expelled me from my profession I did not go to the house to complain generally of the advisers of the crown but I went there to complain of the conduct of him who has indeed the right of recommending to mercy but whose privilege as a pretty counsellor of advising the confirmation of his own condemnations and of interposing between the victims of legal vengeance and the justice of the throne is spurious and unconstitutional when it is considered that my intention of going to the house of commons was announced on the day on which my absence from the prison was discovered I say when it is considered that as soon as it was known that I had left the prison it was also known that I had left it for the express purpose of going to the house of commons to move for an inquiry into the conduct of lord ellenbra when it is considered that every engine was set to work to tempt or intimidate me from that purpose to frighten me out of the country or allure me back to the custody of the marshal that assurances were given that the door should be kept open for my admission at any hour of the night and that I should be received with secrecy, courtesy and indemnity and when it is considered that I was afterwards seized in the house of commons in defiance of the privileges of the house can there be a doubt that the object of that apprehension was less the accomplishment of the sense of the court than the prevention of the exposure to the make of the injustice of that sentence that recourse should have been had to violence to stifle the accusations which I was prepared to bring forward that terror of the truth should have so superseded a wanted reverence for parliamentary privileges as to have admitted the intrusion of tip-staves and thief-takers into the house of commons to seize the person of an individual elected to serve as a member of that house and avowedly attendant for that purpose is extraordinary though not unnatural it is not in quote it must be admitted that the question of breach of privilege was somewhat more complicated than Lord Cochrane considered his opponents did not think with him that he was still a member of the house of commons that membership had been taken from him formally though wrongfully by his expulsion on the 5th of July and he had himself recognised the expulsion by accepting a re-election from the constituents of Westminster on the 16th of the same month according to precedent however that re-election could not be perfected until the customary oaths had been taken and through a trick contrived in the clerk's office he was hindered from taking them before the arrival of the marshal and his consequent arrest yet there can be no doubt that in the special circumstances of the case this arrest was especially in decorous and in the method of affecting it altogether illegal if he had no right in the house of commons he was a common trespasser and ought to have been at once removed by the servants of the house who alone have the power to touch him within the walls to allow him a seat therein without molestation until the arrival of the servants of the King's Bench Prison and then to allow those servants to enter the house and to act upon an authority that could there be no authority was wholly unwarrantable a gross insult to Lord Cochrane and to the customs of the House of Commons an insult yet more gross but to the hardship and the insult alike the House of Commons the devotion to the Government of the day was blind a miserable farce ensued while the House was sitting a few hours after Lord Cochrane's capture a letter from the Marshal of the King's Bench was read by the Speaker in which his bold act was formally reported and apologised for I humbly hope, he there said that I have not committed any breach of privilege by the steps I have taken and that if I have done wrong it will be attributed to an error in judgement of doing anything that might give offence the short debate that followed the reading of this letter is very noteworthy Lord Cochrane spoke first and dictated the view to be taken by all loyal members of the House quote, from the nature of the arrest and the circumstances attending it I do not think, sir, he said that the House is called upon to interfere I am not aware as the House was not actually sitting with the mace on the table and the speaker in the chair when the arrest took place that any breach of privilege has been committed it must be quite obvious to every man that the Marshal has not acted willfully in violation of the privileges of the House no blame can attach to him since he has submitted himself to the judgement of the House of Commons after having done that which he considered his duty as a civil officer having had Lord Cochrane in his custody from which he escaped the Marshal was bound not to pass over any justifiable means of putting him under arrest and the opportunity occurred end quote most of the members thought with Lord Castle Ray that this was a fair opportunity only one Mr Tierney and he very feebly ventured to express an opposite opinion I consider this, he said to be the case of a member regularly elected to serve in Parliament and coming down to take his seat now, sir, the House is regularly adjourned until 10 o'clock in the morning and I recollect occasions when the speaker did take the chair at that hour suppose then a member about to take his seat came down here at an early hour with the proper documents in his hand and desire to be instructed in the mode of proceeding and while waiting an officer entered, arrested him and took his person away would not this be a case to call for the interference of the House end quote Mr Tierney admitted that he approved a Lord Cochrane's arrest but feared it might become a precedent and be put to the improper purpose of sanctioning the arrest of members more deserving of consideration to please him and to satisfy the formalities therefore the question was referred to a committee of privileges this committee reported on the 23rd of March quote that under the particular circumstances it did not appear that the privileges of Parliament had been violated so as to call for the interposition of the House end quote and the House of Commons being satisfied with that opinion no further attention was paid to the subject in the meanwhile Lord Cochrane was being punished with inexcusable severity for his contempt of the authority of Lord Ellenbra and Mr Jones a member of the House during the discussion of the 21st of March had said that he had just come from the King's bench prison I found Lord Cochrane he had a bird confined there in a strong room 14 feet square without windows, fireplace, table or bed I do not think it can be necessary for the purpose of security to confine him in this manner according to my own feelings it is a place unfit for the noble Lord or for any other person whatsoever written in quote in this strong room however Lord Cochrane was detained for more than three weeks it was partly underground, devoid of ventilation or necessary warmth and according to the testimony of Dr Buchan one of the physicians who visited him in it rendered extremely damp and unpleasant by the exudations coming through the wall on being taken to the stand immediately after his capture Lord Cochrane was informed by Mr Jones that he would be detained in it for a short time only until the apartments over the lobby of the prison were prepared for his reception that was done in a few days but no intimation of change was made until the 1st of April when a message to that effect was sent to the prisoner on the following day he received a letter from Mr Jones informing that if he would anticipate the payment of a fine of a thousand pounds levied against him and would also pledge himself and give security of the promise to make no further attempt to escape he might be allowed to occupy the more comfortable quarters it is no new thing said Lord Cochrane for a prisoner to escape or to be retaken but to require of any prisoner a bond and securities not to repeat such escape was I think a proposition without precedent such as the Marshal knew could not be complied with by me without humiliation and therefore could not be proposed by him without insult besides he had my assurance that if I were again to quit his custody which I gave him no reason to believe I should attempt and which as I observed and believe it was as easy for me to effect from that room as from any other part of the prison I should proceed no further than to the House of Commons and that where he found me before he might find me again I having no other object in view than that of expressing by some peculiar act the keen sense which I entertained of peculiar injustice and of endeavoring to bring such additional proofs of that injustice before the House as were not in my possession when I was heard in my defence Mr. Jones however resolved to keep his captive in the strong room unless he would promise to resign himself to captivity in all this obnoxious part of the prison even for that negative favor the Marshal took great credit to himself in a document which he issued at the time if a humane and kind concern for this unfortunate nobleman he there avert had not softened the solicitude which I naturally felt for my own security I could have committed him on my own warrant for the escape to the new jail in Horsemonger Lane for the space of a month and that power is still within my jurisdiction had I thought it proper to exercise it Lord Cochrane would then have been confined in a solitary cell with a stone floor with windows impenetrably barred and without glass nor would it have proved half the size of the strong room in the king's bench which has a bordered floor and glazed lights that statement reasonably stirred the anger of Lord Cochrane though the solitary cell in Horsemonger Lane he answered maybe half the size of the strong room it could not I apprehend have been more gloomy, damp, filthy or injurious to health than the last mentioned dungeon and since Mr. Jones could only have confined me in the former place for a month and did confine me in the latter for 26 days I can scarcely see the degree of difference which should entitle him to those beautiful sentiments for his mode of acting on the occasion which he submits to the public it is my duty to entertain the glass lights mentioned by Mr. Jones were not put up till I had been 30 hours in the place and I have always understood that I was indebted for them to the good officers of Mr. Bennet and Mr. Lampton who happened as part of Parliamentary Committee to be prosecuting their inquiry into the state of the prison at the time of my return for these and all other mercies of the said is due to their friendship and sense of duty and to his dread of their discoveries and proceedings it is clear that nothing but fear of the consequences induced Mr. Jones to remove Lord Cochrane from the strong room after 26 days of confinement therein on the 12th of April the prisoner issued an address to the electors of Westminster detailing some of the hardships to which he was being subjected and its publication immediately roused so much popular interest that the authorities of King's Bench Prison deemed it necessary to make at any rate a show of amelioration in his treatment on the 13th his physician Dr. Buchan was allowed to visit him and his report was such that another medical man of eminence Mr. Salmorez was sent to examine into the state of the prisoner's health part of Dr. Buchan's certificate has already been quoted the rest was as follows readers note quote this is to certify that I have this day visited Lord Cochrane who is affected with severe pain of the breast his pulse is low his hands cold and he has many symptoms of a person about to have typhus or putrid fever these symptoms are in my opinion produced by the stagnant air of the strong room in which he is now confined it is not in quote new quote begins I hereby certify wrote Mr. Salmorez that I have visited Lord Cochrane and am of the opinion from the state of his health at this time that it is essentially necessary that he should be removed from the room in habits to one which is better ventilated and in which there is a fireplace his lordship complains of pain in the chest with difficulty of respiration accompanied by coldness of the hands and from the general state of his health there is great reason to fear that a Lord typhus may come on there is no end quote the only result of those medical opinions was a renewal of the offer to remove Lord Cochrane to the rooms prepared for him on the conditions previously specified by Mr. Jones Lord Cochrane answered that he would rather die after such an insulting arrangement he published the doctor's certificates however on the 15th of April and their effect upon the public was so great that the authorities were forced on the following day to take him out of his dungeon Mr. Jones' account of this step is worth quoting I again tried, he reported to reduce Lord Cochrane's friends and relations to give me any kind of undetecting against another escape on their refusal I determined myself to become his friend and at my own risk to remove him to the rooms which have been already mentioned and where I am confident he can have no cause of complaint these rooms not being altogether safe against such a person as Lord Cochrane should he determine to risk another escape I must look to the laws of my country as a safeguard in the hope that the terrors of them will discourage him from attempting a repetition of his offence and prevent him from incurring the penalties of another indictment Lord Cochrane never really intended to attempt a second escape had it been otherwise the illness induced by his confinement in the strong room would have restrained him being placed in healthier apartments on the 16th of April he quietly remained there for the remainder of his term of imprisonment on the 20th of June he was informed that the term now being at an end he was at liberty to depart on the payment of the fine of a thousand pounds levied against him this he at first refused to do and accordingly was detained in prison for a fortnight more but at length the entreaties of his friends prevailed on the 3rd of July he tended to the Marshal of the King's Bench a thousand pound note with this memorable endorsement my health having suffered by long and close confinement and my oppressors being resolved to deprive me of property or life I submit to robbery to protect myself from murder in the hope that I shall live to bring the delinquents to justice upon that the prison doors were opened for him and he was able to once more fight for the justice so cruelly withheld from him and to make his innocence entirely clear to all whose selfish interests did not force them to be blind to the truth