assures me he never saw, and I mean to call witnesses to
prove, that he is not the writer of it; I do not think it necessary, but
I will do it, for it shall not rest upon me that I have not done my
duty. But I am placed in an awkward situation as to the hand-writing; I
do not complain of it, but the witnesses into whose hands I must put
that paper, have never seen it. Mr. Lavie has seen it; he has had an
opportunity of conning it over; but I think he might have done better
than to have given his own testimony of this Mr. de Berenger's writing.
Mr. de Berenger is not an obscure man in the city of London; he has
lived in this country twenty-five years; he tells me there was no man
acquainted with his hand-writing, who could be called to prove this to
be his hand-writing; and that no witness to speak to that could be
found; but Mr. Lavie went to him improperly; for the Stock Exchange had
no more right to break in upon Mr. de Berenger, at the Parliament-street
coffee-house, than any one of you. I say it was an impertinent
intrusion; this gentleman was brought up on a warrant not respecting
this affair, but on a warrant from the Secretary of State, whilst he was
fatigued and tired, as he stated to the messenger; still most
disgracefully the messenger allowed Mr. Lavie and the Stock Exchange
Committee to pump him upon this matter. How the hand-writing is
attempted to be proved, it does not become me to say further; but I put
papers into the hand of Mr. Lavie, the hand-writing of which, if they be
of the hand-writing of Mr. De Berenger, I will venture to say that the
paper lying before his Lordship is not; because I have eyes as well as
Mr. Lavie has; and I think I can speak to any hand-writing as well as he
can. I say it is not the same hand-writing as these, if my eyes do not
deceive me; and I shall put it into the hands of persons who have known
Mr. De. Berenger long, and they shall say whether it be his hand-writing
or not. Gentlemen, if it be not his hand-writing, which I must assume, I
say the whole of that Dover case falls to the ground; because the main
sheet-anchor of the whole of the Dover case is that paper. Why do I say
so? Because all the witnesses who have come from the Ship Inn at Dover,
Marsh, Gerely, Edis, (Wright is not here, being ill;) these men one and
all, speak to the person called Du Bourg, as being the person who sent
this letter, as aid-de-camp to Lord Cathcart; they all say it was this
man, as they bel