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 Cochrane's case should be referred to
a Select Committee was rejected without a division. The motion that he
should be expelled from the House was carried by a hundred and forty
members, against forty-four dissentients.

That new act of injustice, however, though it added much to Lord
Cochrane's suffering, brought him no fresh disgrace. It only led
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 five thousand people, was held on the 11th.
It was there unanimously resolved that Lord Cochrane 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, honourably refused to do so; and
therefore the election passed without a 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 myrmidons 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 Cochrane,
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 exultation in my breast as this, that, after all the
machinations of corruption have been able to effect against me, the
citizens of Westminster have, with unanimous voice, pronounced me
worthy of continuing to be one of t