The Great Stock Exchange Fraud

FEB 21 1814

On 21 February 1814 a man calling himself Colonel du Bourg arrived at Dover with news that Napoleon had been killed and Bourbon rule restored, and the story was carried into London by riders in French uniform. Government securities surged and more than £1.1 million in bonds were sold before the report collapsed. Eight people were convicted of conspiracy, including the impostor Random de Berenger and the naval hero and radical MP Lord Cochrane, who was stripped of his rank and expelled from Parliament. Cochrane always maintained his innocence, was pardoned in 1832, and historians remain divided on his guilt.