Horne, William B. | Day 19
Received cheque from Mr James Rolls Hoare, business partner of Mr Crompton Roberts for £1400. He paid £400 into the Glyn Mill’s bank and £1000 into a bank in Calais. Likely to have been the dark man referred to in various testimonies – Samuel Olds, George Friend etc. Lived in Woolwich at the time of the election. Olds subsequently went to Calais to get the money and returned with £700 and a cheque for £281 which he gave to Horne at Dover. Olds retained £15 and the remaining £4 was currency exchange.
Witness Type: Briber
Party: Conservative
Witness Testimony:
- 19961.
Those were all the directions you had ? — Yes.
- 19962.
You went down and saw Mr. Hoare ? — Yes.
- 19963.
You gave him the note and what did he do ? — He took it into his private room and came back and handed me another note.
- 19964.
Sealed or unsealed ? — He said, “I presume you know what is inside,” and I said, “No, I do not.”
- 19965.
And you did not know as a fact ? — No, I did not know till I got back.
- 19966.
Were you told that you were to get money from Mr. Hoare ? — That I cannot recollect. I know that Mr. Hughes told me to take very great care of the note, but what was inside I did not know at the time, and then after that I met Mr. Hughes at the bank.
- 19967.
First of all, you got this note from Mr. Hoare, which was a letter containing a cheque, and you went back with it to Glyn’s bank ? — Yes, I saw Mr. Hughes there; he was waiting for me to know whether I had got the money.
- 19968.
Then what did you do, you and Mr. Hughes ? —I paid £1000 to the credit of Olds at the bank at Calais.
- 19969.
Who gave you the name of that bank ? — Mr. Hughes.
- 19970.
You and Mr. Hughes were there together ? — Yes.
- 19971.
That is how you came to pay the £1000 to the credit of that bank ? — Yes.
- 19972.
And I suppose Mr. Hughes told you to pay the other £400 to his credit ? — I do not know whether I had not had instructions beforehand to pay £1000 to the credit of Mr. Olds at the bank in Calais, and £400 to Mr. Hughes’ credit.
- 19973.
Where did you have those instructions ? — I do not know.
- 19974.
When could you have had those instructions? You say you went to Mr. Hoare and you did not know what you were going to get, so you could not have had the instructions then ? — No.
- 19975.
When did you get the instructions ? — I cannot call to mind at all.
- 19976.
Could it have been at any time except when you met Mr. Hughes the second time at Glyn’s bank ? — No, I do not think it could have been.
- 19977.
Have you any doubt that Mr. Hughes gave you the name of the Calais bank ? — No.
- 19978.
It was Mr. Hughes and nobody else ? — Quite so.
- 19979.
Who told you to go to Dover to meet Mr. Olds ? — I think I had a letter from Mr. Hughes, but I will not be quite certain.
- 19980.
Can you think of anybody else from whom you could have got that letter except Mr. Hughes ? — No.
- 19981.
Therefore, in all human probability it was Mr. Hughes ? — Yes.
- 19982.
You had never seen Mr. Olds before ? — No.
- 19983.
You had never been at Deal before ? — No, I had never been at Deal before.
- 19984.
You went down to the Lord Warden, and there you saw Olds, or some man ? — Yes, some man.
- 19985.
And he said to you something about your connection with Mr. Hughes ? — Yes.
- 19986.
What conversation was there between you then ? — I asked him whether he had got the money, and he said he had, and we went to a house – some hotel, I do not know which it was – and he there handed me the money in a roll of notes and a cheque.
- 19987.
How long were you with Olds at Dover ? — I do not suppose more than perhaps half an hour, or it may be three-quarters of an hour.
- 19988.
You say you went to a house and got the money ? — Yes, but I do not know the house.
- 19989.
You had something to drink, I suppose ? — No, I think not.
- 19990.
Not with Olds ? — No, I think not.