this excited great agitation in the minds of those who were present; they were so convinced of the fidelity of each other, so confident in the means which they had prepared, that they could not brook the notion that there was any possibility of failure. Such, at least, was the general impression upon the minds of the persons assembled there; but you will find that one of them, called Palin, who was to head a detachment for setting fire to the town, thought that the suggestion made by Adams ought not to be treated with inattention. Brunt proposed, in order to ascertain whether their scheme had been detected or not, that a watch should be set that night. Gentlemen, I ought previously to have stated to you, that upon the morning when this which I am relating to you, took place, it had been ascertained by the meeting, from a newspaper, that upon the following day a cabinet dinner was to be given by lord Harrowby; an event long anxiously wished for; an opportunity long desired by the prisoners, as by finding all his majesty's ministers assembled at one place, they hoped the more easily and the more effectually to perform their diabolical work of assassination. Brunt proposed that a watch should be set, and the spot fixed upon was lord Harrowby's house. Brunt said, "If our plan has been detected; if there be any ground for this suspicion which Adams entertains, no doubt there will be some preparation made at dord Harrowby's house, to meet the intended attack; and if, therefore, upon watching his house to-night and to-morrow morning, it shall appear that no soldiers are introduced into that house or any of the adjacent houses, that no preparations are made for the expected attempt, we may be quite satisfied that our plans remain undivulged, and that we are in perfect security." I will not repeat to you the expressions which were used at that meeting; the exultation which was displayed at finding that at last this opportunity they had been so long expecting would occur, and that at last the day had arrived, on which they would be able to perpetrate their nefarious crimes. It will be sufficient for you to hear them once, from the witnesses who will be called before you.

On that evening, in pursuance of the suggestion of Brunt, a watch was set in Grosvenorsquare at six o'clock. Two persons, one of whom was Davidson, were to take the duty from six till nine, when they were to be relieved by two others, who were to remain till twelve; it was thought that from that time till four in the morning no observation would be necessary, but that at the last mentioned hour the watch should be resumed. Davidson and his associate went into Grosvenor-square, and continued there from six till nine. At that hour they were relieved by Brunt and the witness Adams, and a remarkable circumstance occurred upon that evening, which puts it out of all doubt that the prisoner Brunt was there. It will be proved to you, by witnesses, not VOL. XXXIII.

only that he was seen in Grosvenor-square, but that he was engaged in playing at dominos in a public-house at the corner of Charles-street, which is close to the square, with a young man of the name of Gillan."

Upon the following morning, the 23rd, the day on which the plans of the conspirators were to be carried into effect, you will find that they met at Brunt's house; and that in the afternoon, between two and three o'clock, many of the persons again assembled there for the purpose of proceeding to another place, to which I shall now call your attention. It was thought, by these persons, that, in order to carry into effect the plan of assassinating his majesty's ministers at lord Harrowby's house, those who were destined for accomplishing that part of the plot should be brought together at some spot not very remote from Grosvenor-square; and it will be proved to you that on the Tuesday it was resolved that they should meet near Tyburn turnpike; and that those who were not intrusted with the whole of their schemes should have a word given them, by which they might be able to ascertain, at their arrival there, who were the persons with whom they were to act. It however so happened, that before the Wednesday, the prisoner Harrison procured a stable in an obscure street, called Cato-street, leading into John-street, in the Edgware-road, which was considered by them a very convenient place for assembling and making their preparations for the attack at lord Harrowby's house. The access to Cato-street, at each end, is under an archway; so that it has the appearance rather of a mews than of a street; at one end it is accessible only by foot passengers, at the other end there is an entrance for carriages. This stable was prepared for their meeting on that evening; Harrison and others were seen carrying things into it in the course of the afternoon of the 23rd, and some cloth or sacking was nailed up against the windows of the building on the side looking into Cato-street, for the obvious purpose of preventing the persons opposite from observing what was passing within.

On the afternoon of that day, Thistlewood, Ings, Bradburn, Hall, and others of the party met at Brunt's room, and you will find that they were seen putting flints into their pistols, accoutring themselves, and arming themselves with blunderbusses, pistols and swords, with which they were to proceed to Cato-street, and afterwards to lord Harrowby's.

It was thought by Thistlewood that it would be proper to prepare some sort of address to the people, which should be exhibited that night in different parts of the town, for the purpose of exciting disaffection, and of inducing persons to join their party; and he sat down, and wrote a proclamation, in the preparation of which, circumstances occurred most material for your consideration. It will appear to you, that there being in the room no paper upon which Thistlewood could write 4 G

tions, and the consequences would be, that any person who should unhappily be struck by them would be deprived of existence, or be left wounded, maimed, and lacerated. Between seven and eight o'clock they began to prepare themselves for the execution of their designs; and doubts being entertained by some of the party, whether their number was quite adequate to all the objects they had in view, Thistlewood, in order to allay their apprehensions, stated that they had men enough there for the accomplishment of the assassination in Grosvenor-square, and that there were other parties in different parts of the town for the accomplishment of the duties assigned to them. This statement of Thistlewood was founded in fact, for it will appear that after the party had taken their departure from Brunt's house, other persons were expected to call there; amongst them was a man named Potter, one who was deep in their schemes, and was the intended leader of a band upon that night. From Brunt's, these persons were to be directed to proceed to the White Hart, from whence they were to move in divisions to the execution of the various tasks they had to perform. Palin was to be at the head of the fire party, and Cook was to command the detachment that was to take the cannon in Gray's-inn-lane and the Artillery-ground.

After this had been stated by Thistlewood, he proposed that a selection should be made of fourteen to enter the room at lord Harrowby's, to destroy his majesty's ministers. Among those who were to go into that room, were Harrison, who had been formerly in the Life-guards; Adams, who had some years ago served in the Oxford-blues; Ings, the butcher, who had prepared himself for the bloody scene in which he was to be an actor, in a most remarkable way, the prisoner Brunt, and Thistlewood. At the moment when they were separating themselves, the officers entered the stable below, and discovered Davidson, one of the persons included in this indictment, a man of colour; he was armed with two pistols in a belt, a blunderbuss in his hand, and a cutlass at his side, and was standing as sentry, at the foot of the step ladder which led from the stable to the loft above; Ings was also stationed in the stable; he had a black belt round his body, in which were inserted a brace of pistols, and also a remarkable instrument, which will be exhibited to you, a large butcher's knife; he had stated upon the preceding day, and also upon the evening of their meeting in Cato-street, that with that knife he himself intended to enter the room in which the ministers were sitting, and that he had provided himself with it for the purpose of mutilating the bodies of lord Castlereagh and lord Sidmouth; he had also furnished himself with two bags or haversacks, which he had fastened over each shoulder; in these he intended to carry off the heads of those two distinguished persons, in order that they might be exhibited on pikes in the street, to infuriate

the people and to excite them to insurrection. The leading officer directed his followers to lay hold of those two persons, in order to secure them; but the officers being anxious to get into the loft, Davidson and Ings were not taken into custody at the moment, although the knife was taken from Ings. The first of the police who went up was Ruthven; and it will appear, that while he was ascending the ladder, either Ings or Davidson gave an alarm from below to their associates above. On Ruthven's gaining the loft, the first object that struck his notice was Thistlewood, whose person was well known to him, Ruthven having been acquainted with it for some years. Thistlewood, on seeing Ruthven, seized a sword which was on a carpenter's bench before him, and on which other arms were ranged, and retired into a small room adjoining, fenc. ing with his sword, in order to keep off Ruthven and his supporters, who were advancing, and who announced to the persons assembled that they were officers of justice, and that they were come to apprehend them. Ellis was immediately behind Ruthven, and he was followed by an unfortunate man named Smithers. Smithers, observing Thistlewood in this attitude in the small room, passed his companions, and advanced to apprehend him. On his approaching, Thistlewood came forward and thrust the sword into his heart; the lights were extinguished; a cry was raised of" Kill the thieves, throw them down stairs!" a rush was made to the ladder; the officers were precipitated into the stable; Thistlewood followed close behind them, discharged a pistol, as he descended, at another of the officers, then made his way through the stable and escaped. Several of the persons succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the officers on that night, others of them were apprehended; amongst them Davidson, after a very desperate resistance on his part; and I only call your attention to him now, in order to state his conduct and expressions when he was taken into custody-conduct and expressions evincing most clearly, if there could be the least doubt upon the mind of any man, what was the object of this conspiracy. On his being apprehended, he immediately exclaimed, "who would not die in liberty's cause?" that "he cared not for his life, that the cause in which they were embarked was that of freedom, and who would not perish in that cause?" These expressions must convince you that the object was to overturn the government, and that the assassination of his majesty's ministers was only the first step to the accomplishment of that object.

The prisoner Brunt made his escape; he returned home about nine o'clock, or a little after, and Hale, his apprentice, happened to be in the house on his arrival; he came back with his coat and boots extremely dirty; he told his wife (and this is a part of the case which it is most material for you to attend to) that it was all over, that they had been attacked by the officers, and he had escaped only with his

of the scheme to which your attention will be very much directed in the course of this inquiry, I mean the assassination of his majesty's ministers. With what view could these conspirators meditate their destruction? Were they persons against whom, individually, these men had conceived revenge? Was it against lord Liverpool, was it against the duke of Wellington, was it against the lord chancellor, personally, that their hostility was directed? Who were the parties to make the attack? Were these twenty or five-and-twenty persons united by any common bond of interest? I ask you, as men of sense and understanding, whether you can doubt that that part of their plan was more than a preliminary step? that their swords were not to be raised against his majesty's ministers, as individuals merely, but as distinguished personages filling the highest offices in the state, and possessing the confidence of their sovereign. In that character alone, had the illustrious guests of lord Harrowby become the intended victims of the instigators and supporters of this horrible plot. This assassination was to have been the first act of the tragedy; the overthrow of the government was to have been last.

It will perhaps be said that in a case like the present, the testimony ought to be such as to leave no doubt on your minds of the truth of the story which is narrated-that it should come from unpolluted sources, from witnesses untainted by crime. Undoubtedly, in all cases submitted to the consideration of a jury, it is their duty to be satisfied that the evidence is clear and conclusive before they pronounce a verdict against the prisoner. But the secret machinations and designs of conspirators, planning and acting in a scheme like the present, can only be developed to their full extent by the evidence of some of those who have been participators in their guilt. An accomplice in these cases is, generally speaking, the only witness that can be produced fully to discover and make known to the court the plans and machinations of his associates. That the testimony of such a person ought to be watched with the utmost anxiety and jealousy I most readily admit; and unless it receives confirmation from uncontaminated sources, a jury is never advised to come to a conclusion unfavourable to the accused. Upon his evidence alone, in this case, however, I think you will agree, when you have heard the story which the accomplice Adams will tell, and the confirmation which will be given to you of that story-confirmation of the strongest and most impregnable kind, not as to one or two particular circumstances only, but I might say as to almost all the leading facts which he will relate; I say, I think you will be satisfied that he is the witness of truth. To produce confirmation of every part of his testimony would be impossible, and if it were possible, it would render the evidence of the accomplice altogether unnecessary, because the account he is to give might then be proved by witnesses

liable to no objection. The confirmation which you ought to require in this instance should be such as to convince you that the general tenor of the narrative of Adams is true. Such confirmation you will receive from witnesses upon whom there is not the shadow of an imputation-witnesses upon whose veracity you may with confidence rely.

But the case will not rest upon the testimony of an accomplice, though fully confirmed, A witness will be called before you, who was not an accomplice, and who, if his account be not true, was a man endowed with the spirit of prophecy; I mean Hiden; because he, before the transaction took place, communicated it to lord Harrowby, at a time when he had no interest whatever operating upon his mind to induce him to make the disclosure, except a desire of averting that evil which he saw impending over the person of that nobleman and his colleagues in office. Against Hiden no charge could have been or can be preferred, because, although in words he appeared to assent to the scheme of the conspirators, he never acted in a single part of the plot. If you receive from this person not only an account of the scheme, but one completely confirmatory of the testimony of the accomplice, it appears to me that it is no longer possible for you to hesitate on the conclusion to which you are to arrive. I do not advert to the testimony of Monument, because the observations which apply to Adams apply equally to him. ought, however, to remark, that although Monument was undoubtedly found in Catostreet, and had agreed to meet Brunt and Tidd there that evening, he does not appear to have been fully informed of the extent of the scheme till his actual arrival in the room, and does not seem therefore to be so deeply implicated in the transaction as Adams.

I

Such being the case, it will be your duty, after you have heard the evidence, calmly and deliberately to weigh the effect of it. If, after the observations which I have made to you, you shall think that the proof adduced does not fully satisfy your minds of the guilt of the prisoner at the bar, and you shall entertain a reasonable doubt respecting it (but it must be a rational and a well-founded doubt), give the prisoner at the bar the benefit of it; but if on the contrary, however wild in your estimation, and however impracticable the scheme may have been, still, if upon considering the whole of the evidence, you shall be convinced that it was formed, and was on the eve of execution, then, gentlemen, it is a duty you owe to yourselves and to your country to act upon that conviction, and, without hesitation, without regard to the consequences to follow from your decision, to pronounce a verdict of guilty.

Lord Chief Baron.-Bring into court the other prisoners named in the indictment who have not been tried.

[William Davidson, Richard Tidd, James William Wilson, John Harrison,