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have not had a fair and impartial trial, and that the execution of the law cannot be carried into effect without evident injustice. After my counsel, Mr. Adolphus, had finished his address, I was asked by the Court, if I had any thing further to offer? and I then tendered evidence, which had just been obtained, to impeach the credit of the two witnesses for the Crown, Dwyer and Hiden, but I was told it was too late, and these men were represented to the jury as being witnesses of credit. In common justice, my lord, surely it never can be too late for a jury, when investigating a charge which in volves the life of a fellow-creature, to receive information in the regular form, previous to their delivering their verdict; but in my case, it was offered before the Solicitor-general rose to reply, and he would have had the opportunity of observing on the testimony; and, my lord, if I had been allowed to call the evidence I tendered, Dwyer would have been proved a villain of the blackest atrocity; for even since my trial, a partner in his guilt, named Arnold, has been capitally convicted at this very bar, for obtaining money under circumstances of an infamous nature.

On the ground, therefore, of a mis-trial, in not being allowed to call witnesses to fact, I humbly submit, that judgment ought not to be. passed on me.

Ere the Solicitor-general replied to the address of my counsel, I applied to the Court to hear my witnesses, the Court inhumanly refused; and I am, in consequence, to be consigned to the scaffold. Numerous have been the instances, in which this rule of Court has been infringed.

I had witnesses in court to prove that Dwyer was a villain beyond all example of atrocity. I had witnesses in court to prove that Adams was a notorious swindler, and that Hiden was no better; these were the three witnesses, indeed almost the only ones, against me; but the form and rules of Court must not be infringed upon to save an unfortunate individual from the scaffold. I called those witnesses at the close of Mr. Adolphus's address to the jury, and before the Solicitor-general commenced his reply, but the Court decided that they could not be heard. Some good men have thought, and I have thought so too, that before the jury retired all evidence was in time, for either the prosecutor or the accused, and more particularly for the latter, nay, even before the verdict was given, that evidence could not be considered too late. Alas! such people drew their conclusion from principles of justice only; they never canvassed the rules of Court, which have finally sealed my unhappy doom.

Many people, who are acquainted with the barefaced manner in which I was plundered

in the course of this his address, I have expunged.

by my lord Sidmouth, will perhaps imagine that personal motives instigated me to the deed; but I disclaim them. My every principle was for the prosperity of my country; my every feeling, the height of my ambition, was the welfare of my starving countrymen. I keenly felt for their miseries; but when their miseries were laughed at; and when, because they dared to express those miseries, they were cut down by hundreds, inhumanly massacred and trampled upon; when infant babes were sabred in their mothers' arms; nay, when the breast from whence they drew the tide of life was severed from the body which supplied that tide, my feelings became too intense, too excessive for endurance, and I resolved on vengeance; I resolved that the lives of the instigators should be the requiem to the souls of the murdered innocents.

In this mood I met with George Edwards; and if any doubt should remain upon the minds of the public, whether the deed I meditated was virtuous or contrary, the tale I will now relate will convince them, that in attempting to exercise a power which the law had ceased to have, I was only wreaking national vengeance on a set of wretches unworthy the name or character of men. This Edwards, poor and pennyless, lived near Pickett-street, in the Strand, sometime ago, without a bed to lie upon, or a chair to sit in. Straw was his resting place; his only covering a blanket. Owing to his bad character and his swindling conduct, he was driven from thence by his landlord. It is not my intention to trace him through his immorality; suffice it to say, that he was in every sense of the word a villain of the deepest atrocity; his landlord refused to give him a character; some short time after this he called upon his landlord again, but, mark the change in his appearance, dressed like a lord, in all the folly of the reigning fashion. He now described himself as the right heir to a German baron, who had been some time dead; that lords Castlereagh and Sidmouth had acknowledged his claims to the title and property; had interfered in his behalf with the German government, and supplied him with money to support his rank in society. From this period I date his career as a government spy.

He got himself an introduction to the Spenceans, by what means I am not aware of, and thus he became acquainted with the reformers in general. When I met with Edwards after the massacre at Manchester, he described himself as very poor; and, after several interviews, be proposed a plan for blowing up the House of Commons. This was not my view; I wished to punish the guilty only, and, therefore, I declined it. He next proposed that we should attack the ministers at the fête given by the Spanish ambassador. This I resolutely opposed, because the innocent would perish with the guilty-besides, there were ladies invited to the entertainment, and I, who am shortly to ascend to the scaffold, shuddered with hor

the laws are not strong enough to prevent them from murdering the community, it becomes the duty of every member of that community to rid his country of its oppressors.

Lord Chief Justice Abbott.-Prisoner, while you have been expressing yourself in the way you have towards us who are here present, we cannot allow a person, standing even in your have not thought it right to interpose, but we situation, to justify assassination and murder.

ror at the idea of that; a sample of which had previously been given by the agents of government at Manchester, and which the ministers of his majesty applauded. Edwards was ever at invention, and, at length, he proposed attacking them at a cabinet dinner. I asked, where were the means to carry his project into effect? He replied, if I would accede, we should not want for means. He was as good as his word; from him, notwithstanding his apparent penury, proceeded the money provided for purchasing the stores which your Thistlewood.-I have just done, my lord. lordships have seen produced in court upon High Treason was committed against the my trial. He, who was never possessed of people at Manchester, but justice was closed money to pay for a pint of beer, had always against the mutilated, the maimed, and the plenty to purchase arms or ammunition. friends of those who were upon that occasion Amongst the conspirators he was ever the indiscriminately massacred. The prince, by most active; ever inducing people to join him, the advice of his ministers, thanked the mur up to the last hour ere the undertaking was derers, still reeking in the gore of their hapless discovered. victims. If one spark of honour, if one spark of independence, still glimmered in the breast of Englishmen, they would have rose to a man; insurrection then became a public duty, and the blood of the victims should have been the watch-word to vengeance on their murderers.

I had witnesses in court who could prove they went to Cato-street by appointment with Edwards, with no other knowledge or motive than that of passing an evening amongst his friends; I could also have proved, that subse-, quent to the fatal transaction, when we met in Holborn, he endeavoured to induce two or three of my companions to set fire to houses and buildings in various parts of the metropolis; I could prove that, subsequent to that, again he endeavoured to induce men to throw hand-grenades into the carriages of ministers as they passed through the streets; and yet, this man, the contriver, the instigator, the intrapper, is screened from justice and from exposure, by those very men who seek vengeance against the victims of his and their villainy. To the attorney and solicitor general I cannot impute the clearest motives; their object seems to me to have been rather to obtain a verdict against me, than to obtain a full and fair exposition of the whole affair since its commencement. If their object was justice alone, why not bring forward Edwards as a witness, if not as an accomplice; but no, they knew that by keeping Edwards in the background, my proofs, aye, my incontrovertible proofs, of his being a hired spy, the suggester and promoter, must, according to the rules of Court, also be excluded.

Edwards and his accomplices arranged matters in such a manner as that his services might¦ be dispensed with on the trial, and thus were the jury cut off from every chance of ascertaining the real truth. Adams, Hiden, and Dwyer were the agents of Edwards, and, truly, he made a most admirable choice, for their invention seems to be inexhaustible. With respect to the immorality of our project, I will just observe, that the assassination of a tyrant has always been deemed a meritorious action; Brutus and Cassius were lauded to the very skies for slaying Cæsar; indeed, when any man, or any set of men, place themselves above the laws of their country, there is no other means of bringing them to justice than through the arm of a private individual. If

Lord Chief Justice Abbott.-We cannot allow this.

Thistlewood.—I have but a few lines more.

The banner of independence should have floated in the gale that brought their wrongs and their sufferings to the metropolis; such, however, was not the case; Albion is still in the chains of slavery; I quit it without regret; I shall soon be consigned to the grave, my body will be immured beneath the soil whereon I first drew breath. My only sorrow is, that the soil should be a theatre for slaves, for cowards, for despots. My motives, I doubt not, will hereafter be justly appreciated; I will therefore now conclude by stating, that I shall consider myself as murdered, if I ain to be executed on the verdict obtained against me, by the refusal of the Court to hear my evidence. I could have proved Dwyer to be a villain of the blackest dye, for since my trial, an accomplice of his, named Arnold, has been capitally convicted at this very bar, for obtaining money under circumstances of an infamous nature.

I seek not pity; I demand but justice; I have not had a fair trial, and upon that ground I protest that judgment ought not to be passed against me.

Davidson. My Lord;-The first thing I have to say for myself is this; I do entirely protest against the proceedings on the trial. I

always understood that, in a court of justice, where a man stands indicted for his life, the balances of justice ought to be fairly held by those who ought to have exhibited justice to him who stands there, helpless as it were, for I am not allowed to contradict the evidence till such time as it has made an impression upon the hearts of those gentlemen in the box.

When I had that opportunity I made it as plain as I could; but, alas! what effect had it all; the attorney-general rose as a sweeping flood, and overturned what I had fairly said; and I appeal to any man that was in court, whether, in the summing up of the evidence, Judge Garrow did justice to me, as a prisoner at the bar. Was he not inveterate against me? did he not influence the minds of the jurymen, and almost insist upon their pronouncing me guilty? did any person identify me to be the identical person except those officers who, we all know, and every Englishman must know, have been always instrumental to the death of innocent men. I have never been in a public life. I appeal to all those gentlemen, whether I have ever engaged in any plot, if I had fifty lives, and they were wanting for the public good, they should have them; and if it were my blood, they should take every drop, and I would stand here while they took it, and fall a victim to my enemies; but in what manner is it I could ever be guilty of high treason? it was never pretended I had ever said any thing, directly or indirectly; I must have been a silent spectator from the nature of my colour. I should have been immediately remarked if I had taken an active part. I have got a deal to say for myself where I feel it to be proper; but there is not one single witness has ever said that I said any thing, consequently I could not be a person that was in the conspiracy; they have said, only that there was a man of colour, and, unfortunately, I was caught near the spot, and was fixed on by them; but still justice ought to be done to every man, and especially where it is done in the revered name of British justice. In regard to the blunderbuss, Mr. Aldous must be confused; for I told him, that I pawned it for a friend, and when I fetched the blunderbuss from the place where I had pawned it, I did it at the desire of Edwards. Mr. Edwards received it from me. Mr. Edwards gave me the money to get it out of pawn; and I stand here and say, before God, that I did not know what it was fetched for.

I was found with a sword in my hand; I have told the Court how I came by that sword; but I protest on my soul, as I shall stand before God, that I never made a blow at any man, or discharged a blunderbuss at any man. As to Munday, a man who has come here merely for the hire for his day's work, as a witness against me, who has come as to a common day's work, to take a man's life away, I declare I never had a pistol in my possession in my life. This man says he saw me with a long sword; on one occasion he has stated that, and on another omitted it; but suppose I was found with a sword in my hand, who can prove that I meant to overturn the government? who can prove that I meant to assassinate the ministers? who can prove that I meant to lay my hand on my sovereign? Is my character so black as for it to be said in this country, or where I have travelled, that I

am an assassin or a murderer? I appeal to every man who knows me, whether I am a man of that character or stamp directly or indirectly, to do such a thing; but even if the sword was in my hand; and my intention was even to join with those people, I do not see that it was a conspiracy against the lives of any ministers or of the king himself; because in the passages of Magna Charta, when king John granted that charter, the passage runs in this form; that the people should choose twenty-five barons from among them, with an intent that those twenty-five barons shall see that the acts of this charter are not violated by his majesty or any of his ministers; and if any of them be violated by the king or his ministers, four of those barons shall go and insist on redress; and if redress is not given within twenty-five days, they are to return and compel them to give it-how? with empty hands? no; with arms to stand and claim their rights as Englishmen; and if every Englishman felt as I do, they would always do that. But it goes on further to say; and if redress be not forthwith given, they shall seize on his revenues and his castles, and place such persons in his castles as will see and observe the duties imposed upon him by the barons. And our history goes on further to say, that when another of their majesties the kings of England tried to infringe upon those rights, the people armed, and told him that if he did not give them the privileges of Englishmen, they would compel him by the point of the sword; that is language never used by me, or those with whom I acted, and yet those persons were not considered as beneath the character of Englishmen, and to be condemned to death. Would you not rather govern a country of spirited men, than cowards? Another sovereign was threatened, and his minister taken before his face, and executed; a few years after that he collected himself, and after packing a parliament, he brought this matter before the parliament, and charged those persons as conspirators; but there was that spirit in the heart of every Englishman, though he had packed them, what did they answer him? That the people who had so done, had deserved more his thanks than his enmity, for they had destroyed that which would have destroyed thousands of men, and which had destroyed his honour, his wealth, and his revenues, and formed a ground for war between the king and his subjects, and without the life of that man, peace could never have been made between him and his subjects; and having done that, did he catch up a number of poor harmless individuals, as we are? no; but a few years after that, he again took up these measures, and what was the consequence? he was dethroned; but I solemnly declare, that I knew of no intention to dethrone the king; I was entrapped; I am ashamed to say I was entrapped; a man of my spirit to be entrapped by such a scoundrel as Mr. Goldsworthy, to get me to the Horse and Groom just at that time.

I did not know at that time that he knew Edwards; and when, as I was going away, there was a cry of "stop thief" behind me, I felt that an indignity, and turned round to resent it; but this man swears falsely, for I never struck at any of them; they have come forward to swear my life away on this charge, and I now tender my life to your service; I can die but once in this world, and the only regret left is, that I have a large family of small children, and when I think of that, it unmans me, and I shall say no more.

Ings.—I have got but very little to say for myself, for you will not allow me to speak; if Mr. Edwards had not got acquainted with me, when I kept the coffee-house, I never should have been here; he came to my house, and got acquainted with me; unfortunately I could not get on with my business, and get a living for my family; and early in January, I met him in Smithfield, and he went and gave me victuals and drink; I got acquainted with him through that, and he bought me things, and gave me a great many things; and in my anxiety of mind, for I could not keep my family, it was, that I was induced for the sake of these things, to keep company with him, and it is through him I shall lose my life; I do not mind dying, if you will let that man come forward, and die with me; he was the instigator and the author of all the atrocity I was going to commit. The murdering his majesty's ministers, I admit, was a disgrace to human nature; but those ministers meet and conspire together, and pass laws to starve me and my family and my fellow-countrymen; if I was going to assassinate those ministers, it is not so bad as starvation, in my opinion, my lord.

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remarks which I made to the jury when I was being tried, and which has been so ably knocked down by the learned Solicitor-general, who appears by his sophisticated eloquence to be capable to make even crime a virtue. I then entered into a detail of the character of Mr. Adams, and the sort of enmity he had to me, which should induce him to deprive my wife, of a husband, and my children of a father. I next adverted to the character of Edwards, who was the man who once before laid a trap for me, which I avoided, and afterwards en

trapped me: he laid a trap for me when there he said, he had been watching the earl of was a dinner at the earl of Westmoreland's ; Westmoreland when there was a dinner there, and he mustered his men, but there were not enough, and so he would not betray them. for he told me of it at the Scotch Arms, in There is no doubt Mr. Hiden was in this plot, Round-court; and of all the nefarious practices that ever were carried on in the known world by any government, or any set of men, there never was any thing so villainous in this world as that of the gentlemen sitting round there to carry on the nefarious practices on the part of the evidences, as well as in keeping Edwards in the back-ground; this I protest, and protest, and will again, that there is no man on for his life if it is to be sacrificed in liberty's the terrestrial globe who ought to care aught cause. When I look at that sword of justice, and those tablets by the side of it, it makes hear a man get up and defend the villain who every drop of blood boil within me, when I has come up to swear my life away. It can be that I never went after him. Can he say, proved by my wife, and people in my house, There was a meeting, if you recollect, called did I ever call upon him? No; the villain when he sent letters to me to call upon him, at Manchester, under the protection of the great charter of England, which our forefathers wanted me to go to him in prison, and then bled and fought for, and made king John sign moment he gets out, he comes to me again, he would have got me in I suppose; but the in the open air; those men were met under and he is furnished with arms, with a brassthe protection of that law, to oblige parliament barrelled pistol, and a blunderbuss, which he to give them their rights. My lord, previous has not stated here; he said a sword was not to the meeting, the Manchester yeomanry cavalry carried their swords to the cutlers to be sufficient for him; the sword belonged to Edground; for my own part, I see no harm in wards, and he had it for the situation he vogrinding swords, but they cut down unarmed lunteered to in lord Harrowby's house. This is men, women, and children; that was a dis- the villain who has entrapped me, though the grace to the name and character of English-liar and a villain, and that I could not prove Solicitor-general stated so ably that I was a men; I carried a sword to be ground, but I never used it; I hope my children will live to these facts; when men of character at the Westsee the day that there will be justice admin-end of the town, whom he has been in the istered in the country; that they all will be freemen, and live like men; I had rather die like a man, than live like a slave; I am sorry I have not got abilities to address you, but I have not, and therefore I must withdraw.

Brunt.-Why, my lord and gentlemen, I am precluded from saying much, for I intended to have committed my short defence to paper; but as I had not an opportunity of pen, ink and paper, I am precluded from so doing. As such, I shall state shortly what I think concerns my life. I shall commence with the

habit of calling upon, know them well. He got me into it, because he knew I was a man ciple, and that if I said, I will put a tyrant out of principle; he knew I was a man of prinof the world, I would do it, or perish. If this is a crime, let me die here instantly; I have no objection, not the least. But that, even after I went before the privy council, had not I an offer to become a villain then? might not I have turned against these people, and others that are not taken? might not I, if I was a villain in nature-but never shall it be said that ever I betrayed a man,

Now, gentlemen, respecting what the solici- | tor-general stated, that I was a liar in saying what I did, for that it was not the fact. I say this man can be brought forward now; that I can bring forward a man of the name of Dowling, a man of unimpeached character, who went in company with him and Mr. Thistlewood and Edwards, to the Cross Keys, at the end of Drury-lane; he fetched out this man, with not a halfpenny in his pocket, and took him into the public-house, and treated him; but would wish to observe, while Mr. Thistlewood and this man and Edwards were together, while I was gone out, he made an observation which this man had art enough to see through; he said, "If I had a hundred such men as you, I could do more good for this country than the duke of Wellington with an hundred thousand men ;" he laughed at it, and asked him what he meant; he said, "If I see you again, I will make a man of you." He treated him with beef steaks and rum; and he called upon me two days afterwards to go to this man again; and he said to me, "that man will do very well;" but this man saw through him, and he said, "I know he is a villain; I do not like the appearance of him at all; and as to his saying he has got secret political friends that will advance him money, and so on; how do you know but he is receiving money from the government;" however he preyed on my credulity; I did not see him in that light then, which I have since I have been in prison, though I never attempted to vilify any man; the solicitor-general says I spoke falsely, and that I cannot prove this respecting Adams. It can be proved that he is as big a rogue as ever lived.

Gentlemen, I should like to know what Christianity will receive from being so ably defended by the solicitor-general. This man acknowledged himself he had been an infidel till the 24th of February, till he had a noose about his neck, and that God Almighty then strengthened his mind to take my life away. Is this christian repentance? if it is, never let me embrace it; I have a different idea of Christianity. I believe, were I guilty of that, my Creator never would suffer me to approach him; and I consider that I am right. This villain, as I say, has watched every opportunity; he has come to me in the greatest distress, and begged a shilling of me, as I was a little better off than himself, though not much, to get his family a supper, and now he comes forward to this bar and swears my life away. Is this, gentlemen, the evidence to be taken in a court of justice, to take the lives of a number of men: more I did expect; but as I understand a number of my fellow prisoners are suffered to plead guilty, and so I suppose there will not be quite so many sacrificed.

Now, gentlemen, I will go to my apprentice. The learned solicitor-general likewise observed, what a pure evidence he was, and an evidence that no one could doubt. I can prove him, and VOL. XXXIII.

I have before, to be a villain in nature, though young; and had it not been for his having a table of mine regularly to go to, when I did not sometimes earn a pound a-week to support my family, that villain would have been transported before now, for he went about thieving at nights

Lord Chief Justice Abbott.-We cannot hear, now, the character of a person who has been if he had been guilty of any offence he might examined at this bar arraigned in this way; have been tried for it.

Brunt. I will state nothing but facts; I have had a steel in my hand that he stole; he sold it for 3s. 6d. and cheated the boys who stole it with him; am I to harbour this in my mind?

| thing in it, it ought to have been proved on Lord Chief Justice Abbott.-If there is any

the trial.

Brunt. My lord, there are a number of witnesses I could call, to shew the guilt of this Edwards. There was a witness I was willing to call, to prove that he wanted to sell something in Warwick-street, in order to use the money in buying these arms-why have you not brought that person forwards? he was subpoenaed by the Crown, but they would not call him; and so then I was told, these witnesses could not come forward on our parts at the trial; but he wanted to get money to purchase these grenades and fire-balls, which he well understood, for he said he had had a college education; for my part, I know no more about a fire-ball, I know no more about those things than a child unborn, and no man can say, from the evidence, that I made any of them. Adams says, Edwards made the fire-balls and the fuses, and I am to suffer for what he has done. I must confess, and I will confess, and I wish it to go abroad to the world, that I have an antipathy to a man whom I

consider as an enemy to my country; that I possess a general feeling for those termed the lower orders, who are the stability of my country; that I regard an industrious man, a moral man; and when I see a man, or a set of men, such as my lord Sidmouth or my lord Castlereagh, who have been the cause of millions being murdered, and tens of thousands starved to death, that I have an antipathy against those men; but if I conspired to put them out of the world, is that high treason? I never did agree, and Adams has acknowledged at the bar, that when it was proposed to make an attack on London, while the king's funeral was carrying on, I rejected it, and said, nothing short of attacking the cabinet, or some of the ministers, would satisfy me-this I acknowledge I agreed to; but for a verdict to be returned against me, that I conspired to depose his majesty, that I conspired and intended to levy war, is untrue. I never did; and here I must certainly make an appeal to the learned judge who tried me, and that is, respecting a 5 G

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