John Farnell, brewer, challenged by the pri soner. Jonathan Passingham, farmer, challenged by Joseph Drake, draper, challenged by the pri soner. John Fowler, iron-plate-worker, sworn. William Gibbs Roberts, cooper, sworn. Thomas Garrett, shipwright, challenged by the Matthew Ashton, coachmaster, challenged by Richard Hatchett, esq., and farmer, challenged John Dickenson, builder, challenged by the pri soner. John Dobson, esq., sworn. Thomas Dicks, silversmith, challenged by the Thomas Wood, painter, challenged by the pri soner. James Gates, joiner, challenged by the prisoner. Edward Bracebridge, watchmaker, challenged John Jones, stockbroker, challenged by the Thomas Partridge, farmer, challenged by the Henry Hillard, watch-gilder, not properly de- George Henn, ship-chandler, challenged by the Thomas Harby, esq., and rope-maker, chal- John Bunting, gentleman, and tailor, chal- William Cooper, gentleman, sworn. Trial of Arthur Thistlewood (716 highly necessary, for the purposes of justice, who may be to serve as jurors on trials herethat the public mind, or the minds of those of any thing which takes place on the present after, may not be influenced by the publication trial. We hope all persons will observe this injunction.*. The Jury were charged with the prisoner in the usual form. The Indictment was opened by Mr. Bolland. jury;-You are assembled to discharge one Mr. Attorney General.-Gentlemen of the upon a jury-to decide upon the guilt or of the most important duties that can devolve the crime of high treason; the highest ofinnocence of a fellow subject charged with occasion, I am satisfied it is unnecessary for fence known to the law. Upon such an me to bespeak your patient attention to the you; still less to point out the necessity of statement which it will be my duty to make to and unprejudiced minds-of discarding from entering upon the investigation with unbiassed read, relative to the charge preferred against your recollection every thing you have heard or the prisoner, of confining your attention exclusively to the evidence which will be adduced in support of that charge, and of forming your decision upon that evidence alone. The charge is, as I have stated to you, one crimes, generally speaking, however heinous of the highest nature known to the law; other ample is concerned, with their perpetration; and enormous, terminate, except so far as exbut still more if it be successful, draws after it but high treason, not only in its inception, consequences of the most dreadful kind, affect at large. ing not only individuals, but the community observations upon the law, as it applies to the I shall not trouble you with any lengthened mistake not greatly, that law is so undiscrime imputed to the prisoner, because, if I you will so clearly and satisfactorily establish puted, and the facts which will be proved to would be an idle parade in me to refer either the charge contained in the indictment, that it to the authority of decisions, or to the opinions of our ablest commentators upon the subject. If the overt acts laid in this indictment, or a sufficient number of them, shall be satisfactorily proved, I will venture to affirm that no man who hears me will entertain the slightest the counts of this indictment, and bring home doubt, that they will establish one or other of to the prisoner at the bar, the high treason with which he stands charged. be proved to you by the same evidence; and upon this subject, during the trial of John the evidence which establishes one, will, I believe, completely support the others. The offences charged are compassing and imagining the deposition of the king from his throne; compassing and imagining the death of the king; conspiring to levy war, in order to compel the king to change his measures; and levying war against the king. It is hardly necessary for me to state, that in proof of these charges it is not essential that the plans of the parties accused should aim directly and immediately either at the deposition or at the life of his majesty, because if they were pointed against that form of government which now exists, if they were intended to bring about a change in the established system by means of force, they naturally and obviously, in the event of their being successful, tended to effect the removal of the king from his kingly dignity, or the destruction of his life. It will therefore be quite sufficient for me to apprize you, in the first instance, that the plans of the conspirators were of such a nature and description, that though, in their primary operations, they were directed against the government, as they will indisputably be proved to have been, and not immediately aimed at the destruction either of the authority or the life of his majesty, they would, in their consequences, inevitably lead to those results. And therefore, not to bewilder you in the inquiry upon which you are about to enter, I think it quite sufficient in the outset to state to you-that in which I believe I shall be confirmed by the highest authority the law knows when this case shall be summed up to you that if the overt acts, that is, the facts stated in this indictment as indicating and evincing the traitorous intention of the conspirators, shall be proved, they will establish the charge laid in this indictment. It is unnecessary, therefore, to trouble you at present with any further discussion of the law applicable to the charge. Important and anxious as the duty is which you are called upon to discharge, mine, I may say, is no less so. In my address to you, I do assure you my only purpose is, to make you acquainted with the nature of the charge against the accused, and the evidence by which that charge will be substantiated. It is neither my intention nor my wish to lead you to any conclusion which the evidence itself will not warrant; for, God knows, if the facts shall be proved, as I have every reason to believe they will be, they want no addition to bring the minds of any unprejudiced persons to the inevitable conclusion of guilt. My duty is to state the case to you fairly, as between the public and the unfortunate man at the bar, as expect it will be proved, without exaggeration on the one side, or timid reserve on the other. If I should unconsciously err;-if, when the time arrives at which you are to determine upon the verdict you shall give, you shall think either that the statement I have laid before you has not been proved, or that the observations and inferences I have made The The prisoner at the bar, Arthur Thistlewood, must be already known to you by name; but, as I have already said, let nothing that you have known or heard of him before you came into this Court to discharge the solemn duty you are to perform, have the least effect upon the verdict you are to pronounce. prisoner has, I fear, for some time conceived the wicked and nefarious purpose of attempting to overturn the government as by law established in this kingdom: and it will appear to you, that all the other persons included in this indictment, and whose names will occur in the course of the investigation, were participators with him in this guilty design. Some of them, it is true, entered into the conspiracy at a later period than others, but all concurred in that act which was to have been the commencement of the tragical operations they had in contemplation. At present, however, I shall call your attention more particularly to two of the prisoners, James Ings, and John Thomas Brunt. The prisoner resided, during the time of the transactions which I am about to relate to you, in Stanhope-street, Clare-market. Brunt was a shoemaker or boot-closer, living at a place which will be frequently mentioned in the course of this inquiry, Fox-court, Gray's-innlane; he inhabited two rooms on the second floor of a house in that court, in one of which his trade was carried on, and in the other he and his wife slept. His family consisted of his wife, a son, and an apprentice of the name of Hale. I shall not carry you very far back in the narrative of these transactions; it will be sufficient for me, in this statement, to call your attention to circumstances which took place from the close of January, until the 23rd of the following month. It will appear to you, that long anterior to that period, the prisoner at the bar, the two persons I have mentioned, and several of the others whose names are included in this indictment, had consulted together, and devised plans for the purpose of overturning the government. They had held frequent meetings at a public house called the White Hart, in Brook's-market, and in a room behind that public house. At the latter end of the month of January, or the commencement of the month of February, they thought it prudent to remove their meetings from those places, and that it would be better that they should be carried on in the house in which Brunt resided, in Fox-court; and, to avoid suspicion, they contrived that another room in that house, and upon the same floor upon which Brunt lived, should be taken for the prisoner Ings, who, I believe, was by trade a butcher. Brunt and Ings, it will be proved to you, hired that room for the avowed purpose of a lodging for the prisoner Ings, but for the secret and real object of holding meetings there, at which they might mature their plans, and prepare the means for carrying them into execution, it being a place of more immediate security and greater secrecy than they had previously been enabled to obtain. Having prepared means for effectuating their plans, their meetings at the room in Brunt's house became more frequent and numerous. Gentlemen, I here regret that I have to state in an English court of justice the horrible plans which had entered into the minds of these conspirators, and the act with which they intended to commence the nefarious project they had in view. It was thought by Englishmen, that the assassination of all his majesty's ministers would be a proper commencement of the revolution which they wished to bring about; and you will find, that they frequently deliberated and consulted upon the means by which that most wicked design was to be accomplished. They entertained hopes that they should be enabled, at some meeting of his majesty's ministers, to perpetrate the bloody deed:-having effected that, they intended to set fire to various parts of this metropolis, to endeavour to obtain possession of the cannon at the artillery ground, and at the stable of the City Light Horse Volunteers, 'I believe in Gray's-inn-lane-to create as much confusion and dismay as they could by these various operations, and then to establish, what in their vain expectations they had imagined themselves capable of erecting, a provisional government, the seat of which was to be at the Mansion-house. | tween the present day and that which they thought would be the completion of their hopes, and you will find, that at a meeting which they held at Brunt's, on Saturday, the 19th of February, the impatience became so great, on the part of many of them, that they then determined to wait no longer; but that if no opportunity in the mean time should occur, of their being able to accomplish the assassination of his majesty's ministers, by finding them all assembled at the same house, at all events on the following Wednesday, the 23rd, some blow should be struck, and that the revolution which they had in contemplation, should actually have its commencement. Having thus determined, they appointed a meeting on the next day, the Sunday, at Brunt's house, for the purpose of forming a committee, upon whom should devolve the organization of the plan of operations for the ensuing Wednesday. At that meeting, and indeed at all the meetings, you will find that the prisoner at the bar was the leader upon whom they mainly relied for the success of their enterprise. You will find that he was generally the person who addressed them, who suggested the course of their proceedings, and in whose counsel and advice they placed the most implicit confidence. It was the prisoner, Thistlewood, who, on the 19th of February, proposed that which I have stated to you; he said, that as it did not appear from any intelligence they could collect, that ministers were likely soon to be together at a cabinet dinner, they should immediately ascertain the strength of their respective parties, and that having ascertained it, those parties should be divided into different bodies, upon some of whom should devolve the horrible task of destroying as many of his majesty's ministers as came within their reach; upon others, the duty of setting fire to various parts of the metropolis, and that to the rest should be assigned the execution of other parts of the plot, which were then detailed by the prisoner Thistlewood. This plan was at that meeting seconded by Brunt; and it was agreed, that on the following day, the Sunday, a meeting should take place They had frequent deliberations upon these at Brunt's room, in order to appoint a complans. You will recollect his late most ex-mittee to complete the final arrangement of the cellent majesty died on the 29th of January. It was thought at one of the meetings, that the night of the king's funeral might be a proper time for them to commence the work of destruction. They had intimation that on that occasion the greater part of the troops quartered in the metropolis would be removed from it to Windsor, to attend the ceremony of his majesty's interment; and they imagined that would be an opportune period for putting their schemes in execution. However, they abandoned that intention; they found that their plans embraced more objects than they had men to effect; and upon that night, therefore, they did not attempt the purpose they had in view. But, brooding over their nefarious machinations, many of these men became extremely impatient at the delay which was from time to time interposed be operations of the following Wednesday. Accordingly, on that Sunday a meeting took place at Brunt's. It was attended by the prisoner Thistlewood, Ings, Harrison, Wilson, and others of the conspirators. With all their names I do not at this moment trouble you, because your attention should be confined, at present, to the charge against the prisoner upon trial; at the same time I must observe, that if in the course of the investigation, we shall connect all the persons accused in one common plot, and one common design, the acts and declarations of all of them will become most important. They will each be answerable for the acts and declarations of the others, made and done in furtherance of their common object. The plan was again detailed by Thistlewood, was again approved by the persons pre sent (their number being fourteen of fifteen), and it was resolved that no activity should be wanting in the mean time, în making the preparations necessary to enable them to effect their atrocious désigns. Upon that occasion it was agreed that they should meet again on the following Monday; and you will find they did accordingly meet at Brunt's. The same plan was canvassed-no objection was made to it-and they then separated for the purposes of communicating it to their followers, in the different parts of the town, and of collecting as many persons as they should be enabled to do, for meeting on the following Wednesday. you will find they had prepared for the occasion; every thing was to be put in a state of preparation against the following evening. I should have stated to you, gentlemen, before I arrived at this part of the narrative, that a person of the name of Tidd, who is included in the indictment, and who lived, I believe, at a place called Hole-in-the-Wall Passage, near Brook's-market, had, early in the plot, become one of these conspirators, and had embarked in all their plans. His house had been made a dépôt for some of their arms and ammunition. As their meetings were at Brunt's, they had a suspicion that they might be watched and overlooked, and they considered it unsafe that his house should be the sole place of deposit. Tidd's, therefore, had for some time been appointed to be another receptacle for the powder, ball, ammunition, and other instruments of destruction, which they had prepared, and which will be produced to you in the course of the trial. As Brunt's house was at some considerable distance from Grosvenor-square, where their operations were to commence, they thought it better to procure some place of rendezvous nearer to the residence of lord Harrowby; and you will find, therefore (though it was not communicated at that moment to the different parties who were engaged in the transaction), street called Cato-street, which runs into John street, in the Edgware-Road. In this street a stable was procured by Harrison, one of the conspirators, for the purpose of their meeting on the following evening, preparatory to their going to the house of lord Harrowby,Jin Grosvenor-square. On the morning of Tuesday, the 22nd of February, a meeting took place at Brunt's, and, upon that occasion, one of the conspirators communicated to those who were present, that he had discovered by a newspaper that a cabinet dinner was to be had on the following day, Wednesday, at the house of lord Harrowby, in Grosvenor-square. You will be shocked when you hear the evidence of the exultation with which this intelligence was received. Brunt, with an impiety at which every well regulated mind must revolt, exclaimed that till then he had disbelieved in the existence of a God, but that now he was satisfied that the Almighty was favouring their designs, and that this meeting was appointed on the follow-that the spot selected was a small obscure ing day to enable them at one blow to effectuate that purpose, which had been levelled against each of his majesty's ministers; and that they might be enabled, by the means they had procured, at once to destroy every member of the cabinet who should be present upon that occasion. The exultation was not confined to Brunt alone; you will find that Ings, and the other persons present, equally rejoiced in the contemplation of the speedy success of their infamous designs, exclaiming that on the following night they should attain that which had been so long the object of their desire, and for which they had been preparing with such unremitting anxiety. A newspaper was then sent for in order to see whether the intelligence was true on its being brought, it was discovered to be so, and then they immediately resolved that instead of the plan which had been pre-whom this plan had been divulged, and who viously arranged, namely, the endeavouring to assassinate some of his majesty's ministers at their respective residences, or wherever they might be found, the house of lord Harrowby should be the object of attack; and that in the evening, at nine o'clock, after the guests were assembled, and when they were seated in security at table, the house should be entered by a chosen party of the conspirators, and the ministers should be destroyed by the means I shall presently describe to you. Upon this intelligence their activity was redoubled; they met again in the evening; their different partizans were requested at once to collect together all the fire-arms they had obtained, the ammunition they had purchased, and the different instruments of mischief, which VOL. XXXIII. It providentially happened in this conspiracy, as will generally occur in plots of a similar nature, that some of the parties, previous to its execution, began to feel compunctious visitings of nature, and startled at the crimes they were about to commit; and you will find that upon the Tuesday (the day on which the intelligence was received by them that there would, on the following day, be a dinner at lord Harrowby's) a person of the name of Hiden, who will be examined as a 'witness-a person to the conspirators had hoped would be a participator in the execution of their designs-felt a visiting of conscience which impelled him to communicate to lord Harrowby himself the scheme that was in agitation. This person watched an opportunity of lord Harrowby's going from his house into the park, and there made his lordship acquainted with the mischief that was intended. It will also appear to you, that on Tuesday some little alarm had been excited in the mind of one of the parties (a man of the name of Adams) that their plans were suspected, and that they therefore incurred some hazard in meeting. On that day, at Brunt's house, Adams informed Thistlewood and the others, that a communication had been made to him 3 A by the landlord of the White Hart, intimating that their meetings at that public-house had, he thought, been observed by some of the police officers, and Adams expressed his apprehension that their schemes were discovered, or were likely to be so. This excited in the minds of some of the persons assembled the greatest agitation; they stated that they were astonished that Adams should venture, in the presence of men, some of whom were comparatively strangers, to hint that there was a possibility that their plans could be detected. Brunt, in order to satisfy them whether there was any ground for the suspicion which had been entertained by Adams, proposed that certain of the party should be appointed to watch lord Harrowby's house on that evening, and early on the following morning, to see whether any persons were introduced to resist the intended attack, and to ascertain whether their intentions were known. You will find that they carried the proposal of Brunt into effect, by sending two of their party, one of whom was Davidson, a man of colour (who will be very conspicuous as an active partisan throughout the whole of this transaction), on that evening, about six o'clock, to watch lord Harrowby's house. These watchmen were to be relieved about eight or nine by two others of the party, who were to remain three hours at their post, and their places were then to be supplied by two others, who were to continue there during the night. It will be proved that these watches were actually set on that night, and that the men performing the duty were seen by different persons in Grosvenor-square. Finding, as was the case, that there appeared to be no alarm that no police officers or troops were admitted into lord Harrowby's house, or stationed in the neighbourhood-the conspirators felt quite satisfied that the fears expressed by Adams were groundless, and that there was no reason to suspect a discovery. On Wednesday, great preparations were made by them; arms were brought of various descriptions, guns, pistols, sabres, swords, and engines which, when you see them, you will perceive to be calculated for the most deadly purposes. These engines they had themselves prepared, and their most appropriate appellation is hand-grenades. They are formed thus: -a quantity of powder, from three to four ounces, is enclosed in a tin case, to which is attached a tube for the insertion of a fuse: round this case is tied a quantity of tow, and on the outside of that tow are fastened, as tight as they can be, sharp-pointed pieces of iron of various descriptions. Thus closely confined the powder would explode with considerable force, and the pieces of iron would be scattered around in every direction. It was stated at their meetings, without any disguise, that the purpose to which these instruments were to be applied was this: when the attacking party entered the room where his majesty's ministers should be assembled, the fuses were to be lighted, and the grenades thrown amongst them, inflicting by their explosion, wounds and death upon the persons in that room. Of these they had prepared a great number, I know not how many. They had also provided themselves with preparations which they chose inhumanly to call illumination balls; these were made for the purpose of setting fire to any buildings which it should be their intention and object on that night to burn. They had also collected a large quantity of ball cartridges, the amount of which will probably surprise you, but it will appear, that they had between eleven and twelve hundred rounds; they had also cartridges for loading cannon, which they had made of flannel bags in each of which a pound of powder was contained. They had lastly got together a great number of pikes and pike handles, for the purpose of arming those of their friends and associates who might have no other weapons. These preparations had been, as you may naturally suppose, the work of considerable time; they were ready upon the 23rd of February, for the purpose for which they were intended. On the morning of the 23rd of February, the conspirators assembled at Brunt's house, where they were engaged in completing the hand-grenades, putting flints into their pistols, loading their arms, and making every preparation for the meditated attack. I have already told you, that for the purpose of their meeting, and for the convenience of having some place near to lord Harrowby's house, a stable had been procured by one of these conspirators, in Cato-street. I know not whether curiosity may have led any of you, as it has led a great number of the public, to visit that spot, but if it has not, I will endeavour to describe it to you, and I think you will agree with me, that a more appropriate situation for the purpose they contemplated, could hardly have been selected. It is an obscure street, having a very narrow access at each end; it is accessible by a horse or carriage at one end only. The entrance at one extremity is under an archway, and at the other there are posts, to prevent the passage of any but foot passengers. The east end leads into John-street, the west into Queen-street; both which streets run parallel to each other into the Edgware-road. This stable is the first building on the right hand side as you enter Cato-street, from Johnstreet and it is nearly opposite to a small public-house called the Horse and Groom; it belongs to General Watson, who is abroad, and had been occupied by a person of the name of Firth, by whom it was let to Harrison. It consists below stairs of three stalls, and a small place adjoining, for the reception of a cart; nearly opposite the door is a step ladder, leading up into a loft, by the side of which loft are two small rooms immediately over the carthouse. It will be proved to you, that previous to the meeting which was to take place between seven and eight o'clock on that evening, preparations had been made by Harrison, and by |