sleeve of my coat; and while he was doing this" that is lifting up and presenting the pistol, "I let go of Ings whom I was holding before it wounded me, and there were three holes in my hat; I received then a violent blow on the right side of my head, and I fell; as I fell, Thistlewood made a cut at me with a sword, and rushed out at the stable door." The next witness is Luke Nixon, also a Bow-street patrole, who went with the other officers; he says, "I saw Westcoatt in conIflict with Ings, in the stable; I saw Ings leave the stable; I made a snatch at him to catch him, but missed him; I do not think Thistlewood had got away then; Ings got out, and I ran after him up John-street, but he had got too far; on this I heard a pistol fired, and going up I found him in the custody of Brooks and Champion." Joseph Champion is next called, he also is one of the Bow-street patrole; he says, "I followed Ruthven to the foot of the ladder; I was about the sixth or seventh man behind him; I was at the foot of the ladder when he was at the top; I saw Ings at the bottom;" this is the second witness who speaks of him by name; as to the former officer, you will judge whether he lentifies him or not by description; he says, "I saw Ings at the foot of the ladder; he looked up, and cried out, look out above; Westcoatt endeavoured to secure him, but he made his escape. I followed him, and laid hold of him just after Brooks had laid hold of him; we took him to the watch-house, and we searched him, and on his person we found four pistol-balls, the key of a pistol, a case of blue cloth for a large knife, which fitted the butcher's knife produced here, and which had wax-end twisted round the handle; I took off his great coat, and then under this, about his person, there were two haversacks slung, over his shoulders; I saw in one of them a tin case, with loose gunpowder, nearly full; he had a cloth belt round his waist with pistol holsters." John Wright was also one of the Bow-street patrole; he was there on the 23rd of February, and saw a man in the further stall, and says, "I took a knife and sword from him; it was a butcher's knife, with a wax-end tied round the handle of it; the sword was about three feet long; I took these from a man at the foot of the ladder, in size like the prisoner at the bar;" and who is proved by the other two witnesses to have been by name Ings the prisoner; he says, "I was knocked down, and received a stab on my side; when I recovered he was gone.' it staggered me to the right, and then (I suppose, meaning to avoid the pursuit of my companion, who was following him) he came into the Edgeware-road and threw the pistol away; a little further on, there was a watchman of the name of Moay, who laid hold of him just as I did; I never lost sight of him till he was taken; I said, when taken, you rascal, why did you fire at me, a man you had never seen before; he said to kill you, and I wish that I had done it; and this he repeated afterwards to the soldiers, and to my partners." William Lee is also a Bow-street patrole, and he says, "I went to the Horse and Groom in the evening, before the officers went to the stable; I saw Cooper and Gilchrist go in there; they were taken that night and conveyed to Bow-street." The next witness was lieutenant Fitz-clarence; he says, that he is a lieutenant in the Coldstream-guards; that he was applied to on the night in question, to go to Cato-street; that he took a picquet with him, and arrived there a few minutes after eight; he entered the stable three or four minutes after eight: going under the gateway, leading into Catostreet, I saw a police officer, who cried out, Soldiers! soldiers! stable-door! He says, that he saw two or three persons in the stable-"I was met by two men, one presented a pistol at me; I am not sure that it was a pistol, but he presented something at me, which appeared to me to be a pistol; at the same time a man with a sword struck at me, which I parried. Seeing a body of soldiers coming up, he ran into the stable; I followed him, and the moment I got into the stable, I ran up against a man who surrendered himself, saying, do not kill me, and I will tell you all; I gave him over to the soldiers. I then ran forward into the stable; I went up into one of the stalls, and took a man out, whom I also delivered to the soldiers;" and then in the very gallant and proper discharge of his duty -considering the firing that was going on, the time of night, the obscurity of the place, and the danger with which it was attended-he goes up this narrow ladder, on which there was only room for one at a time. He says, "I led the soldiers, and when I got into the loft, I fell over the legs of poor Smithers. By the light in ascending the steps, I saw three or four men in the room; I secured these also; then I went on, and there was a large quantity of arms in different places of the loft; blun derbusses, swords, pistols, pikes, and the arms were packed up and seized by the different soldiers who took them away." Brooks is then called, who was also a pat- The next witness called, is Serjeant William role; and he tells you, “when I was in John- Legg, who is a serjeant of the second battalion street, I saw Ings running up the street; I of the Coldstream-guards, and went with capcrossed the street, and found one of my part-tain Fitz-clarence, who directed the party. ners with a cutlass; I went up, and the prisoner presented a pistol and said he would shoot me, and fired; the ball struck me, and went through my collar and the shoulder of my waistcoat, and out at the back of my neck; He says, the moment the police officers had spoken to him, the party were directed to advance in double quick time. "Just before," he says, "we had heard the report of pistols; there was a man standing with his back against the door; he had a pistol, and he levelled it against captain Fitz-clarence; but it was turned away by my pike. I then seized the pistol with my left hand, and a scuffle ensued between the prisoner and me; that prisoner was Tidd. After some time, we both having hold of the pistol, it went off, and tore a hole in my coat; I delivered Tidd to one of the police; the pistol is here; on going up into the loft I saw three others who had surrendered." The next witness called is Samuel Hercules Taunton, who says, "I belong to the policeoffice at Bow-street. On Thursday morning, the 24th of February, I went to Brunt's lodgings, where I saw Brunt and apprehended him; I searched the apartments occupied by him, but found nothing in the front room; I then went into the back room, where I found two rush baskets, both packed up, one tied up in a blue apron; and having seized Brunt, I asked him about them, and he said he knew nothing of them. I brought the baskets out, and I opened them afterwards; and I found in them nine papers of rope-yarn and tar, and other ingredients calculated to take fire; and also steel-filings. In one of the baskets there were four hand-grenades; three papers of rope-yarn, tar, and other ingredients; two bags, containing each one pound of gun-pow. der; five flannel bags empty; one leather bag containing sixty-three bullets. In the room there was an iron pot, which appeared to have had tar boiled in it very recently, and a pike handle finished in rough; this was what I found at Brunt's. I afterwards went to Tidd's, about nine in the morning, and searched his lodgings, where I found 434 balls in a haversack; 171 ball-cartridges, loose; 69 ball-cartridges, without powder; three pounds of gunpowder, in a brown paper; 10 grenades; 11 bags of gunpowder, one pound each," these are the flannel bags; “and 10 flannel bags, empty; and there was a small linen bag with powder; a powder flask with some powder in it; 68 bullets, four flints, and 27 pike-handles with sockets at the ends for pikes; and a box which contained 965 ball-cartridges. This is all I found at Tidd's." He was asked, upon his cross-examination, about Palin; whether there is a reward offered for him? he says there is; that he has observed that he is advertized for the part he took in this business. Daniel Bishop is the next witness called, and says he apprehended Thistlewood between ten and eleven in the forenoon of the 24th of February, at No. 8, White-street, Little Moorfields, in the apartments of a Mrs. Harris; his own abode, he says, being in Stanhope-street, Clare-market. He says he was in bed with his breeches and stockings on. "Upon my opening the door, he just held up his head from under the bed-clothes; I had a pistol in one hand and a staff in the other. I told him who I was, my name, and that I had a warrant against him; he said, I shall make no resistance. His coat and waistcoat were by the VOL. XXXIII. bed-side; in his waistcoat pocket there were three leaden balls, a ball-cartridge, a blankcartridge, and two flints, and a small silk sash. I took him into custody." On the cross-examination he says, “I do not know Edwards." Ruthven was then called back, and he produced the arms taken from Cato-street. 66 Morison was called back, and identified a sword found there as the one brought to him to be sharpened, by Ings. He says, that it was directed to be made particularly sharp at the point, both back and edge, as sharp as a needle; it appears to have been rubbed on a stone to keep the keenness of the edge." Taunton is next called back, and he produces the arms found at Brunt's. He says, "this basket contains nine papers of ropeyarn, tar, and other ingredients; there are also some steel filings." Then he produces the basket which was tied up in a blue apron, and says, “these are flannel bags full of gunpowder; there are also some empty; there are four hand-grenades; a pike-handle, filed at the end so as to receive a pike, and it has a ferule on; this is the iron pot, there is the appearance of tar at the bottom; these are the sixty-three bullets in a leathern bag." Then he produces the things found at Tidd's, and, looking at them, he says, "These are some of the ball-cartridges; three pounds of gunpowder, some hand-grenades, eleven bags of gunpowder, of a pound each, some empty bags;" and he produces the various things found there. Then Ruthven is called back, and he proves that those arms found in Cato-street were most of them loaded, one or two had been fired off; the others were drawn last Monday, Then Serjeant Hanson is called; he is in the Royal Artillery, and he looks at the fire-balls; he says, they are composed of oakum, tar, and rosin; and if they were lighted and thrown into a house they would set the house on fire; if into a hay-loft, still more likely. He says, looking at the fuse, it would burn about half a minute; and, looking at the thing itself, he says, this one would burn three or four minutes; and then looking at one of the cartridges (and this part of the evidence is very material) so seized at this dépôt, he says, "this is a flannel cartridge for a six-pounder, powder is so made up for the purpose of charging cannon; but ours are not made up in the same way, for they are serge; this will answer the purpose." Then he looked at the hand-grenades, he took one to pieces; and then he says, that the exterior tight binding, as they appear to you to be, increases the effect when they burst; if they were slack they would not have half the effect; and then he pointed out to you, before they were taken to pieces, the great nails in different situations, which in a thing likely to explode with this violence, would, like a shower of shot, be scattered in all directions, and be productive of infinite mischief; and then he says, this is more powder than we use to burst a nine-inch shell. 4 F This is the whole of the evidence for the prosecution which I have felt it my duty in this case, so important to the prisoner at the bar, to state to you. On the part of the prisoner, the first witness called was Thomas Chambers; who says, that he lives at No. 3, Heath-cock-court, in the Strand, nearly opposite the Adelphi. He is called to impeach the character and the testimony which was given by the witness Adams; and he says, "I had seen Adams in company with Edwards about a week before the Catostreet business took place; I was by myself in my room when they came together; they made a proposal to me about the assassination of the king's ministers, and asked me to go with them; I refused; Adams said to me they were going to kill his majesty's ministers, and they would have blood and wine for supper; they came to me again on the Monday-night, (it was a wet night) before the Cato-street business; they brought a large bag and wanted to leave it. I am a boot-maker; I cannot say how long I have known Ings; I have not been in his company above two or three times. I met him near the court where I live, at a pamphlet shop, where they sell the Black Dwarf and the Medusa; the shop is kept by Watling; I know the Scotch Arms in Round-court, in the Strand; it is near my lodgings; I never saw Ings there; I had been there three times before Christmas; there was no business going on, nor any chairman; the three times I was there, I was in the tap-room; I have been at the Black Dog in Gray's-inn-lane; there was no chair there, it was in a little parlour, and I saw seven persons there; I was invited there by a man of the name of Bryant, who was going to the Cape of Good Hope; they were all strangers to me but one, and that one whom I knew was Thistlewood; I know Brunt very well, but he was not there; I will not swear I do not know Palin; I have not bad any conversation with him, but I may have seen him; I was at all the meetings in Smithfield; I cannot state who carried the black flag upon that occasion, but I have carried two flags; there was inscribed on one, The Manchester Massacre; never saw a flag, Let us die like Free men, not live like Šlaves." On Hunt's entry, I carried a flag of "Trial by Jury; I know Davidson; I have not much knowledge of Tidd, I may have seen him; I have seen Wilson; I know Harrison very well; I have not much knowledge of Bradburn; I do not know Strange, nor Gilchrist, nor Cooper; I have known Thistlewood since Mr. Hunt's triumphal entry; the proposal of assassination shocked me so, that I did not go; Bow-street was near me, but I did not myself go to Bowstreet and give any information; I do not know whether Edwards knew of my acquaintance with the other people." Then the next witness who is called, is Mary Barker, the daughter of Tidd. She says, some powder was found at his house, and some grenades and balls; "they were brought in the morning by a man and a boy; I know Edwards; he brought some of the grenades, Edwards was the man; they were taken away and returned; I saw Edwards on the morning of the 23rd, he came and took some of the grenades and powder away; they might be the same that were brought back on the 24th, but I do not know; there was one very large one; Adams brought it; that was not brought back again." Upon cross-examination she says, "the box had been there two or three days; I do not know how long the grenades had been there they might have been there a fortnight; it was on the morning of Wednesday that they were taken away; the box was kept corded, it had not been opened to my knowledge.” This is the evidence on the one side, and on the other; and it is for you to say whether, upon this evidence, the prisoner at the bar be or be not guilty of the criminality imputed to him by this indictment; one of the charges being a conspiracy to depose the king, and the other a conspiracy to levy war against the king; such as I have before stated. You have been truly told, that the nature of this offence consists in the intention; and the intentions charged are those which I have pointed out. The overt acts themselves are but manifestations of the inward intent, and if such overt acts as are stated are established by the evidence, there can be no doubt that, in point of law, the prisoner is guilty. Now first, with respect to the purpose-It must be a public purpose: and the purpose charged is an intention to bring about a revolution in the government, to compel the king to change his measures, and to put many of those employed in the administration of the government to death, by the means that have been stated and proved. But still, if this were merely an intention to assassinate the king's ministers, and that such assassination should end with itself, however diabolical such a design would be, still having no ulterior public view, it would not be the offence imputed; but it will be for you to judge on the facts in proof, what were the motives, and what the end and object of the conspiracy in question. To begin with the evidence of Adams. If you believe him, there can be no possible doubt in the case; for he proves the origin and progress of different meetings, from time to time, at which this scheme was formed and matured, up to the moment when it was preparing to be carried into execution. But you have been told, and truly, that Adams is an accomplice; that he is a man, upon his own confession, as guilty as those against whom he appears to give evidence; and so undoubtedly he must be taken to be. But it is not to be expected in cases of this sort that an accomplice can ever be an innocent person: the very nature of his situation imports, that he himself is connected in guilt with those whom he stands forward to accuse; and if the doctrines which we have heard this day could be adopted, it would never be possible to call an accomplice, because his testimony would be got rid of by the single observation that he was an accomplice, that is, a guilty man himself. At the same time you have been truly told, that though in point of law an accomplice is a witness competent to be received, and therefore one who in point of law it is competent to a jury to believe, yet in the practical application of the rule, juries ought not to convict upon the testimony of an accomplice, unless his testimony receives proper and reasonable confirmation. Upon this part of the case, I have heard the law not intentionally but grossly mis-stated; the rule is, that an accomplice must be confirmed-confirmed in some particulars, but not confirmed in all; for you have been truly told, that if this last were the rule, it would be unnecessary to call an accomplice; because if the other persons could confirm him in all, by proving the same facts themselves, their evidence would supersede the necessity of his evidence, and therefore it is not necessary to confirm an accomplice in all particulars, the rule being, that it is necessary only to confirm him to such an extent as that upon the facts stated by other witnesses, the jury may see that he is worthy of belief. Now is this, or is it not, the case of Adams? on the night in question. Ings never did return to it; and Brunt returned and behaved himself in this way. The next morning the officers found Brunt packing into two baskets, to be conveyed away, all the different arms and ammunition, which have been produced before you; therefore, if the case rested upon the testimony of Adams only, is this such confirmation of the truth of the story told to you by him, as to make him a witness worthy of your belief? So I state the question, leaving it to you to answer it to yourselves. Independent of this, there is the testimony of Monument, with regard to whom, if it rested merely on his testimony, it might be said, that one accomplice cannot be confirmed by another; but unfortunately it does not, for his brother, who is not implicated, proves Thistlewood and Brunt coming to the house. He confirms every part of the testimony of Adams as to this part of the case; and in addition to this, you have the evidence of another witness, and that a person who stands in a very different situation-the evidence of Hiden. He, up to a certain time, had engaged in the transaction in question; but such was his remorse of conscience, so completely did he sicken in mind as this night approached, that you find that before the parties assembled in Catostreet, he did that which he could not have done unless, as I stated before, he had possessed the spirit of prophecy;-he actually, in order to prevent the mischief intended, went to lord Castlereagh's, and afterwards to lord Harrowby's, and delivered the letter, a forewarning to prevent what would otherwise have taken place. Whether he be, therefore, an accomplice up to a certain stage, or not, it is immaterial to examine; he was not an accomplice at the time he did that, which tended to defeat the plan proposed. Nor does it rest on the testimony of Adams so confirmed, or Monument so confirmed, or the fact of the delivery of the letter, but you will judge whether this story is not also confirmed by all that took place on the night in question in Cato-street. There you find, assembled in the stable and in a room spread over with arms-a hay-loft I might almost say converted into an arsenal-a number, and of the number was Ings the prisoner, of persons drawn up, as it were in military array, on the Gentlemen, to take first the testimony of the three witnesses, to whom I have referred the maid servant who let the lodgings-Mrs. Rogers, to whom the house belonged-and Hale, who was the apprentice of Brunt. What is proved by all these three witnesses? You will judge, whether it be or be not the strongest possible confirmation of the evidence of an accomplice, which perhaps it is capable of receiving. Adams had told you that a back room was taken in Fox-court, Gray's-inn-lane; that it was taken by Brunt for Ings, who was described to be a butcher out of employ; and it is distinctly proved-confirming in that particular every part of Adams's testimony-that the room was taken for Ings, that the meetings were held in this room, that he continued there up to the night of the meeting in Cato-street, that he never returned there after that night, and that Brunt, another of the party, went out at the same time, returned the same evening, and conducted himself in the manner you have heard. All these essential and leading features of Adams's evidence, are confirmed by the testi-point of sallying forth, he was seized-he esmony of these accredited witnesses. And not only this, but on that very evening you find that Brunt came home, and told his wife that it was all up; that the police officers had found their way into the loft; that he himself had escaped only with his life; and then, shortly after, came in another man, who also had been present, and who stated, he had received a blow. The apprentice, Hale, upon whose character no imputation is attempted to be cast, proves the poles, the bags, pikes, and pistolsall these deadly preparations going on from time to time in the apartment of Ings, in the house from which Ings and Brunt sallied forth caped; he was pursued he turned round and fired a pistol; and on being asked by one of the officers, what he meant by shooting at him an innocent man, he said, to kill you, and I wish I had done it-I am sorry to add, but it is my painful duty to draw your attention to the evidence, that a sword was taken from a man not known at the moment by the person who took it to be Ings, but proved to be him by two other witnesses; and when he was seized, there was found on his person a sheath or case fitted to the knife of which you have heard, and under his coat and over his shoulders were found those two bags of which Adams had spoken; the bags in which the avowed intention was to carry away the heads of some of the murdered party. Now this is truly, in all its circumstances, a case of a most extraordinary nature. It is admitted, that all these persons were met (not it is argued for a treasonable purpose) but with an intention to proceed to a cabinet dinner, to assassinate all the ministers assembled there; to what motive can this be referred? Was it private malice? Was it personal revenge merely? The lots of the prisoners at the bar were cast too widely asunder from those of the objects of their vengeance, to permit us to account for their plan on any grounds of private or personal difference. Is it possible to suppose, that the object was to commit a murder merely, and stop there? Of this you will judge, looking to the nature of the preparations made; not merely daggers concealed, but long staves' for pikes; not merely cartridges for pistols; but cartridges of a size to charge artillery; grenades sufficiently strong in their construction, to be equal to the power of a nine-inch shell-the number of arms-the quantity of ammunition-the military dépôtthe fire balls, and the surveys made.-Connecting this with what relates to the Mansion-house and the Bank-the provisional government and the expectation that the people would rise and join-it is for you, gentlemen, to judge, whether this was merely to lead to and end in the assassination of the king's ministers; or, whether there was not an ulterior purpose of insurrection and revolution, to which the assassination was but preparatory and subservient. But it has been said, is it probable that persons comparatively so few in number should suppose themselves able to accomplish such a mighty purpose as to bring about a revolution in the government of the country? I cannot tell what in their estimation might be probable; but this is a most uncertain test by which to judge; for if I had been told there could be found five-and-twenty men the face of the earth, and still more (and I grieve to say) five-and-twenty men of the country to which we have the happiness to belong, who could have combined to commit such a dreadful deed of barbarity and blood, I should have said, till they had been detected in the way in which these persons have been on detected, it is utterly impossible! It never did happen-it never can! I cannot believe on any testimony that it is intended. But how fallacious would have been such reasoning is proved too clearly by the fact! And the fact established, the next step I fear is of no difficulty whatever. For that public revolution could only have been intended by such means, is as difficult to disbelieve as it was difficult to believe in the means till established. Besides, upon the evidence, it will be for you to say, whether extensive co-operation was not the support and consequence to what they looked, as proved expressly not only by the measures but by the different declarations given in evidence. The prisoner has called witnesses to impeach the testimony of Adams, of whose evidence you will judge. You have heard his defence, which I need not repeat to you, and in which he has desired you, before you dispose of his case, fully to examine all the circumstances, and well to weigh the verdict you may pronounce. In that prayer I most readily join. Weigh well the evidence! Deliberate thoroughly on the result! And if in conclusion you can have any doubt of the facts which constitute the overt acts charged, or the purpose alleged as connected with them; if you think that, however horrible, this was an intended assassination, and nothing more; that the conspirators were to go into the house, commit the murder, and then separate, and that with that separation all operations were to cease-if this should be your opinion-in the honest exercise of your judgment apply it to the case, and acquit the prisoner. But, on the other hand, if it be impossible fairly to form such a judgment, then you will perform that duty which in the name of that Being referred to more than once in the course of these proceedings, you have been sworn well and truly to discharge, and pronounce the prisoner guilty because you believe him to be so. Finally, if you have any doubt, give him the benefit of it, and nobody will rejoice more than I shall, if you can, with satisfaction to your consciences, pronounce him not guilty. The Jury withdrew at twenty-five minutes past eight, and returned in twenty-five minutes, finding the prisoner GUILTY on the first and third counts. |