Joseph Clements, market-gardener, excused on account of illness.

John Fowler, iron-plate worker, sworn.
Samuel Rhodes, esq. and cow-keeper, challenged
by the prisoner.

William Gibbs Roberts, cooper, sworn.
Richard Smith, esq. challenged by the Crown.
Joseph Pendered, iron-plate worker, challenged
by the Crown.

Thomas Garrett, shipwright, challenged by the
Crown.

Matthew Ashton, coach-master, challenged by the prisoner.

Richard Hatchett, esq. and farmer, challenged by the prisoner.

John Dickenson, builder, sworn.

William Bushby, esq. fined for non-attendance. Thomas Austin, esq. excused on account of illness.

John Dobson, esq. challenged by the prisoner. Thomas Dicks, silversmith, challenged by the

Crown.

Thomas Wood, painter, challenged by the pri

soner.

James Gates, joiner, challenged by the Crown. Robert Wells, farmer, challenged by the Crown. Edward Bracebridge, watchmaker, challenged by the Crown.

| John Jones, stock-broker, challenged by the Crown.

Thomas Partridge, farmer, challenged by the prisoner.

George Henn, ship-chandler, challenged by the Crown.

Thomas Harby, esq. and rope-maker, challenged by the prisoner.

William Jarrett, watch-engraver, challenged by the prisoner.

Samuel Wimbush, horse-dealer, fined for nonattend ice.

John Bunting, gentleman and tailor, challenged by the Crown.

William Dawes, farmer, challenged by the Crown.

William Cooper, gentleman, challenged by the prisoner.

Robert Greaves, gentleman, excused on account of illness.

Christopher Dowson, ship-builder, challenged by the Crown.

William James Farmer, baker, challenged by the prisoner.

David Newman, farmer, challenged by the Crown.

George Thorpe, clock-case maker, challenged by the Crown.

Henry Seaborn, cooper, excused on account of illness.

Francis Sherborn, esq. and farmer, challenged by the prisoner.

Edward Simpson, shipwright, challenged by the prisoner.

William Davies, shopkeeper, challenged by the Crown.

Richard Franks, esq. and silk-mercer, challenged by the Crown.

John Smith, undertaker, sworn. Thomas Langley, ship-chandler, challenged by the Crown.

George Priest, esq. challenged by the prisoner. Samuel Wilson, gentleman and merchant,

Mr. Curwood.-I have no cause to shew, my challenges are exhausted.

Mr. Attorney General. The prisoner shall not suffer inconvenience from that circum

Mr. Attorney General.-Before Mr. Bolland opens the case, I think it my duty to bring before your lordships a circumstance which has occurred since you last sat in this place. The Court, from an anxious desire that nothing should occur during the course of these trials, which could by any means operate to the prejudice of the prisoners, at the commencement of the proceedings directed that no publication of the proceedings on the first or any other trial, should take place until the whole of them were brought to a conclusion. With that injunction, I believe I may state, that the daily papers have most properly complied; but it appears by the paper which has been put into my hands, that a publication was made yesterday in the Observer newspaper of the whole of the trial of Arthur Thistlewood, and not a very short account was given also of the trial of James Ings, and my lords, this publication has been issued with a full knowledge on the part of the publisher, of the prohibition which the Court had pronounced, for I find that prohibition published in this very paper which contains the account of the trials I have mentioned,

It is not my intention at this moment to interrupt the proceedings which are about to take place, by calling upon your lordships to take any specific step upon this most daring and flagrant contempt of the authority of the Court; but I think I owe it to the dignity of the Court, and to the situation which I hold, to state thus publicly, that this conduct cannot pass unnoticed; and that undoubtedly some proceedings will be taken, when the means are furnished to bring the matter in a proper shape before your lordships.*

Prisoner.-Would your lordship have the goodness to give me the indulgence of a seat,

at intervals, when I am tired.

Lord Chief Baron.-Certainly.

request, and that therefore it is unnecessary, but in justice to the prisoner at the bar you will forgive me for having made it; and I am satisfied, that through the whole course of this trial, your minds will not be influenced by any thing but the evidence in the case, and that, upon that evidence alone your conclusion will be formed.

The charge against the prisoner at the bar is that of high treason; and without troubling you with stating the different counts of this indictment, I shall content myself by observing to you, that it is necessary by the law, that the acts intended to be given in evidence against the accused, shall be stated in the indictment. Those acts consist in consultations and deliberations by the prisoner at the bar, and others, to overturn the constitution of the country, to excite insurrection against the established government-in having actually prepared means for that purpose--and in having formed and acted upon an intention to assassinate all his majesty's ministers. Those statements are introduced into the indictment as indicating and evidencing the intention harboured in the mind of the prisoner at the bar and his associates, to depose the king from his royal authority, or to levy war against him, in order by force to compel him to change his measures and counsels; and I believe I may state with perfect confidence, that if these overt acts, as they are called, shall be proved to your satisfaction, they will establish the charge of high treason against the prisoner at the bar. I consider it, therefore, sufficient at present to request your attention to the nature of the evidence which will be laid before you, without troubling you further upon the law of the

case.

shoemaker, residing in Fox-court near Gray'sThe prisoner, John Thomas Brunt, was a inn-lane, and it will be proved by the witnesses, that early in the present year, plans (which

Mr. Attorney General.-Gentlemen of the Jury;-You have heard, from the opening of the indictment by my learned friend, the nature of the charge which is preferred against the prisoner at the bar; and as the circumstances of this case, about to be laid before you in evidence, have already come to the knowledge of some of you from the duty you have lately performed, and may probably have reached the minds of the rest; let me, in the outset, beseech you to dismiss, as far as you can, all recollection of what you have heard or read upon the subject of this proceeding, and to confine your attention exclusively to the facts which will be adduced in evidence upon the present occasion. I am convinced that every one of you has anticipated me in this

* See the commencement of the trial of Arthur Thistlewood, April 17th, suprà; and the proceedings at the close of the present trial, infrà.

were held at the White Hart in Brook's-market, not in the public house itself, but in a room in the yard belonging to it. It being thought however, for some reason or other, that this was not a secure place for their meetings, another room was obtained, in the house in Foxcourt, in which the prisoner at the bar lived; and it will appear, that though hired for the ostensible purpose of being occupied by Ings as a lodging, it never was applied to that purpose, but was used exclusively for the meetings which the conspirators daily held, in order to consult upon their plans, and to prepare the means for carrying them into execution. This room was on the same floor with the apartments of the prisoner Brunt; his were in the front, that hired for Ings was at the back of the house; the key of it was kept at Brunt's, and access to it obtained by applying to him or some member of his family.

It will be in your recollection that at the close of the month of January, his late majesty died. It had been part of their plan to commence operations by the destruction of his majesty's ministers, and it was thought that no opportunity would be so convenient as that which the assembling of those distinguished persons at a cabinet dinner would afford. In consequence of his majesty's death, those dinners were suspended, and therefore no such opportunity was at that time likely to occur, at least the prisoner and his associates so believed; it was therefore proposed at one of their deliberations, that although the whole of their scheme could not be accomplished, some individuals of his majesty's ministry should be cut off either at their own houses, or at other places; and it was thought that the night of the king's funeral might be a convenient time for the commencement of their plan. It was observed by one of them, that the soldiers, or the greater part of them, would then be withdrawn from London to attend his majesty's funeral at Windsor, and that many of the police officers would be necessarily absent upon the same duty; and from these considerations it was proposed to the meeting, that that night should be fixed as the period for beginning the projected operations. This proposal, however, either was not adopted, or, if then agreed to, was not afterwards acted upon, and their operations were postponed beyond the evening of his majesty's funeral. At length the conspirators,heated and inflamed with the object which they had in view, became impatient; and you will find that on the 19th of February (a day to which your attention will be particularly directed), at a meeting at Brunt's room, at which Thistlewood, Ings, Brunt, Davidson, Harrison, and others were assembled, their impatience was exhibited. Many of them said, that they were resolved that a blow should be struck without delay, and that if no convenient opportunity occurred in the mean time, at which the whole of his majesty's ministers might at one blow be cut off, they were determined that something at all events should be attempted on

the evening of the following Wednesday. Thistlewood, acquiescing in this opinion, proposed, that upon the ensuing morning they should assemble again, and that a committee should then be appointed for the purpose of digesting the operations of Wednesday; and it will appear to you, that on Sunday the 20th of February, the party met more numerously than had been usual; twenty persons or more were, I believe, collected.

The plan of these conspirators embraced other objects besides the destruction of his majesty's ministers; different parties were to be posted in various parts of this metropolis; some were to set fire to buildings, which were to be pointed out; others were to seize the cannon deposited in Gray's-inn-lane at the Light-horse Volunteer stables, and in the Artillery-ground near Finsbury-square. It was intended, that after the taking of those cannon and the firing of different places in the metropolis, they should meet at the Mansion-house; which was to be the seat of what they termed the provisional government. This being settled and arranged on the Sunday, you will find that their activity increased to complete the preparations they had begun. Ammunition was procured in very large quantities; handgrenades, which will be exhibited to you, were prepared; fire-balls, to which they gave the appellation of illumination balls, were made, to be lighted and thrown into the houses which were to be set on fire; cartridges for the cannon were obtained in considerable quantities; arms of every description-guns, blunderbusses, pistols, and swords-were collected. Other instruments which were found will be exhibited to you; they are pikes made of staves of ash and beech, into one end of each of which were to be screwed bayonets or sharpened files; thus connected together, the bayonet and the staff formed a very formidable weapon, of the length of eight or nine feet.

In order to their security, fearing that their motions at Brunt's room might be observed, they had appointed another place as a depository for the arms and ammunition which they had procured, and you will find that place was at the house of Tidd, who is another of the persons charged in this indictment, who lived in Hole-in-the-wall-passage, in Brook'smarket. They met again on the following day, Monday, the 21st, when their plans were again considered, and they were still equally eager to complete them on the Wednesday; and you will find their deliberations turned again entirely on the mode in which their scheme was to be carried into effect.

On Tuesday the 22nd another meeting was held. At that meeting a man of the name of Adams, who will be called before you as a witness, communicated to them something which had occurred with respect to himself, and which excited a suspicion in his mind that their intentions were not altogether unknown to the government, and that their mo tions were watched. The very suspicion of

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 lord 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 te 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