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Mr. Attorney General. That he may be punished for his contempt in such way as the Court may think right.

Mr. Justice Richardson.-It will be proper to direct the attendance of the party, that we may see whether he has any excuse to offer.

Mr. Attorney General.-I will apply in the first instance for a rule to shew cause, if your lordship pleases.

Lord Chief Baron.-This is undoubtedly a very grave accusation; the order was certainly

made after great consideration by the Court. with a view to prevent michief and injustice; nothing can be more prejudicial to justice than to publish proceedings of this description in the ordered to attend here on Friday morning, at course of an inquiry. The person must be the sitting of the court. *

* See the further proceedings upon this subject on Friday April the 28th at the conRichard Tidd, infra. clusion of the trial of William Davidson, and

705. The whole Proceedings on the Trial of WILLIAM DAVIDSON and RICHARD TIDD, for High Treason, before the Court holden under a Special Commission, for the Trial of certain Offences therein mentioned, on the 26th and 27th days of April: 1 GEO. IV. A. D. 1820.*

SESSIONS HOUSE, OLD BAILEY, WEDNESDAY, APRIL 26th, 1820.

Present

The Hon. Mr. Baron Garrow.

The Hon. Mr. Justice Best.

The Common Sergeant,

And others, his Majesty's Justices, &c.

Mr. Baron Garrow.—Gentlemen of the Jury, it may perhaps have surprised you that, as we are sitting and you are in Court, we should not have proceeded to business. The Court are so anxious to show that we attend with the greatest solicitude to your convenience, that I think it proper to state, that the pause is at the solicitation of the learned counsel for the prisoner. I am sure that you will feel it proper, that we should wait a few moments to give

effect to that solicitation.

Mr. Curwood.-My lord, the prisoner Davidson, has no objection to uniting in his challenges with the prisoner Tidd, whose trial the Attorney-general had proposed to take next. Mr. Baron Garrow.-Gentlemen, I have now to communicate that to you to which it would have been improper to advert before. The learned counsel for the prisoners (whose exertions have been witnessed more than once) have thought it necessary to communicate with them, whether it would be necessary to pursue the course of severing their challenges, or whether two of them would take their trial

by the same jury. We have in effect gained time by the pause, for he has communicated to me, that the two next prisoners are content not to sever their challenges, but to be tried together.

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Thomas Fagg, esquire and coach-master, challenged by the Crown.

Matthew Belcher, vintner, excused on account of illness.

Benjamin Watson, gentleman, challenged by the prisoner. George Burrows, silversmith challenged by the prisoner.

Edward Ellis, gentleman and stock-broker, challenged by the prisoner.

Benjamin Blyth, organ-builder, challenged by the prisoner, William Clare, feather-dresser, challenged by the prisoner.

John Jackson, glass-cutter, challenged by the John Beck, gentleman and seedsman, chalprisoner. lenged by the prisoner.

Felix Booth, esquire and distiller, challenged by the prisoner.

Charles Benham, market-gardener, challenged by the Crown.

See the preceding trials of Thistlewood, Samuel Littlepage, baker, excused on account Ings, and Brunt.

of illness.

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Thomas Robins, silversmith, challenged by the Crown.

Francis Dorill, esq., challenged by the prisoner. William Percy, plasterer, sworn.

John George Holmden, fuse-cutter, sworn.

ticular reasons may occasion an objection to a particular individual, but I cannot take it for granted that on a future trial you might not be called upon to serve with a ready assent on both sides, therefore I cannot dispense with

Archibald Ritchey, stone-mason, challenged by your attendance on this occasion; I wish I

the Crown.

John King, gentleman, sworn.

Charles Elton Prescott, esquire, sworn.
Benjamin Rogers, farmer, sworn.
Richard Laycock, esquire and cow-keeper, chal-
lenged by the prisoner.

George For, sawyer, challenged by the Crown.
William Acock, plumber, challenged by the
Crown.

Edward Cuel, carpenter, challenged by the Crown.

George Golding, surveyor, sworn.

Robert Roberts, oilman, challenged by the Crown.

William Bound, founder, challenged by the Crown.

Charles Page, esquire and merchant, sworn. William Cole, farmer, challenged by the pri

soner.

John Lewis, watch-maker, challenged by the Crown.

Edward Flower, esquire and schoolmaster, challenged by the prisoner. John Balm, gentleman and tallow-chandler, challenged by the Crown.

John Young, gentleman and scale-maker, sworn. Stafford Price, gentleman and currier, challenged by the prisoner.

James Cary, joiner, challenged by the prisoner. William Edgecombe, joiner, challenged by the prisoner.

Richard Emery, cooper, challenged by the Crown.

Stephen Gaurd, bricklayer, challenged by the Crown.

Thomas Brayne, mason, challenged by the Crown.

William Butler, baker, sworn.

William Benn, farmer, challenged by the Crown.

John Roper, gentleman, challenged by the Crown.

William Norton, sawyer, challenged by the prisoner.

William Blasson, gentleman, challenged by the Crown.

Thomas Lester, bookseller, challenged by the Crown.

Mr. Lester.-My lord, as this is the third time that I have been challenged, * may request to be dismissed.

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Mr. Baron Garrow.-I can only assure you, in the language of the lord chief baron, that though the objection has obtained the name of challenging the juror, it ought not to be considered as giving any offence to him. Par

* He had been challenged in the previous cases of Arthur Thistlewood, and John Thomas Brunt.

could.

Mr. Attorney-General.-There are several gentlemen sworn on the present jury, who have been challenged on one side or the other, on preceding trials.

Mr. Baron Garrow.-From circumstances of a private nature I have not been able to attend in the early part of the proceedings here, but that which I stated as the result of practical experience is exemplified on the present occasion; for gentlemen who have been challenged on former trials, are sworn to try the prisoners now at the bar: if they arose out of any supposed incapacity or party principle, those objections would continue; further information may induce those, protecting the interests of the public, or of the accused, to do in other instances that which they appear to have done in several instances already. Joseph Sheffield, esquire and ironmonger, sworn. Joseph Haynes, bricklayer, challenged by the

Crown.

Robert Stephenson, anchorsmith, challenged by

the Crown.

Richard Blunt, gentleman, challenged by the prisoner.

Isaac Gunn, baker, challenged by the Crown. William Churchill, gentleman and wine merchant, sworn.

Thomas Wilkinson, farmer, challenged by the prisoner.

Samuel Fish, tobacconist, challenged by the prisoner.

Edmund Collingridge, water-gilder, challenged by the Crown.

William Shore, farmer, challenged by the Crown.

Josiah Bartholomew, watchmaker, challenged by the prisoner.

John Jones, carpenter, challenged by the Crown. Thomas Bristow, coachmaker, challenged by the prisoner.

Samuel Granger, lighterman, sworn.

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THE Indictment was opened by Mr. Bolland.

Davidson.-Will your lordship be pleased to grant us a seat?

Mr. Baron Garrow.-Yes, certainly.

Mr. Gurney.-Gentlemen of the Jury;-It is my duty to lay before you, very shortly, a statement of the circumstances which will be adduced in evidence on the part of the Crown, in support of this indictment. You will have observed that the charge which is made by it against the two prisoners now at the bar, William Davidson and Richard Tidd, is not of any private nature; it does not impute to them any acts affecting the interests of private individuals, but it accuses them of the highest erime known to the law, of that which strikes at the existence of the government, and aims at its entire subversion-to substitute, in its place, some provisional government, whose pledges for good government were to be slaughter and conflagration.

It will not be necessary for me to state to you the indictment more particularly than that in the first count it charges, a compassing and imagining (that is an intent) to depose the king, and in another a compassing to levy war against the king, in order to compel him to change his measures. The evidence which we shall lay before you will most completely substantiate both of those charges.

The law has wisely made the intention to commit these crimes high treason, so as that intention be manifested by overt (or open) acts; the acts done in furtherance of this intention are charged in the indictment, and will be proved by the witnesses.

The indictment comprehends several persons, Arthur Thistlewood, James Ings, and John Thomas Brunt (whose trials have taken place), the two prisoners at the bar, Davidson and Tidd, upon whose fate you are to pronounce (and six other persons) of the names of Wilson, Harrison, Bradburn, Strange, Gilchrist and Cooper, all of whom, and many others will necessarily be introduced to you in the course of this inquiry.

Of these persons the first, named Arthur Thistlewood, was undoubtedly the leader; he had sustained the rank of a gentleman; and it is a striking feature in this case, that a person in that rank should be found associated as he has been with the other persons named in the indictment, most, if not all, of whom are working mechanics.

dinner; and it was then hoped, when all the persons intrusted by his majesty with the direction of public affairs should have been cut off at one blow, that by following that up by

conflagrations in different parts of the metro

polis, and by armed men acting in various direc tions, the reins of government might be seized by these conspirators and the government itself overthrown.

To perfect this plan, and enlist into its execution as many persons as possible, meetings were held in various places: we shall not have occasion to follow those meetings into different parts of the town but we shall confine our evidence principally to meetings which took place first in a back room at a publichouse called the White Hart, and were afterwards removed, for greater security to a two-pair of stairs back room in a house in which the prisoner Brunt (who has been tried) actually lodged in Fox-court, Gray's inn-lane. It was contrived, that Ings should take the lodging; that he should profess an intention to bring his furniture in; but no furniture was ever brought in: the key of the room was kept by Brunt; and in this room sometimes once a-day and sometimes twice a◄ day, the meetings of these conspirators were held, for the purpose of maturing the plan that had been conceived, and of devising all the means of its execution.

The death of his late majesty (which took place on the 29th of January) for some time disconcerted their plan of operations. Until after his late majesty's funeral, of course cabinet dinners were suspended; the conspirators became impatient of the delay which occurred, and that impatience gave birth to other projects for carrying the same object into effect. At one time it was proposed to divide their force into several parties, to attack the ministers separately at their respective houses; and it was thought that by this means, though it was not likely all should take effect, they might be able to take off four or five whom they particularly marked for destruction; at another time, another project was entertained, to break out on the night of his late majesty's funeral, at which time the cabinet ministers would necessarily be at Windsor, and the guards would be at Windsor; when, therefore, there would be neither the head to direct, nor the arm to execute the resistance to the measures which they projected; and it was thought, in the absence of all those means of resistance, they might carry their plan into execution. This, however, was on consideration abandoned, and they looked forward with eagerness to the next cabinet dinner that should take place, which by bringing all his majesty's ministers into one house, and into one room, would give them the means, at one blow of effecting their destruction.

When this plan was first conceived, it may not be in our power to demonstrate; but you will find, that so far back as the month of January, it had arrived at considerable These cabinet dinners take place during the maturity; that the plan (which was afterwards sitting of Parliament, at the houses of the memacted upon) had then been formed to assas-bers of the cabinet alternately, usually I believe, sinate his majesty's ministers at a cabinet on a Wednesday; but though no notice had

been given of any dinner, they were certainly looking forward to that Wednesday to which you will particularly direct your attention (the 23rd of February) for the accomplishment of their pupose; and, as the time drew near, every exertion was made to complete their preparations; pikes were provided and pikehandles, composed of rough sticks cut from trees seven or eight feet long, ferruled at the end, with holes bored for the admission of pike-heads; pike-heads were procured, some old bayonets, others old files filed to a point to operate as a bayonet or pike-head; pistols, blunderbusses, swords, hand-grenades and fire-balls. The hand-grenades which were constructed were not such as are made by military men, but, for the purposes of destruction, perhaps scarcely less effective; about three ounces and a half of gunpowder put into a tin case or chamber rather smaller than this, which I hold in my hand [holding up to the jury an ink-stand], a tin fuse brazed into it, containing a powder prepared for priming, which communicated with the gunpowder in the tin case or chamber, then stocking or cloth cemented round the tin case; a number of nails or other pieces of iron inserted round that; then more cloth cemented; and the whole bound round very tight by tarred string, so as closely and completely to compress it; and, as you very well know, it requires no military skill to be aware that if fire be communicated to the fuse, and so to the powder in the chamber, that would explode, and those pieces of iron would be scattered round like so many bullets. The greatest destruction would be thereby effected. It was proposed that these hand-grenades should be one means of the destruction of his majesty's ministers, by being thrown into the room where they were assembled; but many more were constructed than were requisite or could be used for that purpose, these were intended to effect the other and ulterior objects of their guilty plan.

Besides these, there were fire-balls, composed of pitch, tar, oakum, brimstone, and resin, which had been all made up into balls to be set on fire; these thrown into the windows of buildings would infallibly set those buildings on fire; a considerable number of these were provided. Besides these there was a large number of cartridges for muskets and pistols, and not a few cartridges for cannon. Many of these instruments were prepared at Fox-court, many in other places, and the principal dépôt for them was in the house of the prisoner Tidd; and you will find, that though Arthur Thistlewood was looked up to by these conspirators as their leader, the two prisoners, Tidd and Davidson, were not inconsiderable or inactive coadjutors, that they entered into the conspiracy heartily and zealously, that they forwarded it to the utmost of their power, and that they were amongst the most eager for its complete and perfect execution.

On the Sunday preceding the Wednesday which I have mentioned, these conspirators

held a larger meeting than usual to concert their measures: they met again on the Monday; they met again on the Tuesday, on which morning they received intelligence that a newspaper announced a cabinet dinner for the next day at the earl of Harrowby's, in Grosvenor-square. The news was at first doubted; but the newspaper being sent for, it was found correct. This excited the greatest degree of exultation, expressed by some in the most savage and ferocious terms, by another in terms of shocking impiety; but it was received by all as good news that now all their enemies were to be brought together within one room, all within the means of destruction; and they lost no time in proceeding to consider and to develope all the means by which they should effect their guilty purpose. Thistlewood detailed those means to the meeting in a manner which showed that they had been all well considered; the detail was received with acquiescence and approbation, and a determination that the plan should be carried into execution. The course of proceeding which Thistlewood proposed was this: That they should proceed in a body to the house of the earl of Harrowby; that Thistlewood should knock at the door, and offer to the porter a letter; that the body should instantly rush into the house; that two, armed with swords pistols and handgrenades, should guard the staircase which led to the upper part of the house; that two others, similarly armed, should guard the staircase leading to the lower part of the house; and that two others, with the same weapons, should be left to guard the area; and that then fourteen should enter the noble earl's dining-room, armed with swords, pistols and hand-grenades, and should massacre every one they found there. They were then to go to other places, where other parties were to act--for other parties were to be assembled in different parts of London; one to set fire to the barracks in King-street, by throwing one of those fire-balls into the hay-loft, which had a window looking into a mews; others to proceed to Gray's-innlane, to seize two pieces of artillery that were there; others to proceed to the Artillery-ground, to seize four pieces of artillery which were there; to march from thence to the Mansionhouse, to plant the cannon so as to batter it, in case those within should refuse to surrender; to take possession of the Mansion-house, to establish therein a provisional government; then to take the Bank, and to give it up to pillage.

This most atrocious plan, as I before said, was approved of, and they all resolved to act upon it; and every degree of necessary activity seemed to be infused into every mind, to be ready for the perpetration of the crime. They parted, to enable Thistlewood and some others to visit some meetings in another part of the town (one known by the name of the Mary-lebone Union) and it was settled they should meet there the next day. The next day they did meet there; all things seemed ready.

their followers, ascended by a ladder into the loft, and they found there above twenty persons, with that magazine of arms which will be exhibited to you. They announced that they were officers, and called upon them to surrender; instead of surrendering, the persons there, conscious of the nefarious purpose for which they were assembled, desperate from the knowledge that they had forfeited their lives by what they had already done, made a most determined resistance, and Thistlewood their leader stabbed one of the officers, Smithers, who fell on the floor a lifeless corpse! The lights were extinguished; the cry was "to kill the officers;" in the confusion the officers were pushed down the ladder; they were followed by several of the persons there, some of whom entirely escaped, but those who are included in this indictment (with the exception of Thistlewood and Brunt) were taken. These desperate men were not content with taking the life of Smithers, but Thistlewood fired at another officer and made a cut at him with his sword. The prisoner Davidson was pursued; he resisted; with his sword he cut at one, and he fired his carbine at another. Ings, another of the prisoners who has been tried, fired at another officer, and expressed a savage regret that he had not killed him. The prisoner Tidd resisted to the utmost of his power; he fired a pistol at lieutenant Fitzclarence, and was taken only by the superior force of those with whom he was in conflict.

Thistlewood was pleased to find them so for ward in their preparations; the pistols were flinted, pikes were got ready, sent off to their associates in other parts of the town, and the men who were there armed and accoutred themselves, and in different parties proceeded from Fox-court. It had been thought that that room was not a fit place of rendezvous from which to issue forth to the accomplishment of their purpose in Grosvenor-square, and another place had been selected and engaged by them, which seems to have been admirably adapted for their purpose: it was so on account of its proximity to Grosvenor-square; it was so also on account of the obscurity of its situation, which was not likely to attract public observation: it was a stable and cart-house with a loft and two rooms over them, in a very obscure street called Cato-street, one end of which comes into John-street, in the Edgwareroad, but enters only by a gateway, which looks like the gateway of the yard of a publichouse; the other end is almost equally obscure. Just as you enter this street from John-street, and turn to the right, you will come to the stable in question. This had been vacant for some time, and it was taken for this purpose. Some of the conspirators began to assemble early in the afternoon; weapons were carried there in the course of the afternoon, and then, for the purpose of excluding observation, a cloth was nailed against the window, in order that those who lived opposite might not see what should pass therein. They were within a little more than ten minutes walk of Grosvenor-square; they would have to go down the Edgware-road and Park-lane, and would arrive there almost immediately; and it was thought (and certainly not without reason) that they had chosen a convenient place of rendezvous, and that they were not likely to be discovered.

In this loft and in this stable there were assembled, in the course of the evening, all the persons named in this indictment, and as many more as amounted to about five-andtwenty, all armed for the purpose. To guard against surprise, they placed sentries in the stable; one of those sentries was the prisoner Davidson; he was armed with a sword and a carbine. At first some little apprehension was betrayed that their force was insufficient, and some alarm was excited on account of the nonattendance of the prisoner Tidd, who was looked up to as a person of importance in the execution of the plan. Their alarm was however removed by the appearance of Tidd. The time approached for the accomplishment of their purpose, and Thistlewood had just called out the fourteen who were to enter the diningroom at the earl of Harrowby's, when they were surprised by the officers of Bow-street, followed by a party of the guards, who had been ordered to attend them. When the officers entered the stable, they found Davidson and Ings, the two sentries. The officers who were foremost, leaving them to be secured by VOL. XXXIII.

I have before stated that Thistlewood escaped; he was apprehended the next morning, not at his own residence, but at another part of the town, where he had taken refuge. Brunt also escaped; he was taken the next morning. The other prisoners were apprehended either in the loft in the stable, or in escaping from the stable In. that loft were found guns, bayonets, pikes, hand-grenades, fire-balls and cartridges. This was the magazine intended for that party which was to execute the first and most important part of their guilty project-the assassination of his majesty's ministers.

Gentlemen, this is the conspiracy which is charged upon the prisoners, this is the high treason which is imputed to them by this indictment. It will be proved to you by evidence which you cannot doubt.

To give you those details which can be given by no other persons, it will be necessary to call before you accomplices in their crime. Traitorous conspirators do not sound a trumpet in the market-place to invite honest men to their councils; they admit none to their councils but those who partake in their guilty plans. For what passed, therefore, in their private councils, we must resort to the evidence of accomplices. A great and signal benefit to the community arises from that circumstance, in the prevention of very many crimes; it sows the seeds of distrust among men who meditate those crimes which cannot be committed by a single hand, but require the co-operation of 4 R

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