CATO-STREET CONSPIRACY.
In his speech on the occasion of the dissolution of parliament, the lord chancellor referred, in vindication of their late enactments, to a sanguinary conspiracy which had just been detected, and which, he said, was sufficient to open the eyes of the most incredulous to the dangers of the country. The conspiracy referred to was one of the most desperate that could have been conceived by the perverse mind of man. It had for its object the overthrow of the government, and the irremediable confusion of national affairs, by the assassination of the whole cabinet. The chief leader of this plot was Arthur Thistlewood, who had once served as a subaltern in the West Indies. He had imbibed republican principles in America, and these had been confirmed by a residence in France during the darkest period of the revolution. He had recently been tried as an accomplice of the elder Watson; and when he was acquitted he sent a challenge to Lord Sidmouth, for which offence he was sentenced to a fine and imprisonment. On his liberation he determined to take revenge, and that of the most ample nature. For this purpose he gathered around him men of bold daring and reckless characters. The principal of these accomplices were, Ings, a butcher; Davidson, a Creole; and Brunt and Tidd, shoemakers. After a series of meetings the united band of these desperadoes determined to destroy his majesty’s ministers. Their plan was this:—that forty or fifty of them were to commit the tragical act under a pledge of forfeiting their own lives should their resolution fail them; and that other detachments were to seize on the field-pieces at the artillery-ground, and at the London Station in Gray’s Inn, and then to occupy the Mansion-House and the Bank, and to set fire to the buildings of the metropolis at different places. This plot was determined upon on, Sunday, the 20th of February; and it was to be put into execution on the following Wednesday, when there was to be a cabinet-dinner at Lord Harrowby’s, in Grosvenor Square. It was agreed that a single conspirator should go to Lord Harrowby’s with a note addressed to his lordship; that when the outer door should be opened others should rush in; and that while some proceeded to bind the domestics, the rest should perpetrate the horrid massacre. The heads of Lord Sidmouth and Castlereagh were to be brought away as trophies of their success. The whole of the Wednesday was passed in preparations for this fearful tragedy. Arms and ammunition were provided; proclamations were written, ready to be affixed to those edifices which were devoted to the flames; and strict watch was kept on Lord Harrowby’s mansion, in order to ascertain whether any of the police or military entered it or were concealed in its vicinity. Towards the evening the conspirators crept towards their place of rendezvous, and by six o’clock all had assembled. The place of rendezvous was a stable in Cato-street, near the Edgeware-road; a building which consisted of two upper rooms, the ascent to which was by a ladder. In the largest of these rooms the conspirators were seen, by the glimmering light of one or two small candles, making ready for their bloody enterprise. They were rejoicing in the speedy prospect of revenge; but their projected crime had been unfolded. Among them was one Edwards, who, though a pretended colleague, was a spy. This man had given them the information of the cabinet-dinner, and then gave the cabinet information of all the proceedings of the conspirators. Every precaution was adopted by ministers to lull suspicion; and the preparations for dinner had been going on as though the ministers would really assemble. By this means the conspirators were detected with arms in their hands. Their capture was effected by a party of police, headed by Mr. Birnie, the magistrate, and supported by a detachment of the Coldstream Guards. The conspirators were on the point of starting for Grosvenor-square, when on a sudden the police entered the room in which they were assembled, and called upon them to surrender. Smithers, an active police-officer, rushed forward to secure the ringleader; but he was pierced through with the desperado’s sword, and fell. The lights were now extinguished, and the conflict became general, while some of the gang endeavoured to make their escape. Although, indeed, the police were soon aided by thirty soldiers of the Coldstream Guards, nine of the conspirators only were taken. Thistlewood himself escaped; but, in consequence of £1,000 being offered for his apprehension, he was seized next morning in bed. Others were apprehended also during the two following days; and on the 27th of March true bills, on a charge of high-treason, were returned against eleven of the prisoners. Thistlewood, Ings, Tidd, Brunt, and Davidson were severally tried and condemned, the other six being permitted to withdraw their plea and to plead guilty; five of them received sentence of transportation for life, and the other, who appeared to have been ignorant of the destined purpose of the meeting in Cato-street, received a free pardon. Thistlewood and his condemned associates were brought to the scaffold; and he, with three of them, died with great hardihood, glorying in their purpose, regretting its failure, and declaring themselves martyrs to the prostituted name of liberty.