They first laid their victim flat on his back on a board, and chained him hand and foot, and then carried him down stairs into a back kitchen, where they chained him to the bars of a grate, threatening that if he made a noise they would blow his brains out. Then, after placing before him some bread, some ham, and some water, they left him.
In this condition he remained for about eight hours, not daring to make the least noise, expecting every moment to be murdered if he spoke: but Providence preserved him from this dreadful fate; for, hearing no more of them for so many hours, he at last had the courage to call out, and he at length succeeded in alarming a man who was at work in a house behind that in which he was confined. The fellow had the resolution to break open the door of the house from whence the noise proceeded, when, directed by the cry, he went down stairs, and there discovered the unfortunate Mr. Campbell almost expiring, and exhausted with struggling and crying out.
Jones was afterwards apprehended by Jealous and Kennedy, officers of Bow-street, at the King’s Arms, in Bridge-street, Westminster, and on being seen by Mr. Campbell, he was immediately recognised by him as one of the men by whom he had been robbed.
Being committed to Newgate, he was afterwards tried, and found guilty, when he received sentence, and was ordered for execution on Wednesday, December 8, 1793, in Hatton-garden, near the house where he committed the robbery; but on the Saturday previous, about six o’clock in the morning, when the turnkey entered the cell to prepare him to hear the condemned sermon and to receive the sacrament, he found him dead. It appeared that he had made several attempts on his life before, but was prevented: and the manner in which he at last accomplished his purpose was very extraordinary: he had taken the knee-strings with which his fetters were supported, and tied them round his neck; then, tying the other end to the ring to which his chain was fastened, he placed his feet against the wall, and strangled himself. The coroner’s jury pronounced a verdict of Felo de se.
In consequence of this verdict, the body was, on Wednesday morning, carried out of Newgate, extended upon a plank on the top of a cart, his face being covered with a cloth, and his clothes being upon his person, and in that condition, with a stake driven through his body, he was thrown into a pit, which was dug at the end of Hatton-garden, at the brow of Holborn hill, and buried.
ROBERT WATT AND DAVID DOWNIE.
CONVICTED OF HIGH TREASON.
WE are now arrived at an alarming period in the modern history of our country. Just engaged in the war with France, we were perplexed with disaffection at home, and threatened with invasion by our enemy. Confederate bodies of dissatisfied men were formed, from London to Edinburgh, and a systematic course of treason and correspondence was maintained until government stretched out its powerful arm to defeat their plans.
Watt and Downie were principals in the Scottish conspiracy, and their trial came on before the High Court of Justiciary, at Edinburgh, on the 3d of September 1794. Watt was first tried, when Mr. Anstruther stated the case on the part of the Crown. He began by observing, that such was the peculiar happiness of that country (Scotland), that they had been unacquainted with the law of treason for nearly half a century.
The laws of treason were now the same in England and Scotland, and the duty of the subjects of both kingdoms should be the same. Scotland, in this instance, had reaped much benefit by the Union, as her laws of treason, previous to that period, were much more severe. The act of Edward III. stated three distinct species of treason: 1. Compassing and imagining the death of the king; 2. Levying war against him; 3. Assisting his enemies. He would not trouble the Court or Jury with the two last: for the single species of treason charged in the present case was the compassing and imagining the death of the king; which was defined by the conceiving such a design; not the actual act, but the attempt to effect it. But the law which thus anxiously guarded the sovereign was equally favourable to the subject; for it did not affect him until that imagination was fully proved before “men of his condition.” An overt act of treason was the means used for effectuating the purpose of the mind: it was not necessary to prove a direct attempt to assassinate the king; for the crime was the intention, and the overt act the means used to effect it.