The first public act of the new king was to summon a council, at which the emblems of office, having been surrendered by the officers of the crown, were immediately restored to their former possessors. His majesty then made a declaration, in which, after having alluded to the demise of his father, and his own long exercise of the royal prerogative, he remarked that “nothing but the support which he had received from parliament and the country, in times most eventful and circumstances most arduous, could inspire him with that confidence which his present situation demanded.” He added, that he trusted the experience of the past would satisfy all classes of his people, that it would ever be his desire to promote their prosperity and happiness, as well as to maintain unimpaired the religion, laws, and liberties of the kingdom. This declaration, at the request of the council, was made public; and on Monday, the 31st of January, the king was proclaimed, first, under the portico of the palace, and then at various stations throughout his good city of London. On the same day the members of parliament were sworn in, and they adjourned to the 17th of February. In the meantime, however, alarming reports arose concerning his majesty’s health. He was attacked by a severe inflammation of the chest, which had lately proved fatal to his brother; and his physicians were in doubt about the result. Their forebodings, however, proved groundless; after the lapse of a week he was declared out of danger, although it was a considerable time before his health was re-established.
DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT.
According to the principles of the British constitution, the demise of the crown is followed by a dissolution of parliament within the next six months. On the meeting of parliament a royal message announced an immediate design of calling a new parliament, and invited them to concur in the necessary arrangements for carrying on the public service during the interval, Loyal addresses, suitable to the occasion, were voted nem. con.; and next day ministers obtained a pledge that the desired measure for the wants of government should be adopted. When the requisite votes of money were proposed, however, Mr. Hume, that pertinacious interrogator, took occasion to ask a very embarrassing question. In the necessary alteration of the form of prayer for the royal family, by his majesty’s command, the name of the queen was omitted. Mr. Hume desired to know whether any provision was to be made for her as queen? As Princess of Wales, her former allowance had of course ceased on the death of the late king: was she, as Queen of Great Britain, to be left to wander in beggary through foreign lands? or would parliament make a suitable provision for the maintenance of her dignified station? Lord Castlereagh endeavoured to evade this subject, and to elude an acknowledgment of the queen’s title, by stating that the “exalted personage” should suffer no pecuniary difficulties. In reply, Mr. Tierney, by commenting on the omission of her majesty’s name from the liturgy, on the rumours in circulation against her character, and on the report of a commission sent abroad to collect evidence against her, strove to force ministers into a direct consideration of the question; but they still preserved a cautious silence. Other members also endeavoured to provoke them to a discussion on the question; but they still adhered to their text—the required supplies, and these were suffered to pass without a division. This done, parliament was dissolved by commission on the 28th of February.
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.
MEETING OF PARLIAMENT.
Although the country was still in a disturbed state, and seditious meetings were held on every hand, yet the elections proceeded without any acts of outrageous violence. The result of the elections was that opposition gained a slight accession of strength; but the new parliament appeared to take the complexion of that by which it had been preceded. Its members began to assemble on the 21st of April; but the session was not opened until the 27th of that month. On that day the king declared in his speech that he should follow the example of his father in solicitude for the welfare of the nation, and that the regal dignity should be supported without any additional burdens on the people. He expressed a determination to maintain public peace and tranquillity, lamented the pressure of distress and the prevalence of sedition, and concluded with a hope that the misguided multitude might be brought back to a sense of their errors. The usual addresses were carried unanimously.