“Many people who are acquainted with the barefaced manner in which I was plundered by my Lord Sidmouth, will, perhaps, imagine that personal motives instigated me to the deed; but I disclaim them. My every principle was for the prosperity of my country. My every feeling—the height of my ambition—was the welfare of my starving countrymen. I keenly felt for their miseries; but, when their miseries were laughed at, and when, because they dared to express those miseries, they were cut down by hundreds, barbarously massacred, and trampled to death; when infants were sabred in their mother’s arms, and the breast, from which they drew the tide of life, was severed from the parent’s body, my feelings became too intense, too excessive for endurance, and I resolved on vengeance—I resolved that the lives of the instigators should be a requiem to the souls of the murdered innocents.
“In this mood I met with George Edwards. And if any doubt should remain upon the minds of the public, whether the deed I meditated was virtuous, or contrary, the tale I will now relate will convince them that, in attempting to exercise a power which the law had ceased to have, I was only wreaking national vengeance on a set of wretches unworthy the name or character of men.
“This Edwards, poor and pennyless, lived near Picket-street, in the Strand, some time ago, without a bed to lie upon, or a chair to sit in. Straw was his bed—his only covering a blanket; but, owing to his bad character, and his swindling conduct, he was driven even from thence by his landlord.
“It is not my intention trace him through his immorality. Suffice it to say that he was, in every sense of the word, a villain of the deepest atrocity. His landlord refused to give him a character.
“Some short time after this he called upon his landlord again—but mark the change in his appearance. Dressed like a lord, in all the folly of the reigning fashion, he now described himself as the right heir to a German Baron, who had been some time dead, and stated that Lords Castlereagh and Sidmouth had acknowledged his claims to the title and property, had interfered in his behalf with the German government, and supplied him with money to support his rank in society. From this period I date his career as a Government Spy.
“He procured an introduction to the Spenceans—by what means I am not aware of—and thus he became acquainted with the Reformers in general.
“When I met with Edwards after the massacre at Manchester, he described himself as very poor; and, after several interviews, he proposed a plan for blowing up the House of Commons. This was not my view: I wished to punish the guilty only, and therefore I declined it. He next proposed that we should attack the Ministers at the fête given by the Spanish Ambassador. This I resolutely opposed, because the innocent would perish with the guilty;—besides, there were ladies invited to the entertainment—and I, who am shortly to ascend to the scaffold, shuddered with horror at the idea of that, a sample of which had previously been given by the Agents of Government at Manchester, and which the Ministers of his Majesty applauded.
“Edwards was ever at invention; and at length he proposed attacking them at a cabinet-dinner. I asked, where were the means to carry his project into effect? He replied, if I would accede, we should not want for means. He was as good as his word: from him came, notwithstanding his apparent penury, the money provided for purchasing the stores which your Lordships have seen produced in Court upon my trial.
“He who was never possessed of money to pay for a pint of beer, had always plenty to purchase arms or ammunition. Amongst the conspirators, he was ever the most active;—ever inducing people to join him, up to the last hour ere the undertaking was discovered.
“I had witnesses in Court who could prove they went to Cato-street by appointment with Edwards, with no other knowledge or motive than that of passing an evening amongst his friends.