[5] The following account of a professional intercourse with Edwards, who strove hard to convert it into a political connection, has been published by Mr. Carlile.
“On my entering the house at 55, Fleet-street, I became the neighbour of Edwards, who previously held the little shop which bears the No. 55½ as being part of 56. Edwards was no sooner aware that I had taken 55, than he strenuously applied himself to become a tenant or lodger of mine, before I had the least idea of letting any part of the house. I had a strong dislike to his appearance, and particularly the party whom he stated himself to be connected with, which were the Spenceans, and consequently gave him no hopes that I should receive him as lodger.
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He was in the habit of coming into the shop to purchase my pamphlets, and I soon conceived the notion of having a figure of Paine modelled; he expressed himself quite anxious for the job, and observed, that from his admiration of the principles of Paine, he would be satisfied with a small price for it. On my wishing to fix him to a price, he proposed five pounds, which would just cover the expense he should be at, without including his time or abilities: this was agreed on immediately, and he was to proceed forthwith: this happened in the latter part of February, or beginning of March.
“A few days after Mr. Edwards expressed a wish to have the money before hand, and observed, that it was usual with modellers. I hesitated, refused, and offered him one pound, which he accepted. A head, or bust, was soon ready, and I gave him three guineas further, for the copyright of it, but I could get him no further with the figure, (although I had gone to the expense of the pedestal and other requisites for it,) until the fall of the year, the whole of which time he appeared to be in a state of abject poverty,—was obliged to give up his shop, and was never to be found at home. I urged him, by continual messages, to proceed with the figure, and, in the month of September, I got him to finish it.”
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Edwards was paid for his figure before it was finished and set up, and altogether considerably in addition to the first agreement.
“From this time he stuck very close to me, on one pretence and the other; followed me twice to Blackheath, for the purpose of modelling my likeness on his own account, which he completed in the King’s Bench Prison, without any apparent object of making any thing of it. He pleaded great poverty, and twice solicited the loan of money from me, after the figure of Paine was finished and paid for; I as often refused him, because his whole conduct had convinced me that he was both dishonest and ill-disposed. I had never the smallest idea that he was a spy, and as I know him to be in the habit of running after Thistlewood and his party, I often asked him what project they had in view, as a matter of joke.
“It was Edwards who informed me that the person who visited me in the King’s Bench Prison, in company with Davidson, was a spy, and that it was he who conveyed all the information to Lord Sidmouth and the Lord Mayor. Edwards was the fourth person who entered the room while they were there, and it struck me forcibly that there was a strange coolness and distance between the three who had frequently met together before. I had never for a moment suspected Edwards to be any thing further than an idle, dissolute character.”
[6] Our limits will not admit the insertion of all the depositions read by the worthy Alderman in support of his motion; we, however, present our readers with copies of two of them, to shew the course pursued by the infamous Edwards in entrapping his destined victims, which was nearly the same in all cases.—The following is Pickard’s deposition: