“The witness had been in prison, and having forgotten that Furnival’s Inn was rebuilt, and inventing what he should say to the Privy-Council, he represented Furnival’s Inn as the place to be burnt, because, in its former state, it would readily take fire. The Privy Council, their clerk, as well as the Attorney General, I believe, gave him no assistance; they only placed him before an impartial jury. You know that if the plan were contemplated and effected, a chandler’s shop at Charing-cross, where the various communications diverge into the town, would create more alarm. But this suited the grossness of fiction, or the fondness of delusion, by which this witness looked for impunity and reward. We now come to the business of the exchequer. Brunt says, “D——n my eyes, though I have not worked for some time, I have a 1l. note, and I shall give it for a treat.” You will not, gentlemen, suppose that I repeat these oaths as feeling pleasure in doing so. It is painful to me, and disgusting to you; but, in my humble judgment, it is not a needless repetition.
“Suppose Brunt’s generous purpose accomplished, it will give a slice of cheese, a piece of bread, and a glass of gin to each. It appears that 6s. was the largest sum seen with them: there was 1s. on another occasion; there was 7d. for a newspaper, 7s. 7d. was the treasury then. Whether this and the prospect of sharing in the produce of a 1l. note, could induce fifteen men to subvert the Government, I leave you to judge. Nothing stimulated them, then, but the hope of plunder. When they should have done something to create alarm, they expected to have full liberty of plunder.
“Thus have I endeavoured, gentlemen, by hours stolen from my rest, to lay before you the real character of their intentions. My Lord will fairly state the law to you; I need not, therefore, anticipate any thing on that subject. At the meeting on the 21st, information is said to have been given that their proceedings were known at Bow-street, and at the Secretary of State’s office. We might have had evidence whether this information could be well founded, but we have none. Next day, the 22d, the cabinet dinner is announced. Who announces it? Mr. Edwards. This corresponds with what is in evidence before you, that the intelligence was fabricated, and put into the paper for this purpose. “Poverty goads on these men; it is fit,” said the prompters, “that we put them on to what will serve our own purposes.”
“The Court reporter himself did not know of the cabinet dinner. He has told you, that the word ‘grand’ could not be applied by him, as one cabinet dinner was not grander than another. You see, then, how it has been fabricated. I will here once more allude to the execrations of Brunt, and from this time dismiss them from your observation.
“The Attorney General animadverted properly on the impiety and obduracy of heart which the language of Brunt indicated. If it was true, his infamy baffles description. It is, that up to that moment he had been an infidel, but he had been praying to God, and he now believed, because his prayer was answered. Such are the words uttered by the fiction-making witness’s mouth. ‘I have prayed to God, in whom I did not believe, to put in our power innocent men, who are highly favoured in this world.’ These are the fictions of a gross, rank, ignorant, conspirator; they defy the grasp of human investigation; they almost persuade us to believe them, because they are impossible. We are almost led to say, as one said on another occasion, ‘I believe it, because no man would invent what is so incredible.’ But, on a question of life and death, gentlemen, you will not listen to such fictions; you will not regard such fantastical decoys. Perforated by the witness’s own act, his creation sinks to the bottom of the sea; it can form neither buoy nor vessel—it is sunk and destroyed for ever. But he is an infamous witness who cannot be believed at all. You find himself next in the chair; and when one turns upon him like a bull-dog, and another like a bear, he remains firm.
“It was then resolved to have a watch set upon Lord Harrowby’s house. This was certainly done, and was a part of the plan which was undoubtedly formed to murder his Majesty’s Ministers. But after that should have been done, so barren were they of invention, that they were to fall back on their old plan of carrying away cannons without horses; of occupying posts without men; and of performing great deeds without any means.
“Provisional Government! Unless the pronouncing of these words were to ‘raise spirits from the vasty deep,’ I know not what it could mean. A printing press, one would have thought, was indispensable. But no means of printing a placard had they. Their proclamations were written on a piece of cartridge paper. I beg pardon, let me not understate the means possessed by them; on three pieces of cartridge paper were the magical words written. ‘Your tyrants are destroyed.’ Ministers were the tyrants then. Be it so. This is not high treason. It might have been murder; but it is not high treason. ‘The friends of liberty are invited to come forward.’ If this were told by a witness deserving of faith, it would stagger belief; told by one tainted as this witness is, it can excite no inclination towards faith. On the blazing building, I think I am correct in stating it so, these proclamations were to be stuck up, in order that the friends of liberty, happening to pass by the ruins, might know that a provisional government was sitting, we know not where, or for what purpose.
“Is it possible, gentlemen, to sacrifice human life upon evidence like this? Is it possible to credit evidence that has no point of contact with common sense? The Provisional Government, dropped from the clouds, is sitting: the finger-post is destroyed, with the blazing building to which it was attached; you know not where the Provisional Government is to be found.
“The witness stated, that Ings, the butcher, was arrayed in a belt and two bags. The articles which were exhibited to you last night are removed from the table to-day. The bags were to carry human heads. If there is in the human mind any thing so atrocious as to crown assassination with an exhibition like this, I am truly, truly heart-struck with sorrow for it. I was led to review the French Revolution, to which allusion has been made by the Attorney General, and at that early age every drop of blood in my body was chilled with horror at human heads paraded through the streets, and at the atrocious barbarities inflicted on the royal family. I rejoiced that the country to which I belonged was free from such crimes.
“From the hasty view I took of the bags, and it did not occur to me till I left the Court, but from the hasty view I took, I think they are not large enough to contain a human head. I am told that they are: if so, I only say it has the impression of a hasty view. But, for God’s sake, let us not decide by these ignorant visions. Was not Lord Harrowby’s plate, the salvers and goblets, &c., a more natural object of desire, and not heads, which, if any carried, every hand would instinctively strike him from the face of the earth? The hand of Lord Castlereagh was to be put into pickle, whether in order to be shewn for money, as might appear suitable to the situation of Ings, or to be exhibited as a trophy, does not appear.