finding it announced, that a ca◄ binet dinner was to be given at lord Harrowby's house in Grosvenor-square on Wednesday evening, "As there has not been a dinner so long," said he, " there will no doubt be fourteen or sixteen there, and it will be a rare haul to murder them all together." According to the fresh arrangements now determined on, one of their number was to go with a note addressed to lord Harrowby; when the door was opened to him, a band of the conspirators were to rush in; and while some seized the servants, and prevented any one from escaping from the house, others, forcing their way into the room where the ministers were assembled, were to murder them without mercy. It was particularly specified, that the heads of lords Sidmouth and Castlereagh were to be brought away in a bag. From lord Harrowby's house two of their number were to proceed to throw fire-balls into the strawshed of the cavalry barracks in King-street, while the rest were to co-operate in the execution of the subsequent parts of the scheme.

In the mean time spies were dispatched to watch lord Harrowby's house, and to ascertain that no police officers or soldiers were coucealed within it, or close to it. The next day was spent in preparations. Their weapons and ammunition were put into a state of readiness, and proclamations were written, which it was intended to fix to the houses that were to be set on fire. In the course of the day several of the infatuated wretches met, from time to time, at the old place of rendezvous; and, towards six in the evening, they assembled in

a stable, situated in an obscure street, called Cato-street, in the neighbourhood of the Edgwareroad. Besides the stable in the lower part, the building contained two rooms above, accessible only by a ladder, in the larger of which, a sentinel having been stationed below, the conspirators mustered, to the number of twenty-four or twenty-five, all busy in adjusting their accoutrements by the scanty light of one or two candles, and exulting in the near approach of the bloody catastrophe.

All their machinations, however, were known to the very men, whom they hoped within an hour to see lying butchered at their feet. One of the conspirators, Edwards, had, for some time, been in the pay of government, to whom he communicated every step that was taken. A man, too, of the name of Hidon, who had been solicited to enter into the plot, warned lord Harrow by of it, the day before that which was fixed for carrying it into execution. The ministers took no steps which might deter or aların the ruffians; for it would have been the height of madness to have stopped them in their career of guilt. Interruption would have saved them from punishment, by rendering it impossible to procure evidence of the atrocious nature of the plot; so that they would have been let loose upon society, ready to enter into some new scheme of murder, which, by being intrusted to a smaller, or more select number, or by being attempted with less delay, might be followed by success. The preparations for the dinner went on at lord Harrowby's house till eight in the

evening, though, in fact, no dinner was to be given.

In the mean time, a strong party of Bow-street constables, under the direction of Mr. Birnie, proceeded to Cato-street, where they were to be met and supported by a detachment of the Coldstream guards. The police-officers reached the spot about 8 o'clock. They immediately entered the stable, and, mounting the ladder, found the conspirators in the loft, on the point of proceeding to the execution of their scheme. The principal officer called upon them to surrender. Smithers, one of the constables, pressing forward to seize Thistlewood, was pierced, by him, through the body, and immediately fell. The lights in the loft were now extinguished; some of the conspirators rushed down the ladder, and the officers along with them; others forced their way out by a window in the back part of the premises. At this moment, the detachment of the military arrived, somewhat later than the precise time fixed. Two of the conspirators, who were in the act of escaping, were seized by the joint exertions of the police and soldiers nine in all were taken that evening, and conveyed to Bow-street. This tlewood was among those who had escaped, but he was arrested next morning, in bed, in a house near Finsbury-square. Some others of them were seized in the course of the next two days.

On the 27th of March, true bills of indictment for high treason were found against eleven of the prisoners; and, on the 17th of April, Thistlewood was put upon his trial. The principal witness was a conspirator, of the

The re

name of Adams, who having escaped from Cato-street, had been taken on the following Friday, and had remained in custody up to the time when he was produced in court to give evidence. After a trial which lasted three days, the accused was found guilty on those counts of indictment, which charged him with having conspired to levy and with having levied war against the king. Ings, Brunt, Tidd, and Davidson, were afterwards severally tried and convicted. maining six, permission to withdraw their former plea having been given, pleaded guilty. One of them, who appeared to have joined the meeting in Catostreet without being aware of its true purpose, received a pardon: the other five had their sentence commuted into transportation for life. Thistlewood, with the four whom we have named, suffered the sentence of the law, rather glorying in what they had attempted, and regretting their failure, than repenting of their atrocious guilt. [For the particulars of their trial and execution, we refer to the Appendix to the Chronicle, page 920.]

Some were found to complain of the use which government had made of spies on this occasion. But as the guilt of the prisoners was established by evidence altogether independent of Edwards, the case is free from the circumstance, which renders the use of spies most objectionable the hazard of confiding in the testimony or information of men, who are professedly pursuing a system of deceit and treachery. If, indeed, Edwards had been the framer of the plot, and if the rest had only fallen into the snare

prepared by him, they would have been just objects of pity, no less than of punishment. But all the details of the plot, and the language held by Thistlewood and his associates, both on their trial and at their execution, repel any such supposition. Edwards's intimacy was chiefly with Thistlewood and Brunt, neither of whom was likely to be seduced by such a tempter. As the facts were proved by incontrovertible evidence, so the plot was clearly the result of the most infuriated depravity. It is ridiculous to talk of the seduction of men, who, in a court of justice, defended assassination as a virtue, and, even on the scaffold, exulted in the remembrance of their scheme of murder, as a picture with the contemplation of which their fancy could never be satiated.

That Edwards, though an associate in the plot, was not its instigator or framer, is proved by the declarations which Thistle wood made immediately before his execution. In the courtyard of Newgate, while his fetters were in the act of being knocked off, the unfortunate man was addressed by alderman Wood, who stated, that he wished to put some questions to him. The sheriff endeavoured to prevent an interference, which seemed to him indecorous and inhuman; but as Thistlewood expressed his willingness to answer, so far as he had time, the alderman was allowed to put his questions. The purport of the answers which he received was, that Thistlewood met Edwards for the first time at the house of Preston, the shoemaker, several months before; that he had received some pounds from him, but that Edwards did not VOL. LXII.

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appear to have much money. Thistlewood's declarations, this solemn moment, derive additional weight from his former endeavours to ascribe to Edwards the principal share of the plot; for it was proved, on Thistlewood's trial, that, previous to his examination before the privy council, he desired Monument to say that Edwards had seduced him into the conspiracy, and requested him to intimate to the others, who were in custody, that they ought to make the same declaration; and when Monument objected, that he had never seen the man on whom the whole burden of guilt was thus to be laid, Thistlewood replied, that, to enable him to answer consistently, he would describe to him Edwards's person and dress.

He who joins with traitors, though with the intention of betraying them, must partake in their plans, and must do many things, which, if done with a sincere intent, would amount to treason. Some zealous partisaus of a new species of justice, among whom was alderman Wood, took steps, upon information of treasonable acts alleged to have been done by Edwards, to bring him to trial for his share in the conspiracy. The government, of course, declined to adopt or countenance so extravagant a proceeding. It is not easy to conceive, how any man could be stupid enough to imagine, that acts, done for the purpose of defeating treason, ought to be punished as treasonable. Edwards night be worthy of the deepest moral rẹprobation. But if he was a spy, he was not a traitor. He would be a traitor, only in so far as he was not a spy. [D]

Alderman Wood, however, thought differently, and adopted a course of proceeding, not less extraordinary in its form, than the transaction was in its essence. Shortly after the meeting of parliament (May 2), he communicated to the House the substance of certain written statements, which he had received from parties willing to verify them by oath, and the tendency of which was, to show, that Edwards had been heard to use treasonable language, and had proposed a plan for the destruction of the House of Commons, by the explosion of tubes filled with gunpowder, and plugged up, which might be thrown from the gallery into the middle of the house, on some occasion of a full attendance. This the alderman conceived to be a breach of privilege, and, therefore, moved, that Edwards should forthwith attend at the bar of the House. The absurdity of treating as a breach of privilege charges which amounted to the most atrocious treason, and the injustice of requiring a person to accuse himself on matters of such grave import, were too striking to be overlooked, and accordingly the motion was withdrawn. Mr. Brougham's speech on this occasion was temperate and manly. He asserted and lamented the necessity of employing spies in such cases as the Catostreet conspiracy; adding, however, that he who employed them, took upon himself a most delicate and responsible office, and was deeply answerable to the country and to the administration of justice, if he did not take the greatest care to select such men as would only give information, and not instigate to the

commission of crime. And, therefore, though he did not blame government for having employed Edwards as a spy-for having acted on his information-for having declined to produce him as a witness -or for having abstained from prosecuting him; yet, if that individual went beyond his commission as an informer, and incited others to the perpetration of a separate grave offence, not comprehended in the acts which had been the recent subject of criminal investigation, justice would not be satisfied unless he was brought to trial for the distinct offence, or unless very ample grounds were stated for waving such a proceeding.

Only a week afterwards (May 9), the alderman brought the subject again before parliament, in the shape of a motion for the appointment of a secret committee, to examine evidence touching the criminal conduct of George Edwards, and his associates, for the last two years; and especially his connexion with the parties forming the plot lately discovered in Cato-street. On this occasion, he stated the information which he had received at much greater length than on the former; but it is unnecessary to repeat any part of it, as, even if all the alleged facts were true, they amounted to nothing more, than might be expected from a man, who had entered into a treasonable conspiracy with the purpose of acting as a spy, and who seemed to take the same interest in it as any of his associates. Sir Robert Wilson, in seconding the motion, brought forward a new charge against ministers, on the ground that they had not adduced Edwards as a witness, in order that

he might have been cross-examined by the accused. It is not surprising that the gallant general should have made such a charge; but it is wonderful that Mr. Denman should have condescended to re-echo and support it. How could he, as a lawyer, imagine, that it was the duty of the prosecutors to adduce, on the trial of Thistlewood, not the best, but the most suspicious evidence, that they could find. Had Edwards been brought forward as a witness, what clamour would have been raised (and not without reason) on the danger of trusting to the testimony of a spy, whose very profession was falsehood and deceit. And now, because no stress is laid on his communications, but the crime is established by independent evidence, complaints are made, that he is with held from cross-examination! In the course of the debate, the general question respecting the employment of spies, was discussed at great length by Mr. Bankes and Mr. Canning on the one side, and by sir Francis Burdett and Mr. Hobhouse on the other. It was on this occasion that the latter gentleman made his first speech in the House; and that speech, whatever proof it might afford of varied knowledge, was by no means remarkable for point or for logical accuracy of thought. He proved most ela borately, that a regular system of espionage had always been deemed mischievous and disgraceful; but he forgot, that to watch the proceedings of men, who have displayed mischievous intentions, and to make use of information obtained from their associates, is a duty imperatively binding on the governors of a country, and

has nothing in common with those arrangements of police, by which tyrants have endeavoured to insinuate themselves into the bosom of families, and, prying into the secrets of private life for the purpose of extracting matter of accusation from the incautious or involuntary expression of feelings or opinions, have annihilated all confidence between man and man.

One ground of objection to the alderman's motion was, that the House was not a court of criminal judicature. Mr. Hobhouse replied, that, in cases where its own privileges were concerned, the House had exercised the power of inquiring and punishing. Butitis surely a very abrupt conclusion from such premises, that the Commons may, without impropriety, constitute themselves a court of inquiry concerning any criminal matter that may be alleged against any individual.

It cannot reasonably be denied, that, if Edwards's conduct was such, that, but for what he did after he was in communication with government, the plot would never have been formed, then he merited the most severe punishment. But the attorney general proved, that there was not a shadow of ground for such a supposition, and showed from the evidence on the trial, as well as from the conduct of the prisoners subsequent to their conviction, that Edwards was not the instigator of the plot, and had not supplied the conspirators with money. He added, that it was known that other people had supplied them, and he wished these persons to be aware, that their names and proceedings had not escaped the notice of government.

The conduct of Wood in