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officers. The whole party in the loft were hastily arming, some with belts, and pistols stuck in them; others were loading handgrenades and muskets. There was a large quantity of ammunition in the room, and a sack full of combustibles. Ruthven, the officer, was the first that burst into the loft. Thistlewood was nearest the door with a drawn sword; he made some attempt at Ruthven, but failed. Ellis, Smithers, Salmon, and others, followed close, with the magis. trate, Mr. Birnie. The conspirators were ordered to lay down their arms, and to surrender themselves, warrants being issued for their apprehension; while Ruthven was trying to secure the door, so as to prevent escape that way, Smithers advanced to secure Thistlewood. The latter immediately made a lunge at the officer, which unfortunately took a fatal effect. The sword went through his body, and Smithers fell back instantly into Ruthven's arms, crying out, "Oh, God! I He spoke no more, but died instantly. Thistlewood then called to his party to put out the lights. Ruthven, on Smithers falling into his arms, pointed a pocket-pistol at Thistlewood, which missed fire. Ellis then discharged his, and missed him. The Guards arrived about the time Thistlewood murdered Smithers. Captain Fitzclarence headed them, and when they entered the loft it was filled with smoke, so that objects were not discernible. One of the ruffians made a dash at the captain, and another pointed a pistol at him, which he was on the point of firing, when a serjeant of the Guards, named Legge, rushing forward to put the pistol aside,

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received the fire in his arm, which was wounded, but in a slanting direction; shots were exchanged between the officers, the Guards, and the conspirators, for some minutes, but it is not known whether any of the latter were wounded. One of the officers was wounded in the forehead. In the confusion of the scene, and in the darkness (for the candles were put out, and there was no light but what was produced for a moment by the flash of pistols), fourteen or fifteen of the conspirators made their escape by a back-window. Thistlewood escaped in this way. Nine of the conspirators were taken. These nine were immediately handcuffed, and sent off under a strong escort to Bow-street. The loft was then searched, and all the arms and ammunition taken off with the prisoners. There was a quantity sufficient to arm 100 persons. As soon as the prisoners reached Bow-street with the officers and Guards, Mr. Birnie proceeded to examine them; after which the prisoners were sent off to prison. Lord Sidmouth was in the mean time actively employed at his office in giving the necessary directions. As soon as Thistlewood's escape was known, the Extraordinary Gazette was ordered to be published forthwith, offering a large reward for his apprehension.

The communication of the existence of a conspiracy to destroy some of the cabinet ministers was only made on Wednesday morning to the secretary of state for the home department by the earl of Harrowby, who, it is said, was stopped by a man, when riding in St. James's-park, who delivered to him a letter, the contents of which were, that a gang

of assassins were to assassinate his lordship and the rest of the cabinet ministers, when assembled at his house on the evening of that day at a cabinet dinner. The earl of Harrowby, although he did not know the man, listened to his representation, in addition to the contents of the letter, and afterwards consulted his brother ministers upon the subject; and the result of their determination, in the first place, was, to postpone the cabinet dinner. Precautions were immediately taken at the secretary of state's office for the discovery and apprehension of the villains. The first intimation that was given of the affair at the office in Bow-street was at past seven o'clock, when it was made known that a number of officers, constables, and patrol, would be wanted. Ellis, who is a conductor of a party of patrole, was ordered to leave his division, and repair to the office with the men under his direction. The expedition upon which they were to be sent was kept a secret till they started, which was between halfpast 8 o'clock and 9.

26. COURT OF KING'S BENCH. Castlereagh v. Burdett and Place. -This was an action brought against the defendants pro forma, as inhabitants of the hundred of Ossulstone, by viscount Castlereagh, to recover the sum of 62l., being the amount of damage committed on the plaintiff's house by a riotous assemblage of people, on the 3rd of March last, one of the days of the Westminster election.

The Solicitor-general said, that it would be remembered, that at the last Westminster election Mr. Lamb and Mr. Hobhouse were

candidates. Mr. Lamb on this occasion was successful, and those who had supported Mr. Hobhouse, feeling chagrined at their disappointment, proceeded to the place where Mr. Lamb's friends were assembled, at the British coffee-house, in Cockspur-street; that they there committed certain outrages, and that a cry was raised, to proceed to the house of viscount Castlereagh. A person on horseback, on hearing the proposal, had ridden forward to alarm the plaintiff's family in St. James'ssquare. In consequence of this, the doors were barricadoed, and preparations made to repel the intended attack. A short time afterwards, a number of persons came across the square, and commenced an attack on the plaintiff's house, by throwing stones at the windows. The stones that were at first thrown must have

been brought from a considerable distance, as there were none of that description previously in the square. The rioters had after- ' wards made use of large pavement stones, which they had thrown with great violence against the door; a part of the pavement opposite the house having been taken up for the purpose of repairing the street. In consequence of the attack, the glass and wood-work of the windows had been completely demolished, and the damage, as he should prove by the witnesses, amounted to 621. The action was founded on statute 57 Geo. 3, c. 19, sec. 38, by which it had been enacted, "That in every case where any house, shop, &c. shall be destroyed or damaged, &c. by the act or acts of any riotous or tumultuous assembly, that the inhabitants of the city or town, if such city or town be in itself a county or

otherwise, or the inhabitants of the hundred in which such damage shall be done, &c. shall be liable to yield full compensation in damages to the persons injured." The present defendants were two of the inhabitants of the hundred in which the damage had been committed on the 3rd of March last. It was proved that the damage had been committed. Mr. Evans addressed the jury for the defendants. He would not have said any thing upon this occasion, had some aspersions not been thrown out against Mr. Hobhouse by the solicitor-general. He therefore begged it to be understood, that it was not the friends or adherents of Mr. Hobhouse who had been the authors of the riot, and of the damage which had ensued in consequence of it. He said so, that no report might get abroad to the disadvantage of his friend, who, he would say, was as honourable a man as the noble viscount himself. The lord chief justice summed up the evidence, and addressed the jury. Verdict for the plaintiff, 621.

DISTURBANCES IN THE NORTH. -On the night of Tuesday, the day preceding the explosion here, the sheriff of Lanark arrested twenty-five persons, who were assembled together at an obscure tavern in Glasgow, and, according to the information received, assembled for illegal purposes. No resistance was made, nor is any thing said of their having arms to resist with. They are ranked under the general denomination of radicals, and are stated to have been a committee of delegates from the different

radical unions in and about Glasgow.

The following is an account of some provincial occurrences communicated by the Post.

COPY OF A LETTER FROM A
RESPECTABLE CLOTHIER OF
HECKMONDWICKE.

Heckmondwicke, Feb. 22.
Yesterday morning (Monday)
a scene of the most daring and
barbarous outrage presented it-
self that can possibly be described
or conceived: a number of the
members of a society called the
Clothiers' Union assembled at
Batley, from Hanging and Earl's
Heaton, Dawgreen, and the
neighbourhood of Heckmond-
wicke. During the whole of
Sunday night, numbers were
heard talking and walking back-
ward and forward; but about four
o'clock on Monday morning
some of them knocked at the
door of a poor woman, and in-
quired if William Goodall lived
there? Being answered in the ne-
gative, they proceeded on until
they came to the poor man's
door;
and then, with the utmost
violence, burst it open; at the
same time calling out to the poor
fellow, who was in bed, "Come
out, thou black devil, or else we
will draw thee!" His wife got up
and looked out of doors, when
she beheld a vast host of men,
armed with large cudgels and
other weapons, waiting the arrival
of her husband. Terrified at the
sight, she hastily shut the door,
and fastened it as securely as she
could. Just at this time their
cruelty was exerting all its efforts
on a man called Milton, whom
they kicked and beat in a manner
too shocking to be related. Alarm-

ed at this confusion, one of the mill-owners sent the above William Goodall for the assistance of some peace-officers and others, but, before he had gone far, he found himself pursued and surrounded on all sides. They knocked him down, then kicked and beat him with their clubs in all parts of his body, so that he is now confined to his bed. At this crisis the constables arrived, but found it impossible to enforce the powers of their office, beset, as they were, on all sides, by these desperate wretches, who were vowing with all their vengeance that, whatever might be the consequence, they would kill every man that opposed them. A poor old man, who was returning from Mr. Spedding's, where he had been to seek for employ, was identified as a black man, and immediately knocked down, nearly strangled, beaten, and kicked in a most unmerciful manner, Having, as they thought, deprived him of life, they threw him over an adjoining wall into a ditch,

Louvel, the assassin of the duke de Berri maintains in his cell the ferocious insensibility of his character, He converses with his keepers, and describes to them, in minute detail, the emotions which he felt during the evening of Sunday, After having dined, he took a walk in the Rue Rameau; he was there when the prince's carriage arrived, but had not taken a position favourable to the execution of his execrable project, He had then an intention of darting on the prince at the moment that he was entering the Opera-door; but he desisted, and put the poniard into his pocket again, fearful of being discovered, He asserts, that he

had almost renounced his diabolical purpose for that day, on hearing the footman give orders to the coachman for eleven o'clock. "I thought," said the monster coolly, "that this would occasion my going too late to bed, and I took a walk to the Palais Royal. At half-past ten, however, having taken something at a coffee-house, I decided upon completing the thing that very day." It was with this horrible sang froid that the wretch spoke of a murder which France deplores in mourning and tears. When he was told, that he would rank with the most odious assassins, he replied, "Brutus, who delivered his country, was not an assassin." One of the priests, who watches the body of the prince at the Louvre, in the confrontation which took place on Tuesday between the assassin and his victim, indignant at the atrocious calm evinced by Louvel, said to him, "If the chastisement of man does not make you fear, do you not dread the vengeance of God?" "Why do you talk to me of God?" said the wretch, "I do not believe in him."

COURT OF KING'S BENCHThe King v. Wedderburn.-This was a criminal information, charging the defendant with having used blasphemous language with the intent to excite impiety and irreligion in the minds of his majesty's subjects, and to vilify the Christian religion.

Mr. Sheffield opened the pleadings; and the solicitor-general, in the absence of the attorney-gene ral, stated the case to the jury. He said the language with which the defendant was charged had been uttered in a place called

was

was,

Hopkins-street chapel, in Totten-
ham-court-road. This place had
been for some time used for de-
bating on political and religious
subjects, and had attracted the
attention of the magistrates, who,
on hearing the nature of these dis-
cussions, had thought it neces-
sary to send some person on
whom they could rely, to notice
what was passing. The question
announced for discussion on the
evening in question was, "Whe-
ther the refusal of chief justice
Abbott to allow Mr. Carlisle to
read the Bible in his defence, was
to be attributed to the sincere re-
spect he had for the sacred writ-
ings, or to a fear lest the absurdi.
ties it contained should be ex-
posed?" After two other per-
sons had spoken on the subject,
the defendant addressed the meet-
ing, and in the course of his re-
marks, he said, that Christianity,
it was true, had been introduced,
but had never been practised.
The chief justice, he said, had
read the Bible, and no doubt was
convinced of the absurdities it
contained. He observed, that
Jesus Christ had said "no man not noticed. He then said,
hath at any time seen God:" and
therefore, he added-[Thelearned
gentleman said he would not re-
peat the expressions which had
been used by the defendant, as
the jury would hear them from
the mouths of the witnesses.]
The substance, however, of his
inference from this declaration of
our Saviour was, that Moses had
been guilty of absurdity and
falsehood. But he should insult
the understandings of the jury,
as he must do if he went at
length into all the blasphemy ut-
tered on this occasion by the de-
fendant: they should hear the
whole from the witnesses, and he
should, perhaps, have occasion

to address them again when they
had heard the defence set up.
The defendant suggested the pro-
priety of the witnesses being exa-
mined separately, which
readily acceded to by the soli-
citor-general. William Plush was
then called. He knew a place
in Hopkins-street, near Windmill-
street, where debates were held.
The place of meeting was called
Hopkins-street-chapel. Witness
was directed to go to that place,
to hear a debate, on the 25th Oc-
tober last, and went accordingly.
The subject of debate
"Whether the refusal of chief
justice Abbott to allow Mr. Car-
lisle to read the Bible in his de-
fence, was to be attributed to the
sincere respect he had for the
sacred writings, or to a fear lest
the absurdities they contained
should be exposed." Two per-
sons spoke on the subject before
the defendant. Robert Wedder-
burn then rose; and, after com-
plimenting the two speakers who
had preceded him, begged leave
to call their attention to a few of
the absurdities which they had

"Christianity, it is true, has been
introduced, but it has never been
followed. Judge Abbott, no
doubt, has read the Bible, and
knows pretty well the absurdities
The witness went
it contains.'
on to detail a great number of
blasphemous expressions.

The defendant, being called on for his defence, said, he was the offspring of a slave, and had been neglected by a Christian father. As he was a Christian himself, he thought, when at home, that if he could once get to a Christian country he should be happy; but, on his arrival here, he found the number of sects so great, that his mind was distracted with doubts

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