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NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS
IN
THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.

LONDON :
printed by gilbert and rivington, limited,
st. John's square.

NARRATIVES OF* STATE TRIALS

THE NINETEENTH CENTURY.
FIRST PERIOD.
FROM THE UNION WITH IRELAND TO THE DEATH OF
GEORGE THE . FOURTH,
1801-1830.

KY
G. LATHOM BROWNE,
OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER- AT-LAW.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL II.
The Regency, 1811 — 1820. The Reign of George IV.,
1820 — 1830.

Eonuon:
SAMPSON LOW, MARSTON, SEARLE, & RIVINGTON,
CROWN BUILDINGS, iSS, FLEET STREET.
1882.
[AU rights reurved. ]

PEEFACB.
The trials in this volume complete our selection to
the close of the reign of George the Fourth, at whose
death the system of the personal interference of the
Sovereign with the policy of his Ministers, so ob
structive to the natural development of constitutional
government, came to an end. In themselves they
are interesting from the positions of the parties affected
by them, and valuable as exposing the state of
society and the condition of the working classes
during that eventful period — the first thirty years of
the present century. In those of the Luddites, the
Nottingham rioters, the Spa Fields riot, the meeting
of the masses at Peterloo, and the atrocious con
spiracy of Thistlewood, we have proofs of the wide
spread disaffection that prevailed, and of the ex
tensive ramifications of conspiracy, throughout the
manufacturing districts and in the metropolis. The
detestable habit of the employment of spies on the
part of the Government assumes the prominence of a
system, and reflects as little credit on successive
Cabinets as does their resort to repression as the
only remedy for undoubted grievances.

PREFACE.

It is sad to think that Ministers, personally above
the imputation of treachery, should have accepted
the services of such wretches as Castle, Oliver, and
Edwards. It is far more sad to read how a husband,
himself ostentatious in his immoralities, should, from
a few months after his marriage, have hunted his
illused and discarded wife with the lowest class of
spies, and permitted them to be tempted by bribery
into misstating or manufacturing the evidence against
her, by which his own wicked wishes could alone be
gratified. That the spies of Italy should have will
ingly aided in such a conspiracy was only natural ;
but that men, nominally of birth and rank, holding
the position of his official representatives as a German
king, should have joined in such a dirty trade, is
almost beyond belief. Yet it cannot be denied, nay,
it was not attempted to be denied, that the Omptedas,
the Von Grimms, the Berckstedts, and the Redens,
assisted, if they did not originally tempt, the wit
nesses in the concoction of their loathsome evidence
against the Queen. Painful as it is to have to relate
the story of her persecution, and of the advantages
so adroitly taken of her indiscreet conduct, the story
itself is invaluable as an illustration of the miserable
social morality of the period.
The persecution of Lord Cochrane is equally
valuable as an illustration of the bitterness of the
party-spirit of the time, and of the injustice which
can be inflicted by an obstinate, though no doubt con
scientious judge. The silly affair of the "Bottle
Conspiracy " brings into prominence the weaknesses
of a great man. It is disheartening to find, that one

PREFACE.

who had exhibited such administrative fitness and
such rare energy in ruling India, in the time of
imminent danger, should show how weak and foolish
he could become when his vanity was touched, and
should construe an affront, which a wise man would
have passed by with silent contempt, into a deadly
conspiracy against him as the representative of the
authority of his Royal master.
The trials of Hone for his parodies on the Bible
and the Scriptures have been omitted from this selec
tion. As political satires they are contemptible —
mere abuse and nicknaming of political leaders — and
though the writer may be acquitted of intending
them as blasphemies, they could not now be repro
duced without offence to religious feeling. The real
interest in these trials lies in the persistency with
which, notwithstanding serious bodily weakness, the
author of them resisted the autocratic power of his
judges, and in his extraordinary display of curious
but very useless learning. From the earliest days
of the Mediaeval Church parodies of the Scriptures
and the Liturgies had been a favourite form of satire,
the very existence of which it is best to forget.
Should these trials be continued, the next period
would embrace the reign of William the Fourth and
the first fifteen years of that of her present Majesty,
including the cases of the Reform riots at Bristol,
Nottingham, and Derby ; the Repealers in Ireland ;
the Chartists, and the attempts on the life of the
Queen. The very curious case of the claimant
to the Earldom of Stirling, in which the here
ditary ownership of so large a portion of our North

viii PREFACE.
American provinces was practically contested, and
the famous Parisian fortune-teller, Le Normand, was
implicated, would also fall within this period.
Since Chapter IX. (Cato Street Conspiracy) was in
print, I find, from the late Mr. Justice Therry's
reminiscences of New South Wales, that three of the
conspirators who were transported to that penal
colony (Strange, Wilson, and Harrison) became
reformed and useful colonists. Strange was invalu
able as a constable — the terror of bushrangers, as
" The Cato Street Chief" — and Wilson was an active
and brave constable under him. Wilson, on obtaining
leave to marry, set up as a fashionable tailor in
Bathurst, with " Wilson, Tailor, from London," on
his sign-board. Harrison also became the principal
baker in the same district.
G. L. B.
King's Bench Walk,
Temple,
January, 1882.

CONTENTS. CHAPTER I.
Historical Summary ofthe Regency, 1811 to 1820
Gigantic power of Napoleon at the commencement of
the Regency — Position of Wellington in Portugal —
Rise of the Luddites in Nottinghamshire, Cheshire,
and Lancashire — Intrigues for change of Ministers on
the expiry of the restrictions on the Regent — Com
mittee on the Orders in Council — Murder of Perceval
— Ministerial crisis, and renewed negotiations with
Wellesley and the Grenvilles — Their failure — Lord
Liverpool appointed Premier— Spread of Luddism in
Yorkshire, and trials of the Luddites at York — Re
treat of Napoleon from Russia, and collapse of his
power — The rising of the nations against him — Re
treat of the French over the Rhine — March of the
Northern Allies on Paris, and invasion of the South
by Wellington — Report of Napoleon's death — The
De Berenger frauds, and trial of Lord Cochrane —
First abdication of Napoleon — Escape from Elba —
Waterloo — St. Helena — Commercial and agricultural
distress — Failure ofthe harvest of 1816 — Diminution
of employment, and reduction of wages — The
Hampden and Spencaean Clubs, and agitation for
Parliamentary reform — The Spa Fields Riot, and trial
of Watson and Thistlewood— Castle, the spy — More
Coercion Acts, 1817 — The Blanketeers — Riots in
Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Derbyshire — Trials of
Brandreih, Turner, and Ludlow — Oliver, the spy —

CONTENTS.

Seditious and blasphemous parodies — Trials of Hone
— Death of the Princess Charlotte — The Regent and
the Milan Commission — Death of the Queen — Re
vival of cash payments, and mitigation ofthe criminal
code — 1820 : increasing distress — Reform meetings
in the manufacturing districts — Arrest of Sir Charles
Wolseley and the Rev. J. " Harrison for seditious
speeches — Alarm ofthe Cabinet — The Peterloo Riot —
Arrest of Hunt and his companions — The Six Acts of
Sidmouth — Death of George III. and end of the
Regency. CHAPTER II.
Trial of Bellingham for the murder of Spencer Perceval,
May, 1812  36
CHAPTER III.
The Luddites, 181 1 to 18 13 : trials at York, 18 1 3 . .64
CHAPTER IV.
The De Berenger Fraud on the Stock Exchange : trial of
Lord Cochrane and others, 18 14  90
CHAPTER V.
The agitation for Parliam entary Reform ; the Spa Fields
Riot, December, 1816 : trial of Watson for high
treason, June 9, 1817  175
CHAPTER VI.
The Nottingham Rioters : trials of Brandreth, Turner,
Ludlow, and others for high treason, October, 1817 . 214
CHAPTER VII.
Historical Summary of the reign of George IV., 1820 to
1830  235
Serious illness of the King on his accession — The Cato
Street Conspiracy— Negotiations with the Queen —
Her sudden arrival in England, popular reception

CONTENTS.

— Tlie Green Bag and the Bill of Pains and Penalties
— Trials of Hunt and others for the Manchester Riot —
Sir C.Wolseley and Harrison, and Sir F. Burdett, for
seditious speeches — Canning's refusal to agree to
criminal proceedings against the Queen, and tender
of his resignation to the King — Ordered to remain,
and retirement to the Continent until the close of the
trial— The Queen's Trial— The Bill of Pains and
Penalties withdrawn after third reading — Resignation
of Canning — The Royal visit to Ireland — Illness and
death of the Queen — Union of the Grenviile party
with the Cabinet — Nomination of Canning as
Governor-General of India — Suicide of Lord Lon
donderry, and appointment of Canning as Minister
for Foreign Affairs— His foreign policy — Recognition
of the South American Republics — Expedition to
Portugal — Marquis Wellesley as Irish Viceroy — Dis
satisfaction at his conduct and policy — The Bottle
Conspiracy, and failure of the prosecution — Debates
in Parliament on the conduct of Plunkett as Attorney-
General — Canning's resolution prohibiting the use of
the lash in the West Indian Colonies — Condition of
the Colonists — The slave rising in Demerara — Trial
of Smith the Missionary— Speech of the Duke of
York against Catholic emancipation — Illness and
resignation of Lord Liverpool — Canning Premier —
Secession of the Duke of Wellington, Peel, and
others — The treaty for securing the independence
of Greece — Death of Canning — The five months'
ministry of Lord Goderich — The Duke of Clarence as
Lord High Admiral— The Duke of Wellington's
first Cabinet — Repeal of the Sacramental Test —
Proposal to transfer to Birmingham the member for
East Retford — Vote and resignation of Huskisson
and the friends of Canning — Spread of agitation for
emancipation in Ireland — Election of O'Connell for
Clare — Danger of civil war, and determination of the
Duke of Wellington and Peel to settle the Catholic
question — Extraordinary conduct of the King — The
Catholic Relief Bill carried — Speech of the Duke of
Wellington — Increasing illness and death of the
King.

CONTENTS.

rAG£
CHAPTER VIII.
The Manchester Rioters, 1819; Peterloo : trials of Hunt,
Sir Charles Wolseley, Harrison, and others, 1820 . 264
CHAPTER IX.
Trie Cato Street Conspiracy : trials of Thistlewood and
others, April, 1820 ; Edwards the spy .... 3°9
CHAPTER X.
George IV. and his Queen ; the Delicate Investigation,
1866 ; the Bill of Pains and Penalties, 1820 . . . 339
CHAPTER XI.
The Bottle Conspiracy ; attack on the Marquis Wellesley
as Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, December 14, 1822 :
trial of Forbes and others, February 3, 1823 ; Inquiry
into Conduct of Grand Jury of Dublin .... 427
APPENDIX.
A. Extracts from the Noble Stock Jobber, by C. R.
Baron de Berenger, London, 1816 . . . . 455
B. Copy of the Bill of Pains and Penalties . . . 462
Index . . '  -465

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.

THE REGENCY.— 181 1 TO 1820.
CHAPTER I.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY.
Gigantic power of Napoleon at the commencement of the
Regency — Position of Wellington in Portugal — Rise of the
Luddites in Nottinghamshire, Cheshire, and Lancashire —
Intrigues for change of Ministers on the expiry of the
restrictions on the Regent — Committee on the Orders in
Council — Murder of Perceval — Ministerial crisis, and re
newed negotiations with Wellesley and the Grenvilles —
Their failure — Lord Liverpool appointed Premier — Spread
of Luddism in Yorkshire, and trials of the Luddites at York
—Retreat of Napoleon from Russia, and collapse of his power
— The rising of the nations against him — Retreat of the
French over the Rhine — March of the Northern Allies on
Paris, and invasion of the South by Wellington — Report of
Napoleon's death — The De Berenger frauds, and trial of
Lord Cochrane — First abdication of Napoleon — Escape from
Elba — Waterloo — St. Helena — Commercial and agricultural
distress — Failure of the harvest of 1816 — Diminution
employment, and reduction of wages — The Hampden and
Spencean Clubs, and agitation for Parliamentary reform —
The Spa Fields riot, and trial of Watson and Thistlewood —
Castle, the spy — More Coercion Acts, 1817 — The Blan-
keteers — Riots in Lancashire, Yorkshire, and Derbyshire —
Trials of Brandreth, Turner, and Ludlow — Oliver, the spy —
Seditious and blasphemous parodies — Trials of Hone— Death
VOL.. II. B

2 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
of the Princess Charlotte— The Regent and the Milan Com
mission — Death of the Queen— Revival of cash payments,
and mitigation of the criminal code — 1820 : increasing distress
— Reform meetings in the manufacturing districts — Arrest of
Sir Charles Wolseley and the Rev. J. Harrison for seditious
speeches— Alarm of the Cabinet— The Peterloo riot— Arrest of
Hunt and his companions— The. Six Acts of Lord Sidmouth
— Death of George III. and end of the Regency.
At the commencement of the Regency, Napoleon
was apparently supreme on the Continent. His only
opponents, the British and their allies in the Penin
sula, had retreated to the impregnable lines of Torres
Vedras, closely watched by the army of Massena ;
Rome and the Papal Provinces had been annexed to
France ; the Pope was a prisoner at Savona ; Louis
Bonaparte had resigned his mock sovereignty in
Holland, and found refuge in England ; and not only
Holland to its old boundary on the Zuyder Zee had
been absorbed by France, but with it Friesland, Olden
burg, Bremen, the whole coast to Hamburg, and
the whole country as far as Lubeck. More than
40,000,000 of people were Napoleon's subjects. The
kingdom of Italy was his, and that of Naples was ruled
by his brother-in-law, Murat. In his newly created
kingdom of Westphalia, his brother Jerome was simply
his steward ; whilst by his protectorate of the Confede
ration ofthe Rhine, the rulers of Saxony, Bavaria, and
Wurtemberg, and numerous minor German Princes,
were at his beck and call. Prussia had been crushed ;
Austria bound by his alliance with the Empress Marie
Louise ; Russia was his ally ; and the far off states of
Sweden in the power of the ablest of his marshals,
Bernadotte. Wellington at Torres Vedras, alone

NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS. 3
resisted his gigantic power. Could the English be
driven from that vantage-ground, he would indeed
be supreme on land. The dominion of the sea he
had resigned to England, obliged, however un
willingly, to admit her undisputed power on her
favourite field of action. In such a state of affairs it
is not surprising that our Cabinet looked coldly on a
further prosecution of the contest in the Peninsula,
and save for the firm and statesmanlike opposition of
Wellington, would have confined it to the defence of
Portugal, even if they did not think of withdrawing
from the whole Peninsula. The most foreseeing
statesman could not then have believed that within
less than four years all Europe would have risen as
one man against the Imperial Autocrat, that the
Allies would have been in possession of Paris, and
Napoleon a prisoner in the Isle of Elba.
At home the condition of the working classes,
especially in the districts occupied by the cotton and
cloth factories, was serious. Though the war was con
fined to the Peninsula, and subsidies to foreign allies
had ceased, the pressure of taxation was but little
alleviated, and the expenditure could still only be met
by heavy loans.1 At the same time Napoleon's policy
had materially reduced the demand for our manufac
tures abroad, whilst the introduction of improved
1 The Budget for 181 2 showed an anticipated expenditure of
58,188,456/., of which 27,000,000/. were required for our ordi
nary military and naval services. To meet this, a loan of
15,650,000/. was required, in addition to the usual Ways and
Means. The expenditure in the previous year had been calcu
lated at 56,000,000/., and required a loan .of 24,000,000/.
B 2

4 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
machinery not only threw many workmen temporarily
out of employ, but reduced the wages ofthe remainder,
and from the facilities afforded by the improved
machinery substituted younger and less skilled hands
for those of the superior artisan. Disturbances due to
these causes, had more or less prevailed during the
winter of 181 1, confined mainly to the hosiery districts,
but gradually extending to the neighbouring counties.
By the month of February, 1812, they increased in
violence in the cotton towns of Cheshire and the cloth
factories of Yorkshire, to such an extent, that the
local authorities were no longer able to cope with
them. During this period acts of the most lawless
character were perpetrated, in the destruction of pro
perty, particularly machinery, and in attempts on the
lives of the manufacturers, and of the persons engaged
in the suppression of these acts of violence. Even
tually it was discovered that the parties to these
outrages were organized and directed by a central
authority, trained to some extent, and combined by
an oath of secrecy and confederacy.
These pitiable distresses of the working classes
had little effect on the habits of the Regent and his
friends. His extravagance was as reckless as osten
tatious, and his life spent either in seclusion with his
special circle, or in costly fetes that seemed to mock the
poverty of his subjects.2 There were now three courts
2 On the 19th of June, 181 1, the Regent gave a grand fete at
Carlton House, at which the table was decorated with a canal
of pure water 200 feet in length in which were gold and silver
fish, running, between banks covered with mosses and aquatic
plants, from a silver fountain at the head, and falling in a

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 5
to maintain : that of the poor old King and his aged
Queen at Windsor ; that of the Regent and his
favourites at Carlton House, among whom Lady
Hertford was now all powerful ; and that of the
Princess of Wales, with her strange mixture of asso
ciates, many of whom, by character as well as position,
were utterly unfitted to be her companions, and en
couraged the social weaknesses to which she was
addicted. The intrigues for a change of Ministers revived as
the date for the expiring of the restriction on the
Regent got nearer. The Royal Dukes intrigued with
and for Wellesley, in the hopes of getting their own

cascade at the end. — Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxxxi. p. 587.
The great cost of this entertainment is bitterly contrasted by
Romilly with the misery of the weavers of Glasgow and Lanca
shire. — "Parliamentary Life," vol. ii. p. 409. With reference to
his proposed creation of Regent Street, the on dit was, " that
he was to have a villa on Primrose Hill, and a fine street
leading to it." — Tom Moore to Lady Donegal, Oct. 28, 181 1 ;
Lord John Russell's " Memoir of Moore," vol. i. p. 263. The
little popularity that he opce had was fading rapidly. A few
days, before Perceval's murder, during the acting of Henry V.,
the allusions to that king's breach of his promises made as
Prince of Wales, were loudly cheered, and in a new play at the
Lyceum, allusions to female influence on Government received
with repeated cheers. Under the influence of Hertford House
he separated himself from his old friends, striking out their
names — even including that of Lord Moira — from the new list
of droit oVentr6e at Carlton House. In Parliament the salary of a
new private secretary, and the vote for his pet barrack-building
scheme, were refused ; and the addresses on his creation as
Regent, were admitted to be thorough failures. — Fremantle to
Marquis Buckingham, May 1, 1812 ; " Memoirs of the Regency,"
vol. i.

6 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
designs carried out ; and the Regent, more intent on
his building and improvement schemes and his own
indulgences than politics, played with both parties,
and was faithful to neither. In the end the influence
of Lady Hertford prevailed ; Wellesley retired, and
Perceval remained undisputed master of the situa
tion.3 In Parliament the real battle was fought over the
Orders in Council by which, in the view of the manu
facturers, our trade with America was sorely fettered,
and the country brought to the verge of that sad war
with the United States in 1812, from which the only
results were almost equal losses on both sides, and
little credit to either. The details of the discussions
and events are elsewhere fully recorded.4 It is
sufficient, therefore, here to notice, that after demands
3 These intrigues are amusingly detailed by W. H. Fre-
mantle, in his gossiping letters to the Marquis Buckingham,
Dec. II, 181 1 ; Jan. 4, 21 ; Feb. 1, 13, 14, and 15, 1812. In one of
them, speaking of an interview between Lord Moira and the
Regent, after the former's failure in the negotiations, he gives
the following graphic account of the " Prince's tears :" " When
Moira told him that he should soon make his bow, this precious
gentleman blubbered as he did when Brummell told him that
he did not like his coat, and said, 'You will desert me, Moira ! '
' No,' he replied, ' when the friends and counsels you have
chosen shall have brought your throne to totter beneath you,
you then shall see me by your side, to sit, if it should please
God, under its ruins with you.' " Lord Moira was the only
honest man in the Regent's private circle. The same authority
says that the real reason of the Regent's hatred of the Gren-
villes and Wellesley was their opposition to giving a salary
to McMahon, whom he had made his private secretary. —
" Regency," by the Duke of Buckingham, vol. i.
4 Introduction to the Murder of Perceval, p. 36, et. seq.

NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS. 7
for papers on the subject had been twice refused, and
Brougham's motion for a Select Committee defeated,
Lord Stanley's proposal to refer the Orders to a Com
mittee of the whole House, and to take evidence on
their results, was accepted by the Government, and
the investigation commenced. On the nth of May,
1812, the House was in Committee, and a witness
under examination, when the absence of the Premier
was noticed and Perceval sent for. With his usual
alacrity he hurried to the House, and had hardly
reached the door when he fell, from a shot fired by
a loiterer in the lobby. So close to him was the
assailant, that the shot could not but be fatal.
Perceval had barely time and power to exclaim,
" Oh, God ! " when he sank into the arms of a Member
and died. Thus fell, in the plenitude of his power, a
generous, kind, and honourable man, the victim ofthe
unfounded revenge of one whose mind, always erratic,
had been rendered dangerously sensitive by his losses,
and the neglect with which, he had persuaded himself,
his claims to compensation had been treated by the
Cabinet. With indecent haste, Bellingham his
murderer was hurried to trial, and executed within
four days of the terrible crime ; whilst the House of
Commons, under the excitement of the event, carried
grants to his family far beyond what were warranted
by the occasion.
On the death of Perceval the former policy of open
ing negotiations with the Grenville and Grey parties
was revived, with the same result. At a Cabinet
Council, within a few days ofthe death of their leader,
the remainder of the Cabinet discussed the question

8 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
put to them by the Regent, whether they felt strong
enough to go on under the lead of one of their own
body, without the help of either the Grenvilles, or of
Wellesley with his follower Canning. Lord Gastle-
reagh, with his wonted shrewdness, suggested that they
would do better if the offer was made. If the Grenvilles
or Wellesley would agree to join, it would undoubtedly
strengthen the Cabinet ; if they refused, their refusal
could be urged as a good reason why the present men
should be supported as the only possible Ministers.
On the 17th of May, therefore, Lord Liverpool, who
was naturally looked to as their leader, communicated
with Lord Wellesley and Canning. On the 22nd the
House of Commons, by a majority of four, voted an
address to the Regent, praying the creation of a strong
and efficient Administration ; and Ministers, after
reporting the failure of the negotiations, tendered their
resignations. Lord Wellesley was sent for, and being
repulsed by Lord Liverpool, turned to Lords Gren
ville and Grey. He offered the old terms — considera
tion of the Catholic claims, and the effective prose
cution of the war in the Peninsula. On the second
point, not as a question of principle, but only of policy
in the present state of the national finances, the offer
was again refused. The truth apparently was, that
Lord Grey doubted the faith of the Regent, and re
garded the offer as a scheme to enable him to profess
that he must fall back on the old Cabinet when his
former friends declined assistance.5 Wellesley again
s Lord Grenville, in writing to the Marquis Buckingham,
under date May 24th, says that the whole scheme was to enable
the Regent to say, " You see I cannot make persons unite who

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 9
tried the Grenvilles. He had now full authority to
form a Cabinet, with himself as Premier, and Canning,
Moira, and Erskine as his colleagues. If the Cabinet
was limited to twelve members, he offered four places
to the Grenvilles, if it consisted of thirteen, they might
fill up five with their friends. The proposals were at
once refused, and Wellesley gave back his com
mission. Lord Moira then took the lead ; he had been lately
reconciled to the Regent, who marked the reconcilia
tion with well prepared tears. Sheridan was deputed
to assist him, and the Grenvilles wereagain approached.
The question now turned on the great appointments
in the Regent's household, monopolized by the Hert-
refuse to do so. I must take one or other, and I prefer the
present to the Opposition." The Regent hated Lord Grey per
sonally for his characterizing the Hertfords as " a certain secret
influence which must be got rid of;'' and if Moore's corre
spondent is correct, said that " he would have abdicated had it
been forced upon him, and wished this made public.'' — Miss
Godfrey to Moore ; Lord J. Russell's " Memoir," vol. i. 296.
(The name of Lord Grenville, used by Miss Godfrey, is clearly
a mistake for Lord Grey.) Sheridan, it is said, had authority
to assure the leaders of the Opposition that the Hertfords would
resign, and suppressed the message. The truth is, all parties
distrusted each other. Lord Eldon, who knew better than any
man what was intended, never expressed the slightest symptoms
of apprehension of resigning. If Grenville and Grey had come
in, they would soon have been forced out. Their friends did
not wish for office. — " Diary of the Times of George IV.,'' vol. i.
139; and Brougham's note to the Princess of Wales, same vol.
p. 130. In the Liverpool Cabinet, Lord Sidmouth took the
Home Office, in the place of Ryder ; Lord Bathurst the War
Department, vice Lord Liverpool, and Lord Harrowby became
President of the Privy Council.

10 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
ford family. It was definitely asked, would full liberty
of action in the new Cabinet extend to dealing with
them ? The answer was so indecisive that once more
the negotiations were broken off; and early in June
Lord Liverpool became Premier, a post he held
for fifteen years, until his infirmities compelled his
resignation. Before the Cabinet of Lord Liverpool came into
office, affairs on the Continent had materially altered.
Napoleon at the head of half a million of men of
various nations had staked his fortunes on the invasion
of Russia. In the Peninsula, Massena defeated in his
attempt at Busaco, had retired from Portugal, fol
lowed by Wellington, with an army whose discipline,
perfected in the security of the lines of Torres Vedras,
amply compensated for its limited numbers in com
parison with the numerous armies of the French mar
shals ; Albuera had been fought ; Ciudad Rodrigo had
fallen ; and the Allies were gathering towards Sala
manca, where so soon was to be fought that decisive
battle in which science, aided by courage and dis
cipline, defeated 40,000 men in forty minutes, and
paved the way to the occupation of Madrid.6
If the aspect of affairs on the Continent was more
encouraging, at home the increase of the Luddite
outrages in character as well as number created much
apprehension, and demanded effective measures for
their repression. Hence on the 27th of June a message

8 Battle of Busaco, Sept. 27, 1810; Albuera, May, 181 1;
Ciudad Rodrigo, Jan. 19, 1812; Salamanca, July 22, 1812;
Madrid occupied, August 12, 18 12.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. u
from the Regent to both Houses of Parliament, accom
panied by copies of the information received by the
local authorities, was referred to Secret Committees,
which reported the necessity for further legislative
measures. On the ioth of July Lord Castlereagh
introduced a measure in the House of Commons for
the preservation of peace in the disturbed counties,
by facilitating the search for arms and the prevention
of riotous meetings, and giving a more extensive
jurisdiction and more summary powers to the magis
trates in the disturbed districts. The opposition in
both Houses was as ineffectual as it was feeble.
In the Commons only sixteen members could be
mustered against the second reading. During the
summer these disturbances appeared to decrease ;
with the approach of winter, however, they broke
out in increased violence and numbers, and the
gaols became rapidly filled with prisoners. The
leniency with which those tried at Nottingham had
been treated, and the subsequent severity of the
sentences at Lancaster and Chester, had not the
desired effect. Not content with the destruction of
the machinery and mills of the manufacturers, the
Luddites had attempted, in one case successfully, to
take the lives of the manufacturers themselves. A
special commission was therefore issued for the trial
of these rioters at York, in January 1813, at which
three murderers and fourteen destroyers of machinery
and property were condemned and executed.7 By
' For the details of the more serious of these outrages, and
the legislation for their repression, see " Trial of the Luddites,''
post, p. 64.

12 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
itself the policy of repression would probably have
failed, or at the best have only effected a temporary
cessation of the Luddite outrages. Happily the
repeal of the Orders in Council came to its aid, and
the partial revival of the cotton and woollen trades
worked a remedy which force alone would have failed
to effect.
Again public attention was diverted from home to
affairs abroad. The beginning of the end of the
Imperial Conqueror had arrived. The hosts, rivalling
that of Xerxes, with which Napoleon had crossed the
Niemen on the 24th of June, 18 12, had been driven
back from the sacred soil of Russia, within five months
of that proud day when half a million of the first
soldiers in Europe had defiled before him on Russian
territory. Of all that host, barely 80,000 had sur
vived the snow, the famine, and the ceaseless attacks of
the unapproachable Cossacks, and of these more than
one-half were Austrians and Prussians, unwillingly
dragged at the heels of the invader. Napoleon had
deserted the remnants of his army and hastened to
Paris, in vain endeavouring to conceal the magnitude
of his defeat. Prussia at once threw off the yoke ;
and even Austria's usual hesitation ceased, when the
news arrived of the rout of the French by Wellington
at Vittoria, and the steady progress of the Allies
towards the boundaries of France. Then the three
Great Powers of Europe united in defence of their
ancient liberties.
The crisis roused Napoleon to almost superhuman
exertions, in which he was gallantly seconded by his
despairing people. Another French army was in

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 13
the field early in 18 13, and opened the campaign in
Germany with the sanguinary battles of Lutzen and
Bautzen, quickly followed by the victory before
Dresden. But for the liberal aid given by England,
who poured enormous supplies into Germany through
the mouth of the Elbe, and furnished liberal sub
sidies, the Allies would probably have come to terms
with Napoleon, and the " Battle of the Nations "
before Leipsic never have been fought. On those
awful days the power of Napoleon was effectually
broken, and retreat to France inevitable. Out of
400,000 men, a twentieth only recrossed the Rhine.
The Confederation grew with its successes. " From
Gibraltar to Archangel, from the banks ofthe Scheldt
to the Bosphorus," all Europe was in arms against
him. Wellington had crossed the Pyrenees ; Bayonne
had fallen ; at Orthes, Soult had been defeated ; and
Bordeaux had opened its gates to the Allies, who,
now were gathered before Toulouse. On the ist 01
December, 18 13, the northern army crossed the
Rhine in overwhelming force. Its magnitude, and
the variety of nations of which it was composed,
lessened its power, and Napoleon, showing all the
genius of his early career, dashed hither and thither
with his Liliputian army, and effected many a severe
loss on his opponents.8
It was during this period of intense excitement,
when terms were being discussed with Napoleon at
Chatillon, that the notorious Berenger fraud was per-
8 At St. Dizier, Jan. 4; Brienne, Jan. 19; Champ Aubert;
Feb. 9; Montmerail, Feb. 11; Vauchamp, Feb. 14; Nangis,
Feb. 17 ; Montereau, Feb. 25 ; Croane, March 7, 1814.

14 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
petrated. A little after midnight on the 20th of
February, 1814, the landlord of the Ship Hotel, Dover,
was knocked up to receive a stranger, who reported
himself to have been landed by a French ship on the
beach, some distance from the port, as the captain
was afraid to enter the roads. Under a military great
coat he appeared to be dressed as a staff officer, and
according to his confidential communications, had
brought intelligence of the defeat of Napoleon, and
that he had been torn to pieces by the Cossacks.
His first act was to write and send this news to
Admiral Foley, at Deal, in a letter which he signed
R. Du Bourg, Lieutenant-Colonel, and Aide-de-Camp
to Lord Cathcart. Having sent off this message, he
hurried into a post-chaise and was driven at best
speed towards London, giving the post-boys at each
change a napoleon apiece, and everywhere repeating
the great news. As the semaphores could not work,
from the mist, he was safe from having his intelligence
anticipated. In this way between nine and ten in the
morning he arrived at the coach-stand at the Marsh
Gate, in the Westminster Road, changed into the only
coach on the stand, and drove direct to the house of
Lord Cochrane, in Green Street. Not finding him
at home, he wrote a short note asking for an imme
diate interview, which he sent by the noble lord's
servant to the lamp factory in Holborn, whither Lord
Cochrane had gone about the machinery for a lamp
he had lately invented. Under the impression, he
declared, that the writer brought news of his brother,
who was seriously ill with one of the armies abroad,
Lord Cochrane hastened home. There he found a

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 15
man ofthe name of De Berenger, whom he had slightly
known as an ingenious engineer, and who had been
endeavouring to arrange to be sent on board his ship,
the"Tonant," in whichhewasaboutto join the squadron
of his uncle, Sir Alexander Cochrane, as an instructor
of rifle-shooting. On his excuse that he could not
call on Lord Yarmouth, the colonel of the volunteer
corps in which he was enrolled, in the dress he then
had on, he borrowed a black coat and a hat from Lord
Cochrane, rolled up his uniform — whether it was that
of a staff officer or a green one was afterwards in
dispute — and left. From then until he was arraigned
as a partner in his fraud, Lord Cochrane never saw
his visitor. The good news spread rapidly to the
Stock Exchange, and within less than an hour after
business commenced the funds rose steadily, large
sales were made, and large profits realized on " time
bargains." To keep up the excitement, which for the
want of any official confirmation of the intelligence
soon began to decrease, the second part of the plot
was carried out. There drove through the city a
post-chaise and four, with three persons in it, two
dressed like French officers, in blue coats with white
linings, wearing white cockades, and their horses'
heads decorated with laurels. As they drove along
they threw out of the windows little billets announcing
the news. After a kind of triumphal progress through
the city, they turned to the left at Bridge Street, went
over Blackfriars Bridge, turned off to the New Cut
till they reached the Marsh Gate, where they got out,
folded up their hats, and walked off.
When the craze was over, the Committee of the

1 6 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Stock Exchange instituted an inquiry into the trans
actions of the day, and discovered that large sales,
with large profits, had been made during the pre
valence of the deception, by Lord Cochrane, his uncle
Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, and a friend of the name
of Butt. Payments of the profits to the Cochranes
and Mr. Butt were stopped, and every endeavour
made to bring home the conspiracy to them and their
friends. Lord Cochrane, who had left London to fit
out the " Tonant," at once publicly, and on his oath, re
pudiated the charge, gave the cue to enable the guilt
to be fixed on De Berenger, and with his uncle and
Mr. Butt offered to find 3000/. towards the discovery
and conviction of De Berenger, who had escaped. The
offer was looked upon as a proof of connivance, and
the case against him and his apparent partners pre
pared with great perseverance and ingenuity. On the
8th of June he was indicted with them and De Berenger,
who had been captured, as well as the sham French
officers of the second post-chaise, for a conspiracy to
raise the price of the funds by falsehoods. They were
tried before Lord Ellenborough, and, mainly through
the bitter charge of that Judge against him, Lord.
Cochrane was convicted, fined, and imprisoned. His
seat for Westminster was declared vacant, but he was
re-elected by acclamation. His name was struck off
the list of the Navy — the service he had adorned with
his gallant and daring deeds — his arms and flag torn
down from among those of the Knights of the Bath in
Henry VII.'s Chapel, and his banner ignominiously
kicked down its steps by a zealous official. For years
he was the object of persecution, and subjected to heavy

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 17
fines, which the poorest of the people united to pay by
penny subscriptions ; and in the end was driven to
take service abroad, where he showed the reckless
daring of a Drake and the genius of a Nelson.
We have lived to see this gallant sailor cleared of
the heavy imputation on his honour. When the
Sailor King ascended the throne, among the first of his
acts was the restoration of Cochrane to the Navy List
without detriment to the seniority which he had tem
porarily lost ; by the Queen he was restored to the
Order of the Bath ; by Lord Auckland, as First Lord
of the Admiralty, he was appointed to the command
of our fleet on the American and West Indian station ;
and when he died, full of years and honours, the
banner that had been so ignominiously kicked down
the steps of Henry VII.'s Chapel, was replaced, and
waved over his coffin. The whole of the details
of the persecution and life of this great man are well
worthy of study.9 Much of the persecution which he
suffered was due to the bitter feeling against him on
the part of the Government of the time, as a radical
of radicals, and an incessant exposer of the extrava
gance ofthe Cabinet, and the abuses in the manage
ment of the navy, and as a supporter ofthe ardent cry
that was beginning to be raised for parliamentary
reform. Much, too, of his trouble was due to the ex
citability of his temper, and the unguarded character
of his denunciations of political opponents. He lived
down every disgraceful charge. In whatever clime he
served, he added glory to the name of an English sailor.
9 See trial of Lord Cochrane and others, post, p. 90.
VOL. II. C

18 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
The false news circulated by De Berenger and his
co-conspirators anticipated the truth by only a few
weeks. In February, had Napoleon consented to the
terms offered by the Allies at the conference at Cha-
tillon he might have reigned over France, such as she
was in territory and power before the Revolution.
Trusting too much to his dashing but useless victories
since the huge host of the allies had entered France,
and believing that France, though now all but old
men and children had been pressed into the field,
would still stand by him, he rejected the terms, and
saw Paris surrounded by his foes. Further resistance
was useless. His people fell from him, and demanded
peace at any price ; and after a fruitless attempt to
obtain the recognition of his infant heir, early in April
he abdicated the throne which he could no longer
defend, and retired to play at royalty, as the Allies
fondly hoped, in the Isle of Elba, with a battalion of
soldiers and a petty fleet, on an income less than
that of many an English nobleman.
Europe was in a delirium of joy. The Bourbons
returned to the vacant throne, not a whit instructed
by their misfortunes ; and deceived by the show of
applause for the white cockade, acted as if the Revo
lution and Napoleon had never existed. The spoils
of the nations, that had so long adorned the capital,
were sent back to their places on the vacant walls of
the picture-galleries and pedestals of their museums.
Petty sovereigns resumed the thrones from which they
had been driven ; and even Frenchmen, in all their
humiliation, admitted the magnanimity of the Allies
in not demanding a military contribution for all their

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 19
expenditure and their losses. London welcomed the
Emperors of Russia and Austria and the King of
Prussia. The Regent fHed them with all the costly
magnificence so dear to his temper, and made their
visit an opportunity for insulting his discarded wife,
by excluding her from the Royal gatherings, and
forbidding his visitors from paying her the least
personal attention. There was, however, still much
to be done by the conquerors of France — the map of
Europe had to be rearranged to suit their demands.
The result was inevitable. The Congress of Vienna
showed how hollow was the friendship they professed,
and on how frail a tenure the alliance rested. As
soon as the diplomatists met, they began to quarrel
over the pander ; and over the re-partition of ill-fated
Poland, and the proposed absorption of Saxony, the
conquerors all but came to blows amongst themselves.
Austria, England, and France entered into a treaty to
resist Russia and Prussia. The Great Powers ceased
to disband their armies, Prussia retained her hold on
Saxony, and England moved her troops into Belgium.
At this moment came the startling news that Napoleon
had escaped from Elba — landed in France — been joined
by the troops which had only so lately sworn allegi
ance to the white flag — that the Bourbon king had fled
from his capital — and the exile of Elba was once more
on the throne of France ! The quarrel was made up
in haste, and " mutual fear once more enforced mutual
confidence." Napoleon was proclaimed as beyond
the protection of treaties. The work had to be done
over again : this time the work was to be thorough.
The Congress had met at Vienna on the 3rd of
C 2

20 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
November, 1814. On the 26th of February, Napoleon
evading the careless watch set over him by our
cruisers, had escaped from Elba.1 On the 19th of
March he was at Fontainbleau, at the head of an
enormous army, with the remnants of the royal army
between him and Paris. It was in vain that Mac-
donald, true to his oath, prepared to oppose his old
master. At the first sight of the Emperor his troops
tore off their white cockades, and rushed as one man
to receive him ; and the Parisians with transport hailed
the return of the man whom they had so lately cursed.
His old marshals flocked to his standard, and his
army grew with unexpected rapidity, as the veterans
who had been detained in foreign fortresses returned
to France, and hastened to swell his ranks. The
genius of Napoleon never shone so brightly as in
this his last struggle. Before the beginning of June
1 Sir Neil Campbell, who was in command of the squadron
in those seas, asserted in his defence : " I was never placed
about him as a gaoler. I was a commissioner, on the contrary,
appointed by the English Government to provide him with
everything he could want in his island. For this purpose I had
the ' Partridge' at Porto Ferrajo, at my orders. I had no men,
no means, to prevent his doing whatever he chose ; whilst he
had a frigate, a bomb-vessel, small boats, and a thousand
soldiers. I had warned Lord Castlereagh that if the agreed
salary was not paid by the Allies he would do something despe
rate, and that he was in communication with Murat. All was
quiet when I left, on Saturday, the 25th, for Leghorn, on a visit
to Florence."— Lady Charlotte Bury's " Diary of the Times of
George IV.," vol. i. p. 156. The gossip here added, that Camp
bell had gone to Florence to see his lady-love, is mere gossip ;
he had frequent communications with our representative in that
city.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.

220,000 men, mostly veterans, were completely armed
and equipped, and he was once more the terror of
Europe. The Allies were equal to the occasion. England
poured out her millions of treasure with lavish pro
fusion.2 On the upper Rhine, half a million of
Austrians and Russians were ready under Schwartzen-
berg. On the lower Rhine, Blucher moved with
140,000 Prussians ; whilst in Belgium, Wellington, with
a mixed force of 80,000 men prepared for a second
march on Paris. With masterly rapidity Napoleon
hastened to strike at his foes in Belgium, where the
Prussians were hastening to join Wellington, before
the juncture could be effected. His strategy failed
him for once. Thanks to the sturdy resistance of the
Prussians at Ligny, and the gallant stand of the
British at Quatre Bras, the Allies were near enough to
each other to enable the Prussians to pour fresh forces
into the field of Waterloo, at the critical moment
when the French were disheartened by their repeated
failures, and to convert a serious repulse into a ruinous
flight. The end had at last come. Hurrying to Paris,
which he vainly attempted to defend, Napoleon fled
to Rochefort, in hopes of escaping to America. It
was hopeless. On the 15th of July he surrendered to
the captain ofthe " Bellerophon." It was but a short
step from thence to the island prison of St. Helena.
The cost of the great struggle told seriously on
England, who had been the paymaster of Europe.
The hundred millions of debt, which was deemed un-
5 One hundred and ten millions were voted on this occasion
for war purposes.

22 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
bearable when George III. began to reign, had
increased sevenfold, and the national taxation had
risen from seventeen to seventy-two millions. This
pressure, borne with apparent ease when we were
monopolizing the trade of the world, became painfully
oppressive when, with peace, commerce gradually
returned to her old channels, and the necessities of a
war expenditure ceased to find employment for our
manufacturers and home producers. Commercial and
agricultural distress were coincident, and bread riots
were added to the previous attacks on machinery.
Nor were the former, as the latter, confined to the
manufacturing districts. During three nights serious
riots occurred in London, on the price at which corn
could be imported being fixed by the new Corn Bill at
eighty-one shillings the quarter; troops had to be moved
on the metropolis, and actively employed in the streets,
before they could be quelled. In addition to the normal
conspiracies against machinery in factories, a far more
dangerous combination had arisen — nominally for the
demand of parliamentary and executive reform, really
in many cases for a change in the Constitution of the
country, of a revolutionary character. The Govern
ment had but one remedy — trials and executions, with
the usual effect of, for a time, checking the outrages
on property and persons, whilst leaving the original
sources of disaffection to work with more dangerous
secrecy. To add to the prevalent distress, incessant
rain from June to October caused an entire stagnation
of trade. Wheat rose to a guinea a bushel ; there was
no old corn in store ; the harvest, if it deserved such a
title, did not commence till the first week in October •

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 23
the corn in many places was even then still green ;
the wheat, when reaped, good for nothing; the potatoes
an utter failure. The Government had indeed been
forced to reduce the war taxation, by the repeal of
the Income Tax and the malt duty. The deficit,
however, had to be covered by a loan ; and the inci
dence of the taxes repealed had pressed but lightly
on the labouring classes.
For all these varied ills parliamentary reform was
advocated as the infallible remedy. It was no longer
a convenient party engine with the Opposition, but
had become a household word. In this movement
Cobbett bore the leading part. Until November,
1 8 16, his trenchant Political Register had been cir
culated only among those who could afford to pay
dearly for its weekly diatribes. Now he appealed to
the masses with his Twopenny Register, and suddenly
became an authority with the working classes through
out the country. " Spencean Clubs" — in which the
opinions of the visionary Spence, who in 1800 had
advocated the extinction of property in land, and its
absorption for purposes of State — assisted the move
ment. " Hampden Clubs " nominally limited their
demands to parliamentary reform of a character then
considered visionary and revolutionary — votes for
every male over eighteen years of age who paid taxes,
paid members, and annual parliaments. Physical
force gradually became advocated as the only remedy;
and spies, incendiaries, and dupes, soon infested these
nominally constitutional associations, which held their
meetings in the lowest public-houses. One outcome of
this movement was the Spa Fields riot, on the 2nd of

24 NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS.
December, 1816, in which the Watsons and Thistle-
wood were implicated, and which, thanks to the firm
ness of the City magistrates, proved a miserable failure.
Relying on the statements of a Government spy of
the name of Castle, as great a vagabond as ever was
put into the witness-box, the Government sought to
magnify this outrage into a case of high treason.
Early in 18 17 the Watsons, Thistle wood, and one
Hooper, were indicted for compassing the King's life.
Castle was put into the box, and his previous career
exposed with unmitigated severity by the counsel
for the prisoners. The evidence was naturally dis
believed ; and in spite of one of Ellenborough's
charges, the elder Watson was acquitted, and the
Government dropped further proceedings against his
colleagues.3 Parliament met at the end of January, 18 17, and
the Royal Speech spoke strongly of the rising dis
affection in the country, and of the attempts that
were being made of using the prevalent distress for
the purpose of exciting sedition and violence. It
was promised that " no precautions for securing the
public peace and counteracting the designs of the
disaffected should be omitted." The Government
was apparently satisfied with the powers which the
existing laws gave it. Within three days, however,
came a message from the Regent, again asking both
Houses of the Legislature to consider the evidence of
disaffection which he now laid before them, and
suggesting additional measures for the preservation
of the public peace. On the 18th and 19th of the
3 See trial of James Watson, post, p. 213.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 25
same month the Secret Committees of both Houses
reported that " these associations were for the
purpose of overthrowing all the political institutions
of the country, and such a subversion of the rights
and principles of property as must necessarily lead
to general confusion, plunder, and bloodshed." Under
the influence of these reports the Government carried
four stringent Acts. By the first, the safeguards
against treasonable attempts on the Sovereign were
extended to the Prince Regent ; 4 by the second, the
Act for the prevention of the seduction of our soldiers
and sailors was renewed ; by the third, the Statute
against the Corresponding Society was extended
to the present clubs ; by the last, the protection of
the writ of Habeas Corpus was again suspended for
a limited time.
The last of these measures had been passed a little
more than a week, when the extent to which agi
tation and union prevailed in the manufacturing
districts was shown by the strange assembly of " The
Blanketeers " in St. Peter's Field, Manchester. A vast
body of workmen, with blankets, rugs, or coats, rolled
up and tied on their backs, some with bundles
suppoged to contain petitions, and some with stout
sticks, marched into the field. The magistrates were

4 The Regent had been mobbed on his way to Parliament,
and a missile — probably a stone — thrown at his carriage-window.
The new Acts extended the powers of 36 Geo. III., c. 7, to the
person of the Regent ; renewed the Act of 1816 against the
seduction of soldiers and sailors; made 39 Geo. III. (against
the Corresponding Society) applicable to present clubs ; and
renewed the Act of 1795 against seditious meetings.

26 NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS.
on the alert ; the Riot Act was read, and the mob
dispersed, without injury, by the military and con
stables. Public meetings were apparently at an end,
with the inevitable result that the disaffected met
with more secrecy, and their plans increased in
violence. The spy system was in full vigour, but in
more favourable hands than those of Castle, and
working with more discretion and astuteness. A
man of the name of Oliver was now the chief actor
in the system of Government espionage, and if
report spoke the truth, advised and promoted among
his dupes the acts of violence which were afterwards
proved against them by other witnesses. Anyhow a
new impulse was given to disaffection in Lancashire,
Yorkshire, and Derbyshire, and three of the reputed
leaders — Brandreth, Turner, and Ludlow — were tried
and executed at Derby for high treason. Sir Samuel
Romilly declared openly in his place in Parliament
that " he believed the whole of these insurrections were
the work of the persons sent by Government,"
nominally to fraternize with the disaffected, really to
incite them to such acts of violence as might secure
them their rewards on the conviction of their dupes.6
For their share in the Derbyshire insurrection three
were executed, and twenty subjected to heavy,
though minor, punishments.
Another source of trouble to the Government
were the libels, especially those in the form of indecent
parodies on the Prayer Book and Bible, with which
the press, mainly in the metropolis, teemed. On the
5 For the history of Oliver's connexion with the Home Office,
see trial of Brandreth and others,/^/, p. 218.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 27
29th of March Lord Sidmouth issued a "circular
letter '' to the Lord-Lieutenants of Counties, urging
the importance of preventing the circulation of these
dangerous publications, and giving it as the opinion
of the law officers of the crown that " a justice of the
peace might issue a warrant to apprehend a person
charged before him with such an offence, and compel
him to answer the charge." On this interpretation
of the law he called on the magistrates to act — a call
they not unwillingly obeyed. It was in vain that
this interpretation of the law was attacked by Lord
Grey and Mr. Fox as the greatest invasion of the
liberty ofthe subject that had been attempted since
the Stuart days; the opinion of the law officers was sup
ported in both Houses of Parliament, and the action of
the Home Secretary approved by decisive majorities.
The proceedings of the Government were, with one
exception, signal failures. They drove Cobbett to
America, and for a few months stopped the publi
cation of his Political Register. But they failed to
convict Hone, the chief writer of the indecent
parodies, though they persevered again and again in
bringing him before juries, and though they had all
the power of Ellenborough to enforce a conviction.
The triple acquittal of this learned and astute
parodist necessarily increased the disease his indict
ment was expected to remedy.
Thus passed the miserable year 18 17, rendered
more so by the sad death of the Princess Charlotte,
to whom all classes looked with hopefulness as the
mother of a new and better race of Sovereigns. The
sorrow of the nation was as widespread as intense,

28 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
and the universal mourning the best proof that the
people were right at heart and desirous of no vital
change in the institutions of the country. Until her
marriage with Prince Leopold, her life had been
truly miserable. Separated from her mother, coerced
by her father, and little better than a prisoner in her
residence, she had passed at one step from trouble to
happiness by her marriage, with every prospect of a
long and useful life. But it was not so to be. Whether
by natural causes or the carelessness of her medical
attendant it is useless now to discuss, she died in
her first trial as a mother, without even the conso
lation of leaving an heir to the throne at the price of
its mother's life.
The Cabinet were so satisfied with the result of
their policy against disturbers of the peace and with
the prospect of the coming year, that they repealed
the Habeas Suspension Act, content to carry, after
severe opposition, a bill indemnifying those witnesses
on whose evidence persons had been committed to
gaol, and who could not in safety be produced in public.
One of the men who had been arrested under the
late Act was the Thistlewood who had been impli
cated in the Spa Fields riot. No sooner was he
released than he challenged Lord Sidmouth, who
personally would have treated the insult with con
tempt, but who, by decision of the Cabinet, exhibited
articles of peace against him, on which he was con
victed and laid for a year in Horsham gaol. To
this unwise act may be traced much of the personal
hostility which so soon prompted Thistlewood to
join, if not to devise, the Cato Street conspiracy.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 29
The legal marriages of the bachelor brothers of the
Regent were politically necessary since the death of
the lamented Princess and her child, and the stubborn
refusal of the Cabinet to aid the Regent in obtaining
a divorce from his wandering wife.6 The notorious
Milan Commission had begun its investigations, but
it was not until early in 18 19 that its report reached
England and had to be considered by the Cabinet.
Assuming the witnesses to be reliable, Ministers were
convinced that it established the charge of adultery.
The Regent pressed for a divorce, but in vain. " So
long as she remained alive and held no higher
station than that of Princess of Wales, the Cabinet
considered it expedient to abstain from any public
proceedings ; but they soothed the Regent by
promising to endeavour to comply with his demands,
should she ever return to England.
6 In November, 181 1, the Duke of Clarence had proposed to
Lady Catherine Long, who preferred Wellesley Pole, and to
Miss Elphinstone, who refused him. This caused a rupture
with Mrs. Jordan, to whom he offered 800/. a year, and half the
children. This cold-blooded offer she stoutly refused, till the
Duke had paid what he owed her. She told all the neigh
bours at Bushy that " during the twenty years she had lived
with the Duke he had taken all her earnings," and that " now
that she was a beggar by living with him, and supporting him,"
he wished to leave her. The Duke of Cumberland wrote her
of his brother's proposals to these ladies ; to whom she wrote a
letter of thanks, and at the same time a furious one to the Duke
of Clarence ; the letters went to the wrong parties, and in con
sequence there was a scene between the Royal brothers." — Mr.
H. Fremantle to Marquis Buckingham, Nov. 28, 181 1. In
February, 1819, he proposed to Miss Wykeham, the great heiress,
who accepted him ; but he was talked out of it by his mother,
and persuaded to marry the Princess of Saxe Meiningen.

30 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
The death of the aged Queen, in the winter of 1818,
raised a most untoward question in connexion with
the care of the imbecile King. To this delicate
position the Duke of York was nominated, and the
occasion most unwisely taken of asking for an
additional income for him on the score of his new
duties. This proposal created great dissatisfaction.
It was revolting, said Lord Grenville, to pay a son for
the care of his father. From the little prudence and
management shown by the Duke in his own con
cerns, wrote Mr. Grenville, "the country will not,
and perhaps ought not, to see the old King quartered
on his discretion. Whatever belongs to the King's
maintenance ought to be exclusively appropriated to
it."7 The Duke, to his honour, was unwilling to
raise the question; but the Regent was determined,
and the House, by a considerable majority, agreed
that the extra grant should be included in the Royal
Household Bill.
The revival of cash payments, suspended during
the later years of the war, the mitigation of our
Draconic criminal code, and parliamentary reform,
formed the leading subjects of discussion in the Session
of 1 8 19. The first brought Peel, not as yet in office,
into repute as a financier ; for the second we are
indebted to Mackintosh, on whom the mantle of
Romilly had fallen ; in the last Lord John Russell
came to the front of the great question which he
never ceased from agitating during his long life. For
the last time the fervid and manly protest of Grattan
7 Thomas Grenville to Marquis Buckingham, Dec. 7 ; " The
Regency," by the Duke of Buckingham, vol. ii.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 31
against the disabilities of his Catholic countrymen
was heard in Parliament, when his motion for a Com
mittee on the laws imposing certain oaths and de
clarations as a necessary qualification for certain
offices was defeated, by the narrow majority of two,
in a crowded house. The great orator lived in
deed till the spring of the next year, but was too
feeble in health to bring on his promised motion for
the removal of Catholic disabilities. Three days
after that appointed for his motion, died this most
earnest and honest advocate of religious freedom.
By the time when Parliament was prorogued the
prospects of domestic peace had been seriously
lessened. From February to July trade had been
steadily lessened, bankruptcies increased, credit im
paired, the demand for labour affected, and wages
lowered, whilst the price of food was rising. Severely
pressed by the low rate of wages and the increased
price of food, the operatives of Glasgow and Lan
cashire had appealed to public sympathy, in meet
ings at first peaceable, but soon rendered turbulent
by political firebrands. In the political portion of
this movement a Lancashire baronet, Sir Charles
Wolseley, took a leading part, telling the crowds that
he had mounted the ramparts of the Bastille when
stormed by the French populace, and that he would
never shrink from attacking and destroying the
Bastilles of England. Foiled, for the present, in
their demand for the reform of Parliament, the
Radicals, as they were now called, devised the scheme
of electing " legislatorial attorneys and representa
tives " for the towns not represented in Parliament,

32 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
and Sir Charles Wolseley was one of the first elected.
The proposal in itself was too absurd to require
serious notice — a mere humble imitation of the Con
ventions of the Irish, which had been checked by the
Convention Act of 1793, and would probably have
been left to die a natural death but for the seditious
language of the leaders of these illegal election
meetings. For such language, at Stockport, Sir
Charles and a dissenting minister of the name of
Harrison were arrested, the former at his own house,
the latter at a meeting at which Hunt presided.8
The alarm of the Government at these events was
increased by the reports of the local authorities that
there were nightly assemblies of workmen for learning
and practising military training, and that a conspiracy
of a most revolutionary character existed, with wide
spread ramifications throughout the manufacturing
districts. Still Ministers were content with the powers
they possessed, and with sending orders for additional
vigilance to the commander of the few troops located
in the disturbed district. On the 16th of August the
crisis came, when the men of Manchester and its
neighbourhood, 80,000 strong, met on St. Peter's
Field for the election of " a legislative attorney and
representative " for their town. The events of that
day are detailed elsewhere.9 Dispersed by the mili
tary, many innocent persons necessarily suffered in
the miUe before Hunt and his leading supporters
could be arrested. By the friends of order the events
of that day, much as they were regretted, were de-
8 See trial of Sir C. Wolseley and Harrison, post, p. 266.
9 Trial of Hunt and others, post, p. 273.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 33
fended as a painful necessity. By the friends of the
sufferers the day was stigmatized as that of " The
Peterloo Massacre." Hunt and some of his com
panions were eventually tried and convicted for their
share in these untoward transactions.
At the conduct of the magistrates, as well as of the
military, a widespread feeling of indignation rose
throughout the kingdom, which was increased by the
haste with which, before the facts were really accu
rately known, the Regent expressed his great satis
faction at their prompt, decided, and efficient measures
for the preservation of public tranquillity. Resolu
tions for a strict inquiry into the events were passed
by the citizens of London and most of the populous
towns. In Yorkshire a county meeting, at the re
quisition of the leading landowners, including the
Lord-Lieutenant, Lord Fitzwilliam, was called by the
High Sheriff, and responded to by 20,000 persons.
In their alarm the Government made a false step
when they advised the Regent to deprive Lord Fitz
william of his high office, to the regret even of their
own friends.
The Lord Chancellor and the Home Secretary de
manded additional Coercion Acts, and at length
forced, rather than persuaded, Lord Liverpool to
summon Parliament in hot haste, to pass the new
measures — the notorious Six Acts of Lord Sidmouth.
On the 29th of November Parliament met, and, under
the prevailing terror, in a month passed these statutes,
which, severe as they were, hardly satisfied many of
their supporters. Four of these Acts were applicable
mainly to the disturbed districts. By the first, the
VOL. II. D

34 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
right of traversing was taken away in cases of mis
demeanour ; by the second, stringent means were
provided for preventing illegal training and drilling ;
by the third, justices obtained additional powers for
seizing arms ; and by the last, means were given for
more effectually preventing seditious meetings. Of
the other two Acts, one was framed for the suppression
of seditious and blasphemous libels, and by the other
pamphlets were subjected to the same stamps and
restrictions as newspapers. All inquiry into the
events, of the day was resisted by the Government,
though, as we now know, the Commander-in-Chief
was in favour of such a step, and against increasing
the prevailing ferment by counter meetings in sup-
> port of the conduct of the Government.1 Having
1 On the 5th of October, 1819, the Duke of York wrote to the
Marquis of Buckingham, " In my opinion it is the duty of Par
liament to investigate the subject, and satisfy the public mind.
Should it be proved, which I hope it will, that no blame attaches
to the magistrates or yeomanry of Manchester, the country will
be easy on the subject, and there will be no pretext for clamours,
which certainly would not be the case if the inquiry were refused.
But if, unfortunately, it turn out, which I anxiously hope may
not be the case, that there was impropriety in their conduct,
then that, proving that equal justice is done to all parties, is the
most likely way of assuaging the' present feverish state of the
public mind. We must be firm in supporting the Constitution
and putting down the machinations of evil-disposed persons;
but we must not afford a pretext for complaint, by attempting
to stifle inquiry, or for want of proving ourselves to be on sound
and good grounds. For these reasons I grieve to see different
public meetings called, as they can only tend to increase present
ferment ; and, as none of us can know the real truth of the
case, declarations, either in favour or against the conduct of
the magistrates and yeomanry of Manchester, strike me as

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 35
obeyed its orders, Parliament adjourned to its usual
time of meeting in the following year. It had hardly
met more than a fortnight when the Regency came
to an end by the death of the poor old King, and the
Regent, who had practically reigned for ten years,
became King in name as well as in reality. It was
apparently only the change of a title. From its
bearing on the conduct of her who was now Queen it
became one of the most important domestic events
of the period.
prejudging the question, and therefore as improper." Lord
Grenville to the same, October 29, recommends the permanent
and universal institution of autumn assizes, so as to try the
parties without delay. — " The Regency," by the Duke of Buck
ingham.

D 2

36 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.

CHAPTER II.
TRIAL OF BELLINGHAM FOR THEMURDER
OF SPENCER PERCEVAL.
May, i 8 12.
Spencer Perceval, second son of John, first Earl
of Egmont, was born in 1762, educated at Harrow
and Cambridge, and called to the Bar in I78\ where
his progress was assisted by the political influence of
his family. In 1790 he married the sister of his elder
brother's wife, whose fortune was a welcome addition
to his fee-book. Though given one of those small
sinecures which then abounded, and retained for the
Crown in several leading cases, he was content to live
in lodgings, until his appointment as Counsel to the
Admiralty in 1796, when he came into Parliament for
Northampton, the seat for which town became vacant
by the death of a relative. He was now on the road
to success ; and though the effect of his speeches in
Parliament was, to some extent, lessened by that
absence of readiness in argument and reply which
compelled him to prepare them diligently before
delivery, he was always listened to with respect and
attention, as a steady supporter of the Government.
Step by step he rose in his profession, became

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 37
Solicitor-General to the Queen, and to the Board of
Ordnance in 1798, to the University of Cambridge in
1800, and the year after Solicitor-General. Within a
year the promotion of Law to the Chief-Justiceship
opened to him the Attorney-Generalship, and placed'
him at the head of the bar of England.1 In this
position we have already seen him conducting the
trials of Despard, Peltier,3 and the cases arising out of
1 Perceval originally joined the Midland Circuit, and was
appointed Deputy-Recorder of Northampton. Married the
second daughter of Sir Thomas Maryon Wilson, of Charlton,
and made Surveyor of Meltings, a Mint sinecure, worth 132/. a
year. Hence Sydney Smith's caricature of him as "The Sallow
Surveyor of Meltings." Lodged over a carpet-shop in Bedford
Street until, in 1796, he purchased, from his wife's settlement,
a house in Lincoln's Inn Fields. In earlier years at the bar, a fre
quent speaker at the High Tory Club " The Crown and Rolls,"
where he ventilated such doctrines as the disestablishment of
the Church, the surrender of Gibraltar, and others, which he
lived to abandon. His pamphlet on Warren Hastings' impeach
ment first brought him into notice. In 1800 published a curious
essay on Daniel xi. 3, 6, 7, and 40 — 45, anticipating the fall of
the Papacy, and of Napoleon from his failure at Acre. Sup
ported in Parliament bills for preventing the establishment of
monasteries and convents by the French refugees, and the
punishment of adultery as a crime ; and opposed one for creat
ing a company for the manufacture of bread, as a cure for the
prevailing scarcity, on ground of creating a monopoly. All his
important speeches were written out, and copies of them left
among his papers, and also of some which, apparently, were
never delivered. In one of the Reform debates, C. Fox said,
" The hon. member complained of the ambiguity of my words
on a former occasion. Why did he not complain earlier ? Why
take six weeks to make an epigram on my speech?" — Walpole's
" Life of Perceval," vol. i.
2 He exerted himself to get Mackintosh appointed Recorder

38 NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS.
J uverna's letters. In these libels arising out of Emmet's
rebellion, Perceval's interest as the Crown's legal re
presentative was increased by his relationship to the
Irish Chancellor, whose conduct formed the occasion
for so large a portion of these attacks. So long as
Juverna's letters were not traceable to a brother
Judge on the Irish bench Lord Redesdale opposed the
prosecution ; when, however, their real authorship
seemed probable, he urged the prosecution of Cobbett
— not to punish him, but in hopes, as the event
proved, that he would give up the originals, and enable
the Government to trace them to the right source.3
Refusing the Chief-Justiceship of the Common
Pleas, on the death of Lord Alvanley, he continued
as Attorney-General in the short-lived Administration
of Mr. Addington, and on its collapse accepted the
same position from Pitt, but only on the condition
that Fox was not to be bargained with, that there
of Bombay, and on his return from India offered him a seat in
Parliament. 3 See Lord Redesdale to Perceval, Dec. 17, 1803: "If my
character will not bear such a paltry attempt to injure it, it is
not worth preserving. But of all things I should be sorry to
have you the prosecutor." Same to the same, Jan. 2, 1804:
" Has perused letter 4. No doubt the writer is one of H.M.
Judges — the man who would have been sixth in the first Com
mission, had it not been confined to five." . ..." If this man
shall not be brought to resign, and if Mr. Justice  shall not
be brought to the same situation, the administration of justice
in Ireland will be for ever disgraced." Then suggesting prose
cution of Cobbett, for reason stated in the text, and ending, " In
this point I think the prosecution of Cobbett highly proper. In
any other I exclaim against it." — Quoted in Walpole's " Life of
Perceval."

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 39
should be no more abuse of his friend Addington,
and that no Catholic Relief Bill should be introduced.
His defence of Addington from the attacks of Pitt,
Fox, and Windham, are admitted to have been as
able as they were sincere. " His talents," says Lord
Brougham, " sparkled with peculiar brightness. His
dexterity in any great or personal conflict ; his lan
guage, always purely but unaffectedly English, nor
ever chargeable with incorrect taste ; his attention
continually awake, and his spirit ever dauntless,
gained him the greatest reputation as a great and
powerful debater." 4 It was natural, therefore, that on
the death of Pitt he should be regarded as the most
effective, if not the most prominent member of the
party, and that when he and his friends were in
power he should be responsible for the policy of the
country. Whilst out of office he was engaged in two
cases of which we shall have to speak in detail in a
subsequent chapter — the attempt of the Prince of
Wales to obtain the guardianship of Lord Hugh
Seymour's daughter for his friend Mrs. Fitzherbert,
and the so-called " Delicate Investigation " of the
charges brought by Sir John and Lady Douglas
against the Princess of Wales. In both of these
painful investigations he exhibited the same fearless
ness and dauntless spirit as he did in Parliament, re
gardless of the ill-will of the Prince or the murmurs
of his intimates.
On the resignation of the Cabinet of "All the
Talents," and the consequent formation of that of the
Duke of Portland, it was indispensable that Perceval
• Lord Brougham's " Statesmen," i. 248.

40 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
should be the ruling power in the Ministry, and at the
same time not put to a pecuniary loss by his accession
to political power. His practice at the bar, confined
for some years to the Court of Chancery, when even
out of office was so considerable and certain, and his
family so numerous, that he could hardly be expected
to sacrifice a comparatively permanent, and probably
increasing income, for a temporary Cabinet appoint
ment, especially such a one as that of Chancellor of
the Exchequer, which, in those days, was far too
poorly remunerated unless some other post was held
in commendam. He was therefore given the Chan
cellorship of the Duchy of Lancaster for life, in addi
tion to that of the Exchequer — and thus an occasion
was furnished to the Opposition for carrying an ad
dress to the Crown not to repeat this unpopular act.6
In office, as is often the case with a successful cap
tain of the Opposition, Perceval was not so able as
when he sat on the other side of the House. Whether
it was from anxiety for his wife's health or not, he
certainly showed less nerve, less boldness, and less
decision than before ; and as he had no time now to
write his speeches, they often lacked much of their
former point and finish. There was enough, indeed,
to tax the fullest powers of a leader ofthe House : the
unpopular and unwise Orders in Council, in retalia
tion of the Berlin and Milan Decrees of Napoleon —
6 Perceval's fees in 1795, 1012/. ; in 1800, 1807/. ; 1801 (Soli
citor-General), 4021/. ; 1802 (Attorney-General), 6600/.; 1803,
7540/. ; 1804, 9700/. ; 1805, 7779/. ; in 1806 (out of office), 4558/. ;,
whilst the Chancellorship of the Exchequer _was only 1325/., with
an official residence.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 41
the failure of the expedition to the Peninsula, despite
the victory of Corunna — the miserable Convention of
Cintra, and the disgusting exposures in the case of
the Duke of York and his wily mistress — the motions
against Perceval for interference in borough elections,
and against Lord Castlereagh for the promise of a
writership as a bribe for a seat, in addition to the
usual financial trouble of the time. But, above all,
his Cabinet was weakened by the bitter feeling be
tween Castlereagh and Canning, the Increasing illness
of the Duke of Portland and his impending resigna
tion, and the unconcealed objection of Canning to
act under Perceval as the future Premier.
Difficult as was Perceval's position under the
nominal lead of the Duke of Portland, its difficulty
increased on the Duke's resignation and the hesitation
of his colleagues to attempt to carry on the Government
without a great accession of political strength. With
the King's consent, Lords Grenville and Grey were
invited to support the remains of the Cabinet which
they had so steadily opposed when apparently strong
and united. The invitation of course failed, and Per
ceval turned towards Lords Wellesley and Sidmouth,
but at first with doubtful success, wishful to secure
the friends of the latter — Bragge Bathurst, and Van-
sittart — without their leader. Lord Sidmouth almost
necessarily refused. Lord Wellesley accepted, and
assumed the direction of the Foreign Office. There
was still the difficulty of finding a new Finance
Minister. Vansittart, Palmerston, Milnes, and Rose,
one after the other, declined the post ; and in the end
Perceval had to double his duty, and keep his old

42 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
office, in addition to the Premiership. He would
probably have recoiled from the task, but for his
devotion to the old Monarch.6 With Ministers
weak and uncertain of support, in the face of an
Opposition eager and confident, the Ministry of Per
ceval met Parliament in 1810; and though they
carried the Addresses in both Houses by large majo
rities, were soon convinced of their weakness in the
House of Commons. The Committee on the wretched
affair at Walcheren was carried against them, and
three times they were defeated on the reappointment
of the Committee on Finance, by small majorities
When, subsequently, the Walcheren Committee pre
sented their report, necessarily condemnatory of the
affair, the Government succeeded in defeating the
vote of censure, and in obtaining votes approving the
expedition, the retention of the island, and the fatal
delay in its evacuation. On one incident connected
with this expedition they suffered a severe defeat.
Lord Chatham had sent his letter of explanation
direct to the King, and not through the usual medium
6 Lord Colchester's Diary, vol. ii. 225. The King's personal
influence during his sanity was all powerful with the leaders
on both sides. Lord Melville's temporary opposition to his son
taking office, for a time increased the difficulties of Perceval.
(See Trial of Lord Melville, ante, vol. i. p. 222.) Though the
Chancellorship of the Exchequer was thus refused, the feeling
towards Perceval may be seen from Milnes's words to Lord
Palmerston: "We must fix this little fellow firmly in his seat,
for it is a struggle for principle on the one hand against trim
ming and political intrigue on the other." — Quoted in the " Life
of Palmerston."

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 43
of the Secretary of State. The King had returned it
to Chatham for alterations, and only then it reached
the usual authority. Whitbread's resolutions con
demning this as unconstitutional were carried, and
Lord Chatham resigned his post as Master-General
of Ordnance. Further Ministerial changes followed,
by which the Government was completed, but not
strengthened, though it was still able to remain in
power. The questions of the privileges of the House of
Commons, raised in the case of Sir Francis Bur
dett, were a relief to the Cabinet, as for nearly three
months they diverted the attention of members
from subjects on which Ministers might have
been hard pressed, if not defeated. During the
Walcheren inquiry, on the 6th of February, 1810, Mr.
C. Yorke moved for the exclusion of strangers, in ill-
judged and offensive language. " He did not wish,"
he said, " to establish such a power in the Press as to
enable it to control Parliament. He did not know
any of the conductors of the Press ; but he under
stood them to be a set of men who would give in to
the corrupt representations of both sides, and there
fore he was determined not to lend his hand to abro
gate an order which was made to correct an abuse."
At the next meeting of a debating club in Covent
Garden, it was announced by placard that the subject,
for discussion would be, " Which was the greater out
rage on public feeling, Mr. Yorke's enforcement of
the standing order to exclude strangers from the
House of Commons, or Mr. Windham's recent attack

44 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
on the liberty of the Press?"7 Yorke at once had
the printer at the bar of the House, when he ex
pressed contrition, gave up the author's name — an
apothecary of the name of Gale Jones, previously
known as a member of the Corresponding Society —
and thus escaped with twenty-four hours' imprison
ment. Not so Gale Jones, who was defiant, and sent
to Newgate. A motion for his release was defeated
by an overwhelming majority, and then Burdett took
up the cudgels in the Press.
In the form of a letter to his constituents, pub
lished in Cobbett's Register, denying the power of
the House to imprison Jones, he declared, in most
offensive language, that " the character and personal
freedom of his constituents depended on the decision,
' Whether our liberty be still to be secured by the
laws of our forefathers, or be to lie at the absolute
mercy of a part of our fellow-subjects, collected
together by means which it was not necessary for
7 The following was the placard : —
BRITISH FORUM,
33, Bedford Street, Covent Garden,
Monday, Feb. 19, 1810.
Question (as quoted in the text). Last Monday, after an
nteresting discussion, it was unanimously decided that the
enforcement of the standing order shutting out strangers from
the gallery of the House of Commons, ought to be censured, as
an insidious and ill-timed attack on the liberties of the Press ;
as tending to aggravate the discontents of the people, and to
render their representatives objects of jealous suspicion. The
present question was brought forward as a comparative inquiry,
and may justly be expected to furnish a contested and interest
ing debate. Printed by J. Dean, 57, Wardour Street.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 45
him to describe.'" To this letter, which was pub
lished in the Register of March 24, was appended a
copy of the long and detailed speech by which he
had supported the motion for the release of Gale
Jones. At the end of this report, appeared the
paragraph deemed so insulting by the House. In
it he professed to " fear that unless the gentlemen of
the House of Commons revert to the great principles
of the constitution they might incur the sentence
of St. Paul on Ananias, ' God shall smite thee,
thou whited sepulchre, for thou sittest to judge
me according to the law, and commandest me
to be smitten contrary to the law.' " 8 Lethbridge
brought this letter before the House, and Burdett,
whilst professing not to intend to violate its privileges,
adhered to the opinion he had expressed, and then
left the House. Several motions for adjournment, or
merely a reprimand, having been defeated, a resolu
tion for his commitment was passed, and the Speaker's
warrant handed to the Serjeant-at-Arms. Burdett
shut himself in his house, and resisted the warrant,
which, under the advice of the Crown lawyers, was
at length executed by force, and Burdett conveyed to
the Tower. Of the street riots that ensued it is need
less to speak. They were quelled, and the case
passed into the hands of the lawyers. Actions were
at once commenced by Burdett against the Speaker
and the Serjeant-at-Arms, and the question arose,
how should the House act. Perceval opposed the
high-handed course — which precedent justified — of
committing the attorneys who had brought the
8 Cobbett's Political Register, March 24, 1810.

46 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
actions. By his influence the question was referred
to a committee, and on its report it was ordered that
the cases should pursue the' usual course, and the
House defend its Speaker and its Serjeant. On the
trials the Court held that the House had acted
within its power, and its officer was justified by its
authority. This judgment was confirmed by the
House of Lords, to which tribunal the case went on
writ of error, the lords ultimately deciding on the
privileges of the Commons. On the prorogation,
but not till then, Burdett and Jones were released ;
and beyond the refusal by the House of some offen
sive petitions from Westminster, the Livery of Lon
don, and several counties, the interlude came to an
end.9 It would be mere repetition of former remarks
were the difficulties and intrigues attendant on the
Regency Question again discussed. It was admitted
even by his political opponents that Perceval gained
great credit for the manner in which he conducted
this most difficult affair, mainly, if not, as was said,
entirely by his own exertions, unassisted by any
of his colleagues. He knew the character and habits
of the Regent too well to warrant his placing any
confidence in one of whom he had not hesitated to
9 A. triumphal procession was arranged for Burdett, who
wisely slipped away from prison and got home before his par
tisans knew of it, who were not a little disgusted at his evasion
of the meditated triumph, and the loss of a chance of another
riot. Gale Jones refused to leave Newgate, but was got out
side the gates on the pretence that a friend wanted to speak to
him, and then having them locked in his face, so had to slink
home without public notice.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 47
say, in open court, that no guarantee of his for any
payment could be accepted, " as there was no reason
to believe that he would keep his promise. He knew
that his insolvency would make the Regent the tem
porary friend of any politician who would increase
his allowances and pay his debts."1 He had, and he
no doubt greatly relied on, the support of the Queen
and some of the Royal Princes. Whether or not, he
held in terrorem over the Regent his knowledge of
the disclosures and of his conduct in the Delicate
Investigation, he had good reason to assure himself
that he was about the last man with whom the
Regent would quarrel, if it could be avoided. His
real danger was from one of his colleagues, the ambi
tious Wellesley, who never ceased intriguing to sup
plant Perceval in the Premiership, which he looked
upon as his rightful position.
"Born," as he believed, "to command, Lord
Wellesley had not the patience to yield. His high
nature chafed at the repeated defeats of the Cabinet.
He had persuaded himself that he should be first,
1 In arguing against the motion to place the infant daughter
of Lord Hugh Seymour under the guardianship of Mrs. Fitz-
herbert instead of Lord Hertford, when the guarantee of the
Prince of Wales was offered for the payment of the proposed
allowance, Perceval opposed on two grounds— first, that he was
insolvent ; second, that there was no reason to believe that he
would keep his promise. The Prince, who took the strongest
personal interest in the motion, and who, when defeated in the
Court of Chancery, had the case taken up to the Lords and
personally canvassed peers for their support, told Romilly, with
an awful oath, that "he felt as if he could jump on Perceval,
and stamp his ife out with his feet."— Brougham's " States
men," vol. ii. p. 63.

48 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
and he could not brook being second." To the
rapidly arriving expiry of the restrictions on the
Regent, he looked as the opportunity for the attain
ment of his object. Nominally he had two grounds
for dissenting from Perceval — his starving, as he called
it, of the Peninsula War, and his refusal to allow the
question of the Catholic claims to be considered in
the Cabinet. Neither was the true reason. This
was, his promise to the Regent to get a larger increase
of his allowances, on the expiration of the re
strictions, than Percival deemed right in the state of
the finances and the strain upon the resources of the
country at such a period of distress. To endeavour
to effect this he treated privately with the Prince ;
and when he was out-voted by his colleagues, who
were firm in their resistance to such extravagance,
he tendered his resignation to the Regent himself,
and not to his leader, to mark the position which he
wished to assume as the Regent's friend.
A few days before the restrictions on the Regency
expired, the form was gone through of inviting Lords
Grey and Grenville to join the Cabinet, through the
medium of a letter from the Regent to his brother of
York, who was to communicate its contents to
Opposition leaders. It is now known that this pro
posal originated from the Cabinet, by whom the
original draft of the letter was prepared, but in a
totally different form to that in which it eventually
appeared.2 The Cabinet draft explained why the
8 Among Perceval's papers is this document, endorsed,
"Draft letter, prepared pursuant to H.R.H. the Prince Regent's
directions."

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 49
Regent felt that he could not make any change in
his councils, and after discussing the state ofthe war
thus concluded, " I thought it became me rather
to sacrifice those considerations of personal regard
which I still entertain, and which might otherwise
have influenced my conduct, than abandon, as I must
necessarily have done, by a total change of Adminis
tration, those principles of policy which, whatever
might be the case in any other situation of affairs,
appear to me, under all the circumstances of the
present moment, most conducive and essential to the
welfare of the country." This draft, we are told by
an anonymous correspondent of a great Whig noble,3
was rejected by the Regent, and another written,
in which, whilst adhering to the present policy of the
Cabinet in the prosecution of the war, he invited
Lords Grey and Grenville to join the Cabinet of
Percival. That such a proposal should be rejected
was only to be expected. The Regent professed to
wish that it should be accepted. Percival knew it
3 Anonymous correspondent to Marquis of Buckingham, in
which he speaks of the gross weakness and dissimulation of the
principal (the Regent) ; that he communicated his intention to
his Cabinet ; that then the letter was drafted ; sent on Wednesday,
February 12, to Carlton House, when the Regent abused its
style, and regretted that Perceval " wrote in a style that would
disgrace a washerwoman," but he was too much of a gentle
man to. alter it, so a fresh one was written ; shown to Perceval
and Wellesley ; the former remonstrated, the latter approved, and
asked the Prince what subsequent course he should pursue.
" I wish you, Wellesley, to act for me in any conference, and
Perceval for his friends," said the Regent. " If Perceval acts,"
Wellesley replied, "it will end in nothing," and persuaded him
to name Lord Moira.
VOL. II. E

50 , NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
must fail. Lord Grenville with bitter truth said, " I
have once been betrayed by the King, and I have
no taste for affording his son the same opportunity,
when I have little cause to doubt he has the same
disposition." 4 " He has proposed," writes Romilly,
" a coalition of Lords Grey and Grenville with
Perceval, a proposal which he knew must be rejected.
The very proposal indeed imports that a total
sacrifice of honour and character was a necessary
qualification for entering into the Prince's service.
He says in his letter that ' he has no predilections to
grat'fy'5 — a dangerous statement at the commence-
* Lord Grenville to the Marquis of Buckingham, February 13,
1 812, in which he shows that he was annoyed at the communi
cation being made to Grey instead of himself, and regarded it as
an attempt to disunite them, and adds " Grey is equally indis
posed to coalesce with Wellesley and Perceval, and believes it
will all end in the retention of Perceval, with Castlereagh and
Sidmouth" — as it did. — " Regency."
5 The " no predilections " in the letter was amusingly carica
tured by Tom Moore, in the verses beginning —
" At length, dearest Freddy, the moment is nigh,
When, with Perceval's leave, I may throw my chains by ;
As time now is precious, the first thing I do
Is to sit down and write a wise letter to you.
I am proud to declare I have no predilections, —
My heart is a sieve, where some scatter'd affections
Are just danced about for a moment or two,
And the finer they are, the more sure to run through :
Neither have I resentments, nor wish there should come ill
To mortal— except (now I think on't) Beau Brummell,
Who threaten'd last year, in a superfine passion,
To cut me, and bring the old King into fashion, —
So Royally free from all troublesome feelings,
So little encumber'd by faith in my dealings."

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 51
ment of his reign, considering his past conduct and
past professions. It will be understood to mean
that there are no injuries he will not forgive, and no
services that he will not forget. A declaration better
calculated to estrange from him all his friends, if he
has any remaining, and to invite the most violent
personal opposition to his Government (since
everything at a convenient time may be forgiven),
could hardly be invented."
The untoward war with the United States in 181 2
is so usually laid to the charge of Perceval and his
Cabinet, in persevering in the maintenance of the
Orders in Council, that a brief summary of their
history is advisable. At the close of Pitt's second
Ministry our difficulties with the United States had
already commenced, in consequence of the permission
given to French privateers to fit out in American
harbours and the opposition offered to our claim of
search for deserters on board American ships. On
the accession of Fox a Convention on these delicate
points was arranged, but its confirmation refused by
the President. When the Cabinet of "All the
Talents" came into office, the blockade of all the
ports of France and her allies was declared. To this
Bonaparte replied with the notorious Berlin and
Milan Decrees, declaring our islands in a state of
blockade — which he had not the power toenforce^and
prohibiting neutrals from carrying on trade with us.
Our retaliatory Orders in Council practically closed
the Continent of Europe to all direct trade, thus
severely restricting the carrying trade of the United
States. Matters were carried on by us with a high
E 2

52 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
hand ; and on deserters being taken by us by force
from an American man-of-war, Congress suspended
intercourse with all foreign States. This step was
followed by the Non-Intercourse Act, prohibiting all
communication with England or France so long as
our Orders in Council and the Decrees of Bonaparte
were maintained. This brought some concessions
from England. In 1809 a new Order in Council
practically opened to America the trade to ports in
the German Ocean, the Baltic, the foreign possessions
of the Dutch, and part of Italy. America, however,
still remained unsatisfied. On the accession of Per
ceval the diplomatic correspondence with America
was renewed on a new basis, Napoleon offering to
withdraw his obnoxious Decrees if we would cancel
our Orders in Council, but ingeniously adding another
condition, the simultaneous renunciation of what
he called our "new principle of blockade." The
American Envoy applied to Lord Wellesley to repeal
the Orders. Wellesley hesitated, though the repeal
of the Decrees had been officially announced in the
Moniteur. He did not object indeed to repeal the
Orders in Council, but firmly refused to abandon our
right of blockade. On this the American Ambassador
left the country, and the war commenced. It
has not been unfairly asked by the biographer of
Perceval, that if the withdrawal of the American
Ambassador was due solely to the Orders in Council,
which were issued by Fox in 1807 and 1808, why
was it postponed until 18 12 ?
When the monetary crisis arose in 1811, due to the
collapse of an inflated trade and commerce, and the

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 53
consequent fall in the price of gold, the leaders of the
Opposition attacked the Orders in Councilas its origin.
They urged that, thanks to the system of licences and
other evasions of their provisions, they had no in
jurious effect on the trade of France, but really
crippled that of England, and involved us in dispute
with America. In this policy they were largely sup
ported by the manufacturing interests, by whom the
decrease in their trade, and consequent distress of
their workpeople, was attributed to the obnoxious
policy. At the opening of the Session in 1812
several motions were made on the subject — at first
without effect, though the defection of Canning, who
had hitherto supported the Orders, gave additional
force to the ranks of the Opposition. Encouraged by
this change of opinion on the part of this powerful and
popular politician, the manufacturers besieged the
House with petitions, with such effect that when, on
the 28th of April, Lord Stanley moved that these
should be referred to a Committee of the whole
House, the Government saw the necessity of
yielding, and witnesses were ordered to attend, in
the examination of whom Brougham took the lead,
bringing all his forensic powers to bear on the subject.
On Monday, the nth of May, the Committee re
sumed its examination of witnesses ; and whilst one
Hamilton, a manufacturer from the Staffordshire
Potteries, was being interrogated by Brougham, the
sound of a shot was heard, and, after a few minutes
of suspense, a confused murmur ran through the
House that some one had been shot. There was a
rush to the door, and Perceval was, to the horror of

54 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.

friend and foe, seen to be the victim. His absence
when the Committee opened had been complained
of ; he had.been sent for, and with his characteristic
energy had darted forward to the House. The lobby
was comparatively full, and a tall man in a trades
man's dress was standing by the entrance. As Per
ceval hurried in, this person was seen to draw a pistol,
place it close to his victim's breast, and fire. For two
or three paces Perceval walked on, and then faintly
uttering, " Oh, I am murdered ! " fell on the floor at
the feet of one of the members, who, until he raised
up the body, did not recognize the murdered man.
An officer of the House called out, " Where is the
rascal that fired ? " when the tall man rose from a
seat and said calmly, " I am the unfortunate man."
He was seized by General Gascoyne, taken at once
into the House, to which the Speaker had been
hastily summoned, and identified as John Bellingham,
a persevering petitioner, whose complaints were known
to nearly every member. When searched, another
pistol was found on him, and some papers re
lating to his grievances, and, until the arrival of
a magistrate, he was placed under a strong guard
of members in the prison-room of the Sergeant-at-
Arms. In the meantime, the body of Perceval had been
carried to a room in the Speaker's house, medical aid
obtained, but in vain, and the terrible news broken to
his wife by Lord Redesdale. The effect on her was
overwhelming ; she neither wept, nor spoke, nor ap
peared to be sensible of her loss, or of anything that
was afterwards said to her. In this dazed state she

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 55
remained until near mid-day on the Tuesday, un
affected apparently by the attempts of her friends to
rouse her by dwelling on the details of the murder.
At length her state excited such apprehension that it
was determined, as the last expedient, to take her to
the room where the body lay. Happily for her in
tellect the experiment succeeded : she burst into tears
the moment she saw her murdered husband. When
sufficiently composed to think and speak on the sub
ject, she opposed with firmness the universally ex
pressed desire for a public funeral, as inconsistent,
not only with the wishes of herself and the family,
but with the. simple and unostentatious habits and
feelings of her husband.
On his examination before Sir John Hippesley,
when, General Gascoyne and others having briefly
detailed the incidents of the murder, he was
cautioned, Bellingham said, " I have admitted the
fact. I admit the fact, but wish, with permission, to
state something in my justification. I have been
denied the redress of my grievances by the Govern
ment ; I have been illtreated. They all know who I
am, and what I am, through the Secretary of State
and Mr. Becket, with whom I have had frequent
communications. They knew of the facts six weeks
ago, through the Magistrates at Bow Street. I was
accused most wrongfully by a Governor-General
in Russia, in a letter from Archangel to Riga, and
have sought redress in vain. I am a most unfortu
nate man, and feel here (placing his hand on his
breast) sufficient justification for what I have done."
On Lord Castlereagh telling him that he had better

56 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
reserve his defence, he added, " Since it seems best
to you that I should not now explain the causes of
my conduct, I will leave it until the day of my trial,
when my country will have an opportunity of judging
whether I am right or wrong." 6
Bellingham's was a sad history. Born at St. Neots,
where his father was a land-surveyor, he had com
menced life as a jeweller's apprentice, and then been
nominated to an Indian cadetship. Being wrecked
on his voyage out, he abandoned the army, returned
home, and set up as a tinplate worker. Misfortune
again fell on him; his house was burnt down, his
business ruined, and himself made a bankrupt. Again
he started in life, as an insurance broker, without
capital, made an unhappy marriage, and entered a
merchant's office at Liverpool. By his erpployers he
was sent as their commission agent to Archangel,
whence he drew bills on them to the extent of 10,000/.,
made no shipments, spent the money, returned home,
and was arrested. Again he returned to Archangel,
where he was arrested for debts in Russia, appealed
in vain to our Ambassador, who declined to interfere
as his arrest was legal, and remained in the misery
and suffering of a Russian prison for five years. On
6 The Times, of May 13, 1812. He appears to have called
on General Gascoyne about three weeks before the murder, and
entered fully into his grievances. " During this conversation he
was as calm and collected as any man could be, and had not
the least appearance of an insane person. He was much
agitated when seized by me, more composed before his exami
nation, and quite calm before he went to Newgate." — General
Gascoyne's evidence.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 57
his release he returned to England, and persistently
pressed the Government for redress. It was in vain
that Lord Leveson Gower and Mr. Perceval told him
that Government could not interfere, and that all
that he suffered was legally incurred by his own
conduct. He printed a petition to the Privy Council,
solicited the assistance of Members of Parliament,
and applied to a Magistrate for redress, but of course
in vain.7 These rebuffs, working on a mind con
stitutionally irritable and disposed to madness, and
perhaps weakened by his imprisonment in Russia,
' Among the Perceval papers, found in the Treasury vaults
many years after his death, was a packet of Bellingham's
letters, from which it appears that his first petition to Perceval
is dated May 22, 1810. In it he states the failure of his petition
to the Privy Council, on the ground of its being of a nature not
within the power of their lordships to grant, and solicits "his
Excellency," as he styles the Minister, for leave to petition the
House of Commons. This petition he appears to have brought
in person to Downing Street, as it bears the endorsement of
Herries as private secretary, answering verbally " that Mr.
P. could not give permission, May 22." On the 26th Belling-
ham wrote " complaining of this refusal as excluding him from
bringing a petition, which is the birthright of every English
man," and enclosing a copy of the previous petition. To this
the private secretary replied, that " the time for presenting peti
tions was past, and that Perceval could not encourage him to
expect his sanction in introducing a petition which he thought
was not of a nature for the consideration of Parliament." No
more communications appear for two years, and then only the
printed circular of March 12, 1812, recapitulating his previous
correspondence, and sent to Perceval, in common with every
other member of Parliament. To this no reply appears to have
been given. — See Walpole's "Life of Perceval," vol. ii p. 295,
et seq., in which these papers were first published after their
discovery.

58 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
determined him to be revenged on Ministers.
Against any one of them personally he had no malice.
For a fortnight he had been making up his mind to
the deed, and had it been Lord Leveson Gower or
Mr. Ryder who had first passed him in the lobby, and
not Percival, he would have fired at either.
As the sessions were sitting at the time of the
murder, Bellingham was put upon his trial, with
improper if not irjdecent haste, within three days of
the tragic event. On Friday, the 15th of May, he
was arraigned at the Old Bailey, before Sir James
Mansfield, Baron Graham, and Mr. Justice Grose ;
the Attorney-General and Garrow appearing to
prosecute, and Alley for the prisoner. As soon as
Bellingham was placed in the dock his counsel applied
to the Court to postpone the trial, on the grounds of
its suddenness, and that if time was allowed there was
every reason to believe that he would be found and
be proved to be insane. The application was at once
resisted as premature before the prisoner had pleaded,
to which the Court agreed, on the poor technicality
that until he had pleaded they did not know that he
was before them. The indictment was then read,
and on being called on to plead, Bellingham himself
craved for time, to enable him to prove what he
conceived to be his justification.
" My lords," he said, " before I can plead to this indictment
I must state, in justice to myself, that by the hurrying on of my
trial I am placed in a most remarkable situation. It so happens
that my prosecutors are the witnesses against me. AU the
documents on which alone I could rest my defence have
been taken from me, and are in the possession of the Crown.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 59
It is only two days since I was told by Mr. Litchfield, the
solicitor to the Treasury, to prepare for my trial, and when I
asked for my papers he told me they would not be given up to
me. It is, my lords, utterly impossible for me to go into my
justification; and under these circumstances in which I find
myself, a trial is absolutely useless. The papers are to be
given up after my trial, but what will that avail me for my
defence ? I am not ready for trial."
The Attorney-General explained that the prisoner
had been offered copies of all his papers, and that the
originals were in Court. He was therefore called
upon to plead, and pleaded Not Guilty. His counsel
renewed his application for delay, on two affidavits.
In the first of them a Mrs. Anne Bellet, of Southamp
ton, who had known Bellingham for many years, stated
that she had hurried up to London as soon as she heard
ofthe event, and only arrived on the previous day. She
had not, therefore, had time to apprize many persons
who, to her knowledge, could be important witnesses,
and especially a Captain Barker, who could prove
material facts tending to show the insanity of Belling
ham. " That he was insane she had no doubt, and that
he had been in a deranged state of mind for a long
time previous to the murder." In this opinion she
was confirmed by the other witness, Mrs. Clarke, of
Newgate Street, who swore that ever since he came
from Russia, two years ago, Bellingham had not been
sane. On these statements, and the lateness of the
instructions of himself and his junior, Alley again
pressed, in mercy, for a postponement of the trial.
Gibbs, in opposition, urged the vagueness of the state
ments and the absence of any mad doctor. Alley in
vain, however, replied that there had hardly been

60 NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS.
time for such a step ; that they had, indeed, advised
such a course, but that one doctor could not come,
and the other never had the courtesy to reply to the
request for his attendance. The Court, through its
Chief, grounded its refusal on the statements not being
sufficiently detailed as to his habits since his return
from Russia, and in reality vague. " The question,"
said the Chief, " was not whether he was once in such
a state as to have done any outrageous act of insanity,
but whether at the time of the offence he had a suffi
ciency of understanding to make him answerable for
his acts." That he laid down the rule of law correctly,
no lawyer doubts ; but the Chief Justice might have
borne in mind that the state of Bellingham's mind at
the moment of the act was likely to be largely influ
enced by its state within so short an interval as his
return from Russia.
As the facts of the case were undisputed, it is need
less to repeat what has been given in the previous
narrative. When called on for his defence, Belling
ham wished to leave it to his counsel. He was told
that their mouths were closed, and that he must make
his own defence. This he did in a rambling speech
of nearly an hour's duration, interspersed with the
reading of the petition to the Privy Council, and the
letters to Ministers, which had been given him in
Court, and comments on the sufferings he had experi
enced in Russia, and the neglect which he had suffered
from Ministers. To the plea of insanity put forward
by his counsel he objected, and thanked the Attorney-
General for resisting it, as it would not have answered
the purpose of justification. He was obliged to his

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 61

counsel for their intentions, but declared that he had
never incurred the charge of insanity, with the excep
tion of a single instance in Russia, when the pressure
of his sufferings had exposed him to that imputation.
He was deeply grieved for the lamentable event, and
solemnly disclaimed any personal or premeditated
malice against Mr. Perceval, " on whom the unfor
tunate lot had fallen only as a leading member of an
Administration which had refused redress for his un
paralleled wrongs." It was on this absence of per
sonal malice that he rested his defence, harping on
the technical term " malice prepense " towards his
victim, which he again and again denied.
Notwithstanding Bellingham's repudiation of the
plea of insanity — no slight evidence, in the eyes of
some doctors, of insanity — the few witnesses who could
be obtained were called. Mrs. Phillips, who had
known him from his childhood, spoke to his father
having died insane, and to Bellingham having been
deranged at intervals during his life, and particularly
since his return from Russia, and whenever he talked
on that painful subject. Mrs. Clarke repeated the state
ment previously quoted from her affidavit ; and the ser
vant at his lodgings spoke to his manner for the past four
months as confused and deranged, and particularly on
the Sunday previous to the deed. Sir James Mans
field's charge was merely an amplification of his pre
vious statement of the rule of law as to the plea of
insanity ; and after a brief absence from Court, the
jury returned the inevitable verdict of " Guilty."
Condemnation and execution followed with the usual
cruel rapidity of that day, and on the seventh day

62 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
after his fatal act he expiated his crime on the
scaffold. That Bellingham was, if one may use the term,
morally, though not legally, mad, few would now
doubt. Even at the time Romilly thought him mad,
but added, that it was a species of madness which
probably ought not, for the security of mankind, to
exempt a man from being answerable for his actions 8
— a strange opinion for so good a man and so sound a
lawyer. Surely if a man is mad, he is not responsible
for the act he commits during his madness. If he is
not responsible, is it less than murder to make him
answerable for his actions ? What a contrast does
the indecent haste with which the prosecution was
pressed on offer to the merciful delays which were
permitted in the case of Oxford, the assailant of the
Queen in our own time ! Then not only was he sub
jected to careful examination by medical men on the
part of' the Crown, but every opportunity offered of
his being examined by other doctors on his own part,9
and full time given to his friends to gather the wit
nesses who could speak of his previous habits and
detail his eccentricities. Whether or not we agree in
the value of the evidence thus obtained, we cannot
but approve the feeling of fairness towards the
prisoner on the part of the prosecution, which gave
every facility for its production.
The intense excitement caused by the dreadful
event, and the universal feeling of respect for Perceval
as a man, by men of all shades of politics, were shown
8 Romilly 's "Autobiography," vol. iii p. 36.
9 Oxford, for shooting at the Queen, July, 1840.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 63
in the liberality of the provision at once made for his
family. The proposal of Government, liberal as it
was, was increased, against their views, by the House
of Commons ; and though objections, on the same
ground as had been raised in the case of Pitt,
were made to the erection of a public monument, it
was voted almost unanimously.1 Even the party poet
could not but join in the universal regret, and bury
political animosity in his early grave.
" In the dirge we sang o'er him no censure was heard,
Unembitter'd and free did the tear-drop descend ;
We forgot in that hour how the statesman had err'd,
And wept for the husband, the father, the friend." 2

1 The Government proposed a grant of 50,000/. for the
family, and an annuity of 2000/. a year for the widow. This
annuity, in opposition to Government, was continued to the
eldest son for life, and subsequently, on the motion of Mr.
Huskisson, 1000/. was voted to the eldest son during his
mother's life. The vote for a national monument was carried
by 199 to 26.
2 Tom Moore, "Lines on the Death of Mr. Perceval."

64 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.

CHAPTER III.
THE LUDDITES.
l8l I TO 1813.
TRIALS AT YORK, 1813.
The combination of the Luddites was the most
serious conspiracy of workmen, and the most pro
tracted, that threatened the peace of the country and
the safety of life and property in the earlier part of the
present century. Taking its name from a poor idiot
ofthe name of Ludd, who, at the close ofthe previous
century, had, in a fit of irritation, destroyed a couple
of stocking-frames, it eventually developed into an
organized conspiracy for the destruction of machinery,
in the Midland manufacturing counties, under a
stringent oath of secrecy, and formed the active prin
ciple of the violence which pervaded the Reform riots
of 1817 and the agrarian outrages ofthe followers of
Captain Swing in later years. In the autumn and
winter of 181 1, Luddism began to work its mischief
among the weavers of Nottingham, with the object of
destroying a new and wider kind of frame requiring
less manual labour, which had lately been introduced
by the manufacturers. By the November of that year

NARRATLVES OF STATE TRIALS. 65

punishment for such offences had been raised from
transportation to death.
Though the vigorous measures resorted to by the
Corporation of Nottingham at the opening of the year
1 8 1 2 compelled the frame-breakers to be more cautious
in their acts, they only led them to be more secret
and ingenious in their operations. The watchers
were watched, and if they were absent only for a short
period from their duty, Ludd's bands were, by a con
certed signal, gathered on the spot, the house or factory
was entered, the obnoxious machinery destroyed ;
and the rioters dispersed on the slightest alarm, by
the signal gun of their captain. As not only the
mills were scattered through the villages, but many
frames were worked in the cottages of the weavers,
the property was peculiarly open to attack, and
difficult of defence by the authorities. Sometimes
the rioters blackened their faces as a disguise. Gene
rally, however, and especially as their organization
increased in power and numbers, they despised dis
guises, and went openly about their mischievous work.
Their precautions showed that their leaders were not
without some military skill, placing sentinels at the
doors of houses near the mill they were attacking so
as to prevent assistance from neighbours, and form
ing their bands in military fashion.1 Their move-
' The following extracts from the Annual Register, Jan. 13,
1 8 12, will give an idea of their violence and organization : — An
elderly woman who had had her frames broken, and had sworn
to some of the parties, was obliged to be removed with her
furniture under a military guard to Nottingham. Jan. 19th. —
Attack on the house of Mr. Benson by forty men disguised, and
VOL. II. F

66 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
ments were rapidly extended into the neighbouring
counties, especially in the vicinity of Leeds and
Huddersfield, where some of their most violent and
destructive outrages were committed.2 Of the mills
marked out for destruction a regular list was kept,
and circulars sent to their owners threatening them
with the destruction of their property if they did not
cease to use the new machinery^ In their attacks on
armed with pistols. Sentinels put at the doors of his neigh
bours, whilst a party of eight men entered, drove the family
into a back room, and broke eight frames in as many minutes.
In the case of a workman at whose cottage they broke two
frames, violence was offered to the man and his wife, and when
he attempted to seize one of the rioters they forced their way
out through a crowd collected in front of the cottage, under
threats of death if stopped.
2 They extended to Yorkshire, where a mill was burnt,
near Leeds, January 25. Under date the 29th they are reported
to have crossed the Trent, evading a troop of Hussars, and to
have attacked a party of soldiers who were guarding a house,
keeping guard over them with their own muskets, and then,
when they had done their work, liberating them and wishing
them good night. Yet at this time three regiments, a large
body of local police, and eight Bow Street omcers, were in the
vicinity. 3 Feb. 14. — Threatening letters sent to the manufacturers at
Manchester that they would burn their works, and a circular
to the houses marked for destruction. The first house on this
list, the mill of Messrs. Haigh, Marshall, and Co., was burnt.
Feb. 24. — At Mr. Harvey's the rioters were rescued by twenty-
five of their comrades, dressed in soldiers' great-coats taken
from the picquet which was coming to arrest them. March 9. —
Outrages continued near Huddersfield. In one case, after the
mischief had been completed the captain drew up his men in
order, calling them over by each man's number instead of his
name, and then, after a feu de joie of pistols, they dispersed
March 23.— The same form gone through at the attack on

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 67
the cottages and houses of the scattered weavers they
were, uniformly, successful, and except in the case
of Mr. Cartwright's mill near Dewsbury, and that of
another proprietor near Leeds, they succeeded in
breaking in, destroying the frames, and, in several cases,
burning the factories. Some few, very few indeed of
the manufacturers, defended their mills with vigour,
and inflicted severe punishment on the assailants.
Though from the scattered position of the property
assailed, and the secrecy with which the attacks were
planned and executed, the authorities appeared
almost powerless to avert the ever increasing mis
chief, many of the inferior actors were seized and
brought to trial at Lancaster and Chester. Still,
however, though military had been sent to the dis
turbed districts, the rioters continued their acts of
violence, confining them, at first, to property, and
doing but little violence to persons beyond binding
them, under threats of vengeance, to abstain from the
use of the new machinery. I n April murder was added
Thompson's mill, at Rawdon, near Leeds. April 11.— Attack
on cloth-factory of J. Foster, at Horbury, near Wakefield, by a
large body of armed men, who secured all the approaches to the
mill, destroyed all the dressing-frames, shears, and warp ready
for weaving, and the windows of the dye-houses and dwellings
adjoining. They invested the house of Foster's son, pulled the
inhabitants out of bed, demanded the keys of the mill, under
threats of death. Two of these persons they left naked on the
floor, and took the third with them to the mill. They also set
fire to the bookkeeper's house. When the destruction was com
plete, they were called over by their numbers in a neighbouring
field 'by the captain, who then said, " The work is done ; all
is well. Disperse." — Annual Register, 1 812, under the above
dates. F 2

68 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
to their previous violence. Near Nottingham a
manufacturer was shot dead on his own doorstep ;
near Huddersfield Mr. Horsfall, another manufacturer,
was assassinated on his way home from market.4 For
months the murderers were not discovered, the vows
of the Luddites' oath of secrecy had been observed
with a faithfulness worthy of a better cause.
Towards the autumn of 1812, partly, probably,
through fear of being anticipated in their revelations
by some other weak-kneed brother, or tempted by
the rewards offered by the authorities, approvers came
forward : there was treachery among the conspirators.
In addition to such witnesses, persons were sent from
other counties into Yorkshire, to throw themselves in
the way of the Luddites, and by a profession of a
wish to join them, to get at their secrets and fix the
guilt on the most active of their leaders. York gaol
steadily filled with prisoners, including the assailants
of more than one mill and the murderers of the ill-fated
Mr. Horsfall. The necessity for immediate action
was realized by the Government. Half the value of
4 April 26. — Steam- weaving factory of Wroe and Duncraft,
at West Houghton, near Manchester, burnt. No one taken ;
the mill unprotected. 30th. — Mr. Cartwright shot at thrice.
Mr. Horsefall murdered. Reward openly offered by the Lud
dites for the Mayor of Nottingham, dead or alive, because of
signing the offer of reward for the discovery of the assassin of
Mr. Trentham, shot on his own doorstep. Seizure of Secret
Committee at Bolton. Attempts to seduce the military ; five
years' bounty, and 1 5^. a week offered to deserters. A female
witness killed whilst being taken, escorted by the military, to
make her deposition before a magistrate.- — Annual Register^
1 81 2, under the above dates.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 69
conviction and punishment would be lost, if the trials
were put off to the Spring Assize of 181 3, and the
effect of the terrible example thus lessened. In the
winter, therefore, a Special Commission was issued
for an Assize at York, where fifty prisoners were
awaiting trial for their shares in Luddite outrages.
The evidence produced at this assize revealed the
whole system of Luddism. Many ofthe charges were
for simple robberies with more or less violence, but in
the following cases crimes of a far more serious
nature were clearly brought home to the accused.
On the 4th of January, 181 3, the Special Commis
sion for the trial of the Luddites in Yorkshire was
opened at York by Baron Thompson and Justice
Le Blanc. In his charge to the Grand Jury, Baron
Thompson passed in review the various statutes
applicable to the cases which would come before
them, from the Riot Act of George the First's time to
the special statute passed only in the previous July,
by which the administering of an oath binding the
party taking it to any treason or murder was raised
to a capital offence, and making the taker of the oath
liable to transportation for life unless he disclosed the
act.5 After four persons who, under the pretence of
6 1 Geo. I., the Riot Act, pulling down a building, felony,
without benefit of clergy; 9th Geo. III. and 43rd Geo. III.,
cap. 58, pulling down or setting fire to a mill, capital offence;
22nd Geo. III., destroying serges or other woollen goods in a
loom, or any tools for making the same, felony, without benefit
of clergy; 37th Geo. IIL, cap. 123, administering unlawful
oaths, transportation ; 52nd Geo. IIL, cap. 104, administering
an oath binding the taker to commit any treason, murder, &c,
death ; the taker to be transported, unless he discovers the act.

70 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
being Luddites, had committed a burglary at the
house of a manufacturer and stolen money and goods,
had been tried and found guilty, the trial of the
murderers of Mr. Horsfall was proceeded with. For
this three persons, George Mellor, William Thorpe, and
Thomas Smith were arraigned, the prosecution being
conducted by Park and Richardson.
From the opening speech of counsel, it appeared
that the victim of this brutal outrage was a manufac
turer at Huddersfield, employing 400 men, and
uniformly a good master. After the Spring Assizes at
Lancaster in the previous year, when numerous frame
breakers had been convicted, disturbances had com
menced at Huddersfield, and a violent, though unsuc
cessful attack made on the mill of a manufacturer of
the name of Cartwright. Subsequent to this failure
on the part of the Luddites, who had suffered severely
in their repulse, meetings were held, at which the
prisoners were present, denouncing the masters, and
especially Mr. Horsfall and Mr. Cartwright, and
selecting them for vengeance. It was Horsfall's well-
known habit to attend the Tuesday market at Hud
dersfield, returning thence on horseback between five
and six in the evening to his house at Masden, some
seven miles from the town. On the afternoon of the
28th of April, on his road home, he stopped for
refreshment at the " Warren " public-house, of which
one Armytage was the landlord, and then rode on
about two or three hundred yards to the corner of a
plantation, when he was suddenly and fatally fired at.
This plantation opened at the back on to a field, to the
south of which lay two other fields, the last abutting

NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS. 71
on the road from Huddersfield to Crossland, from
which point was a way into Dungeon Wood, where
Joseph Mellor, a cousin of the prisoner, lived.
Adjoining this wood was the road from Huddersfield
to Armitage Bridge. On being shot, Horsfall fell
forward on his horse, and thence to the ground. A
witness of the name of Parr, who was riding some
little distance behind, and in sight of the victim, came
up, and having obtained assistance, carried him back
to the Warren House, where he expired after thirty-
eight hours of acute suffering. To connect the
prisoners with this case numerous witnesses were
called, including an accomplice, a brother workman
of the name of Walker.
Armytage proved Mr. Horsfall's usual habit of
attending the Tuesday market, his calling for refresh
ment on the fatal day, treating two men who were at
the house, and riding off a few minutes after six. In
less than half an hour he was brought back wounded.
The shot must therefore have been fired between ten
and thirty minutes after six. Parr, when about 100
to 1 50 yards from the plantation, heard the report, saw
the smoke of the firing, and four persons, all in dark
clothes, in the corner of the plantation from which the
smoke arose. Seeing the man in front of him fall,
Parr rode up, raised him from the ground and called
out murder, when one of the men got on the wall of
the plantation. " What," said Parr, " are you not
contented yet," and then galloped towards the men,
when they all at once ran out of the plantation on
the side furthest from the road. Leaving the wounded
man in charge of two boys, who were gathering horse-

72 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
dung on the road, Parr rode off for help, met the
witness Bannister, and with his assistance carried
Mr. Horsfall to Armytage's. The surgeon who
attended proved the extraction of two balls, one as
large as a musket bullet, and the subsequent death of
the wounded man.
The evidence of Benjamin Walker, the accomplice,
who was next called, must be given in detail.
" Is a cropper at the factory of Mr. Wood, at Longroyd,
between Huddersfield and the spot where the murder was com
mitted ; has been so for two years. Mellor and Smith were
fellow-workmen, but Smith left in April last, and Thorpe is a
cropper at the neighbouring factory of Mr. Fisher. After the
repulse at Cartwright's mill there was a conversation among
them at Wood's, when Mellor said, ' There is no method of
smashing the machines but shooting the masters j that they had
ost two men at Cartwright's.' On the day of the murder he
was in Wood's factory — Mellor and Smith in one room, and he
in another. Between four and five in the afternoon Mellor
came to him. At that time William Hall, his father, John
Walker, and his brother William, were with him in the shop.
Mellor asked him to go with them and shoot Mr. Horsfall. He
refused. Mellor went away, and the witness soon after left to
get some drink, and was away about half an hour. On his
return he found there Mellor, Varley, Hail, and his own father.
Mellor then gave him a loaded pistol, and said he must go with
him and shoot Horsfall ; it was loaded with double ball. He
looked, and saw it was loaded to the top. He now agreed, and
orders were given to him to go to the plantation. Thinks Smith
and Thorpe were also present. Mellor then had on a drab
jacket, but when he came to him at the plantation Mellor had
on a bottle-green great-coat, and Thorpe a dark-coloured top
coat. The witness and Smith, who had been ordered to the
spot, had dark-green coats, but no top-coat. They went through
the fields, Smith first, who had a loaded pistol, bought of a
man named Mills, and the cock of it mended by himself. Wit
ness had the pistol which Mellor had given him. In about ten

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 73
minutes after he and Smith got to the plantation, Mellor and
Thorpe came. On the road with Smith he said to him that
he did not quite like the business. Smith said, ' Let us go for
ward, and then let us counsel the others to go back again : it is
a pity to go.' Smith then went to Mellor and Thorpe, who
were some twenty yards off, and then came and told him that
if they left Mellor would shoot them. Mellor said he had
brought his pistol from Russia, where he had been — a large
horse-pistol, with a barrel half a yard long — and had sold it to
Hartley. Smith said the orders were, Mellor and Thorpe to
stand in the nook of the plantation and fire, and Smith and the
witness to stand twenty yards off and fire, if the others failed.
Mellor said, ' He's coming.' He could not see Mellor and
Thorpe from his place, but heard the shot, and then he and
Smith ran away, and were joined by Mellor and Thorpe.
Mellor damned them for not shooting. He was carrying his
pistol. Thorpe put his pistol in witness's hand ; the barrel was
warm, and the priming gone. They then ran across the
Huddersfield and Crossland road to Dungeon Wood, when he
threw down Thorpe's pistol, and Mellor took it up. Smith and
he hid their pistols in ant-hills. They then, by Mellor's order,
separated ; he and Smith going towards Huddersfield, the
others a different way. Mellor gave them two shillings for
beer. Before they separated, Mellor gave him a powder-horn,
which he hid in Dungeon Wood. They then went to a
public-house, where there was a drunken collier, and the news
of the murder was brought there at the time, when Smith began
whistling, and the collier tried to dance. They drank seven or
eight pints of beer, and got home about ten at night. On the
next morning, at Wood's factory, Mellor, Thorpe, and Smith
said witness must be sworn, as Varley and witness's father and
brother, Snowden and Hall, had been. Witness was then
sworn, he believes, on a Bible. Mellor said he had hurt his
hand, which was tied up, in firing, and he noticed that Thorpe's
face had been scratched when in the wood. Thorpe said he
had hurt it in the plantation. Mellor and Thorpe told him
afterwards that they had been at Joseph Mellor's, at the back
of Dungeon Wood, after they left the plantation."
On cross-examination, after admitting that he came

74 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
from custody, having been kept safe as a witness, and
that Varley and the others were present when Mellor
gave him the pistol, and he believed heard the con
versation, he said as follows : —
" First told it to his mother and his father when he came home
that night. His father had heard what they were about before.
His mother had told Mr. Radcliffe —the magistrate whose resi
dence adjoined the plantation — ten or eleven weeks ago (in
order that he might give his account, and be admitted as a
witness), Mellor at that time in custody ; not all taken in
custody together, only Mellor and witness. He had sent to
Mrs. Hartley to come and prove an alibi j telling his messenger
that she brought the news of the murder, and that he would be
safe if she swore that he was then in the yard at Wood's, which
he was not. Mellor had told him that Mrs. Hartley had told
the people at Wood's works of the murder. Told Firth that he
knew nothing about it.''
To confirm this extraordinary story, Hall, who
the approver said had been asked to join in the
murder, was called. He swore to Mellor asking him
for the Russian pistol which Hall had purchased,
and that he saw him load it with two pipe-heads of
powder, a ball, then some slugs, and then a second
ball. He warned Mellor that it would jump back,
but Mellor replied " that he meant to fire it, and
give Mr. Horsfall that." He also saw Thorpe load
ing his pistol the same afternoon. According to this
witness Mellor was dressed in a dark coat, and the
swearing of Walker took place as that man had re
lated. The oath, he said, contained the threat that
" if we ever revealed anything we should be shot by
the first brother." He now carried the evidence
against Mellor and Smith a step further.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 75
" That night he slept in the same room with Mellor, who
complained of hurting his finger by firing, and told him that he
and Thorpe had left their pistols at his cousin Joseph's, hidden
in some flocks, and had told two of his apprentices to give them
to their master on his return home, and that he and Thorpe
had gone through Lock Wood to Huddersfield. He heard Mrs.
Hartley bring the news of the murder to Wood's factory about
seven in the evening. Smith also came home that night, and
slept in the same room with him, and told him how he and
Walker had hidden their pistols in the ant-hills in Dungeon
Wood. On the Sunday after the murder he saw Mellor give
Smith a guinea. He did not get his pistol back again for
three weeks, and after that Mellor borrowed it again to take to
Leeds, where some people wanted arms. Mellor asked him to
go with him, after his arrest, in Thorpe's coat, and swear that
he was the man who went with him to his cousin's in search of
work, but he refused. He went with Smith on the Sunday
after the murder to search for the pistol in the ant-hills, but
they failed to find them — they never have been found. He
went as a witness for Walker, but was examined only as to
shears-breaking." That the Walkers and Hall were at Wood's on the
afternoon of the murder, with Mellor and Smith,
was confirmed by another fellow-workman, of the
name of Snowden, to whom, on the next morning,
the approver and the prisoners, he swore, told all
about the murder, and Thorpe swore him, not only
to keep the secret, but to administer the oath of
secrecy to all who knew of the murder of Horsfall.
The prosecution now took up another branch of
the evidence — that of witnesses speaking to the
conduct of the prisoners after the murder had been
committed. The first of these was Martha, the
wife of Mellor, the cousin of the prisoner, who lived
in Dungeon Wood, where, with two apprentices, he

76 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
worked as a cloth dresser. About a quarter past six
on the evening of the murder the prisoner Mellor,
and another man, came to her cottage in the absence
of her husband, and asked for work for his com
panion. On her saying that they had none for him,
the prisoner asked for a handkerchief, and she gave
him a black silk one. He then asked her to allow
his companion to wash himself. Mellor had on a
dark-coloured coat, but no top-coat, when he came
into the house, having been first in the shop, and his
companion was dressed in a dark-coloured top-coat.
After about a quarter of an hour's stay Mellor asked
her to lend him a coat. On her telling him that her
husband's coat was in the shop, he and his companion
went out through the shop, saying, that if they did
not meet her husband on his way home from market
they would return about ten that night. Her hus
band returned about seven, and it was after that,
between eight or nine o'clock, that she heard of the
murder. This part of the transaction was completed by the
evidence of the apprentices, Durance and Kinder.
Durance's evidence was as follows : —
" Is about seventeen years of age. Was in the shop when
George Mellor and a man, who he thinks is like the prisoner
Thorpe, came into his master's shop on the evening of the
murder. When they came in both had on dark-coloured top
coats, and Mellor took off his and laid it on the brushing-stone.
He then saw that he had on a green coat. Was asked by
Mellor to go upstairs with him, which he did, leaving the other
man in the shop. Upstairs Mellor gave the witness two long
pistols — he did not see whether loaded or not — which they con
cealed under some flocks, Mellor telling him not to apprize his

NARRA TI VES OF STA TE TRIALS. 77
master of it. He showed the pistols to his brother apprentices,
one of whom, Kinder, told him that the visitor was George
Mellor, he not knowing him. The first prisoner he thinks is
that man. On his master's return he told him who had been
there, and what he had left, on which his -master went with
him, took the pistols out, and hid them under some straw in
an out-house. He was examined by a magistrate, and on his
return given 5s. by Mellor, half for the other apprentice,
Kinder, bidding him speak the truth, but say nothing of the
pistols." In this most important evidence Durance was con
firmed by his brotherapprentice,Kinder,and hismaster.
The last described the pistols as nearly of a size,
except that one had a larger bore than the other, and
was brass mounted, and recognized it as one which
the prisoner Mellor had told him he brought from
Russia. He also found a dark-coloured top-coat on
the brushing-stone, and a dark, bottle-green under
coat hung up behind the door of the shop, neither of
which belonged to him. In the pockets of the top
coat were two ball cartridges. On the morning after
he told a man of the name of Varley about the
pistols, and in about a week after both the pistols
had been taken away by some one. His own coat,
which he left at home, and which was gone, was a
drab top, which was produced by the governor of the
gaol as worn by Mellor when he was handed over to
his custody, and which was identified as that left
hanging in the shop.
The only additional evidence called by the pro
secution was that of persons, entire strangers to the
transaction, who spoke to what they saw in the
neighbourhood of the plantation, at the time of, and

78 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
just subsequent to, the murder. One of these, a
labourer who was at work in a stable about 200
yards from the spot, heard the shot fired, apparently
from the part of the plantation next the road. On
going out of the stable he saw four men running
across the fields, between the plantation and Dungeon
Wood, in the direction of the latter. As he never
was nearer to them than fifty yards he could only
say that they all appeared to have on dark-coloured
clothes. That the shot he heard was that by which
Horsfall was killed was proved, by the previous evi
dence of his two boys, engaged in collecting manure
on the road, who, within two or three minutes after he
heard the report, came to him with the intelligence
that Mr. Horsfall had been shot. Another stranger,
who was passing along the road from Crossland to
Lockwood, which runs at the back of the fields and
the plantation, also heard the report, and saw four
men in dark clothes come out of the plantation, one
of whom he observed, as the man jumped over the
wall, had a brass-handled pistol showing from under
his coat when it flew back, over which he hastily
pulled it on seeing the witness.
The last of this class of witnesses was the landlady
of the public-house at Honley, to which, according to
the accomplice, the prisoner Smith and the accom
plice came soon after the murder. She recollected
their coming and drinking there between seven and
eight in the evening, and staying till about nine, that
a half-drunken collier was then there, and that Smith
whistled a tune, to which the collier danced. Thus
proving one of those apparently trifling incidents

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 79
which tell with such a marked effect in cases of cir
cumstantial proof.
The defences were alibis. It will be remembered
that the murder must have been committed between
a quarter and half-past six, at a spot within a few
minutes' ride of Huddersfield. On behalf of Mellor
witnesses were called who professed to trace him
from half-past five until a little before seven. At
half-past five the two Armitages saw him pass their
shop at Lockwood, in the direction from his cousin's
in Dungeon Wood to Huddersfield, and the first of
them spoke to him. Battersby saw him coming to
wards the George Inn, Huddersfield, about the same
time (the distance between Armitage's forge and the
inn was admitted to be trifling) ; and Thorpe saw
and spoke to him, opposite the George, about ten
minutes to six. Wommesly, about six or ten minutes
after, went with Mellor to a shop in the town to pay
an account ; and Hansard saw him about a quarter of
a mile out of the town, on the road to Longroyd
Bridge, a little before seven. According to this wit
ness, Mr. Horsfall did not leave Huddersfield until
five minutes after six.
For Thorpe, it was said by Ratcliffe that he was
at Fisher's, at Longroyd Bridge, raising a blue cloth
coat, at half-past five, and that the witness stayed
talking with him about a quarter of an hour. A
young woman, the next witness, was at the time
carrying cans of water from the raising shop to the
house. Now she swore that she was thus employed
from five until she heard of the murder, that she
saw a young man (presumably the previous witness)

80 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
talking to Thorpe in the shop, and that every time
she went into the shop for water she saw Thorpe still
there. To fix the hour, she spoke of a man named
Pilling coming there during that time with a pair of
shoes he had made for her. In this she was confirmed
by Pilling, who declared that he spoke to Thorpe,
and left him in the shop when he started from it, a
little after six. It was not until he was about a mile
away from the shop, on his return home, that he
heard of the murder.
Bower, one of Wood's apprentices, declared that he
helped Mellor, Smith, Walker the accomplice, and his
father and Varley, at the hardening press at Wood's
about seven (this would be after the news of the
murder had been brought there). He also saw Smith
go for his beer about six. In the last statement he
was confirmed by Mary Thorpe, Wood's servant, who
always served the men with their beer. She also
spoke to Bower, Smith, Mellor, and Hall lodging at
Wood's ; and Bower swore that he slept in the same
room with Mellor that night, and Smith also, but
that he did not know if Hall also slept there. He
remembered the widow Hartley coming into Wood's
yard with the news of the murder, about seven that
evening. The last witness for the prisoners was
Hirst, a lodger at Wood's, who met Walker the ac
complice in Wood's yard about seven, and then
heard of the murder.
" When," said Justice Le Blanc in his charge, " you
see the point of time at which the murder took
place, and the nearness of all the different spots
where the persons were said to be to the place in

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 81
question, perhaps it is not surprising that there should
be, at such a distance of time, so much variance in
the account given by the different witnesses as to the
periods of time. Even supposing the witnesses to
come under no improper influence or bias in what
they are saying, they are speaking of a transaction
which not only took place a long time ago,
but was not imputed to the prisoners at the bar
until a considerable time after it had taken place.
For this took place in the month of April, and it does
not appear that inquiry was made before the magis
trate, or that any of these persons were committed
before October. Nothing happened immediately after
this transaction to lead these persons particularly to
watch, so as to be accurate in the hour of the time
on that particular evening when they saw these per
sons at a particular place, and we know how apt
persons are to be mistaken, even when care is taken,
in point of time." After this criticism on the nature
of the evidence for the prisoners, and his previous
remark of its avoiding " to explain any of the strong
passages in the evidence, in part from persons con
nected with one of the prisoners," the jury were but a
short time in returning a verdict of guilty against all
of them. Within a few days after the whole of them
were executed.
From the evidence subsequently given on the trial
of a number of Luddites for the attack on Cart
wright's mill it would appear that Mellor and Thorpe
were leaders in this outbreak, and active organizers
of the conspiracy, and that Wood's shop was a rendez
vous for the disaffected. In this case William Hall,
VOL. II. G

82 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
whose name will be remembered as a witness in the
previous trial, was the approver. According to his
evidence,6 —
" On the i ith of April Dickenson, not one of Wood's men,
brought to the shop at Wood's some powder and ball, near a
pint of the first, and a small bag of balls, and in consequence of
the directions which were given, Hall, Smith, and Dyson went
to the appointed rendezvous in Sir George Armytage's fields.
On their road they overtook George Brook, who went on with
them. It was ten at night when they reached the spot, where
they found two or three more, and stayed about an hour, by
which time over a hundred Luddites had assembled. They were
then called over, not by name, but by numbers (Hall was No.
7), and divided into three companies, one armed with muskets,
another with pistols, and the third with hatchets and malls.
The men were then formed in line by Mellor and Thorpe, and
Hall and another man made a rearguard to drive up the people
and see that no one strayed. In this form they marched, from
what he calls the dumb steeple (the obelisk) in Sir George's
fields, over Heathhead Moor, some three miles to Rawfold,
where Mr. Cartwright's mill was situated. Some of the party,
who had not even hatchets or malls, armed themselves with
stakes as they went along. When they got to the mill Mellor
formed his company (the musket men) in lines of thirteen, and
Thorpe, who, he believes, commanded the pistol company, did
the same with his men." He then gives the names of some of
those, including the prisoners on trial, whom he saw there.
Then he proceeds to state "that when thus formed in line
they went on to the mill. There was a deal of firing and
knocking with malls and hatchets, and at one time Mellor
cried out that the door was opened, and others said, ' Fire at
the bell ! ' (an alarm-bell on the mill roof which the defenders
of the mill were ringing). He himself fired at the mill twice.
6 That of James Haigh, Jonathan Dean, John Ogden, James
Brook, John Brook, Thomas Brook, John Walker, and John
Hirst. Those in italics acquitted, the rest found guilty, January
9th, 1813.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 83
He heard some one say there was a man shot ; there was firing
from and into the mill for about twenty minutes. That on an
alarm being given of the soldiers, they all got away as fast
as they could, and fled in all directions."
Happily for its owner the defence of the mill, a
strong stone building, had been provided for by its pro
prietor, who, with five soldiers and as many workmen
were expecting the attack. Awakened by the violent
barking of his watch-dog, he heard the windows on
the ground floor being dashed in, a discharge of
musketry at these and the windows on the upper
floor, and a violent hammering at one of the doors of
the mill. His little garrison flew to arms, one kept
the alarm-bell going, whilst the rest fired on the
assailants through the loop-holes which had been pre
pared. From the mob he heard the repeated cries, —
" Bang up, my lads ! In with you ! Are you in, my
lads ? Keep close ! In with you ! Damn them ! Kill
every one of them ! " — followed by shouts of " Damn
the bell, get it ! " The firing from within and without
continued for about twenty minutes, when that from
the mob slackened, and he heard the cries of persons
who appeared to be wounded, and of those who were
carrying them off. On this his men slackened their
fire, and when the assailants went off in the direction
of Huddersfield, he and some of his men went out
found two wounded men whom their friends could
not carry off, and malls, hatchets, sledge hammers,
and axes, strewn on the ground near the mill.
The injury to the mill, notwithstanding its strong
construction, was enormous. Out of 300 panes in the
windows only five remained whole, the iron frames of
G 2

84 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
the ground floor windows had been smashed in,
whole windows — frame, glass, and all — driven in, the
stone jambs of the door broken out, and the panels of
the door itself broken and cut to such an extent that
men could nearly put their heads through them. The
assailants had suffered severely. In addition to the
wounded carried off by their friends, and the two
found on the ground, two more were afterwards dis
covered so severely wounded that they died. Save
for the gallant stand made by the little garrison the
mill would have been sacked, and, as in previous
cases, burnt, and its defenders immolated. Had other
millowners imitated Mr. Cartwright, the outrages of
the Luddites would never have grown to the extent
which they assumed.7
It is needless to give in detail the evidence in this
case. As in the murder of Mr. Horsfall, the main
facts were spoken to by accomplices, who were suffi
ciently confirmed, and the guilt was clearly brought
home to five of those at the bar, who were convicted
and executed.
The oath imposed on these misguided men was
proved in another case, in which one John Eadon
was indicted under the 37 Geo. III. for " administer
ing, or causing to be administered, or for aiding or
7 On the 20th of April one other mill, that of Messrs. Barton
and Sons at Middleton, was most successfully defended, and
the assailants severely punished. In this affair five of the
rioters were killed before the mill, and several others wounded
before they dispersed. Subsequently to the attack several dead
bodies were found in the adjoining woods and fields — those of
men who had been too severely wounded to be removed at the
time by their comrades. Annual Register, 1812, under this date.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 85
assisting, or being present at, and consenting to the
administering or taking of any oath or engagement
purporting or intended to bind the person taking it to
engage in any mutinous or seditious purpose." This
statute was originally passed to meet the combina
tions in Nottinghamshire, and subjected the parties to
transportation. By the comprehensive terms of this
act it was not necessary that the formal ceremony of
calling upon God and kissing the book should be
observed. It did not matter in what form the illegal
engagement was made, so that it was a form binding
on the parties using it, though in this case the more
solemn and usual form had been observed.
The oath of the Luddites was much the same as
that of the Irish malcontents, and was in the following
form : — " I, of my own free will and accord, do de
clare and solemnly swear that I will never reveal to
any person or persons anything that may lead to the
discovery of the same, either in or by word, sign, or
action, under the penalty of being sent out of the
world by the first brother that may meet me.
Furthermore, I do swear that I will punish by
death any traitor or traitors shall there any arise
among us. I will pursue with increasing vengeance
should he fly to the verge of statute (meaning
probably ' nature '). I will be just, true, and
faithful in all my dealings with all my brothers.
So help me God to keep this oath inviolated.
Amen." The prisoner's counsel raised a point, based on
the fact that Howells, the party to whom it was
administered — the administration could hardly be

86 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
denied — took it as a joke, and with no intention
of being bound by it. But the court unanimously
held that the point at issue was not the animus
with which the oath was taken, but that in which it
was administered.
The evidence showed that Howells, a fellow-work
man with the prisoner and lodging in his house, had
first been spoken to by him about the Luddites on the
18th or 19th of May, and of his power to make any one
a member of that body. That two or three days
afterwards he was asked by the prisoner to take a
walk in the fields, and that, when there, after a
reference to the previous conversation, the prisoner
asked him to be one, and he consented. That the
prisoner then took out a Prayer Book, which he put
into Howells' right hand, and then repeated to him
the oath, and made him say the words after him and
kiss the book. He then gave the witness a copy of
the oath, which he bade him learn by heart, and when
he had done so to destroy the paper. Witness took
the paper, which was produced in court, after being
traced through various hands, and was proved to be
in the prisoner's handwriting. As to the animus
with which he took the oath, Howells said, " I knew
it was wrong, but I did not much know what we
were to do afterwards. I cannot tell whether it was
in joke or not ; I was not in earnest quite, I was not
serious when I took it ; I thought the prisoner was
joking with me at the time, and I spoke to him and
said, ' I thought you were joking with me,' but he
said, ' No, I am serious.' "
This copy of this stringent oath Howells appears

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 87
to have kept by him for some three weeks, and then
to have shown it to another workman of the name of
Broughton, who kept it for three days and then went
to the prisoner and asked him what it meant. Eadon
said " it was to form a regular organization in the
country to overturn the tyrannical system of Govern
ment," that he asked him for the sign of brotherhood,
and that Eadon showed it to him. This witness had
previously seen Eadon putting the names and
numbers of persons as delegates into a memorandum-
book, and identified the copy of the oath as in the
handwriting of the prisoner. Broughton at once
handed the paper to a sergeant of the South Devon
Militia, who, after two months' delay, gave it to his
colonel, by whom it was given to the Government
agent at Sheffield, and by him produced in court.
No attempt was made to impugn the character of the
two leading witnesses, and the friendly one called by
the prisoner went far to confirm Howells' account of
the time he went to work and lodge with him. The
charge in this plain case was commendably brief;
the jury immediately pronounced a verdict of guilty,
and eventually Eadon was sentenced to seven years'
transportation. The delay in the discovery of a conspiracy so
widely extended, and proved in the evidence in the
various trials to have been known to and shared in
by such numbers of fellow-workmen, was, no doubt,
due to the stringency and terrors of the oath. In
this last case both Howells and Broughton had to be
sent away in a hurry out of the county, and put in
safety until required at the trial. In another case,

88 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
where six men were arraigned on a similar charge,
an assistant constable at Manchester had to be sent
from a distance to throw himself in the way of
those who were busy administering these illegal
oaths. That such a practice is justifiable, when the
disgusting duty is performed with honesty of purpose
and no attempt is made to lead persons into the
crime which it is the object of these witnesses to
denounce, few but visionaries will deny. But surely
it is going too far to speak of it, as the counsel for
the Crown did, as " highly commendable," or to shut
one's eyes to the strong temptation such an office
holds out to unprincipled persons to suggest the
crime, and to lead misguided men from what may
be innocent combinations at the outset into others
destructive alike to the state and to the property
and persons of individuals. The fair side of this
practice was exhibited in these trials. In subsequent
cases we shall have cause to fear that the spies
were in reality the seducers of their victims, and that
the worst features of the plots which they divulged
were due to their own wicked invention.8
It is a painful reflection on the merciless character
of our criminal code at this period to note that,
though with an amount of leniency little practised
by the Crown in those days, seventeen prisoners were
allowed to go free on their own recognizances to
appear again if called on, fourteen of the rioters, in

8 See the case of Castle in the trial of James Watson, Oliver
in that of Brandreth and others, and of Reynolds in the Cato
Street Conspiracy, post.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 89

addition to the three murderers of Mr. Horsfall,
were left for execution at the close of this fearful
assize. Verily the mercy of the crown was in those
days perilously limited.
Though Luddism was for a time put down, it
broke forth again with new violence in 1816, in
creasing the prevalent distress which formed the
excuse for its revival. General Ludd again issued
his orders to armed bands, which marched with the
utmost secrecy from the towns to distant villages,
breaking open factories and demolishing machinery,
and working with a rapidity of movement which
proved the completeness of the organization and the
perfection of its drill. We shall meet with the same
spirit prompting the violence of the Reform Riots in
1 8 17, and those under Captain Swing in 1830-31,
when ricks were burnt and agricultural machinery
destroyed in a senseless crusade against the improve
ments in labour-saving inventions. In the Swing
riots, only the persons of the sufferers were changed,
and the farmer was then attacked instead of the
manufacturer.

90 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.

CHAPTER IV.
THE DE BERENGER FRAUD ON THE
STOCK EXCHANGE.
TRIAL OF LORD COCHRANE AND OTHERS,
1 8 14.
" Ashes to Ashes — lay the Hero down
Within the grey old Abbey's glorious shade,
In our Walhalla ne'er was worthier laid,
Since martyr first wore palm, or victor crown.
TP •ST * "/P "ff
A sea king, whose fit place had been with Blake,
Or our own Nelson, had he been but free
To follow glory's quest upon the sea,
Leading the conquering navies in his wake." Tom Taylor.
The career of Lord Cochrane is a romance crowded
with incidents almost too strange to be credible. It
is not as the leader of powerful fleets that he will be
remembered with Jervis, Duncan, or Nelson, but by
the smallness of the means by which he achieved the
most important ends — by the bravery, verging on
rashness, by which he won victory after victory from
adversaries far more powerful than himself— by the
steady perseverance, so irreconcilable with the natural
impetuosity of his character — by that confidence in

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 91
himself, his own unaided resources, and his cause, to
which his victories were due — by the difficulties with
politicians whose people he was invited to succour,
under which any less persevering man would have suc
cumbed — by the persecutions which he endured, many
of them due to that very self-confidence which brought
him success — by the endurance with which he lived
down calumny — by his death, covered with the honours
of which he had been ignominiously deprived in the
earlier stages of his truly wonderful career. His
character is well worthy of study by those who would
strive to imitate his perseverance and bravery, and
emulate the noble deeds which must ever shed a halo
of glory round the name of Cochrane.
The eldest son of Archibald, ninth Earl of Dun-
donald, who spent the little patrimony of the Coch
rane family in scientific pursuits and manufacturing
experiments, he had only his own talents and exer
tions to assist him. Born in 1775, he entered the
army at the early age then usual, but soon, in 1793,
changed into the navy, the service for which he in
herited from his mother's family the strongest pre
dilection. Next year he obtained his lieutenancy,
and was in 1800 promoted to the command of the
14-gun brig, the " Speedy." l In this small vessel, on

1 The armament ofthe "Speedy" consisted of 4-pounders, and
so weak were her timbers that she would not safely carry two
12-pound guns which Cochrane endeavoured to mount as bow
and stern chasers. The " El Gamo " carried 32 heavy guns and
319 men. Her tonnage exceeded 600 tons, that of the " Speedy "
was only 158. The broadside weight of the shot of the " Speedy "
was 28 lbs., that of" El Gamo" 190.

92 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
the 6th of May, 1801, he captured the Spanish
frigate " El Gamo," running alongside of her, locking
his rigging with hers, and then boarding, with a crew
of fifty-four men, his opponent, who carried more
than three hundred. Tremendous as were the odds •
against him, so dashing was his attack that he
achieved the capture of the enemy with a loss of only
three men. For this he was made a post-captain.
With that fairness to others which formed a leading
characteristic of his mind, he pressed Lord St. Vin
cent, the First Lord of the Admiralty at that time,
for the promotion of his second in command. He
was refused on the miserable ground of the small
loss of men with which the capture had been effected.
Lord Cochrane could not contain himself. He replied
to the noble lord that in the battle for which he him
self had obtained his earldom, only one man was
killed on St. Vincent's own ship, and yet all his
officers received promotion. Lord St. Vincent never
forgave the rebuff, and from that moment there was
a black mark against Cochrane's name in the navy
list. Unfortunately for him, in July, 1801, his little
war-brig was captured by three French line-of-battle
ships, after such a gallant resistance that the officer
in command of the French squadron asked him to
retain his sword. The Admiralty now had an oppor
tunity of refusing Cochrane another ship, which they
readily took.
Determined not to remain idle, Cochrane entered
himself as a student at Edinburgh, where he had
Lord Palmerston as a fellow-classman, under Dugald
Stewart. In 1803 he was at sea again ; this time in

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 93
a brig too rotten for service on the French coast,
and therefore sent on the inglorious employment of
protecting the fisheries in the North Sea. On the
accession of Lord Melville to office in the next year,
as a brother Scot, he was promoted to the " Pallas," a
frigate of thirty-two guns, and at once commenced
taking prizes off the Azores and the coast of Por
tugal. After some three years of this work, we find
him on the French coast watching their ships in the
Basque roads. With a frigate and three brigs of
this squadron, aided by their batteries, he fought a
sharp but unsuccessful action, thanks to the timely
aid rendered by two other French ships, and the loss
of his topmasts in running the French frigate on board.
Next year he was in Parliament for Honiton, making
himself more and more hated by Government for his
vigorous attacks on the sinecurists who then preyed
upon the revenue, and exposing with no sparing
hand the abuses which existed in the navy. To get
so dangerous an opponent out of the way, he was
appointed to the " Imperieuse," in the Mediterra
nean Squadron. On resigning the command, after
eighteen months' service, he was reproached by the
Admiralty as " having spent more sails, stores, gun
powder, and shot, than any captain in the service."
In the pursuit and destruction of an enemy Cochrane
had no idea of saving material. Sails, shot, stores,
and gunpowder were meant for use — and he used
them. His next service, unfortunately for him, was with
Admiral Gambier, on the southern coast of France.
Gambier, a calmly brave, but far from an active man,

94 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
with religious ideas which led him to regard every
weapon but shot and shell as anti-Christian, regarded
Cochrane's favourite employment of fire-ships with
religious horror. So strong, too, did he consider the
position in the Basque roads, where the French fleet
lay under the batteries in the river of Aix, defended
by a strong boom, commanded by their fire, that he
regarded Cochrane's proposal to attack them as
hazardous, if not desperate. That it was so was one
of its recommendations to Cochrane. Permission for
the attack was tardily and unwillingly given, and
though the boom was broken by Cochrane's frigate
and the " Calcutta," a 56-gun ship, captured ; in conse
quence of the tardy support given by Gambier, and the
fire-ships exploding too soon, or missing their mark, the
expedition was far from being as successful as it other
wise might have been.2 In his first despatch Gambier
gave Cochrane the credit of the action ; in a subse
quent one he took the credit to himself. When
Cochrane found his own and his officers' names omitted
from the proposed vote of thanks to Gambier, he an
nounced his intention of opposing it. To get him
again out of the way, he was offered and refused an
important command. A court-martial on the admiral
was the result. At this a chart of the port of Aix
and its roads was tendered by Cochrane, and refused,
2 In an article in the Revue des deux Mondes, in 1858, the
venerable Admiral Graviere, who was present in the attack,
thus briefly summed up the real causes of the escape of the
French fleet, '' La mollesse de Lord Gambier, le courage et le
sang-froid de quelques-uns de nos officiers, preservant seuls
l'escadre Frangaise d'une ruine totale."

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 95
and two other charts produced, on which he declared
imaginary shoals were inserted and erroneous mea
surements marked, in order to support Lord Gam-
bier's view that the attempt was " hazardous, if not
desperate." The admiral was, of course, acquitted
on this evidence, the vote of thanks passed without
the insertion of Cochrane's name, and Cochrane
shelved, unless he would accept a command subor
dinate to his present position. The offer was, as
may be supposed, indignantly refused, and Cochrane,
in his bitterness against the Government, threw him
self with all his natural ardour into the Reform
movement, and became even more a radical than
Burdett. For four years he remained unemployed, devoting
his time to Parliament, where he now occupied the
important position as Burdett's colleague for radical
Westminster.3 In 181 3, however, his uncle, Sir
3 It was during this period that in order to expose a swindle
in the Admiralty Court at Malta, by which the prizes con
demned were not only made worthless to their captors, but in
some cases the costs exceeded the value of the prizes, Lord
Cochrane went to Malta, obtained possession of the illegal
table of fees charged, was illegally imprisoned, and rescued by
the sailors of the flagship, and home again before his escape
was known. In this case, the Marshal acted also as proctor,
and by charging fees as proctor for advising, serving himself,
and administering to himself the necessary oath, ran up a bill
of costs more than six fathoms long, which Lord Cochrane
exhibited in the House of Commons. In exposing the iniqui
ties of the pension list of that day Lord Cochrane cited the
case of the pension to his own maternal grandmother having
been paid, and received by some one, for eight years after her
death. See " The Life of Lord Dundonald," by his son, the

96 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Alexander Cochrane, being appointed to the Ameri
can station, exercised his privilege of naming him
as his flag-captain. The Admiralty could not help
themselves. Cochrane at once took up his work,
and busied himself in fitting-out the " Tonant '' as the
flagship. He was engaged in February, 1814, when
he was suddenly charged as an accomplice in the
De Berenger frauds, by which the price of the Funds
were suddenly raised, on the report that a staff-officer
had come in haste from the allied armies in France
with the news of Napoleon's defeat and death.4 By
this event the whole current of his life was changed.
The frauds of De Berenger and his presumed allies
are so fully detailed in the evidence given on the trial,
that a very brief sketch of them will now be suffi- 1% in
dent. On the morning of the 21st of February, a
postchaise, with a person who professed to have
landed from a French vessel at Dover, and to be the
bearer of the news of the defeat and death of Napo
leon, arrived at the Marsh Gate, in the Westminster
present earl, and his " Autobiography ;" volumes of sterling
value, and deep interest.
* In August of 1813, a somewhat similar fraud appears to
have been attempted, in the form of a letter from the Lloyd's
agent at Deal to the Secretary, reporting that " one of our
cruisers has this moment landed a French officer, whom they
picked up in a flag of truce ; he is the bearer of despatches for
Government, and brings passports for a British minister. He
has been taken to the Port Admiral. — Deal, Aug. 6th." The
letter was a forgery, and as the handwriting was similar to that
of one of the members of the House, the Committee of the
Stock Exchange carefully investigated the affair, but failed to
fix the deception on any one. — See Minutes of Meeting of
Committee of Stock Exchange, August, 1813.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 97
Bridge Road, there the traveller changed into a
hackney coach, and was driven to the house in Green
Street, where Lord Cochrane temporarily resided.
Within an hour afterwards another chaise, coming
from Northfleet, in which were two persons dressed
as French officers, drove through the city, stopped at
the Marsh Gate, where the parties got out and dis
appeared. These persons also represented themselves
to be the bearers of similar news to that brought by
the first express. The effect on the Stock Exchange
was immediate : funds rose steadily, large sales were
made, and notably, though in very different amounts,
by Lord Cochrane, his uncle Mr. Cochrane Johnstone,
Mr. Butt, and Mr. Holloway. As the report got dis
credited the funds fell back to their opening prices,
and it was evident that a fraud of great magnitude
had been ingeniously practised to the serious injury
of the dealers in " time " bargains.
The committee of the Stock Exchange lost but
little time in attempting to unravel the mystery of
this fraud. Within a few days of its perpetration
they appointed a sub-committee to take evidence and
report to the members of the house. With com
mendable diligence the sub-committee sat almost
daily till the 8th of March, inviting information
from all quarters and subjecting those of the mem
bers of the Stock Exchange who had dealt largely
in the funds on the day of the fraud to most severe
examinations. From the minutes of this body, it
appears that at first they were under the impression
that it was only a more serious case of those hoaxes
then so commonly practised by certain newspapers,
VOL. II. H

98 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
and that Mr. Wright, of Dover, was at the bottom of
it. Soon, however, they got on the right track of
the Dover scheme, and, by the evidence of the post
boys and the hackney coachman, Crane, traced the
fictitious Du Bourg to the house in Green Street. On
this, placards were issued on the 5th of March, offering
rewards for the identification of the impostor, and his
subsequent conviction.5 It will be seen hereafter that
it was in consequence of these placards that Lord
Cochrane obtained fresh leave of absence and returned
to London in order to give his account of his supposed
implication in the fraud. They were by no means so
successful with the second plot. Vinn, indeed, told
them, as he had others, of his having been asked by
McRae to initiate such a scheme, but McRae was not
forthcoming. Holloway, whose name was seriously
implicated, braved it out before them, and Sandom,
who it was not denied had been with the sham officers
in the chaise, told the committee a most plausible
story of his connexion with the scheme.
On the 8th of March the sub-committee made their
report, which was ordered to be printed, but was not
ready for distribution until the 12th. In the mean-
5 The minutes of the sub-committee, which the author has
been permitted to inspect by the committee of the Stock
Exchange, are wanting from the 15th of March to the 2nd
of April, and from thence to the 5th of September there are
only three entries. The placard, after stating the arrival of
the fictitious Du Bourg in London, calls special attention to his
having been "set down, and entering the house, No. 13, Green
Street, Grosvenor Square," and offers a reward of fifty guineas
for his identification, and a further reward of two hundred
guineas for his conviction.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 99

time an incorrect account of it and of the meeting at
which it was adopted appeared in the Morning
Chronicle of the 9th.6 To the statements in this
most inaccurate report, Lord Cochrane's affidavit Of
the nth March was the reply. In that it will be
seen he gave a full account of De Berenger, and as
he had every reason to believe was the first to put
the Stock Exchange on his track. Subsequent to the
publication of the correct report of the sub-committee,
voluntary affidavits were sworn by the servants of
Lord Cochrane, who were in his house when De
Berenger called there, all agreeing that he had on a
grey great-coat, buttoned close up, and that so far as
they could see of his under coat, it was green.7
The sub-committee resumed their labours and pro
ceeded to hunt for De Berenger, for whose arrest, as
an alien who had abused his privileges, a warrant was
issued. After tracking him to Sunderland, and then
to Newcastle, Glasgow, and Leith, they succeeded in
arresting him in the last place on the 8th of April,
" One important inaccuracy was, that Sayer, the Bow Street
officer, who had taken Crane to make inquiries at the house in
Green Street, reported that it had been let furnished since
February 12th to Lord Cochrane, Cochrane Johnstone, and
Mr. Butt, and that they occasionally met there several times
previously to De Berenger's arrival. No such evidence was
reported by the sub- committee.
• Affidavit of Dewman, Mary Turpin, and Isaac Davis who,
though discharged when Lord Cochrane was' appointed to a
ship, was still staying in the house. Mary Turpin also swore
that on the 1 8th of March some stranger had come to her with
an offer of 5/. if she would say what uniform the 'visitor had
on.
H 2

ioo NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
had him brought to London, and confronted with the
post-boys and the other witnesses who could speak
to his identification. Whilst thus engaged a letter
was written by Mr. Cochrane Johnstone to the chair
man of the Stock Exchange, enclosing one from
McRae, offering to disclose the names of the parties
to the fraud, if 10,000/. was placed in the hands of
trustees as his remuneration on their conviction. To
this no reply was given. On the 1 8th, Mr. Cochrane
Johnstone again wrote to the chairman, stating that
he, Lord Cochrane and Mr. Butt, would each con
tribute 1000/. towards this fund for bribing McRae.
The only reply given to this offer was the preferring
the indictments against all the parties supposed to be
implicated. McRae's offer came too late, the sub
committee had found out all about him and his com
panions, and his professed evidence was not worth
purchasing. Concealment on the part of Holloway
and his friends was no longer possible. On the 25th
of April he and Lyte confessed the whole affair to
the sub-committee.
On the 20th of April, 18 14, the grand jury of the
City of London returned a true bill against Charles
Random de Berenger, Sir Thomas Cochrane, com
monly called Lord Cochrane, Andrew Cochrane
Johnstone, Richard Gaythorne Butt, Ralph Sandom,
Alexander McRae, John Peter Holloway, and Henry
Lyte, for a conspiracy "to make and propagate a
false report and rumour that the French had lately been
beaten in battle, and that Napoleon Bonaparte was
killed, and the allies in Paris." The indictment, in its
first count (after setting out the various steps by which

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 101
this report was manufactured and spread) charged
that, in prosecution of this conspiracy on the 21st day
of February, the defendants did by its means unlaw
fully cause a temporary increase in the prices of " the
funds of this kingdom," and did sell large quantities of
stock to the extent of more than 800,000/. at greater
prices than they would otherwise have sold for, " with
a wicked and fraudulent intention, then and there to
cheat and defraud the liege subjects of the king, and
to their damage." In the second count, the conspiracy
was described as for the purpose of inducing people to
believe the false report in order that the defendants
might sell at a profit. In the third, the object of
conspiracy was stated to be " to occasion without any
just or true cause a great increase and rise of the
public Government funds of this kingdom, and to
injure the subjects of the king who should on the
2 ist of February purchase any such funds." In the
fourth count, the writing and sending a letter to
Admiral Foley was said to have been with the same
object. In the fifth, with the same object they were
charged generally with propagating " false reports
and rumours of and concerning Napoleon Bonaparte
and the French people." By the sixth count the false
report was laid " that a peace would then soon be
made with the people of France." In the seventh
all details of the fraud were omitted, and it was spoken
of merely as " divers false and subtle acts, devices,
contrivances, representations, " reports and rumours/'
with the object of raising the prices of the funds. In
the last they were charged with conspiring " by
divers false and subtle acts," &c, as in the seventh

102 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
count, " to induce people to believe, without true and
just cause, that a peace would soon be concluded
with the people of France, to the great and manifest
injury of divers and very many of the liege sub
jects of our said lord the king." To this indictment
all the defendants put in a plea of Not Guilty, and the
case having been removed by the prosecutors into the
King's Bench, came on for trial before Lord Ellen-
borough and a special jury on the 8th of June.
Nominally, the prosecution was on the part of the
committee of the Stock Exchange ; in reality, if Lord
Cochrane is right, by the Admiralty. With this
department, as we have seen, Lord Cochrane was on
most unfriendly terms, and its secretary had fre
quently exhibited in Parliament his bitterness against
him as a naval reformer. In support of this view
it is to be remarked that the case had been taken
out of the hands of the usual solicitor to the com
mittee of the Stock Exchange, and committed to
Mr. Lavie, the Admiralty solicitor, who had conducted
the case of Lord Gambier at the court-martial in
1809, which was in reality, though not in form, a
court-martial on Lord Cochrane.8 If this belief of
8 It appears from the minutes of the sub-committee of the
Stock Exchange, that on the 7th of March they laid the sub
stance of the evidence they had obtained before Lord Melville,
the First Lord of the Admiralty, and met with " a polite and
gracious reception," and in their report to the General Com
mittee they state " they were told by Lord Melville that if they
had occasion for legal advice they might apply to the Attorney-
General." From an entry in the minutes of March nth it
appears that up to that date Mr. Dawes, their usual solicitor,
was advising them. I have not been able to trace the date of

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 103
Lord Cochrane's is justified, it was most improper in
Lord Ellenborough, who had been a Cabinet Minister,
to have sat on the trial, in the conduct of which it
was impossible for such a politician not to have been
biassed by party interests. Another point of great
unfairness to Lord Cochrane was that Mr. Gurney,
who led for the prosecution, had previously settled
the affidavit of Lord Cochrane, in which he gave his
account of the transaction, and on which Gurney com
mented with the utmost severity in his addresses to
the jury. Lastly, Lord Ellenborough followed his
old cruel tactics of so prolonging the sitting of the
court on the first day, that the defendants' counsel
were exhausted by twelve hours' work before they
were forced by him to commence their addresses to
the jury, and the proceedings were protracted until
three o'clock the next morning, and then resumed
after an interval of barely seven hours. By this
manoeuvre the judge, the only person engaged who
was not physically unfit, had an easy task in im
posing his will on a fatigued and listless jury. As
the evidence will be given in considerable detail, it is
needless to give any summary of the opening address
of the counsel for the prosecution. It may be con-
Mr. Lavie being entrusted with the case, as from March 15th
to April 2nd there is a gap in the minutes of the committee.
He was, however, present at the meeting of the sub-committee
on the 25th- April, when Holloway confessed his share in the
second plot. It must, however, be borne in mind that the costs
of the prosecution were met by a subscription among the mem
bers ofthe Stock Exchange, and that the piece of plate given to
Mr. Lavie for his exertions was voted by the sub-committee on
the 15th of August.

104 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
venient to consider the evidence under the following
heads. (i.) The identification of De Berenger as Du Bourg
from his appearance at Dover to his arrival in
London. (2.) De Berenger's visit to Lord Cochrane.
(3.) The dealings in the funds on the arrival of the
news. (4.) The conduct of Cochrane Johnstone and De
Berenger after the fraud.
(5.) The second part of the conspiracy by Holloway
and his companions.
(6.) The case of the defendants.
(1.) The Identification of De Berenger
as Du Bourg from his appearance at Dover
TO HIS ARRIVAL IN LONDON.
Shortly after one in the morning of the 21st of
February, 18 14, Marsh, the landlord of the Pac&uet
Boat Inn, at Dover, heard some one knocking loudly
at the door of the neighbouring Ship Hotel. It
was light enough for him to see that it was a gentle
man. He sent for candles, and by the time he had
procured them and stepped over to the Ship
he found that the visitor had got into the entrance
passage of that hotel, and he then saw that he was
dressed in a grey overcoat, beneath which was a
red uniform coat with a star on it. He wanted a post-
chaise and four, and a horse express to send a letter
to the admiral at Deal. In answer to a question of
the witness he said he was " the bearer of the most
important despatches that had been brought to this
country for the last twenty years, and that he had

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 105
landed on the beach." He asked for, and the witness
got for him from Mr. Wright, pens, ink, and paper,
and put the candles on the table, one on each side
of him, whilst he wrote. The stranger wore a Ger
man cap with a gold fringe. When he asked him if
he should send for the collector of the port, he
refused. " I think that is the person" he added,
pointing at De Berenger. The witness went to get the
chaise and horses, saw him get into it, and heard him
offer the post-boys a napoleon each. Two other
persons, Gourley and Edis, were present. On cross-
examination he admitted that he saw him for only
about five minutes in the passage, and for a very short
time when writing. When re-examined he said no
one had pointed out De Berenger to him, and that he
knew him the instant he saw him. During the
examination of this and the following witnesses, fac
similes of the cap, overcoat, and uniform were pro
duced in court, and identified as similar to those they
saw on De Berenger. Gourley, who had gone with
Marsh to the Ship Hotel, confirmed him as to the
dress and the letter-writing, and also identified De
Berenger : and Edis, though he could not fix the
colour of the cap, whether black or brown, had no
doubt he was the messenger who arrived on that
morning. A fourth witness, one St. John, who was
staying at the Ship, engaged in picking up informa
tion for the Traveller newspaper, and called up by
the violent knocking at the door of the hotel, saw the
person in the coffee-room dressed as the others had
described, and also identified him as De Berenger.
We next have the express boy who received, but
not from the prisoner, the letter for the admiral, rode

106 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
with it to Deal, where he delivered it to his servant.
On Admiral Foley himself being called, and speaking
to the receipt of a letter which the previous witness
had brought, the objection was taken that it could
not be read until distinctly traced to De Berenger.
Mr. Wright the landlord of the Ship, who could have
supplied this evidence, being too ill to attend, Mr.
Lavie, the attorney for the prosecution, was called to
prove the handwriting. He had seen De Berenger
write when in custody in the month of April, when he
handed to the witness the letter he had seen him
writing, and he unhesitatingly declared that the letter
to Admiral Foley was in the same handwriting. His
evidence remaining unshaken on cross-examination,
the following letter was put in and read : —
"Dover, i a.m., Feb. 21st, 1814.
"Sir, — I have the honour to acquaint you that ' L'Aigle,
from Calais, Pierre Duquin, master, has this moment landed
me near Dover, to proceed to the capital with despatches of
the happiest nature. I have pledged my honour that no harm
shall come to the crew of the ' L'Aigle.' Even with a flag of
truce they immediately put to sea. Should they be taken
I have to entreat you to immediately liberate them. My anxiety
will not allow me to say more for your gratification than that
the allies obtained a final victory, that Bonaparte was overtaken
by a] party of Sachen's Cossacks, who immediately slew him,
and divided his body between them. General Platoff saved
Paris from being reduced to ashes ; the allied sovereigns are
there, and the white cockade is universal ; an immediate peace
is certain. In the utmost haste I entreat your consideration,
and I have the honour to be, Sir,
" Your obedient, humble Servant,
" R. du Bourg,
" Lt.-Col. and Aide-de-Camp to Lord Cathcart.
" To the Hon. T. Foley,
Port Admiral, Deal, &c, &c,"

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 107
Not believing the letter, the Admiral sent for the
boy to his dressing-room, and after examining him,
enclosed it to Mr. Croker, the secretary of the
Admiralty, as he could not work the telegraph from
the thick state of the weather. Could he have done
so, it is evident from a broken answer of the witness
that he would have reported against the truth of the
despatch. We now take De Berenger on the road to London.
The first post-boy could only say that he drove a
gentleman early in the morning ofthe 21st of Febru
ary from his master's house, the Ship, to the Fountain
Hotel, Canterbury, and that he gave each of the boys
a napoleon at the end of the stage, and that he saw
the next boys — Broad and Daley — start off with the
chaise from Canterbury. Broad spoke to driving the
chaise to the Rose at Sittingbourne, and again each
boy had a napoleon. He saw the next boys, Finnis and
Wakefield — drive off the chaise from Sittingbourne.
On cross-examination he was pressed as to the reason
of remembering such a common event as driving
a gentleman in a chaise and four. On this Lord
Ellenborough put the question, " Did all these circum
stances ever concur in any other case ? Did you ever
drive so early in the morning a single gentleman in a
chaise and four, and receive a napoleon from him ? "
and elicited the reply, " No, I never did." Finnis
spoke to driving the chaise to the Crown at Rochester
— kept by the brother of the landlord of the Ship —
and to again receiving two napoleons for himself and
the other boy. None of these witnesses, except the
last, could speak to the prisoner or his dress. Finnis,

108 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
however, described him as having on a pepper-and-
salt overcoat, and a red coat under it and a cap.
The landlord of the Crown, however, had a full
opportunity of seeing the traveller, as he took him
into the bar parlour for some hasty refreshment, and
there learnt from him the details of the great news of
which he professed to be the bearer.
" He was dressed," said this witness, " in a pepper-and-salt
great-coat, with a scarlet coat under it, a military scarlet coat ;
the upper coat was nearer the colour of that coat than anything
I could state (pointing to the overcoat in Court), the scarlet
military coat he had under that was very much trimmed with
gold lace ; it appeared by candle-light to be gold lace trimmed
down the front ; he had also on a cap, a military cap with a
broad gold lace round it — a band. The cap appeared to be
made of cloth, I am not certain whether it was of cloth or fur ;
but it appeared to be nearly the colour of the great coat. On
the military coat was a star, and something suspended, either
from the neck or button, I do not know which, something
which he told me was some honour of a military order of
Russia." The witness afterwards added, on cross-examination,
" He had one part of his dress, I have not mentioned, which
was a large white cockade, hanging down very dirty, as if it
had been a long time worn. He was with him for about ten
minutes, and saw him go away in the same chaise."
This witness further said that though the party
was very much disguised, he thought he should recog
nize him. On first looking round the court he failed
to see him, but did so when he looked with more care,
and then identified De Berenger as the traveller.
"The whole length of time he was with him was
about ten minutes. It was about half after five when
he arrived at his inn."
One of the post-boys who drove him the next stage,

NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS. 109
to the Granby, at Dartford — James Overy — also spoke
to his dress and his star, and to his paying him a 5/.
note and a shilling for the horses for the next stage
as well as those from Rochester, and giving him and
the other lad a napoleon each. It was after seven
when they arrived at Dartford. The landlord of the
Crown and Anchor at Dartford remembered Overy
arriving with the chaise and himself speaking with
the gentleman at its window ; he could not, however,
identify him, though positive that he saw enough of
him to enable him to do so.9
Spilling, one of the boys who drove the stage into
London, gave the following important evidence : —
" Upon our ride to London the gentleman spoke to him a
great deal. He had previously heard him tell the waiter at
Dartford the news, and when we came to Bexley Heath he
told me not to hurry my horses, for his business was not so
particular now, as the telegraph could not work — it was a thick,
frosty morning. I told him I thought the telegraph could not
work, for I knew almost every telegraph between Deal and
London. He then said, ' Post-boy, don't take any notice of the
news as you go along.' I told him I would not, unless he
wished it ; he said I might tell any of my friends as I returned,
for he dar'st say they would be glad to hear it. He then said
that he had sent a letter to the Port-Admiral at Deal because
he was ordered, and that he had landed two miles from the
Ship Inn. He said no more till we got to Shooter's Hill,

9 When this witness was pressed as to identity, Lord Ellen
borough said, "The questions might go much nearer. The
witnesses might be asked if that be the person ; it is always
done at the Old Bailey in cases of life and death, where the
prisoner stands in a conspicuous situation— it is less strong in
this case ; but to be sure, when it is proved in the way it has
been, it can be of very little consequence!'

no NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
where I and the other boy got down from our horses, and
he called us to the window, and gave us some cakes and a
bottle of wine. After a remark on the weather, he said ' I have
not seen old England a long while before,' and asked me which
was the first coach-stand. I told him the Bricklayer's Arms.
He said that would not do, it was too public ; he was afraid
somebody would cast some reflections, and he should not like
it. I told him I thought not, they would be too glad to hear
the news. He then asked if there was not a stand in the
Lambeth Road. I said, ' Yes ;' and he told me to drive him
there ; my chaise would go faster than a hackney coach. I did
so, and there was no coach there. I told him there was one at
the Marsh Gate, and I drove there, up alongside of the only
coach on the stand. As we came round the corner he pulled
up the side blind, which had been down. I called the coach
man and the waterman, and when the latter opened the door
he stepped from one coach to the other, and he gave me two
napoleons. The hackney man's name is Crane. Only knows
the waterman as ' Bob.' He did not hear where he told the
coachman to drive to." His description of the traveller's dress
was that " he had a dark fur cap, bound with white lace of some
kind round it, whether gold or silver he could not say. Had
a red coat underneath an outer dark coat — a kind of brown
coat ; but will not swear to that. Thinks the red coat was
turned up with yellow, but should not like to swear to that. It
had a star of some sort on it, but was not close enough to see
that, and cannot swear to what it was* Thought that on the
outer coat was fur, a kind of white fur, the same as off a rabbit's
skin." He identified De Berenger without any hesitation,
as did also the waterman. In the cross-examination
of this witness, it was sought to prove that he was
influenced by the reward offered by the Stock Ex
change, and that he had been discussing at his Hat
Club at Dartford whether he or Crane should get the
reward. He admitted having received five pounds
from that source, and to have been examined by the

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. in
committee as well as by the Grand Jury. The
cross-examination was ineffectual. Bartholomew, the
waterman of the stand at the Marsh Gate, saw the
traveller for only so short a time, whilst he stepped
from the chaise to the coach, that he could not clearly
identify De Berenger. He saw, however, that he had
a brown cap and a dark military drab coat, and a
scarlet coat with lace on it, and he remembered that
he ordered the coach to be driven to Grosvenor
Square. Barwick, a clerk to a firm of bankers in Pall
Mall, on his road to the bank, saw the post chaise at
the stand and the coach drive off. From what he was
told by by-standers he followed it as far as the
Haymarket, where he turned off to go to his duty.
As he only saw the passenger through the window of
the coach, he could only speak to his having on " a
cap, such as German cavalry wear, with a gold band
on it," and could not identify De Berenger further
than to say that he was like the person he saw in the
coach. We now come to Crane, the hackney coachman,1 a
1 Among the affidavits on which Lord Cochrane based his
application for a new trial were the following, exposing the
witness Crane. King, a stable-keeper in the Westminster
Bridge Road, swore that Crane told him " he could not identify
De Berenger, and that he did not see his under dress, as his coat
was closely buttoned up," that he declared " he would have a
hackney coach out of them" (the prosecutors), and that he " would
swear black white if paid for it," that since the trial " he has
purchased a hackney coach and horses of the best description."
That he would swear " black white " was said in the presence of
Colonel Taylor's groom, who confirmed the statement in his affi
davit. To one Yeovil, a ticket porter, Crane declared that "it
was Lord Cochrane himself whom he drove, that he knew him

112 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
most important witness, of whose character most
extraordinary evidence was procured, but, unfortu
nately, subsequent to the trial. He swore that he
drove the fare into Grosvenor Square, and that he
then told him to go to 13, Green Street (Lord Coch
rane's residence), that he there got out with a bit of a
portmanteau, he thought it was black, but was not
certain, but it was large enough to carry a coat — that
he there asked for Colonel or Captain somebody, and
heard him told that he had gone to breakfast in Cum
berland Street, when he asked if he could write a note
and went into the parlour. He then paid him four
shillings, and afterwards another shilling, when he
drove off. He had seen this person at Woods, the
Government messenger's office, and he thought that
it was De Berenger, but he had altered himself very
much in his dress. As nothing to the discredit of
this witness was known at the time of the trial, his
cross-examination was limited to his knowledge of the
traveller's dress, and when unwisely pressed on this
point, he stated, what he had not done before, that
"he saw he had a red coat underneath his great
coat." 2
as well as he knew the witness, had driven him twenty times."
This statement was confirmed by the affidavit of one Livermore,
who heard the conversation. It seems that Crane, only a fort
night before his giving evidence, had been convicted in " an
atrocious case " of cruelty to his horses, and suspended from
driving for three months. February 17th, 1826, he was con
victed of stealing 20/., and sentenced to seven years' transporta
tion, and discharged by order ofthe Secretary of State in 1830. —
Autobiography, vol. ii. p. 355, et seq.
2 It is only fair to Crane to state that the evidence he gave

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 113
Other witnesses now proved the discovery, in the
Thames, near the Old Stairs, Wapping, on the 24th
of March, of a bundle in the calico cover of a chair.
In this were two sleeves, and the other pieces of a
scarlet coat, embroidery, a star and a silver coat of
arms, the star broken in half ; and the parcel was
weighted with pieces of lead and coal. Its subsequent
delivery to the Committee of the Stock Exchange
was then proved. These fragments, an accoutrement-
maker of the name of Solomon, proved to be made of
the same kind of cloth as a 'staff officer's dress, which,
with a fur cap, ornamented with a pale gold band,
had been purchased of him on the 19th of February, by
a person who represented that he required them to
perform the character of a foreign officer, and to be
sent into the country that evening. Solomon, how
ever, could not identify De Berenger as the purchaser,
though pressed by the judge as well as counsel on the
point. Necessarily he was not cross-examined.
To complete this portion of the case, Davison and
his wife, the occupiers ofthe house in the King's Bench
Rules, in which De Berenger lodged, proved that he
left there about eleven on the morning of Sunday the
on his first examination before the Committee of the Stock
Exchange, was identical with that subsequently given in court.
Sayer, the Bow Street officer, who seems to have had him in
hand, and who had charge of the case, reports, on March 28,
taking him to the house in Green Street to see if he could iden
tify the servant who opened the door to him, making the excuse
that the gentleman had given him a bad shilling. He was
answered from the area that the family had only come in
on the previous Friday, and he thought not by the man who
let in Du Bourg. — Minutes of Sub-Committee, of the above
dates. VOL. II. I

114 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
20th, in a grey overcoat, that as far as they heard, he
did not return until the afternoon of Monday.3
De Berenger had now been clearly tracked from
Dover to Green Street, and, if Crane was to be believed,
when he left him at Lord Cochrane's he had on the
same red uniform in which the post-boys and the
landlord at Dartford had sworn he was dressed during
his journey to London.4 We have now to consider
the evidence of what passed in Green Street.
II. De Berenger's Visit to Lord Cochrane.
The only evidence of what passed in Green Street,
produced by the prosecution, was the voluntary affi
davit made by Lord Cochrane, and published, with
others made by his servants, to meet the public reports
that had been circulated and the notices placarded on
the walls, implicating him in the fraud of Du Bourg,
At the time of De Berenger's visit, Lord Cochrane was
busily engaged, on leave of absence in London, about
8 On the nth of January, 1816, Mr. Grey, of Gray's Inn,
applied through Mr. Lavie to the Committee of the Stock
Exchange, to assist him in an intended prosecution of the
Davidsons for perjury, by allowing Mr. Gurney, the shorthand
writer employed by the Committee at the trial, to attend with
his notes of the evidence of these parties. The Committee
naturally declined to be mixed up in the matter, of which
no more was heard. — Minutes of Committee, Jan. n, 1816.
4 In his long and laboured volume, " The Noble Stock
Jobber," from which full extracts will be found in the Appen
dix A, De Berenger, with very unnecessary candour, admits
that he was the party driven from Dover to Green Street.
The extracts disclose, the reason for this apparently useless
candour.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 115
his1 patent lamp. On the expiry of his leave he had
returned to Chatham, and was engaged in fitting out
the"Tonant" when thereports against himreached him.
He at once obtained fresh leave of absence, returned
to town, and gave his account of the interview with
De Berenger, and his Stock Exchange transactions,
in the following affidavit. Until this was published,
there was no clue, as far as Lord Cochrane knew, to
lead the Committee of the Stock Exchange to the real
Du Bourg. " If De Berenger is Du Bourg," said Lord
Cochrane to his publisher, " I have given them the
clue to find him by." 5
We give this document in full : —
" I, Sir Thomas Cochrane, commonly called Lord Cochrane,
having been appointed by the Lords Commissioners of the
Admiralty to active service (at the request, I believe, of Sir
6 In reality, a Mr. William Harrison on the 8th of March
informed the Sub-Committee that he knew a person of the
name of De Berenger, a Prussian, residing in the Rules of the
Bench, who was intimate with Lord Cochrane and Mr. Coch
rane Johnstone, hardly a day passing in which he did not dine
with the latter, for whom he was engaged on some plans con
nected with Alsop's Buildings, and that he thought he was
likely to be the man. As Lord Cochrane's affidavit was pub
lished on the 1 ith, probably the Sub-Committee had not time
to act on this hint before the statement of his lordship's made
the case against De Berenger clear. — Minutes of Sub-Com
mittee, March 8. Is this the Mr. Harrison referred to by
De Berenger, as present at his conversation with the witness
Murray, as "known principally from his bearing an inveterate
hatred to all the Cochranes from having undergone conviction,
sentence, and imprisonment for attempting to extort money
from the Hon. Basil Cochrane ? "— " The Noble Stock Jobber,"
p. 24. I 2

116 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Alexander Cochrane), when I had no expectation of being
called on, I obtained leave of absence to settle my private affairs
previous to quitting this country, and chiefly with a view to
lodge a specification to a patent relative to a discovery for in
creasing the intensity of light. That in pursuance of my daily
practice of superintending the work that was executing for me,
and knowing that my uncle, Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, went to
the city in a coach every morning :
" I do swear, on the morning ofthe 21st of February (which
day was impressed on my mind by circumstances which after
wards occurred) I breakfasted with him at his residence in Cum
berland Street, about half-past eight o'clock, and I was put down
by him (Mr. Butt was in the coach) on Snow Hill about ten
o'clock ; that I had been about three-quarters of an hour at
Mr. King's manufactory, at No. 1, Cock Lane, when I received
a few lines on a bit of paper, requesting me to come imme
diately to my house ; the name affixed, from being written close
to the bottom, I could not read. The servant told me it was
from an army officer, and concluding that he might be an
officer from Spain, and that some accident had befallen my
brother, I hastened back, and found Captain De Berenger,
who, in great seeming uneasiness, made many apologies for the
freedom he had used, which nothing but the distressed state of
mind, arising from difficulties, could have induced him to do.
All his prospects, he said, had failed, and his last hope had
vanished of obtaining an appointment in America. He was
unpleasantly circumstanced, on account of a sum he could not
pay, and if he could others would fall on him for full 3000/.
He had no hope of benefiting his creditors in his present posi
tion, or of assisting himself. That if I would take him with
me he would immediately go on board and exercise the sharp
shooters (which plan Sir A. Cochrane, I knew, had approved
of). That he had left his lodgings, and prepared himself in the
best way his means allowed. He had brought the sword with
him which had been his father's, and to that and Sir Alexander
he would trust for obtaining an honourable appointment. I
felt very uneasy at the distress he was in, and knowing him
to be a man of great talent and service, I told him I would
do all in my power to relieve him ; but as to his going imme-

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 117
diately on board the " Tonant " with any comfort to himself,
that was impossible. My cabin was without furniture, I had
not even a servant on board. He s^id he would willingly mess
anywhere. I told him that the ward-room was already
crowded, and besides, I could not with propriety take him, he
being a foreigner, without leave from the Admiralty. He
seemed greatly hurt at this, and recalled to my recollection
certificates which- he had formerly shown me, from persons in
official situations — Lord Yarmouth, General Jenkinson, and Mr.
Reeves, I think, were amongst them. I recommended him to
get them, or any other friends, to exert their influence, for I
had none, adding, that when the " Tonant " went to Ports
mouth, I should be happy to receive him, and I knew from
Sir A. Cochrane that he would be1 pleased if he accomplished
that object. Captain Berenger said, that not anticipating any
objection on my part from the conversation he had formerly
had with me, he had come away with the intention to go on
board and make himself useful in his military capacity — he
could not go to Lord Yarmouth, or to any other friends, in this
dress (alluding to that he had on), or return to his lodgings,
where it would excite suspicion (as he was at that time in the
Rules of the King's Bench), but that if I refused to let him join
the ship now he would do so at Portsmouth. Under present
circumstances he must take a great liberty, and request the
favour of me to lend him a hat to wedr instead of his military
cap. I gave him one, which was in a back room with some
things that had not been packed up, and, having tried it on, his
uniform appeared under his great coat; I therefore offered him
a black coat that was lying on a chair, and which I did not
intend to take with me. He put up his uniform in a towel, and
shortly afterwards went away in apparent great uneasiness of
mind j and having asked my leave, he took the coach I came
in, and which I had forgotten to discharge in the haste I was
in. " I do further depose that the above conversation is the sub
stance of all that passed with Captain Berenger, which, from
the circumstances attending it, was strongly impressed on my
mind ; that no other person in uniform was seen by me, at my
house, on Monday the 21st of February, though probably other

1 1 8 NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS.
officers may have called (as many have done since my appoint
ment), of this, however, I cannot speak from my own know
ledge, having been almost constantly from home, arranging my
private affairs. I understand that many persons have called
under the above circumstances, and have written notes in the
parlour, and others have waited in expectation of seeing me.
And I most positively swear that I never saw any person at my
house resembling the description, and in the dress stated in the
printed advertisements of the members of the Stock Exchange.
I further aver that I had no concern, directly or indirectly, in
the late imposition, and that the above is all I know relative
to any person who came to my house in uniform on the 21st
day of February before alluded to. Captain Berenger wore a
grey coat, a green uniform, and a military cap.*
" From the manner in which my character has been attempted
to be defamed, it is indispensably necessary to state that my
connexion in any way with the funds arose from an impression
6 The truth of this statement was subsequently admitted by
De Berenger, who, in reply to a letter from Lord Cochrane,
asking for an explanation of the circumstances of his visit,
replied, —
"King Street, Westminster,
"April 27, 1 8 14.
"My Lord. — I have the honour of acknowledging the re
ceipt of your lordship's favour, which has this moment been
delivered. Rest assured, my lord, that nothing could exceed the
pain I felt when I perceived how cruelly, how unfairly my unfor
tunate visit of the 21st of February was interpreted (which,
with its object, is so correctly detailed in your affidavit) ; but
my agony is augmented, when I reflect that acts of generosity
and goodness towards an unfortunate man have been, and
continue to be, the accidental cause of much mortification to
you. A fear of increasing the imaginary grounds of accusation
caused me to refrain from addressing you."
As Lord Cochrane did not see any reason for further corre
spondence, De Berenger changed his tone, and wrote a series
of vituperative epistles, probably with the object of extorting
money." — Quoted in the " Autobiography," vol. ii., 339-40.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 119
that in the present favourable aspect of affairs it was only
necessary to hold stock in order to become a gainer without
prejudice to anybody ; that I did so openly, considering it in no
degree improper, far less dishonourable ; that I had no secret
information of any kind ; and that had my anticipation of the
success of affairs been disappointed, I should have been the
only sufferer.
" Further, I do most solemnly swear that the whole of the
Omnium which I possessed on the 21st of February, 1814,
amounted to 139,000/., which I bought by Mr. Fearn (Ithink)
on the 12th ultimo at a premium of 2S ' j that 1 did not hold on
that day any other sum on account in any other stock j and that
I had given orders when it was bought to dispose of it on a rise
of one per cent., and it actually was sold at an average premium
of 29^, though on the day of the fraud it might have been dis
posed of at 3i\. I further swear that the above is the only
stock which I sold of any kind on the 21st of February, except
2000/. in money, which I had occasion for, the profit on which
was about 10I.
" Further, I do solemnly depose that I had no connexion or
dealing with any one, save the above mentioned, and that I
did not at any time, directly or indirectly, by myself or by any
other, take or procure any office or apartment for any broker
or other person for the prosecution of stock affairs. " Cochrane."
In support of this affidavit, King the lamp-maker,
and the servant of Lord Cochrane who let in De
Berenger, were called for the defence. The former
spoke to his having been employed by Lord Cochrane
during the last summer and winter in making signal
lanterns and lamps of a new kind, and of his lord
ship coming almost daily to his manufactory to see
after their progress. He remembered his coming or
the 2 ist of February about his usual time— between
ten and eleven— and his servant bringing him a note,
which Lord Cochrane opened, retiring into a passage

120 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
to read it, and then returning to the workshop, and
shortly after going away. The only observation which
he thinks Lord Cochrane made on reading the note,
was, " Very well, Thomas."
Dewman, the man-servant, who had been in the
Cochrane family seventeen years, and in Lord Coch
rane's private service from the previous February, re
membered his master going as usual to King's factory
and the gentleman coming in the coach to the house on
that day. He inquired for his master ; " I said he
was out. The gentlemen asked me where he was gone
to, and I told him to Great Cumberland Street to
breakfast, because his lordship told me so. I went
there after him, and not finding him, came back to
Green Street and informed the gentleman, who had
written a note, that he was not there ; and the gentle
men said, ' Pray do you know where he is gone to, or
where his lordship could be found ? ' I told him I
thought I could find him, but I might be too late ; for
when his lordship went out he said to me, ' Thomas,
after you have got your breakfast, follow me with that
glass globe to Mr. King's.' I had been there before.
I told the gentleman I should most likely find him at
Mr. King's, as I was going to follow him there with
the glass. Whether this gentleman had come or not
I should have gone there with the glass. He took
the note from me, and added two or three more lines
to it. I took it there, and his lordship read it in my
presence, and I left him at King's. He had then no
other man servant but me. I did not return till past two,
having a father in Castle Street. He said, 'Well,
Thomas, I will return.' Davis, another man-servant,

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 121
had been given warning a month before his lordship
was appointed to the ' Tonant,' and was in the
kitchen when the gentleman came. He is gone with
Admiral Herring to the West Indies."
It is to be regretted that counsel for the defence
did not ask Dewman how the visitor was dressed (of
course the prosecution were content with their own
witnesses on that point). On their brief were the
other servants who saw De Berenger, and who were
prepared to speak to his dress. But in consultation
it had been decided, most unwisely, not to call them,
and thus, either from over-confidence in their own
case, or fear of these witnesses breaking down, the
evidence as to the dress of De Berenger, the sole
point really affecting Lord Cochrane, was left as the
prosecution had made it.
Evidence was given of the illness of Lord Coch
rane's brother with the army in Spain, and of the
lamp patent being taken out on the ioth of February.
Mr. Fearn, the stockbroker, also admitted his deal
ings on behalf of the three, and that he had a
standing order to sell when one per cent, could be
realized. He saw nothing of Lord Cochrane on the
2 ist, but had repeated interviews with the two others.
They were with him when the news arrived and in
consequence the funds rose. Omnium had opened,
before this, at such a rise that he had begun to sell
at 29^ before the intelligence arrived.7

1 The term Omnium, which has for many years disappeared
from our stock lists, meant a price at which all the different
articles of which a loan to Government were compounded, be

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.

III. — The Dealings in .the Funds.
From the detailed account of the transactions in
the funds of the Cochranes and Mr. Butt previous
to the 2 ist of February, proved by the prosecution,
it appears that the speculations of Lord Cochrane
were comparatively trifling, in comparison with those
of Cochrane Johnstone and Butt. Lord Cochrane
commenced by buying on the 14th of February
100,000/. Omnium ; this he increased by 50,000/. on
the 16th, but reduced again to 100,000/. the next
day. On the 18th he bought 36,000/. more ; and on
the 19th, the day of De Berenger's preparations, the
balance of his purchases and sales added only 3000/.
to his account. Thus on the morning of the 21st he
stood the holder of 139,000/., which his broker had
orders to sell whenever a premium of one per cent.
could be realized, and which he began to sell directly
the market opened, and for an hour before the news
they few or many. Thus the loan for 17,000,000/. negotiated
in April, 1798, was taken in the following stocks. For every
100/. of money the subscribers received — £ s. d.
150/. 3 per Cent. Consols at the market price of
48I, amounts to  72 15 o
50/. 3 per Cent. Reduced Annuities at 47^ amounts to 23 15 o
4s. nd. Long Annuities, taken at 13 years' purchase,
amounts to  3 311
.£99 13 11
Discount for prompt payment  2 1 1 7
j£io2 5 6

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 123
arrived, as the funds on that day opened at a small
rise in price.
Cochrane Johnstone's transactions for the month
of February were enormous. Beginning with 10,000/.
Omnium on the 8th, his account on the 15th stood at
615,000/. Omnium, besides 100,000/. Consols. The
Omnium account was gradually reduced to 420,000/.
on the 19th, when that in Consols remained unaltered
at 100,000/. Of both these stocks the whole was
sold, except 10,000/. Omnium, on the 21st. Of these
stocks 250,000/. were sold during the day, at prices
ranging from 29 to 30I, through his broker Fearn ;
Hickens, another broker, sold 120,000/. for him; and
Smallbone, whom he also employed, disposed of
40,000/. — all of them at about the same prices. Fearn
also sold the whole of his Consols during the excite
ment. The profits on these transactions, at the
lowest estimate, exceeded 4000/.
Butt, like Johnstone, was a regular speculator, though
in more moderate amounts. His account opened on
the 8th of February with 10,000/. Omnium, and by
the 19th had risen to 200,000/. All this, and 24,000/.
more, was sold for him on the 21st, on as advantageous
terms as for Johnstone.
In making these sales it was declared by the
brokers that they held general orders to sell at one
per cent, profit, and in the case of Lord Cochrane it
was on this general order that his broker acted,
commencing to sell directly the market opened at
such a rise on Saturday's prices as enabled him to do
so. Lord Cochrane never came into the city that
day, and never had any communication with his

124 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
broker. Cochrane Johnstone and Butt, on the con
trary, were on the spot, and in constant communica
tion with their brokers. Holloway was, in comparison
with the others, but a small speculator. His venture
was limited to 20,000/. Omnium, and a like sum in
Consols, the profit on which would hardly exceed
500/. In connexion with this portion of the case, the
evidence of a West Indian official of the name of
Le Marchant, and of the Hon. Alexander Murray,
invite attention, as illustrating the temper in which
the prosecution was conducted, so far as Lord Coch
rane was sought to be implicated. Both these per
sons were fellow-prisoners in the King's Bench with
De Berenger, and his intimate acquaintances. They
declared that he spoke to them, some few days before
the fraud was perpetrated, very freely of his intimate
knowledge of Lord Cochrane and his uncle, of his
having assisted both of them with ideas for making
profits in stock-jobbing, and of his having a plan in
hand by which they would be able to realize large
profits — to use his reported words, "put many
thousand pounds in their pockets." 8 Murray admitted
8 De Berenger says (" The Noble Stock Jobber," p. 23),
that Murray forgot the explanation of the plan which De
Berenger then gave. "When urging me to say whether I
meant the Vittoria plan," I replied to importunities, " It is a far
better thing, but at present must be a secret ; one that will,
however, astonish you ; it is quite in my own line, /or z'/ is some
thing with gunpowder " — alluding to his new kind of grenades
and shells. Le Marchant gave this evidence before the Sub-
Committee, and was confirmed by'Captain Taylor, 22nd Foot,
and Mr. Wright of the H.E.I.C.S.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 125
that De Berenger spoke of his intimacy with Lord
Cochrane as very recent. With Cochrane Johnstone,
on the contrary, he was particularly intimate, " that
person visited him almost every day." Murray fixed
the conversation at the end of January or beginning
of February ; Le Marchant brought it down to the
week before the day of the imposition. On cross-
examination, Le Marchant, it appeared, had asked
Lord Cochrane for a loan, and been refused, and the
imputation was raised that but for this refusal he
would not have given his evidence. To the question
of Lord Ellenborough, " Do you give your evidence
from resentment in consequence of having some loan
refused you ? " he replied, " None individually — none
whatever ; " and when Serjeant Best repeated the
question in a slightly varied form, said, " No ; so help
me God ! " He had, however, previously admitted
that " If Lord Cochrane had not called him forward,
he should not have given evidence, but he had com
pelled him."
For the defence a correspondence was put in, com
mencing with a letter of the 6th of April to Lord
Cochrane, soliciting an interview, " for the purpose of
explaining a conversation the writer had with Mr.
De Berenger a few days prior to the hoax of the
2 ist February last, and which must be interesting to
him." Not getting an immediate reply, Colonel Le
Marchant, on the 7th, wrote a threatening letter, that
" he was now justified by his lordship's silent contempt
and defiance of his previous letter, to make his infor
mation public, which he should not have done before
consulting him on that head, his sole wish being to

126 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
state facts, and not to be considered acting under
hand." He then added, " As I feel exonerated from
the last charge, and being, in a certain degree, called
on to give my evidence relative to the 2 ist of February
last ; and as my rank in society will give weight to
my testimony, with the witnesses I shall bring for
ward on the occasion, I feel justified in the steps I
am about to take ; nor can your lordship blame me
in so doing, understanding the business in question
will be brought before Parliament on a future day."
To this Lord Cochrane replied, disavowing the charge
of " silent contempt," and hoping that, circumstanced
as he was, attacked by all descriptions of scoundrels,
the colonel might have discovered other reasons for
his delay of a few hours in answering the note, as
from it he was led to conclude that the information
offered was meant as a mark of civility and attention,
and was not a subject on which " he felt any personal
interest." Le Marchant at once revealed his real
object — he wanted to be bought off. Here is his
letter :— " Globe Hotel, Piccadilly,
" April '8, 1 8 14.
" My Lord, —I ask your lordship's pardon for my letter of
yesterday, which was written under the supposition of being
treated with contempt. To convince you of the high respect
I have for your lordship, I have the honour to enclose to you
a statement of what I know relative to the 21st of February ;
and I also now declare solemnly, that no power or consideration
shall ever induce me to come forward as an evidence against
you, and that all I know on the subject shall be buried in
oblivion. This much I hope will convince you that I am more
your friend than an enemy ; as my testimony, corroborated by
the two officers, would be of great import, not (believe me)

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 127
that I myself doubt in anywise your lordship's affidavit; but
De Berenger's conversation with me would be to your enemies
positive proof ; as for my part, I now consider all that man told
me diabolically false. If my conduct meets with your appro
bation can I ask for a reciprocal favour, as a temporary loan,
on security being given. I am just appointed to a situation of
about 1200/., but for the moment am in the greatest distress,
with a large family. You can, without risk, and have the means
to, relieve us, and I believe the will of doing good. Necessity
has driven me to ask your lordship this favour. Be assured
whether granted or not, of my keeping my oath, now pledged,
of secrecy." Of course in the usual form the jury were told
that any statements of De Berenger were evidence
only against himself. Any one, however, who has
experience in our criminal courts knows well, that
when once such evidence has been allowed to be
given, the judicial caution is little better than a form.
It is next to impossible for unlegal minds to separate
the legal effect of such evidence from the illegal.
Prejudice has necessarily been raised, and than
prejudice nothing is more disastrous in a criminal
case.
IV. — The Conduct of Cochrane Johnstone
and De Berenger after the Fraud.
In the dress thus furnished to him by Lord Coch
rane, with his bundle, and, presumably, with the port
manteau which the witnesses had sworn he had with
him in the post-chaise, De Berenger returned to his
lodgings. What he did from that time to the follow
ing Saturday, when he finally left them, rests only on
his own statement. During that interval, however, he
must have thrown the scarlet coat and its trappings

128 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
into the river, whence it was eventually fished up. On
the Saturday of that week some gentleman called
upon him with a letter. That this was Cochrane John
stone rested on the evidence of the landlady of De
Berenger's lodgings, who had pointed him out to Mr.
Lavie as the caller, when the jury was being struck
at the Crown Office. Eventually De Berenger was
arrested as an alien by a Queen's Messenger, in Leith,
on the 7th of April, when a locked desk, with gold and
notes in it, and a memorandum-book, was found in
his possession. It was subsequently proved that he
had stayed more than a fortnight in Sunderland, where
he had passed as a Captain Burne. Two of the
entries in the pocket-book were eventually admitted
in evidence. The first was read as follows : —
"To C. I. by March ist, 1814, 350/. — 4/. to 5000/.— Assign
one share of patent, and 1000/. worth of shares of In de
Beaufain at Mess H. to their care. Believe from my infor
mant 18,000/. instead of 4800/. — Suspicions that Mr. B. does
not account correctly to him as well as to me. Determined
not to be duped. No restrictions as to secrecy — requesting
early answer."
This memorandum was put forward as the notes of
a letter to Johnstone, and the figures " 18,000/. instead
of 4800/." were interpreted to refer to the profit made
by the fraud. The other entry was "W. S. — 50/.,"
which, was suggested, referred to a 50/. note given by
De Berenger to his servant William Smith to get
changed into smaller notes.
It was proved that on the 19th of February Small-
bone drew a cheque in favour of Lord Cochrane for
450/., which was changed into a 200/. note, two notes

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 129
of 100/. each, and one of 50/. The two 100/. notes
were changed by Fearn's clerk on the 24th for notes
of 1/. each, at request of Butt, who handed them to
Johnstone. It appeared that on the 15th Butt had
lent Lord Cochrane some money to make up an
account, and it is said, that these 100/. notes were
given in repayment. It was not proved that Lord
Cochrane had anything to do with the changing of
these notes, or that he was even in the City on the
24th when they were changed. Of these notes no
less than sixty-seven were traced to De Berenger —
some found in his desk, others paid away for a
watch which he bought in Hull on the 4th of March.
On the 26th February Lance paid a cheque to Butt for
98/. 2s. 6d., which was changed at the bank for a note
of 50/. and another of 40/. The 50/. note was proved
to have been given to his servant, William Smith, by
De Berenger, and the 40/. note changed for him at
Sunderland, where he had been staying from the 7th
to the 24th March. It was clear, therefore, that De
Berenger had been provided with money by Cochrane
Johnstone and Butt, and anything but clear that Lord
Cochrane had contributed. De Berenger's explana
tion was, that the money was paid by Johnstone for
the plans he had made for the " Vittoria," but no ex
planation was offered how the notes passed from Butt
to the Baron. The complicity of Johnstone was con
firmed by his flight from the country as soon as the
verdict against him was given. Mr. Butt, however, re
mained, and to the last protested, again and again, that
he had nothing to do with the fraud. It is possible to
account for the finding the two notes for 50/. and 40/.
VOL. II. K

130 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
in De Berenger's hands from the undoubted financial
dealings between him and Johnstone, and it is in
Butt's favour that Lord Cochrane himself believed
him to be innocent.
V. The Second Plot, by Holloway, Lyte,
AND OTHERS.
On the same day, if the confessions of its pro
moters are to be believed, persons entirely uncon
nected with the Cochranes and Mr. Butt carried out a
plot almost identical in its details with that in which
De Berenger was the chief actor. Within an hour
after De Berenger's arrival at the Marsh Gate,
another chaise and four drove up there, out of which
three persons got, in no way peculiar in their dress.
On inquiry, however, it was known that this chaise
had started from Dartford in the morning with the
same three persons, two of whom at that time were
dressed in blue frock coats and flat opera hats, with
military ornaments on them and white favours. Thus
dressed, they had been driven down the Kent Road,
over London Bridge, through Lombard Street, and
Cheapside, when they turned over Blackfriars Bridge,
and so down the New Cut to the Marsh Gate,
where they alighted. Before they arrived there they
had contrived to take off their costumes, and appeared,
when they got out, in ordinary dress and hats, like
the third party. They had been fetched from North-
fleet to Dartford in a chaise ordered by the defendant
Sandom, who had accompanied them in ordinary
costume, and who had represented to the landlord
there that he did not know who they were, but that

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 131
they brought news of the utmost consequence. How
this plot was got up, and who the travellers were, was
proved by the following witnesses.
On the 14th of February, Thomas Vinn, an ac
countant, and by his own admission a dabbler on the
Stock Exchange, received from the defendant McRae
a note requesting him to meet him the next day
on particular business at the Carolina Coffee-house,
in Birchin Lane, about eleven o'clock. He found
him there, talking to an old gentleman, and was
asked to sit down whilst McRae went out with his
friend. On his return in six or seven minutes he
said, —
" ' I have known you a long time, and think that I have now an
opportunity of making your fortune ; ' that he knew, from the
knowledge I had of languages, particularly French, I should
have an opportunity of benefiting others and myself. I asked
him what the object was — was it to travel abroad ? He said, No,
but probably to travel at home, and that almost immediately ; that
it was a scheme he had in contemplation, employed by men of
affluence and consequence, and that he thought no man more
competent than myself. On my asking him if there was any
thing of moral turpitude in it, he said that there was none ; but
that it was practised daily by men of the first consequence ; it
was nothing more or less than ' biting the biters,' or, in other
words, a hoax on the Stock Exchange. I asked him in what
way I could attend to it, or in what way it was to be performed.
He told me by going down to Dartford, Folkestone, or Dover,
as I should receive instructions and that, that evening; but it
was necessary to have for himself and me two dresses appro
priate to that of French officers. I here stopped him, and
asked him if he really meant me to be employed in this trans
action ? to which he replied, Certainly, and that I should be
remunerated, and ultimately have a fortune. I replied with
indignation that I would as soon be concerned in a highway
robbery ; that I thought he knew me better than to have sug-
K 2

132 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
gested to me a plan of the kind, and expressed myself, rather
beyond the usual tone of my voice, hurt at it. He endeavoured
to hush me by saying people would overhear us. He then took
me out of the coffee-house and went up Cornhill, when I left.
[Then, with the intention, he said, of having a witness to the
conversation] I returned, and told him if he would go with me
to another coffee-house I would introduce him to a young man
who I thought would undertake the business. I took him to
the Jamaica ; there was a young man sitting there. I was
about to introduce him, but he turned suddenly round and I
did not. On his returning McRae asked me whether I would
not give him in writing the terms Vive le Roi — Vivent les Bour
bons, which, in expectation of his attending to the young man, I
gave him at the Jamaica.
On cross-examination he stated that he told this at
once to a Mr. Rothery, of the Atlas Printing Office,
and afterwards to thirteen or fourteen persons in a
house in Clement's Lane and made it public daily in
all the companies he went into.5
The history is then taken up by a female at the house
in Fetter Lane where McRae lodged, with his wife.
On Saturday, the 19th of February, she said, McRae
came into her room, which was on the same floor as
theirs, and gave his wife a parcel of value to take care
of. Nothing more then passed, but next day he
went out between ten and eleven, and returned about
twelve with two opera hats and two coats in a bundle.
The coats were dark blue with braiding, like officers'
coats ; one lined with white silk appeared better than
the other, and one of the hats had a brass plate at
the end and a gold tassel at each corner. He put
them on, and asked her if he did not look like an
• Vinn received from the Committee of the Stock Exchange
a gratuity of 25/., in addition to 5/. previously paid to him.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 133
officer, and she replied, Yes. Pie then went out again,
and returned about one with some white ribbon, and
asked his wife to make two round cockades. When
she asked him what all this was for, he said " To
deceive the flats." He again went out, with the cock
ades in his pocket, taking the hats and coats in a
bundle, and saying he must be at Billingsgate to go
down to Gravesend by a quarter before two. After that
she did not see him till about two on the Monday, in
Cursitor Street, when he gave her a shilling to get him
some dinner. He was then in his usual clothes, and
had a bundle in his hand. Out of this he took the
•best coat and hat. He brought back the cockades,
which were taken to pieces, the paper on which they
were made was burnt, and the ribbons used for strings.
They then stript the white lining out of the coat, and
took it out of the house saying they would take it to
the dyer's, to dye black. He had lodged in the house
before the witness came there, was very poor, and
because coals were dear she and the McRaes had one
fire between them. He said he had slept at North-
fleet, but he looked as if he had not been in bed at
all. After this he was well off, had a 10/. and 1/.
notes, and before he left his lodging three 2/. notes :
he left on the 2nd of March. On the Sunday after
his return he bought a new coat, and the next day
a new hat. He said he was to have 50/. for what
he had done. He did not wish any one to know
where he was going to, and wished it to be kept a
secret. The landlord ofthe "Rose" at Dartford proved the
receipt of a letter from Sandom, dated Northfleet,

134 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Monday morning, requesting him to send a chaise
and pair to bring back to Dartford and to have four
good horses ready to go on to London with all expe
dition. The chaise which he had sent to Northfleet
drove furiously into his inn yard, with two gentlemen
and Mr. Sandom, with white cockades in their hats,
the strangers had flat cocked opera hats to
resemble those of the foreign military, and were
dressed in blue clothes.1 The excitement in the yard,
however, was such, that he spoke with hesitation as
to their dress, being eager to get them off to London,
as they would not stay to breakfast. Sandom said
they had breakfasted with him ; that they were
1 On the 8th of March, Holloway, who up to that time pro
tested his innocence, brought Sandom before the Sub-Commit
tee of the Stock Exchange, when he gave the following account
of his knowledge of the men — an ingenious, impudent story,
worthy of reproduction: "The men came to his house at
Northfleet in a six-oared galley, with a letter of introduction
from one Partridge, a shipping agent, and a request that he
would go with them to London, and not ask them for money.
They spoke nothing but French to him, not twenty words on
the road. When near London he found they could speak
English ; and when he asked them the news, they wrote down
" Lez Alliez a Paris," " Le Tyran blessee," " Vivent les Bour
bons." He paid for the chaise. They went down the turning to
Rowland Hill's Chapel (Charlotte Street), and took a boat at
Westminster Bridge to go to Whitehall. He wanted them to
stop at the Mansion House ; they refused, as they wanted to go
to Lord Liverpool. He sent for the chaise from Dartford. They
went down the passage (where, he does not say), into a little
room, and then up a flight of wooden stairs, and then said,
' We don't want you any farther.' Thought he had seen McRae
at Holloway's, but not certain." Subsequently it was proved
that Partridge had never written any letter, or seen Mr. Sandom
since Feb. ii.— Minutes of Sub-Committee, March 8 and 14.

NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS. 1 3 5
strangers to him, but he knew brought great news.
One of the post-boys that drove them to London, had
better opportunities, and could speak clearly to their
being dressed in blue coats, with military hats ; but
that when they got out at the Marsh Gate the
costumes had been discarded, and ordinary dress
assumed. The confession ofthe defendants Holloway
and Lyte finished the story. Holloway admitted
that he had designed the scheme, and Lyte, that he
and McRae personated the French officers. The
former was frightened when he saw the effect his
project had created, and found the Committee of the
Stock Exchange determined to trace out the frauds
of that day, and came forward with his confession in
the hopes of the Committee not proceeding against
him to extremities. He, however, denied that he had
any connexion with the Cochranes and Mr. Butt, or
anything to do with the De Berenger fraud.
Probably to this extent he spoke the truth. He was
never asked if he knew of the fraud having been con
cocted ; and it certainly passes all reasonable credence
to believe, that without some knowledge of the
character, the time, and the place of that fraud, he
should have prepared and carried out a scheme which
fitted in so perfectly with that of De Berenger's as to
appear to be the second act in the great imposition.
According to De Berenger's confession, though he was*
sounded as to some project of a Cossack riding into
London with great news early in February, and asked
to prepare a project that would affect the funds, it
was not until the 19th of February that he revealed
his scheme to his employer, and was by him per-

136 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
suaded to carry it out that very night. Vinn places
the first suggestion of the McRae project as far back
as the 14th of February, and speaks of the publicity
which he had given to it. If, as Holloway and De
Berenger both declared, the two schemes were devised
and carried out without any mutual concert, their
development at the same time and place is one of the
most extraordinary of coincidences. It is even more
strange that after all the publicity shown to have
been given to the design by Vinn, Holloway and De
Berenger should have persevered in carrying out a
fraud for which they must have known the Stock
Exchange was well prepared, and that the dealers on
the Exchange should not have at once discredited the
news and warned their customers against placing any
credit in it. The publicity given to McRae's scheme
rests solely on Vinn's unconfirmed statement, and
may well be discredited when we remember with
what eagerness the report of such an intention would
have been circulated by the newspapers. The proba
bility is that this part of his statement was an after
thought, prompted by his desire to appear to have
done his best to crush such a disgraceful project in
its inception.
VI. The Evidence for the Defendants.
For the defendants, the case of Lord Cochrane was
rested on his own affidavit, supported by the evidence
of King, the lamp-maker, and of Dewman, his servant;
the exposure of Le Marchant, and the formal proof that
Sir Alexander Cochrane had made an official applica-

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 137
tion for De Berenger to accompany and remain with
him as a rifle instructor on the North American
station. For De Berenger, an attempt was made to account
for his possession of money from Johnstone ; to deny
that the Dover letter was in his handwriting, and to
contradict the evidence of the landlady and her
husband of his not being heard or seen in his lodgings
after he left at about eleven on the Sunday, until his
return at a little after five in the next afternoon. To
the first point (which was equally important to John
stone and Butt), Mr. Tahourdin, his solicitor, was
called. He spoke to De Berenger's employment by
Johnstone about the plans of the " The Vittoria," and
the payment to him on this account of 100/. in the
September of 181 3, and some six or seven pounds in
the subsequent February, to meet the cost of printing
the prospectus of this scheme. He then produced a
letter to himself from Johnstone, dated the 22nd of
February, one day after the fraud, enclosing one of
the same date from De Berenger, asking for 250/. on
account of the plans, and further a loan of 200/. on
the security of an undertaking of a Colonel Kennedy
to purchase a share in De Berenger's oil patent. The
real date of this letter was contested. The covering
letter from Johnstone, as well as that enclosed to him,
had been sent by hand, and therefore bore no post
mark, and the only proof of the date was an endorse
ment by Tahourdin, made a few days after their
receipt, when he tied up his papers. It was equally
awkward that Tahourdin's letter in reply bore no post
mark, and that though the witness was certain that

138 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
he wrote it on the day of its date (the 23rd) he
could not remember whether it was posted or not.
He then produced a receipt dated February 26th, for
200/. from Johnstone, signed by De Berenger, and a
promissory note at six months for 200/., of the same
date, by him in Johnstone's favour. This was all he
knew of the supposed payment to De Berenger, as
he had never seen the money pass. The note of hand
and the receipt had been given to him by Johnstone
when he called on him some three or four days after
wards ; and he added, " as I and De Berenger were
not at that time on favourable terms, that will
account for my not having delivered it over to him."
By that time, in reality, De Berenger had left
London. Tahourdin was next asked about the handwriting of
the Dover letter. He had seen De Berenger, who had
been his client for six or seven years, write " a thou
sand times," and received a thousand letters from
him." He unhesitatingly swore that the Dover letter
was not in his client's writing. On being shown the
road-book found in De Berenger's desk, in which
was some writing in pencil, " he did not believe all of
that to be in his handwriting — some part of it looked
more like it than the other part." In this evidence he
was confirmed, not only by his clerk, but by Lord
Yar mouth (in whose volunteer rifles De Berenger was
adjutant), "who had received a great many letters
from and seen him write occasionally." " The
character of the letters was longer than the very
small round hand De Berenger generally wrote."
Whether it was in a feigned hand, Lord Yarmouth

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 139
could not say, " he was not a competent witness." He
added, however, " There is one letter creates a suspi
cion, but I should never have suspected it on a cursory
view of the letter — the R before Du BOURG ; but that
I should never have looked at or suspected ; that looks
more like his handwriting than any other part ; it
looks very much in the way he makes the R in RAN
DOM." It is possible, therefore, that De Berenger
spoke the truth when he said that the Dover letter
was written for him by a friend on the day he left
town, and that the one he wrote at Dover was only a
blind, and left purposely wafered, that it might be
opened and the news extracted, and was subsequently
destroyed. One other piece of evidence of great value
was given by Lord Yarmouth, who described the uni
form of his corps as " dark green with a crimson collar
and cape!'
De Berenger's servants, Smith and his wife, were next
called. Smith, after stating that he was positive that
the Dover letter was not in his master's handwriting,
swore that De Berenger was at home on Sunday the
20th, went out about nine and returned about eleven,
and stayed there till four o'clock, when he went out
again ; that he was not at home when the witness
returned about eleven, but came back in about five
minutes after him. He heard him go upstairs to his
bedroom that night, but did not see him on the
Monday till three in the afternoon. He denied that
he had told Murray that his master slept from home
that night, or either of the Davidsons that "not find
ing him at home when he himself returned,, he had
left the key in the usual place in the area, so that De

140 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Berenger might let himself in." He acknowledged
changing the 50/. note on the 27th — the day De
Berenger left to go into the country. When his
master returned on the Monday he saw a strange
black coat in his room, and did not remark that it was
too large for him. This witness's wife told the same
story, and added that she made his bed on the Mon
day, but after De Berenger returned ; that neither she
nor her husband slept in De Berenger's bed on the
Sunday night ; that when he came home on the
Monday he wore a black coat and grey overalls, and
carried a bundle in which she saw a grey coat, such
as he often wore, "just where the knot was tied." It
appears that both the wife and husband had made
affidavits of these facts on the 24th of March, in which
she had sworn to seeing a green uniform in the
bundle. On cross-examination she now said, in
answer to the question of the Chief Justice, "What
did you see besides the grey coat in the bundle ? "
" I saw nothing but that." " Recollect yourself," said
Lord Ellenborough, " because you have sworn you
saw a green uniform." — "There might be a green
uniform." Q. " Was there or was there not ? " A.
" Yes, there was a green uniform." Q. " Was it in the
bundle ? " A. " Yes, it was in the bundle." Though
she had been in De Berenger's service for two years
and a half, she could not tell how long before the 20th
of February she had seen him wear whiskers — " she
did not know whether he had whiskers or not." Very
little, if any, reliance could be placed on the evidence
of these witnesses.
The Smiths having sworn that he did not leave his

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 141

house till four on Sunday afternoon, we find by the next
witness, M'Guire, the ostler at a livery stables in Chel
sea, that he was in his master's stable-yard at Chelsea,
some four miles off, at quarter past six, inquiring for
the London coach, and turning round and " setting
out on foot for London " when told that it had left
and that there would not be another ready until seven
o'clock. The witness's reason for remembering the
interview was, that he was so surprised to see him
there, believing him to be in the Rules of the
Bench, that when on that day fortnight, the 6th
of March, he saw Smith, he asked him if his
master was out of the Rules, and when he said he was
not, told him of seeing him at Chelsea. McGuire's
wife remembered her husband about ten at night
telling her of his having seen De Berenger at quarter
past six, and that he wondered whether he was out of
the Rules. Her reason for fixing the day was, that
it was the birthday of her first child.
According to his witnesses, that Sunday was a very
busy day with De Berenger. One Henry Doyle
Tragear, who had once carried on the hat trade near
Holborn, but of late, for economical reasons, appa
rently connected with bankruptcy, had been lodging
at Donithorne's, Mr. Johnstone's cabinet-maker, in
York Street, Wesminster, told a very curious story.
Being lazily inclined on that Sunday morning, he and
his wife had been called up by Donithorne, as some
one wanted to see over the house. On coming down
stairs they saw De Berenger. How long he then
stayed, Tragear did not know, but he saw him and
Donithorne measuring the garden. De Berenger

142 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
returned in the evening between eight and nine, and
again he saw him with D*onithorne pacing and measur
ing the back garden of the house. Tragear's wife,
who, with true feminine curiosity, had looked out of
the window whilst she was dressing, saw him measur
ing the garden in the morning, and declared that
during that visit De Berenger went all over the house,
even to the attics. She also saw him on his return
in the evening, again measuring the garden with
Donithorne, one holding a rod, and the other taking
notes on a piece of paper. It had apparently been a
snowy day, followed by rain, and in such weather on
a February night both she and her husband swore
they saw them thus engaged. Donithorne, however,
denied that they went into the garden in the evening.
According to him, De Berenger then called merely to
say when he should be able to draw a plan of the
alterations proposed to be made, in order to turn the
front into an inn, and the back part into pleasure-
gardens.2 It came out in cross-examination, that De
Berenger called with some design for furniture to be
made for- Johnstone, and Donithorne then suggested
to him to inspect the house and make measurement for
the proposed plan. Donithorne seemed proud to admit

2 De Berenger declares that this visit to the house of Doni
thorne really took place, but on the 24th of February, and that
Lord Cochrane accompained him, going through the form of
measuring whilst De Berenger pretended to take notes ; the
object being to discuss the position of affairs, and Donithorne's
being selected as a scheme was proposed of converting this
house, which belonged to Cochrane Johnstone, into a canteen.
—"The Noble Stock Jobber."— See Appendix A.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 143
that "by the desire of the Honourable Cochrane
Johnstone, who thinks himself very ill-used by a set
of villains, Mr. Tahourdin was then employed as his
attorney in issuing 120 writs, in qui tam actions, the
costs of which were of course to be borne by Mr. John
stone, and not by the witness." With this witness
the case for the defendants was closed.
The summings-up of Lord Ellenborough were so
notorious for their unfairness, verging very closely at
times on the misrepresentation of evidence, that it
would be waste of space to reproduce his trenchant
remarks in this case at any length. Throughout his
charge he assumed the guilt of all parties alike, and
made a special and personal attack on Lord Cochrane,
whom he professed to regard as the chief mover in the
fraud. He intimated that Lord Cochrane only dis
closed De Berenger's name as his visitor on the 21st
of February, when he believed that he was out of the
kingdom — he represented to the jury that perhaps the
leave of absence was obtained from the Admiralty
only to draw their attention from the matter at issue
— and that Lord Cochrane's oath to the transactions
of February 21st was not worthy of credit— that De
Berenger had not any means of shifting his dress in
the coach, and that therefore he must have appeared
before Lord Cochrane in his disguise.
"De Berenger," he said, "must have had this dress with
him, whatever it was, in which he had come in the coach, and
it does not appear that he had any means of shifting himself.
If he had on an aide-de-camp's uniform, and so presented
himself to Lord Cochrane, how could Lord Cochrane reconcile
it to the duties he owed to society, to Government, and to his

144 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
character as a gentleman, to give him the means of exchanging
it? It must be put on for some dishonest purpose. It is for
you, gentlemen, to say whether it is possible he should not
know that a man coming so diguised, and so habited — if he
appeared before him so habited — came upon some dishonest
errand ; and whether it is to be conceived a person should so
present himself to a person who did not know what that dis
honest errand was, and that it was the very dishonest errand
upon which he had been so recently engaged, and which he is
found to be executing in the spreading of false intelligence for the
purpose of elevating the funds. If he appeared to Lord Coch
rane stripped of his coat, and with that red coat, star, and order,
which have been represented to you, he appeared before him
rather in the habit of a mountebank than in his proper uniform
of a sharpshooter. This seems wholly, inconsistent with the
conduct of an innocent man ; for if he appeared in such a habit,
he must have appeared to any rational person fully blazoned in
the costume of that or some other crime''
Such remarks from a judge bear their own con
demnation without further comment. It is only
surprising that after such a charge — summing-up it
was not — the jury should have taken several hours in
arriving at a verdict of " Guilty " against all parties.3
What, however, in reality was the evidence given at
the trial, on which the jury had to decide on the rela
tive guilt of the several defendants ? So far as De
Berenger was concerned, nothing could be more clear
than the proof of his acts at Dover, his journey to
London, and his being driven to Lord Cochrane's.
s Lord Dundonald is mistaken in asserting in his "Autobio
graphy," vol. ii., p. 380, that at the time of his trial Lord Ellen
borough " was not only Chief Justice of the King's Bench, but
a Cabinet Minister." As a Cabinet Minister he came in and
went out with the Ministry of All the Talents.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 145
Even had the witnesses to the alibi been more reliable,
it would have been impossible to resist the well-
connected chain of evidence by which he was traced
as Du Bourg from Dover to London. That he was the
actor ofthe fraud no one could doubt ; who, then, was
his employer ? After the proof of the discovery of the
bulk of the notes, originally obtained by Mr. Butt for
Cochrane Johnstone, in De Berenger's desk, or that
they had been passed by him for his own purposes, and
of the visit of Johnstone to him on the eve of his flight
from London, the jury were fully justified in fixing
Johnstone as the employer of the sham Du Bourg and
not unwarranted in implicating Mr. Butt in the same
charge. The jury must also have felt the full force of
the evidence of the enormous extent of the transac
tions of Butt and Johnstone in the funds on the fatal
day, though undoubtedly those of Butt were far less
extensive than those of Johnstone. The evidence on
behalf of Johnstone to account for the payment of
money to De Berenger, had too much the appearance
of being made up for the occasion, and after the event
to be credible, and in reality served to fix the com
plicity with De Berenger more clearly on him. The
jury might have been justified in acquitting Butt, but
they were justified in convicting him as the evidence
stood before them. To have acquitted Cochrane
Johnstone would have been a clear dereliction of their
duty. In Lord Cochrane's case there was nothing but the
evidence of Crane to prove that De Berenger, when
he arrived at Green Street, was in his disguise.
Assuming that Crane spoke the truth as to the red
VOL. II. L

146 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
coat under the grey overcoat, it was quite possible for
him to have been misled by the red cape and collar
of the uniform of Lord Yarmouth's rifle corps.
Against this solitary evidence of Crane, there is the
voluntary statement of Lord Cochrane, and the start
ling improbability, had he been guilty, of his volunteer
ing evidence, which could but throw suspicion on
himself, and of being the first, as he thought, to put
the prosecutors on the track of the sham Du Bourg.
Again, there were the facts, so irreconcilable with com
plicity with De Berenger, that he should have been out
ofthe way, when, if an accomplice, he must have known
that the sham Du Bourg could come to his house, thus
leaving him to be seen by his servants : — his absence
from the city during that eventful morning, and the
orders given to his brokers to sell — as they began to do
before the news was known — at so small a profit. The
discovery in De Berenger's possession of some of the
i/. notes, into which a portion of the notes given for
the cheque originally drawn for and paid to him, was
reasonably accounted for, and there was above all the
inconsistency in a man of such an honourable
character as Lord Cochrane having anything to do
with a scheme of imposition. Still Crane remained
uncontradicted. It was one of those cases in which
the jury would have been justified in giving the
defendant the benefit of the doubt, but it was also
one in which they are not to be blamed for finding a
verdict of guilty, especially as his case was not sepa
rated from that of the other parties.
Though there was no direct evidence to prove that
the actors in the second part of the fraud had any

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 147
complicity with De Berenger, and it is possible to
believe that it was an independent scheme, still the
time, the place, and the character of fraud, afforded
such a strong presumption that it was _ irt and parcel
of that of De Berenger, that the jury could hardly
avoid finding Holloway and his co-defendants guilty
as parties to the fraud of De Berenger.
The Motions for a New Trial and further
Affidavit of Lord Cochrane.
On the 14th of June Lord Cochrane came into the
Court of King's Bench, proposing to move personally ¦
for a new trial so far as he was implicated, being
under the impression that some rule of practice would
prevent his counsel from doing so. The point to
which he referred was the late decision of the Court,
that in such a case none of the parties could be
heard, unless all were present. Such a rule was
evidently so likely to be unfair in its operation, and
was so clearly unjust in principle, that it ought never
to have been made, and we have the authority of
Lord Campbell for saying that it rested on a single
case, which ought on the first opportunity to have
been overruled. In insisting on this rule in Lord
Cochrane's case, in which no doubt he was perfectly
well aware that one if not more of the defendants had
fled the country, Lord Ellenborough availed himself
of the plausible reason, that, " if they were to adopt
a different rule, it might very properly be said there
was one rule for the poor and another for the rich."
Lord Cochrane could only find occasion to state that
L 2

148 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
a gross error, of which he was unaware, had crept into
the brief handed to his counsel, with reference to his
'vant's statement of the dress of his visitor, and
L-rttr he had affidavits, all proving his innocence,
sufficient to justify the grant of a new trial.
On the 20th Mr. Gurney moving for judgment,
Sergeant Best raised, in arrest, a somewhat curious
point, that a material averment in the indictment,
" that there was war between England and the allies
of England with France," had not been proved. It was,
however, at once put aside by the remark of the bench
that "there were too many statutes reciting the
existence of a state of war not to make it notorious."
The others which he submitted were — (i) That there
was no offence known to the law stated in the indict
ment, the raising the price of the funds not being
necessarily a crime. (2) That if there be any such
crime, as is alleged, the persons who are affected by
that crime are not particularized. (3) That there is
no " Kingdom of England," this kingdom now being
the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
into which the Kingdom of England is merged, and
that nothing charged in the indictment has reference
to any funds or Government securities, except those
of that part of the United Kingdom called England.
On Best stating that he now appeared only for Mr.
Butt, Lord Ellenborough, with some temper, re
marked, "This is a new proceeding, that counsel
should renounce some of their clients to save the rest."
"Lord Cochrane," replied Best, "has desired me not
to move on his behalf, and I may state so much for
him, that he has no intention of moving in arrest of

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 149
judgment. Mr. Cochrane Johnstone is not here."
The imputation on Sergeant Best was a gratuitous"
insult. The counsel for De Berenger confined his
observations to the third point, the misdescription, in
the indictment, of the funds, as those of the Kingdom
of England. With this point Lord Ellenborough did
not condescend to deal. In a very brief judgment
he held that " a public mischief was stated as the
object of this conspiracy — that the conspiracy was by
false rumours to raise the price of the public funds,
and that that crime was complete, even if it had not
been pursued to the consequences : that it was a fraud
on all the public who might have to do with the
funds on the day to which the conspiracy applied.
As to the second point he held, that, besides its being
impossible, without the gift of prophecy, to know who
would be purchasers on that day, which was an ex
cuse, that if it were possible "the multitude would
be an excuse in point of law. But that such a
statement was unnecessary, as the conspiracy was
complete independently of any persons becoming
purchasers." The other judges, however, were equally against
the third point. "The other objection," said Mr.
Justice Bayley, "is that the indictment describes the
funds to be raised as the funds of this Kingdom. It
is true that since the union the funds which are
raised must be raised in certain proportions upon one
part of the kingdom and upon the other ; but when
those funds are raised they become respectively the
funds of the kingdom— they are raised by the legis
lature of the kingdom, and are applied by the

150 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Government of the kingdom to such purposes as
Parliament say they are to be applied to. If you can
properly predicate of them that they are funds in
part only applicable to England, and in part to
Ireland, still it is true that those two funds do con
stitute the funds of this kingdom ; and when it can
only be said that the funds of this kingdom are dis
tinguishable into British and Irish funds, then when
you speak of the funds of this kingdom, you mean
both British and Irish funds."
Lord Ellenborough having read his notes of the
evidence, Lord Cochrane read his explanation of his
imputed connexion with the conspiracy, and tendered
affidavits in support of his motion for a new trial.
His knowledge of the leading defendant arose "from
his having met De Berenger in public company, but
he was not on terms of intimacy with him. With
Mr. Cochrane Johnstone he had the intercourse natural
between such near relatives. Mr. Butt had volun
tarily offered, without reward, to carry on for him stock
transactions, in which thousands as well as himself
were engaged, in the face of day, without the smallest
imputation of anything incorrect." The other defen
dants were wholly unknown to him, nor had he ever,
directly or indirectly, held any communication with
them. The affidavit, by making which it had been
said he had incurred the moral guilt of perjury
without exposing himself to the legal penalties, he
had now re-sworn, so as to be answerable to the laws if
he had falsely sworn. He also tendered the affidavits
of three persons who saw De Berenger at his house
on the 2 ist of February, fully confirming the state-

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 151

ment he made in his affidavit.4 As for the bank
notes traced to him, he paid them to Mr. Butt in re
payment of the loan. Butt changed them, and from
the moment they passed to him, Lord Cochrane
knew nothing of them.
The visit of De Berenger, which he had previously
accounted for on innocent grounds, "was probably
paid with the intention of facilitating his escape by
going immediately on board the ' Tonant,' with the
additional prospect of employment in America."
" Again," he continued, " I am said to have left the tinman's
{where I think I should hardly have gone had I expected such a
messenger). As soon as I heard of the officer's arrival I was in
apprehension of fatal news respecting my brother in France,
from whom I had received a letter three days before, with the
intelligence that he was dangerously ill, and now tender you
his affidavit, with the surgeon's certificate, dated 12th February,
which he brought home with him. And therefore, on receiving
the note from De Berenger, whose name I was unable to de
cipher, and as that note announced that the writer, whom I
learnt from my servant had the appearance of an officer in the
army, who was desirous of seeing me, I hastened to learn the
intelligence so anxiously expected ; nor had I the least doubt
.that it related to my brother. When, however, I found that
the person was De Berenger, and that he had only to speak of
his own private affairs, the apparent distress he was in, and the
relief it gave my mind to know that he was not the bearer of
the news I dreaded, prevented me from feeling that displeasure
which I might otherwise have felt at the liberty he had taken,
or the interruption he had occasioned." — "That I did not learn
the name of the writer from the note itself I have truly ac
counted for, by its being written so close to the bottom of the
paper that I could not read it. This assertion is said to be
4 The servants Dewman, Davis, and Mary Turpin. See
ante.

152 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
contradicted by the circumstance of the writer having found
room to add a postscript, as if there was only one side to the
paper. Of the postscript I have no recollection, but it might
have been written even opposite the signature. That I did not
collect from the handwriting. That it was addressed to me by
De Berenger is nothing extraordinary. My acquaintance with
him was extremely slight ; till that day I never received more
than one or two notes from him, which related to a drawing of
a lamp. I was too deeply impressed with the idea that the
note was addressed to me by an officer who had come with in
telligence of my brother, to apprehend that it was written by
De Berenger, from whom I expected no communication, and
with whose handwriting I was not familiar. All that I could
afterwards recollect of the note, more than what is stated in my
affidavit is, that he had something to communicate which would
affect my feeling mind, which confirmed my apprehensions that
the writer was the messenger of fatal news of my brother."
The madness of inviting detection (had De Beren
ger been his chosen instrument), by arranging that De
Berenger should come to change his dress at his
house in open day, was strongly put, and then he
added, —
" Let me entreat your Lordship's consideration of the situation
in which I stood when my affidavit was made ; I was suspected
of being connected with the pretended Du Bourg ; if I had'
known that De Berenger was the person who assumed that
name could I possibly have betrayed him, and consequently
myself, more completely than by publishing such a detail to the
world ? The name of De Berenger was never mentioned till
brought forward in my affidavit, which affidavit was made, as
sworn by the witness Wright, with the circumstance present to
me, and remarked by me at the time I delivered it to him to be '
printed, that if De Berenger should happen to be Du Bourg I
had furnished a clue to his detection. The circumstance of his
obtaining a change of dress at my house never could have
been known if I had not voluntarily discovered it ; thus I am
represented as having brought him publicly to my house, of

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 153
being the first to disclose his name, and of mentioning a cir
cumstance which, of all others, it was most easy to conceal,
and if divulged, the most certain to excite suspicion."
Tendering the affidavits of his servants, that De
Berenger appeared at his house in a green dress with
a red collar, he accounted for his change of dress by
its being effected in the coach, and the disguise put
into the small portmanteau which he brought with
him. As to De Berenger's unwillingness to appear
before his colonel in his uniform, he asked, " Does
any volunteer officer go out to make morning calls in
his regimentals ? Could so unusual a circumstance
have failed to excite remark from Lord Yarmouth ?"
. After a few general remarks on points in the
evidence, Lord Cochrane handed in a fresh affidavit,
in which he adopted the facts detailed in his original
one, with the following addition : —
" That he had not directly or indirectly any concern in the
formation, or any knowledge of the existence of an intention to
form the plot charged in the indictment, or any other scheme
or design for affecting the public funds. That the sale of the
pretended Omnium on the 21st of February was made in pur
suance of orders given to his broker at the time of the purchase
thereof, on" or about the 14th of that month, to sell the same
whenever a profit of one per cent, could be realized ; and that
those directions were given, and the sale thereof took place
without any knowledge, information, hint, or surmise, on the
part of this deponent of any concern or attempt whatever to
alter the price of the funds, and took place entirely without
this deponent's knowledge." He then relates how and why he
returned home on the receipt of De Berenger's note, and that
he found De Berenger in a grey coat and green jacket ; that he
never saw or had communication with Sandom and his friends ;
that he joined the " Tonant " at Chatham on the 8th of Feb-

154 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
ruary, obtained leave of absence on the 14th for a fortnight,
in order to lodge the specification of his patent, that he was
engaged on this till the 28th, and left town for Long Reach,
whither his ship had been removed previously to his obtaining
leave of absence early on the ist of March, "that on the 8th or
9th of the same month placards were fixed in several of the
streets, stating that a pretended Colonel Du Bourg had gone to
his house in Green Street, and that in consequence he obtained
leave of absence from the Port Admiral at Chatham previously
to receipt of the same from the Admiralty, that he arrived in
London on the ioth of March, and that without any communi
cation with any one, on the impulse of the moment and solely
with the desire of rescuing his character from misrepresenta
tion, prepared and made his former affidavit, which he swore
on the next day, and that at that time he had not seen or
heard the contents of the report of the Committee of the Stock
Exchange, except partial extracts in the newspapers."
He then relates his endeavours to obtain the
evidence of Davis, his servant, who had gone with
Admiral Fleming to the West Indies, and that he
sent his three servants to prove the dress of his
visitor, but that only one of them, as he is informed,
was called. Even that one was not interrogated as to
De Berenger's dress. Then after repeating his denial of
seeing De Berenger in a scarlet uniform, or with
medals or orders, in conclusion Lord Cochrane said,
" He hath been informed and verily believes that the
jury and the counsel for the defence were so com
pletely worn out by extreme fatigue, owing to the
Court having continued the trial without intermission
for many hours beyond that time which nature is
capable of sustaining herself without reflection and
repose, that justice could not be done to this deponent."
On his proposing to read Dewman's affidavit, Lord

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 155
Ellenborough at once interposed with the assertion
that "if the affidavit of a witness at a trial goes
beyond what he then stated," it cannot be received,
and Justice Bayley added that it was " a settled rule
not to allow affidavits of persons who might have
been called upon the trial, much less of persons who
were called." The learned judges might have been
reminded that in previous trials in that very Court
witnesses had been allowed to supplement the evi
dence given by them in Court by affidavits, on motion
for judgment.5 The rule, if it then was a rule, must
have been of very late creation. Gurney 's remark
that all these affidavits had been published long
before the trial, and that the witnesses might have
been called by his counsel, had it been thought that
they would serve his purpose, was a home-thrust.
We know now that the withholding of these witnesses
was decided on by his counsel in consultation before
the trial, one of the many cases in which counsel,
with the best intentions, through an unwise fear of
the failure ofthe witnesses for the defence, injure the
cause of the client they really wish to serve. His
brother's affidavit of his dangerous illness abroad, and
his having written to him on the subject, though read,
was of little value, as Lord Cochrane had not attached
to it the letter from his brother, and thus clearly
shown his receipt of it on the Friday before his inter
view with De Berenger.
5 See Davison's trial, ante, vol. i. p. 234, when Stanbank
and De Lancey were both allowed by Lord Ellenborough to
contradict the evidence given by them at the trial, when Davi
son was called up for judgment.

156 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
De Berenger's statement was solely ad misericor-
diam, detailing the loyalty and consequent losses of
his family, his own good service as a volunteer, the
length of imprisonment he had suffered since the 8th
of April, and the degradation and ruin of his pros
pects. Mr. Butt made a short statement, in which he
explained the fact of the notes which passed through
his hands having been found on De Berenger.
" They must," he said, " have done so unavoidably, as he
permitted, without thinking it any crime, at the solicitation of
his friends, that all drafts connected with the Stock Exchange
should be paid in his name, whether he was in London or not.
He did, at any time, change notes, or lend Mr. Johnstone
money, as a temporary accommodation when he wished it ; and
yet it was a fact that he did not see, Mr. Johnstone till 2nd of
January last. But it was impossible for him, and certainly a
case of hardship, that he should be answerable for the manner
in which these notes might be disposed of afterwards. There
appears no witness on the trial that can give any extraordinary
reason for my having paid the notes alluded to by Mr. John
stone, for I might, hundreds of times, have paid notes to an
equal amount to him, or any one else. The magnitude of my
concerns in the funds was not, according to his calculation,
anything extraordinary, neither was the sum he held on the
2 ist of February an act of premeditation, my concerns being
as extensive before that period as at that time, and my profit
on that day, which has been so much exaggerated, was only
1300/., instead of 3000/., as stated by the counsel for the
prosecution." De Berenger's counsel took the same course as his
client had in his own statement, enlarging on his
losses, and his long imprisonment (under the Alien
Act) and in a distressed condition. For the other
three (McRae had not appeared), it was urged that
there was no evidence of complicity with the scheme

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 157
of De Berenger, that Holloway and Lyte had made a
clean breast of it to the Stock Exchange, and there
fore done their best to repair the wrong they had
committed. In this view Gurney joined, confining
his remarks, in aggravation of punishment, to the
cases of the other defendants. Against Lord Cochrane
he was most bitter, ridiculing the idea of calling his
servants to disprove what he assumed to have been
proved to demonstration, that De Berenger went into
the house in Green Street in a scarlet dress. Lord
Cochrane's previous services " had neither been for
gotten nor unrewarded by his sovereign," and his
position in Parliament, " which imposed on him the
duty of watching, and if necessary, of animadverting
on the conduct of others, especially bound him to
guard the purity of his own. For all this," he
added, " what return has he made ? He has engaged
in a conspiracy to perpetrate a fraud by producing
an undue effect on the public funds of the country,
of which he was an appointed guardian, and to
perpetrate that fraud by falsehood. He attempted
to palm that falsehood upon that very board of
government, under the orders of which he was fitting
out, on an important public service ; and still more,
as if to dishonour the profession of which he is a
member, he attempted to make a brother officer the
organ of that falsehood." He reiterated the charge
of the " moral turpitude of perjury without its legal
responsibility," and urged that " two of the actors in
the fraud, though convicted, stood unrepenting."
Such was the spirit in which the prosecution was
conducted.

158 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.

The Sentence.
On the morrow Mr. Justice Le Blanc passed
sentence on the defendants, so extreme in its severity
as to astonish every right-minded man, and to justify
the opinion that it was dictated by Lord Ellen
borough, in whose hands the puisne judges of his
bench were mere machines to carry out his im
perious orders. However disgusted one must feel at
the imposition that had been practised on the Stock
Exchange, it is absurd to say that its effect was
really to the detriment of any but brother gamblers in
the funds, dealers in " time " bargains too accustomed
one would have thought to the circulation of false
intelligence in the interest of " Bulls " or " Bears "
to have been deceived. It was not by any means
the only false intelligence which in those days of
painful excitement had been circulated among the
gamblers in the funds. Still we are far from blaming
the Stock Exchange for instituting the prosecution.
In previous similar cases they had failed to obtain
sufficient evidence to warrant a trial ; but it was not
so in this case, and it was high time that a stop was
put to the circulation of false news. It was certainly
not the amount of losses by its members that
prompted the action of the committee. " The Stock
Exchange," said the resolution ofthe 15th of March,
" will pay all its losses, but it will not consent that
the money shall go to the originators of the fraud."6
With this object the money differences of the four
6 Minutes of Committee of the Stock Exchange.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 159
brokers who had transacted business for the parties
presumed to be implicated were paid to trustees to
abide the event of the trial, and in the end distributed
among the charitable institutions of the metropolis.
We have, however, as little feeling for the sufferers
as for their deceivers, and though punishment must
necessarily have followed the verdict, after the refusal
of a new trial on a mere technical point, anything
like personal indignity ought to have been avoided.
Two of the defendants, Lord Cochrane and Mr. Butt,
were fined 1000/. each, and on Holloway a fine of
half that amount was imposed. With this portion of
the sentence, in the face of the verdict, we do not
quarrel. The whole of them in addition were sen
tenced to be imprisoned in the King's Bench Prison
for a twelvemonth. We will not even quarrel with
this. When, however, a brand of personal indignity
was sought to be fixed on Lord Cochrane and Mr.
Butt, by sentencing them to exposure in the pillory
for two hours in the front of the Royal Exchange.
public feeling was outraged, and political if not
personal spite freely charged on Lord Ellenborough.
Happily for the credit of the Government, public
opinion prevented this insult being inflicted. With
his wonted manliness Sir Francis Burdett declared
that he would stand beside his colleague, did the
Government dare to. carry out that part of the sen
tence. That a serious riot would have been the
result of an attempt to place Lord Cochrane in the
pillory, no one doubted, and his brother defendant
obtained the benefit of Lord Cochrane's popularity.
The Government shrunk from carrying out this part

160 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
of the sentence, and it was remitted by Royal
warrant. Most unintentionally, no doubt, Lord
Ellenborough brought about the abolition of this
miserable remnant of brutality, when he sentenced
the hero of the Basque Roads to its ignominious
infliction.7
The Subsequent Career of Lord Cochrane.
Undoubtedly, in the conduct of his own case, Lord
Cochrane sacrificed himself out of feeling for his uncle
Cochrane Johnstone, of whose complicity in the plot
there could not be the slightest doubt, and who hoped
to save himself at the expense of his relative. His
political opponents were not likely to neglect the
7 The punishment of the pillory was established in the forty-
first year of Henry III., and not finally abolished until the first
year of Queen Victoria. In consequence, however, of the feel
ing created by Lord Cochrane's sentence, in the session of
1815-16, it was abolished for all cases except perjury. The
decision of the Government was hastened by the motion of
Lord Ebrington in the House of Commons on the 19th of July
for an address to the Regent to remit the exposure in the
pillory on the ground of Lord Cochrane's " eminent profes
sional services." Its remission on this ground was repudiated
by Lord Cochrane in a letter to Lord Ebrington, in which he
said " he could not consent that any past services should be
prostituted to the purpose of protecting him from any part of
the vengeance of those laws which he was judged to have
offended. If," he added, " I am guilty, I richly merit the
whole of the sentence which has been passed on me. If inno
cent, one penalty cannot be inflicted with more justice than
another." In consequence it was proposed to leave out the
words referring to his past services. On this Lord Castlereagh
announced that the Crown had remitted the punishment of
the pillory.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 161
opportunity they now had of silencing him in Parlia
ment. On the 5th of July, in the face of his most
solemn assertion of his innocence, Lord Cochrane
was expelled from the House of Commons by an
overwhelming majority, and a new writ ordered for
Westminster. Such, however, was the feeling in his
favour, that at a mass meeting of the electors, held
only a few days after his expulsion, his innocence was
unanimously affirmed, the verdict scouted, and the
vindictiveness of the punishment bitterly denounced.
His re-election was unanimous, Sheridan, his former
antagonist, refusing to oppose him. His expulsion
was soon followed by the striking his name out of
the Navy List, and the roll of the Order of the Bath ;
and on the nth of August his armorial bearings
were taken down from their place among those of his
brother knights in Henry VII.'s Chapel, and his
banner kicked down the steps by an order from
Lord Sidmouth.
Until the 6th of March, 1 815, he remained in the
King's Bench, not in those days so very uncom
fortable a place of abode, busying himself in com
pleting his lamp — which was introduced with success
in the streets of one of the parishes of Soho — and
indicting letters of thanks and exhortation to his
constituents. On that day, probably by the con
nivance of the gaoler, he escaped from prison, went
home to his house at Holly Hill in Hampshire, and
lived there in an open and unguarded way, until he
sent a note to the Speaker of his intention to take his
seat and make a motion against Lord Ellenborough.
On the 20th of March, having entered the House
VOL. II. M

162 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
of Commons before prayers had been read, he was
detained there, under the excuse that his writ had
not been returned, until the Marshal of the Bench
could be fetched, and his arrest effected without a
breach of privilege, on the ground that he had not
taken the oaths. Until outside the precincts of St.
Stephen's he compelled the officers to carry him by
force, but when once beyond the boundary went
peaceably back to prison. He was treated with cruelty
by the enraged Marshal, who hoped thus to make him
anticipate the payment of his fine. His severity, how
ever, so seriously affected his prisoner's health that he
was soon compelled by the certificates of doctors to
give him better quarters. On the 20th of June his
imprisonment terminated, if he would only pay his
fine. For a fortnight he stoutly refused, but at last,
by the persuasion of his friends, for fear of the effect
of further confinement, he sent the money, with this
message, " I submit myself to robbery to protect
myself from murder." 8 It is curious to note, that
when he hastened at once to take his seat, he arrived
just in time to vote against a grant of 6000/. a year
which the Ministry had proposed in favour of the
Duke of Cumberland, and that it was practically his
vote that defeated the proposal.
8 The 1000/. note (No. 8202, June 26, 1815,) bore the follow
ing endorsement : — " My health having suffered by long and
close confinement, and my oppressors being resolved to deprive
me of property or life, I submit to robbery to protect myself
from murder, in the hope that I shall live to bring the delin
quents to justice." This note' is still shown at the Bank of
England among its curiosities.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 163
The prorogation of Parliament prevented his
attacking Lord Ellenborough until the next year.
Then early in March he brought thirteen charges
against the Chief Justice, for his unfair conduct
during the trial, and eventually moved to refer them
to a Committee of the whole House. It was not
likely that he should succeed, but it is somewhat
startling to find that no one divided with him
except his Westminster colleague. On this rebuff
he launched into the most violent Radicalism — a
course he subsequently regretted — bitterly denounc
ing as hypocrites those who proposed the precarious
charity of a public subscription for the unemployed
workmen as a remedy for the distresses of the people.9
But he was not clear of the law courts. In
May he was prosecuted, and fined 100/., for his escape
from the King's Bench, and on refusing payment
9 Bamford, the weaver-poet and Radical delegate from
Middleton, gives the following portrait of him at this period : —
" On arriving at Palace Yard we were shown into a room below
stairs, and whilst Lord Cochrane and Hunt conversed, a slight
and elegant young lady, dressed in white, and very interesting,
served us with wine. (She is now, if I am not misinformed,
Lady Dundonald.) At length Lord Cochrane came to us. He
was a tall young man ; cordial and unaffected in his manner.
He stooped a little, and had somewhat of a sailor's gait in
walking ; his face rather oval, fair naturally, but tanned and
sun-frecicled. His hair was sandy, whiskers rather small, and
of a deeper colour, and the expression of his countenance was
calm and self-possessed. He took charge of our petition, and
being seated in an arm-chair, we carried him on our shoulders
across Palace Yard to the door of old Westminster Hall, the
old rafters of which rang with the shouts of a vast multitude."—
" Some Passages in the Life of a Radical," vol. i. p. 22.
M 2

1 64 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
arrested in the November following, and at first
badly treated, and only on remonstrance removed
to better rooms. Now it was that he received the
most remarkable proof of his wide-spread popularity.
To meet the present fine, and to reimburse him the
iooo/. he had already paid, a penny subscription
was commenced, to which 2,640,000 persons contri
buted. So eager were the poorest to subscribe, that
the subscription had to be closed long before the
excitement had subsided.
For the next two years he was the accepted leader
of the Ultra Radicals, dividing the honours ofthe
metropolis with Burdett, whose reform motions he
uniformly supported. What with such meetings, and
litigation about the Basque Roads prize-money, as well
as the proceedings against him for the cost of a break
fast to the electors of Honiton, he passed a busy time,
and yet felt that he was out of his right sphere. He
yearned for service at sea, and when it was denied him
by his country's Government, accepted the tempting
offer made to him by the authorities of the youthful
Republic of Chili to help them in their bitter struggle
for independence. On the 15th August, 18 18, Lord
Cochrane sailed for Chili, reached Valparaiso at the
end of November, and at once took the command of
what was called the Chilian fleet — one frigate, two old
Indiamen, and four small vessels. Opposed to him
the Spaniards possessed fourteen ships, several of
them of a powerful class, and seven gunboats ; but
with their usual dilatoriness, only ten of their war
ships were ready for sea.
Cochrane commenced operations without delay.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 165
Though twice foiled in his attack on the powerful
batteries of Callao — the first time by a fog, the
second time by the faulty construction of his rockets
and the waste of a fireship — on the first attack he
forced the Spaniards to withdraw their fleet behind
the shelter of a boom, and on the second destroyed
two Spanish ships of war. In his attack on Valdivia,
the centre of Spanish power, he captured a pilot,
made him take his frigate into the channels leading
to the forts, and then when fire was opened on
him, having got the required information, captured
a treasure-ship with 20,000 dollars, obtained 250
soldiers, a schooner and a brig, and returned to
Valparaiso with his prizes, to prepare for a second
attack. On the 2nd of February, 1820, he accom
plished his greatest enterprise, the capture of the forts
of Valdivia. Passing through the narrow entrance to
the harbour, which was commanded by the fire of the
forts, he landed his small detachment of troops, not
150 in number, gradually captured fort after fort,
forced the garrison to evacuate all its positions, and
took possession of an enormous quantity of war
like and public stores, and a ship which afterwards
sold at Valparaiso for 20,000 dollars.
The popular enthusiasm with which he was received
was soon changed for suspicion, and his best exer
tions in the Chilian cause were marred by the envy of
the Senate, which controlled all operations. The threat
of resignation at length worked a change, and
Cochrane was once more at sea. Though for a time
thwarted in his movements by the schemes of the
commander of the land forces, San Martin, who was

1 66 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
then projecting his desertion to Peru, in November he
struck a death-blow to the Spanish navy by cutting
out the "Esmeralda" from under the batteries of Callao.
" Two frigates and some smaller ships," writes Basil
Hall, " was all that was then left of the Spanish fleet,
and they were afraid to show themselves. The name
of El Diablo, which the Spaniards had given him
after his first attack on Callao, was well deserved."
But he had not yet completed his work. In July,
1 82 1, with 600 soldiers he captured Lima, and inflicted
another severe blow on the Spanish power. It was
now that the traitor San Martin deserted Chili, and
set himself up as the Protector of Peru. Little know
ing with whom he had to deal, the traitor proposed to
Cochrane to carry over his fleet to that state, and on
his indignant refusal, refused to pay either the arrears of
pay or the promised gratuity to the fleet. Cochrane at
once sailed to Ancon, seized the money captured from
the Spaniards which San Martin had deposited there,
restored so much of it as lawful owners could be found
for, and applied the rest (285,000 dollars) in paying
the arrears of his sailors, reserving nothing for his own
share. Though hampered in every way by the mise
rable Government of Chili, and personally ill-treated,
Cochrane remained in the service of Chili for another
year. When, however, San Martin, driven from Peru
for his tyranny, returned to Valparaiso, and a revolu
tion placed the Government of Chili in the hands of a
weak but honest man, who was in the power of in
competent and dishonest ministers, Cochrane finally
resigned and accepted the offers of the Government of
Brazil. Within three months the Chilian Govern-

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 167

ment begged him to return ; but it was too late, and
then they signalized their ingratitude by resuming
the estate which they had given him for his services.
How true is it that there are some obligations so great
that they can only be repaid by ingratitude !
In Brazil he had one man, and one only, the young
Emperor, on whom he could place reliance. On the
2 ist of March, 1823, he was created Admiral of the
Fleet, and on the ist May, unaided by the re
mainder of his ships, in his own ship he engaged a
superior Portuguese fleet, and cutoff four of their rear
most vessels. So miserable did he find the condition
of the boasted Brazilian fleet, that without delay he
transferred all the best men and serviceable stores and
fittings to his flagship, and with the help of one other
smaller vessel, and a few fire-ships which he had pre
pared, blockaded Bahia, where the whole fleet of
Portugal, of seventeen war-ships and seventy trans
ports, had taken refuge. On the 12th of June, in
the darkness of the night, he entered the harbour,
sailed round the Portuguese fleet, and so terrified its
commander that he hurried out of the port with his
ships and transports and set sail for Europe. For four
teen days Cochrane, with only his own flagship and the
" Maria de Gloria," hung on the rear of the retreating
armada, captured half the troops with which the
transports were crowded, and chased the remainder
beyond the equator, half-way to Cape de Verde,
when he let them fly in peace to Lisbon. In July he
was back on the coast, captured Maranham, and thus
reduced one of the richest provinces of Brazil, and
followed that up by the capture of Para. Practically

1 68 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
he had achieved the independence of Brazil ; but
though in the first burst of enthusiasm he was
rewarded with adequate honours, he too soon found
that his honourable friend the Emperor was power
less to protect him from suspicion and intrigue, from
envy of his great deeds. Eventually he was treated
even worse than by the Chilians ; his pay withheld,
his prize-money refused, and a plot laid to ^search his
flagship for money which he was accused of having
concealed. This plot, based on a review of troops, was
only frustrated by his forcinghimself into the presence
of the Emperor, who, by postponing the projected
review, defeated the deep-laid scheme of insult. After
an indignant protest at such treatment, and an offer
to resign his command, a small portion of his pay and
prize-money was- paid ; but so continuous were his
troubles with Ministers, that in the summer of 1825
he left Brazil, never to return to her service, arrived at
Spithead on the 25th July, and after waiting in vain
for. orders from the Brazilian envoy, finally_ resigned
.the command in which he had won an equal amount
of ingratitude and honour.
Lord Cochrane had hardly resigned the Brazilian
command when he was invited by the Greeks to assist
in the cause of their independence. At that period
the Greek patriots were seriously disheartened by the
snccessful progress of the Egyptian troops in the
Morea, and the overwhelming fleets which Turkey
and her dependents maintained in the waters of
Greece. To the invitation of Mavrocordato, in
September, 1825, Lord Cochrane, after consulta
tion with his friends, acceded, and turned his atten-

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 169
tion without delay to building and fitting out, in
England and New York, such a small but efficient
fleet as might enable him to render efficient assis
tance to the cause of Greece. In all probability, could
he have remained in England and personally have
superintended the construction of the engines of the
steam-frigate on which he placed so much reliance, the
delays and difficulties with which he had to contend
might have been overcome. No sooner, however, had he
returned to England than he found himself threatened
with proceedings under the Foreign Enlistment Act,
for his conduct in Chilian waters, and forced, under
the advice of his friends, to retire to the Continent
until a portion at least of the projected fleet was
ready. For nearly two years he thus remained,
wearied with delays and vainly expecting the comple
tion of the promised vessel. During this period the
cause of Greece had been rendered more than ever
desperate by the fall of Missolonghi and the bad
government and mismanagement of the factions who
sought to rule over the small portion of territory still
nominally free. Further delay would have been fatal.
In March, 1 827, in the little schooner "Unicorn," accom
panied only by a small French brig, Cochrane entered
the ^Egean Sea, and in April took the oath of fidelity to
the Greek cause, as First Admiral. Difficult as had
been his task in dealing with the Chilians, that in
Greece was almost hopeless. Apart from the quarrels
between the rival factions, Lord Cochrane had to
attempt to create a navy out of a fleet of pirates. Per
sonally brave to a fault, but utterly undisciplined; perfect
for a sudden rush against the enemy, but useless for

170 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
steady action ; engaging orily from month to month,
and so little trusting their Government as to require
the month's pay in anticipation, the sailors of the
Greek fleet, though numerous, were practically use
less. It was a hopeless and a thankless task to
attempt to reconstruct a serviceable fleet, capable of
coping with the heavy vessels of the Turks and the
Egyptians, out of such materials. All that he could
do was to scour the coasts of Greece, blockade now
one and now another of the ports held by the Turks,
make a few prizes, and help the scattered land forces
of the Greeks in their desperate but unavailing,
because ill-managed, defence of the Acropolis of
Athens. In 1827 the declaration of England and
Russia in favour of Greek independence changed the
aspect of affairs ; and the subsequent destruction of
the Turkish and Egyptian fleets in the " untoward "
battle of Navarino rendered the reconstruction of the
Greek fleet a secondary object. Active operations
were forbidden by the allies, and his exertions to
repress piracy looked on coldly by the Greek Go
vernment. It was hopeless to struggle any longer
with such a state of affairs, and in hopes of obtain
ing substantial aid from the Greek Committees
in England he returned home. His mission was
useless. The want of common honesty on the part
of the Greek leaders had lost them the sympathy
of their former friends ; the loans that had been
raised had been wasted ; even the steamers promised
years before remained unfinished. His return to
Greece, his disputes with the Greek Government, his
resignation, his ill-treatment, rapidly followed. After

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 171
four years of his life having been vainly spent in
his efforts to serve Greece, he was glad to be " clear
of a country in which ungrateful soil," he wrote to
a fellow-labourer, " there is no hope of amelioration
for half a century to come ; unless, indeed, im
migration shall take place to a great extent, under
some king or competent ruler, appointed and sup
ported by the mediating powers."
His fighting career had closed and his sole efforts
were now confined to obtaining his restoration
to the service and the honours of which he had been
deprived. So long as George IV. lived he could
effect nothing. The memorial to the king, stating his
services and repeating in the most solemn form the
assertion of his innocence of the crime for which he
had suffered, though supported by the Duke of
Clarence, was never laid before the monarch. The
Duke of. Clarence received the curt reply from the
Duke of Wellington that the king's Cabinet could not
comply with the prayer of the memorial.
On the death of George IV. and resignation of
the Cabinet of the Duke of Wellington, he renewed
his application under more favourable circumstances,
but still without success. There were two members
in the Cabinet who still opposed him, and though the
king himself wished it, he could not prevail over their
opposition. In July, 1831, he succeeded to the earldom
of Dundonald on his father's death, but found it no
easier to obtain a definite answer to his demand for
justice than as Lord Cochrane. At length justice was
done. On the 2nd of May, 1832, mainly through the
untiring exertions of his noble and persevering wife, a

172 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
free pardon and his restoration to his position in the
navy was granted, and on the 8th he was gazetted as
a rear-admiral. In 1841, Lord Minto, the then First
Lord of the Admiralty, offered him one of the
good-service pensions, if he would accept it, as an
evidence of the high estimation in which he had ever
held his services. In the letter offering this testi
monial to his worth and services, Lord Minto truly
wrote, " Although you are one of the few who have not
applied for this, I do not fear that any one of the
numerous applicants can show so good a title to it."
He had still, however, to wait for his restoration to
the Order of the Bath. At length that was done, and
on the 25th May, 1844, he was gazetted as a Knight
Grand Cross of that Order.
One more mark of respect had to be paid. In
January, 1848, Lord Auckland received the Queen's
sanction to the appointment of Lord Dundonald to
the command of the North American and West
Indian station. " The whole British Empire," wrote
Admiral White "has expressed great joy at this
justice having been done to the bravery of your lord
ship as an officer, and your goodness and honour as a
man." He had still many years of life, to the end of
which the vigour of his mind was intact, as his pen
testified. Within a month of his death he com
pleted the second portion of his autobiography, a
work as fascinating to the general reader as useful
to the seaman. On the 31st of October, i860, he
died, after two years of great physical suffering ; and
though no public funeral was accorded to him, and
no Cabinet minister attended his funeral, he was

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 173
buried with due honour in the Abbey, where, in his
last moments, he expressed a desire to rest among
the other great servants of the nation. Through
the personal intervention of the Queen and the
Prince Consort, who counteracted the efforts of sub
ordinates, his insignia of the Order of the Bath
were restored to their place before his funeral, and
thus his last and most cherished wish fulfilled.
" At last his fame stands fair, and full of years
He seeks that judgment which his wrongers all
Have sought before him, and above his pall
His flag replaced at length, waves with his peers.
He did not live to see it, but he knew
His country with one voice had set it high ;
And knowing this he was content to die,
And leave to gracious heaven what might ensue.
Ashes to Ashes ! Lay the Hero down,
No nobler heart e'er knew the bitter lot
To be misjudged, malign'd, accused, forgot.
Twine martyr's palm among his victor's crown." '
" Of his long course of suffering," says his bio
grapher, " it must be admitted, he was himself in some
measure the cause. Endowed, as few others have
been, with the highest mental qualities, he lacked
other qualities necessary to worldly advancement,
and the prosperous enjoyment of life. Truth and
justice he made the guiding principle of all his
actions, but he knew nothing of expediency, and was
no adept in the arts of prudence. Unrivalled
1 Tom Taylor.

174 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
strategy was displayed by him in all his warlike
enterprises, but against the strategy of his fellow-
workers he was utterly defenceless. He made
enemies where a cautious man might have made
friends, and he allowed those enemies to assail him,
and inflict on him injuries almost irreparable, with
weapons and by onslaught which a cautious man
would easily have warded off. Judged by the
harshest rules of worldly wisdom, however, it must
be acknowledged that these faults brought upon him
far heavier punishment than he merited. And
perhaps it will -be deemed by posterity that they
were faults very near akin to virtues. — Guileless
himself, he was not proof against the guile of many
with whom he came in contact. Every kind word
sounded in his ear, every kind act appeared in his
eye, as if it proceeded from a heart as full of kind
ness as his own, and he often lavished sympathy and
gratitude on unworthy objects — kindness was as
much a characteristic of him as valour. While the
world was full of his warlike achievements, all who
came within the circle of his acquaintance marvelled
to find a man so simple, so tender, so courteous and
so generous. When he was bowed down by sorrows
that nearly crushed him, he sought comfort in zealous
efforts for alleviating the sufferings of others."

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 175

CHAPTER V.
THE AGITATION FOR PARLIAMENTARY
REFORM;
THE SPA FIELDS RIOT, December, 1816;
AND
TRIAL OF WATSON FOR HIGH TREASON,
June 9TH, 18 17.
THOUGH the question of Parliamentary Reform had
been agitated at intervals, in the metropolis and the
great manufacturing towns, the movement in its
favour did not acquire consistency and importance
until after the close of the war with Napoleon. The
widespread distress that followed the cessation of a
war expenditure, and the decrease of our manu
facturing monopoly from the return of the conti
nental nations to the ways and works of peace,
forced the Reform question to the front. Early in
1816 Spencsean and Hampden clubs were established
in the manufacturing counties, not only in the great
centres of work, but in the village districts around
them, amongst which political pamphlets, from the
vigorous pen of Cobbett and others, now circulated at
low prices, were notably effective. However uncon
stitutional may have been the wild schemes for the

176 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
partition of land, and village representation, advocated
by the followers of Spence, those put forward by the
Hampden Clubs were even for the period singularly
moderate and practical. By their programme, the
redress of the admitted grievances of the working
classes was to be effected by opening the franchise to
all males of eighteen years of age who paid taxes,
annual parliaments, electoral districts returning one
member for every 20,000 inhabitants, the abolition
of the property qualification for members, and the
prohibition of placemen or pensioners from sitting in
the House of Commons. They sought for no inter
ference with the Church, her rates, or her bishops,
the working of factories, or the corn laws, and did not
hint at the payment of members. In the words of
that honest radical, Bamford, they sought to obtain
universal suffrage and annual parliaments, in the firm
hope that then " whatsoever thou wouldest would be
added thereto." Many, probably most, of the mem
bers of these clubs, were at their foundation honest
radicals, desirous of obtaining their objects by con
stitutional means. There were, however, among
them from the very first, not only men in correspon
dence with and in the pay of the police authorities,
but others who for their own wicked ends suggested
treasonable purposes.1
In the provinces the members of these clubs were
1 " Some Passages in the Life of a Radical," by Samuel Bam
ford, 2 vols., 1844, vol. i. chap. i. These details, and the sketches
of Hunt, Cobbett, and Major Cartwright, are taken from the
honest confessions of the Weavers' poet, who certainly was no
revolutionist.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 177
confined to working men, some of them self-educated
to a high degree of knowledge, but the bulk illiterate,
and easily worked upon by bolder spirits, and ready
to become tools in the hands of crafty, designing
spies. Among their leaders, Henry Hunt, Cobbett,
and Major Cartwright held the first place. Hunt,
who was born in 1773, at Uphaven, in Wiltshire, had
inherited a considerable property, and was well known
previously to this time as an opulent farmer, and
regular attendant at Devizes market. When a young
man, like Cobbett he was a decided royalist, in 1801
tendering the whole of his stock, worth 20,000/., to
the Government, if it were needed, and undertaking
to equip himself and three of his servants as volunteers
for any cavalry regiment that might first charge the
expected invaders. For this offer he received the
thanks of the Lord Lieutenant of his county. Even
tually he joined the Marlborough troop, but un
fortunately having a dispute with Lord Bruce his
colonel, challenged him, was indicted, found guilty,
and sentenced to six weeks' imprisonment, and a
fine of 100/., and his name struck off the muster
roll. After this — probably on account of this event
— he became a changed man, throwing himself
into the Radical movement, associating with men
who, whether he knew it or not, were among the
most disaffected, and being looked up to by them as
the fearless leader of their party.
Bamford, who saw him in 18 17, when the Lanca
shire reform delegates went to London, gives the
following portrait of this popular chief : —
" Gentlemanly in his manner and attire, six feet and better
VOL. II. N

178 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
in height, and extremely well formed, he wore a blue lappelled
coat and waistcoat, and top boots ; his leg and foot were about
the neatest and firmest I ever saw ; features regular, and a
kind of youthful blandness about them which, in amicable dis
cussion, gave his face a most agreeable expression. He wore
his own hair, which was moderate in quantity, and a little
grey ; his lips were thin and receding, but there was a dumb
utterance about them, which in all portraits I have ever seen
was never truly copied. His eyes were blue or light grey, not
very clear nor quick, but rather heavy, except, as I had after
wards opportunities for observing, when excited or speaking, at
which times they seemed to extend and protrude, and if he
worked himself furious, as he sometimes would, they became
blood-shot and streaked, and almost started from his head.
Then it was that the expression of his lip was to be observed,
and the kind smile was exchanged for the curl of scorn, or the
curse of indignation. His voice was bellowing ; his face swollen
and flushed ; his gripped hand beat as it were to pulverize, and
his whole manner gave token of a painful energy struggling for
utterance. He was constantly, perhaps through good, though
mistaken intentions, placing himself in most anxious situations.
No repose, no tranquillity for him. He was always beating
against a tempest, of his own or of others' creating. He had
more to sustain than any other man of his day and station,
and should be judged accordingly."
Cobbett had all the appearance of a gentleman
farmer. "He seemed," says Bamford, "to have that
kind of self-possession and ease about him, together
with a certain bantering jollity, which are so natural
to fast-handed and well-housed lords of the soil —
with a fresh clean round cheek, and a small grey eye
twinkling with good-humoured archness ; in short,
he was the perfect representation of what he always
wished to be — an English gentleman farmer."
Major Cartwright at this time was very far ad
vanced in years, but still straight for his age, pale,

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 179
and with an expression of countenance in which
firmness and benignity were most predominant. . .
Well born and well educated, and possessed of inde
pendent means, in early life he had entered the navy,
but subsequently became Major in the Nottingham
shire Militia, from which he had been superseded
many years before his death on account of his
political views and acts. As an amateur politician
he had published, numerous pamphlets, and made
frequent speeches in favour of American Indepen
dence, universal liberty, and radical reform, and had
shown great firmness and disinterestedness in his
advocacy of popular rights. He was no revolutionist.
The maxim which he strenuously urged on his
admirers was " Hold fast by the laws." He was too
honest for one section at least of those who professed
to look up to him as their leader.
In the metropolis the Spencsean were far more
numerous than the Hampden clubs, and many of the
men connected with them were undoubtedly ready
for, if not engaged in, treasonable practices, Among
the most active were the Watsons, father and son — both
men of education, nominally practising medicine —
and Arthur Thistlewood, notorious three years after
wards as the leader in the Cato Street Conspiracy
for the murder of Ministers. Born in 1772, the son of a
respectable farmer near Lincoln, Thistlewood became
a Lieutenant in the Militia in 1797, married a lady of
fortune, who died within eighteen months of their
union. From the time of her death his habits
changed for the worse, squandering his property in
gambling and dissipation in London, and making
N 2

180 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
occasional visits to France and America, where he
imbibed the political principles by which his subse
quent career was influenced. Again he married a
lady of fortune, but soon wasted that in gambling,
and getting connected with the bad spirits of the
metropolis, became an object of suspicion with the
Government. Ostensibly the aims of the Watsons and Thistle
wood were the redress of grievances by means of
parliamentary reform. For effecting this, meetings
were called in Spa Fields on the 15th November, and
the 2nd December, 18 16, nominally to petition the
Regent, but really, if certain witnesses were to be
believed, to force him to change his Cabinet and
to initiate a revolution. At the first meeting, Hunt
and the younger Watson were the leading actors, and
all that was done was to adopt the proposed petition
and to adjourn to the 2nd of December. At the
latter meeting, before Hunt's arrival (whether by
preconcerted arrangement or on the spur of the
moment, must be matter of opinion), the mob were
led by Watson into the city, where they ransacked
the shops of the gunmakers, made a foolish demon
stration before the Tower, and finally dispersed at
the sight of a small detachment of its garrison. For
some of the mischief then effected several of the
mob were tried and punished, and the reputed leaders
arrested with the object of being indicted for a riot:
this charge, however, was subsequently abandoned,
and indictments for high treason preferred against
them. On the 28th April, 18 17, true bills for high treason

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 181

were found by the grand jury of Middlesex against
Arthur Thistlewood, James Watson the elder,
Thomas Preston, and John Hooper, in connexion
with the Spa Fields meetings ofthe 15th of November
and the 2nd of December, 18 16. In consequence of
the number of witnesses proposed to be called —
nearly 250 in number — the trials did not com
mence until the 9th of June, when that of the
elder Watson was taken before Lord Chief Justice
Ellenborough, and Justices Abbott, Bayley, and
Holroyd, with a special jury. By the indictment the
prisoners were, as usual in such cases, charged in
separate counts with compassing the King's death,
intending his deposition, levying war, and forcing him
to change his measures and counsels, in proof of
which fourteen overt acts were detailed, based on
the details of the presumed conspiracy.2 For the pro
secution, the Attorney-General, with the usual Crown
counsel, conducted the case against the prisoners, for
2 The overt acts charged : (1) Meeting of 15th Nov. to consult
and devise plans to subvert the Constitution, &c. ; (2) to rise and
levy rebellion and war ; (3) to seize the Bank of England and
the Tower ; (4) seduction of soldiers ; (5) manufacturing pike-
heads ; (6) purchase of ammunition ; (7) preparation of com
bustibles to fire barracks ; (8) hiring a house to store them in ;
(9) issuing placards and advertisements to call treasonable
meetings; (10) hiring platform from which to make treasonable
speeches; (11) hiring and using waggon on 2nd December for
conveyance of ammunition and banners to Spa Fields, and
making seditious speeches therefrom ; (12) marching through
the streets firing guns and pistols, and attacking gunsmiths'
shops ; (13) summoning the garrison ofthe Tower to join them ;
(14) on 2nd December ordaining, preparing, levying, and
making public war against the King and his laws.

1 82 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
whom Mr. Charles Wetherell and Sergeant Copley
were appointed as counsel.3
From the evidence called by the Crown, the con
spiracy was commenced by the elder Watson en
deavouring to persuade a printer to print small bills
and posters calling a meeting in Spa Fields on the
ist of November to adopt a petition to the Regent
begging for legislative redress of the severe evils
under which the working classes were suffering.
This placard, which was ultimately printed by another
man, on the first refusing to have anything to do with
it, had nothing illegal on the face of it. The meeting
itself, held on the 15 th of November, passed without
any disturbance, Hunt, who was to be the leading
speaker, proposing an adjournment to the 2nd of
December, to receive a reply to the petition.
For this latter meeting, out of which all the trouble
arose, fresh bills and placards were printed, the
manuscript being carried to the printer by Castle,
who afterwards appeared as the approver, and the
bills when printed taken away by various persons,
including the elder Watson. The summons for this
meeting was of a very different character to that
issued for the previous one, and its production was
resisted by Watson's counsel, on the ground that it
was not proved that the print was a correct copy of
3 Attorney- General, Sir C. Shepherd ; Solicitor-General, Sir
R. Gifford ; Mr. Wetherell, of whom see the case of the Bristol
Riots, though a strong Tory, was at this time displeased with
Government, under the impression that he ought to have been
Attorney-General ; Mr. Sergeant Copley, subsequently Lord
Lyndhurst.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 183
the manuscript, and that consequently the matter of
the placard was not brought home to Watson. The
court, however, ruled that " this was not a question of
the correctness of a copy with the original, but that
the question was, that this placard having been
printed by the order of two persons, the prisoner
comes and takes away twenty-five of them : this
showed that he was aware that there was an order
for these things, for which he cornes and which he
gets : the question therefore is whether this be
sufficient proof that the prisoner took away a part of
the impression which was printed, and that he had a
knowledge of the contents of these which were pla
carded." The placard was then read : —
England expects Every Man to do his Duty.
" The meeting in Spa Fields takes place on Monday, Dec.
2, 1 8 16, to receive the answer of the petition to the Prince
Regent determined upon at the last meeting held at the same
place, and for other important considerations.
"The present State of Great Britain.
" Four millions in distress ! ! ! Four millions embarrassed ! ! !
One million and a half fear distress ! ! ! Half a million live in
splendid luxury. Our brothers in Ireland are in a worse state.
The climax of misery is complete ; it can go no further. Death
would now be a relief to millions. Arrogance, folly, and crimes,
have brought affairs to this dread crisis. Firmness and in
tegrity can alone save the country. After the last meeting
some disorderly people were guilty of attacking the property ot
individuals. They were ill-informed of the object of the
meeting ; it was not to plunder persons suffering in these cala
mitous times, in common with others ; the day will soon arrive
when the distresses will be relieved. The nation's wrongs
must be redressed. JOHN Dyall, Chairman. Thomas Pres-
TON, Secretary."

1 84 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
The proceedings at this and the previous meeting
were clearly described by Mr. Stafford, the chief clerk
at Bow Street, one of the many witnesses called to
this portion of the case.
" On the 2nd December there was a large concourse of
people assembled in Spa Fields. Knew there was to be a
meeting from placards that were posted, and the small hand
bills which were distributed. Was at the former meeting on the
15th of November. Mr. Hunt addressed the meeting from the
window of the public-house called the ' Merlin's Cave.' Saw a
flag close to the house on that occasion, but was not sure that
it was displayed from the window. It consisted of three
colours, red, white, and green. It was a large flag, and was
suspended upon a pole. There was an inscription on it ; but
could not on that occasion make out the whole of it. Saw the
words, Nature, Truth, and Justice, and there was something
else which he could not make out, as the wind blew the con
trary way. The words he saw were in larger characters than
the rest of the inscription ; was not near enough to hear what
passed at the first meeting. At the meeting on Dec. 2 attended
in consequence of the placards ; a great many police officers in
attendance. Arrived on the ground about half-past twelve, and
found thousands there in the lower part of the field next to the
chapel, towards Coppice Row. Appeared to be assembled
round a waggon from which the horses had been taken ; there
were a great many persons in it. There were two flags in it.
One was the flag with the words Nature, Truth, and Justice.
Nature to feed the hungry ; Truth to protect the oppressed :
and Justice to punish the guilty. [The flag was produced and
identified.] There was another flag, of the same colours, but
no inscription. Besides these two flags there was a large calico
frame with the inscription, ' The Brave Soldiers are our
Brothers. Treat them kindly! The waggon was full of people.
The prisoner Watson was in it, but none of the other prisoners.
The prisoner stood next to a young man who was speaking.
He heard a great many, but could not speak from recollection
what was said. The speech seemed to consist principally of in
terrogatories, and the mob returned answers. He then quitted

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 185
the spot, leaving the person speaking ; and shortly after he
quitted it heard a greater noise than usual proceeding from the
waggon. Turned his head, and saw all the persons in the
waggon in the act of jumping from it. The flags were removed
from the waggon, and the whole torrent of the mob, with the
flags and banners, directed towards Coppice Row. Saw no
police officers within reach. As the tri-coloured flag approached
him he seized it, made an effort to break the pole ; but being
the stem of a young tree he could not effect his object. He got
the flag down and stood on it. Limbrick, the police officer,
then came to his help. A strip of the green part of the flag
remained in his hand. The frame being thrown down, witness
jumped on it and broke it, and on being attacked used part of
it as a weapon of defence, The mob then streamed towards
Smithfield, in a line with Skinner Street."
Graves, a furniture-broker, saw the mob pass his
door in Cow Cross going towards Smithfield. They
were not doing any mischief. Preston, whom he
knew, was with them, and desired him to take in his
goods as there would be dreadful work, or bloody
work. As a broker, articles of furniture were exposed
outside his house.
As yet they had been merely a noisy, turbulent
crowd, filling the street but doing no mischief. Within
a short distance of Graves' shop, was that of Beckwith,
the gunmaker, in Skinner Street, into which, about
twenty minutes after twelve, a young man of short
stature and thin face rushed and demanded arms.4
Unfortunately for himself a Mr. Piatt, who had called
on business, and was at the moment leaving the shop,
put his hands on each of the youth's shoulders and
said, " My good fellow, consider what you are about."
* This was the younger Watson, who subsequently was
securely hidden in London until he could make his escape.

1 86 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
He had hardly spoken, before the pistol which the in
truder carried was fired, and he was wounded in the
stomach. When he called for a surgeon, the youth
who had fired threw away the weapon, and said, " I
am a surgeon; I'll examine you." His assistance was
of course refused, and he was at once taken in charge
by a constable who happily came in at the moment.
As yet the mob from Spa Fields had not arrived, and
the crowd that had gathered on the occurrence was
persuaded to disperse. What followed had best be
given in the words of the gunmaker's servant.
" I got into the shop again after pretty well dispersing the
crowd, and saw the mob pass with a stand of colours ; it con
sisted of about 300 or 400 persons. They had passed the
shop when some of them returned, crying out, ' This is the
shop.' Some five minutes, he supposed, had passed since the
young man entered. Went out of the shop and said, ' What do
you want? Don't hurt Mr. Beckwith ; he is a good fellow, and
wishes well to your cause.' Observed that a brewer's man with
a broomstick broke the windows.' Witness cried out, ' The
young man has escaped ! ' and the mob cried, ' We will have
him out ! ' and some said ' Tower Hill ! ' When he heard this
witness put up his hands and said, ' To Tower Hill, my boys,'
wishing to get the mob away from the shop, and added, ' Sea-
cole Lane,' meaning that the young man had gone that way.
For a time the mob appeared satisfied, until the youth appeared
at the three-pair-stairs front window. On this they got very
infuriate, and cried out, ' There he is ! we will have him out.'
They then began to break the windows, entered the shop, took
the guns out, and battered the window frames with the butt
ends. There was a considerable quantity of guns and pistols in
the shop. It was literally cleared. When the mob entered, as
witness had told them falsely about the young man he got
away to the further part of the east window, and saw two or
three of the mob take the guns out by tens on their shoulders,
and distribute them to the mob, saying, ' Here are arms, my
boys ! ' They took them, some one way, some another, while

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 187
others loaded them up to their muzzles. He then went out to get
a drop of spirits, or he should have fainted, and when he returned
saw the young man come out of the counting-house with a pistol
in each hand, and go with the throng up Newgate Street."
In this evidence Hone was confirmed by Mr. Piatt,
and Roberts, an apprentice of Beckwith's. According to
these witnesses the intruder struck at Piatt with the
butt end of the pistol after he shot him, and on his
being searched by the constable a pair of lancets
were found on him, on one of which was the name of
Watson, and that he deliberately loaded a pair of
pistols, which he took from their case, before he left
the counting-house. From Beckwith's shop the mob
moved towards the Royal Exchange, where they were
confronted by the Lord Mayor, and Sir I. Shaw and
five constables, their flags and poles seized with but
little resistance; and though they were firing off some
muskets, several were taken from them. Small as
the Lord Mayor's party was, and unarmed, they had
no fear of the mob, which they attacked without
hesitation. The gunsmiths' shops in the Minories formed the
next object of attack. There the shops of a Mr. Rae
and Messrs. Brander and Potts were broken into
with pickaxes, the butt ends of muskets, and other
weapons, the shutters torn away, and nearly all the
fire-arms handed out to the mob, who loaded and fired
them repeatedly in the air. At Rae's door a cannon
was loaded, so heavily that had it been fired it was
likely to have burst. Some of the mob were armed
before they reached the shops in the Minories. One
witness recognized Thistlewood, and another Preston ;

188 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
but both admitted that they were unarmed and taking
no part. No disposition appeared among those who
fired to injure any one : they did not seem to know
what to do with their guns, except as it seemed to
commemorate their victory of having obtained them.
At Rae's shop the mob were in sight of the Tower,
the presumed object of their march. According to the
witness Haywood, during the attack on Rae's he saw
a man in a great coat and top-boots, a black belt and
a sword, come from the mob towards the Tower
ditch. Putting his foot on the railing and flourishing
his sword, he said something to the soldiers inside :
he could not recollect the words, but the substance
was that he would make the privates captains, and give
them double pay, if they would join them. The man
remained there a short time: witness saw a bustle, by
which he concluded the troops were coming, and
then the man put his cutlass under his coat, and
walked away. He believed that Thistlewood was
that man.5
Two privates of the garrison gave a somewhat
different account of the event. "Before he went on
parade," said the first soldier, " he looked towards
the Minories, and saw a person come to the railings
and say, ' Soldiers, open the gates and I will give
you ioo guineas,' He went on parade, and heard
nothing more. There was only himself and another
private at the wall, who was also going on parade,
and some twenty or thirty persons running about
Tower Hill in all directions. The other private added
5 It was not Thistlewood, but Preston.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 189
these significant words to the speech of the tempter :
" We do not call the soldiers our enemies, but our
friends. They have been fighting for their rights,
and they could not have them." He also said that
the man at the railings made an alternative offer of
" double pay or 100 guineas."
With the exception of this vague attempt to seduce
the Tower garrison, and thus get possession of the
fortress, the affair to all appearances had been a riot,
and nothing more, though a riot of a destructive
character. Apparently it had been commenced and
been carried through without much concert ; and the ,
facility with which it had been checked by the Lord
Mayor's small party proved that the mob were desti
tute of tactics or cohesion.
On the appearance of a small detachment of troops
the mob rapidly dispersed, and the imputed rebellion
and levying of war was put down with no further loss
than the wrecking of the gun-shops, and the wound
of Mr. Piatt, probably accidental, in the heat of ex
citement or through the careless handling of his
weapon by the intruder. For their violence and
robbery several of the inferior actors in the affair had
already been punished. Not content with this, and
trusting to the evidence of an approver, the Govern
ment sought to convert the riot into a deep-laid plot
and conspiracy, and to bring the deadly charge of
high treason home to the prisoners as the instigators,
contrivers, and leaders of a rebellion singularly imi
tating in its details that of Colonel Despard.
On the third day of the trial the evidence under
this head was commenced by proof of the arrest of

190 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Watson and two other men near Highgate Church on
the evening of the 2nd of December. All the party
were armed with pistols, and it was not until after
considerable resistance that they were overpowered by
the horse patrol. On searching Watson four papers
were found upon him, on which the prosecution
placed great reliance.
Paper No. I. " Commtt. P '.S . {meaning Committee
of Public Safety). Sir F. Burdett, Lord Cochrane,
Mr. A. Thistleton, Mr. J. Watson, Mr. Gale Jones,
Major Cartwright, Mr. G. J. Evans, H. Hunt, Esq.,
Mr. Hardy, Mr. R. O'Connor, and Mr. Blandford."
No. 2. " Wsmr. Road {meaning Westminster Road) .
From Divis. collect and meet at Lon. Br., thence
proceed to the old man {meaning the Tower). Padgn.
{meaning Paddington) to proceed to St. G..'s divis. to
barricade each side of Holborn Bars. Branch off to
T. B. {meaning Temple Bar)."
No. 3. "No. 1. St. Giles's B. P. Holborn {meaning
broad part of Holborn), thence to Chancery Lane. 2.
Carey St., Temp. Bar. 3. Theobalds Road, Gray's
Inn Lane. 4. St. John St., Old Street Road. 5.
Whitechapel. 6. Tower. 7. Bank. 8. Poultry."6
No. 4. Letter from Thomas Gilbert to Preston : —
" SIR, — Having understood that you want some
body to deliver out bills, I shall be happy to do it ;
and a friend in distress as well as myself, will be
glad to make one. I had the pleasure to see you at
6 The use 'of the names in paper No. 1 was admitted by the
prosecution to be entirely unwarranted. The details in papers
2 and 3 correspond with those given by Castle, the approver, in
his subsequent examination.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 191
the ' Red Heart,' where if you will have the goodness
to call or send to let me know when you shall want,
I shall esteem it a favour, being a poor man in dis
tress, not knowing where to get a shilling towards my
support. If you will have the goodness to give me a
job I shall esteem it a particular favour.
"Thomas Gilbert.
"27th Nov.. 1 816."
Castle, the approver, was then put forward.
" He knew all the prisoners. Hooper first, then Thistlewood
and Preston, and subsequently, on the 15th of November, Wat
son. Had seen him frequently before at the Spencasan meetings,
at the ' Cock Inn,' Grafton Street. At one of these meetings he
introduced himself to the witness by saying, ' it was a very easy
matter to upset Government, supposing it was handled in a
proper manner.' Saw Preston there that night, who wished me
to meet a society of tradesmen at a public-house near Fleet
Market. When he asked him why, he said, ' he was one of the
committee for the purpose of doing away with machinery, and
to petition Parliament to do so.' 1 Preston also asked him to
meet them at the ' Mulberry Tree,' which he did, about three
weeks or a month before the meeting in Spa Fields. He there
found both the Watsons, and the other prisoners, Evans father
and son, and Harrison, and others whom he did not know.
After the meeting broke up he walked away with the elder
Watson, who repeated his statement about the ease with which
Government could be upset — that he had drawn out a plan that
would obstruct cavalry, for interrupting the horses and preventing
them from coming on the mob— that he had got several people,
and that they solicited at different houses where they had gone,
and that they had got a committee sitting to devise the best
7 It was objected that Preston's statements in the absence of
Watson were not admissible against the latter, but they were
admitted " as merely showing the first introduction of these
proceedings."

192 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
modes and plans. He told him he would call the next morn
ing and show him the plan. He called the next morning
(Saturday), and he sent his wife out of the room. Watson then
showed him a plan of the Tower, and of a machine on four
wheels, with sharp knives on the wheels, and spikes between
like scythes, to prevent cavalry acting, and asked him to join.
He produced other drawings of the different entrances, and the
bridge of the Tower. Asked him how many men he could bring ;
and when he told Watson that he had nothing but his little
business (a smith) to live on, Watson replied, 'that they would
find him something better to do, and that they had plenty of
money for everything. Again he met Watson at one Newton's,
where the same conversation was repeated ; and as they walked
away down Drury Lane, Watson told him that they had a com
mittee of five — Harrison, Preston, Thistlewood and his son, and
himself, and that witness should be made one of the generals,
and head a party of pikemen and others, and that he should
hear in a few days ; that he might consider himself the sixth
member of the committee, and that they would have no more.
The next time Castle met Watson he went with him to inspect
the barracks in Portman Street, to see which was the best
place for setting them on fire.
" Castle's next meeting was with Thistlewood, who asked
him how much, and how long a time it would take for him to
make a few hundred pikeheads, about nine or ten inches long.
Witness replied, from fourpence to fourpence halfpenny the
pound, but added, that he had no forge to make them at ;
when Harrison, who was present, said that he knew one who
would lend him aforge at which he could make a pattern. Witness
made this at Bentley's forge, to whom he represented that they
were to be put round a rabbit warren or fish-pond. This
pattern pike-head he took to the house of Randal, which was
opposite that of Newton's, where he met all the prisoners
except Hooper, and Watson said it was a famous instrument.
He was then given by Watson the address of the house — 9,
Greystoke Place — where the committee met.
" The night before he had been with Thistlewood among the
navigators, who at that time were out of work on the Paddington
Canal, to see how many of them they could obtain, and were

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 193
promised 500 or 600 in the course of a very few hours any
morning they chose, as they wished a good row, and would
rather be killed, as they had nothing to do. Having treated
these men to beer, they went to public-houses in Drury Lane
which the guard from the theatre frequented ; gave them beer,
and talked to them about the smallness of their pay, and of
numbers of them being ill-treated by being discharged without
pensions. He and Thistlewood then went about among the
coalheavers and porters at the Adelphi wharfs with the same
object as among the navigators at Paddington, and if Castle is
to be believed with the same success.
" The next meeting was at the.committee room in Greystoke
Place. When Castle got there, at eleven in the morning,
he found Thistlewood outside, waiting for the ' Doctor,' who
had got the key. In about twenty minutes the elder Watson
came and opened the door, and soon after they were joined by
Preston and Watson's som The prospects of setting fire to the
barracks, and getting men together, were again discussed, the
model pike produced, and an order given for 250 to be imme
diately made by Bentley. Watson and witness reported the
results of their inspection of the barracks at Portman Street
and King Street, and another meeting was fixed for the follow
ing Sunday.
"At the meeting on the Sunday the details of the plan were
.finally arranged, and to prevent detection, the whole house
was searched before the council began. Thistlewood produced
a map of London, and the best roads to be taken were marked,
to take the men who were to be collected together to the
different barracks and places to be attacked, and pointing out
the best way to collect the men. The generals were then ap
pointed. Watson proposed Thistlewood as head general, as he
found the money. He and young Watson were to seize the
two field-pieces in the Artillery Ground in Gray's Inn ; Preston
was to attack the Tower ; Harrison the St. John's Wood
Barracks ; the elder Watson the Portman Street Barracks,
and to the witness the task of setting fire to the King
Street Barracks was assigned. They were to get all the
persons they could, arm them with pikes and such other
weapons as they could obtain, and provide the fire-raisers with
pitch, tar, turpentine, resin, and spirits of wine for their portion
VOL. II. °

194 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
of the work. They were to attack the whole of the places at a
given hour, and set them on fire at one in the morning. Any
person they met they were to make join them, gentlemen's ser
vants and coachmen were to be taken from their masters'
carriages, and such as could ride were to be mounted as cavalry,
whilst the carriages were to be used as barricades. As soon as
witness had set fire to the King Street Barracks he was to join
the elder Watson at the top of Oxford Street, where Harrison
was to join them with the artillery from St. John's Wood. As
soon as that was done a volley was to be fired, to let the rest
know that they had seized the artillery, which were to be taken
into the park and fired at any cavalry that might attempt to
cross from the Knightsbridge Barracks. A body of pikemen
was to be detailed to protect the guns. Portland Street was to
be barricaded to stop cavalry that might be out in quarters.
They were then to barricade the gates of the park, and the
turnpike at Hyde Park Corner, and then to come down Park
Lane into Piccadilly, where a party was to be left to fire on the
cavalry if they attempted to come out of the Knightsbridge
Barracks, whilst the rest marched down Piccadilly towards
Charing Cross, barricading all the side-streets, and then the
younger Watson and Thistlewood, after getting possession of
these guns, were to break open all the oil-shops for combustibles,
and gunmakers' shops for arms, on their line of march. They
were then to blockade Chancery Lane, and to make their
grand stand at the junction of Tottenham Court Road and
Oxford Street, pointing a gun to command each of these leading
avenues. Young Watson was then to leave Thistlewood, and
go up Oxford Street, barricading the side-streets on the right-
hand side, so as to cut off all communication from that quarter.
Preston, if he failed to take the Tower, was to barricade
London Bridge, to prevent the artillery coming from Woolwich,
and then to barricade Whitechapel, to prevent troops coming
in from the country. This being done, he was to meet the
main body at the Bank."
It was at this meeting, according to the approver,
that the elder Watson calculated the amount of com
bustibles required to fire the King Street and Portman

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 195
Street barracks at 100/., on which Thistlewood said,
" Let us not spare for 100/. ; let us roast them well ;"
and Watson said, " It would burn so rapidly, and the
stench would be so strong, that it would stifle them
in a few minutes."
In addition to this distribution of their forces, a
house between the King Street and Portman Street
barracks was to be hired by Castle, in which the com
bustibles were to be stored, and to which he was to
go as young Watson's servant. With this object he
and young Watson went house-hunting, and found
an empty one in Seymour Place, of which Cosscr, a
timber-merchant at Millbank, was the owner. To
him, therefore, they went ; Watson going in, discuss
ing the matter with the owner, and giving Thistle
wood as his reference. Cosser called on Thistlewood,
but was not sufficiently satisfied with him to let
Watson have the house, and so this part of the
scheme was dropped.
Castle then gave his account of the preparations
for the Spa Fields meeting of the 15th November.
According to his account, after frequent meetings of
the committee in Greystoke Place, at which Thistle
wood, the younger Watson, and Castle reported their
negotiations for the house, and a second interview
with the unemployed at Paddington. On Sunday, the
ioth of November, the whole committee met again,
and the small bill and the placard were prepared and
unanimously agreed to. The elder Watson agreed to
get it printed by a printer in Fetter Lane with whom
he had lodged, and Thistlewood produced a 10/.
note, to pay for that and to furnish Castle with
O 2

196 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
money for the pikes. The hiring of a waggon to
speak from was suggested by Thistlewood ; and the
flags to be used, and the motto to be inscribed on
them, which was written by the elder Watson, were
then settled. Castle, as the strongest and tallest, was
appointed to carry the flag. If there was any truth
in Castle's next statement, Watson was guilty.
" I was," he said, " to meej: the two Watsons next morning,
at a coffee-shop in Kingsgate Street, Holborn, at eight in the
morning, to receive money from the elder one to go and fetch
away the pikes, and to buy two nail-bags to put them in, and
to bring them away. I met them, and the elder Watson gave
his son five il. notes to go with me to Bentley's, which we did.
Young Watson bought the bags whilst I went to Bentley's for
the bill. Bentley had made about 250 pikes. I went to Bent
ley's first, then Bentley and I came to the wine vaults in the
corner of a court leading out of Hart Street,, and there I met
Watson with the nail-bags. Bentley produced his bill, and
Watson gave me the money in Bentley's presence. I think it
was 3/. 15s., after giving me credit for the deposit of il. We
went to Bentley's cellar, where the pikes were, and he helped
us to put them in the bags. We took them to the shop of a
Mr. Bannister, in Hyde Street, Bloomsbury, where the Wat
sons lodged, and put them under something like a sofa bed or
bedstead. I then went to Greystoke Place, showed Bentley's
bill, and destroyed it by Thistlewood's orders."8
Castle then recounted the visit with the elder
Watson to the printer in Fetter Lane, and his eventual
8 Bentley could not identify Watson as Castle's companion.
Winkfield, who kept the public-house at the corner of Leg
Alley, remembered Bentley coming there with two persons ; but
also could not identify them as Castle or Watson. The pikes
were found in the soil of the closet at Watson's lodging in
Hyde Street, Bloomsbury; but not until the 12th of March.
See post.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 197

refusal to let them have the bills he had printed, for
fear of the consequences to himself. The failure was
reported to the committee in Greystoke Place, and
then the elder Watson said he would go to Seal, a
printer in Tottenham Court Road, which he did, and
on his return reported that 250 copies would be ready
on Wednesday night, and that he had got a man to
stick them up. They then decided on the persons to
be invited to the meeting, including Sir F. Burdett,
and Mr. Hunt, to whom the elder Watson wrote; and
the younger one was sent, with money furnished by
Thistlewood, to get an advertisement inserted in the
papers. Another device, the carrying out of which was en
trusted to Castle, was to get half a dozen navigators
to act as sandwich men, carrying about the larger
placard on their backs, for which they were given a
shilling each when they started and another on their
return. If a crowd got round them they were to dis
tribute the smaller bills among them, selecting soldiers
and the lower class of mechanics. Some of these
bills Castle had fetched from the printer's, and others
were brought by the elder Watson.
This was on the Tuesday. Next day there was
trouble amongst the band. Harrison had become so
frightened at the violent language of the younger
Watson, that he refused to have anything more to do
with them. He warned Castle, who was sent to talk
him over, that, if they did not mind, that young man
would get them into trouble, and advised Castle to
follow his example. The whole of the party were in
such alarm, that though they believed Harrison

198 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
would not disclose the existence of the select com
mittee or disclose the intended plan, they fixed on a
new place of meeting — the " Blue Last," in Salisbury
Square, Fleet Street, to which Hooper was brought
by Castle to fill Harrison's place on the committee.
In consequence of the failure ofthe negotiation about
the house in Seymour Place, the plan of burning the
barracks was given up, and it was decided that they
should see how many people could be collected on
the Friday at the Spa Fields meeting.
At that meeting Hunt was not expected till one
o'clock : the committee therefore were to be on the
spot at twelve, address the mob, and if they saw the
spirit ofthe people ready to act, to jump down and
lead them into the town. If the mob asked for
weapons, they were to be told that they would soon find
them at the gunmakers' shops, which had been pre
viously inspected to see what number of guns they con
tained. When they had seized these they were to lead
the mob down to the Bank, take it by surprise,
collect as many people as they could on its roof,
barricade it, and place men on the tops of the sur
rounding houses, with glass bottles and any other
missiles to attack the soldiers should they attempt its
recovery. On the Thursday night the committee
met again, when Thistlewood and Watson reported
that they had seen Hunt, and that he wished some
alteration in the petition, preferring one which he
had himself prepared. During that night Castle and
Thistlewood again went amongst the soldiers of the
theatre's guard, to whom they distributed bills, as
well as amongst the working men and mechanics out

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 199
of work. At one of these houses they met a man of
the name of Gillan, who had been a servant in the
2nd Regiment of Guards.
Early next morning Castle went to Thistlewood's,
received some cockades and the flag, and got in
structions for a flagstaff. Then about half after
eleven, he, Hooper, Thistlewood, and Preston left
for Spa Fields, where one Crisp had got for them a
hackney coach, on which they mounted and drove up
to the "Merlin's Cave." Thither, soon after, came Hunt
and the two Watsons in Hunt's chariot, from the top
of which Hunt addressed the meeting. It was then
proposed that he should speak from the window
of the house, into which they went with the colours.
In this room a committee was held, Hunt nomi
nating a Mr. Clark for chairman, and proposing to
adjourn the meeting for a fortnight. The colours
were then shown from the window, and Hunt, after
addressing the people, moved the proposed adjourn
ment. After this they all returned to the Bouverie
Hotel, where Hunt was staying. Some two or three
days after this the committee met again at Greystoke
Place, and an advertisement and bills were settled,
announcing the postponement of the meeting and
calling for subscriptions to defray the past and future
expenses. The proceeds of this subscription, amount
ing to 5/., were handed to the elder Watson.
Previously to the second meeting in Spa Fields,
Castle and Thistlewood again inspected the shops of
the gunsmiths and oilmen near the Tower, went into
the Tower and distributed bills to the soldiers in the
canteens, showed them the red, white, and green

200 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
cockade, and asked them in a whisper whether they
would sooner fight for the big or the little loaf.
Each day they reported progress to the committee,
and at one of these meetings — they met sometimes
twice a day- — Thistlewood or the elder Watson sug
gested getting a couple of hundred young women,
dressed in white, with small flags and cockades, to
march in front of them, in order to take off the atten
tion of the soldiers (so that they should not ride
over the people), and thus give the committee time
to address them. Castle and the elder Watson then
called on Keens the tailor, to see in how short a time
he could make them six great-coats, and asked him
to dinner at the Watsons' new lodging in Dean
Street. Towards the end of November Castle and Thistle
wood went in search of a waggon or stage, from
which to speak, and after some refusals, the former
engaged a waggon of one Wendemade, and paid the
deposit for it, which was furnished by Thistlewood.
Again, Castle, now accompanied by the younger
Watson, went to the canteens distributing bills
among the unemployed, telling the soldiers that
the Government had sent for 50,000 Russians, of
whom 20,000 had already landed at Woolwich, at
which they only laughed, and making inquiries of an
artilleryman whether orders had been received at
Woolwich for any movement of artillery on the
following Monday. Again they reported progress to
the committee, to whom a weaver brought some
ribbon for cockades, for which the committee paid.
When the committee next met, the purchase of

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 201
pistols for them — a pair each — was decided on, and
five pounds given to the younger Watson to purchase
them, as well as a sufficient number of sabres or short
dirks. As usual after this meeting, Castle, with Hooper as
his present companion, repaired to Paddington, as great
reliance was placed in the burly navigators. After
they had visited these men, as they returned down the
Edgware Road, Castle priced a pair of brass-handled
pistols at a pawnbroker's, and left a deposit. When
he and his companion returned to Dean Street, where
the committee was sitting, he saw two or three pistols
on the table, and the younger Watson busy casting
bullets in a mould. There was also a short sword
and a dirk-stick, which he thought was like the one
found on the elder Watson, lying on the table.
Castle was then furnished with money to get the
brass-handled pistols, and a couple of swords from
another shop, and on his reporting, on his return, that
he had left a deposit for another pair of pistols he
was given the money for them by Thistlewood, in
order that he might get them the next morning.
At this meeting the elder Watson said, "We have
brave news. My son James has brought word that he
can bring 15,000 men himself." He also said that he
had heard that there were 50,000 stand of arms be
longing to the West or East India Company. On
this Thistlewood said that they must change their
plans. " On the Monday morning they should go out early to their
several stations, collect together all the men they could, and
make them captains, or give them a hint what was to be done.

202 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Castle was to go to London Bridge to meet the men from the
smiths' shops, as he knew most of them, and then take them
to Tower Hill to meet Watson, attempt to get in, and if refused
by the soldiers to storm it. They were to offer the soldiers
ioo guineas, or double pay. Next day, Sunday, calico was
got, stretched on a frame, and the inscription written on it,
' The Brave Soldiers are our Friends,' the pistols bought of
Flint, and both taken to young Watson's lodgings. Then they
adjourned to Greystoke Place, where all the arms were pro
duced and divided between them, the remainder of the money
found for the hire of the waggon, speeches prepared, and the
agreement come to that, if next day the spirit of the people was
rife, young Watson, as on the previous meeting, was to jump
down and lead them away."
At eight on the Monday morning all but Preston
and the younger Watson met at the " Black Dog,"
Drury Lane. The pistols were produced, given to
Castle, and he believed he loaded them. There was
ammunition, a number of slugs and bullets in an
old stocking tied in an old pocket-handkerchief,
which Keens was to take in the waggon to Spa
Fields. Of what occurred at the meeting Castle
knew nothing. As ordered, he went to London
Bridge, and not meeting any of his brother smiths
there, went on to the Tower, found extra sentries
on duty, as they told him because of the meeting,
thence up the Minories towards the Bank, the
gates of which were shut, and thence through Little
Britain towards West Smithfield. Here he met the
mob with Dr. Watson and Thistlewood. On asking
Watson where his son was, he replied, " To the Tower !
First to the Tower. Make haste, otherwise we shall be
too late." Watson had his dirk-stick, but it was not
drawn. On their way east, he heard from Keens of

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 203
the result of the Spa Fields meeting, and met Hunt
going in that direction in his own carriage. Castle
stopped him, and asked why he was so late. H.unt
said, " What is the matter ? " to which Castle replied,
" Dr. Watson had gone to attack the Tower."
He then spoke of being present at the attacks on
the gunsmiths' shops, and swore that the elder Wat
son, Thistlewood, and Preston were encouraging the
mob in their violence, and that Thistlewood and Dr.
Watson went up as close as they could to the rails of
the Tower Ditch and seemed to address the guard. He
could hear them very plainly, as their backs were
not always towards him. The mob was some ten or
fifteen yards behind them. He could see forty or
fifty soldiers on the Tower wall. A small guard now
intercepted the crowd. They threw down their arms
and ran away. Castle, who craftily played the by
stander in the mob, retired till it was dark to a public-
house in Mark Lane, and then walked to Dean Street,
where he found the Watsons, Preston, and Thistle
wood packing up their clothes, and he was told they
were going into the country. So ended Castle's
extraordinary history of the abortive rebellion : a
notable performance, whether regarded as an act of
memory or of imagination.
Now, who was this Castle, and what had been his
previous career ? With the others of the committee
he had been arrested for high treason, and for some
reason — what it was may be conceived — the charge
was withdrawn, and with Mr. Stafford or some police
officers he had been round to the public-houses and
places at which he laid the various occurrences to

204 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
which he had sworn. He repudiated the charge of
doing so for the purpose of collecting evidence, and
professed not to know why he was thus taken round.
He had, however, previously given the names of the
people and places to which he was taken, and could
have little doubt of the object of his visits to them.
Though he professed to be a smith, he had not
worked for any one as such for twelve or fourteen
years, and only done odd jobs for himself, and when
taken up by Thistlewood and the others his only
employment was making paper dolls for children, and
he was in great distress.
Twice before he had been committed : once at
Guildford, the other time at Abergavenny, and in
both cases admitted as the approver. At Guildford
the charge was for passing forged bank-notes, and
the prisoner against whom he gave evidence was con
victed and executed. Next, some three or four
years ago, he was witness as approver against one
Greenway, who pleaded guilty and was transported.
At Abergavenny the charge was in connexion with
the attempted escape of a French prisoner. He was
doubtful whether the person of whom he had spoken
was his wife : he had lived with her many years,
and she was then in Yorkshire. He had previously
lived with a Mrs. Thorns, in King Street, Soho, who
it was evident had kept a house of ill-fame and let
lodgings to prostitutes. She was dead. So much
for his previous life.
When cross-examined on the occurrences of the
day, he denied that he had told Hunt that he had just
come from the Tower, and that it had been in their

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 205
possession an hour or so, and swore that he did not
desire him to turn back and return thither with him.
As to his influence over his brother smiths, he ad
mitted that not one attended, though he had reported
500 as ready to do so. After the meeting of the 1 5th
of November he went to a dinner at Hunt's hotel, in
Bouverie Street, where. Hunt, Clark, the chairman ofthe
meeting at "Merlin's Cave," and others were present.
As his behaviour there was directly contradicted by
Hunt, we will give his cross-examination on this
point in detail.
" Q. Do you recollect what was the toast that you gave
there? A. Yes, I do.— Q. What was it? A. ' May the last
of kings be strangled with the guts of the last of priests.' I
gave the toast. Mr. Hunt desired me not to be so violent, and
stopped me. I don't recollect his saying anything about turning
me out of the room. That was the only time he had been
admonished not to be quite so violent. He did not give any
other toast. He could not recollect that anything was said
about the company leaving the room if he was so violent.
Nothing about turning him out. Was not certain that Hunt
said he would leave if he was so violent. Did not recollect
anything about falling asleep, or shamming sleep. Did
not pretend to sleep. Was not invited by Hunt to dine.
Walked up there as many others did, and found Thistlewood,
Hooper, and the two Watsons there. Hunt asked if all in the
room meant to dine. Never rang the bell to ask what he
should have for dinner. Did not know whether Hunt said
anything to him, or he to Hunt about the soldiers. There was
not a little bit of violence upon the soldiers. Hunt did not re
prehend me on that subject. Nothing was said as to the toast.
There were no violent toasts after his, and no person gave the
King or such like toasts. The King was left out of the ques
tion.- Q. You swear that positively? A. I never heard it.—
Q. Do you swear that positively? A. Yes.— Q. Was it
drank or proposed at the table where you were dining ? A.

206 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
No, it was not. Recollected telling Hunt something about
getting a French officer out of the country, but not telling him
that he got 500/. for doing so, or that he threatened to shoot
the officer for not going along quick enough with him. Did
not remember whether he said he had assisted General Le
Fefbvre Desnouettes to escape, or Hunt telling him that he
should not talk of such things. Could not recollect Hunt or any
other person present admonishing him on other matters, nor the
names of any others than those he had mentioned. Was in
liquor both before and after the dinner, having drank a great
deal at the ' Merlin's Cave,' and afterwards at the dinner. Was
not drunk, but the worse for liquor. Could not recollect falling
asleep, or being shaken a bit."
Hunt, who was called on behalf of the prisoner,
gave the following account of Castle's conduct at the
dinner, and the interview with him in Cheapside : —
"Dined the day of the meeting at Cooper's Hotel, Bouverie
Street, with Bryant, an old friend with whom- he had private
business, and who had ordered dinner in a private room for
them. The cloth was spread for them, when Castle came
into the room, and several persons with him, including the two
Watsons, Thistlewood, Hooper, and Clark. Was not sur
prised at seeing the Watsons and Thistlewood together, as it
was customary for those engaged in public meetings to dine
together afterwards. Was surprised at seeing Castle, and re
monstrated against it, giving them a hint that dinner was
ready. Did not think he had ever seen Castle till he saw him
that day with the flag in Spa Fields, or again till he came to
the hotel. One of the persons — he thinks Thistlewood — pro
posed that they should have some chops too. Witness and
Bryant said that dinner was only provided for them, and more
could not partake of it. A person, he believes Castle, then
rang the bell, and said we will order some beefsteaks. The
waiter came up, and they ordered fish and steaks to be added
to the dinner. The cloth was laid, and they were soon seated.
Did not think Castle was the least in liquor, he was very for
ward and officious. Ten or a dozen sat down. There were
several persons he did not know. Witness had seen the Wat-

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 207
sons and Thistlewood the day before, when they gave him their
names. Castle sat down to dinner.
" The King's health was given by Bryant, who sat at the
head of the table. Witness said, ' Better not drink any toasts
at all.' But it passed round till it came to Castle, who then
began in a loud tone, ' May the last of kings be strangled.'
Witness jumped up and stopped him, saying no such language
should be used in his company. Castle followed on by saying
something about the guts of the last priest. This was appa
rently reprobated by the whole company, particularly by
Bryant, witness, and the elder Watson. Upon this Castle
made a sort of apology.
" Some time afterwards Castle burst out, ' D  n me, the
soldiers are our friends ! ' Upon which witness said, ' Pray,
sir, what have we to do with soldiers here ? ' Castle intimated
that he had had frequent conversations with them. Witness
answered, ' More fool you ! ' or something to that purpose. On
the same evening witness expostulated with Castle upon his
violence. Castle was the general spokesman for the evening,
and stated a story that he had been instrumental in taking two
French prisoners out ofthe country, for which he had been im
prisoned for two years in Maidstone Gaol. Witness said to
Watson across the table, ' Pretty society you have introduced
us to.' Bryant added, ' Pretty society we are got into indeed,'
or words to that effect. Castle said he had received 500/. for
his share in the business, and he was to have had 400/. or 500/.
more for aiding another escape in Wales, but was disappointed,
because he could not get the officer to ride on horseback. He
had carried him a considerable distance in a cart, when he
found it necessary to place him on horseback. He then said,
' I had a d  d good mind to shoot him when I found him
hesitate ! ' He was then obliged to give him up. Bryant
and witness then represented to Watson the necessity for taking
their friend away as soon as possible. The younger Watson,
witness thought, attempted to justify aiding the escape of the
Frenchman. The elder Watson reproved them.
"After the history ofthe French prisoners witness said, ' One
or other of them should go out of the room ' Witness be
lieved he should have endeavoured to turn Castle out ; but

208 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Bryant said, ' We had better not make a bustle.' Witness then
said, ' If Castle uttered one more sentence of that nature one of
them must leave the room.' Castle then expressed a sort of
contrition, and said no more. In a few minutes afterwards he
saw Castle rolled up sound asleep. At first witness expressed
pleasure that he was silent. Soon after he saw one of his
friends endeavouring to wake him by shaking him, upon which
witness said, ' For God's sake let that fellow alone ! ' Some of
the party then proposed going, when witness desired that the
first that went should wake Castle, and take him off too. The
friend endeavoured, without success, though he used consider
able violence. On this witness got up to assist to wake him, and
used no gentle means — for at that time he was convinced that the
sleep was a sham, and said, ' The fellow shall go.' Witness struck
him a blow under the^ ribs, quite enough to have knocked any
common man down, but it made not the least impression on
Castle ; but he sat as still as if he was dead. Witness gave up
the attempt ; and, convinced that, it was a sham sleep, rang for
the bill, which came to ^s. a head. No man in the room
appeared the least intoxicated. Upon expostulating with the
elder Watson about bringing Castle, he said he was a good
fellow, and witness should take no notice of him. Watson
seemed to have great confidence in Castle. They then took the
chair from under Castle, and he immediately was himself
again." Of the interview with Castle in Cheapside on the
2nd of December, Hunt gave the following account :
'' He agreed to attend the meeting, which was to be precisely
at one. , Went along Cheapside on his way to it, and observed
a considerable crowd on each side. Castle came forward and
beckoned witness to stop his carriage to speak to him Witness
was driving slowly. Castle came up, but witness did not remem
ber whether he beckoned him. Castle said, ' For God's sake, how
came you to be so much after the time of the meeting ! ' Wit
ness looked to the clock, it wanted twenty minutes to one, and
saw that he was in good time. Castle said, the meeting had
been broken up these two hours. ' We are going to the Tower,

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 209
which has been in our possession more than an hour. Come
along.' Witness struck his horses, and exclaimed ' D  d
scoundrel,' and went on. If Castle had not speedily got out of
the way one of the wheels would have gone over him. Witness
went on to Spa Fields, and found the greatest collection of
people he had ever beheld.''
This account of the dinner was confirmed by Mr.
William Bryant, an attorney, who spoke to Castle
being then not very well dressed, by no means in the
way he was when he appeared as the approver. To
complete the evidence to Castle's character, it may
be here mentioned that among the witnesses called
to prove that he was not to be believed on his oath
was Mr. Lawson of the Times, who had known him
from his infancy, who considered him "a person not
to be believed at any time on his oath."
By subsequent witnesses the elder Watson was
proved to have addressed the sailors in the tap-room
of a public-house near the Tower, on the 2nd Decem
ber, saying, "Come on, my brave boys, if you had but
followed me the Tower would have been in our
possession before now ;" — that a shop was hired by
him for his son at Hyde Street, and that both the
father and the son came there sometimes together ; —
that the shutters of the shop had not been opened
since the 2nd of December ; — that on the 5th Vickery,
the police officer, searched the shop, and found
numerous papers; and that on the 12th of March the
place was again searched, and some 200 rough pike-
heads, eight to ten inches long, found in the soil at
the bottom of the closet. Of the papers found in the
shop, a plan of the Tower and of a machine for re-
VOL. II. P

210 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
sisting cavalry were the only important ones that
were allowed to be put in. Castle was also con
firmed as to the meeting on the 5th of November
with the servant of Mr. Leach of the Chancery Bar,
and Dyal, whose name was signed to the placards
calling the Spa Fields meeting, knew the elder
Watson and Preston as working together with the
other prisoners in the matter, and remembered
Watson reading the draft of the proposed memorial
to the Regent at one of those meetings. The
meetings at the "Carlisle Arms" and the "Nag's Head"
were also proved, and Skinner spoke to the discussion
between the elder Watson and Castle about the
entrance to the King Street barracks. The hiring
and payment of the men who had the placards
fastened on their backs ; the meeting with and treat
ing of the navigators at Paddington, and the distri
bution of the bills among them were also proved,
though in the last case the parties who treated them
could not be identified by the witness. Bentley ad
mitted the manufacture of the pikes by Castle's order,
with whom Harrison came, and their being fetched
away by Castle and some other person in two nail-
bags, the purchase of which Cox, the servant of
Parkes the ironmonger, confirmed. The attempt at
hiring the house in Seymour Street was spoken to
by Mr. Cosser, and the landlord of the house in Grey
stoke Place said that he let it to Dr. Watson, who
professed to wish to practise there as a surgeon, but
that though he frequently passed the place afterwards,
he saw no appearance of business of any kind being
carried on.

NARRA FIVES OF STA TE TRIALS. 2 1 1

On the fifth day witnesses proved the correctness
of the plan of the Tower and its approaches found in
young Watson's shop ; the hiring of lodgings in Dean
Street by the elder Watson on the Wednesday before
the first Spa Fields meeting ; his having left them
on the night of the Monday of the riot, the meet
ing there on the Sunday previous at dinner-time,
among whom the witness recognized Thistlewood
and she thought Preston, and that there were some
great-coats in the room, which she never saw again
after Watson and his friends left. Several soldiers
confirmed Castle's account of the meetings with them
in the various public-houses ; the distribution of
the small bills among them, and the ribbons being
shown to them. The hiring of the waggon by Castle
was proved, and the fact of Castle and Hooper
bringing to it, at the top of Chancery Lane, some
thing wrapped in blankets and a handkerchief, and
the finding some bullets in an old glove and a tin
case of powder in the waggon after the younger
Watson jumped down and the mob followed him.
Stacey spoke to Castle buying some sabres of him,
and Flint the gunsmith to his buying first one pair of
pistols and then a second, and paying for the second
pair on the Sunday morning. According to this
witness Castle represented himself to be a Bow
Street patrol, and that he and the other patrols
had been ordered by the magistrates to provide
themselves with arms. The last witness called for
the prosecution, the foreman to Parker the gunsmith,
remembered the younger Watson buying two pairs
of pistols at his master's shop, and identified one of
P 2

212 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
the pistols as that by which Mr. Piatt was shot, and
another with that found by the patrol on the elder
Watson when he arrested him.
Notwithstanding the numerous cases in which the
evidence of the approver was confirmed by entirely
independent, and, to judge from the absence of any
serious cross-examination, reliable witnesses, the un
deniably vicious character of Castle told in favour of
the prisoner. Without his evidence of the previous
arrangements, the case was nothing worse than a
mischievous riot, and, as the defendant's counsel
truly argued, could not be raised into one of high
treason. It was right for the counsel for the prisoner
to ridicule the inadequacy of the preparations for the
proposed result ; to urge that the evidence of so
tainted a witness as Castle could not be relied on,
and to hold him up as the real instigator of the
treasonable portion of the arrangements. They could
not, however, get over the papers found on the
prisoner when arrested, in which the stations of the
different parties were undoubtedly noted down, the
purchase of the pistols and swords by Castle, and the
finding on the elder Watson one of the pistols pur
chased by his son, and the identification of another
of them as the weapon by which Piatt was wounded
by the younger Watson. If the prisoner and some
of his associates originally intended no more than
a mob gathering, and were led on step by step by
Castle to attempt treasonable designs, it must be
borne in mind that the best evidence to prove
it was at their command in Harrison, who had
left the party on the development of the danger-

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.. 213
ous designs of the younger Watson. The prosecu
tors could not call him, to them his mouth would
be closed. Not so to the prisoners. The fact of
his not being called ought to have had its weight,
but it failed to make any impression on the jury.
The disgraceful career of the approver, and the
fact that he had been for months kept and clothed
by the police, deprived his evidence of any value in
their estimation, and despite a strong, but, for once,
by no means unfair charge by Lord Ellenborough,
Watson was acquitted. Of the exhibition made by
Castle, the other prisoners got the full advantage.
The Government could hardly venture to put him
again into the witness-box to retail for another
eight hours his account of the conspiracy, and they
wisely abandoned further proceedings against the
companions of the elder Watson.

214 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.

CHAPTER VI.
THE NOTTINGHAM RIOTERS.
TRIALS OF BRANDRETH, TURNER,
LUDLOW, AND OTHERS, FOR HIGH
TREASON,
October, 1817.
To judge from the speech of the Prince Regent at
the opening of the session of Parliament in January,
181 7, ministers appear to have persuaded themselves
that the previous spirit of disaffection had been laid,
and that if left alone the demagogue would be unable
to stir up the people to further acts of violence.
Within a few days all this hopefulness had vanished,
and it must be admitted that the real state of the
manufacturing districts had been concealed from a
mistaken policy. On the 3rd of February came a
message from the Regent, with papers showing that
meetings of a very dangerous character were being
held not only in the metropolis, but in other parts of
the kingdom, and Parliament was invited to consider
what further measures were required for the preserva
tion of the public peace. The invitation was ac
cepted, and, on the report of the Secret Committees
to which the papers had been referred, four acts were
passed of a most stringent character, including one

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 215
for suspending the Habeas Corpus Act, and thus
enabling the Ministry to imprison suspected con
spirators.1 Within a week of this act becoming law
the Blanketeers held their abortive meeting in
Manchester, which the magistrates were unable to
prevent, as the act giving them fresh power had not
vet passed into a law. As it was, the misguided men
who then assembled were the only persons injured,
as gradually on their weary march they suffered
from hunger, fatigue, and cold, until, within twenty-
four hours of their starting from their rendezvous,
they dwindled into a mere fragment of the mass that
had met in Petersfield.2 Under the terms of the
Habeas Corpus Suspension Act, it was impossible
for the radical leaders and the delegates to hold open
meetings. The result was, that secret meetings were
held, under the names of benefit societies, botanical
clubs, and other unsuspicious titles, at which plans
were suggested of a seditious character, and a night
attack on Manchester was proposed. Then, too, for
the first time we hear of the suggestion ofthe assassi
nation of the Cabinet by a London delegate, believed
by a most competent authority to be a dupe of one
Oliver, a Government spy, whose conduct in his
miserable office eventually became the subject of
bitter debates in the House of Commons. How far
this man was the instigator of the crimes he helped
to denounce cannot be satisfactorily proved.3 Accord-
1 See ante, p. 25.
2 Only about 180 reached Macclesfield, about twenty reached
Leek, and only six were known to pass Ashbourne Bridge. —
Bamford, vol. i. 34-
3 Bamford writes on March 1 1, " On Tuesday, after the Blanket

2i6 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
ing to the statement of Mr. Baines, the editor, at
that period, of the Leeds Mercury, in one case Oliver
endeavoured to entrap an innocent man to a meeting
at which he had previously arranged for the arrest of
the parties, and in Sir Samuel Romilly's judgment
the whole of the insurrections that followed were
excited by this man and other spies of Government.
From Mr. Baines' statement, it appears that Oliver,
who represented himself as a London delegate, had
for more than two months been endeavouring to
seduce a printer at Dewsbury of the name of Willan
to acts of violence, and especially to attend a secret
meeting at Thornhill Lees on the 7th of June.
Willan, a conscientious Quaker, indignantly refused,
and escaped the arrest to which the ten persons who
attended the meeting were subjected. Oliver was
seen following the prisoners on their way to Leeds,
and conversing with a servant of General Byng, the
commandant of the district, who admitted that he
had lately driven Oliver from his master's house to
meet the coach.4 In explanation of these statements,
Mr. Allsop, a solicitor in Nottingham, who had been
most active in the arrest of suspected persons, de
clared that he first saw Oliver on the day after the
meeting, a stranger proposed, in consequence of the conduct of
the Regent, to make a Moscow of Manchester— deemed too
absurd by the Middleton men. Secret meetings as benefit
societies, &c, real object to make a night attack on Manchester.
Proposal of a London delegate for the assassination of the Cabi
net—a dupe of Oliver." — " Some Passages in the Life of a Radi
cal," vol. i. pp. 37, 39, 45. Motion of Burdett, June 16, renewed
debate on the occasion ofthe Indemnity Bill, January, 1818.
4 " Life of Edward Baines," by his Son, pp. 92, 93.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 217
arrest at Thornhill Lees ; that Oliver knew of the
meeting for that evening, but had fixed to go to
Birmingham, and only stayed at the request of him
self and his brother magistrates, in order to furnish
information ; that Oliver's orders from General Byng
were not to conceal from the meeting anything as to
previous meetings by which the people could be
deceived, and from Lord Sidmouth not to hold out
any encouragement ; that it was then decided he
should do as instructed, which Allsop was persuaded
he did, as he was suspected by his refusal to stay in
Nottingham and countenance their proceedings, and
only consented at last to stay to lessen suspicion.6
Thirty years afterwards, General Byng, then Lord
Strafford, wrote to LordSidmouth's biographer, "Oliver
was sent to me with a letter from Lord Sidmouth, to
the purport that he was going down into that part of
the country where meetings were frequently held, and
that he was desired to communicate to me any in
formation he might obtain, as to the time and place
of such meetings, in order that I might take timely
measures to prevent their taking place, the wish and
interest being to prevent and not to encourage them
as alleged against Government." The General added
that the only time Oliver called on him was when he
brought Lord Sidmouth's letter, and that being late

5 Quoted in the " Life of Lord Sidmouth " by Dean Pellew.
Where see also previous letter of Mr. Allsop, that they knew of
the meeting of delegates on the evening of the 7th for arranging
a rising on the 9th, and that at the meeting it was decided not
to postpone it, notwithstanding the arrests.

218 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
for the coach, which passed at a distance of two
miles, the General sent him over in his gig to
catch it.6
No one in the present day believes that Lord Sid
mouth or General Byng were parties to such conduct
as is charged against Oliver. However mistaken in
his policy, Lord Sidmouth would have treated any
such suggestion with the utmost scorn and contempt.
General Byng had a painful duty to perform, and he
did it as befitted a soldier of unblemished character
and right feeling. Oliver no doubt offered himself to
the Home Secretary, and his services were accepted as
would have been those of any other person who pro
fessed to be able to furnish information. How he
carried out his miserable mission is known only to
himself. As he managed so discreetly as never to
have to appear as a witness, his antecedents and his
acts were never elicited on cross-examination. It is,
however, very noteworthy that Oliver went to a
meeting at Nottingham on the 7th of June, with in
structions " not to conceal anything as to the York
shire meeting by which the people could be deceived,"
and that on the next morning Brandreth, the
Nottingham captain, was telling his dupes that
"All the country was to rise, all at one time," on the
following day. It is not uncharitable to attribute to
the spy the part with which he is charged, but it is a
libel on English statesmen, whatever their politics
may be, to suppose for one moment that in playing

6 Letter of Lord Strafford to the Dean of Norwich, Aug. 15,
1846.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 219
this part he was acting under the instructions of
Government.7 The following trial gives the details of the insur
rection which in time followed so close on Oliver's
visit to Nottingham, and which though sufficiently
formidable in its earlier stages, really collapsed
before it was met by any military force. That it did
not arise from any sudden cause, is evident from the
preparations of arms and the arrangements for the
meeting of the various sections of the rioters. It
must have taken many days, if not weeks, to have
obtained the information and made the preparations,
which were not denied. Whether or not its leader
was its sole originator or Oliver was at the bottom of
it, that Brandreth was an enthusiast of energy and
daring is evident, and in two at least of his comrades
he had men of no mean abilities for mischief. Yet it
is difficult to believe that a scheme so complete in its
various parts was not devised by a more competent
mind. In consequence of the character of the insurrection
and the number of persons who were arrested, a
special commission to Chief Baron Richards and
Justices Dallas, Abbott, and Holroyd was issued for
? See Lord Sidmouth's considerate kindness to Bamford on
this first arrest, Bamford, vol. i. p. 147, and the anecdote of his
being struck with the honest countenance of one of the prisoners,
and on questioning him separately, and finding that within a
year and a half he had been an honest workman, and been led
away by union societies, and then gone all wrong, releasing
him at once. — " Life of Lord Sidmouth," vol. iii. p. 196. It is
now known that he personally examined the case of every
prisoner.

220 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
their trial at York, the proceedings under which
commenced on the 16th of October, 1817. For the
Crown the law officers and eight other counsel
appeared, and Mr. Cross and Mr. Denman for the
prisoners. In the indictments forty-nine persons
were included, and the offences charged were levying
war against the king, and attempting with force of
arms to subvert the Government on the 9th of June,
and between then and the following fortnight. The
overt acts laid in the indictment were the usual ones
of meeting to arrange plans— agreeing to make an
insurrection — purchasing and seizing arms and
ammunition — marching armed along the high ways
and attacking houses, and levying and making public
war. As the prisoners severed in their challenges,
Brandreth, the reputed leader, was first put on his
trial. In forming the jury a question arose whether
the prisoner must challenge before the Crown, and
whether the challenge on either part must not be
before the oath has begun to be administered. Both
these points were decided in the affirmative, and the
now well-known rule (which is now embodied in the
address of the officer of the court to the prisoner),
judicially decided, that any objection must be taken
to a juror before he comes to the book to be sworn,
and before he is sworn, and that the challenges on
both sides must be concluded before the recital of the
oath is commenced.
According to the witnesses for the prosecution,
between nine and ten on Sunday morning, the 8th of
June, Martin and Ashbury, two workmen at the
Butterley Iron Works, who had been sworn in as

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 221
special constables, on entering the parlour of a public-
house kept by a Mrs. Weightman, found above a
score of men listening and putting questions to
Brandreth, the Nottingham captain. Their talk was
about "the revolution," not that of 1688, as was sug
gested, but about that which, if they had followed
Brandreth's instructions, they were intended to effect.
To help them, Brandreth had a map of the district,
on which the places at which they were to meet were
marked with crosses, which he pointed out, telling
them that " there would be no good except there was
complete overturn of the Government," and to im
press the object on their minds, reciting the following
verses : — " Every man his skill must try,
He must turn out and not deny.
No bloody soldiers must he dread ;
He must turn out and fight for bread.
The hour is come, you plainly see,
The Government opposed must be."
The people at each village, he said, were to meet at
their appointed places early on Monday, and then
march to Nottingham forest, where they were to
meet a large party, and with their help to take
Nottingham. Sheffield, Manchester, and many other
places were to rise at ten on the night of Monday,
and, as he afterwards said, " Come like a northern
cloud, and sweep all before it." That preparations
had been made for this rising was evident from the
inquiry made by William Turner, as to where the guns
and pistols were. When the persons present said they
had none, this man boasted of his village (Wingfield)

222 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
" being more forward than theirs, and of his having
got an estimate of every gun, pistol, and sword in his
parish." That this was no vain boast was proved
when the houses in Wingfield were attacked, and the
assailants showed that they knew the number and
kind of arms possessed by each occupant. Turner
also declared that they had forty pikes ready in a
stone quarry. It was then determined that they
should go round and demand the arms, and if they
were not voluntarily delivered take them by force.
During this conversation men kept coming in and
going out of the room, asking questions ofthe captain,
and each other. There was no concealment, and
though they knew that Martin and Ashbury were
special constables, they let them remain in the room
from ten in the morning to between three and four in
the afternoon, contenting themselves with the threat of
putting them up the chimney if they dared to disclose
the statements which they had heard. This threat
was efficient. Neither of these constables gave infor
mation either to their employers or to the magistrates.
Instead of leaving the room as soon as they learnt
the nature of the conversation, they stayed there for
more than six hours, perfecting themselves for
appearing as witnesses should the design prove a
failure. Still, strange as such conduct may appear,
there is no doubt that they told the truth.
The meetings were to take place on the Mon
day, and early on that day the Nottingham
captain was at his work. About half- past eight on
that morning Shipman was outside the door of his
lodgings at South Wingfield, when Brandreth and

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 223
George Weightman came up. He asked them where
they were going.
" The prisoner said to an old barn up in the field ; that there
was a meeting there of the towns of Wingfield, Crich, Pen-
tridge, and Alfreton, that there were arms and ammunition,
and that men would be taken on the way as they went to Not
tingham ; a band of music would meet them— there were
thousands more to meet them in Nottingham forest. The
witness asked what they would do for provisions when there
were so many thousands of them. Brandreth said there would
be bread and beef for every man, and half a pint of rum.
Witness asked him what the poor women and children were to
do ; he said there would be a provisional government sent down
into the country to relieve the wives and children of those who
were gone away ; then an old woman who stood by clapped him
on the shoulder and said, ' My lad, we have got a magistrate
here.' ' You will have a different one,' says he, 'one that will
allow you plenty ;' he said the countries of England, Ireland,
and Fiance were to rise that night at ten o'clock ; witness said
that if all those countries should rise, the ships would come in
and beat the whole. Then Brandreth said, ' A northern cloud
would come and sweep all before it, and every one who would
not join would be shot on the place.' On cross-examination
Shipman remarked that he thought Brandreth either drunk or
mad." The next witness, Thomas Turner, an accomplice,
described the progress of the actual rioting.
" I left my father's house in South Wingfield," he said, " a
little before nine on Monday evening, and went with Samuel
Ludlow and John Watson to opposite the meeting house, near
Colonel Halton's gates, where we found William Turner, George
Weightman, and some strange man ; he was called the Notting
ham captain ; they all had guns. From thence went to Hunt's barn
in the colonel's field. On the way William Turner was loading
his gun with bullets, when Weightman said, ' Come, lads, I ex
pect an engagement very soon with Jessop's men at Butterley

224 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
furnace.' Witness and Ludlow stopped about ioo yards from
the barn, and saw about a score of men coming out of it, and
as they came towards him saw they had arms, pikes, and one
or two swords. The captain, Turner, and Weightman, were
with these men. They were then formed into ranks by the
captain and William Turner, and ordered to march to Top-
ham's field to meet the Pentridge men, witness carrying a
bag of bullets which had been given to him by one of the
party. As the Pentridge men did not meet them, they went to
the house of Elijah Hall, and demanded arms. Hall was not
willing to give them, he and the captain disputed some time, and
at last a gun was given from the window by some one to the
captain, who told Hall he understood he had more arms in the
house. Hall denied it. The captain replied, ' If you have
more, and do not give them, your door shall be broken open.'
At last the door was opened, and Hall, followed by Brandreth
and others, went in, and when Hall offered to stop him as he
was going upstairs to search, Brandreth struck him with his fist
in the face, and then threatened to shoot him. Witness laid hold
of Brandreth, and told him not to ill-use Hall as he did not be
lieve he had any more arms. Brandreth then took a candle
and went up to search, and did not find any, but brought down
Hall's son, and made him go with them. From Hall's they
went to Isaac Walker's, where they got a pistol, which Bran
dreth put into the string of his apron, which was tucked round
him like a belt. The house of Hunt, one of the prisoners, was
afterwards visited, where they had bread and cheese, which
Hunt provided, and afterwards joined them willingly. Next
they went to Mrs. Hepworth's, where he heard Brandreth rap
ping at the door, and calling for arms. As the door was not
opened Hunt hurled a large stone at it, and when it still re
mained fastened Brandreth went round to a little back window
looking into the kitchen, asked them to give the arms out, or
open the door, but they did neither. Somebody within refused
them, when Brandreth fired either a gun or a pistol in at the
window. On going to the window witness saw Mrs. Hep-
worth's servant lying on the ground, and said to Brandreth
that he should not have shot an innocent man. Brandreth re
plied ' that it was his duty to do it, and he would do it, and if

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 225
witness said anything more about it he would blow his brains
out,' The arms were then given up. Thence they went on
to Pentridge End, where they were joined by other of the
prisoners all armed, taking men and arms out where they could
find them. Before, however, they got there Brandreth formed
them into ranks, and called on any who had been trained to
help to form them, the guns in front, and the pike-men in the
rear. At Pentridge other houses were attacked, and a pony
taken from a Mr. Booth. The next place visited was the
Butterby Iron Works. Mr. Goodwin, the manager, came out
and said something, he did not know what, after which Bran
dreth again gave the order to march, and when we got to
Ripley town End to halt and give three huzzas. The next
place reached was Codnor, where we stopped at the Glass
House public-house, knocked the people up, and bid them bring
ale for the whole party, some sixty in number. The landlord
was ordered to make out his bill, amounting to 28J., and
Brandreth told him not to fear about payment, he would see he
was paid. As they marched from thence to Langley Mill
George Weightman, who had been sent to Nottingham on Mr.
Booth's pony, returned. Brandreth and others surrounded him,
and asked him the news from Nottingham. He said, ' They
were doing very well there ; the soldiers would not come out of
their barracks, that they were to march on ;' they did march on ;
witness went two or three miles, where some of the party
dropped off, and he quitted them, the rest marched on towards
Nottingham." The story of this somewhat unwilling accomplice,
who apparently had no previous knowledge of the
intended rising before he was summoned to join it,
was fully confirmed. Elijah Hall gave further
details of the attack on his house and of the violence
offered to him by the captain after the door was
opened, and of the rioters bringing down his son from
his bedroom only partly dressed and forcing him to
go with them. His son spoke to the sad scene
at Mrs. Hepworth's, and the attacks on other houses
VOL. II. Q

226 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
in search of arms. Mrs. Hepworth described the
murder of her unoffending servant, who died within a
few minutes after receiving the fatal wound. Shipman,
besides describing the attack on the house of his
master, Mr. Fletcher, and his being forced to accom
pany the rioters, was present when the pony was
stolen from Mr. Booth's, George Weightman sent on
it towards Nottingham, and when he returned with the
news that all was going on well there. Henry Hole,
who was also forced to join company, gave a more
detailed version of Weightman's intelligence. " All
is right, my lads," he reported Weightman as saying ;
" you have nothing to do but to march on. They have
bombarded Nottingham at two this morning, and it
is given up to them." He also swore to a statement
of Barnes, also a prisoner, as they were marching to
the town, that "they had a fresh Government in
Nottingham and were going thither to defend it, that
it would soon be all over, for by a letter he saw
yesterday, the keys of the Tower would be given up
to the Hampden Club party, if they were not already."
This witness tried several times to leave the party.
Once, when he stood at some distance from the ranks,
Brandreth ordered him back, and when he stoutly
refused threatened to shoot him, when the witness,
holding the long paring-knife, with which they had
armed him, over Brandreth's neck, declared he would
kill him, if hindered from leaving, and then turned off.
He had gone barely some fifty yards when he heard
a cry of " Don't shoot," and turning saw Bran
dreth aiming his gun at him, and Thomas Turner
take hold of the captain and turn the gun off. Booth

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 227
heard the order given to Weightman to ride on his
pony to the house in Nottingham forest, and to
bring the tidings back to the rioters at Langley Mill.
Mr. Goodwin, the manager of the Iron Works, spoke
to his men having been sworn in as special constables,
in consequence of the rumours that an atttack was to
be made on them and their men forced out — to about
100 of the rioters coming there, armed with guns and
pikes, marching like soldiers in close order, with
Brandreth at their head — to their demanding his men,
— to his telling them to disperse, " Depend upon it
the law will be too strong for you, you will be all
hanged," — to his kindly endeavours to persuade
Isaac Ludlow the elder to come into the factory and
leave them,— to his replying, " I am as bad as I
can be, I cannot go back, I must go on," and to the
rioters then being ordered to march by Brandreth.
This witness also spoke to seeing William Weight-
man riding by, and when remonstrated with, admitting
that he was going to join the rioters, and that when
witness tried to stop his horse, he saw that Weight-
man had a bag of bullets, which, after some resistance,
Weightman surrendered, when it was found to con
tain eighty-four pounds' weight of bullets, and an
instrument for making cartridges. By this, and the
preceding witnesses all the prisoners were identified
as being with the captain, variously armed, and
taking more or less active parts in the attacks on the
various houses, and the attempt at the Butterby
Works. By several of them, also, other seditious
threats and speeches were reported as being made by
different prisoners. Q 2

228 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Thus far the evidence was complete as to the
preparations for the rising, the incitement held out
by the leaders to their followers, the attacks on the
houses in search of arms and men, the atrocious
murder committed by Brandreth, the march of
the gradually increasing body of rioters towards
Nottingham, and their equally gradual diminution
after the failure at the Iron Works. One more inci
dent had to be proved. Brandreth, at the meeting
on the Sunday, and at subsequent times had assured
his dupes that they would be joined by thousands
in Nottingham forest, and during the march had sent
Weightman thither to report how matters stood. To
prove this fact, so important in showing that this
conspiracy had wide ramifications, and was not any
suddenly excited riot, a Mr. Roper, who lived in the
stand on the race-course in the middle of the forest,
was called.
" On Monday night, the 9th of June," said this witness, " on
going home to my house about half-past eleven, I met a great
many persons on the way, and was stopped at the entrance to
the race-course by a man who asked where I was going. We (a
man of the name of Perceval was with him) told him we were
going home, and he said we must not go on that way ; that in
duced me to stop a while, and afterwards, in going home, I
met about a hundred men, they were standing in line two deep.
They had some of them pikes, others poles resembling pikes, I
think this was a little before twelve at night. We passed them,
and about ten of them, with pikes, followed us, and as we were
turning off the race-course they stopped us, they brought their
pikes down to the charge, to charge upon us. I afterwards
passed on to my house with Perceval, and afterwards, when
I came out again, saw about the same number of men, stand
ing in line, under a shed or piazza, and they left my house
about two o'clock. When they went away they left a pole

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 229
behind them, but there was nothing at the end of it. I was in
the house when they were in the shed. They knocked at my
door, and demanded fire-arms. I owned I had some, and they
told me I must deliver them up to them. I told them I would
not. They told me if I would not, they would be under the
necessity of breaking open the door, and taking them by force.
I told them that if they did so, I would blow out the brains of
the first man that entered. ' Will you ? ' they replied, and I said,
' Yes.' A man called for the fire-arms to come forward, and I
heard a bustle on the flagstones or under the piazza, and ex
pected they were coming. The piazzas are before my house ;
they made no attempt on my door, but came forward and asked
me how many fire-arms I had. I told them two, a rifle and a
fusee. They asked me to give them to them, and when I
said ' No,' they asked me to sell them. I refused." s
The cross-examination of this witness by Denman
was limited to the inquiry whether at the public-
house where he had been before starting for home
" there was a man of the name of Oliver," and on his
replying, " Not that I know of," the witness was
asked if he knew a person of that name, which he
denied. This was the only attempt during the trial
3 An attempt was made by the counsel for the prisoners to
exclude the statements made by the persons assembled in the
forest, whilst admitting that their acts could legally be given in
evidence against the prisoner. " When," said the Chief Baron,
" it is admitted that the facts done by these persons in Not
tingham forest are to be admitted as evidence, I cannot con
ceive how it is possible to separate the declarations, and the
words of the persons who transacted those acts, for they are
part of the transactions, and they serve to show the object of
these transactions ; but I think it is evidence on a different
principle quite, that the prisoner has identified himself with
those persons, and that he and they are as much a part of
the same body as he and the persons immediately accompany
ing him." As all the judges concurred, the objection was
overruled.

230 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
to bring forward the Government spy, who was
accused of having incited the sedition.
Early on the Tuesday morning, Mr. Rolleston, an
active magistrate, in consequence of the agitated
state in which he had found the town of Nottingham
on the previous night, started on his horse to recon
noitre. He found the people much alarmed, and
when he got to the village of Eastwood, about six
miles from Nottingham, met a large body of men
armed with pikes. Riding back to the town, he
procured a small party of eighteen men and two
officers of the 15th Hussars, and returned towards
Eastwood. He then learned that the rioters had
dispersed. Following them with his party, he found
a quantity of guns and pikes scattered along the
road. He continued his pursuit till within half a
mile of Eastwood, and then with one dragoon turned
off after a party of thirty or forty which he observed,
who were dispersing and throwing away their arms,
and secured two or three of them. He then returned
towards Eastwood, and at Langley Mill came up with
the main body of the rioters, who were all dispersing
and being pursued by the people, thirty of them being
caught and brought into Nottingham. Brandreth at
that time had escaped, how, when, and where he was
taken was not proved on his trial. With the con
firmatory evidence of Captain Phillips, who was in
command of the party of hussars, the case for the
prosecution was closed.
As the only evidence offered for the prisoner was
proof of his having received relief from his parish, and no
serious attempt had been made by cross-examination to

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 231
invalidate the evidence of the witnesses (though severe
remarks were made on the conduct of the constables),
the real defence attempted was that it was an aggra
vated riot, and not such a levying of war as in law
amounted to high treason. Such a line of defence,
though supported by the dicta of former judges and
legal authorities, and urged with all the ability of such
able counsel as Serjeant Cross and Mr. Denman, met
with but little favour from the Court.
" If," said the Lord Chief Baron, " there be an insurrection, a
large rising of the people, in order by force and violence not to
accomplish or avenge any private object of their own, not any
private quarrels of their own, but to effectuate any general pur
pose, that is considered by the law as a levying of war ; that there
was an insurrection here is quite clear, that there was a great
body of people collected and collecting together is quite clear ;
that they expected a great number of persons with whom they
stated themselves to be in conspiracy is equally clear ; that they
said there were men to meet them in Nottingham forest, and
that there were men to meet them there according to their
declaration is quite clear ; that they came armed, that they
came in military array, that they forced open houses, that they
obliged people to give them arms, that they declared, from
time to time, what their purpose was, and that they committed
the outrages you have heard described ; all these facts are in
disputable. Now, gentlemen, the insurrection is not to be
to accomplish any private objects or quarrels of their own.
Was this insurrection calculated to accomplish or avenge any
private objects of their own, or any private quarrels of their
own, or was it to effectuate a general public purpose ? Was it
to alter the laws, to reform the Government, or to bring about
a revolution — aye or no is no question. That these people
were in a low situation of life is no excuse at all. If they were
in distress, of which there is no evidence, that can be no excuse
if they intended to overturn the Government. If there was no
great prospect of success that is no excuse, for it is not less a
crime because the design is not likely to be completed in the

232 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
way in which they desire it. The question is, whether this
insurrection was intended by force and violence to effectuate
any general purpose."
Thus clearly directed by the judge, and with the
evidence before them (entirely uncontradicted) of the
design of the insurrection as stated by Brandreth and
the other leaders, the jury could not hesitate as to
their verdict. After a decorous consideration of less
than half an hour, Brandreth was found guilty, and
on subsequent trials, Turner, Ludlow, and Weight-
man shared the same fate. In the cases of Turner
and Ludlow, after a repetition of so much of the
same evidence as bore on their respective cases, the
same defence as in Brandreth's case was attempted.
When, however, Weightman was tried, no defence was
attempted. An appeal for mercy had the desired
effect of obtaining from the jury such a recom
mendation that his life was eventually spared. To
his comrades no mercy was shown, and on the 7th
of November they suffered the extreme penalty of
the law. Any further resistance was useless. Of the
other prisoners twenty withdrew their pleas of Not
Guilty. Satisfied with this result, and considering
the youthfulness of many of the remaining prisoners,
the Crown offered no evidence against them,- and the
trials came to an end. On seventeen, the sentence of
death was pronounced, commuted, with the exception
of the three leaders, into transportation for various
terms of years, and in the cases of four, a sentence of
imprisonment for periods from two years to six
months was deemed sufficient.
The shifts and inconsistencies to which counsel for

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 233
prisoners are so often driven in the defence of their
clients received a marked illustration in the speeches
of Denman for Turner and Ludlow, as contrasted
with that for the Nottingham captain. In defending
the leader of the insurrection, the line taken was to
ridicule the idea of a mere uneducated, starving
pauper conceiving such a scheme, and to use his
miserable position as an argument in favour of the
affair being a mere aggravated riot. When, however,
he had to defend the captain's lieutenant, Turner —
the old soldier — a totally different character was
assigned to Brandreth. He was now a second Napo
leon. " Gentlemen," said Denman to the jury, "you
were present in Court during his trial, and when
he received his verdict of guilty — I will ask you
whether you ever saw a more extraordinary man, a
man more evidently gifted by nature with the talent
of swaying the minds of the common people by a sort
of instructive influence, which even in his humble
station there is no resisting — the influence of great
courage, of uncommmon decision, of unrelenting
firmness — the influence of an eye like no eye that I
ever beheld before, of a countenance and figure
formed for activity, enterprise, and command. — Like
the captain of a band of pirates, or a troop of ban
ditti, he was obviously one of those persons who
have in all ages exercised undisputed control over
people in their condition, and to whose natural
superiority their moral and physical forces have ever
yielded implicit homage. — It is not wonderful that
they had not the strength of mind to question his
authority." When he came to the defence of the

234 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
third prisoner, Ludlow, he cited Byron's well-known
description of the Corsair as a portrait ofthe Notting
ham captain, " as accurate, as powerful, as if the first
of painters had seen him in his hour of exertion and
then hit off his likeness." Dupes or not dupes, Turner
and Ludlow had so evidently been for too long a period
engaged in making preparations for the insurrection,
for such an argument to prevail in their favour.
Another remark of Denman's, savouring of the old
instruction, " No case, abuse the plaintiff's attorney,"
was in such bad taste and so utterly worthless as to
be unworthy of so able a counsel. He more than
insinuated that Serjeant Copley had been brought
down specially by the Crown, to form one of the
troop of counsel for the prosecution, not for the sake
of the assistance he could give, but solely to prevent
the elrjquenfr-and successful advocate of Watson from
exercising his great abilities for the prisoners. True
or not true, it was a petty attempt to raise a prejudice
in a case in which it was impossible to controvert the
facts. We cite these incidents not as reflecting
personally on one so justly respected as the late Lord
Denman, but to show the difficulties and the temp
tations to which the best of counsel may be subjected
in the discharge of their arduous duties. Though he
necessarily failed in his defence, the spirit and ability
of his speeches attracted the attention of the Bench,
the Bar, and the public, and marked him as a rising
maq.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 235

THE REIGN OF GEORGE IV.— 1820 TO 1830.
CHAPTER VII.
HISTORICAL SUMMARY.
Serious illness of the King on his accession— The Cato Street
Conspiracy — Negotiations with the Queen— Her sudden ar
rival in England and popular reception — The Green Bag and
the Bill of Pains and Penalties— Trials of Hunt and others
for the Manchester riot — Sir C. Wolseley and Harrison, and
Sir F. Burdett for seditious speeches — Canning's refusal to
agree to criminal proceedings against the Queen, and tender of
his resignation to the King — Ordered to remain, and retirement
to the Continent until the close of the trial— The Queen's
Trial— The Bill of Pains and Penalties withdrawn after third
reading— Resignation of Canning— The Royal Visit to Ireland
— Illness and death of the Queen — Union of the Grenville
party with the Cabinet — Nomination of Canning as Governor-
General of India — Suicide of Lord Londonderry, and appoint
ment of Canning as Minister for Foreign Affairs— His foreign
policy — Recognition of the South American Republics — Ex
pedition to Portugal— Marquis Wellesley as Irish Viceroy-
Dissatisfaction at his conduct and policy — The Bottle Con
spiracy, and failure of the prosecution— Debates in Parlia
ment on the conduct of Plunkett as Attorney-General —
Canning's resolution prohibiting the use of the lash in the
West Indian Colonies — Condition of the Colonists — The slave
rising in Demerara — Trial of Smith the Missionary — Speech
of the Duke of York against Catholic emancipation — 111-

236 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
ness and resignation of Lord Liverpool — Canning Premier —
Secession of the Duke of Wellington, Peel, and others— The
treaty for securing the independence of Greece — Death of
Canning — The five months' ministry of Lord Goderich — The
Duke of Clarence as Lord High Admiral— The Duke of
Wellington's first Cabinet— Repeal of the Sacramental Test-
Proposal to transfer to Birmingham the member for East Ret
ford — Vote and resignation of Huskisson and the friends of
Canning — Spread of agitation for emancipation in Ireland — '
Election of O'Connell for Clare— Danger of civil war, and
determination of the Duke of Wellington and Peel to settle
the Catholic question — Extraordinary conduct of the King—
The Catholic Relief Bill carried — Speech of the Duke of Wel
lington — Increasing illness and death of the King.
AT his accession the new king was so seriously ill
that he was not only unable to take his proper place at
the funeral of his father, but his death was regarded
as more than probable. Thanks, however, to the
extraordinary strength of his constitution, and the
devoted attention of Knighton,1 who was as careful
1 Sir W. Knighton, who had accompanied Marquis Wellesley
to Spain, as his medical attendant in 1809, was, on the marquis'
recommendation, soon after appointed one of the physicians to
the Regent. As executor of Sir J. MacMahon, the Regent's
private secretary, he found among his friend's papers private
ones of great interest and importance to the Regent, which he
carried to the prince. In consequence, in 181 8, he was made
auditor of the Duchy of Cornwall, and from 1820 was in the
private confidence of the prince, who from that time constantly
sent for him, and acted on his advice. In 1 820 he was in close
attendance on the king during his illness at his accession, and
went with him to Hanover the next year. In 1822 he succeeded
Blomfield as privy purse and private secretary, and found the
king's pecuniary affairs in a deplorable condition. His remon
strance with the king, for a few days caused great displeasure, but
the king soon realized the wisdom of his advice, and the honesty
of his purpose, and recalled him in a letter (July 11, 1822), in

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 237

of his body as of his purse and his secrets, he struggled
through, and the old reports revived of an impending
change of ministers. On the 30th of January Parlia
ment met, and after the formalities of swearing-in
members had been completed, on the 17th of Feb
ruary received a brief message recommending them
to provide for the claims of the public service during
the period that must necessarily elapse before the
new Parliament could be summoned. These duties
were soon performed, and Parliament was prorogued
and dissolved at the end of the month. In that brief
period the public had been startled with the dis
covery of the Cato Street Conspiracy — atrocious and
sanguinary in its purpose, a'nd, as all previous plots,
carried out by persons, with one exception, of the
lowest class. The party politician might satirize it
as " the little plot in the hay-loft ; " but, had it only
partially succeeded, it is impossible to doubt that the
occasion would have been seized for riots of a most
mischievous, if not dangerous character, not only in
the metropolis, but in the still disaffected manufac
turing districts. How it was concocted, and why
which he expressed his regret at the unjust and hasty ex
pressions he had used. From that time till the king's death,
Knighton worked incessantly and Successfully to retrieve
money-matters, and to arrange the many doubtful difficul
ties into which, as prince and regent, the king had got en
tangled. Hardly a year passed without his going abroad on
some private mission connected with the Dutch loans obtained
on the joint bonds of the prince and his brothers, York and
Clarence, and the inheritance of this king's nephew — the eccen
tric Duke of Brunswick — to whom he was guardian. He was a
most faithful, honest, and hard-working servant.

238 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
it failed, is to be related hereafter.2 Suffice it now to
state that by it was intended the murder of the Cabinet,
and that the success of this atrocious outrage was to
be the signal for all the bad spirits to lead the un
employed into riots which could not have been quelled
without pitiable bloodshed. As it had failed it only
served as an argument in favour of the severe laws
that had been passed at the close of the Regency, by
those who would, or could not, see that to this exces
sive severity of recent legislation was due much of
that widespread disaffection of which it was intended
by the conspirators to take advantage. The political
excitement during this year was increased by the
trials of Hunt and his companions for the Manchester
meeting, and Sir C. Wolseley and Harrison, and Sir
Francis Burdett for seditious speeches.3
Another, matter of far more interest to the king
pressed for some decision. While he was living in
selfish retirement * with her who now exercised over
2 See the trial of Thistlewood and others for the Cato Street
Conspiracy, Chapter ix.,posl.
3 See reports of those trials, Chapter viii., post.
* The king never shows himself. Has never been out of
Carlton House. Lady Conyngham goes to him of an evening,
and he has his usual dinners with Sir Carneby Haggerston,
Forester, and two or three others of this description. His
language is only about the coronation and Lady C  , very
little of the state of the country. — Freemantle to Marquis
Buckingham, May 8. The king grows more unpopular daily,
and is the only individual in the kingdom who is insensible to
it. He sees Lady C  daily, and had a party of his family at
dinner this week, she the only exception. — July 29. The
king has been (at the cottage in Windsor Park) for the last fort
night in the greatest retirement, his party consisting of very

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 239
him that female influence to which he so readily sub
mitted, his queen was abroad, hunted by spies, and
coldly treated by obsequious foreign governments,
and his wife had, to her honour, severed all intercourse
with him, and was living in decorous retirement.
More money and a divorce was again his cry. His
ministers resisted him firmly. The present state of
the country, and the distresses of the working classes
forbade the one ; his own conduct made the other im
possible. Ministers had persuaded themselves that
a compromise might be effected, by which the queen,
retaining her proper position so long as she remained
abroad, might be induced to accept a liberal main
tenance, and the discredit of the revelations of the
Green Bag might be avoided. They were content so
far to please the king as to agree to her not being
crowned, and not prayed for in the Liturgy, and even
her most sincere friend, Mr. Canning, agreed to these
terms, if all idea of a penal process was not in
contemplation. After a feeble resistance the king
yielded, on the understanding that the Cabinet would
support and justify the omission of his consort's name
from the Liturgy, an act of spite on which his mind
was set.
few, the principal object of course Lady C  . They ride every
day, or go to the water jn a barouche. The king and her
together separated from the rest, and in the evening sitting
alone apart. The secrecy that is preserved as to their pursuits
is beyond all idea. No servant is permitted to say who is
here ; no one of the party calls on anybody, or goes near
Windsor ; and when they ride, a groom is in advance ordering
everybody to retire for the king is coming. — Aug. 11, Duke
of Buckingham's " George IV."

240 NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS.
For a short time matters went on quietly in
England ; the king occupying his time in sketching
processions, and devising dresses for his coronation,
and his ministers in preparing for the opening of the
new Parliament. The king even acquired a brief
popularity by his proposal to place the disposal of
his hereditary revenues in the hands of Parliament,
and his statement that he did not wish to add to the
burdens of his people by any increase on the allow
ances to the Crown settled in 1816. The appearance
was only deceptive, and as the rumour arose that
"the queen was coming," every one felt that the
country was on the eve of a political crisis.
The news of George III.'s death reached the queen
at Leghorn. She moved at once to Rome, where
a guard of honour was refused her, and there, early
in March, she heard that her name had been struck
out of the Liturgy. After remonstrating with Lord
Liverpool she travelled to Geneva, where she arrived
on the 15th of May, and, on Brougham failing to meet
her there, hurried on to St. Omer. Then followed
the renewed attempt and failure of the negotiation
for a compromise, the sudden flight to Calais, her
embarkation on the packet-boat, and her arrival and
enthusiastic reception at Dover on the 6th of June,
her strange progress through London, and assumption
of a position which compelled defiance or submission
on the part of the king and his advisers. This is not
the place for the detail of the negotiations that fol
lowed, or of the extraordinary scenes to which the
metropolis was witness, in the noisy devotion of the
people to her cause. The king is hardly to be

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 241
blamed for his action, except on the score of policy.
The queen had thrown down the glove, and he could
hardly, as king, refuse to accept the proffered chal
lenge. The Green Bag was sent to Parliament, its
disgusting details were referred to a select committee
of the Lords, and on their report that the evidence
against the queen was such as to require a solemn
inquiry, which would best be effected by legislation,
the Bill of Pains of Penalties was introduced. By it
her Majesty was " deprived of all her rights as queen
consort, and the marriage was dissolved." To this
step Canning so strongly objected that he personally
tendered his resignation to the king, who, we are
assured, "expressed his strong sense of the manly
proceeding of his minister, and his especial satisfac
tion at his having come at once to him with this
communication, instead of conveying it through a
third person. He acquiesced, with perfect cordiality
and good humour, in the adoption of the line of pro
ceeding which Canning had announced with respect
to the queen's affairs, and said it was what he ex
pected ; but plainly intimated, at the same time, that
Canning had not told all his reasons for declining to
take a share in the proceedings against her." On
the question of his retirement from the Cabinet, the
king took a day to consider ; but at parting " assured
him of his entire approval of his conduct, and that
whatever might be his decision as to retirement or
not, he should never cease to feel the sincerest regard
for him." He further said, that, " if ever he should
hear (as probably he might) reflections thrown out
against him for stopping short, after having gone so
VOL. II. R

242 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
far, he should uniformly declare that Mr. Canning
had acted in the most manly, honourable, and
gentlemanly manner." Next day Canning was in
formed that "he must remain, and follow what course he
pleased as to the queen, and further might assign the
king's pleasure as the reason for his remaining." Not
withstanding these professions there is no doubt that
the king felt Canning's desertion bitterly, and from
that time entertained a grudge against him. Can
ning, having failed to persuade the Premier to with
draw the bill, prophesying defeat in consequence of
the divorce clause, went abroad until the case was
over. On the 17th of August the bill came on for its
second reading, and the queen's trial began. During
nineteen days the witnesses against the queen de
tailed their accusations, and, after those had been
summed up, the House adjourned the inquiry until
the 3rd of October, to enable the queen's counsel to
prepare for the defence. From the 4th to the 24th
of that month the examination of the witnesses for
the defence continued, and at length, after the con
clusion of the arguments of counsel, the Peers, on the
2nd of November, commenced their debates, and
after five nights of discussion affirmed the second
reading by a majority of 123 against 95. Even this
majority was considered by many of the friends of
the Cabinet as too meagre to ensure the passage ofthe
bill through the House of Commons. There was
yet, however, a greater difficulty in the divorce clause,
and on the advice of Canning the Cabinet proposed
to strike it out. The queen's friends saw their advan-

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 243
tage, and successfully retained it, with the inevitable
result that, on the third reading, the majority fell to
nine, and the bill was abandoned. The king was
defeated, and the ministry disgraced, but still the
queen's victory was far from satisfactory. There was
much truth in the Duke of Wellington's assertion
that the withdrawal of the bill was solely on the
ground of expediency, and had nothing to do with
the verdict.5 So far as the Peers could, they affirmed
her guilt on the second reading.
Though the public feeling in the queen's favour
was still as loudly displayed as ever when she went
to St. Paul's to return thanks for her deliverance from
great peril and affliction, her popularity steadily
waned. And when, after a show of refusing any
allowance if her name was still excluded from public
prayer, she accepted the grant, it fell as rapidly as it
had risen. The people began to occupy themselves
about parliamentary reform, which had been tem
porarily forgotten, and " her way of life and her final
fate became objects more of curiosity than interest."
Speeches in abundance were made about her and her
claims in the session of 1821, but without any prac
tical results ; her right to be crowned was stoutly but
fruitlessly fought for by her legal advisers, but about
the questions raised few but her own immediate par
tisans felt any interest. Her ill-advised attempt to
enter the abbey and take her place at the gorgeous
coronation ceremony, ending in an ignominious re
pulse, only added to her humiliation, and when, with
in a month after she died, the scene at her funeral
6 " Phimer Ward's Diary," ii. 93.
R 2

244 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
was due rather to the foolish tactics of the king's
advisers than to any real revival of the public feeling
by which she had been welcomed on her arrival, and
supported during her trial.
So long as the proceedings against the queen were
confined to the Bill of Pains and Penalties, Canning
was content to remain abroad, and yet act as a
minister. When, however, on the withdrawal of the
bill, the future discussion was certain to be so inter
mixed with the business of the session that he could
not absent himself without appearing virtually to
abandon his parliamentary duties, he resigned. " To
be present, as a minister," he wrote the king, " taking
no part in them, would not only produce embarrass
ment to himself and perplexity to his colleagues, but
the utmost disadvantage to the conduct of affairs."
His retirement was received with regret, but not
with surprise.
The intelligence of the queen's illness reached
the king on board his yacht at sea, on his way
to Ireland, whither he had started on the 31st of
July. According to the faithful Knighton the king
arranged with Lord Sidmouth to land quietly at
Dunleary, and wait there the recovery or death of
his consort. The news of her death rapidly fol
lowed, and on the 12th of August he arrived in
Dublin, and remained in seclusion at the Phoenix
Park until the body had been removed to Harwich.6
6 Freemantle gives an amusing account of the voyage to, and
the life in, Ireland. " The passage to Dublin was occupied in
eating goose pie and drinking whisky, of which all partook
most abundantly, singing many joyous songs, and being in a

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 245
When he did appear in public his reception was
hearty and loyal. The Irish could fully appreciate
his jovial habits, and were captivated by the graceful
manners which he could so readily assume. " No
man," wrote Lord Dudley, " knows better how to
add to an obligation by the way of conferring it.
But on the whole he wants dignity, not only in the
seclusion and familiarity of his private life, but on
public occasions. He seems to have behaved, not
like a sovereign coming in pomp and state to visit a
part of his dominions, but, like a popular candidate,
come down on an electioneering trip. Henry IV. is
a dangerous example for sovereigns who are not,
like him, splendid chevaliers and consummate cap
tains. Louis XIV., who was never seen even by his
valet but in a full-bottomed wig, is a much safer
state, on his arrival to double in sight even the members of
his gracious subjects assembled on the pier to receive him.
The fact was, they were in the last stage of intoxication. How
ever, they got him to the park. Lady C  has been almost
constantly at the park, but has not appeared much in public."
— Aug. 26. " She lived exclusively with him during the whole
time he was in Ireland. When he went to Slane Castle she
received him dressed out as for a drawing-room. He saluted
her, and they retired alone to her apartments." — Sept. 16. If
he was not deceiving Lady Harcourt, whom he met on his
way home from Ireland, Lady Conyngham's influence was
exercised for the best of purposes. On meeting them " he got
out and sat in the road talking to them about his perilous
adventures and reception in Ireland. Lady Harcourt told me
his pious acknowledgment for his great escape from shipwreck
was quite edifying, and the very great change in his moral
habits and religious feelings was quite astonishing, and all
owing to Lady C  ." Sept. 21.— Duke of Buckingham's
" George IV."

246 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
model." Whilst he was in Ireland the Catholics were
received by the king with studious courtesy, as well in
the royal closet as in public, and when he left, after his
short visit, their hopes v/ere raised by the courtesy
which they misunderstood, that his bitter opposition
to their claims was sensibly lessened, if not entirely
dissipated. Towards the close of 1821 the negotiations for the
accession of the Grenville party, which had been
revived before the coronation, on the death of Lady
Liverpool, and the expected resignation of Lord
Sidmouth, were again renewed. As early as June
Lady Conyngham had been intriguing to bring in
the opposition, the ladies of whose leaders were
assiduously courting "the female influence." It was
not, however, until November that the Duke of
Wellington, in whose hands the matter seems to
have rested, saw his way to any such arrangement,
and even then the offer was far beneath the anticipa
tions of that family party. The Marquis of Bucking
ham, who dearly wished for office, and yearned for
the Viceroyship of Ireland, was to be content
with a dukedom ; one of the party, C. Wynn, was
to be admitted to the Cabinet ; Wellesley, with Goul-
burn for his Secretary, as a set-off on one side, and
Plunkett as his Attorney-General on the other, was
to go to Ireland ; two of the dependents, Freemantle
and Phillimore, were to have seats on some one or
other of the principal boards, and a diplomatic place
was to be made for Henry Wynn in Switzerland.7
7 The Marquis of Buckingham was made a duke, with re
mainder of the earldom of Temple to his granddaughter and

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 247
In this arrangement "the general opinions of all
parties on the question of Catholic emancipation
were to remain unaltered, but the course of govern
ment was to be regulated by practical considerations
(in the present condition of the country) in which
persons of different sentiments might cordially con
cur." "An impartial, equitable, and mild adminis
tration of the law," wrote Wellesley to his ally, the
marquis, " of which the alteration cannot be effected or
attempted by the Lord Lieutenant, is the only safe
course which can now be pursued, and the only
channel through which we can ever reach a happy
and permanent settlement." 8 It required a statesman
of a far different character to the imperious Wellesley
to carry out these good intentions. He never could
forget his Indian career, and was too fond of narrating
his victories over Indian cabals and anticipating the
same success in Ireland by the same means.
Canning was still out of office, though Lord Liver
pool, on the proposal of Lord Sidmouth to retire,
had suggested his return now that all questions
about the queen had been settled. It is said, and
her heirs male. Charles Wynn went to the Board of Trade,
with Freemantle and Phillimore as junior members ; Henry
Wynn to the Swiss Cantons as a full ambassador, which was
severely attacked, on the ground that the post only required an
inferior and less highly paid diplomatist, and Peel became
Home Secretary. Phillimore, probably calculating on a brief
tenure of office, bargained to be allowed to continue his practice
at the bar, and not to be made a privy councillor. He tried to
secure the reversion of Lord StoweU's place as Judge of the
Admiralty Court, but failed.
8 Wellesley to Marquis Buckingham, Dec. 3, 1821.

248 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
probably with truth, that the resistance of the king
was such that Lord Liverpool threatened resignation,
and the difficulty was, for the time, tided over by the
king expressing his wish that Lord Sidmouth should
remain for the present, and accompany him to Ire
land. Twice, whilst out of office, Canning had renewed
his exertions in favour of Catholic emancipation, and
though successful in the Commons, suffered the usual
defeat in the Upper House. He was far too popular
a man, and too eloquent a speaker not to be a source
of fear so long as he was out of office. When, there
fore, Lord Hastings intimated his desire to resign the
Governor- Generalship of India, the post was gladly
offered to him, and not unwillingly accepted. For
this office he was admirably fitted by his five years'
experience at the Board of Control, and opponents
and friends alike looked forward to the appointment
as a fortunate one for the country he was called 'on
to govern. Unfortunately for his peace of mind and
his life, it was not to be. Official delays protracted
the resignation of Lord Hastings so long that, on the
suicide of Lord Londonderry, the king was com
pelled to accept Canning as that ill-fated nobleman's
successor, and to break the vow which he is said to
have confessed to have made, never to admit him
again to his counsels.9
9 The intelligence of Lord Londonderry's death reached the
king in Scotland, whence he wrote requiring Lord Liverpool not
to make any arrangements as to his successor until the king's
return to London, and at the same time not to interrupt the

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 249
On the accession of Canning a complete change
was effected in the foreign policy of our Government.
By his instructions to the Duke of Wellington, as our
representative at the Congress of Verona, he separated
England from the designs of the Holy Alliance,
peremptorily refusing to countenance the invasion of
Spain by France, to enable Ferdinand to set aside
the constitution, and make himself absolute king ;
by his gradual but firm conduct in recognizing the
South American republics as independent states,
without violating any principle, he asserted the policy
of pursuing our own interests without giving any fresh
cause of offence to other powers.1 Though essen-
proposed arrangement for Canning going to India. — Lord
Dudley's Letters, p. 351. On his return to town the king had
several angry discussions with the Cabinet, and did not consent
to Canning being invited until pressed by the Duke of Wel
lington. In his letter to Lord Liverpool, of Sept. 8, 1822, he used
the expression, " The king is aware that the highest ornament
of the Crown is the power of extending grace and favour to a
subject who may have incurred his displeasure." Canning was
so irritated at these words that he wrote a letter refusing, but
was persuaded by Charles Ellis and Lord Grenville not to send
it ; and he wrote an acceptance, in which he ironically referred
to the obnoxious words. Mr. Grenville says that the cause of
the king's bitterness against Canning, was his making the king
pay for the Milan Commission, for which Lord Liverpool had
promised to obtain a vote. The most probable reason was the
influence of foreign powers through Madame Lieven. The
opposition to Huskisson's entering the Cabinet was due to " the
female influence."
1 On the recognition of Buenos Ayres, July, 1824, the king
was so displeased that, at the instigation of Madame Lieven,
he wrote a long letter to the Cabinet in opposition to the recog
nition of the South American republics, to which he desired

250 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
tially a peace minister, he could strike, and strike
home when the occasion required. The separation
of our policy from that of the absolutist sovereigns of
Europe, despite the remonstrances of their ministers,
and the intrigues of their agents with the king, and the
acknowledgment of the South American republics
had been accomplished without even a threat of war.
When, however, at the close of 1826, Ferdinand of
Spain, now a despotic king, thanks to the French
invasion, threatened to send an army into Portugal,
to put down her constitutional government, Canning
acted with decision and promptitude. On the 1 2th
of December, on moving an answer to the king's
address to the House of the previous day, stating
the application of Portugal for assistance, he thus
briefly told the story of action. "The first intima
tion came from the Portuguese ambassador on the
3rd. Government desired precise information. It
was only received on Friday night. On Saturday
his Majesty's confidential servants came to a decision.
On Sunday that decision received his Majesty's
sanction. On Monday it was communicated to Par
liament, and this day, sir, at the hour in which I
have the honour of addressing you, the troops are on
their march for embarkation." " We go to plant the
standard of England on the well-known heights of
Lisbon. Where that standard is planted foreign
dominion shall not come." It was a bloodless
triumph. When our troops entered the Tagus the
separate replies from each member, in the hopes of creating
dissensions among them. The Cabinet sent a general reply,
which gave him cold comfort.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 251

Spanish army retired from the Portuguese frontier,
and the work had been done.
To return, however, to the natural course of our
summary. The government of Wellesley in Ireland
proved most unsatisfactory. The Catholics were dis
appointed when they discovered, that, in office it was
not intended to carry out the policy which Wellesley
and Plunket had so strenuously advocated when in
opposition, and the Protestants — especially the Orange
party — were annoyed at the prohibition of Orange
toasts at banquets, and the interference with the old
custom of decking King William's statue. His at
tempt to please both parties pleased neither, whilst
his haughty manners and secluded habits were far
from congenial to the feelings of Irish society. In
his dealings with agrarian outrages he was equally
unsuccessful ; delaying his application for sufficient
powers to repress them until the evil had obtained
such a dangerous magnitude, that, even when the power
was obtained, it failed to effect the desired object.
To add to the difficulty, a famine of unexampled
severity appeared, bringing starvation, disease, and
death in its train, and demanding not only a large
vote of money from Parliament, but far larger con
tributions from the charitable. When, after months
of bitter distress, the famine ceased, agrarian outrages
revived, and public feeling was intensely and dan
gerously excited. It was at this juncture that the
decking of the statue on College Green was pro
hibited, and a few days after, the insult given to the
Lord Lieutenant at the theatre by the so-called
Bottle Conspirators, in dealing with whom the

252 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Government got little credit, and the Lord Lieute
nant became the mark for abuse and ridicule.2
Notwithstanding all that England had done to
abolish the inhuman traffic in slaves, it was still openly
practised by some few states, and cruelly encouraged
by others, whilst our own efforts in its repression
were materially hindered by the existence of slavery
in our West Indian islands. In May, 1823, Fowell
Buxton, therefore, moved a resolution denouncing its
existence as repugnant to the principles of the con
stitution and the Christian religion, and affirming
" that it ought to be gradually abolished with such
expedition as might be found consistent with a due
regard to the welfare of the parties concerned."
To even so moderate a proposition as this Parliament
was not then prepared to assent. Ministers, how
ever, felt that some step towards eventual abolition
must be taken, and Canning, in consequence, moved
and carried unanimously a mitigated resolution. By
it the House declared that " decisive measures
should be taken for ameliorating the condition of the
slaves in our colonies, and, that, through such measures
Parliament looked forward to such a progressive
improvement in the character of the slave population
as might prepare them for a participation in civil
rights and privileges." Determined that this resolu
tion should not remain unfruitful, a circular was
issued by the Colonial Secretary forbidding, for the
future, the flogging of female slaves, and recommend
ing that the whip should no longer be carried into
2 The details of Wellesley's failure are fully given in the
introduction to the trial ofthe Bottle Conspirators, post.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 253
the field, and there displayed by the overseer as an
emblem of authority, or used by him as the instrument
of punishment to males. The West Indian interests
took alarm, and in many of the islands the local legis
latures passed votes of indignation. In Demerara
the assembly accepted the new code of punishment,
with this unfortunate result, that the negroes, persuaded
that the truth was concealed, and that emancipation
had in reality been decreed by Parliament, rose in
many parts of the island, and without bloodshed
imprisoned their owners. Martial law was at once
proclaimed, and after a short but painful struggle the
rising put down, nearly fifty slaves being executed,
and others cruelly tortured. Among those who were
accused and tried was a missionary of the name of
Smith, in whose trial and condemnation to death " a
series of errors, so gross as to mock belief, and oppres
sions unexampled in the dispensation of English
justice '' were committed. The governor of the island
refused to execute the sentence, and referred the
case to Government, by whom the sentence was re
scinded, or rather commuted to banishment from
Demerara. The poor victim, however, had died before
the decision was given, after many weeks of suffering
caused by the effect of a loathsome dungeon on a
weak constitution. When the case was discussed in
the House of Commons in 1824 Brougham warned
the slave-owners against trifling with the commands
of the parent state, and the voice of Wilberforce was
heard for the last time in support of the agitation to
which he had devoted his life.
It is impossible within the limits of our summary

254 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
to do more than allude to the financial panic of
1825, due to the insane mania for speculation in
South American mines and other projects, and the
failure of the county bankers to stand the withdrawal
of the balances, caused by the drain of bullion, on
which their credit had existed. Severe and wide
spread as the losses were, they worked great bene
fit, in the restriction of the future issues of county
bank-notes, the curtailment of the exclusive privi
leges of the Bank of England, and the subsequent
legalisation of joint-stqck banks in towns more than
sixty-five miles from London.
Catholic emancipation, though still to remain for a
short time an open question in the Cabinet, pressed
for solution. In 1825 the pro-Catholic section ofthe
Cabinet carried in the Commons a bill for the repeal
of these disabilities, for providing a state provision for
the priests, and abolishing the forty shilling freeholders.
The Duke of York took the lead in opposing the
measure. As heir-presumptive to the Crown of the
sickly king, his influence was naturally great. When,
therefore, he declared that in whatever position he
might be placed, and to whatever obloquy he might
be exposed, he could not change his opinions and
should act conformably to them,8 his words caused
an enormous sensation throughout the kingdom, and
no doubt contributed not only to increase the
majority with which the bill was thrown out in the
Hduse of Lords, but to prevent the question being
3 May, 1825. The speech of the Duke was printed in gold
letters, and circulated throughout the country by the anti-
Catholics.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 255
raised in the succeeding year. Whether the king
had prompted his brother's imprudent speech or not,
there is no doubt that he then agreed with it, and as
long as the Duke of York lived he exercised a great
influence over him on this and other political
questions. On the ist of January, 1827, the duke
died, and his brother of Clarence became the next
probable successor to the throne of the invalid.
Within about a month of the duke's death, the
Premier, from a fit of apoplexy, practically closed his
official life. It was not, however, until the 12th of
April that Canning succeeded to the position he had
won by his work as a minister and his eloquence as a
speaker, as the head of a Cabinet, sadly weakened by
the refusal of Wellington, Peel, and other less
valuable members of the late ministry to serve under
him." From that day he was worried to death by
attacks of the most bitter and personal character,
from the haughty and contemptuous violence of Lord
Grey and those family statesmen who looked on him
as an adventurer not of the blue blood of hereditary
Whig statesmen, to the small fry of politicians to
whom the great novelist gave the appropriate nick
name of the " Yelpers." During his brief tenure of
office, Canning saved Greece from the Turk. On the
ist of July, 1827, the treaty with France and Russia
was signed, and the first effective step taken for
4 On the resignation of the command of the army by the
Duke of Wellington the king wanted to take the post, Sir
Herbert Taylor acting as his secretary, and giving commands
in the king's name. " I will protest against it in the most
formal manner," said the Duke ; and the project fell through.

256 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
ensuring the independence of Greece. On the 30th
of July the illness, which had originated from a cold
caught at the Duke of York's funeral, had so wasted
him, that the king, who had of late given his cordial
support to his minister, sent his own physicians to
him. It was too late, the disease steadily increased,
and on the 8th of August he died. The regret at
his death was almost universal. When he was gone,
even his opponents felt how great was the loss which
the nation had experienced.
Of the mixed Government under Lord Goderich
that succeeded on Canning's death little need be said.
Though in the Cabinet, Lyndhurst, Peel, Huskisson,
and Lord Palmerston were included, there was no co
hesion between the different sections they represented,
and after five months this short-lived Government
came to an end. Only one event of moment occurred
during its brief tenure of office — the " untoward "
battle of Navarino. That it was to some extent
justified by the breach of faith on the part of Ibrahim
Pasha must be admitted. It is equally certain, how
ever, that the Russian admiral was only too glad to
urge Sir Edward Codrington to seize the occasion of
destroying the fleets of Turkey and Egypt, and thus
effectually reducing the power of the Sultan to resist
the future attacks and encroachments of the Czar.5
6 The Duke of Clarence, who was made Lord High Admiral,
soon proved his incompetence, and is said to have prompted
Sir Edward Codrington to attack the Turkish fleet. When con
tinued in his position under the Duke of Wellington's Cabinet,
he gave such offence to Sir G. Cockbum, one of the Lords of
the Admiralty, who in opposing his extravagant proposals, had
spoken plainly against them, and was told by the duke that it

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 257
On the resignation of Lord Goderich and his col
leagues the king, by the advice of Lord Lyndhurst,
sent for the Duke of Wellington. The new Cabinet,
he said, must contain persons holding both views
on Catholic emancipation — a Protestant Government,
and Catholic emancipation not a Cabinet question —
a Protestant Lord-Lieutenant, Chancellor, and Secre
tary for Ireland. He approved of all his late and
former servants, and gave the Duke a carte blanche,
except as to Lord Grey. The Cabinet was consti
tuted without delay, the majority of its members were
favourable to Catholic emancipation, and Lord Eldon,
to his intense disgust, was omitted. Though it was
evident from its constitution that the old exclusive
principles of former Governments were to be aban
doned by the new ministry, and that its most eminent
and efficient members, especially Peel, were fast sliding
into Liberal views, it was attacked with bitterness
by the opposition, and the appointment of a great
general at its head was denounced as unconsti-
was the duty of the Lords to advise and not dictate. The quarrel
got to such a height that the king had to write his broth er a lecture
(July 15, 1828), and the Duke had to be content with Sir George
simply expressing his regret at having offended him, whilst refusing
to withdraw his remonstrance, or to alter its language. When,
however, in the following month, the Duke joined the squadron of
SirH. Blackwood in the " Royal Sovereign "yacht, fly ing the flag
of Lord High Admiral without the royal orders, the king wrote to
him, " If the Lord High Admiral cannot make up his mind to
fill his station according to the laws of the country, it will be
quite impossible for the king to retain him in his present posi
tion." Do we not trace the Duke of Wellington's terse style in
these words ? The Duke of Clarence resigned. He was the
third and last Lord High Admiral since the Revolution.
VOL. II. S

258 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
tutional. The most clear sighted of the Liberal
party failed to recognize the administrative powers of
the Duke, upon whom they looked only as a suc
cessful general.
The liberality of the new Government was brought
to a. severe test without delay, when, in February,
Lord John Russell moved for a committee of the
whole House to consider the so-called Test and Corpo
ration Acts of Charles 1 1., by which the reception of
the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was made a pre
requisite to the holding of any civil or military office
or place of trust under the Crown. Though opposed
by all the influence of the Government, it was carried
by a substantial majority. , Ministers, however, did not
think themselves justified in abandoning the service of
the Crown in consequence of their defeat, and were
unwilling to commit the House of Lords to a conflict
with the Commons on such a question. A compro
mise was therefore proposed by Peel, by which a
declaration was substituted for the sacramental test,
and carried through both Houses with but little
opposition, both the archbishops and three of their
brethren of the episcopal bench speaking in its favour.
Lord Eldon was a true prophet when, in stoutly
opposing the measure, he said that " Sooner or later,
perhaps in this very year, certainly in the next, the
concessions to the Dissenters must be followed by
like concessions to the Catholics."
Yet another test of their Liberal views was forced
on the Government by the proposal to transfer to
Manchester and Birmingham the seats of the corrupt
and disfranchised boroughs of Penryn and East

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 259
Retford. Eventually the case resolved itself into the
transfer of that of East Retford. For this, in oppo
sition to his colleagues, Huskisson voted with the
minority. Though not intending to resign, as he
professed, he wrote to the Duke, offering him the
opportunity of placing the colonial secretaryship in
other hands, to prevent the appearance of disunion in
his Majesty's counsels. The Duke regarded it as an
actual resignation, and acted on it. Huskisson pro
tested that it was a mistake. " It is no mistake,"
said the Duke ; and Sir George Murray was appointed
in Huskisson's place. At once the friends of Can
ning, Lord Dudley, Lord Palmerston, Mr. Charles
Grant, and Mr. Lamb resigned, and were succeeded
by Lord Aberdeen, Sir Henry Hardinge, and Mr.
Vesey Fitzgerald. By the last appointment the crisis
was precipitated on the Catholic question. O'Connell
was elected for Clare in his place, thanks to the energy
of the Catholic association, and the agitation through
out Ireland which it had excited and matured.
O'Connell cleverly did not attempt to claim his seat
during the three weeks that elapsed between his elec
tion and the prorogation of Parliament. During that
period and the six months for which Parliament was
prorogued.he continued the agitation to which he owed
his victory. The result was, that when Parliament
met in January, 1829, the intention of the Govern
ment to attempt to adjust the claims of the Catholics
formed the most important item in the Royal speech.
The success of O'Connell and the dangerous con
dition of Ireland had determined the Duke and
Peel to face the difficulty of the Catholic question.
S 2

260 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
The opposition of the king, acting under the in
fluence of his brother of Cumberland and of his
"friend," as he always styled Lord Eldon, was
their greatest difficulty. At last on the 8th of
August, 1828, they obtained his permission to go
into the question, guarded, however, with the un
derstanding " that he pledged himself to nothing until
he was in possession of the plan." To Peel he wrote
that " his sentiments were those of his revered father,
and that from them he could not and never would
deviate." When it was proposed to send a sketch of
the Bill to the bishops, he agreed only on its being
done " under the authority of ministers, and not on
his own recommendation." According to Mr. Greville,
a most competent authority, the king was nearly mad
on the question. When, at the commencement of 1829,
a minute ofthe proposals was laid before him, he signed
it, " still without pledging himself to the adoption or
approval of the measures that might be proposed." He
professed to consider it as pledging him only to the
suppression of the Catholic association, the alteration
of the franchise, and such preliminary arrangements
relative to existing disabilities as might lead to a final
settlement of the question." When he heard that it was
intended to allow Catholics to hold judgeships and
sit in Parliament, the king professed to be surprised ;
he disputed with all his wonted obstinacy over
every word proposed to be inserted in his speech, and
was only induced to yield on the condition, that any
measureforthe removal ofthe disabilities should be pre
ceded by acts for suppressing the Catholic association
and other illegal assemblies. The Duke of Cumberland

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 261
came from Berlin, to help those who were intriguing
to stop the Bill, but his interference was defeated by
the decision of the Duke, who recommended him to
form another Government, and so end matters. At
the last interview between the premier and the king,
after five hours of discussion, in which the king
talked of abdicating, the Duke prevailed, and the
king professed himself " More satisfied with the Bill
than anything he had seen." For a time the difficulty
was surmounted and the speech agreed to.
Even when the speech had been made, and the Bill
was about to be brought in, the king still threw every
obstacle he could in the way, and it was not until
after the Cabinet had resigned and the king had
found that another Ministry was impracticable, that
he gave way and " yielded his opinion to that which
was considered by the Cabinet to be for the immediate
interest of the country." At length on the 5th of
March, the Catholic Relief Bill was introduced and
carried on the 30th by a majority of 178 votes. On
the 4th of April, on introducing the measure to the
House of Lords, the Duke declared he had acted thus
to avoid a civil war. " My Lords," he said, " I am one
of those who have probably passed a longer period of
my life engaged in war than most men, and principally,
I may say, civil war ; and I must say this — that if I
could avoid, by any sacrifice whatever, even one
month of civil war in the country to which I am
attached, I would sacrifice my life to do it. I say
there is nothing which destroys property and pro
sperity, and demoralizes character, to the degree civil
war does ; by it the hand of man is raised against his

262 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
neighbour, against his brother, and against his father ;
the servant betrays his master, and the whole scene
ends in confusion and devastation. Yet, my Lords,
this is the resource to which we must have looked — ¦
these are the means to which we must have applied,
in order to have put an end to this state of things, if
we had not made the option of bringing forward
measures for which I hold myself responsible."
Though no orator, this one sentence erfforced con
viction, and the Bill was carried in the House of
Lords by the substantial majority of 104 votes.
Even after the Bill had passed, the king appeared
unwilling to redeem his promise, and assent to it. It
was nothing but acting. To old Lord Eldon, he
pretended a well-feigned passion, talked as usual of
abdicating, and of the Duke of Clarence succeeding
him as a Catholic king, until his poor friend actually
believed that he would, at the last moment, refuse his
assent to the measure so hateful in Eldon's eyes. It
was all acting. On the 13th of April the Royal
assent was given, his last act of political importance.6
6 The whole details of these miserable intrigues will be found
in the later volumes of the Duke's letters, and Lord Stanhope's
" Life of Peel," and the " Grenville Diary." The Duke con
fesses that he had " to use very peremptory language, which
made the scene very painful " (interview of Feb. 27, 1828). The
king, however, at last realized the necessity, and, after the usual
flourish about abdicating, " in the end was kind and gracious,
and kissed the Duke at parting." With the Duke of Cumber
land the Duke assumed the high hand. When his Royal
Highness wrote to him that " he would call on him, and tell his
friends what might pass," the Duke, in reply, assured him that
he had nothing to talk to him upon, respecting which he cared
whether it was stated to the whole world. " I have no business to

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 263
The end was now rapidly approaching. For more
than a year the king's constitution had been breaking
up, and now his pitiable state could no longer be con
cealed from the public, despite the secrecy and
seclusion of his life. On the 24th of May, 1830, a
Bill was introduced to provide for affixing the sign
manual in his presence and at his command. On the
26th of June he died. Knighton thought he might
have lasted two or three days. As it was, his death
at last was sudden, but painless. Thus passed away
at no great age, " One of the cleverest and most
accomplished men in Europe," "The most extra
ordinary compound " said the Duke, " of talent, wit,
buffoonery, obstinacy and good feeling — in short a
medley of the most opposite qualities with a great
preponderance of good, that I ever saw in my life."
" In him, as in Pope Clement VIL, infinite insincerity
was accompanied with a grace of manner, which re
gained confidence as rapidly as it was forfeited." 7
transact except his Majesty's, and I do not care who knows it."
On a previous occasion, at the commencement of his premier
ship, the Duke wrote, '•' Between the king and his brothers the
government of the country has become a most heartrending
concern. Nobody knows where he stands on any subject."
But for the Duke's firmness Catholic emancipation would have
been again put off, and a civil war desolated Ireland.
1 " Froude's England, Henry VIII." chap. vii. p. 123.

264 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.

CHAPTER VIII.
THE MANCHESTER RIOTERS, 1819.
PETERLOO.
TRIALS OF HUNT, SIR CHAS. WOLSELEY,
HARRISON, AND OTHERS, 1820.
At Jhe commencement of 1819 ministers were so far
satisfied with the effect of the measures they had
taken for the repression of the rioters in the manu
facturing counties, as to consent to the repeal of the
Act by which the right to the writ of Habeas Corpus
had been temporarily suspended. The result was
that reform meetings were again openly held in the
provinces, and increased importance given to this
question. At these meetings Hunt was the leading
orator, supported not only by his usual companions,
but in the vicinity of Birmingham by Sir Charles
Wolseley, a landowner of old family and influential •
position in the county of Stafford. When, early in
January, the authorities of Manchester refused to
summon a public meeting to petition Parliament for
the repeal of the Corn Bill, notice was posted of a
meeting for the 18th of the month, to be held whether
the authorities pleased or not, at which Hunt was

NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS. 265
invited to attend. On his arrival at Manchester he
was hissed at the theatre, and on his proposing to go
there on another night, protected by a body-guard
prepared by Bamford, the play was put off and Hunt
driven to addressing the crowd from the box of his
carriage. When, however, the proposed meeting was
held, he was met by a mass of workpeople with flags
with the inscriptions, " Hunt and Liberty," " Universal
Suffrage," "Rights of Man," as well as "No Corn
Laws." At the meeting, which, not being interfered
with, passed off peaceably, the idea of any further
recourse to petitions was scouted, " as Parliament," it
was said, " when last assembled had kicked their
prayer and petition out of doors," and they were
called on " to come forward as men and Englishmen
and claim their rights." Instead of a petition, a
remonstrance to the Regent was then unanimously
adopted. Following the cue thus given them, at a
meeting in June at Hunslet Moor, near Leeds (at
which more than thirty thousand distressed operatives
attended), at Ashton-under-Lyme, and at Glasgow,
though the leaders counselled peaceable conduct,
inflammatory speeches were freely made. Excessive
taxation, place-holders, and pensioners, the usurpa
tion of the rich over the poor were denounced, and
universal suffrage and annual parliaments demanded
as the immediate and only remedy. A general com
munication between the scattered Radicals was pro
posed to be at once established, and at a meeting at
Stockport it was gravely considered whether the
people had the right of destroying the bank. A
female Reformers' Club was established at Blackburn,

266 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
and attended a reform meeting with a flag of liberty.
Low wages, combined with want of employment
and general distress, added to the excitement and
extended the feeling to Lancaster, Cheshire, Notting
hamshire, Leicester, and especially to Birmingham.
To meet the refusal of parliamentary reform by
Parliament, it was determined to assert the right of
electing representatives without waiting for its action,
and no time was lost in carrying out this proposal.
On the 1 2th of July a mass meeting was held at
Birmingham to elect " a legislatorial attorney and
representative " in the person of Sir Charles Wolseley,
and a similar resolution passed at Leeds, so soon as a
fit person should be found willing to occupy the
dangerous position. For seditious speeches at the
Stockport meeting, Sir C. Wolseley and a dissenting
preacher of the name of Harrison were arrested, tried,
and punished, and a proclamation issued denouncing
these meetings as illegal, and warning all persons of
the danger of attending them. To these warnings the
promoters of these assemblies paid little heed, and a
meeting was summoned for the 16th of August, in St.
Peter's Field in Manchester, the details and sad
results of which are described in the following trial.
To this rendezvous, from early dawn until past mid
day, bodies of men, all more or less marching in
military order, were moving in from the country
round, with flags on which were the well-known war-
cries, " No Corn Laws," " Annual Parliaments," "Vote
by Ballot," " Universal Suffrage," and on one the
significant inscription, " God armeth the patriot."
Hunt presided, supported by Carlisle, the notorious

NARRA TIVES OF STA TE ' TRIALS. 267
atheistic printer and writer, and other Radicals, and
from the platform looked down on a mass such as
had never before been gathered. What followed will
be described hereafter. Whether by the misconduct
of the military or of the mob, the result was pitiable.
Some six persons certainly lost their lives, and at
least seventy more were more or less severely
wounded. Hunt and his leading companions were
arrested, and tried for sedition, the charge of high
treason being dropped, and suffered various punish
ments for their conduct at the meeting.
A widespread feeling of indignation arose through
out the country at the conduct of the magistrates and
the military, increased by the impolitic thanks given
to them by the Regent before time had been allowed
to discover the truth of the contradictory statements
which were made of the sad events. Even the
Cabinet felt that the authorities were to blame,
though it determined to support them, though some,
if not all, of its members by no means agreed with
the prince in expressing "his great satisfaction at
their prompt, decisive, and efficient measures for the
preservation of public tranquillity." When Hunt
was released on bail from Lancaster gaol, he was met
by an enormous procession which accompanied him
to Manchester. At numerous meetings to pass reso
lutions condemnatory of the magistrates and the
military, the speakers appeared in deep mourning,
the flags were covered with crape, and on one was
seen the picture of a soldier cutting down a woman,
with the motto " Vengeance " inscribed beneath it.
At Birmingham a funeral procession in memory of

268 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
those who had fallen was largely attended. At
Paisley a condemnatory meeting being interrupted by
the authorities, ended in a serious riot, continuing for
several days, during which houses were gutted, per
sons severely beaten and robbed, and only quelled by
the cavalry from Glasgow. Subscriptions were opened
in London and Manchester to meet the legal expenses
to be incurred in obtaining redress and relieving the
sufferers in the Peterloo riot. Bills were sent before
the Grand Jury of Manchester against members of
the yeomanry for cutting and maiming with intent to
kill ; and when these were all ignored, an action for
damages was commenced by one of the sufferers
against the same parties.
The Common Council of London eagerly joined
the agitation, and by a majority of nearly two to one
passed resolutions of strong condemnation. The
meeting, said the resolution, "was legal, peaceably
conducted, and therefore acting under the sanction of
the laws, and entitled to the protection of the magis
trates — that when no act of riot or tumult had taken
place the magistrates issued their warrants for the
arrest of certain persons present, and though no re
sistance was offered, called in the aid of the military,
and without any previous warning, the Manchester
Yeomanry suddenly rushed forward, through the
multitude, furiously attacking peaceable and un
offending citizens, whereby great numbers of women
and children and even peace officers were indiscrimi
nately and wantonly ridden over, and many in
humanly sabred and killed." In another resolution
they expressed their opinion that " The Prince

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 269
Regent never could have been induced to express his
approval of the abettors and perpetrators of those
atrocities, had not his royal confidence been abused
by interested and misrepresented statements of these
fatal and illegal transactions." Finally they prayed for
a searching inquiry into the events of the day, a step
which in justice to the authorities and the military, if
for no other reason, ministers ought to have taken,
and which was in vain urged upon them by the
Commander-in-Chief.1 Determined not to yield to this just demand,
ministers, through the Regent, treated the resolutions
with contempt. In his reply to the address, the
Regent was allowed to express his regret at its nature,
and to declare that " in such times those who firmly
discharge their duty in preserving public tranquillity
have the strongest claims on the support and appro
bation of their sovereign and their country." He
declared the addressers to be ignorant of the circum
stances preceding and attending the meeting, and
refused inquiry on the ground that " The public
tribunals were open to those who could claim redress
for the violation of the laws."
Almost all the great cities and towns had their
meeting, and the people of the metropolis were only
prevented from doing so by the Lord Mayor refusing
to summon a common hall of the citizens. With the
same object in Yorkshire a numerously signed requi
sition of noblemen and freeholders, including such
men of note and influence as the Duke of Norfolk and
Lord Fitzwilliam, the Lord-Lieutenant of the West
1 See the Duke of York's letter, quoted p. 34.

270 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Riding was presented to the high sheriff, and nearly
20,000 persons attended the meeting. The only
result was that Lord Fitzwilliam was removed from
his honourable post, to the disgust of the best friends
of the Government. In Parliament motions for in
quiry were made, but defeated by the compact
majority which the Cabinet could then command.2
At the Peterloo meeting it was noted how column
after column marched in from the country districts
in fair military order, and took up their respective
positions with much of the precision of soldiers. For
the preparatory drills by which this was ensured,
Bamford gives a plausible excuse. " We had fre
quently been taunted," he writes, " by the press with
our ragged, dirty appearance at these assemblies, the
confusion of our proceedings and the mob-like crowds
in which we mustered ; and we determined that we
would disarm the bitterness of our political opponents
5 At one of these debates Scarlett used the following violent
language : — " The people meet to petition. The magistrates
issue a warrant to arrest certain individuals, and that being
executed, the yeomanry disperse the crowd at the edge of the
sword. Three days afterwards the thanks of the Prince Regent
were given, both to the civil and military authorities ; and what
yas the unavoidable inference, but that opinions, however
absurd or preposterous, were to be put down by the bayonet,
and that ministers intend to act on a system of military coer
cion." Hunt, who was very bitter at Scarlett being the pro
secuting counsel, on his citing speeches of Hunt from the
Manchester Observer, wished to cite this of Scarlett's, in order
to ask a witness whether he thought such a speech likely to in
cite to violence. Judge Bayley admitted his right, but, as a
matter of delicacy, wished the question not put, and Hunt
thereupon waived it.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 271
by a display of cleanliness, sobriety, and decorum
such as had never before been exhibited. ' Cleanli
ness/ ' Sobriety,' ' Order,' were the first injunctions
issued by the committees, to which ' Peace ' was
added by the advice of Hunt. Order in our move
ments was obtained by drilling, and peace on our
parts was secured by the prohibition of all weapons
of offence or defence, and the strictest discipline of
silence, steadiness, and obedience to the directions of
the conductors. Thus our arrangements, by constant
practice and an alert willingness, were soon rendered
perfect, and 10,000 men moved with the regularity of
ten score." These drillings may have seemed such
to Bamford, himself a man of peace and desirous of
obtaining the political objects in which he sincerely
believed, by constitutional means alone. Yet even
he is obliged to allow that " Some acts and some
speeches better let alone did take place." He en
deavours to account for the " Firing Drill " which was
sworn to, by the feeble excuse that when the men
clapped their hands as they stood at ease, some may
have jokingly said it was firing, and that " The
observers took the joke as a reality, and surmised
that they had arms, and that their drillings were only
prefatory to their more effective use." 3 The autho
rities naturally took a very different view of this
drilling, and ridiculed the idea of its being required
for the professed purpose of ensuring better order at
the meeting. In their opinion "a more alarming
object was palpable, and it was impossible not to feel
3 "Some Passages in the Life of a Radical," vol. i. p. 177,
et seq.

272 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
a moral conviction that insurrection was the ulterior
object."4 Had all the leaders been Bamfords, little harm
would have resulted from these drillings. As the
head of the men of Middleton he acted thoroughly
up to his peace principles. When this column was
mustered with that of Rochdale, 6000 strong, it
marched, preceded by young men, each bearing a
branch of laurel ; then the older men in fives, then the
colours, a blue one with the inscription, " Unity and
Strength, Liberty and Fraternity, Annual Parliaments,"
a green one inscribed "Suffrage Universal," and
between them a crimson velvet cap braided with
" Libertas " and ornamented with a sprig of laurel,
then the rest of the men in fives. " At the sound of
a bugle," he adds, " three thousand formed a hollow
square and were charged by him to be orderly, and if
the peace officers came to arrest him or any other
person, not to offer resistance, but to suffer them to
execute their duty peaceably. They were to carry
neither weapons nor sticks in the ranks. On this
many sticks were thrown away, and only kept by the
old men. At the head of the column walked 200
women, chiefly young wives." 5
With this well-ordered column Bamford started for
Manchester, and soon met with evidence that the
objects of other of the leaders were far from peaceable.
The first column which he joined, that of Lees and
Sadleworth, headed by a quack doctor of the name of
4 Norris to Lord Sidmouth, Aug. 12th, 1819.
6 In these statements Bamford was confirmed by William
Morris, one of the witnesses for the prosecution.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 273
Healey, " bore a pitch-black flag with staring white
letters on it forming the words Equal Representation
or Death — Love, with a heart and two hands joined,
the most sepulchral looking objects that could be
conceived." 8 Other flags and emblems of a like
character were brought on to the field indicating
very different opinions to those professedly held by the
Middleton people.
Though from Bamford's position in the huge crowd,
his view of the occurrences of that day was necessarily
limited, as his account of what he saw can be relied
on, it is well worth extracting.
" On arriving at the hustings to which the colours had been
just handed, I found them occupied by strangers who would
not leave, so removed them and the band to the centre of
their body." On the arrival of Hunt, and his being voted to
the chair, " with a friend I left, thinking that there would be
nothing new in the speeches, and had got nearly outside the
crowd when I saw cavalry in blue and gold trot round the
corner of a garden wall, and then rein up. They were received
with a shout of goodwill, as I understood it. They started
again, waving their sabres over their heads ; and then slackening
rein, and striking spurs into their horses, they dashed forward,
8 Bamford, vol. i. p. 203. On this flag, according to Scarlett's
opening speech, was a bloody dagger, to which he called at
tention as a sign of the most deadly intentions of the column
by which it was borne. Not only was this emblem not seen by
any of his own witnesses, but from the evidence of Burns, who was
called by the defendants, the only dagger-like thing about the
flag was the fleur-de-lis on the head of the pole, which he was
ordered to paint yellow ; but, being out of paint of that colour,
painted it red. Hunt, in his speeches, made a great point of
this ; and Scarlett, in his reply, admitted that his evidence did
not support his statement.
VOL. II. T

274 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
and began cutting the people. ' Stand fast ! ' I said. ' They are
riding upon us, stand fast ! ' The cavalry were in confusion ;
they evidently could not, with all the weight of man and horse,
penetrate that compact mass of human beings ; and then sabres
were plied to hew a way through naked held-up hands and
defenceless heads. And then chopped limbs and gaping wounds
were seen, and groans and cries were mingled with horrid con
fusion. By this time Hunt and his companions had gone.
The cavalry making repeated charges, in ten minutes the field
was deserted. The whole place was strewn with caps, bonnets,
hats, shawls, and shoes, and the cavalry had dismounted, and
were wiping their sabres. Several mounds of human beings
still remained where they had fallen, crushed down and
smothered — some still groaning ; others with staring eyes were
gasping for breath ; others would breathe no more. Of the
Middleton column eleven men were injured, of whom one died,
and five women and twenty-six men were arrested." 7
Many years afterwards Sir William Jolliffe, at the
time a lieutenant in the 15 th Hussars, and Mr.
Smythe (brother of the well-known Professor Smythe),
then a captain in the Manchester troop of Yeomanry,
gave the following account of the fatal day. After
detailing the military forces kept in readiness, and
their positions at the different outlets of the field,
Sir William wrote, —
"Lastly, there was a troop of Manchester Yeomanry
Cavalry, consisting of about forty members, who, from the
manner in which they were made use of (to say the least)
greatly aggravated the disasters of the day. Their ranks were
chiefly filled by wealthy master manufacturers, without the
knowledge which would have been possessed by a (strictly
speaking) military body ; they were placed most unwisely, as it
appeared, under the immediate command and orders of the
civil authorities." According to Captain Smythe " they were
7 Bamford, vol. i. p. 208.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 275
brought up at a walk, attempted to advance in twos, but the
horses being unsteady, and the people getting between the
files, they were immediately separated, and several unhorsed."
" They were," adds Sir William, " in the power of those whom
they were designed to overawe, and it only required a glance to
discover their helpless position, and the necessity for our being
brought up to their rescue." The yeomanry and infantry
stationed at the four corners of the field " opened to allow the
multitude to escape. The hussars drove the people with the
flat of their swords, but sometimes, as is always inevitably the
case when placed in such situations, with the edge. The
greater amount of injuries were from the pressure of the
routed multitude." 8
According to Captain Smythe, " Clubs, brickbats,
and large stones were found on the field, which had
been carefully cleared before the meeting, little in
accordance with the professed intentions of the
assembly. Nor were they so entirely devoid of arms
as Bamford wished."
" My troop," writes Smythe, " were at a corner next a cluster
of unfinished houses, on the roof of which two or three men
had placed themselves, with a gun. The fellow who held it
was seen to retire behind the chimney and load, and then
come forward to fire. My attention was called to him by the
farrier of my troop, who said he had seen him fire more than
once. He was seen by the 88th from the other side of the
street, who fired, and cleared the roof. When my corps was
called out on a fresh alarm, it was found that the mob had
secretly locked up several of the men and horses in the different
billets, and it was necessary to send round a Serjeant's party to
liberate them."

8 Letter from Sir William Jolliffe to Dean Pellew, quoted
in the Dean's " Life of Lord Sidmouth," with Captain Smythe's
notes.
T 2

276 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
At the trial which is now to be reported no
evidence was allowed to be given of the conduct of
the authorities and the soldiers at the meeting,
the case being limited to that of the meeting
itself.' The indictment charged Hunt and the other
defendants with conspiring to alter the legal frame
and constitution by force of arms, and with meeting
tumultuously at Manchester on the 16th of August,
1 8 19, to the number of 60,000, armed with sticks and
other offensive weapons. There were, of course,
several counts varying the offence, but all in substance
implicating the defendants in a conspiracy against
the State. At the trial at York, on the 16th of
March, 1820, before Mr. Justice Bayley and a special
jury, Mr. Scarlett lead for the prosecution, Mr.
Barrow defended Moorhouse and Jones, and Mr. Holt
appeared for Saxton. The rest conducted their own
defence. As in previous cases, the opening address
for the prosecution is omitted, and the evidence left
to tell its own story.1
" John Chadwick, a shoemaker at Manchester," said, " that, he
went on the 9th to meet Hunt at Hardwick Green. Hunt and
Johnson were in a gig, and there was a chaise with Sir C.
Wolseley, Parson Harrison, and Mr. Monkhouse, and about 300
people coming in with them. Opposite St. Michael's Church,
9 The indictment included Henry Hunt, Jos. Johnson, J. T.
Saxton, S. Bamford, Jos Healey, James Moorhouse, Robert
Jones, G. Swift, and Robert Wylde. Of these, those whose
names are printed in italics were acquitted.
1 The evidence is condensed from the Reports in the Times,
the Annual Register of 1820, and that published by Dolby in
1 820 in one volume, in which the cross-examination is given in
detail.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 277
Hunt told the people to come on one side and he would tell them
his errand to Manchester. He had come as far as Coventry, where
he saw the Courier newspaper, which stated that the Man
chester magistrates had put down the Reformers at Manchester,
and that he (Hunt) would be afraid to show his face, as they
would make him smell gunpowder. Afterwards he said he had
seen the proclamation at Bullocksmithy, and such a proclama-
ion never came from a shopboard of tailors. He also said he
would have the Courier know that he was not afraid of gun
powder. He then turned to the Stockport people, and said
he hoped to see them on the 16th, and that they would bring
as many of their friends and neighbours as they could with
them." The witness then spoke to the drilling at White
Moss some five miles from Manchester, where he
went before daylight on the 15th, as he said out of
curiosity, as the drilling was well known.
" There was a great number, about 200 or 300 at first, but they
kept increasing all the morning. They came from different
roads, and fell in ranks like soldiers when the horn was blown.
This was about daylight. Witness fell in too. The people fell
into companies belonging to the towns they came from. Every
company had a person to commandit. They then marched about
the field for two hours, and when the word was given to fire,
they clapped their hands. The words, ' Make ready, present,
fire ! ' were given as if they had guns, and at the word ' fire '
they clapped their hands. They afterwards fell into a large
body, and made the spectators fall in also. He was at the
meeting on the 16th, where the first man he saw was one he
had seen at White Moss. Saw Hunt, Johnson, and Carlisle
come to the meeting in an open chaise. Some of the people
walked in ranks near it, but the rest irregularly. Opposite
Murray's house " (the next witness) " they hissed hard. There
was a woman on the coach with the coachman." On cross-
examination he admitted that at the drilling they did not raise
their arms in the attitude of firing, and it was false that the
people marched by with Hunt in a riotous manner. He

278 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
saw neither swords, pistols, nor bludgeons, and admitted that
the people stood peaceably in St. Peter's field till the cavalry

James Murray, a special constable, who was cruelly
beaten by one of the drill parties, gave important
evidence of the character of these meetings ; in which
he was confirmed by Shawcross, a clerk in the Man
chester police office, who accompanied him to White
Moss on the night of the 14th.
"We," said Murray, "left Manchester on purpose to go to
White Moss, and reached it by daylight. Hearing some per
sons near us shouting and holloaing, we lay down to prevent
our being seen. We then got to the Moss, where the men
were drilling. There might be 600 or 800 of them. They were
in squads, and there was a drill Serjeant at the head or end of
every squad. They were marching when I came up. I heard
the words ' march,' ' wheel,' ' halt.' It appeared like a camp,
and the men obeyed the orders given them. I remember the
words ' eyes right,' ' dress,' and ' forward.' The first words
said to me were by a drill serjeant, who bid me fall in. I knew
the man ; his name was Caterall. I said I thought I would fall
in soon. The different Serjeants began to shift their squads
and look steadfastly. I did not like his looks, and thought of
shifting my ground, when I heard the cry of 'Spy.' It ran
along the lines, and I heard the words, ' Mill them I" d— n
them ! ' ' mill them ! ' and then I heard a cry of ' They are con
stables ; ' and the answer to that was ' D — n them ! kill them ! '
I moved off, and so did Shawcross, and we were followed by
eighty or ninety men. They overtook Shawcross, and knocked
him into the ditch. From twenty to thirty followed, and over
took me. They began to beat me with sticks, and kicked me
most violently with their clogs. I desired them to give over,
that that did not look like a reform of Parliament. ' It was,' I
said, 'very different treatment from that received by prisoners
of war.' They asked me how we would treat them if we took
them prisoners in Manchester. I said we would treat them as

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 279
prisoners, and not murder them. They continued beating me ;
and one said, ' Shall we kill him out and out, and put him in
the pit, or let him go ? ' A young man said, ' He has had
enough ;' another, ' If he has any more he'll die.' They then
desisted, and held a consultation, after which one of them
asked me if I would go down on my knees and never be a
king's man again, and never name the king any more. I said
' yes,' as I considered my life in danger. I fell on my knees ;
the words I now mention were proposed to me, and I repeated
them, and they let me go. I was next day removed to Man
chester, where I was confined to my bed. On the next day, the
16th, I heard the sound of bugles, and on being removed to the
window I heard the cry of ' Halt,' the crowd then halted. I
looked out, and saw the streets filled with people. Those in
the centre were in ranks about six abreast. The bugle then
sounded, and I heard the word ' march,' and the party moved,
and began to hiss very loud. Many of them had sticks. Those
who marched in line amounted to between 5000 or 6000 men.
Besides these were a large crowd of men and women." 2
Heywood, another witness, saw the drilling on the
Sunday morning, the 15th; while there a man came
up to him, and said, " Here's another spy," and then
they beat him with sticks as fast as they could. Next
day he saw the same body of men marching from
Middleton to Manchester with flags and a cap of
5 In cross-examination by Hunt, Murray, whilst denying
that he had said " he would rather be rowed to his house in a
boat in the blood of the Reformers than walk on the pavement,"
admitted saying " that if it came to an action he would fight
up to his knees in blood rather than give in to the Reformers."
He also denied saying to a Mr. Chapman, in the coach from
Manchester to Liverpool, " that if he had been in command
of the troops on the 16th of August he would have put every
rascal to death," and that " he would not believe a Reformer
on his oath." Chapman was not called by the defendants to
contradict him.

280 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
liberty ; as they came along they threatened to " give
him what they gave him short the day before, if he
followed them." That this cowardly attack on
Murray was premeditated is clear from Bamford's
admission, and shows that, however peaceable his in
tentions were in encouraging drilling, the bulk of
the parties had very different ones. If all this drilling
was really only to ensure order and 'peace in their
assemblies, they would not have dreaded being seen
by any one, constable or not.
To Bamford's peaceful intentions, a witness of the
name of Morris gave confirmatory evidence. He saw
the square formed of the Middleton men, as Bamford
relates, and heard him address them thus : " Friends
and neighbours, I have a few words to relate. You
will march off this place quietly and not insult any
one, but rather take an insult. I do not think there
will be any disturbance, or any to-do. If there is, it
will be after we come back. There is no fear the day
is our own." He also, as did the next witness, Eaton,
confirmed Bamford's statement that the Middleton
men had only small switches or sticks ; that many
women and children were mixed up with them; and
that Bamford before they marched distributed bits of
laurel to them, which they put either in their breasts
or hats.3
Other witnesses spoke to the march of the other
column, of which Healey was the leader, in regular
military order, and to the numbers and apparent
discipline of the vast crowds that came pouring into
5 Hunt, as Bamford complains, foolishly tried to throw dis
credit on this witness, who was really in their favour.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 281
the town, until the whole space of St. Peter's Field,
six or eight acres in extent, was covered with them.
According to one witness, Roger Entwhistle, an
attorney at Manchester, the Stockport column came
iinto the town " like regular soldiers, with banners and
caps of liberty. Several among them appeared to
have command of different parties, and moved about
a yard from the rest, at the side of the front ranks.
They had very large sticks, some walking with them,
and others bearing them on their shoulders. One of
the men as he marched by the witness said he would
have as good a coat on his back before night as the
witness had." This witness saw Hunt and his party
take their place on the hustings, and heard the com
mencement of his speech congratulating the meeting
on their numbers ; and swore that when, after a short
interval, some infantry made a movement on the out
skirts of the crowd, Hunt immediately pointed to
them and said, " Your enemies are amongst you ; if
they attempt to molest you, get them down, and while
you have them down, keep them down." Soon after,
the Manchester cavalry came to the front of Mr.
Buxton's house, and the witness thought it safest to
retire.4 A less violent character was given to Hunt's speech
by Cooper, who went purposely to take notes for the
London papers, which he produced and read.
4 In reply to Hunt the witness said, " My own opinion is,
that when you said, ' keep them down,' you alluded to the
military, and wished not to be molested, but that, if you were,
the people were to keep them off, if possible. The people were
peaceable when you addressed them."

282 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
" Gentlemen," he reported Hunt as saying, " I must entreat
you will be peaceable and quiet, and that every one who wishes
to hear must keep order ; and all I ask for is that during the
proceedings you will be quiet. We will endeavour to make
ourselves heard, but it is impossible for us to be heard by the
whole. • We wish our fellow-countrymen will communicate to
those who do not. It is useless to observe upon the intended
meeting of last week, only to observe that those who, by their
malignant exertions, in taking advantage of a few illegal words,
expected they had triumphed, instead of which it had produced
twofold numbers, and now we have triumphed." He went on to
state that two or three placards, signed by two or three in
dividuals — while he was saying this some companies of foot
soldiers appeared in Dickenson Street, and formed. " Mr.
Hunt then spoke on, but I did not take notes any further, and
I shall give the substance from memory. Hunt said, ' Never
mind, they are only a few soldiers, and very few compared with
us, we are a host against them.' " He admitted, on cross-
examination, that he did not hear Hunt say, " put them down,
keep them down ; " and that his fears for the result of the meeting
did not arise from what he saw, but from previous circumstances
and communications made to him, and that there was no
bloody dagger on the black flag.
Another reporter 6 for a London paper gave another
version. " Hunt," he said, " addressed the meeting in front, and re
quested them to be quiet, and not to interrupt by calling
silence, as that made more noise than anything. This was in
front, and I was at the back of the hustings at that time. Hunt
turned round, and said something to the same effect at the
other side, and added, ' If any one attempts to destroy our
tranquillity, I hope some persons will be found with courage
enough to put them down, quiet them, and keep them down.'
A man behind me said, ' Why, that's killing them ; ' but this
5 Henry Horton, who attended to take notes for a London
paper, the New Times.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 283

was in a low tone, and could not be heard. Hunt was inter
rupted by the appearance of cavalry. This created some con
fusion, and Hunt then said, ' Stand firm, my friends ; they are
in disorder already. Let us give them three cheers.' The
soldiers then came on, and took the men on the hustings."
This witness also spoke to the exhortations of Jones and
Swift to keep the peace. The former told them that by the
Committee's order they were to form round the hustings at six
yards' distance, and lock themselves arm-in-arm, that they
might not be broken into. Swift also exhorted them to be
peaceable till their chairman came, and not give their enemies
an opportunity of exercising that power which he knew they
were ready to do. " Let us prove," he said, " that we are not
mad, as they say ; but if we are mad, it is the most pleasant
insensibility I ever experienced in my life." He admitted also
that what Entwhistle had sworn to, of Hunt pointing to the
soldiers, and calling on the people to put them down, was not
correct, so far as he heard.
To speak to the incidents of the meeting, only one
witness was called on the part of the prosecution —
Mr. Hutton, the chairman of the bench of magis
trates assembled on that day at the house of Mr.
Buxton overlooking the scene of the meeting.
" The magistrates," said the witness, " assembled between
ten and eleven o'clock, and received information on oath rela
tive to the approach of large bodies of people. As chairman
much of my time was taken up in writing, but I frequently
looked out of the window and saw large bodies of men approach.
They were apparently divided into sections, and had persons
walking at the side, who from time to time seemed to give the
word of command. They did not march straight to the hust
ings, but wheeled when they received the word of command.
The persons in command went up to the hustings and deposited
their colours. They were regularly received with loud huzzas.
The men appeared to me beautifully exact in coming up to the
hustings, but I could not mark their motions afterwards. I
observed the division which escorted Mr. Hunt ; he was in a

284 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
carriage in which were Johnson, Moorhouse, and Carlisle. The
extraordinary noise which arose, on the approach of Hunt, made
me walk to the window and mark what was going forward.
The hustings had been moved in the course of the morning
(this I knew; because it had been the desire of the magistrates
to form a line of constables from the hustings to the house
where we sat) ; but I observed that a number of men had
rushed in, locked their arms together, and surrounded the
hustings. The numbers were estimated at 80,000, and the
meeting inspired great terror in the minds of the inhabitants.
The magistrates deemed it necessary to issue warrants for the
arrest of the supposed leaders, which were handed to Nadin, who
said, on receiving them, ' that he could not execute them without
military aid.' I then wrote to the commander of the Manchester
Yeomanry, and Colonel L'Estrange, to come to us, which they
did. A troop of yeomanry soon arrived from Morley Street
end. The troops came up at a quick pace, and formed in line
under the house. The moment they appeared a tremendous
shout arose from the crowd. They groaned and hissed, and
those men who had sticks shook them in the air. I saw these
sticks lifted up in a menacing manner. I had a full view of
the whole. I can positively swear I saw the sticks flourished,
and I even heard the expressions of some of the people who
were near the military. Whilst the cavalry were forming
some of those persons who were nearest to them turned, and
advanced towards them. After the mob had set up this
shout, the cavalry waved their swords. They then advanced,
and I believe the borough reeve was with them." (The witness
then explained "why Colonel L'Estrange's troops and the
yeomanry were unable to advance together as he expected, and
that afterwards the colonel brought up two troops of the 15th
Hussars, and two troops of Cheshire Yeomanry.") " When the
yeomanry and the constables approached the hustings, I saw
stones and brickbats flying in all directions. I saw what ap
peared to me a general resistance. In short, when Colonel
L'Estrange arrived with his troops I conceived the Manchester
Yeomanry completely beaten. The crowd closed the moment
the yeomanry had entered, and when Colonel L'Estrange
asked what he was to do, convinced of their danger, I said,
' Good God, sir ! do you not see how they are attacking the

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 285
yeomanry? Disperse the crowd.' He advanced ; the dispersion
of the crowd took place."
On cross-examination Mr. Hutton said, "that though the
window from which he looked was 300 or 400 yards from the
hustings he could see that the men surrounding them had their
arms locked, that the cavalry were not galloping, but trotting,
and that the people closed in behind them, cutting them off in
order to pull them off their horses and injure them. He did
not say that the missiles were levelled at the yeomanry, but
in defiance of them. He and a brother magistrate tried to get
into the crowd after the yeomanry had advanced, and were
repulsed, but neither he nor any of his brother magistrates
attempted to persuade the crowd to disperse. He never heard
till then that on the previous Saturday Hunt had offered to
surrender if there was a warrant against him." 6
Contrast this evidence with that given by two most
capable and independent witnesses for the defendants,
Mr. Tyas the reporter for the Times, and Mr. Edward
Baines. After detailing the gathering of the crowd
in an orderly manner, and denying that the column
escorting Hunt had long sticks on their shoulders
fitted for pike-staves, Tyas declared that he did not
see any act committed by any parties which excited
in his mind apprehension for the safety of the town.
There was hissing and hooting opposite the police
office. " The cavalry advanced, as far as I could judge, at a quick
trot, and formed near Mr. Buxton's house. Hunt, as I collect
from my notes, ordered the people to give three cheers. The
cavalry advanced, and Hunt told the people it was a trick to

6 According to the evidence of the Rev. E. Stanley, on the
trial of Redford v. Burley and others, the Riot Act was read by
a clerical magistrate from the window of Buxton's house, but
probably not heard by the crowd.

286 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
disturb them, and he trusted they would stand firm. He had
scarcely said this when the Manchester Yeomanry rode into
the mob, who opened for them in the most peaceable manner.
The cavalry directed their course to the hustings, and when
they arrived there took a number of persons into custody. I
recollect an officer went up to Hunt with his sword in his
hand, and desired him to surrender. He said he would not to
a military officer, but if any civil officer came up he would sur
render. Nadin then came, as it appeared to me, from under
the waggon, and Hunt immediately surrendered, after first
desiring the people to be quiet. I saw no sticks flourished by
the people as the cavalry approached. Had there been, I must
have seen it. I saw special constables using their staves.
They beat the people with them, and of course raised them in
the air. When the military appeared there certainly did seem
a disposition in the crowd to run away. On Hunt's arrest the
people were flying in all directions. I was struck at myself
twice. In this evidence Tyas was entirely confirmed by
Mr. Baines, who was apparently able to take a full re
port of Hunt's speech, in which, according to his notes,
there was nothing inflammatory. " The cavalry, after
halting about three minutes," he said, " brandished
their swords and advanced, and he saw no attempt to
resist them, nor hear any encouragement given to
do so ; saw no stones or brickbats thrown, nor any
sticks lifted against them, and heard nothing from
Hunt after the words ' Be firm,' but these ' Give three
cheers,' which were repeated as well as the words
'Be firm.'"7
7 Mr. Baines, who, besides taking notes on the spot, wrote
out his full account within a few hours afterwards, said Hunt, at
the commencement of his speech, called on them to put down
any one who tried to create a disturbance, and perceived no
difference in the manner of the people from that usual at public

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 287
As the court held that the only question then
before it was the legality of the meeting, and that,
though the defendants were entitled to elicit any evi
dence showing the peaceable conduct of the parties
assembled, they were not entitled to bring before the
jury the conduct of the military, on this trial, nothing
was proved under this head. Of the fifty-six wit
nesses called on the part of the defence, the great
majority of whom were persons of position, indepen
dence, and education, and from their places in or near
the crowd capable of seeing all that passed, every
one concurred in the peaceable conduct of the great
mass, of their not offering any resistance to the
yeomanry on their way to the hustings, and ofthe
absence of those missiles which Mr. Hutton swore to
seeing flying in the air when the military advanced.
None of them saw any cause for alarm, monstrous
as was the gathering — that business went on in Man
chester without alarm, and that, if any resistance was
offered it was only that due to the density of the
crowd. Judge Bayley, after about half of their wit
nesses had been examined, stated that he must tell
the jury that there was no evidence from Nadin, the
police-officer, to justify the employment of the

meetings. Some of the defendants' witnesses were decidedly
opponents of the Radical Reformers. In the subsequent action
for damages for assault by the yeomanry, Redford v. Burley
the peaceable behaviour of the meeting until the arrival of the
yeomanry was testified to by the Rev. E. Stanley, the late
Bishop of Norwich, who, at that time, was rector of the family
living of Alderley, not far from Manchester, and was in the
room with the magistrates at Buxton's house.

288 NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS.
yeomanry to support the civil power in the execu
tion of the warrant.8
In his reply, Scarlett withdrew the case against
Saxton, who was present only as a reporter, and ad
mitted the peaceable intentions and conduct of
Bamford, but pressed for judgment against the rest
of the defendants. The judge's charge was a model
of fairness, leaning rather to the side of the defen
dants, recommending the jury to disabuse their minds
of the idea that Hunt had pointed to the soldiers as
" these are your enemies," and attributing the stone-
throwing and stick -brandishing spoken of by Hutton,
to the difficulty he must have had in seeing what really
occurred at the distance at which he was from the
scene of action. He also laid great stress on the
evidence produced by the defendants ofthe peaceable
nature of the meeting until the cavalry appeared, and
to the absence of any immediate fear on their part
8 One of these witnesses, Mr. John Brattargh, a wharfinger
of Pendleton, saw the affair from a house within thirty yards of
the hustings, and confirmed those who had stated that " God
save the King,'' " Rule, Britannia," and other loyal tunes, were
played and well received, and that when the former was played
all the people except the constables took off their hats. The
presence of women and children at the meeting was at last,
after repeated evidence had been given, not further contested ;
and it was further proved that many of these moved about with
out fear in the enormous crowd, though one of them, Moor-
house's wife, was expecting her confinement. Nadin, who was
in York, was not called by the prosecution, and no reason for
his absence was offered. The reason assigned by Scarlett for
only calling Mr. Hutton out of the number of magistrates pre
sent in court, was the ruling of the judge that the conduct of
the authorities was not in issue in the case.

NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS. 289
among the tradesmen of Manchester. After citing
Serjeant Hawkins' well-known definition of an illegal
meeting,9 he told the jury that mere numbers did not
make a meeting illegal. That " a number of persons
might meet under such circumstances as were not
calculated to raise terrors, fears, or jealousies in the
minds of the people of the neighbourhood. But in
an assembly so constituted and met for a perfectly
legal purpose, if any individuals introduced themselves
illegally in order to give to that meeting an undue
direction, which would produce terror, then they
would be guilty — he was not prepared to say that
the appearance of immediate danger was necessary
to constitute this offence, and if from the peaceable
demeanour of the people at the time, and the asso
ciation of women and children on the ground, the
meeting was not sufficient to produce the feeling of
immediate danger, he recommended the jury to find
a special verdict to that effect. To support the
charge of conspiracy they must be certain that they
were not only seeking the same end independently,
but were acting in pursuance of one common design
with the privity of all, and if they thought, that, what
had .occurred, could not have occurred without previous
concert and combination of the accused parties, it
was sufficient." Of Bamford, the judge spoke most
kindly, giving him full credit for his own good inten-
8 " That a great number of people meeting under such cir
cumstances as cannot but endanger the public peace, and raise
fears and jealousies among the king's subjects, is an unlawful
assembly, as no one can foresee what may be the event of such.
an assembly."— Hawkins' " Pleas of the Crown."
VOL. II. u

290 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
tions, and of the peaceable conduct of his own party,
and as to the inscriptions on the flags, he said; if they
admitted of a reasonable and legal interpretation, the
jury might so find. On the resolutions passed at the
Spa Fields meeting of the 21st of July he spoke
in strong terms, and assumed that as no resolutions
appeared to have been prepared for this meeting, it
was intended to move the Spa Fields ones, which were
clearly such as might lead to violence. He held the
chairman of that meeting responsible for the resolu
tions, though, as Hunt urged, they were handed up
to him, previously prepared by others, and proposed
and carried en masse?-
At a quarter-past twelve the jury retired, and
did not return until about five o'clock when they
handed in the following verdict : — " Moorhouse,
1 The resolutions at this meeting were — (1) That every man
in the British dominions is a free man ; (2) That it was ex
pedient to provide a code of laws ; (3) That every one in the
kingdom had a right to a voice in making those laws ; (4) That
every man should pay his proportion of taxes ; (5) That the
House of Commons is not formed as it ought to be ; (6) That
after the ist of January, 1820, no man was bound in equity to
obey any act of the House of Commons, unless it was chosen
by a large proportion of the people ; (7) That books should be
opened in every parish for the purpose of enrolling the names
of all those men who were of sound mind and proper age, and
who should have a voice in choosing representatives. An
address was then proposed to the Prince Regent, embodying
these resolutions, and calling on him to issue writs for the
election of representatives under these conditions, and that this
Parliament should assemble on the ist of January next. It is
worthy of remark that the whole of the Reform agitation at this
period related to the House of Commons, and that the House
of Lords and the bishops, the favourite object of the attacks of
later reformers, are never mentioned.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 291
Jones, Wylde, Swift, and Saxton, not guilty ; Hunt,
Johnson, Healy, Knight, and Bamford, guilty of
assembling with unlawful banners, at an unlawful
assembly, for the purpose of moving and inciting
the liege subjects of our Sovereign Lord the King
to contempt and hatred of the Government and
constitution of this realm, as by law established
and attending the same." 2 This amounted to a
verdict on the fourth count, and by advice of the
Court the jury withdrew for a few minutes, and then
returned a general verdict of Guiltyon that count. The
prisoners having entered into their own recognizances
to come up to receive judgment, this most important
trial came to a conclusion, after a sitting of twelve
days. On the 15th of May Denman moved the
King's Bench for a new trial, on the ground that
two of the special jurymen, who had not attended,
had not received their letters of summons, and that
in consequence the defendants, in ignorance of this
3 Much surprise was naturally felt at the conviction of Bam
ford, who undoubtedly did not attend the meeting with any
illegal object. Subsequently to the trial much good feeling was
expressed towards him by Scarlett, " when Lord Abinger," and
Maule, the Solicitor to the Treasury, both of whom subscribed
to the volume of his poems. During his imprisonment he won
the favour of every one about him by his excellent conduct,
and was treated with the utmost kindness, and in consequence
neglected by the more violent Radicals, with whose designs he
had no fellow-feeling. Moorhouse was proved at the trial to
be a man of steady religious feeling, and only to have accom
panied Hunt on his way to the hustings, but not to have taken
any part in the meeting. Jones only put up the hustings, and
Wylde, who headed one of the columns, probably got off on
the ground that no evidence was given of the inscriptions on its
banners.
U 2

292 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
fact, allowed two tales men to be sworn on the jury ;
but he got nothing by his motion. On the same day
Hunt was sentenced to twenty-nine months' imprison
ment in Ilchester gaol, and then to find securities for
good behaviour for five years, himself in iooo/., with
two sureties of 500/. each, and the rest of the defen
dants to one year's imprisonment, with sureties of
200/. by themselves, and two others of 100I. each, for
good behaviour, for the same period.
Of the numerous other trials connected with these
meetings, those of Sir C. Wolseley, for the Stockport
meeting,' in the preceding July ; of Harrison, for
the same offence, and subsequent lectures in Stock
port, at which he ventilated seditious opinions ; and
that of Sir Francis Burdett, for his address to his
constituents, attacking the Government for the con
duct ofthe authorities at Peterloo, must now be noticed.
On the 28th of July, 1819, a meeting was held on
Sandy Brow, near Stockport, at which between 4000
and 5000 persons attended, mostly armed with sticks
cut from the hedges — formidable weapons — and not
mere walking-sticks. Of this meeting Sir Charles
Wolseley was the chairman, and, together with
Mr. Harrison, a local schoolmaster and dissenting
preacher, the chief speaker. Only one banner was
on the field, with the usual mottoes, " No Corn Laws,"
" Universal Suffrage," and "Vote by Ballot," and sur
mounted by a cap of liberty. Before the chairman
came, a police-constable was so severely beaten, as a
spy, that he was carried senseless from the field ; but
with that exception, no violence was offered to any
one. On the arrival of Sir Charles, by his direction,

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 293
three rounds of hisses were given for the prosecutors
of the men convicted for the Burnley meeting, and
then apparently the usual reform resolutions were
carried. In addition, resolutions of a very different
character were proposed and passed, with brandishing
of sticks and acclamations. By one, Lord Sidmouth
was declared guilty of high treason ; by another, a
general meeting of delegates was called to be held at
Oldham ; by the third, a subscription was to be raised
to pay the costs of prosecuting ministers, and by
the last, as ministers had passed a bill to indemnify
them for their acts, so the meeting was to indemnify
the speakers if anything seditious was spoken. When
a cry was raised that the cavalry was coming, Sir
Charles called on them to stand firm. On this the
people brandished their sticks, and one of the crowd
was afterwards heard to say that they wished the
cavalry had come, as they were prepared for them.
Unlike the Manchester meeting, no women or children
were in the crowd, though some, probably, were on
its outskirts.
For their speeches at this meeting, Sir C. Wolseley
and Harrison were arrested, and tried at the Cheshire
Assizes on the ioth of April, 1820. The charges
against Sir Charles and Mr. Harrison were, first,
exciting to tumult, by holding a numerous meeting,
and addressing to it seditious words, calculated to
bring Government into hatred and contempt ; and,
secondly, conspiring together to stir the people up to
tumult and insurrection. Sir C. Wolseley's words, if
truly reported, were well calculated to excite tumult
and cause insurrection.

294 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
" He was happy in addressing the people of Stockport from
Sandy Brow ; it was a place consecrated to liberty by the ab
sence of friends he would have been happy to meet there, and
he trusted Sandy Brow would be more famed in history than
the field of Waterloo. Was there a peace officer present ? He
trusted they came to keep the peace, and not to break it. But
was there any of your spies, your note-taking and black -book
gentry? tell your employers, the tools of a Castlereagh and
Sidmouth, that I hate them ! that I detest them ! that I eter
nally execrate them ! He was proud to say that he was at the
taking of the Bastille in France, and would be happy to be at
the taking of a Bastille in England. Were all hearts but as
firm in the cause as his own they would soon put an end to the
present tyranny and corruption. They should be firm and
united, for in a few weeks the struggle would be made and
ended." Harrison's speech was equally dangerous.
"The House of Commons," he was reported to have said,
" were the people's servants. That it was as absurd to petition
them as it would be for a master to petition his groom for his
horse. There was a barrier between the throne and the people
which must be removed, either by force, from heaven or hell, in
order that they might see whether a man or a pig was on the
throne. The united will of the people is sure to prevail, it was
an axiom that could not be confuted. It might be necessary,
in some cases, to petition the House of Lords, who were, by the
constitution, placed in a different situation to the House of
Commons, but in the present corrupt state of things it was
useless." To prove the intimacy between the defendants, a
letter from Sir C. Wolseley to the postmaster at
Stockport, dated the 30th of June, was put in evidence.
In this letter the writer said that he suspected that a
letter to him, from Harrison, of the 24th of June,
which had been posted at Stockport, and only reached
the writer that day, had been opened in the office,

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 295
and its delivery delayed, which the postmaster indig
nantly denied. Another letter from Harrison .to a man
of the name of Baguely, (then undergoing his sen
tence for the Burnley meeting,) dated two days after
the meeting at Stockport was also read. In this last
letter Harrison described the meeting at Stockport,
with the part taken in it by Sir C. Wolseley, and a
subsequent dinner in the Union rooms, at which the
baronet took the chair, and at its close rode off to
Manchester, amid the cheers of 10,000 persons. The
letter then went on to advise Baguely to write a
political dialogue between himself and his fellow-
prisoners, as the best means of raising further sub
scriptions for the cause of reform.
For the defence Mr. Pearson, who appeared only
for Sir Charles, whilst not denying that some degree
of intimacy existed between his client and Harrison,
ridiculed the evidence on that head, and cited Judge
Bayley's charge in the Manchester case. On the other
part of the indictment he urged that it rested on the
fact whether the meeting was legal or illegal, and con
tended that the resolutions, though violent, were not
illegal, especially as they appealed to the law for the
prosecution of the ministers. Of the speeches, he
claimed that Sir Charles could only be responsible
for his own, and that mere numbers did not make the
meeting illegal. He felt the difficulty in explaining
Harrison's speech, but urged that his client could not
be held answerable for Harrison's dangerous expres
sions. As for the attack on the constable, it had been
proved that it took place before Sir Charles came to
the meeting, and he characterized the cap of liberty as

296 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
a bauble unworthy of the attention of men of sense.
In conclusion he alluded to the position of birth,
wealth, and domestic happiness of his client as indis
putable pledges that Sir Charles could never entertain
a wish to plunge the country into the perils of a
revolution. Harrison, who defended himself, made a long, weari
some, and turgid oration, in which he said " the earth
will shake when I fall," and described the indictment
as " a sham document, in which he and Sir Charles
were bound, hand and foot,tobe thrown — where? — into
hell." It was so strangely grounded, he said, that he
did not know how to plead to it at all, and then read
portions of it with many anathemas from time to time
on the passages with which he was displeased. He
appealed to Bentham's pamphlet on the indictment,
and Brougham's article in the Edinburgh Review de
fending tumult, and proving that it was not for the
public good that tumultuous meetings should be put
down. For four hours in this style he only wearied
the jury, never attempting to explain away the worst
passages in his speech, and ending by declaring that
the jury would violate their oaths if they found him
guilty. In his charge to the jury, the Lord Chief Justice
met the point as to " the unlawful assembly," by the
definition of such a meeting given by Serjeant Haw
kins, admitted by both sides to be a most reliable
authority, and called particular attention to some
of the words of the defendants. "From Harrison's
expression of ' a gentleman petitioning his groom,'
it was manifest," said the Judge, "that the object was

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 297
not to petition Parliament. What other meaning than
that assigned by the prosecution could be put on Sir
Charles' allusion to the Bastille, and that ' if their
hearts were as firm as his they would soon put an end to
the present tyranny and corruption,' connecting these
words with his saying, that 'in a few weeks the great
struggle would take place.' The last resolution," said
the judge, "is well worthy the attention of the jury,
' that as ministers had obtained bills of indemnity to
cover their acts, so the meeting should indemnify the
speakers, if anything seditious had been spoken.' " In
conclusion he called attention to Sir Charles calling
them " to stand firm," when it was reported that the
cavalry were coming, as showing that he looked on
himself as their leader, and after reading through the
evidence, to which he called their attention, as entirely
uncontradicted, left the case to the jury. After such a
charge there could be no doubt that a verdict of Guilty
would be the result.3
Subsequently, on the J 8th of April, Harrison was
again indicted for seditious language used in a lecture
delivered by him at the Windmill Rooms, Stockport, on
the 1 5 th of August, 1 8 19, the day before the meeting at
3 May 15th, 1820. Under this indictment Sir C. Wolseley
was sentenced to eighteen months' imprisonment in Abingdon
Gaol, and to find securities for his good behaviour for five years,
himself in 1000/., with two sureties of 500/. each. Harrison
was also sentenced to imprisonment for the same period in
Chester Castle, with like sureties for five years, himself in 200/.,
with two others of 100/. each. As Harrison's imprisonment
was to commence after the expiration of those inflicted for the
second and third indictments he was really sent to gaol for
three years and six months. See post, p. 300.

298 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Manchester, in St. Peter's Field. So far as the chief
witness heard the lecturer, who had begun his
address before he could enter the crowded room,
Harrison spoke on two subjects, the propriety of
living soberly and righteously. To ensure the first
virtue, he advised his audience — about a thousand
persons — to abstain from tea, coffee, tobacco, and all
excisable articles as the only sure way of causing the
reform they sought. " The Government have starved
the people," said the preacher, " and, therefore, it is fit
that the people should starve the Government." To en
able them to live righteously, Harrison said, " The word
righteously applied as well to the rich as to the poor,
to the governors as well as to the governed." Then
he added that " the constitution consisted of king,
lords, and Commons ;" that " it was necessary for
all the three estates to work in making laws which
could not be altered but by the same consent : the
Commons was the house of assembly of the people,
where their rights ought to be protected ; but when
they asked for their rights, they threatened to make
war. Can laws proceeding from such a source be
considered the law of the land, or is it fit that we
should obey them ?" Harrison, who again conducted
his own defence, denied that he used such expressions,
adding " that if he did, in his opinion, there would have
been but little of sedition in his conduct, —
" ' For learned lawyers at their ease
Twist words and phrases as they please. ' "
" He could not read three chapters in the Bible
without uttering something which might be called

NA RRA TI VES OF S TA TE TRIA LS. 299
seditious. If persons were to be prosecuted for what
they preached, the best days of old England were
over — they were gone — fled for ever. He should not
be long alone. He should have company enough.
As long as money was to be got by informers, there
would be no want of prosecutors and prosecutions."
Continuing in the same strain, he spoke of the judge
having charged so hardly against him on the previous
trial, because "he must please his employers," and
when rebuked for these words, proceeded to read
selections from the Scriptures capable of a seditious
application. At the conclusion of his address, he
enlarged on the history of his family. " His father
was a minister of the Gospel in Yorkshire, and a
steady Whig. He had been a disciple of Fox, and
from the Whigs he had learned his politics." Four of
his congregation were called to depose to the loyal
tendency of his lecture, but gave too vague an account
of what they heard to lessen the evidence given for
the prosecution, and he was found guilty after only five
minutes' consideration on the part of the jury.
Next day he was again indicted before a fresh jury
for the following passage in a sermon preached on the
evening of the 6th of December. "Kings, princes,
dukes, lords, Commons, Parliaments, archbishops,
bishops, prelates, rectors, high-constables, constables,
sheriffs, deputy-constables, and bailiffs were all cor
rupt, and the time was near at hand when they
would be upset. The people," he continued, " should
rise en masse to suppress such a tyrannical Govern
ment as the one in this country ; and it will not
be long, but very soon, that it shall be overturned, and

300 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
many a bloody battle may be fought, and many a one
incarcerated in prison before it shall be accomplished."
Again he made the same kind of rambling and incon
clusive speech, and the jury again, after ten minutes'
consultation, found him guilty. Sentence was at once
passed on him for the second and third indictments,
a twelve months' imprisonment for each, and then to
find two sureties in ioo/. each, for his good behaviour
for two years. We hear no more of this very mis
chievous preacher, his long imprisonment probably
taught him the danger, if not the error of his
ways. This chapter would not be complete without some
account of the trial and conviction of Sir Francis
Burdett for a libel on Government in the form of an
address to his constituents, denouncing in the most
violent language the conduct of the soldiers at
Peterloo, and charging the Government with having
initiated a reign of terror and bloodshed, in order to
prevent the people petitioning for the much-needed
reform of the Legislature.
This notable politician was by birth, education,
and fortune an aristocrat ; and after a long life of
political warfare as an ardent but most intemperate
popular leader, in his last years became as strong a
Conservative as he had been a Liberal. Born in
1770, educated at Westminster and Oxford, he made
the usual Continental tour, deemed the indispensable
part of the education of the men of fortune and
position of his day, and returned from abroad deeply
imbued with the spirit of the French republicans.
To this, the friendship and instruction of the ardent

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 301
reformer, Home Tooke, undoubtedly gave much
encouragement. Returned to Parliament in 1796,
together with the future Lord Eldon, for the Duke
of Newcastle's close borough of Borrowbridge, he at
once denounced the Government as inimical to the
liberties of the people, and threw himself without
restraint into the reform agitation. Parliamentary
and, its necessary sequence, administrative reform
seemed so theoretical that the most sanguine of the
young politicians of that age could not hope to
live to see the realization of even a portion of their
demands. Sir Francis, like his active coadjutor,
Lord Cochrane, however, lived to see the realization
of nearly all his wishes ; but, unlike his colleague, to
regret the part he had taken when he saw the extent
to which reform after reform extended, so soon as the
concession of the first demand had been made. A con
stant denouncer of the severities of the various ad
ministrations, he was at every meeting of importance at
which the Government was attacked. At the hustings,
in Covent Garden, at the "King'sArms,"in Palace Yard,
and the great room of the " Crown and Anchor," in the
Strand, he uniformly took the lead, and by his know
ledge, his eloquence, and the versatility of his powers
in speaking and in reply, proved how qualified he was
to assume the role of " a tribune of the people." His
style in speaking, as well as in writing, was exag
gerated, but not the less effective ; and though "he
constantly erred ih the violence of his language, he
was admitted to be the best defender, of his time,
of the then limited liberties ofthe people. In 1802 he
stood for Middlesex successfully against the Govern-

302 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
ment candidate, and, though twice afterwards de
feated, on the death of Fox, he stood for Westminster,
with Lord Cochrane, and with him was returned
at the head of the poll by a triumphant majority,
though Sheridan was one of his opponents. In 1810,
on the committal of Gale Jones by the House of
Commons, he incurred the displeasure of that portion
of the Legislature by his address to his constituents,
was committed to the Tower, and only released on
the prorogation of Parliament. Then followed his
ineffectual proceedings against the Speaker and the
Serjeant-at-Arms, already alluded to, by which he
only obtained a legal sanction to the autocratic
powers of committal against which he had protested.
Still eager and active in his position of " the tribune
of the people," again and again he brought forward
motions in favour of parliamentary reform and
Catholic emancipation, only to be defeated ; but
though defeated, still all the more hopeful. On the
sad occasion of the Manchester riots, in 1819, he
again addressed his constituents, and was indicted,
tried, and convicted of the libel on Government
forming the subject of the following proceedings.
From that time, except in Parliament, he was less
before the public. He noted the steady approach
to victory of the principles for which he had fought,
and heartily welcomed the repeal of the Sacra
mental test and the Catholic disabilities, and the Re
form Bill of the Grey Cabinet. When, however, he
found that some of his friends meant revolution and
not reform, a change came over his views. Gradually
he separated himself more and more from the demo-

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 303
cratical reformers ; and before he died, in 1837, was
accounted by them as a renegade.
The libel for which Sir Francis Burdett was tried,
was in the form of a letter to the electors of
Westminster, and is too long to be quoted in full.
Portions of it will avail as an example ofthe whole.
After speaking of the grief, shame, and indignation
with which he read the account of the blood spilled
at Manchester, he said, —
" This, then, is the answer of the borough-mongers to the
petitioning people— this is the proof of our standing in need
of reform ; these the practical blessings of our borough-mongers
domination— this the use of a standing army in time of peace.
It seems our fathers were not such fools as some would make
us believe, in opposing the establishment of a standing army,
and sending King William's Dutch Guards out of the country.
Yet, would to heaven they had been Dutchmen or Switzers, or
Hessians or Hanoverians, or anything rather than Englishmen,
who have done such deeds. What ! Kill men unarmed ! un
resisting, and gracious God, women, too ! disfigured, maimed,
cut down, and trampled on by dragoons. Is this England ? Is
this a Christian land ? Is this a land of freedom ? Can such
things pass by us, like a summer cloud, unheeded ? Forbid it,
every drop of English blood in every vein that does not pro
claim its owner bastard."
"Will the gentlemen of England support Or wink at such
proceedings— they never can stand tamely by as lookers on
whilst bloody Neroes rip open their mother's womb ; they must
join the general voice, loudly demanding justice and redress,
and head public meetings throughout the United Kingdom, to
put a stop, in its commencement, to a reign of terror and of blood;
and ensure legal redress to the widows and orphans — mutilated
victims of this unparalleled and barbarous outrage." He then
proposed and offered to attend a meeting in Westminster for
that purpose, and added, " Whether the penalty of our meeting
will be death by military execution I know not ; but this I

304 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
know, a man can die but once, and never better than in vindi
cating the laws and liberties of his country." Then, professing
to doubt whether what he had written was not libellous, he
quoted the well-known incident of the soldiers at the camp on
Hounslow Heath cheering the news ofthe acquittal ofthe seven
bishops, and concluded with an attack on military punishments.
" 'Tis true James could not torture his soldiers, could not tear
the living flesh from their bones with the cat-o'-nine-tails,
could not flay them alive. ... Be this as it may, our duty is
to meet ; and England expects every man to do his duty."
Convinced by bitter experience that no jury of
London or Westminster would find Sir Francis
guilty, the Government laid the indictment in the
county of Leicester, where they sought to prove
publication in the following manner : —
A day or two after the date of the letter, Brooks,
apparently a newspaper agent, living in the Strand,
received the document from a Mr. Bickersteth, a
professional gentleman, with instructions for its pub
lication, acting on which he sent it to the Times and
the Free Press, and other journals, in which it subse
quently appeared. On the day of the letter's date,
Sir Francis was seen by the keeper of the toll-gate
near Kirby, in Leicestershire, which was about ioo
yards from his own house. The inference was that
the baronet had ridden there to post it to Bickersteth,
for transmission to Brooks. To the insufficiency of
this evidence Denman, on the part of Sir Francis,
at once objected, citing, of course, the case of the
seven bishops, and also that of the King against
Watson, in which it had been held that putting a
letter in the Westminster post-office was not proof of
publication within that jurisdiction. Mr. Justice

NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS. 305
Best, "however, overruled the objection. The error in
the case of the seven bishops, he said, was that they
were not tried in the county in which the paper had
been written, and referred to the case of Mr. Justice
Johnson, in which, it will be remembered, it was held
that the transmission of a letter from Ireland to
London was held sufficient proof of publication in
the latter place.* As it was not denied that the
letter was in the handwriting of Sir Francis, on this
proof of publication the case proceeded.
In his address to the jury, however, the defendant
again urged this point, asserting that neither he nor
his servant knew in what office it had been posted.
Then after severely censuring the Attorney-General
for this ingenious device, through fear of a Middlesex
jury, he attacked the system of ex-offcio informa
tions, and on the question of the expressions used in
the letter, declared that, had Locke written his
work on Government only a few years before, it
would have been described by the Crown lawyer as
a wicked and seditious libel.
" The circumstance of his being tried by a special jury was,
in itself, evidence that the offence with which he was charged
was not of a very heinous character. Falsehood, which, in
ordinary cases, was the gravamen of the charge, was omitted
altogether in the information against him. The Attorney-
General had stronger motives than he could have for doing
what was wrong, inasmuch as he had his fortune to make,
whilst the defendant was satisfied with what he had. If he
was charged with murder he should know how to defend him
self ; but not when charged with what was called a libel. The
4 See "The Trojan Horse Libels," vol. i. chap. vi. p. 142.
VOL. II. X

306 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
law of libel was even more undefined than the military law, for
every military man knew how to conduct himself so as to avoid
punishment. But no man could tell whether he would be
prosecuted or not for what he wrote."
Sir Francis then went through the expressions in
his letter, and declared that he could not conceive
that it was illegal to lament that soldiers had cut
people to pieces, or how it could excite disaffection
among the soldiery. All that he sought for was
legal redress. "The Manchester meeting was not
illegal. For a quarter of a century, as a member of
Parliament, he had always understood that any num
ber of persons might meet to present petitions ; and
it was not until lately that a noble and learned lord
had twisted out some obscure points of law to prove
that a meeting, when it became numerous, was illegal."
Citing Lord Holt's dictum, that whoever killed a
person on account of his being' at a great meeting
was a murderer, he asserted that in the Manchester
meeting there was no case to justify the sending of the
military among the crowd. Then citing extracts
from his numerous speeches to show that, no sedi
tious intention could be imputed to him, he con
cluded with comparing the Attorney- General to the
constable in " Measure for Measure," who was dis
missed for his interference by Escalus, and left him
self in the hands of the jury.
An attempt was then made by Denman to put in
evidence the statements that had been made as to
the Manchester meeting ; but Mr. Justice Best held
these to be irrelevant, and 'would not allow of any
evidence being given of what passed there.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 307
Best's charge to the jury was ofthe most decided
character. " Nothing," he said, " occurred that could
form any excuse for the most intemperate men, in
saying that a reign of terror and blood was com
menced in the country. If terror and blood were on
one side, what must have been on the other? He
was sorry to see the passage, 'A man can die but
once.' There never was a more striking instance of
the mock heroic. Could any one tell him that any
thing could be more pregnant with mischief than the
passage respecting the punishment of soldiers ? The
Government rested not on the army, but on the affec
tions of the people. If the paper was calculated to
do infinite mischief, that mischief must have been
intended. More poisonous ingredients never were
condensed in one paper." 6
6 On Best's ruling, Denman, in Easter term, 1820, moved
the King's Bench for a new trial. On this, as no decision
was given during that term, the Attorney-General (Sir S.
Shepherd), on the 8th of June, applied for judgment ; and, on the
application of Brougham, the argument on Denman's motion was
continued'by Phillips, November 27th. The Court (Abbott, C. J„
Bayley, Holroyd, and Best, JJ.) decided (1) that as the letter
was dated in Leicestershire, and the writer was seen there the day
on which, and the day after it was dated, the delivery by Bicker
steth to Brooks was proof of publication in Middlesex ; (2) that
delivery to a post-office in Leicestershire was proof of publica
tion in that county, and that where a person writes a letter in
Leicestershire with intent to publish, and afterwards publishes
it in Middlesex, he can be indicted for the misdemeanour in
either county. To the first decision Bayley (J.) dissented, and
on the second he doubted ; (3) The whole Court agreed that the
judge (Best) correctly ruled at the trial (a) that the intention of
a document is to be collected from the document itself, unless
explained by the mode of publication, or other circumstances ;
X 2

308 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
In about two minutes the verdict was returned, the
jury never leaving their box. At first it was only,
" guilty of libel," and the question rose whether that
inferred " Guilty in Leicestershire." Eventually the
judge took a general verdict of Guilty, leaving the
points that necessarily arose in the case to the
Court above. These being decided against him, Sir
Francis was sentenced February 8th, 1821, to three
months' imprisonment, and a fine of 2000/.
(b) if the contents of a paper are likely to excite sedition the
writer of it must be presumed to have intended that which his
act was likely to produce, and that if they found such to be the
fact it was a libel, and (c) that they were to take the law from
the judge.— " Barnewall and Alderson's Reports," 3. p, 717 and
4- P. 75-

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 309

CHAPTER IX.
THE CATO STREET CONSPIRACY.
TRIALS OF THISTLEWOOD AND OTHERS,
APRIL, 1820.— EDWARDS THE SPY.
THOUGH the Cato Street Conspiracy, for the assas
sination ofthe Cabinet, was not matured until 1820,
the proposal of such an inhuman scheme had been
suggested three years before by one whom Bamford
believed to be the dupe of Oliver the spy, and
dropped at that period for want of encouragement,
and a leader. Such a man was at length found in
Arthur Thistlewood. When acquitted, with Watson
and the others, for the Spa Fields riot, in June, 1817,
he had the folly to send a challenge to Lord Sidmouth,
for which he was indicted and imprisoned for a twelve
month, in Horsham gaol, from which he was released
about the time of the Manchester riot. It was,
according to his own account, when smarting under
his late treatment, and indignant at the conduct of
the military at Peterloo, that he met Edwards, the
Government spy, and became a willing instrument in
his hands. He had resolved that the lives of those
who had, as he believed, instigated the " massacre,"
" should be a requiem for the souls of the murdered

3io NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
innocents, and that insurrection was a public duty."
From that moment, whether instigated or not by
Edwards, he was ceaselessly engaged in his con
spiracy for the assassination of the Cabinet; and, if wit
nesses are to be believed, was so open and unguarded
in his statements and his preparations, that he must
have been infatuated not to expect that his secret
would be divulged. In this plot he was,, like Despard,
the only conspirator above the rank of working men;
the rest were of the usual class that we find engaged
in such combinations — a butcher, some shoemakers,
a discharged soldier, a cow-keeper, an Irish brick
layer, one of a colony of his countrymen in a lane off
Oxford Street, and Edwards, a modeller of plaster
images. Edwards is thus described by Mr. Charles Knight,1
who remembers him well : — " He kept a small shop,
in the High Street of Eton, where the most profitable
exercise of his art was the production and sale of a
little model of Dr. Keate, the head-master, in his
cocked -hat, the demand for which was considerable,
from its rapid consumption by the junior boys as a mark
to be pelted at." In November, 1819, he first spoke
about the Cato Street matter to Sir Herbert Taylor,
then in the King's household, by whom, no doubt,
he was put into communication with the Home Office.
It is not to be believed, for a moment, that he was insti
gated by Lord Sidmouth to play the part which he
was proved to have acted ; but it is evident that if he
did not instigate the plot, he took a most active
part in its preparation. He attended most of the
1 " Popular History of England," vol. viii. p. 160, note.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 311
meetings of the conspirators until the night before the
intended assassination ; brought there the intelligence
of the projected Cabinet dinner, at which ministers
were to be murdered ; formed one of the watch set on
Lord Harrowby's house to see if it was guarded ;
joined in making the fuses for the hand-grenades ; was
always in close communication with the leaders, and
if the witnesses for the prisoners are to be credited,
helped to bring to the house of one of them the
weapons and ammunition which were found there ;
assisted Thistlewood to escape for a time, and then,
in all probability, disclosed his hiding-place. Though
this man's name was in the list of witnesses for the
Crown, he was wisely, but most unfairly, kept out of
the witness-box. The Government had enough of
such witnesses in Castle, and as several of his accom
plices were ready to turn King's evidence, his discreet
absence was excused on the ground of not length
ening the trial by a repetition of the same facts.
It is possible, but not probable, that the exposure
which he must have suffered under cross-examina
tion would, as in Castle's case, have led the jury to
discredit the charge of high treason. Anyhow, it
would have exposed the system of espionage which
was regarded by Government as the necessity of
the day. This much must be said in behalf of the
Government, that Brougham did not blame it for
employing him, and acting on his evidence, or not
producing him at the trial.2
2 Debate in the House of Commons, May 2nd, 1820, on
the motion of Alderman Wood to bring Edwards before the
House, which was withdrawn, after discussion, on the ground

312 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Though Thistlewood admitted and gloried in his
intention of assassinating the Cabinet, and only
denied any idea of treason against the king, the
feeling against Edwards and the possibility of the
truth of Thistlewood's statement, that the spy was
the instigator and real contriver of the plot, led
to proceedings against the latter. On the 24th of
April four persons attended at Guildhall and made
depositions against Edwards, which were sent to Lord
Sidmouth with a request that proceedings might be
taken against him. This was refused, on the ground
that the trials were not yet concluded, and Edwards
might still be called for the Crown, and for the time
the matter slept. On the 22nd of May, however, a true
bill for high treason against him was found by the
grand jury, on the evidence, (it was reported,) of the
maker of the pikes which had been found stored up by
that it was not the proper remedy. In that on the 9th May, by
the Alderman for a Select Committee to consider the evi
dence of criminality on the part of Edwards and his associates
for two years before the trial, which was supported by Sir F.
Burdett, Hobhouse, Hume, and Sir Robert Wilson ; Mr.
Bankes, in opposition, cited Cicero's conduct in getting informa
tion from Catiline's concubine, Fulvia, and encouraging the
ambassadors ofthe Allobroges to attend the meetings ofthe con
spirators, so as to know their designs more clearly. On this
Hobhouse said that it did not appear that Cicero " had employed
the lady or the Allobroges to make the plot," and Denman de
clared that " it was the duty of the lawyers of the Crown to afford
the prisoners an opportunity of drawing from an infamous accom
plice all the circumstances that might lead to their own exculpa
tion by a severe cross-examination in court." One does not see
how the proof of Edwards' criminality would have served those
who clearly helped him to carry out his design, even if he
originally suggested it. — Hansard's " Debates," May 2nd and 9th.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 313
the conspirators, that they were made by him, on the
order of Edwards, and paid for by that person. On
this Edwards absconded ; and, as Lord Sidmouth, to
whom the documents had been previously sent, had
refused to issue a warrant for his apprehension, he
got safely away, in spite of the reward offered by the
prosecutors for his arrest. Eventually, it is believed,
he was sent by Government to the Cape of Good
Hope, probably under another name, and placed in a
position of which he was so utterly undeserving.
The assassination was intended to have been
effected on the 23rd of February, 1820, when a Cabinet
dinner had been announced at the house of Lord
Harrowby, in Grosvenor Square. The preparations
for this meeting were allowed to be made as if
nothing was known, and only countermanded about
the time when it was supposed that the arrangements
for the arrest of the conspirators had been carried
out. Of this Thistlewood and his co-conspirators
were not aware. Deceived by the arrival of visitors
to the next house, where a dinner was being given
by the Archbishop of York, they continued their
preparations to the moment when the officers broke
in upon them ; and, at the cost of the life of one of
them, effected the arrest of the greater nu mber. At
the moment Thistlewood escaped, being assisted by
Edwards to the house in which he was discovered,
betrayed, most probably, by the spy, as soon as he
knew that a reward of 1000/. had been issued for his
apprehension. On the 8th of March, 1820, a special commission
was issued to the Lord Chief Justices of England and

314 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
of the Common Pleas and other Judges, for the trial
ofthe Cato Street conspirators against whom true
bills for high treason were found on the 27th, and the
trials commenced with that of Thistlewood on the
17th of the following month. Eleven prisoners were
included in the indictment,3 which was in the usual
form of compassing the deposition and death of the
king ; conspiring to levy war to make him change
his measures, and finally levying war. The Attorney
and Solicitor-General with others appeared for the
Crown, Curwood and Adolphus for Thistlewood and
the five most active of the leaders, and Watford and
Broderick for the rest. The history and details of
the plot were minutely detailed by Adams, an ac
complice, a discharged soldier of the Blues, who, like
so many of his companions in guilt, was now' by
trade a shoemaker.
According to his evidence, on the 13th of January,
Brunt, one of the prisoners whom he had known at
Cambray, in France, in 1816, first introduced him to
Thistlewood at the latter's lodging in Stanhope
Street, Clare Market, as " This is the man I was
speaking about to you." Thistlewood spoke to him
about his abilities as a swordsman, and began to
abuse the shopkeepers as a lot of aristocrats al
together, and said that " he would glory to see the
day that all shops were shut up and plundered."
After some further abuse of Hunt and Cobbett, as
3 The prisoners were : Arthur Thistlewood, William David
son, James Ings, John Thomas Brunt, Richard Tidd, James
William Wilson, John Harrison, Richard Bradburn, John Shaw
Strange, James Gilchrist, and Charles Cooper.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 315
Government spies, this interview appears to have
terminated. Other conversations followed during the
next three days, the nature of which was not dis
closed, and from then to the 31st Adams did not see
Thistlewood, as the witness was in prison for debt.
On that evening Adams met Thistlewood at Brunt's,
in Fox Court, Gray's Inn, and again two days after
at the same place found Davidson, Harrison, and
Edwards, besides Brunt and Thistlewood. He then
noticed long green pike-staves in the room, and heard
Thistlewood and Davidson complain that Bradburn
had not fixed the ferrules to them, for which he had
been paid. These meetings continued to be held at
Brunt's from the 31st of January to the 23rd of
February. When he next attended a meeting — some
nine or ten days before the king's funeral — he found
Thistlewood and Harrison in consultation over the
stove, and he sat down by them. What then followed
was important.
" They began to tell me the discourse that had passed between
them. Harrison told Thistlewood he had met one of the Life
Guards, who told him that all the Life Guards that could be
spared and could be mounted, would be at the funeral of the
king, and likewise as many foot-guards as could be spared, and
the police officers as well, and it would be a very favourable
opportunity to kick up a row and see what they could do that
night. It quite met with Thistlewood's approval. He said it
certainly would be a very favourable opportunity, and he had no
doubt, provided they could take those two pieces of cannon in
Gray's Inn Lane, and the six pieces at the artillery-ground, that
they would have an opportunity before morning to put them
selves in possession of London. If once it began, and if com
munication went from London to Windsor to inform the army
there that they were to come to London, they would be so tired

316 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
when they got to London they would not be able to do anything-
He also proposed arranging to prevent an orderly going from
Hyde Park to Windsor. In the next place he said it would be
highly necessary to go to the telegraph over the water and get
possession of that to prevent any intelligence being conveyed to
Woolwich. He next proposed, as he thought by that time they
would be able form a provisional government, for that govern
ment to send down to the seaports to prevent any gentleman
being sent out of the country without its passport ; he named
several ports, and at last Brighton, to which he said it would be
necessary to send down a force sufficient to take it, ' not that I
suppose our new king will be able to be there at that time or to
be at the funeral of his father j ' he did not consider he was well
enough, but ' it will be necessary lo go down there to prevent any
person leaving it, and as to the prince-regent or king, we cannot
think of his ever wearing the crown, the present family have
inherited it long enoiigh.' Thistlewood then told Ings and
Brunt the news Harrison had brought, and they both positively
declared that there was nothing short of the assassination which
they had in view, that would satisfy them (the assassination of
ministers which had been discussed at a previous meeting)."
On Saturday, the 19th of February, Adams
attended another meeting in Fox Court, at which he
found Thistlewood, Harrison, Davidson, Ings, Brunt,
and Hall, all set round the room apparently in con
fusion in a deep study ; he had not been there scarcely
a minute before they all got up, turned on their heels
and said, " Well then, it is agreed that if nothing
happens between this and Wednesday next, next
Wednesday night we will go to work." They were
too poor to wait any longer. A committee for the
next day was then decided, at which Thistlewood
said, " It will be necessary for all that attend to bring
arms with them in case any officers should come up.'
On which Brunt, to whom this was addressed, declared

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 317
his intention of running any officer through who
should enter the room. Next day, Sunday, Adams
went to the meeting, at which eleven of the party,
including Edwards, attended. Business had already
commenced, and Thistlewood finding so many present
said there were enough for a committee, and on his
nomination Tidd was placed in the chair. Then
" the West End job," as the assassination of the
Cabinet was termed, was opened in detail.

" ' Gentlemen,' he reports Thistlewood to have said, ' we are
come to this determination, as we are all tired of waiting so long
for the doing this job, and as we find there is no probability of
their meeting all together, if in any case they do not dine
together between this and Wednesday, to take them separately
at their own houses ; we shall not have such an opportunity of
destroying so many as provided they were to dine all together ; if
we take them separately, we must be content with two or three or
four, as we can get them. I suppose it will take as much as
forty or fifty men to do the West End job, and I propose at the
same time to take the two pieces of cannon in Gray's Inn Lane,
and the six pieces at the artillery-ground. After that, to take
the Mansion House as the seat of the provisional government,
and then to make an attempt on the Bank of England.' Palin
(who had not been apprehended) was then named to set fire to
the different buildings in different parts of London. The plan
was then put, approved by all present, and a plan proposed by
Brunt how the ministers should be killed. After this Palin and
two more came in, and Thistlewood and Brunt's proposals were
repeated, and Palin, before agreeing to it, wanted to know
whether he might reveal it to those men whom he expected to
bring, and leave was given him to do so. After this Brunt and
Palin were sent out to reconnoitre Furnival's Inn, which was
close by, to see how it could be set on fire, and when they
returned the importance of getting all their men together was
mooted, and it was suggested that a room for this purpose
could be got at the ' White Hart,' and Brunt offered to lend his,

3i8 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
and to get his apprentice and his son out of the way at the time
of the meeting."
Before the next meeting, however, Adams had seen
the landlord of the " White Hart," and when they
met at Thistlewood's told them, to their dismay, that
the landlord had been visited by two police officers
with the information that it was known at the Home
Office that a radical meeting was held at his tavern.
In consequence, the meeting for Monday night was
put off, and it was not until Tuesday morning, the
22nd, that the conspirators reassembled at Brunt's
lodging. At that meeting there were again eleven of
them, including Edwards, who brought the news of
the proposed Cabinet dinner for the next day at
Lord Harrowby's. A newspaper was sent for and the
news confirmed, when Brunt said, " Now, I will be
d  d if I do not believe there is a God : I have
often prayed that those thieves may be collected to
gether, in order to give us a good opportunity of
destroying them, and now God has answered my
prayer." It was proposed to form a committee, and
Adams was put into the chair, but only for a few
minutes as he recalled to their attention what he had
told them on the previous morning, and was conse
quently looked on by some of the more active persons
as faint-hearted. His warning, however, had this
effect : men were at once told off to keep watch on
Lord Harrowby's house to see if any officers or
soldiers went in — two men watching at a time for
three hours, from six to twelve that night, and again
from four the next morning. Among the first of
these watchers was Edwards. Brunt then proposed

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 319
the following plan suitable to an attack on the dinner
party, where fourteen at least might be expected to
assemble. "' I propose,' says he, 'going to the door with a note to pre
sent to Lord Harrowby ; when the door is opened, for the men
to rush in directly, seize the servants that are in the way, pre
sent a pistol to them, and directly threaten them with death if
they offer the least resistance.' This being done, a party were to
rush forward to take the command of the stairs — two men were
to be placed at the stairs leading to the upper part of the house
one was to have fire-arms, to be protected by another with a
hand-grenade in his hand, a couple similarly armed to take the
head of the stairs leading to the lower part of the house. If any
servants attempted to retreat either way, the men were to set fire
to the grenades, and throw them amongst them ; two more men,
similarly armed, were to guard the area, and act in the same
way if the servants tried to escape in that direction. This being
done, the men told off for the assassination were to rush in
directly where the guests were and murder all found in the room,
good or bad, for if there were any good ones they would murder
them for keeping bad company. Ings (the butcher) volunteered
to enter the room first with a brace of pistols, a cutlass, and his
butcher's knife in his pocket, with the determination, after the
two swordsmen who were to follow him had despatched them,
to cut off every head that was in the room, and the heads of
Lord Castlereagh and Lord Sidmouth he would bring away in a
bag : for that purpose he would provide two bags. As soon as
they got into the room he would say, ' Well, my lords, I have
got as good men here as the Manchester Yeomanry. Enter,
citizens, and do your duty ! ' On this the two swordsmen were
to enter, to be followed by the rest of the men with pikes,
pistols, cutlasses, or whatever it might be, and to fall to work
murdering as fast as they could."
Harrison, an old life-guardsman, and Adams were
selected by Thistlewood as the swordsmen ; Harrison
willing enough, and Adams, as he swore, consenting

320 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
as he saw no chance of escape, and that if he did not
assent his life was in danger. Thistlewood then pro
posed to follow up the murder by firing the horse
barrack in King Street, seizing the two guns at the
City light-horse barracks in Gray's Inn Lane, and then,
uniting with a party placed in that neighbourhood, to
proceed to the artillery-ground in Finsbury, take the
six guns, advance to the Mansion House, placing half
the guns on the side next to the Royal Exchange,
and the rest on that towards Cornhill, demand
possession, if resisted fire on it, and when it was
surrendered, establish there the provisional govern
ment. The Bank was next to be attacked, the
money taken, but the books preserved "to enable
them to see the villainy that had been practised in the
country for some years." Harrison now proposed
the word " Button " as a countersign. The first man
on meeting a supposed comrade was to spell B-U-T,
and the other to spell in reply T-O-N. A new place
of meeting was to be selected for the next night, and
a man placed at the end of Oxford Street to com
municate its situation to any one who came up to
him. Nothing more appears to have been done at the
morning meeting, but when Adams looked in again
in the evening, he found ammunition being actively
prepared by Edwards, Ings, and Hall. Edwards
was making fuses for the hand-grenades : Ings
dipping rope-yarn, picked for the purpose, into stuff
to make the illumination-balls for Palin, who was to
fire the houses, and Hall helping Ings by putting shreds
of paper on the floor to receive these balls after they

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 321
came from the pot, in which each ball was to be
wrapped up to prevent its sticking to the hand of the
thrower. After some little interval Adams went with Brunt
to take his turn in watching Lord Harrowby's house,
when an incident occurred, apparently of little
moment, but which, as offering an opportunity for its
confirmation by an entirely independent witness,
became of consequence in the trial. Adams feeling
tired, Brunt took him for refreshment to a public-
house at the corner of the mews leading up to Lord
Harrowby's, where they found some young men play
ing dominoes, with one of whom, on being challenged,
Brunt played a game before they returned to their
watch. Next day, the Wednesday of the Cabinet
dinner, in the afternoon, Adams, on whom Edwards
had called in the morning, went as usual to the rooms
in Fox Court, and found at first only Brunt. Two
strange men soon after came in, and commenced hand
ling and trying the flints of a brace of pistols which were
lying upon the drawers. On the whole party going into
the usual meeting-room Adams saw a blunderbuss, and
a number of cutlasses and pistols, besides those brought
from the other room. The strangers at once proceeded
to fix flints in the pistols, when Thistlewood came
in and said, " Well, my lads, this looks like as if
there was something to be done." He also spoke to
Adams, and on his saying he felt unwell, told Brunt
to send out for some gin and beer, as Adams was in
low spirits. Whilst the liquor was being fetched an
important step was taken by Thistlewood.
He wanted some paper to write some bills on, he
VOL. II. Y

322 NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS.
could not tell what to call it, but the paper on
which the newspapers were printed. Adams said to
him " Cartridge-paper will answer your purpose."
Thistlewood said, " Who will fetch it ? " to which
Brunt replied, '' My boy or the apprentice shall fetch
the paper." Thistlewood gave Brunt a shilling to
fetch'half a dozen sheets : the paper was brought, and
a table fetched out of Brunt's front-room, with a chair
to enable Thistlewood to sit down and write.
Thistlewood then sat down to write six bills, to be
put on the buildings that might be set on fire, and
afterwards read out the following words : —
" Your Tyrants are destroyed.
"The Friends of Liberty are called upon
to come forward.
"The Provisional Government is now
SITTING. "James Ings, Secretary.
" 23^ February, 1820."
Thistlewood, being excited and tired, at last
persuaded Hall to sit down and write another biil at
his dictation. To a verbal account of the contents
of this bill an objection was taken, and as a portion
of the Court had some doubt, the evidence was not
pressed. At this meeting, Ings dressed himself armed
for the murderous part he had volunteered to play.
" He put on," said Adams, " a black belt round his waist, in
order to contain a brace of pistols ; he put another black belt
on to hang a cutlass ; after these was a large bag hung on each
shoulder in the form of a soldier's haversack. When he had
done this he placed a brace of pistols, one on each side, hung a

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 323
cutlass, viewed himself, and says with an oath, ' I am not com
plete— I have forgot my steel,' and with that pulls out a large
knife and began to brandish it about as if he were in the act of
cutting the heads of those he intended to cut off. He said he
would bring away a head in each hand, and the hand of Lord
Castlereagh he would cut off, and procure that which might at a
future day be thought much of ; he repeated these expressions
frequently. The knife was a broad-bladed one, from ten to
twelve inches long, the handle bound with a wax-end, as he
declared, to prevent his hand slipping in doing the thing.
Whilst Ings was thus arming himself, the others were fixing the
leathers to hold pistols and putting them in their belts. Another
man was busy in putting the cutlasses into slings to hang by
the wrist ; it would be impossible to describe all the transactions.
There was a cupboard in the room, in which the different things
brought there were kept — swords, flannel bags for gun car
tridges, pikes, on some of which ferrules had been fixed ; others
were at the dep6t in Tidd's house in the Hole-in-the-Wall
Passage in Baldwin's Gardens, in the room next to my own.
Thistlewood was always in a hurry when anything was to be
taken there for fear any one should see them, and might have
some suspicion that there was something more than they were
aware. The blunderbuss was given to the witness to carry under
his coat, and he took a broomstick, prepared for a pike-head,
as a walking-stick."
An adjournment now followed to the room over a
stable in Cato Street, (an obscure street running from
John Street to Queen Street in the Edgeware-road,)
which had been hired by Harrison on* the previous
day. The access to this street at each end was very
narrow, one only being practicable for carriages and
the other closed with posts, so as to admit only foot-
passengers. The stable itself was on the right-hand
side as you entered from John Street, and nearly
opposite to a small public-house called the " Horse
and Groom." Nearly opposite its door a step ladder
Y 2

324 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
led to two rooms above, in which preparations had
been made for the meeting. Over the window of the
loft a piece of canvas had been nailed to prevent the
opposite neighbours from seeing in, and thither, all
the afternoon of the 23rd, persons were seen going in
with various parcels on their backs, presumably the
arms and other articles of offence found in the room
when the officers got possession. When Adams got
there with Thistlewood and Brunt about fifteen of
the party had assembled, who were increased to twenty
before the abrupt conclusion of the meeting. Of these
eighteen were in the room and two below at the
ladder foot.
" When I went in," said Adams, '¦ I saw a carpenter's bench,
on which were arms of different descriptions ; there was also a
trunk near the window. I found those who were present handling
the arms. After about twenty minutes Brunt came in and said
that some one should go to Grosvenor Square, to see whether
ministers were arriving, and Thistlewood went. On his return,
hearing a great deal of talking in the stable below, I went down
and found Thistlewood, Brunt, Davidson, Harrison, and Wilson
al^talking together. They saw me and said what good news
they had got. I said, ' What good news ? ' And they said the
carriages are getting there as fast as they can ; no less than six
or seven are already arrived. Tidd soon after came in, but
before he came Thistlewood and Brunt were discussing his
absence, and Ings said, ' Do not drop it now ; if you do, I shall
hang myself — I shall go mad.' When Tidd had come, Thistle
wood began to count the men in the room, ' Let us see,' he said,
' eighteen in the room and two below stairs, altogether there are
twenty ; you say there are not sufficient to go ; I say there are
plenty.' Then he said, 'Fourteen would be sufficient to go into
the room, and the other six would be sufficient to take care of
the servants.' Then the fourteen men were picked out on that
side of the room that the ladder led into, and on their being
called together there, Brunt starts the gin-bottle round, and

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 325
Thistlewood said, 'Now, I conceive this number of men is suffi
cient ? If Lord Harrowby has sixteen servants, they will not be
prepared : we are. We can go and do what we have to do in
ten minutes' time.' "
Within a few minutes after a noise was heard
below, and a voice, " Holloa ! show a light," and in
an instant the officers came in the room, and the plot
was frustrated. What followed in the mele'e will be
more clearly told by Ruthven, the Bow Street officer,
the first who sprang into the room, as Adams, probably
by arrangement, slipped away, and was not ap
prehended until the night of Friday. On his cross-
examination Adams admitted that he attended the
meetings without any intention of joining in the
assassination, though under that " pretence to every
outward appearance." He professed to have intended
surrendering to the officers, but on his getting out of
the stable found that they had left, and then deter
mined to take his chance, and that it was simply
because he was conscience-stricken that he turned
King's evidence, having made a solemn vow, after his
arrest, that " if God would spare him, he would
make a full disclosure."
Before this fellow was examined on the trial of
Ings, the friends of the prisoners had raked up some
facts about his religious belief that threw no little
doubt on his professed conscientious convictions.
Having been educated as a Christian, he had turned
Deist on reading Paine's "Age of Reason," but stoutly
denied he had ever gone so far as Atheism. His
Deistic period had extended from August 181 8 to
the day when the conspirators were arrested, and

326 NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS.
his return to Christianity only commenced when
he found himself in gaol. He had known Edwards
from the previous January, and in all probability was
instructed by him to play the part he acted, so as to
enable the prisoners to be convicted by the evidence
of an accomplice, whose share in the plot was not
open to such severe reproof as that of the hired
Government spy.
According to Ruthven, acting on his instructions,
he and a party of constables, about twelve in number,
met at the stable on the night of the 23rd, and when
they went in found a man with a blunderbuss on his
shoulder and cutlass by his side, whom he ordered to
be seized, and then running up the ladder observed
several men in the loft, and heard a clattering of
arms. " We are officers," he said, and then turning to
his men, added, " Seize their arms ! " Thistlewood,
whom he knew from the time of the Spa Fields trials,
was standing on the right-hand side of the table.
He at once took up a sword and retreated into the
inner room, and stood facing to prevent any one
coming in. Smithers the officer approached him,
when he thrust his arm forward and stabbed him, and
the poor fellow fell back with a faint cry, " Oh, my
God, I am done," and died on the spot. The lights
were at once extinguished and a cry raised of " Kill
them," and then a rush made by which the officers
were driven back down the ladder, and forced out
of the stable. During the struggle several shots
were fired. On getting into John Street, Ruthven
met the soldiers, and returned with them to the
stable, where he found Ings, and, subsequently,

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 327
Davidson, Wilson, Bradburn, Monument, Cooper,
Strange, and Gilchrist were brought to him in
custody. Of the weapons found in the loft, he
produced two swords, ten hand-grenades, and two
fire-balls, as discovered by himself, the remainder
being found by other officers, whom he instructed to
retain them. Ings, the man at the foot of the ladder,
was captured by another constable,' at whom he fired,
happily without effect, and when searched was found
to have a belt with two brace of pistols on each side,
two haversacks over his shoulder, some powder in a
tin box, and the butcher's knife, the arms with which
Adams had sworn he had provided himself at a
previous meeting. Lieutenant Frederick Fitzclarence,
who brought up a picket ofthe guards in support ofthe
officers, spoke to his arresting some three or four of
the party in the stable. Gradually others of the
conspirators were seized until all the most active, with
the exception of Palin, who escaped, and Edwards,
who was of course left free, were in custody.
To complete the discovery of the weapons and am
munition, a room at Brunt's was searched, where two
rush baskets, one tied up in an apron, an iron pot with
the remains of tar in it, and a pike-shaft were found.
In the baskets, besides rope-yarn, tar, and steel-filings,
were four hand-grenades, a leather bag with sixty-three
musket-balls, two flannel bags, each charged with one
pound of powder, suitable for cannon cartridges, and
five more bags not as yet charged. Tidd's, however,
was the "depdt." There a box with nearly 1000 ball
cartridges, a canvas cloth with ten hand-grenades,
a quantity of powder, and a haversack with 171 more

328 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
ball cartridges, sixty-nine with a ball in them, but with
out powder, three pounds of powder, and 434 balls, were
seized. Here also twenty-seven pike-handles were
found. From the places where all this ammunition
was stored, it would appear, that the design of the con
spirators was to trust to the success of the assassina
tion bringing others gradually to join them, and then
to open their stores, and arm their increasing forces,
in hopes of carrying out their entire programme.
Four more witnesses, more or less accomplices,
were called to confirm the statement of Adams —
Hiden, who gave the warning to Lord Harrowby, the
two Monuments, and Dwyer, the Irish bricklayer.
Hiden's statement if strictly true, showed how reck
lessly open the conspirators were in letting others
into their secret. This witness, a milkman, — he was
called by the larger name of cow-keeper, because he
owned one of these animals, — met Wilson, a member
of a shoemakers' club to which the witness had once
belonged, a few days before the 23rd of February.
" Wilson met me in the. street as I was walking, and asked me
if I would be one of a party to come forward to destroy his
Majesty's ministers at a Cabinet dinner. They were waiting for
that, and all things were ready ; they had such things as I never
saw, which he called hand-grenades, and they depended on me
to be one. The grenades were to be lighted with fuses and put
in under the tables, and that all that escaped the explosion were
to die by the sword or some other weapon. They were to light
up some fires, and by so doing, it would keep the town in a
state of confusion for some days, and it would be a general
thing. He did not see Wilson again till the 23rd, but before
that had seen Lord Harrowby. Met Wilson between four and
five in Manchester Square ; he called to me, and said I was the
very man he wanted to see. I asked him what there was going

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 329
to be, and he said there was going to be a Cabinet dinner that
night at Lord Harrowby's. I asked him where I was to meet
them. He said I was to go up to Cato Street, the ' Horse and
Groom ' public-house, and go in there ; or, otherwise, I was to
stop at the corner till I was shown into a stable close by. I was
to be there at six or a quarter before, and there would be from
twenty to thirty there. There was to be another party in the
Borough, another in Gray's Inn Lane, one in Gee's Court, or
otherwise in the City — I cannot be certain which. At the first
time he told me there was a gentleman's servant who had been
supporting some of the party with some quantity of money, and
if they would act upon the subject he would give them a great
deal more. Asked me if I had a gun, and when I said a rubbishing
one, told me they would provide me with a gun and something
to work. He then told me about the cannon in Gray's Inn
Lane and the artillery-ground, and that after doing the great
thing in Grosvenor Square, they were to retreat and meet some
where near the Mansion House."
Hiden, who, it must be admitted, never took heartily
to the affair, and apparently only joined so far as to
enable him to disclose it, went to the rendezvous,
where he met Wilson and Davidson, and then left on
the excuse that he had to get some cream for a cus
tomer, and did not meddle further with the matter.
John Monument had been met by Thistlewood as
far back as the winter of the previous year, when
apparently nothing of importance passed ; in January,
however, he called on him with Brunt, at the witness's
lodgings, and, as Monument's brother and mother
were there, called him out and spoke to him privately
on the landing. From what he had seen ofMonument
on the first occasion, or probably since heard of him
from Brunt, he without hesitation told him that
"great events were at hand, the people were every
where anxious for a change." Speaking then of

330 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS,.
the men who had promised support and since de
serted him, he said he had now got men who would
stand by him, and asked him whether he had arms,
and when Monument said he had not, said every one
now ought to be armed, every one who now stood by
him had either a sabre, a pike, or a pistol. As yet
Monument had no idea what the plan was.
On the 22nd of February, however, Brunt and Tidd
called on him, the countersign was revealed, and he
was told that he would know the nature of the design
at the meeting next night Next day, between four
and five in the afternoon, Brunt called on him, sent
him to Tidd's house, where he saw Tidd arm himself
with a large horse-pistol, and then wrap up eight or
ten spikes — made out of files ground sharp — put them
under his coat, and having taken a staff about four
feet long fitted for a pike-head, they left for Cato
Street, where they entered the stable. Monument's
account of what followed, though varying in some
details, corresponded in the main with that of Adams.
In the attack by the officers, Monument was one of
those arrested on the spot. The only persons whom
he knew were Thistlewood, Brunt, and Tidd, and a
man of colour, the prisoner Davidson. On his cross-
examination, he denied any knowledge of Edwards, but
on re-examination by the Solicitor-General, admitted
that when brought before the council at Whitehall,
Thistlewood had asked him to say that Edwards
brought him to the meeting. When Monument re
fused to tell such a lie, Thistlewood laughingly said "it
did not matter, but if he was asked to describe Edwards
to say he was a man of about his own height, of a

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 331
sallow complexion and dressed in a brown coat," such
a person having been spoken of by Adams as attend
ing several of the meetings. He had been kept
separately from Adams, and had never seen him ex
cept when before the grand jury, and that day in Court.
This witness's brother had heard the conversation in
which Brunt revealed the password, and instructed
his brother to go to Tidd's house. He had not the
curiosity, he swore, to ask what it was all about, and
was determined not to inquire.
Dwyer, the Irish bricklayer, was the last of the
accomplices that was called. He had seen Davidson
twice before the 23rd, and been introduced by him to
Thistlewood, who, he declared, made no revelation of
the plot to him, but only talked about having been in
several previous revolutions, and that he had a good
many Irishmen as his supporters. On the evening of
the 22nd, Harrison called on Dwyer at his lodgings,
and took him to the room in Fox Court, where
he was shown a hand-grenade, and afterwards met
several of the prisoners, including Thistlewood and
Davidson, the latter armed with a blunderbuss, a pair
of pistols, and a bayonet. Then Thistlewood ex
plained to hirn that the grenades were to be used for
firing the horse-barracks, and at Lord Harrowby's,
and asked him how many of his countrymen he could
bring. Dwyer said five or six-and-twenty, and was
told to meet them at a public-house in a court near
Wigmore Street frequented by the Irish, "take a
few — the best of them — to the Foundling Hospital,
knock at the lodge, put a pistol to the porter's breast,
turn down to the right hand, where there were five or

332 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
six-and-twenty stand of arms at the next lodge." The
proposed seizure of the cannon and the attack on
Lord Harrowby's were then spoken of. Whilst there
he saw a bundle of gunpowder brought out of a
cupboard, and several flannel bags filled from it, and
he heard directions given to take some pikes to the
" Horse and Groom." He also saw Harrison take
away a bag with grenades, the powder-bags, and the
pike-heads. Soon after this he left, went at once to
a Major James with the information, and was by him
sent on to the office of the Secretary of State.
A vigorous attempt was made on the part of the
prisoner to expose the character of this witness, by
calling one Huckleston, who had been a shoemaker,
but was then a cow-doctor, who swore that Dwyer,
who had denied any knowledge of him, was well-
known to him for some years, and not to be believed
on his oath. Dwyer, he declared, had tried to induce
him to extort money from gentlemen by false accu
sations of unnatural offences, that he went with him
once to Hyde Park on that errand, but afterwards
refused to join him, yet kept Dwyer's malpractices to
himself, for fear of the Irishmen which were around
his place. Dwyer was recalled, and though he now
admitted that he knew Huckleston by sight, pro
tested that he did not know his name — utterly denied
the imputation of getting his living by such a hor
rible practice as Huckleston had spoken to, and to
rebut the story of his having told Huckleston that he
made 70/. out of one of his false accusations, swore
that he was glad to work at the parish mill for
3J-. a day before he obtained his present employment.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 333
The jury, on this attempt to discredit Dwyer, sug
gested that Major James should be called, to ask him
if Dwyer really did communicate with him as he had
sworn. Next day the major was present. As, how
ever, his name was not on the list of witnesses for the
Crown given to the prisoner, the prosecution could
not call him, and Mr. Adolphus probably exercised
a wise discretion in not making him his witness. The
jury drew the inevitable conclusion that in this im
portant point Dwyer had spoken the truth, and in
consequence attached more credit to the remainder
of his evidence.
To confirm these revelations made by the accom
plices, numerous witnesses were called, of whom the
most material was the apprentice of Brunt.
" I remember," he said, " a person taking the back room, two-
pair stairs, in Fox Court ; that person was Ings ; Brunt and
he looked at the room together. When they came out of the
room I heard Brunt say to Ings, ' It will do ; go down and give
her a shilling.' After that Ings used to come to the room ; he
left the key at Brunt's when he went out. Every evening a
number of visitors used to come to them; among them con
stantly, Thistlewood, Tidd, Braburn, Edwards, Hall, Potter,
Strange, Adams, and Davidson, the man of colour, and more
whose names I do not know. There was no furniture in the
room ; they used to take chairs out of Brunt's room to sit on.
They used to call Thistlewood 'T,' and sometimes 'Arthur.'
When the door has been open, I have seen long poles like rough
branches of trees ; about twenty were in the room. I have
heard hammering and sawing. Brunt was taken up on Thurs
day, the 24th of February. On the Sunday morning before that
there was a meeting of a larger number than I had seen before ;
all those I named before were there. After the meeting broke
up, Strange remained in my master's room ; there was a meeting
on Monday evening, and on Tuesday several persons came in

334 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
and out. On Wednesday, the 24th, some men came into
master's workshop ; they had got some pistols, and were putting
new flints into them ; there were five or six pistols. Some of
the men said there were people overlooking them, and Brunt told
them to go into the back room. Strange and a man I do not
know were putting in the flints. In the course of the afternoon
Thistlewood asked me for a piece of writing paper, and took it
into the back room ; after that my master came out and ordered
me to get six sheets of cartridge-paper, and gave me sixpence.
I got them, gave them to my master, who took them into the
back room ; this was between four and five in the afternoon.
My master went away about six, a man went with him who was
a stranger. I handed a table from my mistress's room into the
back room that day. When my mistress was ,going to tea we
wanted it, so I knocked at the door of the back room and a
man named Potter gave it out. By the opening of the door I
saw four or five persons in the room. I saw Tidd after my master
was gone. Between seven and eight Mrs Brunt called Tidd to
her and showed him a cupboard in which were a sword and a
pike-head, and asked what she should do with them ; he took
them into the back room, and soon after went away, leaving
word for any one who came to follow to the ' White Hart.'
Potter and others came and went on. My master came home
about nine o'clock the same night, his dress was dirty, and he
was confused, and told his wife ' it was all up ; where he had
been, a great many officers had come in, and he had saved
his life, and that was all.' Just then another man came in, and
asked him if he knew who had informed. ' No,' he said, ' he
had had a dreadful blow on the side, and was knocked down.'
Brunt said, ' Something more is to be done,' and he and the man
went out. After they were gone, Mrs. Brunt and I went into the
back room, where we found one of the poles I had seen before,
and in the cupboard were several rolls of brown paper with tar
in them, some paper twisted up, and some things as big as my
two fists with strings round them, and an iron pot that Brunt
had had some time before. At eleven my master returned and
said he would want me to get up as early as possible next morn
ing to clean his boots, which were very dirty. He called me
next morning at half-past six, and asked me if I knew the

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 335
Borough, which I did, but not Snow's Fields. We then went
into the back room, where I took two baskets by his direction,
and we put the things out of the cupboard into them ; he told
me they were going to Potter's in Snow's Fields. One of the
baskets was tied with a blue apron that had been used as a cur
tain in Ings's room. I went into Brunt's room to look for some
thing to tie the other basket in, when two officers came in and
arrested Brunt. Tidd lived in the Hole-in-the-wall Passage,
Brook's Market, and Adams next door to him."
In addition to this confirmation of so many of
the details of Adams's statement, the watchman in
Grosvenor Square remembered four suspicious-looking
persons walking about it, and identified one of them
as Davidson, the black man. Another witness remem
bered the incident of a tall man and short one in a
brown coat (Adams and Brunt), coming for refresh
ment into the public-house at the corner of the mews
in Grosvenor Square, and the latter playing a game
of dominoes with a stranger. A cutler in Drury
Lane swore to Ings bringing one of the swords
found in Cato Street to him to be ground, and taking
it away afterwards. A pawnbroker remembered
Davidson taking a blunderbuss out of pawn on the
23rd. Lord Harrowby confirmed Hiden's story, and
his butler spoke to the arrangements for the dinner
being continued until he heard from his master late
in the evening, and to the dinner at the Archbishop's
next door, by the arrivals at which the conspirators
were led to believe that the Cabinet were assembling
at Lord Harrowby's.
Again, on the capture of Ings, he was found armed
as described by Adams, and with the two bags slung
from his shoulders ; the baskets seized at Brunt's,

336 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
with the contents spoken to by the apprentice were
produced ; from the depot at Tidd's, came the stores of
ammunition already described, and the deadly nature
of the hand-grenades was explained by Sergeant
Harrison, of the artillery.
To meet this evidence the prisoner called Tidd's
daughter, who swore that the things found at her
father's had been brought there on the 24th by
Edwards, but admitted that she had seen similar
things there before, and so rather confirmed than
diminished the evidence for the prosecution. The
endeavour to discredit the evidence of Dwyer has
already been mentioned, and with an attempt, (which,
if it did not fail entirely, did not amount to any clear
proof,) to show that the notice in the New Times of the
intended dinner was an invention of Edwards to trap
the prisoners, the evidence on both sides concluded.
The defence attempted by the prisoner's counsel
was necessarily of a desperate character. They
admitted the intention to assassinate ministers, but
urged, as in Watson's case, for the Spa Fields riot,
that the whole evidence of high treason rested on the
statements of the accomplices, unless the jury held
that it was proved that the bills were written by
Thistlewood. The absurdity of proposing to stick
these on the burning houses was made the most of,
and the venerable argument, which we have seen
used in the previous cases of Despard, Emmett, and
other conspirators, of supposing that such a firmly
fixed Government as that of England could be over
thrown by such a petty conspiracy, urged again and
again. Counsel went so far as to admit that besides

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 337
murder, a riot for the purposes of plunder might
be intended, and suggested that the bags carried by
Ings were rather with the object of carrying off the
plate, than the heads of Castlereagh and Sidmouth.
So clearly, however, did the Chief Justice point out
the numerous confirmations of the statements of the
leading accomplice (Adams) by witnesses against
whom no imputations could be raised, that the jury
were only five minutes before they returned a verdict
of Guilty.
On subsequent days Ings, Brunt, Davidson, and
Tidd were tried by fresh juries, on similar evidence
(Adams giving some new details specially relative to
each prisoner's case), and found guilty. On this the
remaining prisoners withdrew their pleas of not
guilty, and pleaded guilty, and with the conviction
of the whole the trials ended.
When called up for judgment Thistlewood declared
that " he was murdered, according to the etiquette
of the Court," because not allowed after the close of
his counsel's speech to call witnesses to prove what
a villain Dwyer was, and that Adams and Hiden
were swindlers. " Judges," he said, " in all cases be
tween the Crown and the people are their implacable
enemies. In every case they charge juries to find
the prisoner guilty." He then related his first inter
view with Edwards, with the temptations offered to
him by the spy, as already related, and justified the
assassination of ministers as tyrants, by the examples
of Brutus and Cassius. At last he became so violent
in his address as to require the interference of
the Court. Ings also threw the whole blame on
VOL. II. Z

338 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Edwards, and denounced him as the real insti
gator. Brunt, on his trial, who, after his counsel
had concluded, had attacked the character of his
apprentice on points which, if true, would have
proved him a thief, but on none of which he had
been asked a word on cross-examination, like the
rest, said what was in all probability the truth,
that Edwards was the instigator. Davidson told a
long, rambling story of getting the blunderbuss in a
raffle, and enlarged on the industrious and honest life
which he had led. Harrison, Bradburn, and Strange
were content to denounce the evidence against them
as false and perjured, and Gilchrist attributed his
presence at such meetings to his poverty.
Though the usual sentence for high treason, with all
its disgusting details, was passed on all the prisoners,
the lives of those who had pleaded guilty were
spared, and they were transported for life ; and only
Thistlewood, Ings, Brunt, Davidson, and Tidd
executed.4 4 Among the rumours of the day was one that Mr. Wakley,
afterwards the well-known coroner, who had at that time no
enviable notoriety, was the person who decapitated the criminals.
In consequence, on the 25th of September, he wrote to Sheriff
Parkins for an explanation, and was assured, in reply, that the
imputation was unfounded, and the disgusting office per
formed by a resurrectionist, for which 20/. was paid to him. —
Annual Register al that date. The usual horrible details were
omitted, with the exception of decapitation and the exposure of
the heads of the criminals to the bystanders.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 339

CHAPTER X.
GEORGE IV. AND HIS QUEEN.
THE DELICATE INVESTIGATION, 1806.
THE BILL OF PAINS AND PENALTIES,
1820.
Caroline of Brunswick, whose career occupied so
large a portion of the domestic annals of the closing
years of the eighteenth century, and the regency and
reign of George IV, was the second daughter of
Charles, Duke of Brunswick, who fell mortally
wounded at the battle of Jena in 1806, and Augusta,
the sister of George III. Born in 1768, from her
youth she was subject to the deleterious influence
of the example of open immorality on the part
of her father,1 whose mistress, for thirty years,
occupied, in his petty court, an equal position with
1 " Memoirs of the Times of George IV.," by Lady Char
lotte Bury, under date of December 9, 1810. Quotations
from this diary must be made under great reserve, where they
reflect, as they constantly do, on the conduct of the princess
and her visitors. Dates are so misplaced, or omitted, facts so
misrepresented, and the whole work so disfigured by bad taste,
not to use a stronger epithet, that but little reliance can be
generally placed on its professed revelations.
Z 2

340 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
his neglected wife. Pretty as a child, she grew up
" a pretty woman, with light hair, very delicately-
formed features, a fine complexion, quick glancing
eyes, large but rather sunk in the head, which gave
them much expression, and a remarkably delicately-
formed mouth," the only blemish to her appearance
being an over-large head and too short a neck. In
1794, when her marriage with the then Prince of
Wales was proposed, she had still the same pretty
face and fine eyes, though there was a want of soft
ness in her expression and of grace in her figure.
Naturally clever, she thought herself more clever, and
took part in conversation with a freedom and unre-
servedness that grew upon her in later years to such
an extent as to lead to her remarks being misin
terpreted greatly to her own discredit. Naturally
curious, addicted to gossiping, quick in observation,
she took a foolish pride in finding out everything,
and thought herself particularly acute in the discovery
of early affections, which led her at times to make
improper remarks and observations on the presumed
relations between other persons. With all classes
she was even more familiar in her acts and her re
marks than is usual with foreigners, and especially
kind, to an excess, to her inferiors. Her carelessness
in -dress, if it did not amount to a want of cleanliness,
was but little likely to suit the taste of such a fastidious
dandy as the Prince of Wales, and her want of edu
cation, even in the common accomplishments of
writing and spelling, certain to be distasteful to one
who, with all his faults and failings, was an educated
gentleman. With a sad foresight of the future, it was

NARRATIVES Of STATE TRIALS. 341
said by Lord Malmesbury, " In the hands of a steady,
sensible man she would probably do well, but where
it is likely she will find faults analogous to her own,
she will fail." 2 Such, we are told, was the intended
consort of the selfish, fastidious, licentious Prince of
Wales, " the victim of mammon, married to pay the
debts with which he was overburdened."
Her future husband was only a few years her senior,
yet he had already discarded more than one mistress,
and gone through a ceremony of marriage with a
fascinating widow of fortune and high social position
which he, at any rate, knew to be a sham and a decep-
2 Diaries of Mr. Harris (Lord Malmesbury), who was sent to
Brunswick to negotiate the marriage, and who gave the princess
excellent advice on her future conduct, hardly in the terms in
which royalties are usually addressed (Diaries, vol. iv. p. 148,
et seq.). Canning, in the House of Commons, said " she was
formed to be the life, grace, and ornament of polished society."
" Her talents," writes Lord Brougham, " were far above the
ordinary level of women, and had her education not been below
the ordinary stock of princesses, they would have decked her as
accomplishments remarkable for any station. No person, in
such a station, ever showed such entire freedom from haughti
ness and pride or more habitually estimated all who approached
her by their intrinsic merits. The first duchess in the land, or
the humblest of its peasants, were alike welcome to her, if their
endowments and their dispositions claimed her regard ; and if
by accident of birth she was more frequently thrown into the
fellowship of the one, she could relish the talk, seek out the
merits, admire the virtues, and interest herself in the fortunes of
the other, without ever feeling the differences of their ranks, or
even so far as to betray in her manner that she was honouring
them by her condescension. All thus might be well charmed
with her good-nature, lively humour, and kindly demeanour,
while no one ever thought of praising her affability."— Edin
burgh Review, 1838.

342 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
tion. Equivocation was natural to him. His father,
indeed, said of him " that he always had a lie ready
when it was wanted/' He knew his own failing.
"Above all," he said to Lady Spencer about the
choice of a governess for his daughter. " Above all, you
must teach her to tell the truth. You know I don't
speak the truth, and my brothers don't ; I find it
a great defect, from which I would have my daughter
free. We were brought up badly, the queen taught
us to equivocate." 3 Whilst a mere boy he secretly
indulged in drinking, and eventually broke down a
fine constitution by constant and increasing indul
gence in that demoralizing habit. He was but a
youth when he selected Perdita Robinson, the actress,
as the earliest of his many "female favourites," and
only recovered from her his correspondence by a pay
ment of 5000/. and an annuity for her life.4 Before
he came of age, by his extravagance on' the turf, he
had far exceeded the allowance received from his
father, and, thanks to the evil counsels and example
of his uncle of Cumberland, Egalitd, and Charles Fox,
became notorious for the immorality and the reckless
revelry of his life.
Such a career could have but the one result, a
daily increase of debts, to meet which he was already
having recourse to secret loans from Egalite" and
others, the settlement of some of which burdened him
s Torren's " Life of Lord Melbourne," pp. 1 56-7.
4 He had given her a bond for 20,000/. which C. Fox obtained
from her in consideration of an annuity of 400/. The bonds to
"Egalitd" were also recovered by Fox, to whom the prince
denied their existence until Fox pulled them out of his pocket
and showed them to him.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 343
for many years afterwards. At his majority, in 1783,
he admitted debts to the amount of 30,000/., and
though the grant by the king from his civil list, of
50,000/. a year, with the revenues to which he then
succeeded as Duke of Cornwall, increased his income
to 65,000/., two years after he had to confess to
160,000/. of debt. When a quarter of a million was
asked and refused, he held himself out to the public
as a prince reduced to poverty by the meanness of
his father, threatened to go abroad, talked of never
marrying, and letting the crown lapse to his .brother
of York. An immediate reduction was ostensibly
made in his expenditure, half of Carlton House
closed, servants discharged, horses sold, and his
poverty made all the more public by driving to
Brighton in a hired chaise. At the close of Novem
ber, 1785, he went through a ceremony of marriage
with the widow Fitzherbert, whom he had per
tinaciously pursued for the previous two years, and
at last persuaded to submit to this degradation by
assuring her that his father would sanction the
alliance. About this ceremony there is no longer
any mystery. The certificate of marriage still exists
sealed up at Coutts's bank, and though the names of
the witnesses were subsequently torn off as a pre
caution, it is now known that so far as a religious
ceremony, all was done to make it effectual according
to the principles of the Roman Catholic Church,
though it must have been well known to both parties
that it was invalid according to the law of England.5
5 The painful story is related by the Honourable C. Langdale
in his " Memoir of Mrs. Fitzherbert," published in 1856, in the

344 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
How the prince instructed C. Fox to deny this
ceremony in the House of Commons, and sought to
make Mr. Grey explain his falsehood is matter of
history. For a few years he appeared to economize.
In reality his debts were steadily accumulating until
they exceeded half a million of money, and as a last
resource, in 1794, he assured his father that he had
finally separated from Mrs. Fitzherbert, and was
anxious to enter on a more creditable life by marrying,
expressing a wish that the king's niece, the ill-fated
Princess of Brunswick might be his future wife. The
king's answer was cautious. He expressed his satis
faction, " provided his plan was to lead a life that
would make^him appear respectable, and consequently
render him happy." 6 Yet at this very time he had
selected a new female favourite, whom he compelled
his wife to accept as her chief lady-in-waiting.
What good could be expected from such an
alliance ? Well might the princess, in after-years,
interest of course of the lady and her religion. Mary Anne
Smythe was born in 1756, and in 1775 married Edward Weld,
of Lulworth Castle, and secondly, in 1778, Thomas Fitzherbert,
of Swinnerton, Staffordshire, who died in 1781, leaving her child
less with a fortune of 2000/. a year. Four years after, when at
the age of twenty-nine, she consented to go through a ceremony
of marriage with the prince, who was six years her junior. The
story of his pretended attempt on his life, in order to persuade
her that he would kill himself if she did not consent, is too well-
known to need repetition. To the prince she proved a true wife,
and in his difficulties he subsequently found her income a great
relief from his embarrassments. She lived until 1837, and,
despite her questionable position, was deservedly respected by
the royal family and the nobility.
6 George III. to the prince, August 24, 1794.

NARRATIVES FO STATE TRIALS. 345

declare that she " was the victim of mammon. The
Prince of Wales's debts must be paid, and poor little
I's person was the pretence ; " " to tell God's truth, I
always hated it, but to oblige my father — anything."7
On the 8th of April, 1795, this ill-omened marriage
was celebrated. Even at the ceremony, the prince
openly showed his dislike to the princess ; and on
the very day of the wedding there is good reason to
believe that he treated her with contempt and neglect.
After two days at Windsor, he took her to his country
residence at Kempshott with the one lady-in-waiting,
and a select set of " his blackguard companions, who
were constantly drunk, sleeping and snoring in their
boots on the sofas."8 After two or three weeks a
kind of separation commenced in private, though
until Parliament could meet and settle his pecuniary
wants, some decent appearance was kept up in public.
Is it surprising that under such treatment by her
husband, and amid such scenes, the princess should
not have allowed her natural failings to be seen, and
to have exhibited manners but little suitable to her

7 Conversation at Kensington Palace with the princess,
quoted in Lady Charlotte Bury's work, vol. i., but without any
date, probably in 181 1.
8 On the authority of Sir G. Elliott's Diaries, vol. iii. p. 14. Mr.
Fitzgerald, in his late " Life of George IV.," states that Lord
George Seymour told the present Lord Houghton that at a
convivial party during the honeymoon, at which he and Lord
Coleraine were present, punch and pipes were introduced, and
when the lady-in-waiting had sipped a little from her glass, the
prince, in a marked way, took it ; on which the princess seized
Lord Coleraine's pipe, and gave a sort of contemptuous puff with
it at the prince.

346 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
position ? The prince professed to be disgusted at
them, and to complain that he had not been warned in
time ; though in truth she was by no means so voluble
as he asserted, and bore her treatment with submission.
In the ministerial proposals for his income, the
prince professed to find another ground for complaint.
He declared that one — the one — condition of his
marrying was the payment of the enormous debts he
had accumulated. The condition was denied, and Pitt
could not be driven into admitting such a claim.
His income, with his Duchy rents, was raised to
140,000/., besides liberal grants for jewels and that
sink of money, Carlton House, and his debts left to
be paid off by a deduction of 25,000/. a year from his
revenue. For a time the prince refused to accede to
the arrangements, and prompted his political friends
to claim an examination of the accounts of the
Duchy, from which they professed to believe, probably
with some truth, that a large balance was due, after a
liberal allowance for the expenses during his minority.
The minister was firm, and in the end the prince gave
way and accepted the proposals of the Government.
And so with an only outward appearance of decency
the year of the marriage closed.
On the 7th of January, 1796, the Princess Charlotte
was born,9 and within a few months after, the separa-
9 Whatever1 sins of omission or commission the prince was
guilty of towards the princess, he certainly did not, as his latest
biographer appears to believe, hurry her suddenly, on the eve of
her confinement, from Hampton Court to St. James's Palace —
in neither of which places did he ever live — and in consequence
receive the bitter letter from his father which Mr. Fitzgerald, on

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 347
tion, hitherto private, was publicly announced in a
letter to the princess, not unjustly denounced as " a
letter of licence."
" Our inclinations," wrote the prince on the 30th April, "are
not in our power, nor should either of us be held answerable to
the other because nature has not made us suitable to each
other. Tranquil and comfortable society is, however, in our
power ; let our intercourse, therefore, be restricted to that, and
I will distinctly subscribe to the condition, which you require
through Lord Cholmondeley, that even in the event of any acci
dent happening to my daughter, which 1 trust Providence in
His mercy will avert, I shall not infringe the terms of the
restriction by proposing, at any period, a connexion of a more
particular nature. I Shall now close this disagreeable corre
spondence, trusting that as we have both completely explained
ourselves to each other, the rest of our lives will be passed in
uninterrupted tranquillity." 1
The reply of the princess, which Lord Thurlow
declares was written by herself, and without any
assistance from him, was marked with good sense
and discretion.
the authority of Lord Brougham, quotes in full. The letter in
question, as will be found in any popular history of the reign of
George II., was written by him to Frederick, Prince of Wales,
the father of George III., on the birth of his first child. Lord
Brougham's inaccuracy, and even ignorance of history was so
notorious, that probably he believed that the letter which the
princess, he declares, showed him (" Memoirs," vol. iii. p.155) was
written by her husband's father, and not by his grandfather.
The princess may have been deceived by some clever hoaxer,
but Mr. Fitzgerald ought not to have fallen into the trap. It is
to be regretted that his volumes, so replete with interest and
amusement, and furnishing the best account as yet given of the
society of the day, are disfigured by this and other historical
inaccuracies. 1 The substance of this letter had been previously communi-

348 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
" The avowal of your conversation with Lord Cholmondeley
neither surprises nor offends me. It merely confirms what you
have tacitly insinuated for this twelvemonth. But after this, it
would be a want of delicacy, or rather an unworthy menace in
me, were I to complain of those conditions which you impose on
yourself. " I should have returned no answer to your letter, if I had not
conceived its terms to make it doubtful, whether this arrange
ment proceeds from you or me, and you are aware that the
credit of it belongs to you alone.
" The letter which you announce to me as the last, obliges me
to communicate to the king, as to my sovereign and my father,
both your avowal and my answer. You will find enclosed my
letter to the king ; I apprise you of it, that I may not incur the
slightest reproach of duplicity from you. As I have at this
moment no protector but his Majesty, I refer myself solely to
him upon this subject, and if my conduct meets with his appro
bation, I shall in some degree be consoled. I retain every senti
ment of gratitude for the situation in which I find myself, as
Princess of Wales, enabled, by your means, to indulge in the
free exercise of a duty dear to my heart — I mean charity. It
will be my duty to act upon another motive, that of giving an
example of patience and resignation under every trial. Do me
the justice to believe that 1 shall never cease to pray for your
happiness, and to be, " Your much devoted, " Caroline.
"6th May, 1796."
The good old king advised a reconciliation on the
basis of the dismissal of the " female favourite,"
and that on both sides all reproaches should be
avoided, as well as any confidences with third parties.
To this suggestion the princess gladly assented, but
cated to the princess in a message through Lord Cholmondeley.
But she thought it to be infinitely too important to rest upon a
mere verbal communication, and therefore desired that the
prince's pleasure should be conveyed in writing.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 349
her letter to her husband, in which she communicated
the king's wish, remained unanswered. She there
fore removed at once to Kensington Palace, and
subsequently to Montague House, Blackheath ; whilst
the prince returned to Carlton House, and resumed
his former -habits. Within two years, the reigning
" female favourite '' was discarded, a reconciliation
publicly effected with Mrs. Fitzherbert, — the prince's
interpretation of his promise to his father to appear
to lead a more creditable life.2
2 According to Mr. Langdale (ex relatione Lord Stourton), Mrs.
Fitzherbert, besides being almost persecuted by the prince to
return to him, was pressed by members of the royal family, both
male and female, to consent to a reconciliation, even upon a
principle of duty. However, as by his marriage with the princess
she was placed in a situation of much difficulty involving her own
conscience, and making it doubtful if public scandal might not
interfere with her own engagements, she determined to resort to
the highest authorities of her own church upon a case of such
extraordinary intimacy. The Rev. Mr. Messan, one of the
chaplains at Warwick Street, was therefore selected to go to
Rome and lay the case before that tribunal, upon the express
understanding that if the answer was favourable, she would again
join the prince, otherwise she was determined to abandon the
country. In the meantime, whilst this promise was pending,
she obtained a promise from his Royal Highness that he would
not follow her into her retreat in Wales. The reply from Rome^
in a brief, which in a moment of panic she destroyed, fearful ofthe
consequences during Perceval's administration, was favourable,
and, faithful to her own determination, she resisted all importuni
ties to meet him clandestinely. The day on which she joined
him was the same on which she gave a breakfast to the whole
of London, to which he was invited. A sight of this brief would
have been interesting, probably it was a re- edition of that which
Clement was ?aid to have proposed to give Henry VIII., allow
ing him to have two wives. (Langdale's " Memoir," p. 128.) One

350 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
The princess's life at Kensington and Blackheath,
though no doubt its weaknesses and its follies are
exaggerated by her gossiping waiting-maid, was far
from discreet. She indulged her natural kindness of
heart and habits of familiarity with inferiors to an
excess, that could not but be misinterpreted to her
discredit, and slowly but steadily lost the respect in
which she had been held by many of the first nobility
of the realm. Her separation from the Princess
Charlotte, and her cold treatment by the queen
naturally irritated an irritable nature, and led her to
many follies which she would otherwise have avoided.
The old king was her only friend at Court, and his
influence was again and again counteracted by the
harsh feeling of the queen, and the enmity of some
of her royal brothers-in-law. With the people she
was still popular. Her almost inordinate love of
children, leading her to the adoption of the child of
a poor workman in Deptford Dockyard, threw grave
suspicions on her morality, to which her freedom of
speech and conduct in the social circle she had drawn
round her in her retirement added strength. Within
a few years after the separation, rumour was busy
with her character and conduct, until at last it
assumed a definite charge that the adopted boy was
her illegitimate child, and that her villa at Blackheath
was the scene of acts as discreditable as those of her
husband.

would hope, for the credit of the Roman Church, that this state
ment of Mr. Langdale's is a fiction.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 351
The Delicate Investigation.
At last, in the autumn of 1805, these rumours
assumed the character of definite charges on the
part of the wife of a Sir John Douglas, an officer of
Marines, whose residence was near to that of the
princess on Blackheath. Irritated at being refused
admittance to Montague House, where they had
previously visited on most intimate terms, followed,
as they professed to believe, by an anonymous letter
and a pen-and-ink sketch reflecting on the character of
Lady Douglas, Sir John, on the authority of his wife,
made such statements to the Duke of Sussex, whose
equerry he was, that the duke felt bound to communi
cate them to the prince.3 The result was that Sir John
and his wife were called upon for details, and the sub
sequent receipt by the prince of a lengthy statement
from them, dated the 3rd of December, 1805. In this,
in addition to improper familiarities with Sir Sidney
Smith, Captain Manby, Lawrence the artist, and the
Honourable Mr. Hood, Lady Douglas declared that
the princess had confessed to her that the adopted
3 Sir John had previously gone to the Duke of Kent, to whom,
however, he did not reveal any portion , of his wife's criminal
charges against the princess, but confined himself to the anony
mous letter and the sketch. The Duke, in consequence, saw Sir
Sidney Smith, and advised him to persuade Sir John, "under exist
ing circumstances, to remain quiet if unmolested." Lord Chol
mondeley, during the examination by the Commissioners, gave
it as his decided opinion that the abusive letter to Lady Douglas
was not in the princess's handwriting, and that the other docu
ments were in a feigned hand, in which here and there were
letters like those written by her.

352 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
child, William Austin, was her own son, and that she
had been confined of him at Montague House early
in November, 1803. On such a declaration from
persons of position, the prince, despite his own life,
could hardly allow himself to treat the matter any
longer as a mere rumour, nor could the king refuse to
take some decided step to arrive at the truth. With
this object, on the 29th of May, 1806, a commission
was issued to the Chancellor (Lord Erskine), Lords
Grenville and Spencer, and Lord Chief Justice Ellen
borough to inquire into the truth of the Douglas
declarations and to report their opinion to the king.
The inquiry that ensued, protracted over five months,
was secret and entirely ex parte. Not only Lady
Douglas, but the attendants and servants of the
princess were examined without any previous com
munication with her, and no one was allowed to be
present on her part, though Sir Samuel Romilly, as
Attorney-General, attended on behalf of the Crown
during a portion of the proceedings. When at last
the evidence was brought to a close, it was not
until a month after the report of the commissioners,
entirely acquitting her of the imputed maternity of her
protege, had been forwarded to the king, that a copy
of it was transmitted to the princess herself, with the
depositions of the witnesses.4,
4 To " The Book," from which the following facts are quoted,
a curious and somewhat doubtful history attaches. The most
reliable account is that it was printed under the supervision of
Perceval and Lord Eldon, who were then the advisers of the
princess, at a private press in the house of one of them, and
only a few copies allowed to be given to her friends, among

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 353
The lengthy statement sent by Lady Douglas to
the prince is so replete with what she heard, thought,
and suspected, that it would be only waste of space to
analyze it. Any one who wades through its fifty
pages, of invention and personal abuse, will agree
with Lord Thurlow, that " the greater portion of it was
incredible, that it had no composition, no dates, and
was in some parts grossly improbable." To judge from
her deposition before the Commissioners, her tendency
to gossip was severely repressed by them, and her
evidence, such as it was, confined to facts. As for
Sir John, he was simply wife-ridden, and the mouth
piece of his wife's statements.
According to Lady Douglas, she became acquainted
with the princess in November, 1801. Seeing her
whom Canning was one, but who returned his copy. It was said
to have been held in terrorem by Perceval over the Regent to pre
vent his return to the Whigs, and eventually Perceval attempted
to have the whole issue destroyed. A few copies escaped, and
were sold at almost fabulous prices, from 1 500/. to 500/. each.
The copy from which the extracts are made was printed in
1813 from a copy made by Mr. Edwards. It contains the
famous letter to the king, prepared by Perceval, in which the
evidence was mercilessly dissected, with the depositions in full;
the first statement by Lady Douglas to the prince, and the
whole of the correspondence between the king and his daughter-
in-law. According to Lord Brougham (contributions to the
Edinburgh Review, vol. i. p. 465, article on " George IV. and
Queen Caroline "), " The Book " was prepared in council with the
king, and was intended to sound the alarm against Carlton
House and the Whigs, when a still more favourable opportunity
offered of making a breach with the latter on the Catholic
question. Another report is that it was a copy of the deposi
tions and documents privately printed for the use of the prince
and his advisers.
VOL. II. A a

354 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
walking backwards and forwards on the snow before
Sir John's house, at the suggestion of a friend, she
went to her, and inquired if she wanted anything.
The princess replied in the negative, but said that as
Lady Douglas had a very pretty little girl, she would
come in and see it. Subsequently to this she and
her husband were repeatedly invited to Montague
House, and the princess frequently dined with the
Douglases. In May or June the princess talked
much to her of Sir Sidney Smith, who, as a friend,
often stayed at Sir John's house, and for a fortnight in
March Lady Douglas took the place of one of the
attendant ladies who was ill. In the June of that
year the princess came to her house, and with but
little preface told her she was pregnant ; that at Lady
Willoughby's she had, in consequence, been obliged to
leave the breakfast-room suddenly and throw a
napkin over her bosom to conceal an unmistakable
sign ; and that as she had slept two nights at Carlton
House, she should say that the child, especially if a
boy, was the prince's. She added that she would tell
everything "to her dresser, Mrs. Sander, as she was
discreet, send one lady-in-waiting to Brunswick, and
another, who was too young to be trusted, out of the
way. When Lady Douglas herself was confined, the
princess forced her way into her bedroom, though
the medical man tried to prevent her, and took the
child as it was born. Apparently after that (for her
ladyship is very economical in giving dates) the
princess told her that she should account for the
presence of the child by having infants brought to
her in baskets, and that two had already been brought,

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 355
but taken back by their father. Previously to Lady
Douglas's confinement she told her that she had been
bled twice by Dr. Edmeades, and recommended the
same course to her ladyship as likely to assist her in
her accouchement. On the 30th or 31st of October
she again saw the princess walking, and her
pregnancy was even more evident than before, not
withstanding the precautions in dressing which she
had for some time adopted.
At the end of December the witness left for Glouces
tershire, and on her return in January, 1803, saw the
child, known as William Austin, at Montague House,
and was told by the princess that she had been con
fined of him two days after she last saw Lady
Douglas. Independently of the princess's confessions,
Lady Douglas swore that she saw that the princess
was pregnant in 1802. To Sir John, however, the
princess introduced the child as " The Deptford
boy." Again, the Douglases went away on a visit,
and when they returned, in 1804, left a card at
Montague House, the reply to which was not the
usual invitation, but a letter from Mrs. Vernon, the
lady-in-waiting, requesting her not to call again.
Hinc illce irce. Lady Douglas then wrote a letter,
threatening to tell Mrs. Vernon all she knew, which
as yet she declared she had never disclosed ; and the
letter, as might be expected, was returned, unopened.
The witness then wrote to another of the princess's
ladies, complaining of being extremely ill-used, and
in two or three days received an anonymous letter
reflecting on her character ; and Sir John, about the
same time, received by post another, containing a
A a 2

356 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
pen-and-ink sketch, representing Lady Douglas in an
indecent situation with her friend Sir Sidney Smith.
In language that would have disgraced the mcst
worthless woman, she declared that the princess had
boasted to her of her adulteries, especially with Sir
Sidney Smith, recommended her to follow the same
course, and enlarged on the facilities offered to her
for such a life by a private staircase in her house
leading direct to the park. The prince, added his
wife, was the most complaisant of husbands, allowed
her to do what she liked, and paid for all.
The improbabilities of such conduct on the part of
any wife are so glaring that any contradiction of the
statements of the witness would have been super
fluous, had not the time of the unfortunate adoption
of the boy Austin tallied with the period at which
the acts of adultery were assigned. Sophia Austin;
the mother of the child, wife of a workman in Dept
ford Dockyard, who had been discharged on the
signature of the peace of Amiens, gave a natural
account of its adoption by the princess, to whom she
had presented a petition for assistance, and its being
taken to Montague House, on the 15th of November,
when about four months old. Lady Willoughby,
who had known the princess for ten years, could
not recollect any such incident as that which Lady
Douglas had related ; had never noticed any peculiar
alteration in the princess's figure, and could not
recall a single instance of conduct on her part tend
ing to establish criminality. Stikeman, the princess's
page, confirmed Mrs. Austin, as also did Mrs. Sander,
who declared that she had never, though she was the

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 357
princess's dresser, noticed any signs of her pregnancy.
Edmeades, who bled her, concurred with Sander,
and Mills, his partner, who had frequently per
formed that operation under the advice of Sir Francis
Millman, was equally certain of the absence of such
symptoms. He was also confirmed by Sir Francis, who
had attended the princess in the end of 1802, and
who declared that had she been lately confined he
must have observed it. Mrs. Fitzgerald gave a
decided contradiction to the statement of the princess
being in Lady Douglas's room during her confinement,
to which fact she could unhesitatingly speak, as she
was herself present on that occasion. The Commis
sioners, therefore, were unanimous in reporting that
" the identity of the child then with the princess, its
parentage, the place and date of its birth, the time and
circumstances of its having been taken by her Royal
Highness, were all established by positive and cir
cumstantial evidence that could in their judgment
leave no doubt on this part of the subject referred to
them." They were equally decided that the charges
of pregnancy and delivery had been satisfactorily
disproved, and Sir Samuel Romilly agreed that this
charge had failed.
There was, however, another charge on which their
opinion was required— the improper, if not criminal
familiarity with Captain Manby and others, resting
on the evidence of two of her men-servants, Bidgood
and Cole, Frances Lloyd, maid-servant, and Mrs.
Lisle. If Cole was to be believed, when taking in
some sandwiches he had seen the princess and Sir
Sidney Smith sitting on a sofa, side by side, believed

358 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
that he had a key of the park gate, and that he thus
obtained entrance into the house without the know
ledge of the servants, and remained alone with the
princess after all other guests and the attendants had
left the room.5 This last statement was distinctly
denied by others of the attendants and servants.
Sir Sidney, no doubt, was her intimate friend, she
took great interest in his gallant exploits, and ob
tained much assistance from him in decorating the
Turkish room in her house, for which he furnished
her with a sketch of the tent of Murad Pasha, and
instructed her how to draw Egyptian arabesques for
its ceilings. Even Lady Douglas seems to have dis
believed in this charge, and the Commissioners in
their report passed it without comment, as they did
the charges of these servants implicating Lawrence,
5 Cole was examined no less than five times, and Bidgood
twice during the inquiry. In one Cole stated that he had seen a
tall man in a great coat, whom he believed to be Sir Sidney,
leave by the park door, one night, after every one else had long
left. Of this man the princess says, in Tier letter to the king,
" Before he lived with the prince, he had lived with the Duke of
Devonshire, and I had reason to believe that he carried to
Devonshire House all the observations he could make on mine.
For these various reasons, before the Duke of Kent was about
to go out of the kingdom, I requested his Royal Highness, who
had been good enough to take the trouble of arranging many
particulars in my establishment, to make the arrangements with
respect to Mr. Cole ; which was to leave him in town to wait on
me only when at Carlton House, and not to come to Montague
House, unless specially required. This arrangement, it seems,
offended him,'' pp. 92-3. Is it likely, had he really seen what he
swore to, the princess would have risked offending so dangerous
a witness. Most of the princess's household had previously been
in the service of the prince, sent there apparently as spies, from
whom in one form or other she was never free.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 359
the eminent portrait painter, and the Honourable
Mr. Hood. Not so, however, in the case of Captain
Manby, with whom Mrs. Lisle declared the princess
"flirted, though she never saw any gallantries, as
kissing her hand, or the like/' whilst Bidgood swore
to incidents at Southend, which, if true, could not
be interpreted except as proving arrangements for
criminality. " The princess," this witness swore, " went to Southend, in
1804. I went with her. We were there six weeks, I believe,
before the 'Africaine' (Manby's ship) came in. Sicard, the
princess's house-steward, was very often watching with a glass,
to see when the ship would come in. One day he said he saw
the ' Africaine,' and soon after the captain put off in a boat
from the ship. Sicard went down the shrubbery to meet him,
and when the captain landed, conducted him to the house, where
he dined with the princess and her ladies. After this he came
frequently to see the princess. She had two houses on the Cliff,
Nos. 8 and 9. She afterwards took the drawing-room of No. 7,
which communicated by the balcony with No. 8. The three
houses being adjoining, the princess used to dine in No. 8, and
after dmner remove with the company into No. 7. I have
several times seen the princess, after having gone into No. 7 with
Captain Manby and the rest of the company, retire alone with
him from No. 7, through No. 8 to No. 9, which was the house in
which the princess slept. I suspected that Captain Manby often
slept in the house. It was a subject of conversation in the
house!' Another witness, Fanny Lloyd, swore that one
morning by six o'clock she was called up to make
breakfast for the princess, and that when she opened
the shutters saw her and a tall gentleman walking
through the shrubbery towards the shore. Bidgood
also swore that reflected in a looking-glass he had
seen Captain Manby kiss the princess when he called

360 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
on her in 1804 at Montague House, and afterwards
observed the princess wiping her eyes as if she was
crying. The princess's interest in Captain Manby was only
natural. He had, at her solicitation, taken two boys
on board his ship, in whose career she was interested,
Naturally, therefore, she was anxious for his return
from sea with her protege's, and gladly welcomed him
to her house. In this case, as in the confessions and
actions reported by Lady Douglas, the improbability
of such conduct as that described by Bidgood at
Southend is its best refutation. The interview in
the shrubbery arose from the princess wishing to
make a party on board the " Africane," asked Cap
tain Manby to call very early in the morning at her
house, went with him to the shore to see if the
weather would suit, and not being satisfied with the
prospect postponed the visit to a later period. As
soon as the princess obtained the depositions, she
communicated with Captain Manby, who at once
made an affidavit indignantly denying the accusa
tions made by Bidgood, and declaring that " never
did anything pass between the princess and himself
that he would be in any degree unwilling that all the
world should see." 6
6 Lawrence also made an affidavit denying the charge, and
justified his sleeping in the house whilst engaged -on the
princess's portrait by the example of Sir William Beechy, who
had done so on a similar occasion. Mr. Edmeades and Mr.
Mills, the surgeons, also swore to what appears like an attempt
on the part of Lord Moira, the prince's friend, to induce them
to admit the presence of the symptoms of pregnancy, and Philip
Krackeler, footman, with Robert Egglestone, park-keeper, de-

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 361
To what extent the Commissioners believed in
these latter charges is far from clear from the con
clusion of their report. " The declarations," they
report, " of certain other particulars respecting the
conduct of the princess are such as must, especially
considering her exalted rank and station, necessarily
give occasion to very unfavourable interpretations."
They then particularly refer to the evidence of Bid-
good, Cole, Lloyd, and Mrs. Lisle, of whom they
speak as not to be suspected of unfavourable bias, and
whose veracity they had seen no ground to question.
Still, notwithstanding the serious nature of some of
this evidence, they are content with reporting " that
the circumstances to which they refer, particularly
those stated to have passed between her Royal
Highness and Captain Manby must be credited
until they have some decisive contradition, and if
true, are justly entitled to the most serious considera
tion." The probability is that the Cabinet, realizing the
difficulty of their position between the king, who was
unfriendly to them and endured them only on
sufferance, and the prince, who was the personal
friend of their leading members, and at that time
their political supporter, sought to please both
posed to an interview between Lady Douglas and Bidgood on
the 28th of June, 1806. Sir John Beresford, according to Lady
Charlotte Bury, 1839, stated that he had been present during
the whole period of the stay of Captain Manby, and could con
tradict the imputation of improper familiarity, and that once
when Manby was said to have been on the boat with the prin
cess/it was himself and not Manby, " and therefore," he said, " I
know the falsity of that accusation."

362 NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS.
parties. By their acquittal of the princess on the
graver charge they pleased the king, by their half
hearted condemnation of her they gratified the
prince. To the report and the evidence on which it was
founded the advisers of the princess gave immediate
attention ; and on the 2nd of October a letter in her
name, the composition of Perceval and Lord Eldon,
was sent to the king, containing a merciless dissec
tion of the depositions, with the affidavits in reply, to
which we have alluded : — a masterpiece of analysis and
reasoning and dignified protest. As nine weeks elapsed
without any notice of this, on the 8th of December the
princess again wrote to the king, appealing to his
justice for an early reply. At length, on the 28th of
January, 1807, came the royal answer. He agreed
with the Cabinet that " in the present stage of the
business, upon a mature and deliberate view of this
most important subject in all its parts and bearings,
the facts of the case do not warrant that any further
step should be taken by his Majesty's Government,
or any other proceedings instituted upon it, except
only as they may, on reference to them, think fit to
recommend for the prosecution of Lady Douglas on
those parts of her depositions which may appear to
be justly liable thereto. In this situation his
Majesty is advised that it is no longer necessary for
him to decline receiving the princess." Then, after
expressing his satisfaction at the falsehood of Lady
Douglas's criminal charge being admitted by the
Cabinet, the king alluded in firm but kind terms to
the other charges. " On the other matters pro-

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 363
duced in the course of inquiry, the king is advised
that none of the facts or allegations stated in the
preliminary examinations, carried on in the absence of
the parties interested, can be considered as legally or
conclusively established. But in those examinations,
and even in the answers drawn in the nameoftheprincess
by her legal advisers, there have appeared circum
stances of conduct on the part of the princess which
his Majesty never could regard but with serious
concern. The elevated rank which the princess holds
in this country, and the relation in which she stands
to his Majesty and the royal family must always
deeply involve both the interests of the State and
the personal feelings of his Majesty in the pro
priety and correctness of her conduct. And his
Majesty cannot, therefore, forbear to express, in the
conclusion of the business, his desire and expecta
tion that such conduct may in future be observed by
the princess as may fully justify those marks of
paternal regard and affection which the king always
wishes to show to every part of the royal family."
Had the princess taken these words to heart, and
repressed the excessive familiarity with attendants
and friends to which she was so prone, the Green Bag
and the Bill of Pains and Penalties would have never
been heard of. With ill-advised haste the princess next
day wrote proposing to wait on the king on the follow
ing Monday at Windsor. She was informed by him
that he would prefer receiving her in London at a
later date. The reception was again adjourned in con
sequence of the request of the prince, who proposed
placing the evidence in the hands of his legal advisers,

364 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
and in consequence another letter was prepared for,
and sent to the king by, the princess, in which the
prince's letter, separating himself from her, and his reply
were inserted, and the evidence ef the unfavourable
witnesses again severely criticized. From this time
the matter dropped until the change of ministry.
The prince, if he really did take legal advice, pro
bably found that it was better to be silent, and if the
well-deserved prosecution of Lady Douglas was ever
referred to the Cabinet, no step was taken to prosecute
her. When, however, in March, 1807, the Cabinet of
the Duke of Portland, in which Lord Eldon was
Chancellor and Perceval practically Prime Minister,
came into office, no time was lost by her friends
in vindicating the character of the princess. By a
Cabinet minute of April 22, it was recorded that not
only the main charges were completely disproved, but
that " all other particulars of conduct brought in
accusation against her Royal Highness to which the
character of criminality could be ascribed were
satisfactorily contradicted, or rested on evidence
undeserving of credit."
" That a wife, a princess, a stranger should be sub
jected to treatment the most cruel and unmanly ;
should then be drawn from the shelter of her hus
band's roof ; should be surrounded by spies and false
witnesses ; and having been charged with a capital
offence — nay, with high treason — should be tried
behind her back ; with the most able counsel to
attend on behalf of her persecutor and accuser;
without a human being present on her behalf, so
much as to cross-examine a witness, or even to take a

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 365
note of the evidence, was a proceeding which struck
all men's minds with astonishment and dismay ; and
seemed rather to approach the mockery of all justice
presented in the accounts of Eastern seraglios, than
to resemble anything that is known among nations
living under constitutional governments. But if the
investigation itself was an object of reprobation and
disgust, its result gave, if possible, less satisfaction
still. What could be said of a sentence which showed
that even when tried behind her back, and by an in
visible tribunal, formed wholly of her adversaries, not
the shadow of guilt could be found in her whole
conduct ; and that even the mercenary fancies and
foul perjuries of the spies had failed to present any
probable matters of blame ; and yet, instead of at
once pronouncing her innocent and unjustly accused,
begrudged her the poor satisfaction of an acquittal ;
and fearful of affording her the triumph to which
innocence is entitled and offending the false accuser,
both passed over all mention of her unparalleled
wrongs and left a stigma on her name, by the vague
recommendation that the king should advise her con
cerning certain levities or indiscretions of behaviour
— an allusion so undefined, that any one might fill
up the dark outline as his imagination might enable
him, or his want of common charity prompt him to
do." 7
' Contributions to the Edinburgh Review, by Henry, Lord
Brougham. — Article on Lady Charlotte Bury's Diary, April,
1838.

366 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.

The Milan Commission.
Beyond registering their opinion of the falsity of the
charges made by the Douglases and the other witnesses
before the Secret Commission, her ministerial friends
made no effort in the princess's favour. They were
now the Regent's "servants," and their hands were
effectually tied by their official fetters. The good
old king soon ceased to be able to interpose on her
behalf; the queen took the side of the prince and
treated her with coldness, and the prince himself not
only would not meet her in society, but made it a con
dition of his friendship, that all who would wish to be
regarded as his friends should secede from the society
of his deserted princess.8 Only allowed to see her
child on formal occasions, and prohibited from
any interference in her education, she lived practi
cally as a childless widow, on whom courtly society,
8 On the proposal of a committee of White's Club to give a
grand ball at Burlington House, in 1815, the Regent sent a
message to ask what style of company they meant to invite, and
it was proposed to answer that he should invite all royal persons,
and for that purpose tickets should be sent to him. Some one
(said to be Lord Yarmouth) proposed that members' invitations
should be confined to relations. On this Lord Sefton got up
and said " it was easy to see that these confused proposals were
'meant to exclude the Princess of Wales ; as a member every
ticket he subscribed for was his own, and every one he intended
to send to the princess to dispose of as she pleased" — so did
fourteen more members. But not being a majority, and as those
who were to pay for the diversion were not to have leave to do
as they pleased, they decided to have no ball. — Lady C. Bury's
Diaries, vol. iii. pp. 55-6.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 367
by order, looked with distrust, and was driven to
seek as companions those only who could despise the
threats of the prince, or whose inferiority of position
led them to impose on the affability and charity of
the princess.9 When in 18 13, feeling deeply the
rigorous separation from her daughter, now grown up,
she wrote to the prince a noble letter of complaint
and rebuke, his reception of it was as singular as
characteristic of the man. Lord Liverpool was in
structed to write that the prince could neither receive
nor read it, and that all communications between the
wife and the husband must be addressed to the minister.
He flattered himself probably that the difficult task
of answering it would be thus avoided. The device,
however, failed, as the letter got into the public
prints, and being unanswered produced the greatest
effect in her favour and against the Regent. " Then,"
says Lord Brougham, " the resolution was taken to try
the effect of recrimination, and it was determined to
bring out against the princess so much of Mr. Per
ceval's ' Book ' as contained the particulars of the
evidence before the invisible tribunal in 1806. The
fate of this odious manoeuvre was sufficiently striking ;
never was spite and falsehood visited with more
speedy and complete discomfiture. For three days
the whole of the newspapers were filled with the most
lJ Canning, Brougham, Mr. Ward, afterwards the well-known
Lord Dudley, Sir William Gell, the accomplished antiquarian,
were among those who did not fear the Regent's displeasure.
The family of Sapio, the singer, were of the class that flattered
her vanity, and took mean advantage of her ill-bestowed
kindness.

368 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
offensive details, the public taste was outraged, the
public mind was disgusted, the public feelings were
roused, and they were found, to be pointed in the
right direction ; the whole charges were pronounced
an absolute fabrication, and the accused stood higher
than before, though it was not possible for anything
to sink her accuser lower."1
Again, when in the following year the victorious
sovereigns visited England, all that the Queen and
the Regent could do, was done to lower the position
of the princess. Because the Regent refused to meet
her at Court, the old queen refused to receive her at
her drawing-room, and the imperial and royal visitors
obeyed the Regent's request not to pay the courtesy
of even a formal visit to her at Kensington.2 Public
feeling was sorely tried. The aged queen was insulted
in her carriage, the Regent received with groans and
hisses. And when, most unwisely, but not unnaturally,
the princess visited the opera on the occasion of the
prince attending with the Emperor of Russia and
the other sovereigns, she was heartily welcomed.
With a wisdom that would have been better shown
by taking the advice of Whitbread and abstaining
from being present at the ceremony, the princess sat

1 Lord Brougham, Edinburgh Review, 1838.
2 Lady Charlotte Bury's Diary, vol. i. p. 330. The Emperor of
Russia sent his equerry to the princess, to express his regret
that he had not been able to wait on her, but that under
existing circumstances delicacy only allowed him to express
his high consideration, &c, using the usual diplomatic form.
The princess, according to Lady Charlotte, (vol. ii. p. 11,)
received the equerry with perfect calmness.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 369
still during the applause. When pressed to rise to
the repeated cheers, she replied, " I know my busi
ness better than to take a morsel out of my husband's
mouth. Punch's wife is nobody when Punch is pre
sent." The Regent's intense vanity led him to accept
the applause as his, and not her, welcome.
This pertinacious persecution of the princess at
length called the attention of Parliament to her
position. From the time of her being discarded by
the prince, she had maintained her household on an
allowance from him of 12,000/. a year, at times not
punctually paid, and, like her husband, she was soon
in debt. In 1809 an addition of 5000/. was agreed
to by the prince, the arrears of which, had they been
paid, might then have at once relieved her from present
difficulties. As usual, the prince, when he found that,
like any other husband, he was liable for his wife's
debts, endeavoured, but in vain, to persuade ministers
to increase her allowance from the Admiralty droits,
and, at last, had to consent to pay the amount out
of his own income, and to increase her allowance
by 5000/. a year, rather than allow the question to
be discussed in Parliament. , He, however, obtained
an understanding with the king and the Cabinet, that
if further called upon, application should be made to
Parliament for the purpose of its payment.3 Matters
remained in this position until 18 14, when some of
3 See letter from the Duke of Portland, of August 14th, 1808,
and the prince's reply and communications by Adam, his
treasurer during 1809 ; settlement of June 1809, signed by him
and the princess, and a paper with the king's sign manual,
approving the transaction, countersigned by ministers.
VOL. II. B b

370 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
the princess's friends, supported by the almost universal
approval of public opinion, brought her case before
the House of Commons, urging the necessity for an
income independent of her husband, sufficient to
maintain her proper position. The Government pro
posed an allowance of 50,000/. a year — an offer which
Whitbread called " insidious and unhandsome," but
which the princess was prepared to accept " as it had
no conditions attached to it derogatory to her rank,
her rights, or her honour." Unwilling, however, to
press unnecessarily on the overburdened taxpayers,
the princess proposed that the grant should be re
duced to 35,000/., at which it was eventually fixed.
Then followed the unfortunate step on her part of
leaving England. It was in vain that all her best
friends urged on her to remain among a people who
were devoted to her interests, and not risk the dangers
to which she would inevitably be exposed in con
tinental society. Nothing could induce her to remain,
and in August, 1814, she left in the "Jason" frigate
only to return to endure the torture of her trial and
to die.
For five years the princess wandered abroad.
Going in the first instance to Brunswick, where she
made but a short stay, thence to Milan, where she
arrived in October, thence to Rome, and on the 8th
of November arrived at Naples, where she remained
until March, 1815. On her departure from England,
she was accompanied by Lady Charlotte Lindsay
and Lady Elizabeth Forbes as her maids of honour,
Mr. St. Leger as her chamberlain, with Sir William
Gell and the Honourable Kepple Craven. Captain

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 371
Este was her equerry, and Dr. Holland her physician.
At Brunswick Mr. St. Leger, by previous arrangement,
left her service, and at her departure from Naples,
Lady Elizabeth Forbes, Sir William Gell, Kepple
Craven, and Captain Este, also separated themselves
from her suite. Thus deserted by her English at
tendants, she adopted foreigners in their place, and
eventually surrounded herself with the family of
Bergami, who had been selected as her courier, and
whose sister, the Countess Oldi, soon became her sole
female attendant. In March she proceeded towards
Rome, remaining some days at Citta Vecchia, whence
she embarked for Genoa, in the course of that voyage
leaving Lady Charlotte Lindsay at Leghorn. It was
during this portion of her travels, that the intimacy with
Bergami with which she was subsequently charged was
reported to have been increased, though she had known
him only three weeks, and it was on account of this
that Lady C. Lindsay was said to have left her suite at
Leghorn. For two months Lady C. Campbell joined
her, but then she left, Dr. Holland having previously
obtained leave of absence at Milan, and the princess
was alone among her foreign attendants.
From Genoa the princess went to Milan, and there,
on the retirement of Lady C. Campbell, Bergami's
sister, the Countess Oldi, became her sole lady of
honour. At Milan she did not continue long, journey
ing thence to Venice, where she arrived in June 181 5.
The only Englishman then in her suite was Mr.
Burrell, and he left, when from Venice the princess
returned to Milan. A visit to St. Gothard and the
Italian lakes now followed, during which, at Bellen-
B b 2

372 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
zone, Bergami, it was said, first took his place at her
table. Eventually, the princess settled for a time
near Como, where Bergami was raised to be her
chamberlain. In November, 1815, the princess em
barked on board the " Leviathan " (Captain Briggs),
on a voyage to Sicily, visiting Elba and Palermo, and
finally Messina, where she remained until January
1816. Thence she embarked on the " Clorinde,"
Captain Pechell, who objected to sit at the same
table with Bergami, whom he had, 'on the former
voyage, known only as her courier. During this
voyage to Sicily she obtained the dignity of Knight
of Malta for Bergami, and subsequently the title of
Baron la Francino. Utica and Tunis were then
visited, and on the 16th of April, 18 16, she arrived at
Salona. From the coast of Africa the princess sailed
to Athens, touching at Malta, and thence to Troy
and Ephesus, by the way of Constantinople. Soon
after Aum in Syria was visited, whence she journeyed
to Jerusalem, where the cross of the Order of St.
Sepulchre was obtained by her for her chamberlain.
Here it was that she committed the folly of instituting
the order of St. Caroline, of which Bergami was
created Grand Master, and the youth Austin and
several of her suite were made knights. Jaffa appears
to have been her next port, whence on board a Sicilian
vessel — a polacre — Lieutenants Howman and Flynn
being then in her suite, she sailed for Italy, sleeping
under a tent on the deck, and arriving at Terracina in
September. On her arrival in Italy the princess pro
ceeded to her villa near Como, when a further
exaltation of the Bergami family took place, his

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 373
brother being made prefect of the palace, and his
mother ordered to be called Madame Livia, and both
her and the new prefect honoured with separate tables
from the rest of the servants.
From the Villa d'Este the princess made several
excursions, one to Lugano ; another to a house called
the Barona, which she subsequently purchased for
her chamberlain ; another to the Tyrol. During the
last, in February, 181 7, it was necessary to stay for a
night at a place called Charnitz, from whence Bergami
was sent to Inspruck for passports, on whose return,
in the dead of night to Charnitz, one of the many
criminal acts with which she was charged was said
to have been ostentatiously committed. Thence the
princess proceeded to Munich, and afterwards to
Carlsruhe, and then through the Austrian Tyrol to
Vienna, where she remained only a short time before
she proceeded to Trieste. In the April of that year
she was again back at the Barona, whence she travelled
to Rome, residing there at first in the Rucanelli Palace,
and afterwards at the Villa Branti, which she had
purchased ; and in August she went to Pesaro, where,
with the exception of a short visit to France, the
princess resided until she commenced her hurried
return to England.
This somewhat tedious itinerary of the wanderings
of the princess is necessary to enable us to under
stand the various incidents to which the witnesses
against her testified. From almost the first introduc
tion of Bergami to her service, they swore that step
by step as the voyages and travels continued, unwise
confidence in her servant grew into improper

374 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
familiarities, until they ripened into criminalities.
Such a sudden exaltation of a courier to the post of
chamberlain ; such a crowding of honours, stars, and
ribbons on one who had stood behind her chair ; such
open and unreserved confidence and familiarity with
him who had been so lately a mere menial in her
service ; such patronage extended to members of his
family, even to the extent of apparently adopting his
daughter ; such an entire giving up of herself not only
to the services, but to the society of the ex-courier's
family, could not but excite suspicion. Rumours of
unworthy condescension soon became reports of
familiarities, and when it was known that during the
whole of his attendance on the princess, the wife of
Bergami was never to be seen in the suite or at his
villa, the opportunity was afforded for inferring cri
minality. What a wide field was thus opened to spies
to exercise their calling, which had been matured
into a science on the Continent, and especially in Italy ;
what a temptation was offered to misinterpret acts,
to improve on apparently questionable incidents, and
if these failed to support a criminal charge, to manu
facture them, when it was publicly announced that
English money was freely to be had in exchange for
damnatory evidence. From the moment that the
princess entered Italy she was surrounded by spies,
her letters, if she is correct, were opened, and copied
at the foreign post-offices, and their contents forwarded
to Carlton House.* Every careless expression was
4 See her letter from Naples. " La poste est vraiment horrible,
et d'une incertitude affreuse. Au reste les lettres sont tous en par-
tout avant qu'il passes et puis sont copies. Les miens sont erir .

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 375
noted down, and every act recorded for the inspec
tion of Sir John Leach, the legal friend of the Regent.
Hence it was that, on the faith of such reports, he
advised the notorious Milan Commission, and English
gold was lavished on the Italian brotherhood of spies.
The constitution of the commission was singular.
At its head was a Chancery lawyer learned in Bank
ruptcy, personally above suspicion, but entirely
unskilled, thanks to the then practice of his Court,
in the examination of witnesses, — a colonel in the
army equally above suspicion as an officer and a
gentleman, but equally ignorant of the science of
examination, his only education in this being due to
his acting on court-martials, — an astute attorney, whose
subsequent conduct in permitting, if not in aiding a
witness to escape from further cross-examination
during the trial, raises grave doubts of his fairness.
To these were added an Italian advocate, who was
subsequently proved to have bribed the clerk of the
princess's Italian lawyer to steal documents relating
to her case from the desk of his master. The barrister
and the colonel no doubt wished to do their duty, and
only their duty, but they were in the hands of an
astute attorney, who in the spirit of his profession
looked only to the interest of his employers, and of an
Italian practitioner brought up in courts of law, but
not of justice. At the back of these was Leach, a
voye"s pour la critique de l'Angletere, pouretre reveu et corrige". Ce
qui me fait trembles chaque fois que je prends la plume en main.
Soyez tres persuade que Naples est actuellment tout rempli
d'espions. J'en connoit plusieurs qui sont each!, et les autres
qui se montre publiquement." — Quoted in Lady Charlotte
Bury's Diary.

376 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
most dangerous counsellor. Clever, quick, but " with
an utter disrelish for caution." Eager for promotion
and looking to the Chancellorship as the reward of
success, it appears never to have entered his mind
that the character of his royal patron must effectually
prevent the condemnation of the princess even were
the witnesses against her believed, and that public
opinion would refuse to such a man a divorce, even
from the worst of wives.
" The knowledge that a board was sitting to collect
evidence against the princess immediately gave such
testimonya high value in the market of Italian perjury ;
happy was the individual who had ever been admitted
to her presence, his fortune was counted to be made.
Nor were they who had viewed her mansion, or had
only known the arrangements of her villa, without hopes
of sharing the golden prize. To have seen her pass,
and noted who attended her person, was a piece of
good luck. In short, nothing, however remotely con
nected with herself or her family, or her residence, or
her habits, was without its value among a poor, a
sanguine, and an imaginative people. It is certain
that no more ready way of proving a case, like the
charge of criminal intercourse, can be found than to
have it first broadly asserted for a fact ; because this
being once believed every motion, gesture, and look
is at once taken as proof of the accusation." 6
The Milan Commission met in August, 1818, and
made their first report in the July of the following
year. It was forthwith laid before ministers, whose
verdict on the evidence was but little satisfactory to
4 Lord Brougham, Edinburgh Review, 1838.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 377
the Regent. " Though the facts stated" said the Cabinet,
" would furnish sufficient proof of crime if established
by credible witnesses, it was at the same time their
opinion that, considering the manner in which a great
part of the testimony had unavoidably been obtained,
and the circumstance that the persons who have
afforded it were foreigners, many of whom appeared
to be in a low state of life, it would not be possible
to advise his Royal Highness to institute any legal
proceedings on such evidence, without further inquiry
as to the characters and lives of the witnesses by whom
it was supported."7
The Milan Commission resumed its work and soon
presented a supplementary report, which was again
unsatisfactory to the Cabinet. The Regent was now
king and almost frantic for a divorce. He renewed
his old threats of dismissing his ministers, going to
Hanover, and resigning his throne. But his ministers
were firm and told him plainly that a divorce was
impracticable for fear of recriminatory evidence. They
referred to and endorsed their former objections to
the characters of the witnesses, so many of them
" standing in the questionable situation of having been
dismissed from the Queen's service." They recom
mended, therefore, an arrangement, and consented to
her not being crowned, and not prayed for by name
in the Liturgy. The king: replied, but ministers
adhered to their decision, and the king could not but
submit. They knew the value of his threats too well
to fear them.6 What might have been the result had
6 Under date February 14, 1820, Mr. Greville writes in his
diary, "The Cabinet sat till past two this morning, the king

378 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
the queen not suddenly returned to England must
be matter of speculation. That by this step she pre
cipitated events, if she did not necessitate her trial, is
undeniable.7
The Queen's Trial.
The princess was at Leghorn on her way to Rome,
when the courier sent by Mr. Brougham brought her
the intelligence of the death of George the Third.
She at once determined to return to England, and
wrote to him to meet her at Geneva. Her best and
most powerful friend was gone, for though for so
many years the king had been a political cypher, a
fear prevailed, so long as he lived, that by some act
of providence his reason might be restored, and his
power once more exerted in her defence. The Duke
of Kent, always her firm friend and discreet adviser,
refused several times to order the queen to be prayed for in
the alteration which was made in the Liturgy. Ministers
wished him to suffer it to be done, but he peremptorily refused,
and said nothing should induce him to consent. Lord
Harrowby told me this last night."
7 February 20. Ministers had resigned last week, because the
king would not hear reason on the subject of the queen. It is
said that he treated Lord Liverpool very coarsely, and ordered
him out of the room. The king, they say, asked him if
he knew to whom he was speaking. " Sir," he replied, " I
know I am speaking to my sovereign, and I believe I am
addressing him as becomes a loyal subject to do." To Lord
Eldon he said, " My Lord, I know your conscience always
interferes, except where your interest is concerned." The kitig
afterwards sent for Lord Liverpool who refused at first, but
went afterwards, when the king said, "We have both been too
hasty."

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 379
had been taken from her by his untimely death.
Perceval, Canning, and Whitbread — all were gone,
and she had now to trust to new advisers. Brougham,
who knew more of her case and its dangers than any
of them, was strenuously opposed to her return to
England. He considered that the conditions of
arrangement with which he had been entrusted in the
summer of 1819, though they did not involve any dimi
nution of her rights, were inconsistent with her posi
tion as queen ; yet, had his advice been followed, she
would have remained abroad, only coming so near to
England as to enable further negotiations to be more
easily carried on. Had he gone to her at Geneva, she
declared all further trouble would have been spared
her ; but, setting up the excuse of circuit engagements,
he delayed his visit until she was almost within sight
of England, and another, far less wise, though not
more earnest counsellor was then in her confidence.8
8 Lord Denman, in his personal narrative of the principal
events of the queen's trial writes, " Brougham's opinion was
that the negotiations in the summer of 1819 between him and
ministers for her residence abroad, complete separation, though
without her consent, were inadmissible when queen, and an
admission of her guilt after the investigation by the Milan
Commission ; and that the people could not be asked to pay a
large allowance to one who appeared to have sanctioned the
truth ofthe charges and that, probably, the House of Commons
would have refused the grant. With the people she would
certainly have lost all credit, and might have found herself at the
mercy of a mean-spirited and vindictive husband. Believes Alder
man Wood (who was now her adviser) held these views.'' —
Arnold's " Life of Lord Denman." There is no doubt that the
queen had very little confidence in Brougham, and much pre
ferred the enthusiasm of Denman to his discreet calculation.

380 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
As soon as she knew of her accession to the throne,
the queen applied to Cardinal Gonsalvi for a guard
of honour at her palace. Through the influence of
the Hanoverian minister at the Papal Court, it was
refused, on the plea, that no communication of her
residence in Rome had been supplied by the English
Government. This deliberate insult, coming as it
did contemporaneously with the intelligence of the
omission of her name from the Liturgy, determined
her to lose no time in starting for England. On the
5th of May she was at Pesaro, whence she hastened
to St. Omer, where she was met by Brougham and
Lord Hutchinson, with the ministerial proposals for
an arrangement. Why Brougham did not communi
cate these proposals to her himself has never been
satisfactorily explained. All that he seems to have
done was tell her that Lord Hutchinson, as the con
fidential friend of the king, was the bearerof proposals
in his name, and to leave him to explain them. The
queen requested them in writing. In reply Lord
Hutchinson declared " that he was not in possession
of any proposition detailed in specific words, but that
the result of many conversations with Lord Liver
pool and ministers was an offer of 50,000/. a year,
subject to such conditions as her consort might
He had heard statements of which he was afraid, and would
gladly have avoided a trial. " He is afraid," was the queen's
opinion ; " and so he was," adds Denman, " but on her account
and not his own." When, however, the trial could not be
avoided, Lord Denman adds, " From that moment, I am sure,
Brougham thought of nothing but serving and saving his client
— his whole powers were decided to her safety and welfare."
Denman's Personal Narrative.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 381
impose. I have reason to know," he continued, "that
the conditions likely to be imposed are, not to assume
the style or title of Queen of England, or any title
attached to the royal family ; not to reside in any
part ofthe United Kingdom, or to visit England. If
she did come, proceedings would be at once taken
against her." When Brougham read these conditions
the queen naturally expressed her utmost indignation.
Brougham admitted that they were not what he
should advise, but begged her to consider what con
ditions she might be pleased to accept. " My deter
mination," replied the queen, "is soon formed. I
. set out instantly for England. It is in London,
and London alone, that I shall consent to consider
any proposals of the King of England." 1
Acting at once on this decision, the queen instructed
Alderman Wood (who, with Lady Anne Hamilton,
had joined her at St. Omer) to order post-horses for
Calais, and Brougham did not know that she had
started, until from his window he saw her carriage
leaving. On the 5 th of June she embarked at Calais
1 Lord Brougham in explanation, during the debate on
Wilberforce's motion, on the 22nd of June, said, " The memo
randum of April 15th (1819) was not given to him for the pur
pose of transmission to her Majesty, but to be given personally,
and that he had no opportunity of so doing by going to Italy
— professional duty and engagements to her in the House of
Commons prevented him from going abroad. When he went to
France he had not an opportunity of laying this memorandum
before her ; but nobody who was not actually on the spot could
form any idea of the strange and unaccountable accidents by
which he was prevented from calling her Majesty's attention to
this document previous' to the delivery of Lord Hutchinson's
communication."— Hansard, N.S. i. p. 131 1.

382 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
on board the packet-boat, as her request for a royal
yacht had been refused, landed next day at Dover,
where, in the absence of prohibitory orders, she was
received with a royal salute. A hearty popular recep
tion followed, with a loyal address from the corporation,
before she left for Canterbury, where another address
awaited her arrival. On the 6th of June she arrived
in London. All along the road her welcome was
enthusiastic, and the crowds in London such, that it
was with difficulty she reached Alderman Wood's
house in South Audley Street, where she appeared on
the balcony and bowed to the applauding crowd.2
This step was met at once by one equally decided
on the part of the king. The Green Bag was at once
sent to both Houses of Parliament, and its loathsome
contents proposed to be referred to secret committees
of both Legislatures. In the House of Lords the
committee was appointed, but put off its meeting
from time to time, whilst negotiations were again
pending — the Duke of Wellington and Lord Castle
reagh on the part of the king, and Brougham and
2 Denman gives the following sketch of the queen's entry into
London : " Her equipage was mean and miserable. On the
box of one carriage was a man with a turban, the others, Italians
with enormous moustachios. There was scarcely a well-dressed
person in the crowd, whilst among the few on horseback I
recognized a sheriff's broker and my own bankrupt cousin. The
king said indignantly, ' That beast, Wood, sat by the queen's
side.' On being reported to her, she said, ' That was very kind
of him.' Her bearing when she appeared on the balcony was
most noble and attractive, firm and graceful, with a fixed
courage in her eye. She kept repeating again and again, ' If he
wished me to stay abroad, why did he not leave me in peace ?
So here I am ! ' " — Denman's Personal Narrative.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 383
Denman (now her Attorney and Solicitor-General) on
the queen's behalf.3 It was soon seen that no agree
ment could be arrived at ; the queen insisting on the
restoration of her name in the Liturgy, the king
regarding that condition as utterly impracticable.4
All in vain was the motion of Wilberforce, on which
the House of Commons voted an address to the
queen, assuring her " that no concession she should
3 April 21. Brougham and Denman were called within the
Bar as her Majesty's law officers. When they first presented
their patents to Lord Eldon, be raised the objection that it did
not necessarily follow that the queen's counsel should have the
rank of king's counsel, citing the case of Serjeant Vaughan, who,
on being appointed such by Queen Charlotte, had not received
that honour, and also that their patents were unstamped. This
last objection was got over by their at once taking them to be
stamped, and the former one discreetly waived. The benchers
of their Inn of Court hesitated to raise them to that position, but
Sir William Grant proposed them and the motion was carried.
Brougham had expressed such dissatisfaction at the return to
England, that he said he supposed she would have Wood for her
attorney-general ; and on the day when the green bag was
introduced, Denman thought he was her only law officer, and as
such put a question to Lord Castlereagh, intending to propose
Williams as his own successor. On this Brougham said that
the threats of the Government prevented his resigning, and the
quarrel was healed. In his hatred of Wood, in one of his
speeches he said he supposed A. W. stood for "Absolute
Wisdom." — Denman's Personal Narrative.
4 Lord Denman thus describes the meeting between the
negotiators : " Lord Castlereagh and the Duke received us as if
ambassadors, both with their ribands and stars. Lord Castle
reagh agreeably frank, but put himself in such a position which
cut me off as the left wing from Brougham's main body. When
Brougham urged the insertion of her name in the Liturgy, he
replied, ' You might as easily move Carlton House.' " — Denman's
Personal Narrative.

384 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
make could be ascribed to an unworthy motive, and
entreating her to permit an accommodation by relin
quishing some point, her adherence to which had
hitherto rendered so desirable an object unattainable."
A hasty expression of Lord Castlereagh's during the
debate, that the omission of her name from the
Liturgy was intended as a stigma, decided her to
refuse its concession.6 Her reception ofthe deputa
tion of the House of Commons was, marked with great
stateliness, and her refusal of their advice, though
courteous, was decided. With the people her decision
was popular, but in the House of Commons it lost
her many friends. On the 4th of July the secret
committee ofthe Lords reported in favour of ulterior
proceedings ; the Bill of Pains and Penalties was
introduced, and open war declared.6
On the 7th of July the first batch of witnesses
against the queen arrived at Dover, all Italians,
apparently of the lowest class. So roughly were
s In the debate on WTTberforce's motion, on the suggestion
being made that the queen was included in the general prayer
for the royal family, Denman said that if she was included in
any prayer at all, it was in the petition in the Litany " for all
that are desolate and oppressed." He states that on Lord
Castlereagh saying that the exclusion of her name was intended
as a stigma, the queen wrote him, by Lady Anne Hamilton, that
after that she could not enter into any negotiation. — " Life of
Lord Denman," by Arnold. Personal Narrative.
6 When the copy of the bill was formally served on her by
Sir T. Tyrwhitt, the queen said, " I am sorry it comes so late.
Twenty-five years ago it might have been of some use to his
Majesty ; but, as we shall not meet in this world, I hope we
shall in the next, where justice will be rendered me." — Lady C.
Bury.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 385
they treated by the people that they had to leave
Dover by stealth, and were so thoroughly terrified
that another party, all of the same class, were soon
after shipped back from Harwich to Holland. For
the witnesses a complete prison had been constructed
out of some of the houses of the officers of the House
of Commons, in what was then known as Cotton
Garden, situated on the river-side, and approached from
thence by a newly-constructed landing-place, guarded
by a gunboat. On the land side, a brick wall and a
strong timber partition separated them from the
Parliament Stairs. All other means of access were
closed up, and strong iron-bound doors fixed at the
end of the avenue opposite Henry the Seventh's
Chapel. Quantities of provisions were sent in, with
cooks from Hampton and Windsor, and no one was
allowed to join them without a previous order from
the Home Office, and the attendance of a confidential
person from the Alien Department. ¦ There they
herded together during the whole of the proceedings,
no doubt conversing over the evidence each one was
prepared to give, and comparing notes of their respec-'
tive stories. So great was the excitement, that the
Lord's Committee called upon the High Bailiff of
Westminster to keep the streets clear during the
trial, and requested his Majesty " for such guards as
were usually allowed in cases of impeachment." With
these preparations the trial commenced on the 17th
of August ; the streets one mass of people from the
queen's residence in St. James's Square to the Parlia
ment-house ; two troops of the Life Guards in Palace
Yard, the Coldstreams and field-pieces at Whitehall,
VOL. II. C c

386 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
besides horse-patrols and constables, special as well
as ordinary. Through this dense and excited mass the
lords had to make their way, saluted with cries of
"Remember your queen." "Think of your wives,
mothers, daughters." " Remember you are English
men." When the queen passed through, the cry of
" God bless her ! " was universal. Whether they
believed in her innocence or not, the masses remem
bered how she had been treated by her husband
almost from her wedding-day, and how he paraded
his own immoralities whilst crying out for a divorce
and the condemnation of his consort. The same
popular ovation welcomed her daily during the pro
tracted proceedings.7
At ten o'clock on Thursday, the 17th of August,
the House resumed its consideration of the Bill of
Pains and Penalties. The number of peers was large,
and nearly all the judges were in attendance. On
various grounds several peers were excused, including
three Roman Catholic lords on the score of their
religion. The Duke of Sussex obtained exemption
on the ground of his relationship, and the Duke of
Cambridge as Viceroy of Hanover ; but the Duke of
York took the occasion of professing his determina
tion not to suffer any private feelings to deter him
from doing his duty, however painful that might be.
A sense of decency, if no higher motive, one would
have thought, might have prompted the royal family
to leave the House where they were to sit not only as
7 The troops were also so disaffected that a battalion of the
guards had to be removed from London, and the queen's health
was publicly drunk by the hussars at Hampton. As Jekyl said,
" The extinguisher was taking fire."

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 387
judges, but as jurors, on so near a relation. After
the motion of the Duke of Leinster, that the order
for the further consideration of the bill should be
rescinded, had been negatived by an overwhelming
majority, the bill was formally read, and the usual
motion in such cases made to call in counsel in sup
port of its preamble. By the opponents of the
proceeding its inexpediency and mischievous tendency
were again forcibly, but in vain, urged, as well as the
feeling, in which it was said the House of Commons
clearly participated, since they had declared that
whichever way the question should be decided " it
would be injurious to the best interests of the empire."
A question as to whether such acts as those imputed
to Bergami, though a foreigner, amounted to high
treason, was put to the judges, and answered in the
negative ; and then counsel were called in.
For the bill appeared, besides the law officers of
the Crown, Dr. Adam, the Judge Advocate, and Mr.
Parke. For the queen, her law officers, Dr. Lushing-
ton, the eminent civilian, and Messrs. Williams,
Tindal, and WVlde.8 In addition to the Solicitor for
8 Sir R. Gifford, afterwards Masterof the Rolls, was Attorney-
General ; Serjeant Copley (the future Chancellor), Solicitor-
General ; Lushington, eventually Judge ofthe Admiralty Court ;
James Parke, afterwards Lord Wensleydale ; Brougham, subse
quently Chancellor ; Denman (Lord Chief Justice) ; Tindal (Chief
Justice of the Common Pleas) ; Wylde (Lord Truro), Lord Chan
cellor ; Williams, raised to the Bench. Of Wylde, Lord Denman
says that "his introduction into the case was not at first agreeable
to the other counsel. Originally an attorney engaged for Alderman
Wood in some mining transactions, at that time not in high
esteem in the profession, he was brought in by Wood. We were,
however, no sooner acquainted with him than our prejudices van-
C C 2

388 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
the -Treasury, Mr. Powell, of the Milan Commission,
attended as solicitor for the bill, and Mr. Vizard in
opposition. As soon as counsel presented them
selves at the bar, the Duke of Hamilton asked the
Attorney-General on whose behalf he appeared, and
by whom he was instructed. The answer was eva
sive. " He appeared because the officer of the House
had served him with an order, declaring that the
Lords would allow counsel to be heard before the
second reading of the bill, and that in order to be
enabled to produce witnesses in its support, he had
applied for information to those sources from which
he thought it likely to be obtained, and understanding
that information upon the subject had been com
municated to the Secretary of State for the Home
Department, had accordingly applied there." The
Duke was obliged to be satisfied with the explanation.
It would not have done for the Government to have
formally admitted that the king was the petitioner.9
The greater portion of three days were consumed
in the arguments of counsel against the principle of
ished ; he thought of nothing but success, and contributed most
largely to it. Extremely able and acute, generally very judicious,
always active and persevering in the highest degree, his habits
as an attorney qualified him for many things to which counsel
are incompetent." Born, 1782 ; called, 1817; Solicitor-General,
1840, and Attorney-General, 1841 ; Chief Justice ofthe Common
Pleas, 1846; Chancellor, 1850-2. He married, as his second
wife, Mdlle. D'Este, the daughter of the Duke of Sussex and
Lady Augusta Murray ; died, 1855.
5 A full copy of the Bill of Pains and Penalties will be found
in Appendix B. I have adopted the usual name of " Bergami"
and not " Pergami," as stated in the bill, this alteration being
made in committee.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 389
the bill, and in debates upon the motion of Lord
Liverpool, that counsel should proceed to call evidence
in its support. In his speech Brougham took advan
tage of the explanation offered by the Attorney-
General for his appearance in its support.
"The House," he said," was called upon to cut the holy knot,
first, because the parties had disregarded its sacred obligation,
and, secondly, because the husband did not complain. It was
no private bill but a state measure. The king made no com
plaint, and the House was called upon to dissolve the marriage
without the suggestion of either of the parties interested. It
•was unprecedented, illegal, in opposition to all analogy, and in
the teeth of the most sacred part of civil and ecclesiastical
justice. Perhaps he might be allowed to state that the mode
of proceeding afforded sufficient evidence to show that the story
of degradation and dishonour was a mere pretence from the
beginning." Hinting at the possibility of a case of recrimination,
which he professed to use only for the purpose of
argument, and which he had his client's solemn com
mands to avoid, but the meaning of which deprecation
could not be mistaken, he significantly asked, —
" Are we arrived in this age at that highest pitch of polish in
society when we shall be afraid to call things by their proper
names, yet shall not scruple to punish by express laws an offence
in the weaker sex which has been passed over in the stronger ?
Have we indeed reached that stage? I trust I shall not hear it
in this place. I hope that the spirit of justice, which I believe
pervades this house at large, will prevent it. But if not, I will
appeal to the spirit of holiness, and to the heads of the church
ranged before me, whether adultery is to be considered only a
crime in woman. I make the same confident appeal, and to
the same quarter, when I ask whether the crown can be dis
honoured, the fame of the country tarnished, and the morals of
the people put in jeopardy, if an adulterous intercourse (which
no one ventures to call adultery) shall be proved against a lady,

390 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
when that which I venture to call adultery, because the exalted
individual himself has confessed it to be so, has actually been
committed by a prince. It is with the utmost pain that I make
this statement, and it is wrung from me by hard compulsion ; I
say it not — God forbid I should — to vent harshly upon him any of
the failings of our common nature, much less to alter one iota of
my recorded sense of the baseness of that conspiracy by which
those failings were dragged before the public. I bring it forward
because it is in truth an answer to this case. Why was no bill of
degradation brought in in 1809, after the resolution of the House
of Commons and a full confession on behalf of the party accused
that he had been guilty of ' most immoral and unbecoming con
duct.' All this was well-known to the authors of this bill, for
one of themselves penned the very words I have just read to the
house.1 I ask, therefore, whether there is any possibility of
replying to this objection but in one short way — that all men
may do as they please, however exalted their station, however
intimately connected with the crown and with the highest
interests of the state ; that their conduct is perfectly indifferent ;
but let the look of slander once fix upon a defenceless female of
the family, who has been residing abroad, who has been allowed
to expatriate herself; who has been assisted in removing from
this country, and even cherished to keep herself away from it ;
then at that instant the venom must distil, and she must be per
secuted and prosecuted under the canting, hypocritical, and dis
gusting pretence that the honour of the country and the crown
are at stake. Whether all of us, nearer to the object, do or do
not see through ihis flimsy pretext, be assured, that the good
sense ofthe nation cannot be deceived, and that those who are at
a distance will be shocked and astonished. The people at large
must look upon it as something too ridiculous to be examined. I
myself can hardly use decor mts terms in speaking of it, and they,
in their homely language, will assert that it is an attempt to
accomplish one purpose under the colottr of another. ' Here is a
man! they will say, ' who wishes to get rid of his wife; he talks
of the honour and safety of the country, yet its dearest interests,
its peace, its morals, and its happiness are to be sacrificed to
gratify his desires! "
1 Se e case of the Duke of York and Mrs. Clarke, vol. i. chap. ix.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 391
Denman, who followed his leader in an equally bold
and cutting address, spoke plainly on the same point
of recrimination. His sketch of husband and wife
was perfect.
" Let your lordships, then, suppose a case of a young and
accomplished woman coming to these shores from a foreign
country, with prospects of splendour almost unparalleled ; that,
on her arrival, instead of meeting with an affectionate husband,
she found an alienated mind ; that the solemnities of marriage
did not prevent his being surrounded by mistresses ; that the
birth of a child, instead of affording a pledge of mutual regard,
became the subject of aggravated insult, and was shortly
followed by expulsion from her husband's roof. That even then
spies were placed over her to report or to fabricate stories of her
conduct. If, after all these circumstances, an ex parte inquiry
took place and terminated in a complete acquittal ; and in con
sequence of that acquittal she was restored to the embraces of a
father by whom she was never deserted ; if, subsequently, she
had been induced to go abroad, and that the same machinations
were renewed against her, in the hope that what had failed in
England might succeed in Italy, the charges which had before
been blown to atoms by argument and ridicule, might at length
avail, if not to convict, at least to blacken, to disgrace, to de
stroy ; in a case like this where a husband had shown himself
indifferent to the honour and happiness of his wife — where he
had abdicated all those duties which gave him the rights of a
husband — would their lordships listen for one moment to his
case ? Surely not ; he would be obliged to retire from their bar
with feelings which it is unnecessary to describe. If by inconti
nence, unkindness, and brutality, the wife was to be driven
from her home, and was afterwards charged with adultery, to
refuse all inquiry into the husband's conduct was evidently to
allow him to take advantage of his own wrong. Recrimination
appeared to him the most important right belonging to a con
sort. Unless, then, the rules of morality were made not for the
high, but for the low, and unless laws were to be suspended only
for the powerful, and never for the weak, such an example, he
was suie, could not be established."

392 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
The truth and eloquence of these words were
equally useless. The bill, said the Attorney-General,
was in the usual form, and the fact, that had the acts
charged against the queen been committed in Eng
land, it would have been a case of high treason, was
sufficient justification for its introduction. The motion
to proceed was carried by 181 to 65, and the subse
quent motion by Earl Grey that " the bill before the
House did not afford the most advisable means of
prosecuting the charges against her Majesty, and
that, therefore, it was not necessary or expedient to
proceed further with it," defeated by a nearly equal
majority. Among some peers probably there was a
wish to hear the evidence about which so much had
been rumoured ; others thought, and thought rightly,
that it had only to be heard to its being exposed to
contempt, and thus to ensure a verdict, among un
biassed people, less creditable to the prosecution than
to the accused ; others were irritated by the queen's
refusal of mediation, though urged on her by so large
a majority of the lower House of Parliament.
The difficult duty has now to be undertaken of
presenting the evidence in a form consistent with a
due regard to decency. The minor charges of
familiarity with Bergami inconsistent with the rela
tion of mistress and servant ; the separation of herself
from all her English attendants and introduction of
his family in their place ; the reported avoidance of
that class of society abroad, in which, as Princess of
Wales, she might be expected to move, preferably to
that of inferiors ; and such an incident as the ball at
Naples, in which the princess appeared in what was

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 393

declared to be the indecent costume of the Genius of
History, can be discussed without offence. Not so,
however, the acts by which the graver charges were
sought to be supported, in the foul description of
which the prurient imaginations of the Italian wit
nesses revelled. With regard to these, therefore, it is
proposed to take the ministerial reply to the prince as
our text. We will assume with ministers " that the
facts stated furnished sufficient proof of crime, if
established by credible witnesses," and will examine
how this evidence was obtained, what were the
positions and characters of the witnesses, and in
what points, and by witnesses of what station and
character they were contradicted.
And first, who was Bergami ? According to the
prosecution a common menial servant, hired in Italy,
of the class from which couriers usually come, and
gradually, but with determination, raised to high office
about the princess, loaded by her with honours and
titles, and allowed to surround her with his relations of
equal menial position, low manners, and doubtful
antecedents. In reality, Bergami came of a good
Italian family which had suffered reverses in the wars
of the revolution. In 1801 he was quartermaster in
the brigade of General Teuille in Italy, where he bore
the character of a good soldier, and some years after
was the confidential courier of General Pino, who
commanded the Italian division in the army of
Marshal St. Cyr on the frontiers of Spain. When
the princess was at Milan, Mr. Keppel Craven applied
to the Marquis Ghisiliari, who had been appointed by
General Bellegarde to attend her whilst at Milan,

394 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
to recommend a courier to supply the place of one
about to be discharged, and he recommended
Bergami. He had known his family for many
years, he could strongly recommend him, and ex
pressed a hope that if he behaved well he might be
continued in her service out of livery. Sir William
Gell also saw Bergami embraced and kissed in the
street by the Marquis, when the latter was in his full
uniform as " Chamberlain of the Emperor of
Austria," a well-known sign of recognition as his
equal in family, though, then from reduced circum
stances, a courier. The King of Bavaria and the
Margravine of Bayreuth do not appear to have felt
themselves insulted by his dining at table with them,
and the former presented him with one of those gold
snuff-boxes, with his initials on it, which were wont to
be given to ambassadors. His conduct as a courier
- was unexceptional, and his manners above that of his
menial position. So far as her English attendants
saw, no impropriety appeared in the relations or
conduct of the princess and her courier. To all her
servants the demeanour of the princess was extremely
familiar, but so far as they saw not more so to
Bergami than the others. His sister, the Countess
Oldi, was said by the witnesses for the prosecution to
be of such low extraction and poor education as to
show them by her provincial dialect.2 Dr. Holland,
2 With reference to the dialect spoken by the Countess Oldi
an amusing incident occurred during the trial. A question on
that point had been put by Lord Lauderdale in the broad Scotch
dialect, in which that noble lord indulged. On which Lord
Auckland asked Dr. Holland, whether the countess's dialect
differed more from pure Italian than the English language

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 395
however, admitted that though persons of fashion and
education are capable of speaking a purer Italian, in
conversing with one another they often used the
dialect that prevailed in Lombardy. And Sir
William Gell, a perfect Italian scholar, agreed with
Dr. Holland, and denied that she was either low or
vulgar, but, on the contrary, " a decent, rather good-
looking, respectable lady."
Another of the minor charges, that of avoiding the
society of English travellers of position and character,
as well as being deserted by the hereditary and official
nobility of the several states in which she resided, was
also fully rebutted by Lord Guildford, the Earl of
Llandaff and Lord Glenbervie, as well as by her
English chamberlains, Craven and Gell. King
Joachim to show his respect met her at Aversa, and
personally conducted her to the palace set apart for
her in Naples. Every Englishman of title and posi
tion visited her ; it is needless to give the long list
furnished by her chamberlains, and this attention
continued so late as when she was at Rome in 1817,
after the return from that journey in the East and
her residence at the Villa d'Este, where the worst of
the acts of criminality were reported to have been
openly practised. The Duke of Baden attached his
chamberlain Eude to her service during her visit at
his court,3 and the King of Bavaria, as has already
spoken by some Scotch persons of education and family differ
from pure English. Dr. Holland discreetly declined to make
the comparison.
3 Eude was summoned as a witness for the queen, but, like
Rastel'i, had a convenient illness that prevented his coming.

396 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
been noticed, received her and even her chamberlain
Bergami at his table.
The separation from her of so many of the
English of her suite was also reasonably explained.
Mr. St. Leger, from ill-health, had to leave at Bruns
wick, and was prevented by continued illness from
rejoining her suite until she arrived at Dover.
Mr. Craven originally engaged for only two or three
months ; Sir 'William Gell had to be excused when
the journey to the north was projected, as from his
repeated attacks of gout he was unable to travel.
Dr. Holland, to whom, at Milan, the princess
offered six weeks' leave to make a tour in Switzer
land, requested and obtained an additional leave of
absence in order to go to England on his private affairs
and from professional engagements there, did not re
turn. Lady Charlotte Lindsay only stayed as long as
she did in order to assist her husband, who was in
straitened circumstances. She also denied that she
ever said that her resignation was a relief to her because
no woman who cared for her character could remain
in the princess's suite after the introduction of
Bergami, but accounted for it from the distress of
mind from which she suffered at the loss of two near
relations. Why Lady Elizabeth Forbes, separated
herself was indeed not proved ; and as for Lady Char
lotte Campbell, why she stayed with her for so short a
time was of little consequence, considering her subse
quent behaviour to one whom she could not but admit
had been an indulgent and most liberal mistress.
There could hardly have been much to complain of in
the princess's conduct, when Lord Glenbervie could

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 397
allow his wife to act as lady-in-waiting until Lady
Charlotte Campbell arrived. Lieutenant Flynn was
captain of her yacht during both its voyages, and
Lieutenant Howman was her private secretary during
the whole of her wanderings abroad.
Another charge, that of appearing indelicately
dressed as the Genius of History at a masked ball,
given at her palace to King Murat, was refuted by
the evidence of Sir William Gell and Keppel Craven.
At first, like many other persons at the ball, the
princess appeared in a Turkish dress,4 the trousers
being merely like a petticoat slightly sewn together
between the legs at the bottom. Her dress, as the
Genius of History, according to Sir William Gell, was
like that of the statue of Curiatius in the British
Museum, or of Mr. Hope's Minerva, very much
draped and completely covering the figure ; when
thus dressed the princess was seen for only a few
minutes, when a door being opened, she appeared
supported by the Countesses Civitela and Delri, with
the Duke of Cassarano as the bearer of the trumpet
of fame, and placed an olive wreath on the bust of
Murat. As for the story of her having to take off the
Turkish dress entirely before putting on that of the
Genius, that was also denied on the best authority, as
well as the charge that Bergami alone went into her
dressing-room at the change of dress. Sir William Gell
saw her to her room, and had good reason to believe
that the princess had plenty of attendants to assist her
4 Some of the witnesses reverse the order of the three dresses
in which the princess appeared, putting that of the Neapolitan
peasant first and not last.

398 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
in changing her dress, as the door was opened and shut
perpetually and everybody went in and out of her
room. Again, it was charged against the princess that she
had hurried from the opera at Naples to keep an assig
nation with Bergami. Keppel Craven, who, to his
sorrow, was in attendance, swore to her sitting out the
whole performance, not leaving until after midnight,
as the opera had begun late, and was " long, tiresome,
and stupid," and going direct to her bedroom, and to
her retiring equally late from the royal concert, which
it was said she had left in haste, and early for the
same vicious purpose. Sir William Gell also ex
plained that the so-called most indecent dance of the
servant Mahomet, which she had witnessed from her
window, was simply like the Spanish bolero, which
prevails throughout the south of Europe, and on
which ladies and gentlemen look without remark ;
and Granville Sharp, who could speak from ten years'
service in India, described it as a usual eastern dance
which he had seen exhibited at Government House in
Calcutta, in the presence of the Governor- General.
Craven admitted that he had seen her walking on
the terrace in her garden at Naples with Bergami,
and warned her against it, because there was a spy in
the city. But it was elicited from Sir W. Gell that
there were men at work in the garden at the time,
and that the terrace itself was in full view from the
surrounding houses.5 That she had taken the arm of
5 The princess before she left England had grown unwieldy,
and seems from the evidence to have been glad to take the arm
of any of her suite in walking, especially when on the deck at sea.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 399
Bergami in her walks ; that she had allowed him to
come into her bedroom of a morning was admitted
to be in accordance with foreign habits, and though
her condescension was marked, it did not greatly ex
ceed that of foreigners, and as Lady C. Lindsay truly
remarked, " the higher classes in England are remark
ably kind and condescending to their servants, more
so than other persons." Kindness to and respect for
servants is one of the true tests of gentlemen and
gentlewomen. It is only pretenders to rank and posi
tion who are afraid to condescend. With one other
alleged impropriety we will close our remarks on the
minor charges. She was accused of having gone into
Bergami's bedroom when he was in bed from an
accident, and to have acted the part of his nurse.
Though such an act of kindness might be excused, it
is satisfactory to know that it was at once denied by
Dr. Holland, who attended on the sick courier. Let
us now examine into the credibility and character of
the witnesses by whose evidence the graver charges,
as well as these questionable improprieties, were sup
posed to be supported.
Theodore Majocchi, of non mi recordo notoriety,
was the first witness produced in support of the bill.6

6 The conduce ofthe queen on the appearance of this witness
has been variously represented. According to Lord Albemarle,
in his late interesting recollections, on the appearance of
Majocchi she stood close up to him, threw her vest completely
back, held her body very backward, and placed both her hands
on her sides. In this position she stared firmly at him, and for
some seconds there was a dead silence, and then she screamed
out " Theodore ! Theodore ! " in the most frantic manner, and

400 NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS.
A fellow-servant with Bergami at General Pino's, as
a postillion, he subsequently was taken into King
Murat's stables, and thence hired by Bergami, whom
he met in Naples in 1815, as one of the princess's
footmen. As such he remained with her for three
years, when he was discharged on his own request ;
and after trying horse-dealing at home for a short
time, went for a few months into the, service of the
family of the Marquis of Odescalchi, with whom he
travelled into Germany. Thence he went into the
household of our ambassador at Vienna, when ap
parently the idea first struck him, if he did not receive
the inducement, of becoming a witness against the
princess. According to his own story it was when at
Lord Stewart's that his father came to fetch him to
Milan to see Colonel Browne, and, though only a poor
carrier, had money enough to pay for their journey
thither, and keep on the road, our ambassador finding
him money on which to live at Milan. From Vienna
he was fetched by some one, he could not tell whom,
and brought to England. In reality, as he was after
wards obliged to admit, he had come to England with
a Mr. Hyatt, of Gloucester, and lived in his service for
rushed out of the house. Lord Albemarle thought her insane,
and her family said there was some madness below her eccentri
cities. Lord Denman, in addition, says that she was followed
out of the house by Lady Anne Hamilton, and bled that night.
Next day when she returned, he adds, " I never saw a human
being so interesting Her face was pale, her eyelids a little
sunken, her eyes fixed on the ground, with no expression of
alarm or consciousness of guilt, but with an appearance of
decent distress at being made the subject of such revolting
calumnies." — Personal Narrative.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 401
a short period, before he was transferred to London
to join the other witnesses. He was forced to confess
that whilst with Mr. Hyatt he had always given the
queen the best of characters, and concealed the fact
that he was about to be one of the witnesses against
her. In his examination-in-chief his memory of the most
minute details of the relative positions of the rooms
of the princess and Bergami appeared perfect. When,
however, he was under the hands of Mr. Brougham,
its defectiveness was equally patent. To every question,
as to the position of the chambers of the other per
sons in the suite, he could only repeat his parrot-cry
of Non mi recordo, until the expression became a
byword.7 He could not remember Baron Ompteda
as a visitor, and frequently a resident at the princess's,
or that he had repeatedly asked to be taken back
into the princess's service. At last, when pressed
again and again on this point, he admitted asking
one of the suite, Count Scavini, the major-domo, to
enable him to return, but " it was only in a playful
way, in common conversation, as he was in the
service at the time of Marshal Erba." His description
of Mahomet's dance was grossly indecent, and lie
7 The correct translation of this answer was the subject of
much discussion. The Marchese Spineto, the interpreter for
the bill, translated it as " I do not remember— I do not recollect,"
and said it was equivalent to " Je ne sais pas " in French. Mr.
Cohen, on the part of the queen, at the request of the queen's
Attorney- General, was called in and gave the same interpretation,
adding that " I don't know " would be rendered " Non so." As
a further illustration, Cohen gave the translation of " Non mi
recordo questo " as " This I don't recollect."
VO... 11. D d

402 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
revelled in the beastly details which he swore it
presented. We have already seen what was the real
nature of that dance from witnesses of unimpeachable
character, who saw the performance, as well as from
others fully capable of describing its character from
their own experience of it in other places. If he was
to be believed, Bergami had the foolish audacity to
pass through the room in which Majocchi slept, which
was between that of the courier and the princess, and
enter the latter, whilst the witness shammed sleep
and looked at him with half-closed eyes. Yet he
could not remember how Bergami was then dressed.
Of the balls given at the princess's country house, the
Barona, he gave only a less disgraceful account than
the subsequent witness, Sacchi, in which it will be
seen, when we come to that man's evidence, he was
contradicted by the English witnesses for the queen.
And he swore distinctly to the princess's visit to Ber
gami when in bed from his accident, which Dr.
Holland as distinctly denied.
The Baron Ompteda, about whom, and whose acts,
Majocchi was so conveniently forgetful, obtained an
unenviable notoriety for his share in the procuration
of witnesses against the queen, in which disgraceful
business, not only the ministers of Hanover at the
various small courts in Italy, but those of some of
the lesser German potentates, were active participa
tors. He was accused, and, it must be feared, with
reason, of having gone to the extent of bribing one of
the postillions to get false keys made to the doors in
the Villa d'Este, in order to enable him more surely to
play the spy, and for this false conduct was challenged

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 403
by Lieutenant Howman. He certainly was in secret
correspondence with members of the princess's house
hold, by which he sought to seduce them to give
evidence against her. And his conduct became so
notorious, that, as Carrington and Lieutenant How-
man tell us, and we doubt not truly, Majocchi himself,
who " could hardly remember hfm," declared he would
" kill him like a dog," had not Howman given strict
instructions to the household not to take any notice of
the Baron. The character which the opinion ofthe day
attached to Majocchi, of his being a " consummate liar,"
was well deserved. Even the counsel for the bill could
hardly conceal their disbelief of the evidence of " Non
mi recordo"
Pietro Cacchi, the waiter at the inn at Trieste,
where the princess stayed, was a despicable witness.
By his own admission it was his custom to look through
a slit in the canvas that covered one of the doors of
the dining-room, to see, as he said, whether the guests
were ready for breakfast. In this discreditable occu
pation he repeatedly witnessed, not only acts of
most indecent familiarity committed by the princess
and Bergami in the dining-room,but also from the same
spy-hole saw the latter, in undress, leave the princess's
room a little after eight in the morning on more than
one of the six days during which he swore the prin
cess stayed at his inn. The appearance of this creature,
to judge from Brougham's portrait of him, was loath
some in the extreme. "Did not their lordships
recollect that physiognomy ; the never-to-be-forgotten
expression of that face ; those eyes, that nose, that
lecherous mouth with which the wretch stood there
D d 2

404 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
to repeat the falsehoods, the wicked suggestions of his
own filthy imagination, to which he had sworn at
Milan. Would they not for ever remember that hoary
pander of Trieste — the manner in which he told his
story ; the haggard look which gave him the appear
ance of an inhabitant of the infernal regions, which
must have reminded their lordships of the great
Italian poet's description of a broadfaced tailor in
hell peeping and grinning through the eye of a
needle." 8 Unnecessary as it was to contradict such a
witness, it was clearly proved by Count Vassali, the
equerry, that the princess stayed only a day and a
night at Trieste, instead ofthe six days during which he
swore they were " All day, every day, always together
arm-in-arm," and he repeatedly witnessed from the
convenient slit in the canvas the brother coming
through his sister's room to keep his usual assignation
with his royal mistress.
After the Italian waiter came the German chamber
maid of the inn at Carlsruhe, Meidge Barbara Kress,
whose production as a witness was due to the
ingenuity and perseverance of no less than three
German ambassadors — Berckstett, the minister of the
Duke of Baden at Carlsruhe, Herr Von Grimm, the
ambassador of Wurtemberg, and Von Reden," the
representative of Hanover, who subsequently, as the
successor of Ompteda in that capacity at Rome, per
suaded Cardinal Gonsalvi to refuse a guard of honour
to the queen.
Brought up from very early years in the lowest
8 Brougham in his speech for the defence, when commenting
on the witnesses for the bill.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 405
offices of inns, Kress had risen from the cellar to
chambers, and then left, as she said, to marry. When
the princess arrived at the Post Inn, Von Grimm and
his brother, who were residing there, adroitly gave up
their rooms to her ; and no sooner had she gone away
than they were back running about them, looking
into every hole and corner, and asking questions of
Kress, in search of the evidence they were no doubt
instructed to obtain. By them she was taken to
Hanover and to Frankfort for examination, and paid
in the one case eighteen, in the other fourteen ducats,
a little fortune to one who was receiving such poor
and precarious wages as the inn servant.9 Yet, after
all, though she was certain about a damning stain on
' It was in reference to the way in which this witness's
evidence had been procured that on a subsequent occasion,
when the question of agency was brought forward (Oct. 16th),
that the Earl of Carnarvon condemned in a most pointed manner
the way in which the case had been got up in reference to the
Carlsruhe evidence, " which rested on the testimony of one
witness — a witness, too, that had been examined not by the
Milan Commission, but by the Hanoverian minister, and after
wards taken to Hanover. " Was that minister," said the Earl,
" an authorized agent, and who was responsible for his acts ? Did
ministers adopt the conduct of the Hanoverian minister — or
who was to be responsible for the acts of a little German despot ?
Perhaps not only the ministers employed in this business were
those of the King of Great Britain, but also of the King of
Hanover and the Duke of Cornwall. If the real constitutional
adVisers of his Majesty were responsible for all that had been
done, he believed they would have to answer for the most dis
graceful means which compromised the character of this
country. Every principle of justice, every feeling of truth and
common sense, were at variance with what had been done in
this miserable case." •

406 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Bergami's bed, she spoke with hesitations to whether
it was his sister Oldi, or the princess, that on one
occasion she for a moment saw in his room, and was
not worth the liberal compensation by which her visit
— her compulsory visit as she swore — to England was
secured. The fact, which she disclosed, of the exis
tence of another commission for the collection of
evidence, besides that at Milan, and of the part so
industriously taken by the ministers of the viceroy of
Hanover, and other minor German sovereigns, tended
to throw further discredit on the means by which the
case had been got up against the queen.
Again we come back to an Italian witness, Paolo
Raggazoni, the mason of Biango, who was employed
on the alterations and additional buildings at the Villa
d'Este, and who swore that from behind a pilaster in
one of the rooms in a grotto, where he was making a
cornice, he saw the princess and Bergami acting
indecently with two statues of Adam and Eve that
stood there. According to his own account of him
self, he was a master mason, with from twenty to
thirty men under him as the contractor for the whole
work. But Gugiari, the princess's factor, who had to
keep the accounts and pay the workmen, and Giaro-
lini, who had taken the contract for the works from
the architect, Ratti, to the extent of more than 5000/.,
knew him only as a day labourer, with no oneunder him.
The latter concurred with the factor in stating that the
statues could not be seen from the octagon room in
which the cornice was being put up, and that before
the princess returned from the East they had been
removed to a newly-built room, which had been com-

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 407
pleted, and in which no workmen were then employed .
In this case, no doubt, it was Italian witness against
Italian witness ; but it would be a libel on both of
these men to put them in the same category as the
workman whom they contradicted.
It was during the examination of Giarolini1 that an
incident occurred, throwing the utmost discredit on
the managers of the bill. Giarolini swore that Ras-
telli, who had been called as a witness for the bill,
and been proved to be a most active agent of the
Milan Commission in hunting up witnesses, had tried
to tempt him to give evidence against the queen, by
promising to get the balance then due on his contract
paid by " the English gentleman." As this was
apparently a new fact, the queen's Attorney-General
demanded the recall of Rastelli, who had been
examined on the 4th of September, and he was not
forthcoming. He, it was said, had been sent back to
Milan to allay the fears of the relatives of the wit
nesses who had been mobbed at Dover, and though
expected and ordered back before the 3rd of
October, when the case for the queen was to be com
menced, had not returned. In the long and angry
debate that ensued, the Premier admitted that this
sending away of the witness was highly culpable, but
attributed it to kindly motives towards the other
witnesses. Powell, of the Milan Commission, who
had taken on himself to send away Rastelli without
communication either with the ministry or counsel,
was twice examined, and at last compelled to submit
1 This witness was called on the 13th of October.

408 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
his correspondence on the matter with Colonel Browne
at Milan to a committee of the House of Lords.
" He swore that he had selected Rastelli for the mission
because he had brought over so many of the witnesses, and
knew their friends and relatives. No doubt these could have
applied to Colonel Browne, but he had received depositions that
they were not satisfied with his assurances. Though he had
sent documents by Rastelli for legalization, he had instructed
Browne not to detain him for that purpose, so as to prevent his
return by the 3rd of October, and he was not sent for fresh wit
nesses. He did not know that with the exception of the family
of Majocchi, those of all the other witnesses lived away from
Milan, and he admitted that previously letters from all of them
had been sent to the colonel. But the witness did not know,
though it appeared on the minutes of evidence, that Rastelli had
sworn that he had never seen one of the eleven witnesses he
brought over before they came with him, and that he did not
know them or their families."
From the report of the committee to whom the
correspondence with Colonel Browne was referred, it
appeared that Powell had written him that he had
sent Rastelli to him " as he might be of use to him,
but he was to send him back with all the witnesses and
documents so as to arrive here on the 3rd of October;
that he was conscious of the difficulties Browne had to
encounter in consequence ofthe injurious reports, and
he relied on his exertions to get over them." It is to be
noted, that not one word was written to Colonel Browne
of using Rastelli for the purpose of quieting the fears
of the relatives and friends of the witnesses, and that
though in his examination by the Lords, Powell denied
that any witnesses were to be brought back by Ras
telli, it is distinctly stated in his letter that one object
of his mission was " to bring back zvitnesses " as well

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 409
as the documents. On the 3rd of October, Colonel
Browne reported Rastelli ill of fever, and the next day
of jaundice, that "he dreaded the thoughts of going to
sea, and could not, without imminent danger, be
engaged to travel in less than three weeks." Talley
rand would not, as in Metternich's case, have ex
pressed himself unable to understand why the courier
was so conveniently an invalid.
Louisa Demont, the Swiss waiting-maid, now comes
on the scene, whose evidence covers the first three years
of the princess's travels.2 Hired at Lausanne in 1814,
she was with her from the arrival of the princess at
Naples until after her return from the East, and from
the nature of her service in constant attendance on her
mistress. Her account ofthe princess's early return from
the opera at Naples and at the masked ball we have
already seen fully contradicted, and Sir William Gell
and Dr. Holland will be accepted as better judges ofthe
Countess Oldi's Italian than the Swiss chambermaid.
Of the value to be attached to those of her statements
2 " This witness, of whom so much was expected and of whom
the people have heard so much, wore a handsome black satin
hat, ornamented with feathers ; a muslin ruff, highly plaited ; a
white silk handkerchief over her neck and bosom, and a black
satin gown, vandyked at the top, and profusely decorated with
flounces at the bottom. She is the smartest dressed oifemmes de
ckambre, but neither the youngest nor the prettiest. She
appears to be about thirty-six years of age. In complexion a
brunette ; her cheeks shrunk and shrivelled, and her eye more
remarkable for an expression of cunning than of intellect. She
advanced to the bar with a degree of confidence which even the
penetrating glance of Mr. Brougham, who eyed her most per-
severingly ' from top to toe,' did not at all affect." — Note, vol. i.
p. 480 of T. Kelley's edition ofthe " Trial of the Queen."

410 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
which decency forbids us to report, we have the follow
ing means of judging. Though so long in the service
ofthe princess, she had the misfortune to be discharged
for telling and writing a libel on her mistress, that she
was in love with the courier Sacchi. On her dis
charge she returned to her native village of Columbier,
in the Pays du Vaud, where, according to her own
report, she was much courted for the sake of the
journal of her service which she had with her, in
which she spoke fully of her late mistress. There she
lived in the cottage of her stepfather, a small pro
prietor farmer, on her own savings and a property
which her guardian held for her use. She had left
her sister Mariette in the princess's service, and she
was forced to admit that, though, when she left, she
knew all that she related to the discredit ofthe princess,
she was exceedingly anxious to get a younger sister
taken into the same employment. At first she said
that it was not until after the lapse of a year that she
was spoken to, or spoke about the princess, but at last
she admitted correspondence with her sister. Trust
ing, probably, that the letters themselves were not in
existence, she could not recollect the effusive praises
of the character and the fervent regret at the perse
cutions of the princess with which they abounded.
When, however, the letters were produced, and she
was obliged to acknowledge them, her recollection
somewhat revived, and she excused these expressions
on the ground of the attachment she then felt for the
princess, and endeavoured to explain away a delibe
rate lie in one, as a " double entendre."
The letters .themselves are too long to be quoted in

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 411
full, but for some extracts space must be found. In
that to her sister, dated Columbier, 8th February,
1818, after congratulating her on her happiness in
her situation, about which she has no doubt, " knowing
well the extreme goodness of her Royal Highness, and
of all those with whom you have anything to do," she
speaks of the cordiality of her reception in her native
country, and of the amusements so kindly provided
for her,, and thus continues, —
" Can you conceive that in the midst of all these numberless
pleasures I was sad and silent P Can you not divine the cause
of my deep sadness ? Alas ! it was only the regret and grief at
having quitted her Royal Highness, and at knowing she had mis
taken my character and taxed me with ingratitude. Oh, God !
I would surrender half my life, could she but read my heart ;
she would then be convinced of the unlimited attachment arid
perfect gratitude I always entertain for her august person.
I would have wished my dear Mariette to have written to the
count (Bergami ?) to thank him for the kindness he has shown
me, but I am afraid to trouble him ; tell him that the few lines
which he has had the goodness to write to me have in fact
afforded me a little tranquillity, since they made me hope for
pardon. Ah ! why was not the spirit of her Royal Highness at
my side ? She would then have found whether I was ungrate
ful. How often in a numerous circle, whilst with all the enthu
siasm that animated me, I enumerated her great qualities, her
talents, her mildness, her patience, her charity — in short, all the
perfection which she possesses in so eminent a degree : — how
often, I say, have I not seen my hearers affected, and heard
them exclaim, ' How unjust is the world to cause such unhappi-
ness to one who deserves it so little, and who is so worthy of
being happy ! ' ''
Again, after speaking of the sensation her journal
had excited with its record of " the traits of sensi
bility and generosity which the princess has shown —

412 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
the manner in which she has been received, applauded,
cherished in all places they had visited" — and her
anxiety that in it the princess should appear what she
really is, and full justice rendered to her, Demont
relates the following dramatic incident.
" On the 24th of last month I was taking some refreshment at
my aunt Clara's, when I was informed an unknown person desired
to deliver me a letter, and that he would trust it to no one else.
I went downstairs, and desired him to come into my room.
Judge of my astonishment when I broke the seal : a proposal
was made to me to set off for London, under the false pretence
of being a governess. I was promised high protection and a
most brilliant fortune in a short time. The letter was without
signature ; but to assure me of the truth of it, I was informed I
might draw at the bankers for as much money as I wished. Can
you conceive anything so singular. Some lines escaped from
the pen of the writer which enabled me easily to discover the
cheat, and I did not hesitate to reply in such terms as must
have convinced him I was not quite a dupe. Notwithstanding
all my efforts, I could draw no iclaircissement from the
bearer : he acted with great mystery. You see, my dear, with
what promptitude the enemies of our generous benefactress
always act. There must always be spies about her, for no
sooner had I left Pesaro than it was known with all its circum
stances in the capital of Europe. They thought to find in me a
person revengeful and ambitious ; but, thank God, I am exempt
from both these failings ; and money acquired at the expense of
repose and duty will never tempt me, though I should be at the
last extremity. The Almighty abandons no one, much less
those who do that which is agreeable to him. ' A good reputa
tion is better than a gold girdle! "
That this English offer was a deliberate invention
Demont, after almost endless equivocation, had at last
to admit. Her first explanation of it was, that it was
invented to persuade the princess that she would not be
a witness against her even if she went to England ; her

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 413
next, to let her sister know, that if she also was dis
charged, the writer would pay her expenses to England.
The real object is patent, she wished to frighten the
princess into taking her back into her service. Again,
she said, that her sister and herself had agreed to put
a private mark on their letters, by which each would
be able to understand the mysterious double etitendre
of the other. But she could not remember if the
only letter received by her from her sister had such a
mark, or whether it was to be at the end or be
ginning of their letters, and no attempt was made to
point such out in the letter from her which was pro
duced. She indignantly denied, on her cross-examin
ation, that she was in want of money, though so long
out of service, but in her letter she tells a very
different story, and presses her sister to send the two
napoleons she owes her. When later during the case
she was recalled and asked " whether she had not
broken into a rage with a dressmaker in her neigh
bourhood, who asked if the princess was not ' a
femme gallante,' and declared that it was all calumny,"
all she could say was that "she did not recollect it,"
" had not the least idea of such a conversation,"
" but would not swear she did not ; " whilst Madame
Martigny, the dressmaker in question, gave time and
place for the statement, and nothing could be at
tempted against her by the Attorney-General, but the
insinuation that her husband had been a bankrupt,
which was indignantly denied, and of which no proof
was attempted to be offered.
In addition to this letter, replete with these effusive
praises of the princess, on the 16th of the previous

414 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
November she wrote direct to the princess, humbly
begging her to destroy the libellous letters about
Sacchi, which had come to the hands of her mis
tress ; imploring her " to restore her to her previous
favour," and saying that " could she receive that
sweet assurance before she died, it could alone restore
her to life." In this letter she recommends her sister
Mariette to the favour of the princess, and thanks
her and the baron for their kindness in permitting one
of the suite to accompany her to her home. Much
more could be brought forward to illustrate the equi
vocation and downright falsehood of this witness in
minor points.8 Enough, however, we conceive has
been detailed to show how little reliance could be
placed on her testimony, and to further expose the
system by which so much of the evidence against the
queen had been procured.
Guiseppe Rastelli's evidence was brief but, if
credible, decisive. The princess at Pesaro, he swore,
had an Italian carriage called a padonavello, in which,
on a cushion that ran lengthways down the vehicle, and
on which the passenger sits on the knees of the driver,
he more than once saw the princess sitting thus on
Bergami's legs, and both of them so covered with a long
driving cloak as to admit of indecent familiarities on
her part. When Bergami had been away some days
from Pesaro, on his return the princess drove out to
meet him, when he ran to her carriage, got in and kissed
3 It should be mentioned that it was Sacchi, about whom she
wrote the libellous letter on the princess, who came to her
mother's to fetch her as a witness and stayed in the village some
time, and that she was one of the batch of witnesses which that
industrious agent brought over to England.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 415
her in Rastelli's presence. In the princess's house
hold, Rastelli was in the stables, and when he was
dismissed, not as was insinuated for stealing corn, but
for speaking insolently of Bergami, he remained out
of employ until taken into the service of the Milan
Commission. To that body he was a most active
servant, travelling with the Chief Commissioner as
courier on numerous journeys, going into Westphalia
in search of Crede, the man who had confessed Omp-
teda's malpractices, and bringing over to England
nearly a dozen of the witnesses. The lame excuse
on which he was sent away after his examination has
been already related, and by his absence we are pre
vented from knowing more of his history and his acts.
Beyond the denial of the princess having such a
carriage as a padonavello, or ever using such, made
by Count Vassali, the credibility of his revelations
must rest on their improbability. The indecency to
which he swore would hardly have been committed
by the most abandoned woman — the public kiss not
likely to have been bestowed by one who knew that
her every action was watched by well-paid spies.
The last of these Italian witnesses whom it is neces
sary to notice at any length is Guiseppe Sacchi,
courier and equerry, about whom Demont confessed
that she libelled her mistress when she wrote that
"she loved him as much as ever." He did not join
the suite until November, 18 16, and remained only a
year. Yet, if he spoke the truth, the princess, in
relation to the Barona balls, conversed with him in
most indecent language, and openly ridiculed his im
moralities with several of the younger visitors.

416 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
According to this witness, on the road from Rome
to Senigaglia he witnessed an incident, the mere de
scription of which " would raise a blush on the cheek
of the impure." He swore that on that journey he
rode as courier, and as such was wont, without being
summoned, to range alongside of the princess's car
riage, undraw the curtains, and ask for orders. The
journey occupied two nights, and during it he swore
that the princess and Bergami travelled alone in a
carriage which was closed at night by external curtains.
Riding up to it on one of these mornings, as he drew
back the curtains, he witnessed, on the part of the
sleeping travellers, this gross indecency, and at once,
shocked at the sight, replaced the curtains and re
sumed his former position.4 Now, Colonel Olivieri,
who joined the suite, as an unpaid equerry at Rome in
1 8 17, swore that the carriage in which the princess
travelled was like an English landaulet, with glass at
the sides and front; that the curtains were inside, and
drew up and down as is usual with a spring, and that
in that carriage not only were the princess and
Bergami, but Madame Oldi and the child Victorine,
and that Carlo Forti and not Sacchi set out with the
suite as courier. In this he was confirmed by Count
Vassali and Carlo Forti, and the latter explained why,
on account of illness, Sacchi was sent forward in a
carriage to hire and pay for horses at the various
posts, and added that, when the Countess Oldi, in con
sequence of an accident on the road, exchanged into
4 Considering the speed at which the princess was travelling,
the difficulty of thus drawing back the curtains is another reason
for disbelieving the tale. <

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 417
another carriage, Demont took her place in the landau
let, and that Oldi sat between Bergami and the prin
cess, and the child generally on the knees of the latter.
This witness fared very badly in his cross-exa
mination by Brougham. He could not deny that
he had been an active hunter up of witnesses for the
Commissioners, and had stayed at Columbier sixweeks,
when he went there for Demont. He, like Demont,
had changed his name, but when asked at what time,
when, and why, he fell into confusions and contradic
tions. At first, he said, that he did so because of the
Dover tumult, but soon after laid the date in the year
preceding that of the assault on the witnesses, merely
on some one telling him that it might be dangerous to
be known as a witness against the queen. He had con
cealed from the clergyman with whom he lived in
England that he was a witness against the queen, and
would not swear that he had not been called a count.
Though in easy circumstances he did not remember
representing to the princess that he was in a dreadful
situation and begging her in pity to take him back,
though he might have done so to one of her suite.
And when he told a Spanish friend, who afterwards
discovered and disclosed who he really was, " that he
had a law-suit with the princess," like Demont's story
of the English offer, it was only " a double entendre"
and meant " that he was in the cause against her."
Besides the names to which he acknowledged, "he
was called by another, but begged to conceal it, as it
might expose him to some malcontent persons."
Against Olivieri and Forti nothing could be proved in
cross-examination. Against Vassali the only im-
VOL. II. E e

418 NARRA TIVES OF STA TE TRIALS.
putation was, that after he was released from her
service at St. Omer, he had gone to Milan and Paris
to facilitate the coming of the witnesses on the
queen's side, and at both places had frequently seen
Bergami. Olivieri had not seen Bergami since he
left Rome in 1817, and Forti appears not to have had
any late communication with the favourite courier.
Both Olivieri and Vassali were old soldiers of repute
in the army of France or her dependent states, and
the former had risen, apparently by his own merits, to
a high position in that service. It is needless to con
sume any more words over Sacchi, who in his minor
accusations was quite as satisfactorily contradicted, as
in this grave charge of gross and criminal indecency.
So far we may feel satisfied that the charges
against the queen have been either satisfactorily dis
proved by reliable witnesses, or found to rest on the
evidence of persons on whose testimony no one would
care to depend, even in a case of trivial importance.
One charge, however, still remains to be considered,
on which it is impossible to arrive at so satisfactory a
conclusion — that of the beds of herself and Bergami
being under the tent on the deck of the " Polacca"
during the voyage from Jaffa to Sicily, and of the tent
being nightly closed after both of them had entered
it. This charge, unfortunately, does not rest on such
testimony as that of the Italian captain ofthe ship and
his mate, or of persons of the character of the Rastellis,
the Sacchis, or of Demont. Lieutenant Flynn, who was
the princess's responsible captain during the voyage,
and Lieutenant Howman, her private secretary,
admit, though they excuse and even justify the act,

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 419
and to that extent they restore credit, even on other
points, to the Italian witnesses. True it is, that from
within the tent to the deck below the hatchway was
always open, and any one from below could, had they
pleased, have gone up its ladder into the tent, and
that Lieutenant Howman once did so, and retreated
directly, finding all things dark and the tent closed.
True, also, that the man at the helm was always in
close proximity to the tent, and that the light from
the binnacle shone on it. True, that the watch on deck
would repeatedly at night pass that side of the tent
where it did not reach to the ship's bulwark. True,
that according to reasonable testimony, the prin
cess during the voyage took off only her upper
garment when she lay down, and that Bergami
himself was always found to be decently clothed
when seen, within the tent. Still, there they were in
dangerous proximity, shut in from all but intentional
observation during the hours of the night, and that
no female, except the princess, during that time,
was beneath its canvas. This conduct was justified
by Howman and Flynn on the ground that it was
advisable that some man should sleep near the
princess for her protection — a result that might easily
have been secured by an outside guard, and for
which it is difficult to see any substantial reason.
Again there was the admitted fact that, after both
had been shut within the tent, the light was put out of
the door and taken away, so as to leave all dark within,
should any one, as Howman did, come up the ladder.
We have the evidence of Howman and Flynn, not
to mention others, that they thought no harm from
E e 2

420 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
the conduct which the princess uniformly showed
in her relations with Bergami, not only at other times
but when, on the tent being opened, he was seen
within. We have also the declaration of the queen
on her death-bed, that she had never wronged her
husband. Still, for many a long night, the opportu
nity for criminality was thus safely furnished, and
some of the Lords, who for other good reasons refused
to vote for the bill, could not but feel that, on that
point alone, they were justified in passing its second
reading. In the end it was the only point really
relied upon by her accusers, and probably it was the
one on which the verdict turned against her. That,
as to the bulk of the charges, the queen was the
victim of an extended and well-paid conspiracy no
one can doubt who has carefully read not only the
evidence which was admitted, but the statements of
her counsel, which were not indeed legally proved,
but were not attempted to be contradicted by her
opponents. Still there was the one blot that
could not be erased, but which was made all the
more black by the evidence of her own witnesses. Little
as is the reliance that can be placed on the denials of
accused persons, let us in mercy accept the denial of this
persecuted wife, and be content with the result that the
Lords were justified on the evidence before them in the
verdict which they delivered, though it may be feared
that so many of them gave it from party motives.1
1 "'Very few people,' writes Mr. Greville in his diary,
under date Oct. 15, 1820, 'admit any medium between the
pronouncing the queen quite innocent, or judging her guilty, and
passing the bill. Until the evidence of Lieutenant Howman, it

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 421
Over the concluding speeches of counsel on both
sides we need not delay, to our present taste por
tions of two of them were marvels of indecency.2
That they did their duty to their clients will be as
readily admitted as that they were replete with the
most admirable dissection of the evidence and ex
planation of awkward facts. Here and there were
examples of eloquence to which we now are strangers
in our more matter-of-fact days, and nowhere out of
respect to either of the parties concerned was there
any hesitation or delicacy in outspeaking. In their
bitterness they were only rivalled by those ofthe peers
in the discussion that preceded the second reading of
was generally thought that proofs of her guilt were wanting,
but after his admission that Bergami slept under the tent, with
her, all the unpredjudiced men seem to think the adultery suf-
ficently proved. The strenuous opposers of the bill, however,
by no means allow this, and make a mighty difference between
sleeping under a tent and being shut up at night in a room
together, which the supporters of the bill contend would have
been quite or nearly the same thing. The Duke of Portland,
who is perfectly unprejudiced and has always been violently
against the bill, was so satisfied with Howman's evidence that
he told me that after that admission by him he thought all
further proceedings useless, as the fact was proved, and he
should not listen to any further evidence. Still he will not
vote for the bill, because inexpedient, on the ground of the
recriminations that would ensue in the House of Lords.'
Said this to the Duke of Wellington, who replied that the ' king
is degraded as low as he can be.' "
2 For instance, Denman's allusion to the innocent Octavia,
Nero's mqrdered wife, and the gross quotation, though shrouded
in Greek, of Octavia's maid to Tigellinus, suggested to him by
the coarse-minded Dr. Parr, and Copley's remark on the excuse
set up of the princess and Bergami being both dressed when
under the tent.

422 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
the bill, in which personal and party feelings were
given full rein. The rninistry fought for their credit
as a ministry ; the personal friends on both sides for
the characters of their patrons, and the opposition
gladly took up a cause in which they knew they were
supported by the bulk of the people of all classes, not
so much from a firm belief in the queen's innocence
as in disgust at the conduct of the king, her real
prosecutor. During three days the attack and reply was sus
tained, and then the second reading of the bill was
affirmed by a majority of 123 to 95. In this division
the Dukes of York and Clarence voted for the bill,
and the Duke of Gloucester against it. Ofthe epis
copal bench eleven, including the Archbishops of
Canterbury and Tuam, were in the majority, and the
Archbishop of York alone in the minority.3 When

3 On going into committee, Lord Darnley made the follow
ing pungent remarks on the constitution of the majority : — " A
large portion of it had consisted of the accusers themselves — a
great proportion consisted of persons who were in the habit of
receiving favours from the Crown, and he would state one fact
which seemed to him material, namely, that ten of the junior
barons had voted for the bill, whilst eighteen senior barons
voted against it. From this fact he could only draw one infer
ence, that it had not been owing to any individual infirmity
peculiar to themselves, but owing to that irresistible bias arising
from circumstances which, whilst human nature remained what
it was, ought always to disqualify persons in such a situation
from acting as judges." The following analysis is given in a
note to the copy of the evidence now used : — Two princes of
the blood, holding high offices during pleasure, 2 ; cabinet
ministers, the avowed prosecutors, 9 ; persons holding offices
dependent on the prosecutors, 13 ; Archbishop of Canterbury,

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 423
the House met on the next day, November 7th, Lord
Dacre presented anindignant protest from her Majesty,
which after some hesitation was entered on its jour
nals " as a representation of what her Majesty had
further to state in that stage ofthe business."
In her protest, after making this in the most solemn
manner, the queen added : —
"Those who avowed themselves her prosecutors
have presumed to sit in judgment on a question
between the queen and themselves. Peers have given
their voices against her, who had heard the whole
evidence for the charges, and absented themselves
during her defence. Others have come to the discus
sion from the secret committee with minds biassed
by a mass of slander, which her enemies have not
dared to bring to light.4 The queen does not avail
herself of her right to appear before the com
mittee, for to her the details of the measure must
who had prejudged the case by erasing the queen's name from
the Liturgy, 1 ; three peers who attended the prosecution, but
who were absent during the defence (Duke of Newcastle, and
Earls Sheffield and Home), 3 ; Total, 28.
4 During the case, the Attorney- General asked for time to
bring over the remainder of the witnesses, whose depositions
were included in the Green Bag, but after a day's consideration
withdrew the request, on the plea that they were so terrified
that they had gone home and could not be got back— at any
rate in reasonable time. In consequence, also, of the way in
which Colonel Browne was implicated by several of the queen's
witnesses, and especially by Codazzi, the clerk, who swore that
he was privy to the bribes Vimercati gave him for stealing the
queen's papers from his master, at the close of the witnesses
for the defence, the Attorney-General applied for time to bring
over the colonel, but was refused by the House.

424 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
be a matter of indifference ; and unless the course of
these unexampled proceedings should bring the bill
before the other branch of the Legislature, she will
make no reference whatever to the treatment expe
rienced by her during the last twenty-five years.
She now most deliberately, and before God, asserts
that she is wholly innocent of the crime laid to her
charge, and she awaits with unabated confidence the
result of this unparalleled investigation."
In the committee, after Pergami's name had been
altered to " Bergami," and the charge of " obtaining
for him orders of knighthood and letters of honour,"
had been struck out, Lord Liverpool endeavoured to
strike out the word "the" from the paragraph in
which the queen was charged with having " conducted
herself towards Bergami ih the various places and
countries where she visited with indecent and offensive
familiarity and freedom." It was in vain, however,
that the Premier urged that such had not been proved
to be the fact " in all those places and countries," and
subsequently that several lords had voted for the bill
on the anticipation that this alteration would be made.
The House adhered to this portion of the preamble,
though its leader admitted its falsehood. Then came
the battle over the divorce clause, to which the Arch
bishop of York objected on the ground of the absence of
that reciprocity in the marriage vow, on which alone it
could be justified, and several members of the episcopal
bench on the broader ground of its being inconsistent
with Scripture. Lord Liverpool felt the danger into
which he was falling, and sought to avoid it by sub
stituting for the obnoxious clause one confirming the

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 425
separation, which was notorious. But the friends of
the queen saw their advantage in retaining the whole
bill, and the attempt was defeated. The result was,
that on the division on the third reading the majority
mustered fifteen less, whilst the minority was in
creased by four votes, and thus it was carried by
the miserable majority of only nine. Lord Liverpool,
who before this had got heartily sick of the whole
proceeding, realized the impossibility of facing the
angry Commons with such a bare majority, and
at once moved to substitute " be read this day six
months," for " this bill do now pass," To this motion
the House agreed without a division, only too glad to
be rid of the bill and its consequences.6
5 The following account ofthe queen at the conclusion of the
trial, apparently before the withdrawal of the bill was known, is
given by Mr. Fitzgerald in his late life of George IV., presumably
from the diary ofthe Hon. H. Grey Bennett, who was member for
Shaftesbury in the Parliament elected in 1820, "I met her
coming out alone from the waiting-room preceded by an usher. I
stopped involuntarily. I could not proceed, for she had a dazed
look, more tragical than consternation. She passed me. The
usher pushed open the folding-doors of the staircase. She began
to descend. I followed instinctively two or three steps behind.
She was evidently all shuddering, and she took hold of the
bannister, pausing for a moment. Oh that sudden clutch
with which she caught the railing. It was as if her hand had
a skinless heart. Four or five persons came up from below
before she reached the bottom of the stairs : I think Alderman
Wood was one — I knew not where I was. In a moment a shouting
in the balcony above, and a number of gentlemen from the
interior of the house roused the multitude. There began a
cheer ; but at first there was a kind of stupor, but the sympathy
soon became general, and winged by the voices soon spread up
the street. Every one instantly between Whitehall and Charing
Cross came rushing down, filling old and new Palace Yard, as if

426 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS
The brief remainder of the life of the unfortunate
queen can be shortly told. After a temporary hesi
tation she accepted the liberal provision made for
her, and retired, till her death, to Brandenburgh House.
Her visit to St. Paul's, to return thanks for her
deliverance from so great a peril, was the last occa
sion on which she enjoyed a popular triumph. When
the coronation, so long delayed, was at length decided
on, her right to be crowned with the king was argued
for, but in strict legality refused, as was that to be
crowned separately on a future day. Acting under
ill-advice she attempted to force herself into the
Abbey, and was repulsed, and as is ever the case
with a mob, when a popular favourite fails, received
with jeers by her former applauders. In a very brief
time her rapidly fatal illness carried her off, and the
miserable scenes followed of the hurried funeral, and
the ill-arranged attempts to prevent her corpse being
carried through the City, on its way to her home.6
Happy would it have been for her, happy for England,
had she never been tempted to leave her home by the
splendid bribe of the future crown of England, and
thus the most painful and humiliating chapter in our
annals since the days of the uxorious Tudor not have
had to be written.
a deluge was unsluiced. The generous exultation of the people
was beyond all description."
6 At the beginning of the month of August, 1820, the queen
was seized with internal inflammation, which, from her corpulency,
rapidly assumed a fatal character, and on the night of the 7th
she passed away with but little suffering, with her last words
professing her fidelity as a wife, and pardoning her husband
for his cruel persecution of her.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 427

CHAPTER XI.
THE BOTTLE CONSPIRACY.
ATTACK ON THE MARQUIS WELLESLEY
AS LORD-LIEUTENANT OF IRELAND,
December 14TH, 1822.
TRIAL OF FORBES AND OTHERS,
February 3RD, 1823.
TOWARDS the close of the year 1821 the accession
of the Grenville party to the Cabinet was at length
effected, and, as part of the arrangement, a momen
tous change made in the Government of Ireland.
Lord Wellesley, hitherto the open advocate for the
immediate concession of emancipation to the Catho
lics, was made Lord-Lieutenant, with Mr. Plunkett,
the equally constant supporter of that measure, as his
Attorney-General; and, as a set-off, with Mr. Goulburn,
the equally firm opponent of all concession, as Chief
Secretary.1 In assuming his office, the marquis
assured his political friend, the new Duke of Bucking
ham, that " his opinions on the Catholic claims
remained unaltered, but that the course of Govern
ment must be regulated by practical considerations,
in the present state of the country, in which persons
See ante, p. 246.

428 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
of different sentiments may cordially concur — an
impartial, equitable, and mild administration of the
law (of which the alteration could not be effected or
attempted by the Lord-Lieutenant) was the only
safe course which could now be pursued, and the only
channel through which they can ever reach a happy
and a permanent settlement." 2 Confident in his
own powers, and probably expecting that in Ireland
he could be as autocratical as he had been in India,
he went to his post " in high spirits, narrating to his
friend his past victories in India, and anticipating
future ones over the Irish."3
These appointments were regarded as a commence
ment of a new system of government for that unhappy
island. " Under such new auspices it was supposed
that every ebullition of that spirit which exulted in
the depression of the Catholics would be discouraged ;
the zeal of the Orange party repressed ; the affections
of the Catholics would be conciliated ; and from the
vigorous measures, which the energy of Lord Welles-
ley's character would lead him to adopt, coupled with
his freedom from anti-Catholic prejudices, his ad
ministration, it was hoped, might prove an epoch
from which Ireland might date an era of internal
union and tranquillity." i Unfortunately, the attempt
was a serious failure. Though the administration of
3 Marquis Wellesley to Marquis Buckingham, December 3.
Duke of Buckingham's " Memoirs ofthe Reign of George IV."
3 C. W. Wynne to Marquis Buckingham, Christmas-day,
1822. — " Memoirs of the Reign of George IV." There is in this
letter an imputation on Lord Wellesley, which, if it really means
what it appears to mean, ought never to have been published.
* Annual Register, 1822, chap, i., which furnishes a most

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 429
Ireland was in the hands of the friends of the
Catholics, it was seen from other appointments that
there was no intention to carry out, in office, the policy
Wellesley and Plunkett had so strenuously advocated
in opposition. The Catholic party were not likely to
be satisfied with the discouragement of Orange toasts
at public banquets, or the prohibition of decking
King William's statue with orange ribbons. The
Protestants, on the other hand, were only more
irritated by such trifling interferences with their party
practices, and led to attach to them more import
ance, simply because they were discouraged in high
quarters. The new Lord-Lieutenant created further dissatis
faction by the adoption of India-bred habits.
" Shutting himself up in Phcenix Park ; lying in
bed all day ; seeing nobody, and only communicating,
and then but rarely, with his secretaries, by letter." 5
He could not forget that he was not still a Governor-
General of India.
The bitterness of the feeling between the rival
parties was soon exhibited. Whilst the Catholic
prelates and laymen hastened to present an address
of congratulation to the new Lord-Lieutenant, the
Corporation of Dublin showed their feelings by one
of condolence to Saurin, the able, but too Protestant
an Attorney-General for the new re'gime, on his
removal to make room for Plunkett. This was followed
impartial and full summary of the commencement of this
administration, and the pitiable state of the country.
6 C. W. Wynne to the Duke of Buckingham, April 16 and 22. —
Duke of Buckingham's " Memoirs of the Reign of George IV."

430 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
by the defeat of an attempt to introduce Catholics
into corporations, and the abandonment of the pro
posed dinner of conciliation to commemorate the late
royal visit.6
In addition to this increase of bitterness between
the better classes in Dublin, the outrages by the
small farmers and peasants in the country districts
increased to an amount almost unparalleled in a
civilized country. Nearly the whole of the province
of Munster was in a state of civil war, despite
the increase of troops and the stern severity with
which the legal tribunals discharged their functions.
Among the first official documents that reached Lord
Wellesley was one from twenty-eight magistrates of
the county of Cork, representing that " the progress
of this diabolical system of outrage during the last
month had been most rapid and alarming, and that
from the want of adequate assistance they had been
obliged to remain almost passive spectators of its
daring advances until, at length, many had been
obliged to convert their habitations into garrisons,
and others had sought refuge in the towns." Hun
dreds of armed men attacked the houses of respect
able residents, and used the utmost violence in the
search for arms and plunder. The troops had to
encounter masses, amounting to thousands, and to
fight regular battles, and in one case — that at Bandon
— the whole population of a district had gone to the
mountains to join the insurgents. Nor were these
6 Motion on January 14th, at quarterly court of the Guild of
Merchants, for the admission of Catholic freemen, adjourned
sine die by 180 to 59;

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 431
outrages confined to one county ; even in Protestant
Ulster there had been gatherings of armed men,
evidently from other districts ; a great demand for
arms in Belfast, with a growing practice of adminis
tering unlawful oaths, and the formation of com
mittees of correspondence with similar bodies sitting
in the Irish metropolis. The Lord-Lieutenant did his
best with the powers at his command, and was ably
and earnestly assisted by the local magistrates ; but
they were powerless against the masses who were
directed by a central authority, and had every ad
vantage in their attacks, from their intimate know
ledge of the country, and the difficulty of pursuing
them into their mountain retreats.
The attention of Parliament was at once directed
to the serious state of affairs. The Insurrection Act
was renewed, and at the same time that for the sus
pension of the Habeas Corpus Act passed, after a
warm opposition, especially to the latter measure. It
was asserted, and with truth, that political dissensions
had little, if anything, to do with these outrages ;
and that the suspension of the Writ of Habeas
Corpus was useful only when violent political agita
tors were abroad, and it was desirable that Govern
ment should have the power of removing them from
the scene of their operations. Eventually both bills
were passed through Parliament, together with
another restricting the purchase of arms and gun
powder, as well as one indemnifying those who,
since November last, had seized arms or powder
without legal authority.7
' The leading opponents of these bills were Sir John New-

432 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Though the Irish Government lost no time in using
the powers entrusted to it, it was long before any real
effect was produced. At Limerick and Cork the
calendar of prisoners was enormous. In the latter
place no less than 366 offenders were brought to trial.
At length the southern and western districts of
Munster were reduced into a somewhat better order,
and Connaught seemed tolerably quiet ; but in Tip-
perary and Kilkenny there was but little cessation
of the former spirit of disorder.
As one evil slowly ceased, another appeared, not
less terrible, and causing the utmost distress and
suffering. Before the beginning of May the whole of
the provinces of Connaught and Munster were in a state
of actual starvation. From the almost incessant
rains of the previous year, the potatoes had decayed
and perished in the ground, and the peasantry had
been driven to consume those reserved for seed. The
dreadful scourge operated for a time as a queller of
the discord which the troops and the courts could not
repress. The starving peasantry could no longer
gather in the mountains. They had to flock to the
towns to receive the doles of food furnished by
committees, magistrates, and corporations.8 In Eng-
port, Sir Francis Burdett, and Mr. Brougham. On the motion
for leave to bring in the bill for the suspension of the Habeas
Corpus Act, the division was — '' Ayes, 195," " Noes, 68." On
the first reading of the Insurrection Act, the " Ayes " were 202,
and the " Noes " 44, and on a motion, made to cause delay,
" That it be printed," the " Ayes " were only 22, and the " Noes "
149. In the House of Lords, on the motion of Lord King to
limit the operation to " three " instead of " six months," the
" contents" mustered only 15, and the " non-contents" 59.
3 The following figures will give some idea of the stress of

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 433
land as well as Ireland public sympathy with the
sufferers was universally shown. Besides the money
left in the hands of the Irish Government from pre
vious acts, 250,000/. was placed at its disposal, and
though the Opera House fete, notwithstanding that
the king was present, hardly did more than pay its
cost,9 committees in London and the country readily
responded to the call for aid, and contributed another
quarter of a million to the famine fund. Sorely was
the money wanted. In the month of June, in the
the famine : — County Clare — Barony of Inchiquin, 3609
persons totally destitute. Barony of Clonderlaw, 13,000 in
actual want of food and seed potatoes. Union of Quin, 3600
at present in want of food, one-third only able to repay at
harvest. Half Barony of Talla, 7552 in absolute want of pro
visions and no means of purchasing. Barony of Ibrickane,
5000 without any means whatever of purchasing food — this
number will be considerably increased. Baronies of Corcomroe
and Banen, 10,000 ; this number must increase as the season
advances. Ennis — In a populous parish in the west of this
county, after congregation were dismissed from mass, several
inquiring what crimes were punishable by confinement, for they
were willing by such means to procure subsistence even in gaol.
Clare Journal, April 29. Similar distressing accounts from
Galway, Castlebar, Limerick, and Cork. Extracts from Irish
newspapers given in Annual Register for 1822, pp. 35 and 36.
9 Perhaps the failure was due to some extent to the following
bit of scandal. " The first list of patronesses, prepared by the
Duchess of Richmond, had the Duke of York at the head and
a long list of great ladies. Lady C  , not being included,
sent a new list with theTdng at the head, whom she commanded
to go. All the ladies left the Duchess of Richmond and joined
Lady C  and the king — a pretty semblance of what
might occur in the male political tribe." — W. H. Fremantle to
the Duke of Buckingham, not dated. Duke of Buckingham's
" George IV.," vol. i. p. 337. The king was very unpopular.
VOL. II. F f

434 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
county of Clare, out of a population of little more than
200,000 persons, 99,639 were subsisting on charity.
In Cork 122,000 inhabitants were in the same pitiable
state ; and in Limerick, out of a population of 67,000,
there were 20,000 who had not a morsel to eat, except
what charity gave. Eventually the contributions
exceeded the demand for assistance, and the balance
was used in providing clothing for the distressed, and
assisting the fisheries on the coast where the distress
had been so prevalent. With the cessation of the
famine and the approach of winter, the agricultural
outrages revived : notices came from Captain Rock
forbidding the payment of tithes and taxes, and
distresses for rent were effectually prevented by the
destruction or removal in the night of the crops which
had been seized during the day.1
It was at this period, when public feeling was
intensely excited, that Lord Wellesley, in his deter
mination to carry out what no doubt he sincerely
believed to be a policy of conciliation, aroused the
enmity of the Protestant party in Dublin by a most
inopportune act. There is on College Green a statue
1 These attempts to deprive landlords of the power of distress
appear to have been accompanied by some ingenious frauds for
the further benefit of the recalcitrant tenant. " Some suspicion,"
writes Mr. C. W. Wynne to the Duke of Buckingham,
November 6, " has been excited by the numerous stacks burnt
in Ireland, some of them the property of persons by no means
obnoxious to the Rockites. A search was, therefore, made in a
small districf, in which no less than thirty were prepared for
the flames, the wheat having been thrashed out, and the straw
restacked for the convenience of charging the barony for the
bonfire.'' — Duke of Buckingham's " George IV.," vol. i. p. 394.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 435
of King William IIL, the Protestant hero, which it
had been the constant practice, on each recurring
4th of November, to deck with Orange trappings.
Of this idle ceremony, displeasing as no doubt it
always was to the Catholic party, Lord Wellesley
made too much importance when he used his power
to forbid its repetition. In this he was actively sup
ported by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, to assist whose
civil force in preventing the exhibition, troops were
ordered out, and ranged round the statue of " Old
Glorious." The corporation vied with the Lord-
Lieutenant in imprudence, passing a strong vote of
censure on the Lord Mayor, accompanied by very
plain allusions to his Excellency. One would have
hoped that the quarrel might have now ended. Far
from it. The Orange societies in Dublin were at
fever-heat at the insult, and there were not wanting
among them men of fair worldly position, who would
gladly take any opportunity of hooting the Lord
Mayor, and not object to include the Lord-Lieutenant
in the insult. Opportunity was soon found. On
the 14th of December, 1822, Lord Wellesley went
in state to the theatre royal, and the Lord Mayor, as
in duty bound, also attended. Such an occasion
was not to be missed by the Orange fanatics. That
they packed the theatre with the poorer class of their
members : that they hooted the Mayor, and that when
Lord Wellesley ostentatiously advanced to the front
of his box and bowed to that official, they hooted the
Lord-Lieutenant, was admitted. That during this
disturbance — no uncommon occurrence in a Dublin
theatre— a bottle was thrown on the stage to the foot
F f 2

436 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
of the curtain, and that the portion of a child's rattle,
pitched from the gallery, hit near the vice-regal box,
was certain. That the groaning and hooting was pre
concerted could hardly be denied. But that it was
anything worse, if as bad as an O.P. riot in London,
and should have been so treated, cannot be doubted.
The rioters, some forty in number, were turned out of
the theatre, and a few of the ringleaders seized.
Had they been, as they deserved, punished as com
mon rioters, no one could have complained.
Lord Wellesley, however, took a far graver view
of the offence. He spoke of the "horror of the
moment," of the insult to the king, whose represen
tative he was ; and he even persuaded himself that
his murder was intended by the glass bottle and the
half of the child's rattle. Plunkett was as imprudent
and impetuous as his master, and soon persuaded
himself that it was no mere theatre riot, but a deep-
laid Orange conspiracy to drive the Lord-Lieutenant,
and of course himself, from their positions, and not to
shrink from murder to achieve this object. Hence,
whilst he was content that some of the minor actors
should be prosecuted merely for a riot, he had three
of the reputed leaders committed for an attempt on
the life of the Lord-Lieutenant ; but he did not stop
there. When the grand jury of the county of the
City of Dublin ignored the bill for the conspiracy to
murder, and rendered that for the riot useless, by
.finding a true bill against only two of those libelled,
he declared in open court, in language applicable
only to the most deadly offence, that he should at
once exercise his powers as Attorney-General, treat

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 437
the decision of the grand jury with contempt, and
file criminal informations against the accused parties.2
Violent as was the language of advocates in those
days, and especially of those who graced the Irish
bar, it almost passes belief to read what was then
spoken by the Attorney-General. " I will not," he said,
" arrogate to myself the office of arraigning the con
duct of the grand jury ; but I also have a duty to
perform. I will, without anticipating the guilt of
any individual, state, solemnly, in the presence of
this crowded audience, that, in all my readings, in
all my experience, in all the annals of this unfortunate
country, I never did find a case so fully demonstrated
of the foulest conspiracy to riot, or of so much atro
city, as scarcely to be heightened by the aggrava
tion, that its avowed object was insult and outrage to
the representative of the king's majesty in a public
theatre." One hardly knows whether to treat such
language with regret or ridicule.
2 On December 23rd, Graham and Handwich were committed
to prison for riot, and a detainer for murder afterwards lodged ;
the same in the case of James Forbes. January 2nd, bills sent
before the grand jury, first, for riot and assault on Lord-Lieu
tenant, in which they might have found the riot and negatived
the assault ; first count, cum multis aliisj secondly, with each
other ; they returned a true bill on second count against only
two persons for riot. Application was made for the discharge
of Mr. Forbes, committed for murder, and also included in the
charge for misdemeanour, and adjourned as Attorney-General not
in court and no evidence that he might not proceed on capital
charge. ' January 3, application renewed, all parties discharged,
on giving heavy bail to answer any ex-officio information that
might be filed. January 9, remonstrance of grand jury by their
foreman, Sir G. Whiteford.

438 NARRA TFVES OF STA TE TRIALS.

It is not surprising that the grand jury, comprising
some of the most noteworthy citizens of Dublin,
should have remonstrated at this inferential attack
on their honour. From the judge, to whom they
made their remonstrance, they got but little considera
tion. After informing them drily that no imputation on
their conduct had been made by the Attorney-General,
he read them a lecture on the duties of grand juries, and
reiterated the opinion he had before expressed, that
if they believed the depositions which he had seen,
there was a full conspiracy shown in point of law.
Judge Moore conveniently forgot that it is not on the
depositions prepared at the instance of the prosecu
tors, which are not before them, but on the evidence
of the deponents, when before the grand jury for
examination, and capable of being tested, that their
decision has to be given.3
' To judge from the letters of Mr. C. W. Wynne, the Cabinet
were much annoyed at the conduct of Lord Wellesley and his
Attorney- General, and doubted the wisdom of filing the ex-officio
information. " I agree with you," he writes the Duke of
Buckingham, " that the Indian juggler has disappointed
expectation most damnably, and I fear that we must say the
same of our friend (Plunkett), who seems to me a diabolus
dotnini vice regis tout comme un autre!' January 3, 1823. See
also letters from him, January 23 and 25, " There is no example
(of filing ex-officio information after grand jury has ignored
bill) in England. Whether there is or not in Ireland, I do not
know, but Plunkett must be supported and allowed to proceed,
or the Irish Government must resign." Again he writes, January
27, " Every human being seems to condemn in the strongest
terms the conduct of Wellesley ; there never was such an ass,
and if he has hatched all this trumpery and made Plunkett his
dupe, the latter will never get over it. Such is the belief, and
it really looks like it. The opposition are not inclined to

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 439
In consequence of this decision, on the 20th of
January, 1823, criminal informations were filed by the
Attorney-General against eleven of the members of
the Orange lodges who had taken most prominent
parts in the disturbance, not only for a riot, and for
flinging at the Lord-Lieutenant the bottle and piece
of the rattle with intent to injure him, but with a
previous conspiracy to carry out and effect this
object.4 To these informations two of them, James
Forbes and William Graham, put in pleas of autre-
attack Wellesley, and are of course in the trammels of the
Catholic question, but there are plenty of Orangeists who will
not be wanting." — Duke of Buckingham's " George IV.," vol. i.
p. 418.
1 The parties charged were James Forbes, George Graham,
William Graham, Henry Handwich, Matthew Handwich, Robert
Fletcher, jun., Thomas Kelly, William Brownlow, Richard
Mcintosh, William McCulloch, and William Heron. There
were two informations, the first of which consisted of three
counts. The first count stated, first, the intention of the Lord-
Lieutenant to go to the Theatre Royal on the 14th of December,
and that the traversers and others, before the play, conspired
to go there and make a riot. Secondly, that the conspiracy
was to hiss, groan, insult, and assault the Lord- Lieutenant, and to
cause him to be hissed &c. Thirdly, that with that object
they prepared and caused to be distributed through the theatre
handbills. Fourthly, that with that object they bought tickets
to enable evil-disposed persons to be present ; and fifthly,
that they distributed the obnoxious bills. The second count
alleged that the conspiracy was made at the theatre itself, and
the third stated generally a conspiracy to hiss, &c, without any
overt act. The second information was for an actual riot,
alleging in the first the hissing, &c., and throwing pieces of
wood, copper, and glass bottles in its first count, and only
charging a riot in the second, omitting the outrages. The
plea of Forbes was clearly bad, and no evidence was allowed to
be given in its support.

440 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
fois acquit by the grand, jury ofthe city of Dublin, on
the bills preferred against them on the same charges,
on the 2nd of January. On the 3rd of February the
trial came on before the full bench, when the Crown
was represented by four counsel, in addition to its
Attorney and Solicitor-General, and no less than
thirteen appeared to defend those of the traversers
who appeared to take their trial. The evidence came
under three heads — (1) Proof of the object with which
the subscriptions of the richer members of the Orange
lodges, for the purchase ofthe tickets to the theatre for
their poorer brethren, were made. (2) The acts of the
leaders in the theatre, and the object for which the
missiles were thrown. (3) The statements of Forbes,
when in company with the other rioters, after the
play was over, which, if truly reported, would prove
that the riot was no accident, but a deep-laid con
spiracy, with hostile intentions against the person
of Lord Wellesley.
The Object of the Subscription.
To prove this two brothers of the name of Atkinson,
sons of a clerk in the Post Office, were called, one of
whom was a clerk in the Custom House, and the other
a candidate for Government patronage.5 From the
evidence of the latter, who was first examined, it
appeared that, some few days before the intended
state visit, there was a lodge meeting at. the Shake-
5 The report of the trial used is that edited by Mr. Richard
Wilson Greene, the junior counsel for the Crown. Dublin,
R. Milliken, 1 vol. 8vo, 1823.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 441
speare Tavern, at which some of the traversers were
present as members, and others, including Forbes, the
reputed ringleader, as visitors. Here, at supper, after
the lodge was closed, the proposal was made to get
up a subscription to purchase tickets for the bespeak
night for the use of the poorer brethern, of which the
witness's brother acted as treasurer. Every pit ticket,
according to the custom at the Theatre Royal, Dublin,
would admit three persons to the gallery, and on the
purchase of pit tickets, therefore, the greater part of
the funds were to be expended. The object, this
witness stated, was to send men to the upper gallery
" to hiss and groan at the Lord- Lieutenant," under the
impression that "if he could be made to leave the
theatre, it would stamp on the mind of the ministry
on the other side of the water of his being unpopular
in the country." Whilst the poorer brethren were to
go to the upper gallery, the richer were to get into
the pit " as near as possible to the Lord-Lieutenant's
box." This resolution was reported to another lodge
in Werburgh Street, of which the leaders were mem
bers, and about 4/ was collected and handed' to the
Atkinson who was the Custom's clerk. Some three-
fourths of the money was given by him to Forbes and
William Graham, with which they bought pit tickets,
and some of the remainder laid out by himself in
the purchase of small whistles, which were apparently
distributed to Forbes and others of the leading mem
bers. In furtherance of this object both the Atkin
sons went to Matthew Handwich, another of the
traversers, to urge him to bring as many members as
he could to the "Black Bull" in Ship Street, where they

442 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
all assembled in the afternoon of the royal bespeak.
Here about thirty were furnished with admissions to
the theatre, and instructed to call for " The Boyne
Water '' after " God save the King " had been sung,
and if it was refused, not to let the performance
proceed. The watchword of " Boys, look out " was
then given to them, and as a last injunction it was
said to them as they left " Boys, be wicked." The
witness went to the gallery opposite the royal box,
but soon left that position. He saw Forbes there
with his whistle, and heard the performance frequently
interrupted by groans for Wellesley, and saw several
small bills thrown about, which he had before seen at
Ship Street. On one of these were the words, " THE
EX-GOVERNOR OF THE BANTAM'S SHALL SOON
CHANGE HIS MORNING-TON-E." Though he ad
mitted that he did not think anything wrong was
intended, about midday of the night of the play he
went to the Phoenix Park to tell the Lord-Lieutenant,
but being stopped by the sentinel, returned without
any attempt to communicate with Lord Wellesley, and
did not mention the matter to any one except his
brother until he came on the table as a witness. He
saw a bottle of liquor taken to the theatre, but said
" it was by accident."
John Atkinson, the Custom's clerk, told the same
tale as his brother, and admitted that, though a
Government servant, he not only " did not oppose the
proposal, or tell the others it was wrong, but was
active in the scheme, though not in its formation."
" He did not believe there was a more loyal man than
Forbes : — was convinced they thought it innocent,

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 443
as he did, and did not think it had any evil tendency."
And when asked, "Will you swear that it was the
intention of any person at the meeting in Ship Street
to offer personal violence to the Lord Lieutenant, or
any one else ? " replied, " I would almost swear the
contrary." He admitted that he took " some, not
much part in the row in the theatre as he was rather
timorous." "The recollection of your place came
over you, and you began to be timorous," said
Forbes's counsel to him, and he replied " Something
of that." This witness was not certain that any bottle
was taken to the theatre, all he could say was that
" a bottle was taken out of the house in Ship Street."
The accomplices had not done much for the prose
cution, and had failed entirely to prove any intention
of doing personal injury to the Lord-Lieutenant.
The Acts of the Leaders in the Theatre.
To prove the throwing of the bottle several wit
nesses were produced, one Rooney, a brewer, saw
something flash across his eyes, strike the drop-scene
some two or three feet from the left side of the house
(the side on which the Royal box was situated), dent
in the curtain, roll to the foot-lights, where it was
picked up by one of the musicians, when he saw it
was a bottle. Another witness fixed the time as the
pause between the end of the play and the be
ginning of the farce. Michael Farrell swore to seeing
Matthew Handwich throw it " in a half-way under
his shoulder," and that when he did so he was stand
ing in such a position in the gallery that " he judged

444 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
the bottle would go to the left side of the house."
When, however, he had, previously to his appearance
in court, given an account of the transaction to a
reporter to a London newspaper, he had described
Handwich " as throwing it with an extended arm
inclined to the horizon." It appeared afterwards in
the evidence that the ceiling of the gallery came
down so low and the gallery itself was so crowded
where Handwich stood, that it would have been next
to impossible for him to have thrown the bottle
even " in a half-way under his arm " without striking
some of those who were in front of him.
One Dr. McNamara, of Queen's County, had he
been a credible witness, would have given a very bad
complexion to this bottle-throwing. He swore that
at the moment it was thrown, he heard the suspicious
cry, "Boys, mind you fire," and he believed that
Handwich was the thrower. On cross-examination,
however, the doctor had to admit that he had come
out of gaol, where he had been sent for three months,
in addition to a fine of 20/., for some ugly dispute
about pound breach, having suffered only two-thirds
of his punishment. What was the exact nature of
his offence was not proved, the conviction not being
produced, but Mr. Frederick Trench, one of the
magistrates who had convicted him, and who had
known him and his acts for many years, swore that he
was not to be believed on his oath, and that indict
ments for perjury were in preparation against him.
It was probable, from the fact of the witness Cahill
seeing some one drinking out of the bottle just before
it was thrown, that, if brought into the theatre, it was

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 445
with no preconceived malicious intent, if indeed it
had not been purchased from the bar within the
house. As neither the musician who picked it up
was called, nor the bottle itself produced, the history
of this missile was left in a far from satisfactory
position. The rattle was seen by the witness Ryan in the
hand of George Graham, who swung and knocked it
about until it broke, and then threw part of it in such
a direction that it appeared to hit the box next to
that of the Lord-Lieutenant and fly off thence on to
the stage. Another witness saw two pieces of wood
thrown, one of which was produced, as found on the
stage within nine or ten feet of the Royal box. Mr.
Webster, the Aide-de-Camp, saw something hard strike
the front of the box next to the Lord-Lieutenant's,
fall between Lady Anne Gregory and Mrs. Goulburn,
and fly off to the stage, passing within six or seven
inches of Lord Wellesley's head. But the Dowager
Lady Rossmore, who was accustomed to a row in the
gallery, said the noise of the stick was very trifling,
that she was not frightened, nor was Lady Anne,
though undoubtedly Mrs. Goulburn, not yet accli
matized to Irish habits, was terrified. The throwing
of the pieces of the rattle was a cowardly and
dangerous act, but that it formed any part of a con
spiracy is too absurd to require refutation.
Forbes's Statements when in the Company
of the other Leaders after the Play.
After all was over Forbes, who had been arrested

446 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
in the theatre, and willingly surrendered himself, on
being bailed out, had gone with several ofthe others,
including the two Atkinsons, to the supper-house of
a Mrs. Flanagan. There, it was said, he publicly
made statements, and used expressions with respect
to the late events that proved the existence of the
conspiracy in its worst form. According to George
Atkinson (not the Custom's clerk), he had used the
words, " Devil mend him," with reference to Lord
Wellesley ; and when the question of bailing out
Handwich, who had also been arrested, was dis
cussed, had expressed his regret that " it (the bottle)
had not taken effect." Under this head of evidence,
that of George Farley was the most important.
Being in the theatre with some lady relatives, and
his friend James Troy, after seeing the ladies home,
he and his friend had adjourned for some glasses of
punch to Mrs. Flanagan's tavern. There, between
ten and eleven, he and his friend swore that Forbes
and others of the traversers rushed in, in an excited
manner, gathered together in one of the boxes in the
public eating-room, and loudly discussed the events
of the night. After some of this conversation the
party separated, some going upstairs, some leaving
altogether ; and Forbes, with the two Atkinsons and
Graham, coming to sup in a box opposite that in
which he and his friend sat. Questions were then
asked by one of the party why " So-and-so" was not
in his place in the gallery, but in the pit ; and the
bottle and stick were talked about. There it was
that the witness heard some one of the party say
with an oath, that " the bottle was a miss." They

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 447
then left the box where they had supped, and came
to another, nearer, apparently, to that of the witness,
for punch. Forbes here began giving toasts — " The
Glorious Memory," " The Duke of York and the
Army," and others of a similar character. He was
not tipsy, but had been drinking. After this Forbes
said, " Let them transport me as soon as they can —
that is all they can do. I don't care a d  n, pro
vided papists and popish governments are put
down ; I don't care if I am sent to Botany Bay or
hell, so that my object is accomplished ; confusion to
John Smith Fleming, the popish Lord Mayor, and
Marquis Wellesley, and all popish governments."
The witness also heard something said about being
better prepared next time.
The cross-examination of this witness was chiefly
directed to the relative position of the boxes in which
he and Forbes sat, and to the fact that many others
were in the room and in boxes near that of Forbes
and his friend, especially a Mr. Plowden, who was
afterwards called for the defence. He persisted in
saying that he did not hear the words, " No Orangeman
would have done such a thing," or any word about
the " rattle," but only about " a stick." The witness's
friend, Mr. Troy, though he could not repeat the
exact words of the toasts and expressions, confirmed
him as to their general effect. He believed Forbes
was a loyal Protestant, but thought him mad, and
certainly very intemperate.
John Plowden and B. Smith, who had been in the
same box with Plowden at Flanagan's, gave a very dif
ferent account of what passed after the play was over.

448 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
Forbes and his friends came in quietly, and did not
rush in, as the Atkinsons had sworn, and Smith said
that they never moved during the evening from the
box in which they first sat down. They did not hear
the words, "Devil mend him," but they did hear
Forbes say, "The man that threw that bottle might
be a Protestant, for we have many bad ones among
us ; but no true Orangeman would have done it."
They spoke to his toasts being of the usual loyal
character, commencing with, " The King," and then
running through the usual lists of Protestant toasts
given by the Orange clubs. The improbability of
persons who were really guilty making such crimi
nating statements in a public room, and, that, so
immediately after the event, naturally gave more
value to the evidence of Plowden and Smith than
to that of the witnesses for the prosecution.
From the evidence on both sides this much was
clear, that the Lord-Lieutenant was at first received
with the usual applause which greets him on a state
visit, and that the groans and hootings were confined
to the Lord Mayor. When, however, Lord Wellesley
so ostentatiously bowed to the Mayor, the insults
were at once transferred to him, coupled with per
sonal abuse of a most unworthy character. It was
also proved that during this excitement, some person
threw the bottle on the stage, and the pieces of the
rattle against the box adjoining that of the Lord-
Lieutenant. Beyond this there was ground for the
doubt entertained by at least a portion of the jury ;
whether all that happened was the result of a con
spiracy or whether the most discreditable acts that

Narratives of state trials. 449
were committed were not due to a sudden excitement
and without any criminal premeditation. The fact
of the grand jury having thrown out the bills for a
riot against the same parties — though not a legal
defence — could not but have its weight on the minds
of the jurors, to whom, as Dublin residents, the riotous
conduct of the galleries in their theatres was a matter
of notoriety. It was in vain that the court clearly
defined the rights of an audience — that " their censure
of a performance may indeed be noisy, but it must
not be riotous. That the censure or approbation
must be the expression of the feelings of the moment ;
for if it be premeditated by a number of persons
confederated beforehand, it becomes criminal." On
the narrow ground of their censure being riotous
most of the traversers were clearly guilty, however
much the jury might doubt on the part of its being
the result of premeditation and confederacy. How
ever, agree the jury could not, except in acquitting
Brownlow, against whom the Attorney-General had
practically withdrawn the charge in an early stage of
the proceedings ; and so after having been shut up
for more than a day and a half, they were at last
discharged. Though again defeated, Plunkett was unwilling to
give in, and required that the accused should still be
held under the heavy bail they had hitherto given, to
abide the result of another trial, in case he should,
on consideration, be advised to submit the case to a
second investigation. Whatever might have been
his own intention at the time, the events in Parliament
that followed so immediately on this failure probably
VOL. II. G g

450 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
led him to see the wisdom of letting the matter
drop. Within a few days after his failure, Plunkett came
to England to defend himself and his Government
against the attacks which were impending in the
House of Commons. A motion for papers was con
ceded without dispute, but, when a month after,
copies of the depositions, on which the committal for
the capital offence was based, were asked for, the
motion was successfully resisted. In the debate on this
motion Plunkett defended the course he had adopted.
" At first, he said, he had not taken so serious a view
of the transaction, but when he read the subsequent
statements of Forbes, related by Farrell and Troy, he
felt bound to proceed for the higher offence. Again,
however, he changed his mind, as the danger to the
life of the Lord-Lieutenant appeared only con
sequential, and, therefore, not sufficiently imminent."
The depositions were refused " as a dangerous pre
cedent at any time, and especially at the present, as
no man could be expected to come forward if the seal
of secrecy was broken." Next night Mr. Brownlow,
who had taken the lead in these demands, moved
that "the conduct of the Attorney- General in filing
informations after the bills for the same offences had
been ignored by the grand jury was unwise and
contrary to practice, and not to be drawn into a
precedent, and not congenial with the spirit of the
Constitution." Plunkett not only defended his con
duct as strictly legal — as no doubt it technically was
— but as justified by circumstances, as there was no
part of the bills which was not clearly proved.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 45"
"There was no sound mind," he said, "that would not admit
that the men who could have brought themselves to such a
conclusion as the grand jury, could not have arrived at it by legiti
mate means. Their reason could not be mistaken. They con
ceived that when the Lord-Lieutentant, in compliance with the
expressed wishes of his sovereign, had exerted himself to put an
end to the heart-burnings that had embittered that community,
it was extremely proper and lawful to seize the first opportunity
that presented itself for marking their powerful disapprobation
of such an acquiesence in the expressed commands of his
Majesty. To that extent they felt it highly proper to the opposi
tion to proceed, though they were not prepared to go to the length
of thinking that it was right to fling bottles or rattles at his
Majesty's representative. He had grounds for impeaching the
impartiality of the grand jury. The sheriff was related to two of
the accused, as their first cousin, and had declared that they
need not be afraid of the result of the trial, as he had an
Orange jury in his pocket : that he had refused to put one man
on the grand jury because he had said that he would abide by
the king's letter, and had withdrawn the preparation of the jury
panel from the proper officer in order to prepare it himself ; that
the panel was short of the usual number and that the first
twenty-six on it answered on being called, and thus (by arrange
ment) constituted the tribunal."
Though he professed that he should have preferred
meeting the motion by a direct negative, Plunkett,
with discretion, contented himself with moving the
orders of the day, and eventually the motion was
withdrawn, and thus for the time the victory was won
by the Irish Attorney-General.
This, however, was but an introduction to the real
struggle. The grand jury readily took up the gaunt
let thrown down by Plunkett, and prepared to dispute
his charges. On the 22nd of April, Sir Francis
Burdett moved for an inquiry into their conduct
stating that Thorpe, the sheriff, who was attacked,
G g 2

452 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
and six of the grand jury were present and ready to
be examined. It was in vain that the motion was
opposed as unnecessary. The charges made by
Plunkett were denied seriatim by Brownlow, and the
motion for the investigation was carried by a sufficient
majority. On the 2nd of May the inquiry commenced, and
the conflicting evidence agreed only in this, that it
exposed a culpable laxity in the preparation of juries
in Ireland, if it did not establish corruption in such
cases in the inferior officers of the sheriffs.6 Against
Sheriff Thorpe it was stated that less than an hour
before the bills were brought down, a Mr. Ward had
predicted their failure, and gloried in the way in which
it had been managed. This was denied by Ward,
and as the witness MacNamara, by whom this charge
was made, had, on another occasion, admitted that he
had tried to bribe the Under-Sheriff of Dublin, in
order to secure the acquittal of a client for forgery,
Ward's denial weighed down the assertion of the man
who confessed that, if he could, he would have tainted
the sources of justice. Another witness, McConnell,
declared that at a card-party on the 17th of December,
6 Before witnesses were examined, Plunkett stated that the
following precedent for his action had been discovered in the
Irish courts. In October, 181 1, a bill had been sent up against
one Leach for offering a bribe to Sir E. Littlehales in order to
obtain the position of Barrack-master, and ignored by the
grand jury. In consequence, a second bill was ordered by the
Court of King's Bench to be sent up, and met with the same
fate. Saurin, the Attorney-General at that period, then filed an
ex-officio information against Leach, and on this, judgment was
signed in default of a plea, but on Leach expressing great con
trition and losing his place, no punishment followed.

NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS. 453
he heard Thorpe tell Graham that he had an Orange
jury in his pocket. The other sheriff, however, proved,
that, at that time, the panel had not been prepared,
and McConnell's statement went for nothing. Poole,
who had been refused by the sheriff, who told him
" he had a hard card to play to please all," proved his
application. It was, however, proved in explanation,
that his application was made in relation to a case
against one O'Meara, the facts of which he told the
sheriff were well known to him, and that he promised,
if put on the panel, not to divide on the indictments
for riot. His rejection was, therefore, fully justified.
The relationship between Thorpe and two of the ac
cused was disproved. The clerk in the under-sheriff's
office described the mode of striking the jury to
ensure fairness by Thorpe's orders. The chairman,
Sir G. Whiteford, had been asked to preside several
weeks before the riot, and having heard McConnell's
story, he refused to act, until Thorpe, on his honour,
denied the statement. " He wished the dressing of
the statue to die a natural death, but considered the
steps taken to prevent it were likely to produce
irritation, and did not consider expressing dissatis
faction at those means worthy of punishment." Sir
A. King denied having had the panel to revise, and
several of the grand jury spoke to the care and
deliberation with which the evidence was considered,
and the unanimity of the decision at which they
arrived. Such, in brief, was the result of the five days'
examination, with which the friends of the jury were
satisfied.7 The Government were only too glad to
7 During the examination an attempt was made to compel the

454 NARRATIVES OF STATE TRIALS.
let this untoward business drop, and to allow the
interest in the tragi-comedy of the bottle and the
rattle to die a natural death.
member of the grand jury, who, acting as its secretary, had made
notes of the evidence, to enter into details of what passed in the
jury room, which he successfully refused, on the ground of his
oath, as a grand juror, to keep secret " the counsel of himself
and fellows." Sir A. King was also pressed to reveal the oath
and signs of the Orangemen, which he refused. All he would
say was, that they had no hostile intentions towards any class of
his Majesty's subjects, and did not hint, as was asserted, at the
extermination of the Catholics. Twice Brougham divided the
House on the question, and was defeated by large majorities
(May 26), Plunkett voting against ministers on both divisions.

APPENDIX A.
Chapter IV.
Extracts from "The Noble Stock-Jobber. " By C. R.
Baron de Berenger. London, 1816. 1 vol. 8vo.
Two years after his conviction, De Berenger published his
account of the fraud, in a volume full of confessions and as
sertions, wrapped up in pages after pages of laboured abuse
of the counsel and witnesses for the prosecution and Lord
Ellenborough, and imputations against the domestic morality
of Lord Cochrane. According to this wordy and confused
publication, his introduction to the Cochranes commenced
in May, 1813, in consequence of Mr. Johnstone seeing at
his solicitors' some drawings of the St. James's Institution,
which De Berenger had projected, and from the eventual
failure of which he incurred severe losses. The result was
that he was engaged to prepare the plans and drawings for
the " Vittoria," the rival of Ranelagh and Vauxhall, which
Johnstone proposed erecting in the New Road. Tn this
project he was to share half the profits, in addition to
receiving the well-paid post of manager, and payment for
his work as a draughtsman. Hence arose an intimacy with
the Cochrane family, and frequent invitations to the houses
of Johnstone and others of its members, at which he often
met the noble lord. In November or December of that
year he was asked by Lord Cochrane to make drawings for
his newly-projected lamp, and taken to see the pattern of the

456 APPENDIX.
invention. It will be remembered that Lord Cochrane stated
that he had only met De Berenger two or three times at Mr.
Johnstone's, and was entirely unacquainted with his hand
writing. De Berenger, on the contrary, gives extracts appa
rently from his diary,1 showing that in the fortnight between
the 9th and the 22nd of January, 1814, he met Lord Coch
rane six times at as many parties at the houses of the Coch-.
rane family, and that on the 8th of February in that year he
wrote him a long letter, offering a share of his invention of
a new oil,2 and received from him a reply, dated the 1 7 th, in
which he says : — " Dear sir, — Your papers are very clear, as
all writings are which come from your pen. Such, however,
are the circumstances in which I am placed that it is not in my
power to avail myself of your polite offer. If you will go to
America with me (alluding to the proposal of his going with
the squadron as rifle instructor), we will talk the subject over on
the passage. — Yours very truly, Cochrane" If these extracts
from his diary, in which he gives the names of the persons
1 Sunday, Jan. 9th. — " Called on Lord Cochrane in Park
Street ; found him at home." Same day — " Dined at Mr. C.
Johnstone's, Miss Johnstone, Colonel Cochrane, and Lord Coch
rane" Saturday, Jan. 15th. — "Dined at Mr. C. Johnstone's ;"
he then gives a list of the guests, ending with " and Lord Coch
rane." Wednesday, Jan. 19th. — Another dinner at Cochrane
Johnstone's; list of guests again ending with "and Lord Cochrane
and some others unknown to me." Friday, Jan. 21st. — Dinner
at Hon. Basil Cochrane's, Portman Square ; several of the.
Cochrane family there, and ending " and Lord Cochrane, with
several other gentlemen." * Saturday, Jan. 22nd. — Breakfasted
at Admiral Sir Alexander Cochrane's with a large party of
naval gentlemen, whose names I did not retain; Lord Cochrane
was there!' It is noteworthy to find that Lord Cochrane's
name is always entered last, and raises the suspicion that it
was an addition to the original entry in the diary.
2 From the Euphorbium lathyris, a common weed in cottage
gardens, producing a most purgative oil. From one of the
Euphorbia castor oil is produced .

APPENDIX. 457

at the several meetings, are genuine, and this letter not a
forgery, it is difficult to reconcile these statements with
Lord Cochrane's, that " he met De Berenger once or twice
at Mr. Cochrane Johnstone's and nowhere else," and that
he was unacquainted with his handwriting.
It was not until the 31st of January, De Berenger declares,
that he was made acquainted with the stock-jobbing ventures
of the party, on the last day of which month he was asked
by Johnstone to devise a scheme to save them from ruin.
On that occasion he refused, he says, on moral grounds;
later on he consented, and drew up the project ofthe fraud,
complete in all details, except the place in London at which
he should arrive.
On Saturday, the 19th of February, on another pressing in
vitation, he went to Butt's office in Shorter's Court, where he
says that he found the two Cochranes and Butt. Lord Coch
rane seemed dejected, Mr. Johnstone a little better, Mr. Butt
most desponding. He was then informed that serious loss
(400/. he believes) had been made on the Omnium they had
voluntarily bought for him. " About two o'clock Butt, who
had been pacing about the room in agitation, suddenly ex
claimed, 'Baron, cannot you help us in some way or other?
if you do not we are ruined, and we look to you alone for
some effort or other— indeed you must help us.' I replied
that the situation was so perilous, I doubted whether any act
of mine could answer the purpose. Mr. C. Johnstone and
Lord Cochrane pointedly, and with peculiar expression,
fixed their eyes on me ; I took a scrap of paper, and after
writing words in substance as follows, handed it to Mr.
Johnstone :— ' I have something ready to show you, but
remember it is to remain private— pray do not show it.'
Mr. Johnstone read the paper, tore it, and held out his
hand, of course, to receive what I had to show him. He
looked at it generally, his features brightened, and Lord
Cochrane kept his eyes upon him with a countenance ex-

458 APPENDIX.

pressive of much curiosity. In a very few seconds, and
greatly to my surprise, he handed my paper over to Lord
Cochrane, who received it with evident eagerness."* If
there is any truth in this story, it is quite intelligible that
with his accustomed energy Lord Cochrane, as De Berenger
goes on to state, should have thrown himself into the
scheme, have advised on some of its details, and been the
first to hand over his portion of the 60/. given him for his
expenses. Against this charge we have Lord Cochrane's
affidavit that " he had not, directly or indirectly, any con
cern in the formation, or any knowledge of the existence of
an intention to form the plot." It is, however, a marked
reflection on Lord Cochrane's wisdom, if it is true, that he
insisted on De Berenger driving to his house in Green
Street, only urging that he should change his hackney-
coach on the way, when he promised to be ready to let him
in secretly,-1 and yet, as we know, went away on his lamp
affair and left De Berenger to be received by his
servants. It is needless to detail De Berenger's account of his
adventures in search of the requisite disguise, in which for
a time he was baffled by the Jews' clothes-shops being
closed for their Sabbath, of his journey to Dover, his mid
night wanderings in that town until it was time to appear at
the Ship Hotel, or his precautions in dirtying his new
uniform with blacking from his boots and by soaking it with
water to give the appearance of having been wetted in his
landing. One assertion, however, must be noticed — that
he purchased a yellow portmanteau and a bill-case, ten
inches by six, too small to hold a coat, that he left the
former at Dover with that portion of his clothes which he
did not require for his homeward journey, and that he had
only the bill-case, and that hanging to his sword-handle,
3 " The Noble Stock-jobber," pp. 63—65.
4 Ibid., p. 75.

APPENDIX. 459

when he reached Lord Cochrane's.5 The following is his
account of his interview with Lord Cochrane : —
" To the best of my recollection it was a little after
eleven o'clock when Lord Cochrane arrived ; he came to
me in the drawing-room, where I was alone, and imme
diately said, ' How could you be so imprudent as to send
me a wafered note,' which was retorted with, ' Had your
lordship attended to your promise, and stayed at home, this
trifling uneasiness to you, as well as many greater to me,
would have been spared.' He ran out of the room and
immediately returned, desiring me to follow him with my
sabre, cap, lock leather case ; he took me to a back bed
room on the second floor. Attempts to relate my adven
tures were interrupted, for he was too anxious about my
being gone ; my request to leave the scarlet coat, sword, and
cap there (for I proposed to go home in my greatcoat and
green overalls, after a round hat, had been procured from a
hatter's) Lord Cochrane positively denied ; and he said that
having sent his servant out of the way, he could not send
for a hat, which, besides, would be recollected, but that he
had purposely kept the coach that brought him to carry me
and my bundle away, and that therefore I might go home
in one of his hats, though they were very remarkable (in
consequence of his height, over six feet, Lord Cochrane
wore a low hat with a broad brim). He then went to some
drawers, and taking out a large pillow-case, not unlike the
French pillow-cases (not the ' cover of a chair bottom,' as
was stated at the trial), 6 he persisted in my putting up
everything, even my greatcoat, and very obsequiously, and
5 He gives a list of each article left in the portmanteau, and
of those worn on the journey to London.—" The Noble Stock
jobber," pp. 93—95.
c Lord Cochrane, in his affidavit, called it a " towel." De
Berenger states in a note that the Stock Exchange had the
identical pillow-case.

460 APPENDIX.

much flurried, the noble lord lent a helping hand to pull
off that very scarlet coat which he swore never to have
seen, and which, to his agitated vision, must have appeared
green. He next (instead of taking the coat, which was
lying on the chair, as stated in his extraordinary affidavit)
even eclipsed St. Martin, for not content with sheltering
me under his hat of hats, he voluntarily offered, not half his
cloak, but he actually forced on me the whole of his long
coat, taking it from his own back ; and perfectly positive I
am of this, for it felt warm, and caused a disagreeable and in
me insurmountable feeling. Thus ridiculously equipped
I departed in his coach, leaving nothing but my long sabre
behind me." 7
There are only a few more statements in this volume
that deserve notice. De Berenger asserts that on the
evening of the 21st of February he formed one of a dinner
party at the Hon. Basil Cochrane's, in Portman Square,
meeting there Mr. Cochrane Johnstone, and that Lord
Cochrane came in in the evening ; that he there heard of
the "hoax," at which every one laughed and many re
joiced, as for once turning the tables on a nest of
wasps Before this party broke up Mr. Johnstone had
asked him to dine with him the next day, when the party
consisted of the triumvirate, De Berenger and Miss John
stone. Then it was, he says, that as soon as the men had
the room to themselves he was asked to recite his adven
tures, and was informed by Johnstone that the utmost
pains were being taken to discover the sham Du Bourg, and
that Lord Cochrane suggested De Berenger going out of
the way to Long Reach to drill some seamen and marines
on board the " Tonant." He gives details of meetings with
Cochrane Johnstone about the share he was to have in the
plunder, and his agreeing to take 1000/., of which he
received 400/. on account ; asserts that the visit to Doni,
7 " The Noble Stock-jobber," p. 201.

APPENDIX. 461
thorne's and the measuring of his house and garden is
correctly given by the Tregaers, except as to date (it really
occurring on the 24th of February), there being a plan on foot
of turning it into a canteen, but adds that it was by arrange
ment with Lord Cochrane as a safe place at which to discuss
their matters, and that the latter went out of the house with
De Berenger, and went through the form of taking down the
figures of the measurements on a scrap of paper. Not one
word of this is to be found in the evidence of the Tregaers,
his own witnesses, who speak of his coming alone and being
engaged only with Donithorne. De Berenger further
states that he was now frightened by Cochrane Johnstone,
who told him that the Admiralty had traced him as the
man who sent the letter to Admiral Foley, and persuaded
by him to fly. Before doing so, on Saturday, the 27 th, he
cut the scarlet coat to pieces, loaded the pillow-case with lead
and stones and sank it with its contents in the river, and at
the urgent request of Johnstone left London that night,
intending to get to Amsterdam, where Johnstone promised
to meet him on the 12th of March.
With this event De Berenger's story ends, so far as it
ever appeared in print. A second part, being occurrences
down to the date of its publication, was promised, and a list
of its contents is appended to the first volume. Apparently
lt never was published ; and if it was written in the same
style as the first, and made up of assertions, abuse, and
vapid moral remarks, its loss is not to be regretted. To
judge from its table of contents, it would not throw any
reliable light on the concoction and execution of the fraud.

462 APPENDIX.

APPENDIX B.
The Bill of Pains and Penalties.
Page 388.
Bill to deprive her Majesty Caroline Amelia Elizabeth of
the Title, Prerogatives, Rights, Privileges, and Pretensions
of Queen Consort of this Realm, and to dissolve the
marriage between his Majesty and the Queen.
Whereas in the year 1814 her Majesty, then Princess
of Wales and now Queen Consort of this realm, being at
Milan, in Italy, engaged in her service, in a menial situation,
one Bartolomeo Pergami, otherwise Bartolomeo Bergami, a
foreigner of low station, who had before served in a menial
capacity. And whereas after the said Bartolomeo Pergami, other
wise Bartolomeo Bergami, had so entered the service of
her Royal Highness the said Princess of Wales; a most
unbecoming and degrading intimacy commenced between
her Royal Highness and the said Bartolemeo Pergami, other
wise Bartolemeo Bergami.
And whereas her Royal Highness not only advanced
the said Bartolomeo Pergami, otherwise Bartolemeo Bergami,
to a high situation in her Royal Highness's household, and
received into her service many of his near relations, some
of them in inferior, and others in high and confidential situa
tions about her Royal Highness's person, and bestowed on
him other great and extraordinary marks of favour and
distinction, and obtained for him orders qf knighthood
and titles of honour, and conferred upon him a pretended

APPENDIX. 463

order of knighthood, which her Royal Highness had
taken upon herself to institute without any just and lawful
authority. And whereas whilst the said Bartolomeo Pergami, other
wise Bartolomeo Bergami, was in her said service, un
mindful of her exalted rank and station, and of her duty to
your Majesty, and wholly regardless of her honour and
character, conducted herself towards the said Bartolotneo
Pergami, otherwise Bartolomeo Bergami, and in other
respects, both in public and private, in the various places and
countries which her Royal Highness visited, with indecent
and offensive familiarity and freedom, and carried on a
licentious, disgraceful, and adulterous intercourse with the
said Bartolomeo Pergami, otherwise Bartolomeo Bergami,
which continued for a long period of time during her Royal
Highness's residence abroad, by which conduct of her Royal
Highness great scandal and dishonour have been brought
upon your Majesty's family and this kingdom.
Therefore, to manifest our deep sense of such scanda
lous, disgraceful, and vicious conduct on the part of her said
Majesty, by which she has violated the duty she owed to your
Majesty, and has rendered herself unworthy ofthe exalted
rank and station of Queen Consort of this realm, and to
evince our just regard for the dignity of the crown and the
honour of this nation, we your Majesty's dutiful and loyal
subjects, &c, &c, do hereby entreat your Majesty that it
may be enacted,
And be it enacted by &c, &c, &c, that her said Majesty
Caroline Amelia Elizabeth from and after the passing of
this Act shall be and is thereby deprived of the title of
Queen, and of all the prerogatives, rights, privileges, and
exemptions appertaining to her as Queen Consort of this
realm, and that her said Majesty shall from and after the
passing of this Act for ever be disabled and rendered
incapable of using, exercising, or enjoying the same; and

464 APPENDIX.
that the marriage between his Majesty and the said Caroline
Amelia Elizabeth be and the same is for henceforth for
ever wholly dissolved, annulled, and made void to all
intents, constructions, and purposes whatsoever.
ISlote. — The. words in italics are those amended or sought
to be amended in committee.

INDEX.

Con- 314,

388

Adam, Dr., Judge Advocate, counsel in Queen's trial
Adams the accomplice, Evidence of, in Cato Street
spiracy . . 
Religious opinions of .....
Adolphus, counsel for Thistlewood ....
Albuera, Battle of 
Alley, counsel for Bellingham, application for delay by
Allied army, Invasion of France by .
Allied Sovereigns! visit to England ....
America, War with, 1812. See United States.
Annual Register of 1812 ; facts about the Luddites . 65—68, notes

324326
3H 10
5S
. 13 19

Armitages, The, witnesses for Mellor in Horsfall's murder
Armytage, evidence in Horsfall's murder
Ashbury, Evidence of, in Brandreth's trial
Atkinson, the brothers, Evidence of, in the Bottle conspiracy
Austin, William, adopted by Princess of Wales
Proof of parentage of ..... .
Austria, Conduct of, in final struggle with France

79 71
221
440350 356
'-, 19

Baines, Edward, evidence as to Peterloo meeting .
Bamford, the weaver poet, extracts from his " Passages in the
of a Radical " — Lord Cochrane ....
„ „ Hunt . . . • . »•
,, ,, Cobbett and Major Cartwright.
Reasons for drilling the operatives ....
March to and account of Peterloo meeting
Trial and conviction of, at York ....
Conduct during and after imprisonment
Bannister, Evidence of, case of Horsfall's murder
Barton's Mill, Defence of, against the Luddites
Battersby, Evidence of, for Mellor in case of Horsfall
Bautzen, Battle of .......
Bayley, Judge, charge at York, Peterloo meeting
Opinion on points reserved in Burdett's case
Beckwith, gunmaker's shop wrecked by rioters .
Bellet, Mrs. Anne, Evidence of, as to Bellingham's sanity

Life

178:
270
276-

286 163177179
271273
-292 292 72
84 note 79 13
288 3°7 185 59

VOL. II.

H h

466

INDEX.

PACK
Bellingham, Trial of, and execution — chap, ii  58 — 61
History of, and misfortunes  56
Petitions to House of Commons and Privy Council .57 and note
Defence  60
Bentley, Evidence of, as to manufacture of pikes (Spa Fields) 196
Beresford, Sir John, Evidence of, on Queen's trial . . . 300
Bergami, History of, before being in service of the Princess of
Wales  393
Treated as an equal by the Chamberlain of the Emperor of

Austria .
Treatment of, by continental sovereigns
Honours conferred on him by the Princess
See Queen's trial.
Berlin and Milan decrees of Bonaparte
Best, Justice, presides at Burdett's trial, and charge .
Serjeant, motion for new trial in Butt's case
Bidgood, Evidence of, as to Captain Manby and the Princess
Birmingham Mass Meeting, 1819 .
Funeral of the Peterloo victims .....
Blanketeers, Meeting of 
Bonaparte, Position of, on the Continent in 181 1
Bottle Conspiracy, History and trial of — chap. xi.
Bourbons, Return of the, to France 
Brander and Potts, Shop of, wrecked by Spa Fields mob .
Brandreth, the Nottingham captain, Trial of .
Execution of .......
Brattargh, evidence as to Peterloo meeting
British Forum, The motion on bill announcing debate at .
Debate thereon and committal of Gale Jones
Brougham's warning to slaveowners .
Remarks on the Queen
Advice to the Queen not to return
Interview with the Queen at St. Omer
Attorney-General to the Queen .
Attempted compromise.
Speech on the Bill of Pains and Penalties
Remarks on the witness Cacchi .
And see Queen's trial.
Browne, Colonel, correspondence with Powell, re Rastelli . 408
Brownlow, acquittal of (Bottle Conspiracy) .... 450
M.P., motions in House of Commons on Bottle Conspiracy
Broughton, Evidence of, against Eadon the Luddite ... 87
Brunt indicted for Cato Street Conspiracy
Arrest of .
Conviction and execution .
Apprentice of, Evidence of
Bryant, witness for Watson (Spa Fields riot)
Buckingham, Marquis of, created a duke .
Duke of, on Lord Wellesley

393
394
371—375 • 3-S7
•30S—307 148
• 358
. 266 267 25 2
427—429 18
. 187
214—232 26, 232
2S8 note 4344
258
341 and note, 364-5
¦ 379
. 380
• ¦ • 3«3
383 and note
¦ ¦ 387
• 403

¦ 313
¦ 335
• 337-8
• 333
209246
438 note

INDEX. 467

Burdett, Sir Francis, Sketch of  300
M.P. for Westminster ....... 302
Sent to the Tower for breach of privilege (Gale Jones) . ib.
Intention of appearing in the pillory with Lord Cochrane . 159
Indicted for libel, 1819 — his speech .... 302 — 305
Decision of King's Bench on proof of publication and other
points raised on trial ...... 307 note
Separates from the Reform party ._ . _ . _. . 303

Motion for inquiry as to conduct of Grand Jury of Dublin

(Bottle Conspiracy)
Death .
Butt implicated in the De Berenger fraud
His dealings in Omnium .
Protests his innocence
Verdict and sentence
Buxton, Fowell, motion to abolish slavery
Byng, General, letter as to Oliver the spy

45i
• 303 100123129
148, 159
252 217

Cacchi, Pietro, waiter at inn at Trieste, his evidence against
the Queen .  4°3
Cahill, Evidence of, in Bottle Conspiracy  444
Canning, George, refuses to act under Perceval ... 41
Disputes with Castlereagh  4°
Joins the opposition .....¦•• 53
Compromise with King on proposed proceedings against the
Queen  239
Resignation refused and goes abroad  241
Resignation ....•¦••¦ 244
Exertions for Catholic emancipation  248
Proposed as Governor-General of India and successor to
Lord Londonderry  *&•
His foreign policy  249, 25°
Circular on slave flogging .  252
Prime Minister  255
Attacks on and death  25°
Carnarvon, Earl of, speech on the getting up the evidence against
the Queen  4°5
Caroline, Princess of Brunswick  339> 34°
Cartwright, Major, Sketch of  J79
Cartwright's Mill, Defence of  83
Cash payments resumed, 1819  ¦ • 3°
Castle, the Government spy (Spa Fields riots), Evidence of 191— 204
Life, cross-examination of, and contradiction by Hunt 204—209
Catholic Relief Bill, deceitful conduct of the King . . 260—262
Carried through firmness of the Duke of Wellington— his
speech  2fil
Cato Street Conspiracy— chap, ix  3°9
History of Edwards the spy  310
Arrest of conspirators  3'3
H h 2

468 INDEX.

PAGE
Cato Street Conspiracy, Discovery of arms, &c. . . . 327
Conviction of Thistlewood and others . . . -337
Execution of the leaders ...... » 338
Reference to, in historical summary  237
Chadwick, witness, against Hunt and others (Peterloo) . . 276
Charlotte, Princess, Birth of, 1796  346
Death of, 1817  27, 28
Chatham, Lord, Resignation of (Master-General of Ordnance) . 43
Chatillon, Discussion of terms with Napoleon at . . . 13
Cheshire and Yorkshire, Machine breaking in ... . 4
Ciudad Rodrigo, Capture of  10
Clarence, Duke of, forced to resign as Lord High Admiral 257 note
Votes for Bill of Pains and Penalties ....'. 422
Clarke, Mrs. , evidence as to Bellingham's insanity ... 59
Cobbett's Register, Letter of Sir F. Burdett in . . . . 44
Sketch of, by Bamford . . . . . . .178
Circulation of his pamphlets among the lower classes . 175 — 178
Cochrane, Lord, trial for De Berenger fraud — chap. iv. . . 90
Early life of ........ 91 — 93
Action in Basque Roads ....... 94
Court-martial on Admiral Gambier  95
M. P. for Honiton ... ..... 93
M. P. for Westminster ....... 95
Appointed to the "Tonant"  96
Charged as an accomplice with De Berenger . . . ib.
His explanations ........ 99
True bill against ........ 100
Affidavit of, as to De Berenger frauds . . . 115, 116
Verdict against, with the other defendants ... . 144
Attempted motion by, for new trial  147
Further affidavit of . . . . . . . .153
Sentence of fine of 1000/. and pillory . . . 159
Expelled the House of Commons, and struck off roll of
the Order of the Bath  161 162

Escape from prison and re-arrest ....
Re-election for Westminster 
Endorsement on 1000/. note, by which his fine was paid
Charges against Lord Ellenborough ....
Conviction and fine for escape from prison .
Subscription of 2, 640,000 pennies to pay his fines
Joins Burdett as leader of the Radical reformers
Takes command of Chilian fleet — his wonderful exploits
Treatment by the Government of Chili . . ' . . ib.
Takes service witli Emperor of Brazil, and his success as
admiral of his fleet  16^ jgg
Disgraceful conduct towards him  168
Takes service with the Greeks 
Succeeds to the earldom of Dundonald
Restored to his rank in the navy, and created a Rear
Admiral, 1832 

ib.
163 ib.
164 ib.
166

ib.
171

172

INDEX.

469

Cochrane, Lord, created Grand Cross of the Bath, 1841, and
made Commander-in-Chief on North American and West
Indian stations . .
Death, and funeral in Westminster Abbey, 1 860
His character .......
Cockburn, Sir G. , dispute with the Duke of Clarence
Codrington, Sir Edward, fights battle of Navarino .
Cole, Evidence of, in delicate investigation
Conyngham, Lady, and the King ....
,, ,, Irish famine/flte
Cooper, Evidence of, in case of Peterloo riot
Copley, Serjeant, counsel for the Bill of Pains

172 ib.
¦ 173-4
256 note 256
• 258-9
238 note
¦ 433
. 281
and Penalties 387 and note 182
against Lord

Defends Watson for the Spa Fields riot
Crane, the hackney coachman, Evidence of,
Cochrane . . . . . . . - .ill
Previous character and contradiction of . . . 112
Craven, Keppel, Evidence of, for the Queen .... 398
Cross, Serjeant, counsel for Nottingham rioters . . . 231
Cumberland, Duke of, and Duke of Wellington on the Catholic
Relief Bill  262 note
Curwood, counsel for Thistlewood  314
Dacre, Lord, presents protest of the Queen to the House of
Lords  423
Darnley, Lord, Remarks of, on majority against the Queen . 422
Davidson, Trial, conviction, and execution of, for Cato Street
Conspiracy . ....... . . 337-8
Davison and wife, Evidence of, in De Berenger frauds . . 113
De Berenger, Frauds of, on the Stock Exchange . 13, 90 et seq_
Sketch of his life ....
Indictment, plea, and trial of .
Identification of, as Colonel Du Bourg
Letter from, to Admiral Foley .
Proofs of his journey to London
Flight and arrest as an alien
Letter to Lord Cochrane .
Confession and defence of .
Found guilty . . . . •
His "Noble Stock-jobber "—extracts from (Appendix A.)
Delicate investigation, 181 1— history of "The Book "

Report of commissioners ....
Demont, Louisa, Evidence of, against the Queen
Description of .
Letters of, to and in praise of the Queen .
The ' ' Double Entendre " story
Cross-examination of, by -Williams .
Denman, the Nottingham rioters, inconsistency of his defence of
Solicitor-General for the Queen ......

96
102 et seq. 104106
. 107-8
. 127-8 126
¦ 136-7 144
455 352
35i—36o • 361
409, 410
409 note
411—414 412 414 23I383

47o

index:

Denman, description of the Queen, and her entry into London
379, 382 and note
Extract from speech on the bill  391
Reference to Nero's murdered wife  421
On the Litany  384 and note
Dewman, Lord Cochrane's servant, Evidence of . . .120
Donithorne, Evidence of, for De Berenger .... 142
Douglas, Sir John and Lady, Accusations of, against Princess
of Wales ....
Lady, intimacy with the Princess
Evidence before Commission
Failure of her charges
Dresden, Battle of

351354
355 357 13

Dublin, Lord Mayor of, hooted at the theatre (Bottle Conspiracy) 435-6

Grand jury of, remonstrance by .
Inquiry info their conduct, and of the sheriffs of
Dudley, Lord, remarks on conduct of the King in Ireland
Dundonald, Earl of, Lord Cochrane succeeds to earldom .
Durance and Kinder, Evidence of, in Horsfall's murder .
Dwyer, Evidence of, against Thistlewood . . , .

45

438
I et seq. 245 171
76-7
33L 332

the

Eadon, the Luddite, Trial of, for administering an illegal oath
Sentence of .......
Eaton, Evidence of, in Peterloo riot ....
Edis, Evidence of, in De Berenger fraud ....
Edmeades, the surgeon, Evidence of, in delicate investigation
Edwards, the Government spy (Cato Street Conspiracy) .
His part and actions in the conspiracy
Debate in House of Commons on
True bill for high treason against
Leaves the country ....
Adams's evidence of his criminality .
Eldon, Lord, author, with Perceval, of princess's letter to
King 
Omitted from the Cabinet of the Duke of Wellington
Interviews with the King on the Catholic Relief Bill .
Ellenborough, Lord, harsh conduct in Lord Cochrane's case
Charge of, against Lord Cochrane ....
Charges against in House of Commons
Trial of Watson for Spa Fields riot by
Trial of Hone for blasphemous libels by
England, Combination of, with France against Prussia
Russia .........
Orders in council .......
Concessions in favour of, and war with, the United States
Withdraws from the Holy Alliance and recognizes South
American Republic ......
Sends troops to Portugal ......
Entwhistle, Evidence and cross-examination of (Peterloo riot)

85-6 87
2S0 105
457310 3"
311 note 312313
320

and

260-

362
257
-262 103 H31631S1 27 19
5i 52
249 250
2S1

INDEX.

47i

Farley, Evidence of, as to Forbes's statement (Bottle Con
spiracy) ..¦....,. 446
Farrell, Evidence of, against Handwich (Bottle Conspiracy) . 443
Fearn, stockbroker, Evidence of (De Berenger fraud) . . 121
Fitzgerald, Mrs. , evidence in delicate investigation . . . 357
Fitzherbert, Mrs. , marriage with the Prince of Wales . . 343
Her previous history  343 note
After his marriage with the princess applies to, and obtains
brief from, the Pope to return to him . . . 349 note
Death, 1837  344
Fitzwilliam, Lord, deprived of his lord-lieutenancy for holding an
indignation meeting on the Peterloo riot . . 33, 270
Flynn, Lieutenant, evidence as to tent on the polacca . . 41 8
Foley, Admiral, Letter to, from the sham Du Bourg . . 106
Forbes, Trial of, with others, for Bottle Conspiracy — chap. xi. . 427
Bills against, thrown out by grand jury .... 437
Criminal information against .... 439 and note
„ „ Evidence on . . . 440 — 448
,, „ Failure of .... . 449
Forti, Carlo, evidence in contradiction of Sacchi (Queen's trial). 418
France combines with England against Russia and Prussia . 19
Blockade of the ports of . . . . . . . S1
False report of peace with (De Berenger fraud) . . . 102
Peace with Russia  256

44-

Gale Jones (see British Forum) ....
Gambier, Admiral, Court-martial on (Lord Cochrane)
Vote of thanks to, omitting Lord Cochrane
Garrow, counsel for the Crown against Bellingham .
Gascoyne, General, evidence as to Bellingham .
Seizes Bellingham in the lobby ....
Gell, Sir W., evidence as to Bergami and Oldi
Mahomet's dance described by .
George IIL, death of Queen Charlotte .
Letter of, to Prince of Wales ....
„ ,, Princess 01 Wales ....
Death 
George, Prince of Wales, early life and character
Marriage with Mrs. Fitzherbert . .
Marriage with Caroline of Brunswick
Treatment of the princess immediately after marriage
Separation and letter of licence ....
Reconciliation with Mrs. Fitzherbert  349
Arrangement as to princess's debts  340
And the Delicate Investigation  351
Refuses to meet his wife at Court ..... 368
George, Regent, intrigues as to change of Cabinet on expiry of
restrictions on Regent  5> 6, and note
,, On death of Perceval 7 — 9

4695
ib.
¦ 58
50 note 54
• 394-5
• 398 30
• 344 362 35
• 342
• 343
• 345
345 and note
¦ 347

472

INDEX.

George, Regent, declaration of approval of conduct of military,
&c, at Peterloo  33
His Milan Commission — Ist report .... 375 — 377
George IV. , serious illness on accession .... 235 — 237
Retired life with female favourite . . . 238 and note
Milan Commission — 2nd report ..... 37, 8
Discussion with Canning as to proceedings against his
Queen . ....... 241, 242
Attempted negotiation with the Queen . . . 379,380
Sends the "Green Bag "to Parliament .... 382
Bill of Pains and Penalties brought in ... . 384
Defeated on divorce clause, and bill withdrawn . . . 425
Visit to Ireland, and life there . . . 244 and note
Conduct as to Canning's succession to Lord Londonderry . 248
,, On Canning's proposed premiership . . . 255
,, On Recognition of South American Republic 248 note
„ On Catholic Relief Bill .... 260—262

Death of 
Giarolini, evidence of attempted bribery by Rastelli
Gibbs, Sir V., Attorney-General, counsel against Bellingh;
Gifford, Sir R., Attorney-General at Queen's trial
Applications for delay to call more witnesses
Gilbert, Letter from, to Preston (Spa Fields riot)
Goderich, Lord, Temporary Cabinet of
Goodwin, evidence as to attack on Butterley Iron Works
Goulburn appointed Irish Secretary
Gourley, Evidence of, in De Berenger fraud
Graham, with others, indicted for Bottle conspiracy .
Throws the pieces of the rattle ....
Grattan, Last motion of, for Catholic relief, and death
Grenville, Lord, objection to salary of the Duke of York
father's guardian ......
With Lord Grey, refuses to support Perceval
Reply to the Regent's letter ....
Recommendation of autumn assizes .
Gugiari and Giarolini, evidence to contradict Raggazoni (Q
trial) 
Gurney, after settling affidavit of Lord Cochrane, leads against
him . ......
Speech of, in aggravation of punishment .

263
• 407
• 58
388 note
423 note 190
256-7 227427 105
437 note, 439

as his

445 313°
41
49 35
406 J°3
157

Habeas Corpus Act, Suspensions of 28, 215, 264, 431
Hall, Evidence of, in Horsfall's murder  74
,, ,, in Brandreth's case ..... 225
,, ,, in attack on Cartwright's mill . . . 282
Hamilton, Perceval shot during his examination • • • 53
Hampden Clubs, formation and objects . . . 23, 175, 176
Handwich, tried for Bottle Conspiracy .... 437, 443
Hansard, Evidence of, for Mellor in Horsfall's murder . . 79

INDEX.

473

Harrison withdraws from Spa Fields plot
Referred to in De Berenger fraud
Harrison, dissenting minister, arrest for speech at Stockport
Trial, defence, and conviction
Twice subsequently indicted and convicted
Sentences on 
Harrison, life-guardsman, in Cato Street Conspiracy
Harrowby, Lord, Cato Street plot revealed to him

Hartley, Mrs., brings report of Horsfall's murder to Wood's
factory ... 
Haywood, evidence of drilling before Peterloo meeting
Cruelly beaten as a spy .....
Hepworth, Mrs., Attack on house of, by Nottingham rioters,
and murder of her servant by Brandreth .
Hertford, Lady, influence over the Regent
Hiden, Evidence of (Cato Street Conspiracy) .
Historical summary, 1 8 1 1 — 1820 (Regency)
,, „ 1820 — 1830 (Reign of George IV.)
Hole, Evidence of, against Brandreth
Holland, Dr., Evidence of, for the Queen . . . 395
Holloway denies participation in De Berenger fraud .
True bill against him 
Confesses share in second plot, with Lyte and others
Found guilty 
Sentence ........
Hone, Evidence of ( Spa Fields riot)
Trials of, for blasphemous parodies .
Hooper, concerned in Spa Fields plot
Horsfall, a manufacturer, murdered by the Luddites .
Mellor, Thorpe, and Smith tried and found guilty, and
executed, for his murder ....
Details of the plot given by accomplice
Horton, Evidence of (Peterloo riot) ....
Howell, Evidence of, against the Luddites
Howman, Queen's private secretary, challenges Ompteda
Evidence of, as to the tent on the polacca .
Effect of (ste note as to Duke of Portland) .
Hunt, Henry, Description of, by Bamford, and early life
Presides at Spa Fields meeting ....
Evidence contradicting Castle, the spy
Hissed at Manchester Theatre ....
Presides at the Peterloo meeting
Trial of, for the Peterloo riot ....
New trial moved for and refused
Sentence 
Huskisson, Resignation of 
Hutchinson, Lord, takes the King's proposals to the Queen
Hutton, Captain, Evidence of (Peterloo riot) .

PAGE 197
• "5
32, 266
293, 4
297—299 297, 300
• 319
328, 355

75
279 ib.

224—226 5
• 328
i-35
235—263 226
and note, 396 97
100 135144 159
286 27
181 68

70—81 72-3 282 86
403
418 420 17S180
206 — 208265 ib.
276 — 291291 292
• 259
• 380
. 283

419. 177,

474

INDEX.

Ings, the butcher, active in Cato Street plot
Prepares fire-balls ....
Arms himself for the murder of ministers
Arrest of 
Conviction and execution .
Ireland, State of, under Marquis of Wellesley
Famine in, Subscription for
The Bottle Conspiracy — chap. xii.

PAGE 319320322 327
338
251. 429—434
432. 433 no*'
¦ 427

Johnstone, Cochrane (see Trial of Lord Cochrane).
Joint-Stock Banks, Formation of ..... . 254
Jolliffe, Sir W., Letter of, to Dean Pellew on the Peterloo riot . 274

King, the lampmaker, Evidence of, in support of Lord Coch
rane's affidavit . . . . . . . .120
Kinder and Durance, Evidence of, in Horsfall's murder . . 76-7
Knighton, Sir W., privy purse and physician, Sketch of . 236 note
Kress, M. Barbara, chambermaid at Carlsruhe, evidence against
the Queen — how procured ..... 404 — 406

Lavie, solicitor to the Admiralty, conducts prosecution of
Cochrane .......
Lawson, Mr., of the Times, character of Castle by .
Leach, Sir John, adviser of the Milan Commission .
Le Blance, J., with Baron Thompson, tries the Luddites
Charge of, in Horsfall's murder ....
Sentence passed by, in De Berenger frauds
Leipsic, Battle of 
Le Marchant, Evidence of, in Lord Cochrane's trial .
Ligny, Battle of ......
Lisle, Mrs., Evidence of, in Delicate Investigation .
Liverpool, Lord, Premier, 1812
Parliament summoned by, after Peterloo .
Withdraws Bill of Pains and Penalties
Resignation of ... ...
Lloyd, Fanny, Evidence of, in Delicate Investigation
London Common Council, Resolution of, on Peterloo riot
Lord Mayor stops Spa Fields rioters .
Londonderry, Lord, Suicide of .
Luddism, Origin of 
Luddites, The trials of, 1811— 1813— chap. iii. .
Outrages by .....
Murder of manufacturers by
Trial of, for Mr. Horsfall's murder .
,, „ attack on Cartwright's mill

Lord

102
209
• 375
¦ 6980
¦ 159 13
124 — 126 21
• 358 10
33
¦ 425
• 255
¦ 359
. 268
. 187
. 248
. 64
. 64
65 notes 68
70 et seq. 81

INDEX. 475

PAGE
Luddites, Repulse of, at Barton's mill ... 84 note
Execution of  81, 84, 88
Fresh outbreak, 1816  89
Ludlow, Trial and conviction of, with Brandreth and others 26, 214 — 232
Lushington, Dr., counsel for the Queen  388
Lutzen, Battle of  . 13
Lyte, with Holloway and others, Plot of, in De Berenger fraud 130—136
,, Confession of  135
,, Conviction of ........ 144
,, Sentence on  159

Machinery, Destruction of, in Yorkshire and Cheshire (see
Luddites).
Mackintosh's reform of the criminal law  30
Madrid, Capture of, by Wellington, 1812  10
McGuire, Evidence of, in defence of De Berenger . . .141
McNamara, Dr., Evidence of (Bottle Conspiracy) . . . 444
McRae tried and convicted for share in De Berenger fraud 131-2, 144
Majocchi, Evidence, character, and cross-examination of, at
Queen's trial  399 — 403
Malmesbury, Lord, character of the Princess Caroline . . 341
Manby, Captain, Charges against and affidavit of, in Delicate
Investigation  357-8, 361
Manchester, meeting at Peterloo ... 32, chap. viii. 264
Mansfield, Sir James, (see Bellingham)  60
Marsh, Evidence of, in De Berenger frauds . . . .104
Martigny, Madame, contradiction of Demont by 412
Martin, Evidence of, against Brandreth  221
Mellor, with Thorpe and Smith, tried and convicted of Horsfall's
murder  70 — Si
Prisoner's cousin, Evidence of . . . . . . 77
Martha, Evidence of (Horsfall's murder) .... 75

With Thorpe, organized attack on Cartwright's mill .
Melville, Lord, promotes Lord Cochrane to the " Pallas "
Milan Commission, Constitution of 
,, ,, ist report of ... .
,, ,, 2nd report of .....
Millman, Sir Francis, evidence in Delicate Investigation) .
Mills, surgeon, Evidence of (Delicate Investigation) .
Minto, Lord, offers good-service pension to Lord Dundonald
Moira, Lord, and the Prince Regent ....
Moore, Tom, Regent's letter to Duke of York .
Lines on Perceval's murder 
Morris, Evidence of (Peterloo riot) 
Monument, Evidence of (Cato Street Conspiracy) .

8293
366
376-7 377
357 ib.
172
note, 9
5063
260 33°

476

INDET.

Murat, Joachim, King of Naples
Courtesy to the Princess Caroline
Murray, Evidence of (Peterloo riot) .
Murray, Hon. A. , evidence in De Berenger frauds

PAGE 2
395
278-9 124

Napoleon, Supremacy of, on the Continent in 181 1 . . 2
Invasion of, and retreat from Russia . . . 10 — 13
Abdication of ......... 18
Escape from Elba ........ 19
Defeat at Waterloo, and surrender, 18 1 5 • . ¦ 21
Reported death, basis of De Berenger frauds . . . 101
Navarino, Battle of ........ . 257
Nottingham, Riots at, trials of rioters — chap. vi. . . 214 et seq.
Mayor of, offer of reward for him, dead or alive, by the
Luddites  68
Oath ofthe Luddites  85
O'Connell, Election of, for Clare ...... 259
Oldi Countess, Character of (Queen's trial) .... 395
Oliver, the Government spy (Nottingham riots) . 215 — 218
,, ,, (Derbyshire riots) .... 26
Omnium, Explanation ofthe term (De Berenger frauds) . 121 note
Ompteda, Baron, conduct to the Princess of Wales . . . 402
Orangemen, Dissatisfaction of, with Lord Wellesley . . .251
Conduct in the Bottle Conspiracy ..... 435
Orders in Council in reply to Bonaparte's decrees . . 51 — 52
,, ,, Committee on, at time of Perceval's murder . 53
Overy, post-boy, Evidence of (De Berenger frauds . . . 109
Oxford's attempt to shoot Queen Victoria  62

Pains and Penalties, Bill of, Introduction of . . . 241, 384
,, „ ,, Debate on 2nd reading . . . 422
,, ,, ,, ,, in committee . . . 424
„ ,, ,, Withdrawal of . . . 425
,, ,, „ Copy of (Appendix B. ) . . 462
Paisley, Riots at, after Peterloo  268
Palin, a Cato Street conspirator, Escape of 320, 327
Park, Allan, and Richardson, counsel for the Crown in Horsfall's
murder .......... 70
Parke, James, counsel for Crown in Queen's trial . . 388
Parliament, First meeting of (George IV. 's reign) . . . 237
Parr, Evidence of, in Horsfall's murder . . . . . 71
Peel, R., first appearance as a financier ..... 30
Refuses office under Canning ... . 255
Perceval, Spencer, Early history of . . . . . 36 — 38

INDEX.

477

Perceval, Spencer, Remarks as counsel on the Prince of Wales 47 note
And the Delicate Investigation (" The Book ") . . 47, -353
Chancellor of the Exchequer
Premier ......
Murder (see Bellingham) ....
Grants to his family ....
Tom Moore's lines on . . .
Perdita Robinson and the Prince of Wales
Peterloo, Meeting at — chap. viii.
„ „ Conduct of the troops at
, , , , Trial of Hunt and others for conduct i
,, ,, Motion for new trial
Phillips, Mrs. , evidence as to Bellingham's sanity
Captain, Evidence of, in Nottingham riots
Pilling, Evidence of, for Thorpe (Horsfall's murder) .
Pillory, Attempt to punish Lord Cochrane with
Abolition of ..... .
Piatt wounded by Watson, jun. (Spa Fields riot)
Plowden, J., evidence in Bottle Conspiracy
Plunkett, W.C., made Attorney- General for Ireland
Conduct in the Bottle Conspiracy
His defence of, in House of Commons

4°7.

Polacca, Conduct of Princess and Bergami on board of 418 — 420 and note
Portland, Duke of, illness and resignation
Portugal, Troops sent to, by Canning
Powell (solicitor), examination and letters of, re Rastelli
Preston, leader in Spa Fields riots ....
Summons the soldiers at the Tower .
Letter of Thomas Gilbert' to ....
Princess Caroline of Wales, early life and character .
Marriage, 1795 
Birth of Princess Charlotte, 1796
Formal separation and letter of licence
The Delicate Investigation ....
Letter to the King ..'....
Lord Brougham on the investigation .
The Sovereigns ordered not to visit her
Visit to the opera ......
Settlement of her debts 
Increased grant to .....
Leaves England, 1814 
Itinerary of her tour ......
Promotion of the Bergamis ....
The Milan Commission 
And see Milan Commission and Delicate Investigation,
Prussia, Rise of, against Napoleon ....

Quatre Bras, Battle of 
Queen Caroline, on death of George III., determines to
to England .......

40
41 53
63 note tb.
342
264
273— 27S
at 276—291 292 61
230 So
160
160 note 185
447427
437—439 45°— 452

41
250
.498
. 181180190
340, 341
• 345
• 346
347—349
35i—36o • 36r
3^3, 364
368

368,369.

369 37°
• 370 ib.
37o—373 ¦ 374
375—377

return

378

478 INDEX.

PAGH
Queen Caroline, Negotiations with Lord Hutchinson . 379, 380
Arrival in London and reception .... 381, 382
Renewed negotiations about omission of name from the
Liturgy  383. 384
Her trial determined on  384
Arrival and seclusion of witnesses against her . . . 385
Commencement of trial, 17th August, 1820 . . . 386
Speeches of Brougham and Denman against the principle
of the bill  388—391
History of Bergami  393
The minor charges contradicted by English witnesses 395—399
Her behaviour at the appearance of Majocchi . . 399 note
History and cross-examination of Aron mi ricordo . 400 — 402
Baron Ompteda, the spy  402-3
Petro Cacchi, Evidence and description of 403
Kress, the German chambermaid, and the Hanoverian spies, 4°4>5
Raggazoni, the mason ....... 406
Rastelli, the courier, and Powell .... 407 — 409
Louisa Demont, the Swiss maid  409
,, ,, ,, Her letters . . . 411 — 414
Rastelli's evidence  414,415
Sacchi, the courier — his evidence contradicted by Vasali,
Olivieri, and Forti  415—417
The tent on the polacca, evidence of Howman and Flynn, 418 — 420
Opinion of the Duke of Portland on it . . . 420 note
Speeches of counsel and of peers on both sides . . .421-2
Division on 2nd reading ....... 422
Her protest against the division ..... 423
Proceedings in committee  424
Withdrawal of the bill, and close of trial .... 425
Appearance of, at close of trial ..... 425 note
Her subsequent life and death .... . 426
RaE, gunshop of, wrecked by Spa Fields rioters . . .187
Raggazoni, Evidence of (Queen's trial)  406
Rastelli, Evidence of (Queen's trial) .... 414, 415
Sent away by Powell  407 — 409
Ratcliffe, evidence of Horsfall's murder  79
Regent, Extravagant life of  4
Refusal of ministers to procure for him a divorce . . 29
Visit of allied sovereigns to . . . . . . 19
Accession to throne  35
Regency, Historical summary of  I — 35
Reign of George IV., Historical summary of . . . 235—263
Reform, Parliamentary agitation for  175
Richards, C. B., Trial of Nottingham rioters by . 219 — 234
Rolleston, Evidence of, against Brandreth, &c. . . . 230
Romilly on proposed coalition with the Grenvilles . . j0
On Bellingham's sanity  62
On Oliver, the Government spy  216

INDEX.

479

Rooney, Evidence of, in Bottle Conspiracy ....
Roper, Evidence of, against Brandreth 
Russell, Lord John, First motion of, for parliamentary reform,
1819 
Motion to abolish sacramental test .....
Ruthven, Capture of Cato Street conspirators by

443228

3°
258326

Sacchi, the courier, Evidence of (Queen's trial)
Salamanca, Battle of 
Sander, Mrs., Evidence of, in Delicate Investigation.
Sandom, accomplice in second plot of De Berenger fraud
Found Guilty .....
Scarlett, counsel for the Crown in Peterloo riot
Speech in Parliament on .
Shawcross, Evidence of, against Hunt and others
Shipman, Evidence of, against Brandreth
Sidmouth, Lord (see Addington, vol. i.).
Circular to magistrates on libels
The Six Acts of 
Refuses office under Perceval
Challenged by Thistlewood
Employment of Oliver, the spy .
Kindness to prisoners ....
Employment of Edwards, the spy
Slave rising in Demerara .....
Smith and wife, Evidence of, in De Berenger frauds

With Mellor and Thorpe, tried and executed for Horsfall's

murder  70—81
Sir Sidney, Charges against, by Lady Douglas . . . 356-7
B., Evidence of, in Bottle Conspiracy .... 447
Missionary in Demerara, Illegal trial of . . . 253
Smithers, constable, killed by Thistlewood .... 326
Snowden, Evidence of (Horsfall's murder) .... 75
Solomon, Evidence of (De Berenger frauds) . . . .113
South American mines, Numerous speculations in, 1819 . . 254
Republics recognized by England ..... 249
Spa Fields riot — chap. v. . ...... 175 — 180
,, rioters, meetings of committee .... 197 — 201
,, at " Merlin's Cave "  199
„ at "Black Dog"  202
,, Proceedings against, abandoned on Watson's ac
quittal ...'.... 213
" Speedy," The, Lord Cochrane's first ship ... 91 note
Capture of ... .... 92
Spenca;an clubs, Formation of  23, 175
Spilling, Evidence of (De Berenger frauds) . . . .109
Stanley, Rev. E. (Bishop of Norwich), Evidence of (Peterloo
riot)  287 note
Stikeman, page of Princess of Wales, Evidence of . . . 356

415—417 10
• 35o
130—134 144276
270 note
. 278
223

2733
4.1
• 309 218
219 note 310
• 253 140

48o

INDEX.

Stock Exchange, The De Berenger frauds on .
Similar fraud in 1813 
Appointment of committee of inquiry
Prosecution of Lord Cochrane and others by
St. John, -Evidence of, in De Berenger frauds .
St. Vincent, Lord, refuses Lord Cochrane the promotion
first lieutenant ......

of his

19

Tahourdin, De Berenger's solicitor, Evidence of .
Taylor, Tom, lines on Lord Cochrane
Thistlewood, A. (Summary) .....
Sketch of early life . .....
Evidence against (Spa Fields riot)
Prosecution against, for Spa Fields riot withdrawn
Challenges Lord Sidmouth, and is imprisoned .
Meets with Edwards, the spy ....
Cato Street Conspiracy of .
Kills Smithers, the constable ....
Trial and conviction of, with his accomplices
Defence of counsel for .... .
His conviction and speech in defence
Execution .".....
Thorpe, sheriff of Dublin, Charge against
With Mellor and Smith, tried and convicted of Horsfall
murder . ......
Thurlow, Lord, opinion on Lady Douglas's charges .
Tidd, discovery of arms at his house
His daughter's evidence in his defence
Adams' evidence against .....
Conviction and execution .....
Tindal, counsel for the Queen .....
Tragear, Evidence of (De Berenger frauds)
Trench, a magistrate, Evidence of, as to character of Dr.
McNamara .......
Trentham, a manufacturer, shot by the Luddites
Turner tried and found guilty of high treason .
Tyas, Times reporter, Evidence of (Peterloo riot)

. 96-7
96 note 98
100 105

90

92
137 173 24
179
et seq.3°7 3°9 ib.
310
226
4 et seq. 336 337338
452
70—81 353 327 3363i7
337-8

214,

141
383 61
232285

United States, Causes of war with, in 1812

51-2

Vassali, Count, Evidence of, in contradiction of Cacchi and
Sacchi  404—415, 17
Victoria, Queen, Attempt on life of, by Oxford • ... 57
Vienna, Congress of .... iq
Vinn, Evidence of (De Berenger frauds) . 1 71
Vittoria, Battle of  ' 12
Von Grimm, one of the procurers of evidence against the Queer! 405

INDEX.

481

Walcheren, Expedition and inquiry ....
Walker, King's evidence in Horsfall's murder, Evidence of
Waterloo, Battle of

181

Watson, Dr. , Trial of, for Spa Fields riot
Writes and gets printed placards calling meeting
Arrest of, and papers found on him
Acquittal of ... .
Watson, jun., shoots Mr. Piatt
His part in Spa Fields riot
Weightman, Mrs., Meeting of Nottingham rioters at her
George, accomplice in Nottingham plot
Tried and convicted 
Wellesley, Marquis of, accepts office under Perceval
Intrigues of, against Perceval
Resignation ....
Appointed Viceroy of Ireland .
Policy distasteful to the Irish
Secluded habits
Offends the Orangemen  . 435
Riot on his visit to the theatre  ib.
Disapproval of his colleagues  438
The Bottle Conspiracy  439—449
Wellington, victories of, in the Peninsula . . . 10 — 13
,, „ at Quatre Bras and Waterloo . . 21
Arranges with the Grenvilles  246
Refuses to act under Canning  255
Resignation of command of the army . . . 255 note
Forms a Cabinet  257
Refuses to restore Lord Cochrane  171
Defeated on Sacramental test ...... 258
Compels Huskisson's resignation ..... 259
Speech on Catholic Relief Bill  261
Decided behaviour to the King and the Duke of Cumber
land .......
Wetherell, C, counsel for Watson (Spa Fields riot)
Whiteford, Sir G., Evidence on charges against Grand Jury of
Dublin 
Wilberforce, S., Motion for address to the Queen
Last speech on the slave trade ....
Williams, J., counsel for the Queen ....
Willoughby, Lady, Evidence in Delicate Investigation
Wilson tried and convicted for Cato Street Conspiracy
Wolseley, Sir Charles, Trial and conviction for speech at
Stockport  292-
Wood, Alderman, becomes the Queen's adviser
Wylde, counsel for the Queen

42-3
71—73 21
et seq. 183
190
213 185
202
house 221
225—227 232 41
- 9-48
. 6—48
246—447
251, 427-8
- 429

Yarmouth, Lord, Evidence of, for De Berenger
York, Duke of, appointed his father's guardian
Objection to increase of his allowance
VOL. II.

261-2 182
453 384
253 388 356
337-8 -297 381
388

3°
ib.

I 1

482

INDEX.

York, Duke of, in favour of inquiry into conduct of the military
at Peterloo .  34 note
Votes in favour of the Bill of Pains and Penalties . . 422
Speech against Catholic Emancipation . . . .254
Death, January 1st, 1827  255
York, Trials at, of Luddites  64 — 69
,, ,, of Peterloo rioters  , 276
Yorke, Mr., speech during Walcheren inquiry .... 43
Yorkshire and Cheshire, machine breaking in ... . 4
Meeting of freeholders on Peterloo riot ; meeting called by
Lord Fitzwilliam  33, 270

END OF VOL. II.

3908

YALE
BRITISH HISTORY
PRESERVATION PROJECT!
SUPPORTED BY NEH

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