=Source.=--_Annual Register_, 1820, pp. 30-32.
At last, on Saturday, the 19th of February, it was resolved at one
of their meetings, that poverty did not allow them to delay their
purposes any longer, and that, therefore, on the next Wednesday,
the ministers should be murdered separately, each in his own
house. On Sunday they arranged their plans. Forty or fifty men were
to be set apart for the work of murder; and whoever failed through
any fault of his own, in performing the task assigned to him, was
to atone for his failure with his life. Two separate detachments
were at the same time to seize two pieces of cannon stationed in
Gray's-Inn-lane, and six in the artillery ground. The Mansion-house
was to be proclaimed the palace of the provisional government; the
Bank was to be attacked forthwith; and London was to be set fire to
in different quarters.
Meetings were again held on Monday and Tuesday; and on the latter
day, a conspirator, named Edwards, informed Thistlewood, that there
was to be a cabinet dinner on the morrow. Thistlewood, doubting
the information, sent for a newspaper, and finding it announced
that a cabinet dinner was to be given at lord Harrowby's house
in Grosvenor-square on Wednesday evening; "As there has not been
a dinner so long," said he, "there will no doubt be fourteen or
sixteen there, and it will be a rare haul to murder them all
together." According to the fresh arrangements now determined
on, one of their number was to go with a note addressed to
lord Harrowby; when the door was opened to him, a band of the
conspirators were to rush in; and while some seized the servants,
and prevented any one from escaping from the house, others, forcing
their way into the room where the ministers were assembled, were
to murder them without mercy. It was particularly specified, that
the heads of lords Sidmouth and Castlereagh were to be brought
away in a bag. From lord Harrowby's house two of their number were
to proceed to throw fire-balls into the straw-shed of the cavalry
barracks in King-street, while the rest were to co-operate in the
execution of the subsequent parts of the scheme.
In the meantime spies were dispatched to watch lord Harrowby's
house, and to ascertain that no police officers or soldiers were
concealed within it, or close to it. The next day was spent in
preparations. Their weapons and ammunition were put into a state of
readiness, and proclamations were written, which it was intended
to fix to the houses that were to be set on fire. In the course of
the day several of the infatuated wretches met, from time to time,
at the old place of rendezvous; and, towards six in the evening,
they assembled in a stable, situated in an obscure street, called
Cato-street, in the neighbourhood of the Edgware-road. Besides
the stable in the lower part, the building contained two rooms
above, accessible only by a ladder, in the larger of which, a
sentinel having been stationed below, the conspirators mustered,
to the number of twenty-four or twenty-five, all busy in adjusting
their accoutrements by the scanty light of one or two candles, and
exulting in the near approach of the bloody catastrophe.
All their machinations, however, were known to the very men, whom
they hoped within an hour to see lying butchered at their feet. One
of the conspirators, Edwards, had, for some time, been in the pay
of government, to whom he communicated every step that was taken.
A man, too, of the name of Hidon, who had been solicited to enter
into the plot, warned lord Harrowby of it, the day before that
which was fixed for carrying it into execution. The ministers took
no steps which might deter or alarm the ruffians; for it would have
been the height of madness to have stopped them in their career
of guilt. Interruption would have saved them from punishment,
by rendering it impossible to procure evidence of the atrocious
nature of the plot; so that they would have been let loose upon
society, ready to enter into some new scheme of murder, which, by
being intrusted to a smaller, or more select number, or by being
attempted with less delay, might be followed by success. The
preparations for the dinner went on at lord Harrowby's house till
eight in the evening, though, in fact, no dinner was to be given.
In the meantime, a strong party of Bow-street constables, under
the direction of Mr. Birnie, proceeded to Cato-street, where they
were to be met and supported by a detachment of the Coldstream
Guards. The police officers reached the spot about 8 o'clock. They
immediately entered the stable, and, mounting the ladder, found
the conspirators in the loft, on the point of proceeding to the
execution of their scheme. The principal officer called upon them
to surrender. Smithers, one of the constables, pressing forward
to seize Thistlewood, was pierced, by him, through the body, and
immediately fell. The lights in the loft were now extinguished;
some of the conspirators rushed down the ladder, and the officers
along with them; others forced their way out by a window in the
back part of the premises. At this moment, the detachment of the
military arrived, somewhat later than the precise time fixed. Two
of the conspirators, who were in the act of escaping, were seized:
by the joint exertions of the police and soldiers nine in all were
taken that evening, and conveyed to Bow-street. Thistlewood was
among those who had escaped, but he was arrested next morning, in
bed, in a house near Finsbury-square. Some others of them were
seized in the course of the next two days.
On the 27th of March, true bills of indictment for high treason
were found against eleven of the prisoners; and, on the 17th of
April, Thistlewood was put upon his trial. The principal witness
was a conspirator, of the name of Adams, who, having escaped from
Cato-street, had been taken on the following Friday, and had
remained in custody up to the time when he was produced in court to
give evidence. After a trial which lasted three days, the accused
was found guilty on those counts of indictment which charged
him with having conspired to levy, and with having levied war
against the King. Ings, Brunt, Tidd, and Davidson, were afterwards
severally tried and convicted. The remaining six, permission to
withdraw their former plea having been given, pleaded guilty. One
of them, who appeared to have joined the meeting in Cato-street
without being aware of its true purpose, received a pardon; the
other five had their sentence commuted into transportation for
life. Thistlewood, with the four whom we have named, suffered the
sentence of the law, rather glorying in what they had attempted,
and regretting their failure, than repenting of their atrocious
guilt.