An Authentic History of the Cato-Street Conspiracy: With the trials at large of the conspirators, for high treason and murder, a description of their weapons and combustible machines, and every particular connected with the rise, progress, discovery, and termination of the horrid plotWilkinson, George Theodore
History
An Authentic History of the Cato-Street Conspiracy: With the trials at large of the conspirators, for high treason and murder, a description of their weapons and combustible machines, and every particular connected with the rise, progress, discovery, and termination of the horrid plot
Wilkinson, George Theodore
Cato Street Conspiracy, 1820; Great Britain -- History -- George IV, 1820-1830; Thistlewood, Arthur, 1770-1820 -- Trials, litigation, etc.; Trials (Murder) -- England -- London; Trials (Treason) -- England -- London
The arrest of Thistlewood was heard with infinite satisfaction; he was
placed in a room on the ground-floor, and a vast number of persons
were admitted in their turn to see him. His appearance was most
forbidding. His countenance, at all times unfavourable, seemed now to
have acquired an additional degree of malignity. His dark eye turned
upon the spectators as they came in, as if he expected to see some of
his companions in guilt, who he had heard were to be brought thither.
He drank some porter that was handed to him, and occasionally asked
questions, principally as to the names of the persons who came to look
at him. Then he asked “to what gaol he should be sent?--he hoped not to
Horsham.” (This was the place in which he was confined, in consequence
of his conviction for sending a challenge to Lord Sidmouth.)
At two o’clock he was conducted before the Privy-Council. He was
still handcuffed, but mounted the stairs with alacrity. On entering
the council-chamber he was placed at the foot of the table. He was
then addressed by the Lord Chancellor, who informed him that he stood
charged with the twofold crime of treason and murder; and asked him
whether he had anything to say for himself? He answered, that “he
should decline saying any thing on that occasion.”
No persons were suffered to have access except those on business to the
public offices at Whitehall, nor was any individual allowed to hold
communication with the prisoner. About a dozen soldiers were in the
hall and adjoining lodge; they formed a part of the military escort
that accompanied the police-officers to the spot where Thistlewood
and his companions were first discovered. The soldiers had with them
the different articles and weapons found upon the party when taken,
among which were two small pistols, one of them loaded, and a bundle
of files, similar to those used in small brasswork. The points of such
files are always sharp, and the part of the file which goes into the
handle is necessarily pointed, to penetrate the hole made in the wood
for its reception; some of the files appeared, however, to have had the
handle-points brightened, and the ends made more fine, as if by being
whetted upon a stone. There were also in the hall two or three bags,
containing three bayonets and some ammunition, made up in both small
and large cartridges. The soldiers who had seized those articles were
examined before the Privy-Council. After his examination, Thistlewood
was taken back to the room in which he had been previously placed; his
commitment to Coldbath-fields was made out, and he was conveyed to that
prison under the care of six officers. There was a partial shouting and
groaning, as the carriage in which he was placed drove off.
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