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
Mr. FISHER, the surgeon, was sworn, and deposed as follows:--I am
surgeon to the Police establishment in Bow-street. I was called upon
for the first time, this day, to examine the body of the deceased. I
found an external wound under the right breast. It was two inches in
length, and half an inch broad. I opened the body to ascertain the
depth and direction of the wound, and I discovered that some sharp
instrument had penetrated between the fifth and sixth ribs, wounded
the outward surface of the right lobe of the liver, passed through the
diaphragm into the chest, lacerated the pericardium, penetrated the
right ventricle of the heart, wounded the left lobe of the lungs, and
struck against the ribs on the left side. The wound I supposed to be
about twelve inches in length. The blood flowed from the heart, and
occasioned immediate death. The opening in the pericardium was larger
than that presented by the external wound, which was always the case
with wounds of this description. The weapon was prevented from passing
entirely through the body by the ribs on the left side. It must have
been a very sharp instrument, both pointed and cutting, to make such
a wound. The membranes, which were cut asunder, could only have been
severed by an exceedingly sharp instrument. That death was inevitable
after such a wound, the heart having been cut open, and the blood
effused into the cavity of the chest.
GEORGE THOMAS RUTHVEN being sworn, said, I am an officer belonging
to the public-office in Bow-street. On Wednesday evening last, at
half-past eight o’clock, I was in this house. I received an order from
Mr. Birnie, who is a Justice of the Peace for the county of Middlesex,
to go to a shed or stable in Cato-street, in consequence of a number
of men being assembled there for treasonable purposes. There was a
warrant issued by Mr. Baker, a magistrate of Marlborough-street. On
entering the house, I observed in the lower place a man with a cutlass
at his side, and a musket on his shoulder. The door by which I entered
from the street was not fast; there were persons going in and out; the
man with the musket seemed as if he was guarding the staircase; there
was only one man on guard. Ellis, Smithers, the deceased, and several
others, went in with me. I don’t know how they came in. They were of
course ordered. They were all constables, in number about a dozen. I
was the first person that entered. Mr. Birnie, the magistrate, was
not there at that time; he was at hand in the street, giving orders.
The man who stood at the door as sentinel was walking about. I did
not stop to see what he did particularly, but immediately called out
to some of the party who followed to secure him. I am not aware that
they did secure him, for I immediately went up the stairs. I believe
that man was taken; but I am not aware that he was apprehended then; I
believe he was caught afterwards. I ascended by a sort of step-ladder
staircase.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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