Cassell's History of England, Vol. 5 (of 8): From the Peninsular War to the Death of Sir Robert PeelAnonymous
History
Cassell's History of England, Vol. 5 (of 8): From the Peninsular War to the Death of Sir Robert Peel
Anonymous
Great Britain -- History
Disappointed in this quarter, the odious race of incendiary spies of
Government tried their arts, and succeeded in duping some individuals
in Yorkshire, and many more in Derbyshire. That the principal
Government spy, Oliver, was busily engaged in this work of stirring up
the ignorant and suffering population to open insurrection from the
17th of April to the 7th of June, when such an outbreak took place in
Derbyshire, we have the most complete evidence. It then came out, from
a servant of Sir John Byng, commander of the forces in that district,
that Oliver had previously been in communication with Sir John, and no
doubt obtained his immediate liberation from him on the safe netting of
his nine victims. In fact, in a letter from this Sir John Byng (then
Lord Strafford), in 1846, to the Dean of Norwich, he candidly admits
that he had received orders from Lord Sidmouth to assist the operations
of Oliver, who was, his lordship said, going down into that part of the
country where meetings were being frequently held, and that Oliver, who
carried a letter to Sir John, was to give him all the information that
he could, so that he might prevent such meetings. Here, as well as from
other sources, we are assured that Oliver only received authority to
collect information of the proceedings of the conspirators, and by no
means to incite them to illegal acts. We have also the assurance of Mr.
Louis Allsop, a distinguished solicitor of Nottingham, that Oliver was
in communication with him on the 7th of June, immediately on his return
from Yorkshire, and informed him that a meeting was the same evening to
take place in Nottingham, and he and another gentleman strongly urged
him to attend it, which Oliver did. Mr. Allsop says that Oliver had no
instructions to incite, but only to collect information. All this has
been industriously put forward to excuse Ministers. But what are the
facts? We find Oliver not only--according to evidence which came out
on the trials of the unfortunate dupes at Derby--directly stimulating
the simple people to insurrection, but joining in deluding them into
the persuasion that all London was ready to rise, and that one hundred
and fifty thousand from the east and west of the capital only waited
for them. We find him not only disseminating these ideas throughout
these districts from the 17th of April to the 27th of May, but also
to have concerted a simultaneous rising in Yorkshire, at Nottingham,
and in Derbyshire, on the 6th of June. Thornhill-lees, in Yorkshire,
was on the verge of action, and ten delegates, including Oliver, were
arrested. In Derbyshire the insurrection actually took place.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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