Of the risks Carlile ran from espionage, he has detailed many instances. I quote one passage in his own words. He is speaking of Paine:—‘I revere,’ says he, ‘the name of Thomas Paine; the image of his honest countenance is constantly before me. I have him in bust [now in possession of Mr. Watson], in whole length figure; for which I may thank the late government of Liverpool, Castlereagh, and Sidmouth, who appointed Edwards the spy to this task, he, who when he failed to get me hanged, caused the death of Thistlewood, and others. Edwards occupied _six months_ of 1819, in excuse of making this statute to keep at my heels. He followed me closely until I was in Dorchester Gaol. There I escaped him; and then, immediately, he was put on other game with which he succeeded. The very men that he hanged, he brought about me in the King’s Bench Prison, offering me their lives, if I would use them for any purpose. I had then, a clear sighted purpose of my own, which these men did not understand. At that age I should have had no objection to a little physical force fighting; but I was sober enough to see its impracticability, and thus I frustrated the acquaintance, which Liverpool, Castlereagh, Sidmouth, and their spy Edwards, wished to bring me into with Jack Ketch. I found Edwards a tradesman in Fleet Street, as an artist, before I got there, and I so became his next door neighbour. He succeeded, in occupation, the shop which William Hone had, and where he published his famous Parodies. When I came to No. 55, in January, 1819, Edwards had been two years at No. 56, so I had little ground to suspect his spyship.