inform you, that it is a great disappoint-] The chief leader implicated in this exment to his majesty, that on this first and travagantly atrocious and absurd plot, was solemn occasion he is prevented, by indis- a person called Arthur Thistlewood; oriposition, from meeting you in person. ginally bred to the drug trade, at Newark, "It would have been a consolation to his in Nottinghamshire; then a subaltern offimajesty, to give utterance in this place to cer in the militia, and subsequently in a those feelings, with which his majesty and regiment of the line in the West Indies. the nation alike deplore the loss of a sove- Having resigned his commission, imbued reign, the common father of all his people. with republican principles, after passing "The king commands us to inform you, some time in America, he visited France, that in determining to call without delay at that period of the revolution when the the new parliament, his majesty has been sanguinary despot Robespierre had just exinfluenced by a consideration of what is piated his guilty career on the public scafmost expedient for public business, as well fold; and it is presumed that the scenes he as most conducive to general convenience. there witnessed confirmed the opinions upon "Gentlemen of the House of Commons, which he finally acted. As an accomplice "We are directed by his majesty to of doctor Watson, he was tried with him; thank you for the provision which you have and on his acquittal he challenged lord made for the several branches of the pub- Sidmouth, then secretary of state for the lic service from the commencement of the home department:-this drew upon him present year, and during the interval which the prosecution of his lordship, and a ŝenmust elapse before a new parliament can tence of fine and imprisonment. When be assembled. My Lords and Gentlemen, liberated, he seems to have nourished ideas of the utmost turpitude; to realize which "We are commanded to inform you, that, he devoted all his time-associating with in taking leave of the present parliament, none but the most debased of the lowest his majesty cannot refrain from conveying class, who, stimulated by similar doctrines, to you his warmest assurances of the sense were worthy coadjutors in such a cause. A which his majesty entertains of the import- nucleus of disappointed revenge, he gathant services which you have rendered the ered together a number of individuals descountry. perate as himself, and, with their aid, re"Deeply as his majesty lamented that solved to destroy the ministers and abolish designs and practices such as those which the government. you have been recently called upon to re- The next in consequence were Ings, a press, should have existed in this free and butcher; Davison, a creole; Brunt and happy country, he cannot sufficiently com- Tidd, shoemakers.-The plan, as finally mend the prudence and firmness with which arranged by this horde of assassins, was so you directed your attention to the means detestably wicked, so pregnant with danof counteracting them. ger to themselves in theory, and attended "If any doubt had remained as to the with such little probability of success in nature of those principles by which the practice, that it requires all the strength peace and happiness of the nation were so of corroborating evidence-not only of seriously menaced, or of the excesses to spies, accomplices, and more creditable witwhich they were likely to lead, the flagrant nesses-ere the human mind can reconcile and sanguinary conspiracy which has lately such a union of madness and delinquency. been detected, must open the eyes of the It was resolved, after a series of meetmost incredulous, and must vindicate to the ings, that delay was useless; and poverty, whole world the justice and expediency of as they admitted, goading them to the atthose measures to which you judged it ne- tempt, Wednesday, twenty-third of Febcessary to resort, in defence of the laws ruary, was fixed upon for the individual and constitution of the kingdom." DISCOVERY OF CATO-STREET CON SPIRACY. murder of the ministers, at their respective houses. On the preceding Sunday the plan was arranged as follows:-Forty or fifty THE Conspiracy thus glanced at in the men were to devote themselves to the task speech of the lords commissioners, was one of assassination; under no less pledge than of the most desperate plots that could a forfeiture of their own lives, in case of have been conceived by bad men for the failure, through any want of address or deworst of purposes; the object contemplated termination, while executing the diabolical being no less than an attempt to overthrow project. Other detachments were simulthe existing government, and plunge these taneously to seize upon the field-pieces, at realms into anarchy and lawless confusion. the London light-horse station in Gray's Inn This, as it appeared, was to be effected by Lane, and the artillery ground. Possessed the projected assassination of his majesty's of these cannon, the Mansion-house was to ministers. be used as the palace of the provisional government-the bank was to be attacked-Edwards, had for some time been in the pay and the metropolis was to be set fire to in of the administration, and gave regular invarious points. Similar meetings were held telligence to his employers of all particulars on the Monday and Tuesday; on which last connected with this foul and extraordinary day one of the conspirators, named Edwards, transaction. Every precautionary method informed Thistlewood that a cabinet dinner was adopted to lull suspicion: the apparent would take place on the morrow. Thistle- preparations for the banquet were continuwood's doubts being removed by the an- ed at lord Harrowby's mansion, till eight nouncement in the newspaper, and it being o'clock in the evening, and by these means specified therein that the dinner would be the conspirators were detected with arms in given at lord Harrowby's house in Grosve- their hands. To effect this, a large party nor square, on the Wednesday, he exultingly of constables, under the direction of the maobserved," As there has not been a dinner gistrate Mr. Birnie, proceeded to Cato-street, for such a length of time, there will no doubt where it was intended they should be supbe fourteen or sixteen there, and it will be ported by a detachment of the Coldstream a rare haul to dispatch them all together!" guards. The police officers reached their Pursuant to the plan of operations now set- destination about eight, immediately entertled, one of their body was to go with a note ed the stable, ascended the ladder, and disaddressed to lord Harrowby: when the house covered the conspirators in the loft, (for it door was opened, a band of the conspirators was nothing better,) on the point of setting were to rush in-and while one party were out to execute their meditated object. The occupied in seizing the domestics, and pre- principal officer required them to surrender, venting any one below making their escape, and Smithers, one of the active police conanother was to effect their entrance to the stables, dashing forward to secure Thistleroom which contained the ministers, and wood, received his sword through his body, massacre them all. It was a peculiar pro- and instantly fell. The candles were now vision that the heads of lords Castlereagh blown out, the conflict became general; and Sidmouth were to be brought away as some of the gang rushed down the ladder, trophies of success. From the house of lord the officers grappling with them, while Harrowby a few of the number were instan- others forced their way from a window sittaneously to repair to the barracks, in King- uated in the back of the loft. At this juncstreet, Portman-square, where, after firing ture the military, commanded by captain the straw depôt of the cavalry by means of Fitzclarence, arriving, two conspirators were fire-balls, they were to co-operate with the secured in the act of escaping; and by the remainder in executing the other parts of co-operation of the police and soldiers, seven the scheme already detailed. In the interim more were taken that evening, and securely strict watch was kept upon lord Harrowby's conveyed to Bond-street. Thistlewood, who dwelling, in order to ascertain that none of had escaped in the first moment of confuthe police or military entered, or were con- sion, was seized next morning in bed, in the cealed in its neighborhood. The whole of neighborhood of Finsbury-square, and some the day was passed by them in preparations others were apprehended in the two followfor the intended plot : weapons and ammuni- ing days. tion were prepared, and proclamations writ- March the twenty-seventh true bills of ten, to affix on those places that were to be indictment for the charge of high treason, set fire to. During this period these infat- were returned against eleven of the prisonuated wretches rendezvoused gradually; ers. And April the seventeenth, a commisand about six o'clock in the evening, they sion for the purpose being regularly opened, met in a stable, in an obscure street, called Thistlewood was put on his trial. The chief Cato-street, near the Edgeware road. This witness adduced, was a conspirator named place they had hired a short time previous: Adams, who, after escaping from Cato-street, it comprised, besides the stable, two rooms had been arrested on the following Friday, above it, the ascent to which was by a ladder and kept in custody until he was rought only. In the largest room, having taken forward to give his testimony in support of the precaution to post a sentinel below, the the prosecution. The trial lasted three days, conspirators were to be seen to the number when the accused was found guilty, on that of twenty-four or twenty-five, by the glim- part of the indictment which charged him mering ray of one or two small candles, ad-" with having conspired to levy," and with justing their accoutrements on an old carpen- "having levied war against the king." Ings, ter's bench, and exulting in the fast approach- Tidd, Brunt, and Davidson, were severa y ing consummation of this scene of blood. DETECTION-TRIAL, AND EXECUTION OF THISTLEWOOD. AMONGST their number was one disaffected to the cause. This spy, the above named tried and convicted. The other six being permitted to withdraw their original plea, now pleaded guilty; and it appearing, that one of the number who had attended the meeting in Cato-street, was ignorant of its destined purpose, he was graciously pardon- The fruits of this inflammatory placard ed; while the sentence of the remaining exhibited themselves on the Monday. The five was commuted into transportation for weavers and colliers, in Paisley and Glasthe term of their natural lives. gow, declined work; and this baneful ex The throng of spectators assembled at the ample spread through the numerous bodies execution of the criminals was immense; of wrights, iron-founders, masons, and maand commensurate was the disgust mani- chine-makers, &c. Several of the cotton fested at that part of the sentence, which mills commenced their usual routine; but displayed the horrid spectacle of mangling being presently disturbed by threatening and decapitating the reeking remains of visitors, most of their workmen did not rethese miserably deluded men. This tribute turn after breakfast, or absented themselves of justice to violated laws, occupied in its in the latter part of the day. Glasgow now shocking details, nearly an hour and a exhibited a most extraordinary aspect: the quarter; during which a strong body of streets were crowded with throngs of articavalry lined the streets in the vicinity, sans, idly loitering away their time, and and very considerable augmentations of all branches of the military, were assembled in the metropolis, pending the trial until the final execution of the sentence. TUMULTUOUS PROCEEDINGS IN THE waiting in anxious suspense for the first burst of the promised revolution, which was to commence at a moment, and to emanate from persons and powers invisible, and unknown. As these persons and powers remained shrouded in their original mystery, THIS extraordinary and desperate plot, rumor, at the time, was busy in imputing was confined to a very limited number of the whole as a fabrication of political esinfatuated wretches, unconnected with the pionage, with what degree of truth is not revolutionary partisans, who, in this instance, evident. Suffice it to observe, that if any seemed to have no share with them. Still secret hope of disorder was nourished, it little doubt remains that the general feeling happily was not realized; the people then of discontent, so diffusively spread abroad, conjugated, did not attempt by any open was the foundation on which Thistlewood act to violate the public peace, the far and his gang confidently looked for support greater number of them seeming to be and triumph. swayed more by motives of curiosity and The spirit of discontent had been a length- dread of these secret agitators, than by any ened tinie smothering, and at last broke forth revolutionary fervor or desire of change to in some districts in a very appalling man- plunge the country into confusion. About the middle of March much ATTACK ON SOLDIERY AT BONNYMUIR. alarm prevailed in and about Glasgow; it RESISTANCE to the public authorities did being known that numbers of the class of on one occasion show itself. On the Wedartisans, and others, who wished to pursue nesday, an individual of the Stirling yeotheir quiet avocations, unmixed with the manry, proceeding from Kilsyth to Falkirk, noisy turmoil of political convulsions, had fell in with a radical squad, armed in a been repeatedly menaced by the adherents heterogeneous manner with muskets, pikes, of riot and confusion. This had gained such and pistols, these demanding his arms, a height, that they imagined they could not, which he refused to surrender; after sevewithout endangering the safety of their fam-ral ineffectual shots were discharged at ilies, persevere in the conduct of peaceful him, he escaped uninjured to his former and loyal subjects. The panic which was quarters at Kilsyth. The commanding offi now prevalent, on Sunday the second of cer immediately detached eleven cavalry, April received an accession, when, on that and an equal number of yeomanry, to scour morning, a treasonable proclamation was the road leading to Falkirk, and clear it, if discovered posted on the walls of Glasgow, possible, of the insurgents. The military its neighboring towns and villages. soon came in sight of them. The insur ner. This proclamation, supposed to emanate gents, augmented in number, had, in the from "the Committee for the formation of a interim, found some arms and food in the Provisional Government," recommended the neighboring houses, and were now posted proprietors, and those concerned in large advantageously on a rising ground in Bonmanufactories, to suspend their employ- nymuir, commanding an extensive view of ments till order should be insured by the country. This, on the advance of the cavorganization alluded to. This paper like- alry, the insurgents subsequently abandonwise enjoined all parties to desist from their ed, and now sought the protection of a wall, avocations, denouncing as enemies and trai- from behind which they fired several times: tors to their king and country, whoever the commander of the detachment requishould attempt by force of arms, or other-ring them to surrender their arms, received wise, aught against the projected political in answer a volley therefrom, accompanied amelioration. with a loud cheer, and a remark that they came there to fight. Secured by the stone litical guilt, and all of them sensibly afwall in front from an immediate charge, fected with proper feelings of morality and the cavalry were compelled, as well by that religion. opposition as the mossy and plashy state of CONDUCT OF MINISTRY. the ground, to make a circuitous approach In taking a retrospect of the many moto a gap which offered a readier access. mentous cares which occupied the attention Observing this intention, the rebels hur- of ministers; the earliest transaction, and ried to the gap for the purpose of disputing one which, from its peculiar delicacy, obthe entrance, but the better half hurried truded itself on the public eye, was the off to their different homes. DEFEAT AND TRIAL OF DISAFFECTED PERSONS. GENERAL ELECTION. unhappy prelude to those proceedings against the consort of the reigning monarch, which afterwards convulsed the kingTHOSE Who still made a show of resist- dom from one extremity to the other. After ance, were instantly scattered; many of advising the queen's name to be omitted in them severely wounded, and nineteen pris- the liturgy, which omission was sanctioned oners were taken. Besides the commander by an order of council; a case of alleged of the troops who was wounded, three of misconduct out of the realms was submitthe soldiery received hurts, one horse also ted to the consideration of the crown-lawbeing killed, and three wounded. The yers, who gave it as their decided opinion, majority of those implicated in this petty that no indictment could be supported on insurrection, had arrived that morning from these premised grounds. The solidity of Glasgow, hoping to find, as prearranged, a which opinion can be alone duly estimated considerable number from the neighboring when treating hereafter more fully on this districts, associated on Bonnymuir. The head. plan it appeared was to have marched forthwith-to have taken possession of the Car- ON issuing the writs for the return of inron iron-works-to have equipped them-dividuals to sit in parliament, the cities of selves therefrom with arms, particularly London and Westminster took the lead; artillery, and thence to have instituted a and during their elections, as well as regular plan of offensive military opera- throughout the kingdom, every nerve was tions. These intentions were defeated by strained, every influence used by all parties, the judicious precautions of the magistracy, to bring in those individuals whose afterwho, in promptly co-operating with the exertions promised to be most conducive to military, prevented the evil-minded from their several views: and as these returns eaching the proposed rendezvous. So that became public, the characteristics of the instead of the four or five thousand expect- various members elected were scrutinized, ed to muster there, there were found about and the consequent assemblage of the senfifty only, whose strength of infatuation ate looked for with considerable anxiety by made them true to their engagements, in the great class of the community. despite of rational prudence. Open resistance was thus crushed. The failure of this On the twenty-first of April, the new Quixotic attempt tended on the one hand parliament began to assemble, till the twento extinguish the hopes of the deluders, by ty-third was occupied by the several memthe defection of those heretofore deluded, bers taking the requisite oaths.-On that who, resuming their former habits of indus- day the right honorable Charles Manners try, in a few days the threatened storm Sutton was unanimously rechosen as speaker passed over, and that part of the country of the house of commons. And on the displayed no further signs of political agi- twenty-seventh, his majesty opened his first parliament in person, by delivering a gra A special commission being held in the cious speech from the throne in the followdifferent counties where these treasonable ing terms: acts had taken place; all persons who were KING'S FIRST SPEECH. in custody were brought to trial: and, on "I HAVE taken the earliest occasion of this occasion, though numerous sentences assembling you here, after having recurred were recorded, the royal clemency evinced to the sense of my people. itself by extending mercy to all but three. "In meeting you personally for the first One of these had been long known as an time since the death of my beloved father, organizer of sedition; the other two had I am anxious to assure you, that I shall albeen taken in open resistance, at the affair ways continue to imitate his great example, with the cavalry before-mentioned. The in unceasing attention to the public interexecution of these three delinquents differ-ests, and in paternal solicitude for the weled materially from that of Thistlewood and fare and happiness of all classes of my subhis coadjutors,-in as far as the Scotch reb- jects. tation. NEW PARLIAMENT. els died, some of them penitent of their po- "I have received from foreign powers renewed assurances of their friendly dispo- tion, by which the period of relief can only sition, and of their earnest desire to culti-be deferred, and by which the pressure of vate with me the relations of peace and the distress has been incalculably aggraamity. vated. "Gentlemen of the House of Commons, "The estimates for the present year will be laid before you. "I trust that an awakened sense of the dangers which they have incurred, and of the arts which have been employed to se"They have been framed upon principles duce them, will bring back by far the of strict economy; but it is to me matter greater part of those who have been unof the deepest regret, that the state of the happily led astray, and will revive in them country has not allowed me to dispense with that spirit of loyalty, that due submission those additions to our military force which to the laws, and that attachment to the conI announced at the commencement of the stitution, which subsist unabated in the last session of parliament. "The first object to which your attention will be directed is, the provision to be made for the support of the civil government, and of the honor and dignity of the crown. "I leave entirely at your disposal my interest in the hereditary revenues: and I cannot deny myself the gratification of declaring, that so far from desiring any arrangement which might lead to the imposition of new burdens upon my people, or even might diminish, on my account, the amount of the reductions incident to my accession to the throne, I can have no wish, under circumstances like the present, that any addition whatever should be made to the settlement adopted by parliament in the year 1816. 66 My Lords and Gentlemen, hearts of the great body of the people, and JOHN RUSSEL'S MOTION ON ELECTIVE ONE of the first acts of the legislature referred to a subject of vital import to the constitution. Proof having been given during the preceding parliament, that the utmost venality prevailed in the borough of Grampound, wherein it was substantiated, that the greater portion, nearly amounting to the whole, of the electors, were in the habit of selling their votes; of which of"Deeply as I regret that the machina- fence several had been convicted; lord tions and designs of the disaffected should John Russel, upon the issue of these indicthave led, in some parts of the country, to ments, had brought forward a bill in the acts of open violence and insurrection, I house of commons, for the purpose of discannot but express my satisfaction at the franchising that borough, and transferring promptitude with which those attempts the right of election to Leeds. This imhave been suppressed by the vigilance and portant measure, his lordship seized the activity of the magistrates, and by the zeal- earliest opportunity of pursuing; and the ous co-operation of all those of my sub- necessary preliminaries having been adjects, whose exertions have been called justed, a second reading of the bill was forth to support the authority of the laws. moved on the nineteenth of May, though "The wisdom and firmness manifested scarcely any opposition disclosed itself by the late parliament, and the due execu- against the deserved punishments of this tion of the laws, have greatly contributed highly corrupted borough;-of which one to restore confidence throughout the king- of their corporate body, in palliation, made dom; and to discountenance those princi- use of these remarkable words: "That ples of sedition and irreligion which had there might be perhaps two or three voters been disseminated with such malignant per- who had not taken bribes." Yet in the severance, and had poisoned the minds of the ignorant and unwary. "I rely upon the continued support of parliament in my determination to maintain, by all the means intrusted to my hands, the public safety and tranquillity. 66 mode of disposing of the franchise, much conflict of opinion arose. Before any discussion could take place on the essential point of forfeiture, eventful circumstances so completely engrossed the attention of parliament, that the measure fell through, the session having closed, without any final decision on the bill in question. Deploring, as we all must, the distress which still unhappily prevails among many of the laboring classes of the community, ALLUSION TO QUEEN'S ARRIVAL. and anxiously looking forward to its re- THE circumstances referred to originated moval or mitigation, it is, in the mean time, in the unexpected arrival of her majesty our common duty, effectually to protect the queen Caroline, who, after several years loyal, the peaceable, and industrious, against travelling in foreign countries, now returnthose practices of turbulence and intimida-led to England. The general explosion of |