of Kent, the father of our present gracious Sove-
reign, had accompanied the Duchess and his
infant daughter, the future Sovereign of Great
Britain, to Sidmouth in Devonshire, for the
benefit of change of air. There he was unfor-
tunately exposed to wet and cold on the loth
* " There is, and can be, no dispute about the fact of
military training ; the only question is in regard to the
design or object of the practice. Numerous informations
were taken by the Lancashire magistrates, and trans-
mitted to Government in the beginning of August.'' Bam-
ford, the Radical annalist, assures us it was done solely
with a view to the great meeting on the 16lh August at
Manchester. — See .Miss .Martineau, i. 227 ; Bamfoke's
Life of a Radical, i. 177, 160.
1820.]
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
335
January, wliicli brought on a cough and inflam-
mation of the lungs, which, notwithstanding
the most active treatment, terminated fatally
on the 23d of the same month. He was inter-
rod, with the usual solemnities, at Windsor on
'7th February. This prince took little share in
public life; and the rigorous discipline which
lie had found it necessary to enforce in the
army, in his earlier years, when in command,
had at the time given rise to considerable dis-
cussion. But he had survived this temporarj-
unpopularity, as really estimable characters sel-
dom fail to do ; and in his latter years he pos-
sessed alike the respect of the nation and the
warm affection of his personal friends. Person-
ally intrepid, as his race have ever been, he pos-
sessed at the same time the kindness of heart
and charm of manner, which in all, but in none
so much as those of exalted station, are the main
foundation of lasting affection. In politics he
inclined to the Liberal side, as his bi'other the
Prince Regent and the Duke of Sussex had so
long done; but he had little turn for polit-
ical contentions, and shrouded himself in pref-
erence in the seclusion and enjoyments of pri-
vate life. Deeds of beneficence, or the support
of institutions of charity, of which he was a
munificent patron, alone brought him before
file eye of the public; but in private, no one
, ^jj jjg„ was more kindly in his disposition,
i - io, 6 ; ° or had secured bj" acts of generosity
llughesjVi. a wider or more attached circle of
'^'^^- friends.i
The death of the Duke of Kent was speedily
gg followed by that of his father, who
Death of bad so long swayed the sceptre of the
George III. realm. Toward the end of January,
Jan. 28. ^f^g health of George III., which had
hitherto been surpi'isingly preserved during his
long and melancholy mental alienation, rapidly
sunk, his strength failed, his appetite left him,
and it became evident that the powers of na-
ture were exhausted. At length, at half-past
eight on the 28th January, he breathed his last ;
and the Prince Regent, as George IV., formally
ascended the throne, of which, during ten years,
he had discharged the duties. On Monday tlie
31st, the new sovereign was proclaimed with
the usual formalities at the Palace, Temple Bar,
J Ann Re" Charing Cross, and otlier places; the
1820, 7 ; " members of Parliament were sworn
Hughes, vi. in, and both houses immediately ad-
"^' journed to the 17th February.^
Although he had lived nearly ten years in
,g retirement, and the practical dis-
Deepinipres- charge of the functions of royalty
sion which by the sovereign who succeeded
his death ]^ij^ jj^d so long withdrawn him
country! ^ from the public gaze, the death of
George III. made a profound im-
pression on the British heart. Tlie very cir-
cumstances under which the demise had taken
place added to the melanolioly interest whicli
It excited, and the feelings with which the be-
reavement was regarded Ijy the people. Near-
ly the whole existing generation had grown up
during his long reign of sixty years; there was
no one who had not been accustomed to regard
the 4th of June, the well-known birth-day of the
sovereign, as a day of rejoicing; no oiu; could
form an idea of a king without the aged form
wiiich still flitted through the halls of Windsor
occurring to the mind. Tlie very obscurity in
which his last days had been shrouded, the men-
tal darkness which had prevented him ivom
being conscious of the surpassing glories of the
close of his reign, the malady which had se-
cluded him from the eyes ot his affectionate
people, added to the emotion which his death
occasioned. Old feelings were revived, for-
mer affections, long pent up, gushed forth, and
flowed without control. The realization of the
catastrophe, though not of the sorrows, of Lear
on the theatre of the world, profoundly aftected
every heart. The king had survived all his
unpopularity ; he had lived down the bitterest
of his enemies. When the eloquent preacher
quoted the w^ords of Scripture, "And Joseph
asked them of their welfare, and said, Is your
father well ? the old man of whom ye spake, is
he 3'et alive? And they answered, Our father
is j-et alive. And they bowed their heads, and
made obeisance,"* all felt that now, as in the
days of the patriarchs, the same affections of a
people to their common father were experienced.
The removal of the aged king from this earthly
scene made no change in the political world ; it
was unfelt in the councils or cabinets of princes ;
but, like a similar bereavement in private life,
the circle of the domestic aft'ections was for a
season drawn closer, from the removal of one
who had shared in its brightness. Nor did it
lessen the emotion felt on this event, that it
occurred at the time when the mighty antago-
nist of the departed sovereign was decliningiii
distant and hopeless captivity, and that while
George III. slept to death in the solitude of his
ancestral halls, Napole'on was dying a dis-
crowned exile in the melancholy main.
The French said, in the da3s of their loj-al-
ty, " The king is dead — long live the
king!" Never was the value of this „. '^^â–
noble maxim more strongly felt than Queen
on the present occasion. The death Victoria,
of the king, preceded as it had been ^'o^y,^^'
by that of "the Princess Charlotte, the
heiress of the throne, the age and circumstances
of the sovereign who had just ascended it, and
tlie situation of the other members of the royal
family, had long awakened a feeling of disqui-
etude as to the succession to the monarchy.
The Duke of York, now the heir-apparent, was
married, had no familj', and the duchess was
in declining health; the Duke of Clarence, the
next in succession, was advanced in years, and
although he had had children, they had all
died in infancy or early youth. The successors
to the crown, after the present sovereign, whose
health was known to be in a precarious con-
dition, were, a ])rince from whom no issue could
now be expected, and, after him, an infant
princess. Many were; the gloomy npjjrehen-
sions entertained of the eventual conscMjucnccg
of such a state of things, at a time when Europe
was convulsed by revolutionary passions, and
vigor and capacity on the throne seemed, in
an especial manner, requisite lo steer the mon-
archy tlirough the shoals witli which it was
surrounded. But how of'fcn does the course
of events deviate from what was once antici-
Iiatcd, and Providence, out of seeming disaster,
educe the means of future salvation! Out of
* .Scniioii on the Jubilee, 1810, by Rev. A. Alison. —
ScrmoHx, i. 419.
S3G
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
tliis npparontlv untownril couibiimtion of cir-
ounistaiioos arose nn cvoiit of the last iniport-
nnoe in after times to the IJritisli empire.
Geortre IV. reigned just ten years after his
ftceession to the throne, tlie Duke of Clarence
only seven ; and his demise opened the succes-
sion to our present gracious sovereign, tlien an
infant in the arms, who, uniting the courage
and spirit of her IMantagenet and Stuart, to the
judgment and integrity of her Hanoverian an-
cestors, has reunited, in troubled times, all
hearts to the throne, and spread through her
entire subjects the noble feelings of disinterest-
ed loyalty. The sequel of tliis history will
show of wliat incalculable importance it was
that, at a time when ever}- crown in Europe
was shaking on the brow of its wearer, and the
strongest monarchies were crumbling in the
dust, a Queen should have been on the British
throne, whose virtues had inspired the respect,
while her intrepidity had awakened the admi-
ration of all her subjects, and who, like her an-
cestress Queen Mary, was regarded with warm-
er feelings of chivalrous devotion than any
king, how eminent soever, could have been; for
toward her, to all that could command respect
in the other sex were united
" the gallantrj- of man
In lovelier woman's cause."
The English were soon made aware on how
41_ precarious a footing the succession to
Alarming the throne was placed, and how soon
illness of they might have to mourn a second
" â– death among their monarchs. Hardly
had the new king ascended the throne, when he
was seized with a violent attack of inflamma-
tion in the chest, which was the more alarming,
from its being the same complaint which had
so recently proved~fatal to the Duke of Kent.
For several days his life was in imminent dan-
ger, and almost despaired of; but at length the
strength of his constitution, and the skill of his
phj'sicians, triumphed over the virulence of the
disease, and the alarming symptoms disappear-
ed. He long continued, however, very weak,
from the copious bleedings which he had un-
dergone; and when his royal father was laid
, ^jjjj jjg in the grave at "Windsor, on tlie 16th
Ib20,l7,l8; February, the highest in station was
Hughes, i. absent, and the Duke of York was
405,406. chief mourner.!
Parliament met again, after the prorogation,
,, on the 17th February. By the Con-
Ominous stitution, the House of Commons
questions re- must be dissolved within six months
garding the after the demise of the king, and the
omission of , , « , , -uv i, • i i
Queen Caro- state ot the public busmess rendered
line's name it advisable that this should take
in the Litur- place as soon as possible, in order
to get it over by the ordinary time
of prorogation. It was indispensable, however,
for Ministers to obtain some votes in supply be-
fore the House was dissolved ; and, in doing so,
they received early warning of a serious diffi-
culty which awaited them at the very thresh-
old of their career as ministers of the new
monarch. Hitherto Queen Caroline had been
prayed for in the Liturgy as the Princess of
Wales. But as the king was determined never,
under any circumstances, to acknowledge her
F b 12 ^^ Queon of England, it was deemed in-
dispensable to make a stand at the very
Feb. 18.
[Cii.vp. X.
outset ; and, accordingly, her name was omitted
in the J>ilurgy by an order of the Privy Coun-
cil. This gave lise to an ominous question in
the House of Commons a few days after.
Mr. Hume asked, on the 18th February,
whether the allowance of £35,000 a year, liith-
erto made to her Royal Highness, was to be con-
tinued ; and Lord Castlereagh having answered
in the ailirniative, no further notice of the
subject took place, though Mr. Brougham, her
chief legal adviser, was present, and had made
a violent attack on the Government. But on
the 21st, when a motion was made that the
House should resolve itself into a committee of
supply, Sir. Hume again introduced the sub-
ject, and said that, without finding fault with
any exercise of the prerogative, on the part of
the sovereign, as head of the Church, he might
be permitted to ask why an address of condo-
lence and congratulation had not been voted to
her Majesty on her accession to the throne, and
to express his regret at the manner in which
she had been treated. "Was she to be left a
beggar upon the Continent, and the
Queen of England to be thrown a j4o"25 °
needy suppliant on tlie cold charity 26 ; Pari,
of foreign princes? Something def- IJ«->b. xli.
inite should be fixed in regard to the \lf,' \lf^'
future provision lor her.'
The speech of Mr. Brougham on this occasion
was very remarkable, and seemed to
presage, as he was the Queen's Attor- Remarka-
nej'-general, a more favorable issue ble speech
to this unhappy division than could 9^ '^''■•
have been at first anticipated. He ^^f°"g''3in.
deemed it unnecessaiy to Jay any stress on the
omission of her name in the Liturgy, or her
being called by the King's ministers in this
debate an " exalted personage" instead of Her
Majesty. "Was she not the wedded wife of the
sovereign ? What she was called could not
alter her position one way or other. These are
trifles light as air, which can never render her
situation either precarious or uncertain. If the
advisers of the Crown should be able to settle
upon her what was necessary to maintain her
rank and dignity out of the civil list, there
would be no need to introduce her Majestj's
name. He had refused to listen to any surmise ;
he had sliut his ears to all reports; he knew
nothing of any delicate investigations ; but if
any charge was preferred against her Majesty-,
he would be prepared to meet it alike ^ p^^j j^^^
as her Majesty's confidential adviser, xli. 1616 ;
and as an independent member of Ann. Reg.
Parliament." ^^~^' ^'â–
IS'othing further followed on this conversa-
tion, and Parliament, having been 44.
prorogued to the 13th March, was Cato Street
next day dissolved, and writs issued '^""^I'lTr.
for the election of a new Parliament tie'wood's '
to meet on 27th April. But ere it previous
could assemble the nation was hor- '''^â–
ror-struck by the discovery of one of the most
atrocious murderous conspiracies that ever dis-
graced the annals of mankind, and which was
only prevented from ending in the massacre of
the whole Cabinet by the timidity or treachery
of one of the members of the gang, who reveal-
ed the plot to the Government. This was the
C.\T0 Street Cosspiract, w'hich may well take
its place beside the worst outbreaks of Italian
1820.]
HISTORY OF EUROPE.
337
crime, and showed to what frightful extremities
tile English mind, when violently excited by
political passions, is capable of being led. The
author of the plot was Arthur Thistlewood,
who was born in 1770, had received a tolerable
education, and had served both in the militia
and in a West India regiment. He soon, how-
ever, resigned his commission, and, notwith-
standing the war, succeeded in making his way
to Paris, where he arrived shortly after the fall
of Robespierre. He there embraced all the
extravagant ideas which the Revolution had
caused to germinate in France, and he return-
ed to England lirmly persuaded that the tirst
duty of a patriot was to massacre the Govern-
ment, and overturn all existing institutions. He
was engaged in Watson's conspiracy, already
mentioned,' and, like him, acquitted
iv 6 e^s " ''^ ^^^ ^^'^'^ '^^ distinct proof, chiefly
from the indictment having been laid
for high treason, which was straining a point,
instead of conspiracy and riot, as to which the
evidence was clear. On his acquittal he sent
a challenge to Lord Sidmouth, for which he
was handed over to the civil authorities, by
Avhom he was sentenced to a year's imprison-
ment. He came out of prison at its expiration
thirsting for vengeance, and burning with revo-
lutionary passions, at the verj' time when the
"JManchester massacre," as it was called, had
excited such a ferment in the coun-
im)^'2'f-^' ^O'' ^'^'i ^® immediately engaged
]Iugties,vi. himself in the furtherance of a con-
40B ; Mar- spiracy, the object of which was to
nneau, i. mm-jei. the Ministers and overturn
the Government.^
He soon succeeded, in that period of excite-
^. ment, in collecting a band of conspir-
Design of ators as determined and reckless as
ili8 conspi- himself — men fit, indeed, " to disturb
p'^b'^ig ^^^^ peace of the whole world," though
certainly not to " rule it when 'tis
wildest." lugs, a butcher ; Davidson, a creole ;
Brunt and Tidd, shoemakers, were his principal
associates, but with them were collected forty
or fifty more, who were to be emj^loj'ed in the
execution of their designs. Tliey met twice a
day, during February, in a hired room near
(Cray's inn Lane, and their first design was to
murder the king, but this was soon laid aside
for the massacre of his ministers, who were to
be dispatched separately in their own houses.
On Saturday', February lOtii, tiieir j)lans weri,'
arranged. Forty men were to be set aj)art for
lliese detached murders, and whoever faltered
ill the great work was to atone for it with Ids
life; while a detachment was, at the same time,
to seize two pieces of artillery stationed in
Gray's Inn, and six in the artillery ground.
Tlic Mansion House was to be immediately at-
tacked, and a provisional government establish-
ed there, the Bank assaulted, and London set
<'" fire in several [ilaces. But tliis design was
modified, in consequence of information given
ly Edwards, one of their number, who after-
' Thistle- â– ^vard revealed the consjiiracy, lliat
wood's the whole Cabinet was to dine at Lord
'1 rial, 37, Harrowby's in Grosvcnor Square.^
!(','„ "^20 Tliistlewood immediately proposed
:i(i,31; " ' to murder them all at once when
iMarUneau, assembled there, which was assented
' ^''*- to ; "foi'," said lie, " as there lias no;
Vol. 1— Y
been a dinner for so long, there will no doubt
be fourteen or sixteen there ; and it will be
a rare haul to murder them all toycther."
In pursuance of this |)lan, two of the con-
spirators were stationed in Grosvenor ^g
Square to see what was going on there; Their final
and a room was taken above a stable P'ans.
in Cato Street, off the Edgeware Road, wheve
the conspirators were to assemble on the aflcr-
noon of the 22d February, when the dinner ;!t
Loi'd Harrowby's was to take place. The only
access to this room, which was large enough lo
hold thirty persons, was by a ladder, which k-d
up to a trap-door, and there, at six in the even-
ing, Thistlewood, and twenty-four of the con-
spirators, fully armed, were assembled. It was
arranged that one of the conspirators was fo
call at Lord Harrowby's with a note when the
party were at dinner, and on the door being
opened the whole were to rush in, murder tlie
Ministers, and as trophies of their success brii!""
out the heads of Lord Sidmouth and Castle-
reagh, for which purpose bags were provided.
Meanwhile the cavalry barracks in King Street,
Portman Square, were to be set on fire by
throwing fire-balls into the straw depot, and
the Bank and Mansion House attacked by those
left in tlie city. Every thing was in readiness-,
arms and ammunition provided, fire-balls pre-
pared, the treasonable proclamation ready, and
at half-past seven the conspirators Avere arming
themselves in the Cato Street loft by the light
of two small candles. But meanwhile Ministers
had information of their designs from the in-
formation of Edwards, wlio had revealed the
whole conspiracy, and instead of dining at Lord
Harrowby's they dined together pi'ivately in
Downing Street. The preparations for tlie'din-
ner at Lord Harrowby's, however, were allowed
to proceed without any interruption, and a
party of fourteen police, under that able police
magistrate, Mr. Birnie, proceeded to the jilace
of rendezvous, where it had been arranged
they were to be supported by a detachment of
the Coldstream Guards. The Guards, how-
ever, were not ready to start instantly wlic'a
Birnie called with 'the police at i Thistlo-
their barracks, and in consequence, wood's Trial,
thinking not a moment was to be S". 64 ; Ann.
lost, that intrepid officer hastened "o^ss^fMnrti-
on wilh his fourteen policemen neau, i. 2-12,
alone.'* 243.
* Th(^ delay in gotting the detachment of Foot Guards
ready wlien liiriiiu called at the barracks with the police,
was not owing to any want of /cal or activity on the part
of that gallant corps, the detachment of which, under their
nohle leader. Captain Fitzclarunce, behaved wilh tlie ut-
iiio.st spirit, and rendered essential service in tlie allray
when they did come up. It arose from a diUcrciii mean-
ing heini; attached by military men and civilians to tho
words, " ready to turn out at a iiiomi'iil's warniiig." Tho
former understood these words to mean, " ready to tako
tluMr places in file, and be told olf," when ordered to do so ;
lli(' latter, ready Xo face about and march xtrai/ilit out of
the hrirrack ffate. The dill'en^nce should be known, and is
ollen attended with important cnnseciuenees. In this in-
stance, if the Guards had been drawn up and told oil' in
the barrack-yard, and marched out with Uirnie the mo-
ment he arrived, the whole conspirators vvoulil at oiico
have been taken in the loll, and perhaps no lives lost.
They hail been ordered to bo in readiness to start at a
moment's warning, but some little time was lost in i)ut-
ting them in their places and telling olf. Another instance
will occur in the seiiuel of this history, where a similar
misunderstanding as to the meaning of these words tx-
iweeii the magi.'slraics and military occasionsd tlit; loss
III live lives.
HISTORY OF EUROPE,
[Cii.vr. X.
Tho fii'stof tlio police who nsooiulod the traji-
.. stnirwiis an notive and brave oHiccr,
Contllot in 'irt'nod Sniithers, who, the inoiiieiil
ilio diirk III lie trot to the top of tho huKler, ealled
Hio •.'atu on the eonsnirators to surrender. As
SIOH-t loll. ., 1- , 1 1 1 1 i
Feb. 2'J. they reliised to do .-^o, lie advanced to
eeize Thistlewood, and was l>y him
run through the body and inuiiediately fell.
The lij;hts were instantly extinguished, and a
fritjitful conflict beiran in tho dark between the
police orticers and the pang, in tho course of
which sorre dashed headlong down the tra])-
Ptair, and' others, inehidiiig Thistlewood, iiuule
their escape by the back windows of the loft.
At this critical moment the Foot Guards, thirty
in number, came up with fixed baj'oiiets, and.
hastening in double-quick time to the door of
the stable, arrived there as some of the con-
spirators were rushing out. Captain Fitzclar-
ence, who was at their head, advanced to seize
the sentinel at the door, who instantly aimed
a pistol at his head, the ball of which was
averted by his covering Sergeant Logge, whom
it wounded. Fitzclarence upon this ordered
his men to follow him into the stable, himself
leading the way. Ue was met by a mulatto,
who aimed a blow at him with a cutlass, which
one of the soldiers warded off with his musket.
Both these men were made prisoners. The}-
tlien mounted the ladder, and five men were
secured in the loft, making, with those previ-
ouslj' taken by the police, nine in all. The
; Trial of T^c^^, in the darkness and confu-
Ttiisiiewood, sion, had escaped, among whom
fi5, 74; Ann. ■^^•as Thistlewood; but a reward of
saTipp^'to'' ^1000 having been offered for his
("liron. 935, apprehension, he w"as made prison-
940; Hughes, er the following morning in his
vi.41U,411. i^e^i
The Ministers, whose lives had been saved by
the discovery of tJiis conspiracy, re-
E.\ecution turned thanks publicly at St. Paul's a
of the con- few daj's after, and the whole respeet-
spirators. able classes in the country were hor-
^^ â– ror-struck at the intelligence. Thistle-
Aveod, Ings, Tidd, Brunt, and Davidson, were
arraigned for high treason on the PJth of April,
found guilty, and sentenced to death, on proof
which, though consisting in part of the testi-
mony of two of the conspirators who were
taken as king's evidence, was so confirmed by
the police officers, military, and others engagecl
in the capture, that not a doubt could exist of
their guilt. Five were sentenced to transpor-
tation for life, and one, after sentence, received
a free pardon. Indeed, so far from denying
their guilt, Thistlewood and Brunt gloried in
it at their trial, alleging that assassination was
fully justifiable in the circumstances, and that
it was a fit retribution for the high treason
committed against the people by the Manches-
ter massacre.* Thev were executed on the 1st
" 'â– High treason was loiiiniiiled against lUe l^eople at
Manchester, but justice was closed against the nnulilated,
the maimed, and the friends of those who were upon that
occasion indiscriminately massacred. The Prince, by the
advice of his Ministers, thanked the murderers, still reek-
ing in the gore of their victims. If one spark of honor,
if one spark of independence still glimmered in the breasts