The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1803-02-11 00:00:00

,_ '

John Francis--. Guilty.
Thomas Newman—Guilty, recommended to Mercy. •
Daniel Tyndall--Guilty, recommended to Mercy..
James Sedgirick
William Lander—Guilty, recommended to Mercy.
Arthur Graham—Gut/rip
Samuel Smith—Yot Guilty.
)ohn M'Nernara—Guilty.
Thomas Phillips—Nut Guilty.
Col. Despard was then brought into Court, and
placed at the bar.
Mr. KNAPP, severally addressing the prisoners,
said, " You have been indicted for conspiring, com-
passing, imagining, and intending to bring and put
our lord the King to death, to which indictment you
have pleaded not guilty ; and have pat yonrseivcs
upon your country, which country has pronounced
aga'ast you—What have you to say, why the Court
should not give judgment against you, and each of
you, to die, according to law ? "
Colonel Despard. " I have only to say, that the
charge brought against me is one which I could not
have the most distant idea of ; and since my convic-
tion I have had no opportunity, from my attorney
having been engaged, of bringing forward any evi-
dence to refute it. I have now nothing further to
say, than what I said at first--that I am not guilty."

Lord ELLENDOROITGII then pronounced sentence
of Death on the convicts, and addressed them in a
very impressive speech, of which we have endea-
voured humbly to give the substance as follows:
" Edward Marcus Despard, John Wood, Tho-
mas Broughton, John Francis, Thomas Newman,
Daniel Tyndall, James Sedgwick Ratten, Ar-
thur Graham, and John Ma.cniunara, after a long
and, I trust a very patient and impartial trial,
you have been severally convicted of the High
Treason, which by your indictment has been upon
you. In the course of the evidence which has
been laid before the Court, a ti....asonable conspiracy
has been disclosed, of enormous extent and alarmin,,,,
magnitude. The object of that conspiracy, in which
you have borne your several very active and criminal
parts, has been to overthrow the fundamental Laws
and established Government of your country, tc
seize upon and destroy the sacred person of our re-
vered and justly-beloved Sovereign, and to mur-
der and destroy the various members of his royal
house, and annihilate those branches of the legisla-
ture of this realm, and which some of you have
chosen, in bold and desperate language, to describe
at your meetings as a den of thieves, and thereby to
supersede the legitimate Government, which you
have chosen to describe in terms equally reviling
and unjust, as a s) stem of arbitrary rule, and in-
stead of the ancient limited monarchy of this realm,
its established and wholesome laws, its approved in-
'stitutions, its civil and nniform gradations of rank,
its natural and desirable ineqUality, to substitute a
wild scheme of impracticable equalization of civil,
political, and religious rights, holding out a vain
and delusive promise of an ample provision for the
f.milies of the heroes, falsely so called, who should
fall in the contest: a scheme equally calculated to
produce the misery of those who struggled for its
adoption, as of those who were to have been as
victims.

" This plan has been stated to have been carried
intusecution by the seduction of unwary and ig-
norlifit soldiers from their duty, and by attempts to
ensnare their consciences by the administration of
illegal and impious oaths ; that this might operate
on the more needy and unprincipled persons of the
lower ranks and classes of the community, and in-
duce a more ready association in your criminal con-
federacy, it was (I hop.: falsely) declared, that the
country was ripe for the attack, and that the. people
in all its great and populous towns were ready to
join it, and were anxious for that change which it was
its object to effect. It appears too, that by a pre-
tended executive authority exercised by some among
you, the distribution and direction of the resources
of the confederacy, and the supply of ammunition,
arms, and military stores, were held out as the
means of assistan.:e, and the encouragement and
pledge of support. It is, however, wisely ordained
by Divine Providence, for the security and happi-
ness of mankind, that the rashness of such counsels
is ever destined to defeat their malignity ; and that
the wickedness of the contrivers falls on their own
heads, afford the means of timely escape and secu-
rity to its intended victims. The leagues and unions,
which constitute the means of such associates, are
always treacherous. We uniformly find they begin
in treason to the Sovereign, and end, if they do
not also begin, in treachery towards those indi-
viduals who compose them. The danger to
the public, which is threatened by their ma-
chinations, is redeemed, and its effects pre-
vented, by the criminal motives operating on the
same classes of delinquents. It has thus happened
in the present instance : that your crimes have, in
part, been frustrated by the operation of the same
instruments by which they were intended to have
been forwarded, and had nearly been matured to
their ultimate accomplishment. It behoves all those
whose destruction was doomed to have taken place
in the successful event of this conspiracy, and who
were the objects of proscription by those whose sen-
timents are, I trust, the sentiments of but a very
small portion of the people of the Empire,
to render thanks to God for having hitherto defeated
it. As to you, the contrivers of this dangerous, but
abortive Treason, it remains for me only to perform
the last but painful part of my official 'duty. - As to
you, Edward Marcus Despard, born to better hopes,
' and formed by Providence for better ends and pur-
poses, and accustomed as you have heretofore been
to better habits of life and manners, and (pursuing,
as you once did, as we have heard from your wit-
nesses, together with the virtuous and distinguished
companions of your former life and service, during a
lung period, a laudable course of laudable ambition).
I will not at this painful moment roint out how
much all these considerations are lost in the de•
grading and ignominious fellowship in which you
Crow star d, or aggravate your crimes, sh irpcned and
emhittered as l KIIOW they must be by the fullness of
your p .e.ent sufferings ! I entreat you, by the mc-
sporysuf what you once were, to use your ardent en-
deavours, during the short period of your remaining
life, to subdue that callous heart, of which, in a fatal
moment, you once boasted, and to regain that salu-
tary disposition and affection you once had, arid by
which you may work your salvation—which, thank
God is yet attainable, by effectual penitence and
availing prayer!
As to you. John 'Wood, you'Thomas Broughton,
you John Francis, you James Sedwick Wratten, you
Arthur Graham, you Thomas Newman,' you.. Da-
niel Tynlail, you William Lander, and you John
M'Namara, the tad victims of Lis seduction and

LONDON, -
FRIDAY. Frs. 11.

Our readers will perceive, that it was impossible
to do justice to the State-Trials, within the compass
of a single number of the Bat risn PREMI, however
comprehensive its columns may be.—We, therefore,
this day subjoin a Supplement, which, taken to-
gether with our Paper of yesterday, will be found
to constitute a complete, full, and accurate report
of these most important and interesting cases.—
Our promise to the public is thus, we conceive,
faithfully discharged. But we cannot dismiss the sub-
jeet, without noticing another part of our conduit
upon this occasion, for which we consider ourselves
entitled to some credit, although our claim may
not be equally apparent.—We mean, our declining to
publish the Overt• Acts of the indictment, which are
tan-amount in their effect to the indictment itself,
until the trials were concluded. In observing this
cautious rule, we indulged our own feelings, while
we pursued that line to which we conceived our-
selves strictly enjoined by the order of the Court.
The best writers upon the laws of England, notice
the danger to which Juries are liable of being led
astray by their feelings, iti cases of extraordinary tur-
pitude and flagitousness. Whether the charges
contained in the indictments were of nature
that might influence the public mind, and produce
that effect, our readers will determine. We cer-
tainly think it no discredit to our judgment, to
have considered them in that light, and to have acted
accordingly. Upon the same principle, we abstain
at present from making any observations upon those
trials, and leave the credit of anticipation here also
to some of our Cotemporaries. The door of justice
has closed upon the prisoners, but the fountain of
mercy remains still open. We cannot forget that
all these unhappy men are within its possible reach,
and that four of them are particularly recommended
to it. •

In our paper of Tuesday, we noticed the ru-
mours :squat, respeding an intended application to
the Bank by some holders of Umnium, t,r further
indulgence in the redemption of such sums as still
remained pledged in the hands of the Diredors.—
We then stated our convidion, that if such a mea-
sure was in agitation, it had not received the sanc-
tion of any of the leading men in the money-mar-
ket; and we expressed our sentiments on the inexpedi-
ency or such a proceeding. The events of yesterday
have completely verified cur statements, and con-
famed our opinion. A Petition was actually pre.
stinted to the Diredors of the Bank, humbly pray.
h:g, that the deferred payment of 30 per cent. due
on I: ridAy next the 18th, might be still further defer.
red, one half until April, and the other until July.
The signatures to this Petifi'on were very few, and,we
have reason to believe, did not include any of the
original Contra&ors for the Loan. The answer of
tae Court of I)irdors to this Petition was, that the
request of the Petitioners could not be complied with:
arid the 'propriety of their resolution may be esti-
. ihated by tile joyous huzzas with which the deter.