The National Register.
London, England, 1820-04-17 00:00:00

CATO STREET CONSPIRATORS.

The Court, In the earlier part of yesterday morning, dirt
not wear that appearance of eager curiosity which it was
naturally expected the commencement of the trials fur high
treason would have excited In the public mind. At nine
o'clock, when the common serjeant and aldermen took their
seats, very few persons bad arrived ; but from that hour the
court began to fitl, and before the judges bad made their
appearance, was somewhat crowded; the galleries, how-
ever, were still hut thinly attended.
Soon after ten o'clock the Judges arrived. These were
llie Chief Justices of the courts of King's-bench, and
Common Pleas, the Hon. Liarou Richards, and Mr. Justice
Richardson.
As soon as they had taken their seats on the bench the
court was ordered to be silent, and the prisoners were put
to the bar. _ _ .

...
Their..—..
names were called over in the following order :
Arthur Thistlewood, William Davidson, James Inv,
J olin Thomas Blunt, Itiehard Tidd, James Vir ;ilium Wilson,
John Harrison, Richard. John Shaw Strange,
James Gilchrist, and Charles Cooper.
l'he clerk of the arraign.: then read over the first indict-
Meld, witieh was of considerable length. Lt charged the
prisoners generally (conjointly with other persons not
known), with an intent to overthrow the Government,
and subvert the Coustitution of this realm, as by law
established.
The general appearance of the prisoners was better than
previous report had led us tu expel*. Thistlewood looked
well, and was respectably dressed. He betrayed no marks
of agitation or confusion, but listened whilst the indictment
was rend, with the greatest apparent composure. The
smite remark may ..be applied to the other prisoners.—
Davidson especially displayed a degree of coolue.s almost to
indifference, and during the reading of the indictment, was
occupied in calmly surveying the Court. James lige
stood in front of the bar with Thistlewood. Ile was well-
dressed, and is upon the whole a man of respectable sp..
pearauce. In short the general desseaeoue of the prisoner,
was such as could have gives an igooraat spootator no idea
that they were sow appearing to plead to a charge of the
deepest atrocity, and which, if proved, must inevitably con-
sign them to a certain ignominious punishment.
The Attorney sod Solicitor General. with Mr. Littledale,
appeared fur the prosecution. 'rise defence ut the prison-
ers 1114/{ entrusted, as well as we could ascertain,. to Mr.
Adolphus, Mr. Watford, Mr. Brodrick, and Mr. Curwood.
Mr. Harmer was also is court as solicitor for the prisoners.
The clerk of the arraigns having iisished reading this
indictment, pat the question of guilty or sot guilty ? Josiah
of the prisoners separately, begianing with Thbtlewood•—
e.itch of them answered in a firm voice " Not Guilty;" and
upon bein" asked bow they would be- tried, each replied,
'•By God and my Country !"
James lugs, in answer to the latter widen, replied, "-By
the law of remou!" But, upon being Wormed that the
usual course was to answer," By God aad my Country!"
lie adopted that amply.
The prisoners having pleaded to this charge, Arthur This-
tlewoud was accused, by another iedierneeet, of the wilful
murder of Richard Sinithers, on the ISd of February last ;
and Richard Tidd, James Wilsoo, John Harrison, Thomas
Blunt, and Jolts Shaw Strange, were charged with aiding
and abetting the said Arthur Thistle wood ill the commission
of the said crime. In another count of the sate indictment
all the prisonereareisetuded iu the charge of murder To this
indictment also, the primmers separately pleaded " Not
Guilty."
A third indicitneot charged Thissle wood. with.feloaiestay
and unlawfully firing a loaded pistolosu the Sid of February
iii the parish of St. Clement Daises, at one Was. West. •
Cott, with intent tu kill.
A similar indictment was preferred against James Ins,
cliargiug him with attempting, on the 1111 d of February, the
life of one Ch ales Brooks.
Richard Tidil, is another indictment, was charged. with.
firing a loaded pistol at William Legge, with latent wadi.
Janie* William Wilson was charged with feloniously pre-
telli ilk; a loaded pistol at John Burrows, and with attempting
by drawing the trigger of the pistol, to kill the said John
Burrows.
To each of the above indictments the prisoners pleaded
" Not Guilty,"
The AtturneysGeseral I then addressed the Court, and
Oise. ved, that be understood that it was the latent ion of the
prisoners to claim the privilege of separately challenging
the Jury.
Mr. Curwood.—lt is my Lord, the wish of the prisoners.
Lord Chief Justice Abbott—(addressing the prinmers)—
. Several of you are jointly indicted on the charge of high
treason. 1. the Court to tinderstitad that you wish to be
tried separately, or together ?
Thistiewood—Lt is .ay wish, my Lord, to have a separate.
trial. . -

The trial of Arthur Thistlewood was then nppointed to
begin precisely at ten o'clock on Monday next; after which
the priusners retired fruit) Ike bar.
Tile Lord Chief Justice now inquired of Mr. Harmer,
who were the Counsel u hom he wished to have appointed
for the defence of the prisoners.
Mr. Harmer replied, Mr. Adolphus and Mr. Curworid
were retained fur the first six of the defendurits, and
Walford awl Mr. Brudrick for the remainder.

ilia Lord4iiip immediately directed uu order to he made to
that elrect.

all the indictments James Wilson had been deeribrd
us J,. Won. %%riling', and %%Iwo called upon to plead, he load
coostiottly RIISAVei rd that was not his naut,•. lu eon,equence
of this ooloaake he remained at the bar nit sr the other pi
son •rs had retired, in order to verify lii ,tatemec•t.
A pl.ain abut ement was accorilio drao n up. and an
nth lavil, in u air h the mistake a, to ante vbas 7-rt fort
.4, soon as the prisoner had sat urn to them. wR nas removed.
from uw bar.

The ts huh. of the above proceeding` did not o,:toey mole
thito an hour.

His Majesty, on the 24th inst. will go in state to
the House of Peers to open the new Parliament.
The three days previous will be occupiet. in swear-
ing in the Members and electing a Speaker.
Sir C. Stuart, the British A►nbassador. and Count
Waltertortl, the Danish Envoy, presented letters
on the sth instant to the King of France, in which.
their respective Sovereigns returned answers ti the
notification of the assassination of the Duke of Berri.

146-

LA IV INTELLIGENCE.

lik,

COURT OF K 1 NG'S BENCH, Gut Lyn ato
savettra, X 156, AND CO., V. THE 1111rCitla L •StiCKAPICIS
SOCIFTV•
was an action on a policy of insurance against tire,
and Mthottgli it occuaied the Ceuta Militia three whole days,
we belies, tic can in six Hee, 'lnfos-it cm readers perfectly as
to the only mat,rial 1 tin question. which was, whether
the pia:miffs, slat had effected en instil:ince for 7,50a1. on
a bea.,., trentendoust% haztirdou. premium of 14e.
p. r cent. (the conlnrun rate of ihsarance hem;lint Vs. per
en,) had vitiated flick. policy ti redurint; t h.. risk atten-
dant iii, their operatiom in the proportion of about three
secentiw. It appeared in evidence, that at the little of
ellectiag the insurance the shear %%as latticed in n suite of
fasnat by the heat of Mikan.; levier. contained in pipets
launch" d b. I,peiced circles into a body or raw sugar.—
It was suli.eiptetalv found that the introduetion of oil in a
srate of %Womb commie:Warty less as awe, and a half is to
sit, oitm nave Inc-antceli tt with tlecraase of danger.'
Niessis. S..voin, Klieg, and Co. adopted the improvement,
mid because tiny dal so, without apprising, the Imperial
A,4l•!*o.Ce their right in recover. II fire having
oveurrad, was by the Otrecturs of that office.— We
had liaised lii lie signal punishment that recently visitf..i
triter, by the total destruction or their Metropolitan
Paliiies, and a geo.eral distrast and incredible diuniontiou
of
their Provincial Insurances in consiametic.r of the generally
lit diipiwition of the old dotard who a tts allowed to he
" a poi% er abuse the vioul.l have had a good effect
upen the tespectalae offices, and have taught them that
',oohing was la) dear:tett ve of the confidence that should
nia ay s ea,a %seen tile insurers and the inured, as an up-
pe.ei to legal pro it, where le.; ii proof cannot iii one instance
out 01 a ilui•ilied be pi niiin ;in the preseet instance,
however, proof sufficient wss found to satisfy the Jury,
nod though we well renteintor Mraring the late Lord Chief
dustic,e, who, Chink God, is gone to his account,
n here te-
em) meet more mercy than he skewed here, declared (and
we believe it war good law) thht a mail wag not bound to
receive a benefit if lie ilia tint clime it, yet the dory in the
cuss we nun record, di:Cded that the policy salected by
AteSSYS. SeVl•ra, King, um! Cm, at I tg. pee rent., w:;s not
reacred null and void, Incense they had reiloced the risk
of the;r insurance. In the proportion of nearly one third—
the Jury therefore returned a verdict for the whole amount
of the policy, and we beer, add ac hope correctly, that the
other offices who have disputed the claims of the same house
011 thi: iame groutels, and who by some snaerinr generalship
have pi evailed fin the Imperial OiliCe to be their cat's paw
of experiment, OM 1/01% to this decision without subjecting
theneeivea to the odium that may httend their coming into
Coo i.
We cannot quit this subject without mentioning a sings'.
lat ity attending mie nffice n kit which we are totally uncon-
nected (asseept Mins far as the fart we are about to notice
line idlloenced us, which is Amply so far as to cause us ad
insure our offices and private residence in that office) we
mean the COCINTY OFFICE, 'and that is, that since its
estalilishmeut, a periturof more than 30 years, it has tioehad
a single instance of litigation—an example stud boast which
we should advise all other offices to emulate.
BiIIDGEMAIS, V. BUZZARD.
This was an action brought by the plaintiff, Edward
BriAgeman, the patentee of the iron cuffin, to recover
from the 41efendant, John Blizzard, one of the church-
wavlens of the parish of St. Andrew, !Joane', a com-
pensation in damages for false imprisonment.
Itlr. Chitty opened the pleadings. lie stated, that in
June, 18IS, the defendant had caused the plaintiff to be
imprisoned on a charge of riot and disturbance, for which
the plaintiff now sutight to tecoter a compensation in
deMages The defendant pleaded—first, dial he was not
guilty, secondly, that be was tt churchwarden in the
parish of et. Andrew, and that the plaintiff brought a
body io all 11',11 coffin to be buried in the church-yard,
and ..the defendant requested him to depart ; that the
plaintiff refused, and incited a riot, and diet lie was taken
inte custody, and brought berme the Lord Mayor.
Mr. Scat lett addiessed the jury fur the plaintiff. 'Clic
object of the defendant in this case was to establish a
new crime—a crime, with the existence of which, he
lielecyed, the gentlemen of the jury were totally unac-
quainted. It was the crime of bringing a body in an
ironpotlin; and the question which the jury hail to try
was, %Theater by the laws of the land this was a crime or
note For has own part, lie never heard there was any
crime of the kind. It was certainly, perfectly true, that
the plaintiff did Ming an it on coffin to the church-pad of
St. And, e that the defendant refused to admit
the corpse O lieu it allayed at the church-yard. The
question therelote was, whether this was an offence
which, cusild justify a churchwarden to commit a person
In mistral•. in the Conapter, and to detain hint there till
twelve o'clock the next day. As far as be knew, he had
no t iglu to con nat. on such grounds. The action
therefore was tit recover damages for being kept in pri-
me; without ally pretence, mid jestificatian in law. He
had no doubt that the gentlemen of the jury would show
that a man was 110 t to be impi isoned with With-
out any charge a luck could pistil) the imprisonment.
John Cole, a mourner at the funeral of Mrs. Gilbert,
John Gilbert, the pert it tt !wit wile wits bionglil to be
buried, AI intim' Hey kes, an attuiney, John SinlinOlis,one
of the bearers, and Iteejantin mh,r : is, were called to
prove that the retrial was brought* St. Andrew's, chinch
on the I tali of Jeer; that no riot had been coniiiht:ed
by the plaint if: and tIOII the pl.antiti m. as committed to
the Comfit ei about nine o'clock Oil the evening of the
teutla of .11111 C, and detained them fin 12 o'clock the next

day.
William Bererford, the clerk of the sitfing
was then called to prove the chat ce pieleised before
toe magistrate at (i11114.111A11.
011111.46 W SIIIiIII, John Melts, sexton of the parish,
George Coe ley, beadles, John ialinotis, Chat les ii hand
Saticoy, beadle. hobe,t Smell, and Ali xmider
pas ishimiers, wen; tailed to ploys: that the plaintiff had
be en guilty of in.icus conduct.
Mr. Seat lett ripped jar an eltmment speech.
The Land thief-J mince obsei keit, in slimming up the
evidence, that the delimilant was a eliurchwoiden,
as such !hat his Jill isdietion was coolined in the I' 11116 ell-
yard. The iptesitim on which the race turned was, te be-
ater the plaintiff a as, lit the time he was sent to the
Couipter, uny disturbance in the church-)arel,
or inciting others to du so. The Jury would confine
theinselees to the evidvnee, and hot allow tliethstlet.% to
bl cart itrtl away by the clognei.ec or the set y learned
enamel they had now heard. Much had been said wt the
• •