The Sun. — 1820-04-29 (London, England)

THE STATE PRISONERS.  [further Particulars respecting these Conspirators.] ‘Vhen M. SHELTON, the Clerk of the Arraigns, aodressed Thistlewood, after the sentence had been passed, and asked him what he had to say against it, Thistlewood immediately stood forward with sevet al sheets of paper, closely written, in his hand, 'and which were evidently prepared for the (nets. simi by some other person.—From this manuscript he read an address to the Court. He said, that ne had been asked what he had to say why judgment of death should not be passed upon him. To this he would answer, that if he had been prepared with evidence, however pure, and that that evidence ha 4 been enforced by the elo(pence of a Cicero, he was still satisfied that he could not escape the vengeance of Lords Sidmouth and Castlereagh. He entertained no hopes front the sense of justice which existed in that Court. The prisoner then continued to inveigh in strong terms against the manner in which his trial had been conducted. He said, that he bad been precluded from examining witnesses to prove the infamy of Adams, of Hyden, and of Dwyer, who had been called on the part of the Crown. He had applied to have those witnesses called into Court before the Solicitor-General rose to make his reply ; but the Court inhumanly refused his request ; this, be contended, was inconsistent with that spirit of • British justice, which on all other occasions, except the present, be had no doubt would have prevailed. He challenged the Learned Judges on the Bench to say, whether he had been fairly tried ; and if not, whether, if execution should take place, he were not cruelly murdered. He could have called witnesses to prove that Dwyer had been guilty of the most atrocious offences.— He could have proved that Adams was a swindler and the blackest of characters ; and of Hyden, he could have produced persons who would have spoken in terms of equal reprobation. These were the only persons by whom the charge against him had been supported ; and upon their testimony alone was he sacrificed to the vengeance of the Ministers. He denied, notwithstanding the manner in which he had been plundered by Lord Sidmouth, that in what be had done he had been actuated by any personal motives towards him. He disclaimed every selfish feeling— be was actuated only by a desire for the prosperity of his country. His object was to avenge the death of those unhappy:people who bad been inhumanly cut down and massacred at Manchester; and by sacrificing the lives of •the guilty, as it were chant a requiem over the -souls of murdered innocence. He next proceeded to advert to Itdwards (whose name has been so frignently alluded to in the course of the Trials), and to urge a variety of circurv.stances, which, in his estimation, placed that indivAual in a more criminal point of view than those who, with • him, stood to receive the judgment of the law. He afterwards entered into a justification of the crime of assassination, and instanced the historical fact of BauTos and Cassius, who had been landed to the skies for the -assassination of C.Essn, as an-extenuation of the project which he had himself entertained. Chief Jostice ABBOTT interposed here, and that he could not listen to any individual ihus