Cassel, were made electors. The King of Great Britain accepted the cession of the bishopric of Osnaburg, in perpetuity, as a compensation for Hildesheim, Corvey, and Hoexter; stipulating at the same time to abandon the rights and privileges formerly exercised by him over Hamburg and Bremen; and to the Prince of Orange, for the surrender of the stadtholderate, and other claims and possessions in Holland and Belgium, were awarded the bishoprics of Fulda and Corvey, and the city of Dortmund.

the means of terminating the important business of the peace; but that he found the parties principally interested had applied in the mean time to Russia and France, and solicited the mediation of those powers, in order to obtain the indemnities they waited for; that Russia had consequently proposed to open negotiations at Paris, in February, 1802; that soon afterwards a convention was concluded between France and Russia, without the participation of his imperial majesty, and that he was now desired to direct the definitive arrangement so begun, according to the constitution of the empire. The emperor, seeing his authority about to be wrested from him, submitted for a time to the humiliating necessity un-vember, in the thirtieth sitting of the depuder which he was placed, but by his perse- tation, a final conclusum was voted, and vering endeavours in favour of the Grand- reluctantly acceded to on the part of the duke of Tuscany, he obtained terms for emperor. By this arrangement, the influhis royal relative, rather more advantageous ence of the emperor was diminished in the than those originally projected. The new-diet, in consequence of the abolition of the ly modified scheme of the indemnities was called a supplement to the plan, according to which the Elector of Mentz obtained the cities of Ratisbon and Wetzlar. The Princes of Baden, Wirtemberg, and Hesse

After much discussion, and the interchange of various imperial rescripts and replies, the influence of France rose predominant in the diet, and on the 22d of No

two ecclesiastical electorates of Treves and Cologne, and the constitution of Germany suffered a more serious infraction than that effected, after the thirty years' war, by the treaty of Westphalia.

CHAPTER XXIII.

BRITISH HISTORY: Colonel Despard's Conspiracy-Its Progress and Detection-Trial of the Conspirators-Their Conviction and Execution-Trial of M. Peltier, a French Emigrant, for a Libel on Bonaparte-IRISH INSURRECTION of 1803: The Character and Condition of the principal Leaders-Preparations of the Rebels-The Horrors of the 23d of July-Assassination of Lord Viscount Kilwarden -His Character-Defeat and Dispersion of the Rebels-Discovery of the Magazines and Archives -Precautionary Measures of Government-Unsuccessful Attempt to plant the Standard of Rebellion in the North of Ireland-Trials and Execution of Emmet, Russel, and others of the Conspirators Tranquillity completely restored.

Ar no time within the last ten years had Great Britain enjoyed so much domestic tranquillity as during the period that intervened between the ratification of the definitive treaty of peace and the close of the year 1802. The policy and temper of ministers in the management of all the internal affairs of the country, had been uniformly mild and conciliatory, and the effect produced upon the public mind was at once gratifying and remarkable. Every trace of party animosity seemed to vanish under their auspicious rule, and all were eager to rally round that constitution, which all 'ike revered, and which some had labourto support by augmenting the prerogatives of the crown; and others by upholding the privileges of the people. In this posture of affairs, it excited the strongest surprise to hear that a treasonable plot was discovered, of which Colonel Despard was the head, and indeed the only individual of any consideration in the conspiracy.

The object of this conspiracy was the death of the king, and the subversion of the constitution; but the means by which these traitorous designs were to be effected, were so little adapted to the magnitude of the enterprise, that it was scarcely possible that the design could have originated with any man in a sane state of mind. The plan concerted by Colonel Despard, was to ingratiate himself with the soldiery, and particularly with the guards, by which means he hoped to have at his disposal a select corps, trained to the use of arms, and advantageously situated for the execution of his atrocious purpose. The first object of the conspirators was to secure or destroy the king on his return from parliament at the opening of the session, to accomplish which it was proposed to load the great gun in the park with long-ball, or chainshot, and to discharge the contents at his majesty's carriage as he passed! At the same moment, other parties were to seize

Colonel Despard spoke of the strength of the conspiracy at Manchester, Leeds, Sheffield, and Birmingham, and of his own activity in forwarding the cause. The people, he said, were every where ripe, and the death of the king would be a sig nal for a general rising. It further appeared, that through the medium of one Francis, with whom he seemed to have been confidentially connected, Colonel Despard had himself sworn and attempted to swear soldiers and others into engagements, binding them to the destruction of the king and government; and finally, that on the evening of the 16th of November, he was, with about thirty other persons, sitting in full convention, assembled for treasonable purposes, at the Oakley Arms public house, in Lambeth, where certain papers were found indicative of their wicked designs, and affording evidence that their ulterior purpose was to be carried by the conflict of arms, and not by the force of reason and argument.*

the tower, to surround the two houses of | bated.
parliament, to take possession of the bank,
to destroy the telegraph, and so to stop the
mail coaches, which last event was to be,
as in the Irish rebellion, a signal for a
general rising throughout the country.
This insane project was to be executed by
about forty individuals, and those in the
Lowest situation in life, both as to rank and
intellect. Among the assumed partisans
of this sanguinary plot, were two soldiers
in the guards, of the names of Blaine and
Windsor, who, through the medium of Mr.
Bownas, an army agent, with whom they
were in a regular communication, laid be-
fore government all the proceedings of the
conspirators. On the 16th of November,
the day appointed for the meeting of par-
liament, a general meeting of the conspira-
tors, amounting to about thirty in number,
was held at the Oakley Arms, in South-
Lambeth, in the borough of Southwark,
where they were all arrested and commit-
ted to prison. The arrests, which were
conducted in every respect according to the
due form of law, excited much surprise,
but no extraordinary sensation.

After a trial which lasted nearly eighteen hours, and in which very honourable testimony was given to the conduct of Colonel Despard as an officer while in the army, by The wisdom of government, in permit- Lord Nelson, Sir Allured Clark, and Sir ting the plot to ripen and mature, so as to Evan Nepean, he was found guilty; the develop completely the designs, and ascer- foreman of the jury adding, at the time the tain the guilt of the conspirators, was. not verdict was delivered, "My lord, we do more apparent than their moderation and most earnestly recommend the prisoner constitutional principles in the conduct of to mercy, on account of the high testimonithe trials. No affectation of alarm was ex-als to his former good character and emihibited, nor was any advantage taken of nent services." the plot, to enlarge the powers of government, or to contract the privileges of the people by the suspension of the act of Habeas Corpus.

On Wednesday, the 9th of February, the court resumed its sittings, at nine o'clock, and proceeded on the trials of the other prisoners, twelve in number. The evidence on these trials was substantially the same as on that of Colonel Despard; and after an investigation which continued without intermission till six o'clock the following morning, the jury, at five and

*The oath which had been tendered by Colonel Despard was found, printed on a card, in the possession of Broughton, Smith, and others. It was expressed in these terms:

On the 7th of February, 1803, Colonel Despard was brought up for trial before a special commission, at the New Sessions House, in the borough of Southwark, on which occasion, Windsor, Blaine, one Emblyn, a watchmaker, and others of the conspirators, were admitted as evidences for the crown. It appeared from the testimony of these witnesses, that on the Friday preceding the 16th of November, Colonel Despard met some of the seduced soldiery, and others of the conspirators, for the first time, at the Flying Horse, at Newington; and that he spoke freely of their traitorous designs, and the best mode of carrying them into execution. At this meeting, the intercepting and shooting of the king on his way to parliament, was discussed, as well as the probable difficulties attending such a traitorous enterprise; on which, the colonel exclaimed, "If nobody else will shoot him, I will;" adding, with much solemnity, "I have well weighed the matter, and my heart is callous." Every other part of the design was then adverted to, and freely de-me God."

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"CONSTITUTION! The independence of Great Britain and Ireland-an equalization of civil, political, and religious rights-an ample provision for the wives of the heroes who shall fall in the contest-a liberal reward for distinguished merits. These are the objects for which we contend; and to obtain these objects we swear to be united in the awful presence of Almighty God." clare, that I will endeavour, to the utmost of my Form of the Oath.—“I, A. B., do voluntarily depower, to obtain the object of this union; namely, to recover those rights which the Supreme Being, in his infinite bounty, has given to all men; that neither hopes, fears, rewards, nor punishments, rectly or indirectly, concerning the business, or of shall ever induce me to give any information, diany member of this or any similar society-So help

Colonel Despard was then sent for, and placed at the bar in front of the other prisoners; when Lord Ellenborough passed the awful sentence of death upon these unfortunate men, in one of the most impres-posure. Between six and seven o'clock in sive speeches ever perhaps delivered upon a similar occasion. After describing the high enormity of the crime of which they had been convicted, and observing, most truly, that such vile purposes, however zealously begun, generally terminate in schemes of treachery against each other, he thus proceeded :

that still the principles of liberty, justice, and humanity, will triumph over falsehood, despotism, and delusion, and every thing else hostile to the interests of the human race. And now, having said this, I have nothing more to add, but wish you all that health and happiness, and that freedom, which I have made it my endeavour, as far as lay in my power, to procure for every one of you and for mankind in general."

thrown into prison, severely treated, refused a trial, under the suspension of the Habeas Corpus act, and precluded from all redress by the act of indemnity which succeeded, his resentment was converted into the madness of revenge, which he scrupled not to gratify by engaging in attempts the most criminal and atrocious. Of his six fellow-sufferers, "the victims of his seduction and example," one only of them was, like their leader, an Irishman by birth, the others were all Englishmen; two of them, Wood and Francis, were private soldiers in the guards, and the other four were all handicrafts men, in low circumstances, and principally in the meridian of life.

Immediately after this speech, the crowd cheered, but the impulse immediately subsided, and at seven minutes before nine the sufferers were launched into eternity. After hanging about half an hour, the bodies were cut down: Colonel Despard the first; his head was then severed from his body, and the executioner, holding it up to the view of the populace, exclaimed-" This On this occasion, loyal and affectionate is the head of a traitor, Edward Marcus addresses from both branches of the legislaDespard." The same ceremony was after-ture, and from the clergy, the laity, and wards performed on the other bodies, after which they were all put into shells, the other part of the sentence having been remitted, and the populace dispersed without any indication of tumult.

the corporate bodies of the kingdom, poured in upon the sovereign, expressive of attachment to his person, loyalty to his government, and gratitude to the Great Disposer of all events for the gracious protection vouchsafed unto him.

Thus terminated a conspiracy, unexampled in the annals of history for the extent The day which witnessed the execution of its designs, when contrasted with the of Colonel Despard and his associates, weakness and paucity of its means. It was also rendered memorable, by the first, was, as the attorney-general truly observed, and hitherto by the last trial of a French a plot, "in which no political party, no loyalist in England, for a libel upon the faction, considered its interest involved;" first consul of France, written in the French and stood isolated and without supporters, language, and published in London, by beyond the narrow limits of the obscure Jean Peltier, the journalist, in a periodiand visionary few who attended its trea- cal paper, under the title of L'Ambigu sonable assemblies. That Colonel Des- The libel consisted in a figurative, but palpard was an enthusiast, that his plans were pable call upon the people of France to visionary and impracticable, were facts ad- assassinate the first consul; and this promitted by all; but it was equally true, that secution was instituted by the British goin the same proportion as he was enthusias- vernment, on an ex-officio information, with tic, in that proportion he was dangerous: a view to allay the jealousy, and appease and it was evident that he had formed to the irritation felt by the French governhimself a system of revolutionary action, ment at the countenance given in this the principal feature of which was, that a country to the partisans of the ancient reconvulsion in the state was not to be ef- gime. The Lord Chief-justice Ellenbofected by extensive associations, through rough, who presided on this trial, in sumwhich the designs would transpire, and ming up the evidence, observed, that it must be frustrated; but by a small party was manifest, that the nature and direct of desperate men, who, having struck one tendency of the publications charged in great blow, such as the assassination of the indictment, was to interrupt and destroy the king, and having filled the country with the peace and amity now happily subsist consternation, might find then, and not be- ing between Great Britain and France, and fore, numbers of coadjutors. The colonel that such publications were, in point of himself was a man of ardent mind, of in-law, a libel.* His lordship further said, flexible resolution, and of a high and daring spirit. Having, as it appeared, served his country for a long series of years, and having, as it also appeared, been refused the compensation he thought, and perhaps justly, due to his professional claims, he became the victim of chagrin and disappointment, and indulged a spirit of resentment, which led him to form dangerous connexions, and to cover culpable designs under the mask of patriotism: but being

*To show that the writings of M. Peltier, then under the consideration of the court, contained a direct incitement to the assassination of the first consul, Lord Ellenborough cited the following passages:-"Oh! eternal disgrace of France! Ce sar, on the bank of the Rubicon, has against him in his quarrel. the Senate, Pompey, and Cato, and the plains of Pharsalia. If fortune be unequalif you must yield to the destinies, Rome, in this a poignard, among the last Romans." Again: As for me," says the writer, "far from envying his

sad reverse, at least, there remains to avenge you,