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GURNEY, William Brodie : The Trials of Arthur Thistlewood, James Ings, John Thomas Brunt, Richard Tidd, William Davidson, and Others for High Treason at the Sessions House in the Old Bailey.......April 1820, with the Antecedent Proceedings

J. Butterworth and Sons, London, 1820

2 vols. Very good copies indeed, rebound in dark red pebble-grained binders cloth early 20th century, lettered in gilt. The trial of the Cato Street Conspirators. The Cato Street Conspiracy was an attempt to murder all the British cabinet ministers and Prime Minister Lord Liverpool in 1820. The name comes from the meeting place near Edgware Road in London.. The conspirators were members of a group of Spencean Philanthropists, named after the British radical speaker Thomas Spence. Some of them, especially Arthur Thistlewood, had been involved with the Spa Fields riots in 1816. Thistlewood came to dominate the group. Most of the group were angered by the Six Acts and the Peterloo Massacre, as well as with the economic and political depression of the time. The plan was to assassinate a number of cabinet ministers, overthrow the government and set up a Committee of Public Safety to oversee a radical revolution, similar to the French Revolution. According to the prosecution at their trial, they had planned to form a provisional government headquartered in the Mansion House.

First Edition

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