Undercover spy thwarts plot to murder Cabinet FEBRUARY 23, 1820
Two hundred years ago, there was a plot to murder Prime Minister Lord Liverpool’s entire Cabinet.
This was the infamous Cato Street Conspiracy, named after the plotters’ meeting place in London, though unrest and talk of an uprising was to be found throughout the country.
Britain was experiencing economic hardship as veterans of the Napoleonic Wars returned home looking for work.
The death of George III also created a governmental crisis.
The conspirators went by the less-than-terrifying name of the Spencean Philanthropists, so called after the radical speaker Thomas Spence.
They were angered by government oppression such as the previous year’s Peterloo Massacre, and were led by Arthur Thistlewood.
The trouble was, his second-in-command, George Edwards, was a police spy.
The plot revolved around a plan to assassinate the Cabinet at a dinner.
This was supposed to act as the trigger for a mass uprising, and the conspirators would then seize key buildings, overthrow the government and establish a “Committee of Public Safety” to oversee a radical revolution.
At a meeting, Edwards suggested exploiting the volatile political situation by invading the dinner at the home of Lord Harrowby, killing all present with pistols and grenades.
He even provided funds to arm the plotters.
But the dinner was entirely fictitious and the Home Office was fully aware of the plan, even putting an advert in the newspaper about the supposed dinner to convince the conspirators it was indeed genuine.
Plotter William Davidson, who had worked for Lord Harrowby, was despatched to learn more details and was puzzled when a servant told him his master was not at home.
But Thistlewood refused to believe him and ordered the plot start at once.
Unbeknownst to the conspirators, 12 officers from the Bow Street Runners were watching them from a pub across the road and, not waiting for promised reinforcements, they swooped on the evening of February 23.
In the resulting brawl, Thistlewood killed one with a sword and while some plotters fled, all 13 were soon caught.
At the trial, two were persuaded to testify against the others, and most were sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered for high treason. This was commuted to hanging and beheading, while five were transported to Australia.