Amongst the real Radicals of England, those who flourished
from the year ’16 to ’20, there were certainly
extraordinary characters, men partially insane, perhaps,
but honest and brave—they did not make
a market of the principles which they professed, and
never intended to do so; they believed in them, and
were willing to risk their lives in endeavouring to
carry them out. The writer wishes to speak in
particular of two of these men, both of whom perished
on the scaffold—their names were Thistlewood
and Ings. Thistlewood, the best known of them,
was a brave soldier, and had served with distinction
as an officer in the French service; he was one of
the excellent swordsmen of Europe; had fought several
duels in France, where it is no child’s play
to fight a duel; but had never unsheathed his sword
for single combat, but in defence of the feeble and
insulted—he was kind and open-hearted,
but of too great simplicity; he had once ten thousand
pounds left him, all of which he lent to a friend,
who disappeared and never returned a penny.
Ings was an uneducated man, of very low stature, but
amazing strength and resolution; he was a kind husband
and father, and though a humble butcher, the name he
bore was one of the royal names of the heathen Anglo-Saxons.
These two men, along with five others, were executed,
and their heads hacked off, for levying war against
George the Fourth; the whole seven dying in a manner
which extorted cheers from the populace; the most
of then uttering philosophical or patriotic sayings.
Thistlewood, who was, perhaps, the most calm and
collected of all, just before he was turned off, said,
“We are now going to discover the great secret.”
Ings, the moment before he was choked, was singing
“Scots wha ha’ wi’ Wallace bled.”
Now there was no humbug about those men, nor about
many more of the same time and of the same principles.
They might be deluded about Republicanism, as Algernon
Sidney was, and as Brutus was, but they were as honest
and brave as either Brutus or Sidney; and as willing
to die for their principles. But the Radicals
who succeeded them were beings of a very different
description; they jobbed and traded in Republicanism,
and either parted with it, or at the present day are
eager to part with it for a consideration. In
order to get the Whigs into power, and themselves
places, they brought the country by their inflammatory
language to the verge of a revolution, and were the
cause that many perished on the scaffold; by their
incendiary harangues and newspaper articles they caused
the Bristol conflagration, for which six poor creatures
were executed; they encouraged the mob to pillage,
pull down and burn, and then rushing into garrets
looked on. Thistlewood tells the mob the Tower
is a second Bastile; let it be pulled down.
A mob tries to pull down the Tower; but Thistlewood
is at the head of that mob; he is not peeping from
a garret on Tower Hill like Gulliver at Lisbon.
Thistlewood and Ings say to twenty ragged individuals,