GENERAL HISTORY. 



[15 



cessible. Immediately previous to 

 the (lay a|)pointetl for meeting, 

 arms were provided lor the use of 

 some of the persons most actixcly 

 engaged. This provision was 

 deemed sufficient for the begin- 

 ning of the insurrection, as they 

 felt confident that if it should be 

 successful for two lumrs, as many 

 arms might be procured as would 

 be necessary, from the depots and 

 gunsmiths shops, which had been 

 reconnoitred with that view. 



Youi' Committee have further 

 received undoubted information 

 that a large quantity of pike heads 

 had been o: dercd of one indivi- 

 dual, and 250 actually made by 

 him, and delivered and paid for. 

 It was also undoubtedly intended 

 to liberate the ju'isoners in the 

 principal gaols in or about the 

 metropolis, in the hope of their 

 concurrence and assistance in the 

 intended insurrection. Addressee 

 were introduced into some of 

 those prisons, and recommended 

 to be communicated to others, in 

 which the persons confined were 

 invited, in the name of the tri- 

 colored coumiittee, to rally round 

 the tricolored standard, which 

 would ije erected on Mondav, De- 

 cend^cr the 2d, and to wear tri- 

 colored cockades theiuselves. It 

 was promised that the prisoners 

 should be liberated by force, and 

 arms were stated to be provided 

 for them, and they were diiected 

 to be ready to assist in over- 

 powering the turnkeys. A waggon 

 was hired for tlie business of the 

 day, in which the flags and banner 

 or standard, which had been pre- 

 viously prepared, together with 

 some anuMunition, were secretly 

 conveyed to the place of meeting. 

 From this waggon, before the 



ostensible busi!>ess of the day 

 conunenced in the other part of 

 the held, the most inflammatory 

 speeches were delivered, tending 

 directly to excite insurrection, 

 and concluded by an ajipeal to the 

 mvdtitudeassembled, whether they 

 were prepared to redress their own 

 giievance-. A tricolor cockade 

 was then exhibited, and the tri- 

 color flag was displayed, and a 

 number of persons followed it out 

 of the field. 



Tiie direction which they took 

 was towards that part of the town 

 previou-ly designed ; gunsmiths 

 shops were broken open, addresses 

 and offers were made to the sol- 

 diers at the Tower to induce them 

 to open the gates ; but from the 

 failure of the numbers expected 

 to join the insurgents, no attempt 

 was made to force the gates. An 

 attack was however made upon 

 the city magistrates assembled in 

 the Royal Exchange, a shot fried, 

 and a tricolor flag and cockade 

 openly displayed and seized on the 

 offender. 



In reviewing the whole of the 

 transactions of the 2d of Decem- 

 ber, your committee are firmly 

 persuaded, that, however impro- 

 bable the success of such a plan 

 may appear, it yet was deliberately 

 premeditated by desperate men, 

 who calcidated without reasonable 

 ground upon defection in their 

 oj)posers, and upon active support 

 from those multitudes, whose dis- 

 tress they had witnessed, and 

 whom they had vainly instigated 

 to revolt. That consequently it 

 was not merely the sudden ebul- 

 lition of the moment, or the un- 

 authoiized attempt of any un- 

 connected individual. 



Your Committee are further 

 convinced, 



