50 AUTOBIOGRAPHY [CHAP. vn. 



and the country, instead of being merely inhabited by a 

 small and scattered population, was at the time of the 

 outbreak estimated to contain above 40,000 inhabitants, 

 often, as it was stated, displaying "an extent of ignorance 

 very much to be deplored " and consequently easily led 

 away by the agents of seditious societies and formed into 

 affiliated bodies ready for outbreak when called on. 



The matured plan of the rising was arranged on the 

 ist of November at a meeting at a place called Blackwood, 

 where there was a Lodge or Society of Chartists. At 

 this meeting deputies attended, and orders were formulated, 

 that the men should assemble armed on the evening of 

 the 3rd, the following Sunday. There were to be three 

 principal divisions, one under the command of Frost (then 

 living at Blackwood), the other two to be respectively 

 formed of men from the up-country, and men more 

 from the east and north. These divisions were to meet 

 at Risca at a convenient distance from Newport, their 

 destination, which they purposed to reach about two in 

 the morning. They hoped to find the inhabitants asleep, 

 and to carry out their plans at their own convenience ; 

 attack the " intended-to-be-surprised " troops at Newport, 

 break down the bridge over the Usk, and stop the mail. 

 The Newport mails in those days were forwarded over 

 the Old Passage of the Severn to Bristol, from which 

 place at a given time they were sent North. The non- 

 arrival of the mails at Birmingham was to have been a sign 

 of success of the Monmouthshire outbreak, and of a general 

 rising in Lancashire, and other parts of the kingdom. 

 Affairs, however, turned out very differently to what they 

 expected. The night between the Sunday and Monday 

 was the darkest and most tempestuous that had been 

 known for years, and consequently though Frost arrived 

 near Risca early in the night, the other divisions were long 

 behind time. Meanwhile Mr. Phillips, the Mayor of New- 

 port, afterwards Sir Thomas Phillips, a firm and intelligent 

 man, well informed of what was going on, had been quietly 

 making preparations, in view of the intelligence received 

 during Sunday. He had given orders to the Superintendent 

 of Police to have a number of Special Constables ready on 

 that evening. A detachment was stationed at the Westgate 

 Hotel, where the Mayor and another magistrate also 

 located themselves about 9 p.m., and remained watching 

 throughout the night. When day dawned on Monday, 

 November 4th, intelligence was received that the insurgents 



