LON 
pafs through from the duke’s bed-room to his own, and 
his traces were diftinfiMy marked by the blood left by his 
left arm upon the Tides of the narrow door ; and, when 
his coat was examined, the left lleeve was found to be 
covered with blood. His royal highnefs, we underftand, 
received fix dillindt wounds : one upon the forehead, to¬ 
wards the top of the head ; another down the cheek, one 
upon the arm, another by which his little finger was nearly 
fevered from the hand, one on tiie front of the body, and 
another on the thigh, befides feveral pundlures in dif¬ 
ferent parts with the point of the fabre. Mr. Home, the 
furgeon, was immediately fent for, who pronounced that 
none of them were mortal. Sir H. Halford was all'o called 
in. The prince of Wales went to the palace early in the 
morning to vifit his royal brother ; and about eight o’clock 
fet off for Windfor, to communicate to the royal family 
the intelligence of the attack made upon the duke. A 
coroner’s inqueft was held on the body of Sellis ; who, 
after fitting four hours, to hear evidence, &c. deliberated 
about an hour, and then returned a verdid! of Felo defe .— 
As Sellis was quite dead when difeovered, and as dead 
men tell no tales, the plot of this tragedy has never been 
fully cleared up. Mr. White, jun. the editor of the In¬ 
dependent Whig, a weekly newfpaper, was afterwards 
convifted of a libel on the duke of Cumberland, for what 
lie thought fit to write on the fubjeft, and is now under 
ifentence of imprifonment in Newgate, befides which he 
is to pay a fine of 200I. Mr. White certainly foretold a 
particular circumftance which has fince come to pafs ; and 
almoft every week he continues boldly to affert that Sellis 
was not his own murderer. 
On the ijth of June came on, in the court of King’s 
Bench, the trial of Mr. Cobbett, author of the Weekly 
Political Regifter, for a libel. 
The Attorney-general opened the cafe on behalf of the 
crown. In 1808, lord Caftlereagh brought in his bill by 
which the local militia might be called out for twenty- 
eight days, though they had only been called out twenty 
days. When the Catnbridgefliire militia was called out, 
fotne difaffedted perfons in the Ifie of Ely caufed them to 
mutiny ; and it was found neceffaryto call in the military in 
the neighbourhood. Five of the ringleaders werefentenced 
to receive 500 ladies, part only of which they received. 
The German legion, who were thus called in, is compofed 
of a body of men, who, when Hanover was overrun, 
quitted their country, and, entering into his majefty’s 
fervice, have conduced themfelves with bravery ; and it 
■was no difparagement to the Britiffi army to fay, that the 
German legion (hared the glory with them. At the bat¬ 
tle of Talavera, the German legion took three ftaudards. 
No troops had ever conducted themfelves in a more quiet, 
orderly, and fober, manner, and he could not find that 
any complaint had been made againft them. Mr. Wardle, 
in a motion in the houfe of commons, had propofed to 
difband the German legion ; againft which Mr. Hufkiffon 
oft'ered fufiicient reafons.—A paragraph foon after ap¬ 
peared in the Courier, which he would read. “The mu¬ 
tiny amongft the local militia, which broke cut at Ely, 
was fortunately fupprefled on Wednefday, by the arrival 
of four fquadrons of the German legion cavalry. Five of 
the ringleaders were tried by a court-martial, and fentenced 
to receive 500 ladies each, part of which punifhment they 
received on Wednefday, and a part was remitted. A 
Jloppage for their knapfacks was the ground of complaint 
that excited this mutinous fpirit, which occafioned the men 
to furreund their officers, and demand what they deemed 
their arrears.” With this paragraph, as a text to a ier- 
mon, had Mr. Cobbett headed his paper.—The Attorney- 
general then read the alleged libel. 
“ LOCAL MILITIA AND GERMAN LEGION. 
“See the motto, Englifh reader! See the motto, and 
then do pray recoiled! all that has been faid about the way 
in which Bonaparte raifes foldiers.—Well done, lord Caf¬ 
tlereagh ! This is juft what it was thought .your plan 
would produce. Well faid, Mr. Huikiffon ! It really vvas 
Vol. XIII. No. 905. 
DON. 541 
not without reafon that you dwelt with fa much earneft- 
nefs upon the great utility of the foreign troops, whom 
Mr. Wardle appeared to think of no utility at all. Poor 
gentleman ! he little imagined how a great genius might 
find ufeful employment for fuch troops. He little ima¬ 
gined, that they might be made the means of compelling 
Engliflimen to fubmit to that fort of difciplinc, which is 
fo conducive to the producing in them a difpofition to 
defend the country, at the ride of their lives. Let Mr. 
Wardle look at my motto, and then fay, whether the 
German foldiers are of no ufe.~Five hundred laffies each ! 
—Aye, that is right! Flog them ; flog them; flog them ! 
They deferve it, and a great deal more. What! (hall the 
rafeals dare to mutiny, and that too when the German le¬ 
gion is fo near at hand ! Lafii them, laffi them, la(h them ! 
They deferve it. O yes 5 they merit a double-tailed cat. 
Bafe dogs ! What, mutiny for the fake of the price of <t 
knapfaek! Lafli them! flog them ! Bafe rafeals! Mu¬ 
tiny for the price of a goat’s (kin !—And then, upon the 
appearance of the German foldiers , they take a flogging as 
quietly as fo many trunks of trees !—I do not know what 
fort of a place Ely is ; but I really fliould like to know 
how the inhabitants looked one another in the faee, while 
this feene was exhibiting in their town. I fliould like to 
have been able to fee their faces, and to hear their obfer- 
vations to each other at the time. This occurrence at 
home will, one would hope, teach the loyal a little caution 
in fpeaking of the means which Napoleon employs (or 
rather, which they fay he employs) in order to get toge¬ 
ther and to difeipline his confcripts. There is fcarcely 
any one of thefe loyal perfons, who has not, at various 
times, cited the hand-cujpngs, and other means of force, 
faid to be ufed in drawing out the young men of France ; 
there is fcarcely one of the loyal, who has not cited thefe 
means as a proof, a complete proof, that the people of 
France hate Napoleon and his government, affift with reluElance 
in his wars, and would fain fee another revolution. I hope, 
I fay, that the loyal will, liereafter, be more cautious in 
drawing fuch conclufions, now that they fee that our gal- 
lant defenders not only require phyfical reftraints in cer¬ 
tain cafes, but even a little blood drawn from their backs, 
and that, too, with the aid and affiftanceof German troops. 
Yes; I hope the loyal will be a little more upon their 
guard in drawing conclufions againft Napoleon’s popula¬ 
rity. At any rate, every time they do, in future, buril 
out in execrations againft the French for fuftering them¬ 
felves to be ‘chained together and forced, at the point of 
the bayonet, to do military duty,’ I (hall juft re-publifli 
the paffnge which I have taken for the motto to the pre- 
fent (heet. I have heard of fome other pretty little things 
of the fame fort ; but I rather choofe to take my inflance 
(and a very complete one it is) from a public print no- 
torioufiy under the fway of the miniftry.” 
Mr. Cobbett defended himfelf; and the jury returned 
a verdidt of guilty. —On the 9th of July following, the At¬ 
torney-general prayed judgment againft Mr. Cobbett, 
which was as follows: “That you, William Cobbett, 
do pay a fine to the king of ioool. that you be imprifoned 
in his majefty’s gaol of Newgate for. the fpace of two 
years ; that, at the expiration of that time, you enter into 
a recognizance to keep the peace for (even years, yourfelf 
in the fum of 3000I. and two fureties in the fum of 1000L 
each. And, further, that you be imprifoned till that re¬ 
cognizance be entered into, and that fine paid.” 
Upon this fevere fentence we (hall juft obferve, that the 
difeuffions which took place about this time, in the par¬ 
liament and elfewhere, upon the fubject of flogging in 
the army, have at length caufed that punifhment to be 
much lei's frequent; and it Teems to be now underftood 
that a man cannot legally be brought out a fecond time 
under the fame fentence, to have his wounds torn open 
afre (h. 
About this time, in purfuance of a petition to the houfe 
of commons from the truftees of the Britifh Mufeum, 
Mr. Greville’s minerals were valued by Drs. Babington 
3 Q "and 
