answer for their innocent blood, that cried for vengeance against hiin. After he had some time lain in this sorrowful condition, his trial came on; when he pleaded guilty to this indictment, saying that his youthful sins had brought this heavy judgment upon him, and declaring, before his sentence, that he desired to die, as not being fit to live. The Court exhorted him to a serious repentance of his sins, and to pray to God to deliver his soul. He promised to do what in him lay; and a minister was ordered to atwww tend him, and give him spiritual consolation during the short time he had to live. The same minister attended him at the place of execution, which exhibited a very affecting scene: here he burst into tears, and advised all young persons to beware of sabbathbreaking, drunkenness, swearing, and lewd women, as they valued their peace here and hereafter. He was executed at Kennington Common about the middle of September, 1792, and afterwards hung in chains near the spot where his atrocities had been perpetrated. A Robbery effected by means of Birdlime. WILLIAM GADESBY, EXECUTED FOR ROBBERY. IN recording the execution of for many years; and, though only this culprit, a Scotch newspaper says he was one of the most notorious villains that has figured in the line of roguery in this country VOL. III, twenty-eight years of age, his criminal exploits appear, both in variety and number, to equal, if not exceed, the achievements of the 77 most dexterous and grey-headed offender.' As this fellow lived, so he determined to die-with notoriety. He was brought to the gallows at Edinburgh, February the 20th, 1791, dressed in a suit of white cloth, trimmed with black. The awful ceremony, the dreadful apparatus of death, the surrounding multitude of spectators, appeared not to shake his frame, nor to agitate his mind. He mounted the platform of death with a firm step, and stood with great composure till the apparatus was adjusted; and then, in a collected manner, and in an audible voice, gave a brief account of his life. He said that the first robbery he committed was in a stationer's shop, where he purloined a pocket-book. The success of this childish theft encouraged him to commit others: and in a short time he gave himself wholly up to thieving, never letting an opportunity slip of possessing himself of money or goods, by fraud or force, until the day he was committed to gaol. He said that he often escaped in hackney-chairs, and advised the officer on guard at the Castle to search all such vehicles. He declared most solemnly that three miserable men, who had been executed two years ago at the place where he then stood, of the names of Falconer, Bruce, and Dick, were innocent, for that he himself had committed the robberies for which they were condemned! With exultation he continuedthat the sums he had acquired by thieving and cheating did not amount to less than two thousand pounds, besides the fortune of the unhappy woman whom he seduced and ruined. It was high time to stop the monster's speech, and the platform was therefore dropped, while yet he was exulting in his sins! Scotland,' says the paper from which we extract this unparalleled case, seems to be in an improving state: the following ingenious contrivance was lately practised at Glasgow:-While a merchant in King Street was counting some money and bank notes on a counter, a staff or small rod, overlaid with birdlime, was suddenly thrust in at the door, which having touched the notes, two of them were thereby carried off; and, before the merchant could pursue, the ingenious actor had made his escape.' THE BIRMINGHAM RIOTERS. THE anniversary of the French Revolution was celebrated on the 14th of July, 1791, at Dublin, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Liverpool, Norwich, &c. without disturbance, but at Birmingham the most serious riots ensued, to which the populace had been instigated by a seditious hand-bill, previously circulated. Between eighty and ninety persons met together to celebrate the event at the hotel in Temple Lane, around which a considerable number of people gather ed, hissing as the company assembled; and two hours after their departure they proceeded to demolish every window in the front, notwithstanding the personal interference of the magistrates. The mob next attacked the new meeting-house (Dr. Priestley's), and, after trying in vain to tear up the seats, &c. they set it on fire, and nothing remained that could be consumed. The old meeting-house was completely emptied of pulpit, pews &c. which were burnt in the adjoining burying-ground; and afterward the building was levelled nearly with the ground, it being considered dangerous, from its situation, to set it on fire. Dr. Priestley's house at Fair Hill (a mile and a half from Birmingham) next met a similar fate, with the whole of his valuable library, and more valuable collection of apparatus for philosophical experiments. Here one of the rioters was killed by the falling of a cornice-stone. Ou Friday morning the mob continued their depredations; for there was no armed force, and the civil power was not sufficient to repress them Armed with bludgeons, &c. and vociferating Church and King they spread terror wherever they appeared. About noon they attacked and demolished the elegant mansion of Mr. John Ryland, at Easy Hill, where many of the rioters, who were drunk, perished in the cellars, either by the flames, suffocation, or the falling in of the roof. Six poor wretches, terribly bruised, were got out alive, and sent to the hospital, and ten dead bodies have since been dug out of the ruins; but a man, who had remained immured in one of the vaults from the preceding Friday, worked his way out on Monday, with little injury. In the afternoon the magistrates attended, and swore in some hundreds as additional constables, who, with mop-staves in their hands, marched to Mr. Ryland's to disperse the mob, who at first gave way, but rallying, after a stout conflict, in which many were severely wounded, the posse comitatus were obliged to retire. The country residence of John Taylor, Esq. Bordesley Hall, after the greatest part of its splendid furniture had been demolished or car ried away, was set on fire, together with the out-offices, stables, ricks of hay, &c. Every exertion to preserve this elegant seat was made by Captain Carver, but in vain. On offering them his purse with a hundred guineas to save the house, he was hustled amid the crowd, with a cry of No bribery!' and narrowly escaped their fury. In the night of Friday, the house of Mr. Hutton, in High Street, was completely stripped: his large stock of paper, valuable library, and all his furniture, destroyed or carried away. Fire was several times brought by a woman (women and boys were particularly active in all the depredations); but the majority of the populace, in tenderness to the town, would not suffer it to be applied. From Mr. Hutton's they proceeded to his country house at Washwood Heath, three miles from town, which, with its offices, they reduced to ashes. On Saturday the rioters made an attack on Mr. Humphrey's elegant house at Spark Brook, but were repulsed, and one man killed. The mob, however, on a second attack, carried their point, and ransacked the house of all its furniture. Mr. William Russel's house, at Shewell Green, experienced all the violence of fire and devastation. The house of Mr. T. Hawkes, Moseley-wake Green, was stripped of its furniture. Moseley Hall, the residence of the Dowager Countess of Carhampton, but the property of John Taylor, Esq. Mr. Harwood's, and Mr. Hobson's, a dissenting minister, were all on fire at once. Lady Carhampton, who was blind, had notice, the preceding day, to remove her effects, as their vengeance was not directed against her: the good old lady gave directions ac cordingly, and Sir Robert and Captain Lawley immediately attended on their noble relation, whom they accompanied in safety to Canwell, Sir Robert's seat. The whole of Saturday business was at a stand, and the shops mostly shut up, notwithstanding the appearance of the magistrates, and several popular noblemen and gentle men; for the reports were so various of the strength of the insurgents, and having no military, no force could be sent against them. In the afternoon and evening small parties of three or five levied contributions of meat, liquor, and money. On Sunday the rioters bent their course toward Kingswood, seven miles off, extorting money and liquors by the way. There the dissenting meeting-house, aud the dwelling-house of their minister, were reduced to ashes; as were the premises of Mr. Cox, at Worstock, the same day. The At night, soon after ten, three troops of the 16th light dragoons arrived amid the acclamations of the inhabitants, whose hopes and fears had been depicted through the day in every countenance, as reports of the near approach of the soldiery were spread or contradicted. town was immediately illuminated, and before morning every thing was tolerably quiet; but the rioters were still continuing their depredations in the country. They exhausted the cellars at each place, and received various sums of money to prevent their proceeding to further violence. They were in great force at the time the troops arrived, which they no sooner had intimation of than they began to slink off in small parties; and the peasantry, taking courage, put the rest to flight in various directions. So rapid were the light horse in their route for the relief of Birming ham, that they came there in one day from Nottingham, a distance of fifty-six miles. On Monday the town appeared in perfect security, but as much crowded as during the three preceding days, in viewing the military; the mob keeping at such a distance as to render all accounts of them dubious; at one time said to be at Alcester, the next hour at Bromsgrove, &c. On Tuesday there were flying rumours of depredations near Hagley, Hales Owen, &c. and in the evening certain information was received that a party of rioters were then attacking Mr. Male's, of Belle Vue. A few of the light dragoons immediately went to his assistance; but the rioters had been previously overpowered by a body of people in that neighbourhood, and ten of them were confiued at Hales Owen. On Wednesday morning the country round, for ten miles, was scoured by the light horse, but not one rioter was to be met with, and all the manufactories were at work, as if no interruption had taken place. Three troops of the 11th Light Dragoons marched in this morning, and more troops were expected. Among the articles consumed at Mr. Ryland's, at Birmingham, was the body of the late Mr. Baskerville, who by will ordered he should be buried in his own house, and he was accordingly interred there. A stone closet was erected in it, where he was deposited in a standing posture. The house was afterwards sold with this express condition—that it should remain there. The assizes at which the trial of those rioters who had been apprehended took place were opened at Warwick, on the 22d of August, by Baron Perryn, with an address to the grand jury, in which he observed that in the calendar were the names of many persons charged with tumultuous riots, in open defiance of all law; by which the places of public worship, and the habitations and effects of a denomination of his majesty's subjects who have long legally enjoyed toleration, have been destroyed, to the great terror and injury of the individual sufferers, and to the alarm of the whole kingdom. In stating what he thought the law on this subject, he thus proceeded: Insurrections for real or imaginary grievances, of a public and general nature, and pulling down meeting-houses, enclosures, or such like, and to effect this purpose by force and numbers, are, by construction of law, considered high treason. Assemblies or multitudes met, from whatever purpose, though not of that general nature, and consequently not extending to high treason, are yet of the most dangerous tendency, and generally followed with the most mischievous consequences. Our history furnishes instances where the person of the king, and the constitution of the kingdom, have been thrown into the utmost hazard by insurrections of this nature. If such insurrections are not prevented, or immediately suppressed, anarchy and confusion must follow; and the happiest constitution in the world, the best that a favoured nation was ever blessed with, must be in danger of being destroyed. In order to prevent these mischiefs, an act passed in the first year of George I. commonly called the Riot Act, which enacts" that if twelve persons, or more, are unlawfully assembled to the disturbance of the peace, and any one justice of the peace, sheriff, under-sheriff, or mayor, shall command them by proclamation to disperse, if they contemn his orders, and continue together for one hour afterward, such contempt shall be felony without benefit of clergy." By a subsequent clause of this act, "it is provided, that if any persons, so riotously assembled, begin, even before proclamation, to pull down any church, chapel, meeting-house, dwelling-house, or out-house, they shall be felons without benefit of clergy." Gentlemen, I conceive it is upon this last clause that you will find the bills against the prisoners who stand charged with this offence. The wisdom of the legislature has enjoined that tumultuous risings of this nature should be immediately suppressed. Every person in this kingdom is entitled to the benefit of the law: every person is obliged to obey, or suffer the penalties of the law. It is your duty to inquire, and true presentment make, of the breaches of this statute, that the law may be carried into execution, for the safety of his majesty's subjects. Whatever were the motives to these breaches, they cannot be justified. When the most severe laws against the Roman Catholics, which so long disgraced our statutebook, have been repealed; when every reasonable indulgence was given to tender consciences, which was consistent with the safety of the state; and when all intolerance seemed to be done away; it must be matter of great surprise that such a season should be chosen for this violence; at a time too when the blessings of his majesty's reign are equally extended to all his subjects, without distinction of persons, and whose view has ever been to unite the hearts of all his subjects, and to render them as well affected to each other as they ought to be to such a sovereign.'-The baron concluded by expressing confidence that the great trust reposed in them by the constitution would be dis |