which he tore off his cap, and at the moment when the platform sunk, which put an end to the life of Heald, Terry made a spring, and threw himself against the rail of the scaffold, got his foot upou the edge of a beam, and caught the corner post with his arm, by which he supported himself; and in this dreadful situation he continued for about a minute, till he was forced off by the executioner, and launched into eternity, with his face uncovered; a circumstance never, perhaps, known in the annals of a York execution. The probable reason for Terry's wretched behaviour was, either to delay the execution, or, by declaring an innocent man was going to suffer, to excite the compassion of the numerous spectators, and induce them to attempt a rescue. However, as Heald met death with resignation, and never once attempted to assert his innocence, which he had done before his condemnation, we may justly conclude, from his silence and submission, that his share in this bloody transaction was great-that notwithstanding his improper conduct during his trial, he was duly impressed with the magnitude of his sins, and died, as became him-a penitent Christian-while his unfortunate accomplice, whose previous behaviour had been prudent and exemplary, misapplied the few last moments that were allotted to him in this life, and departed with unavailing lies in his mouth! STEPHEN STILWELL, STEPHEN STILWELL, a publican, at the Three Jolly Gardeners, at Mortlake, was tried for the horrid murder of his wife, September 28, 1802, at the Surrey assizes held at Kingston, before Mr. Justice Heath, Thursday, March 24, 1803. Mr. Nolan, who appeared as counsel for the prosecution, stated that the prisoner at the bar stood indicted of a crime, which must be the offspring of a most abandoned and cruel disposition. He had for some time lived as a gardener in the family of a gentleman at Mortlake; and the woman whom he had murdered also lived as servant in that family. He therefore had every opportunity of being acquainted with her temper and manners, previous to his taking her for his wife. They were married from that place, and took a public house at Mortlake. It would not be regular for him to detail the various instances of cruelty which he had exercised towards his MURDER OF HIS WIFE. wife, except as connected with the present charge; but he should prove that he frequently declared he would murder her. On the 28th, he quarrelled with his wife, and turned her from the kitchen to the bar, telling her that was her place, and added, it was no matter, for she had but a few days to live.' On the 27th, in the evening, they were seen together, by two lodgers in the house, sitting in the bar, and apparently in amity; but the next morning he perpetrated the horrid crime. It would also appear that he had attempted another mode of death, for a loaded pistol was found lying by her, the lock of which was down, as though the trigger had been drawn, and it had missed fire. The learned counsel dwelt upon the aggravated cir. cumstances of this crime, in which the foul crime of murder was rendered more heinous, by being against a wife, whom he had solemnly sworn at God's altar to cherish and protect. John Ward deposed as follows:'I am a baker, and live near Stilwell's house. On the 28th of September, 1802, about five o'clock, I got up to work. I was disturbed with a noise, and I went to the gate. I heard a noise in Stilwell's room. I heard his voice: he was saying, Come, get up, your time is expired.' I stood a little time, and heard a scream. Mrs. Stilwell said, My dear Stilwell, don't murder me.' When I heard that, I went to an opposite window, where I knew a soldier lay, and called him up. In about ten minutes I saw the prisoner come out of door, at the front door; but, before I saw him, I heard a stamping on the floor of the prisoner's room. Soon after I saw the prisoner run out of the front door. He ran away, and I followed him. In about a minute I came up. Knight, a man I had called on passing by, first laid hold of him. His hands and clothes were sprinkled with blood. We bound him with a cord, and I left him in custody of Benjamin Knight. On cross-examination the witness said that, when he heard the stamping, he also heard the prisoner exclaiming that he had gained his liberty;' and when he came out, he said, Damn that house, set it on fire (meaning his own house). Benjamin Knight deposed: I was called by the last witness; I was going by the house, and listened at the window. I heard two or three groans, and heard the prisoner saying that he had gained his liberty.' I then went into the yard; and, as there was a table under the window, I got upon it, in order to look in at the window; and then I heard a person quit the room, and run down stairs. I immediately went round, and saw Stilwell come out of the front door; his clothes were all bloody. I and another man went up stairs, and saw the deceased on the ground. The floor was over my shoes in blood, near the deceased's head. I immediately ran down, and pursued the prisoner. Mr. Ward came to my assistance, and we overtook him. He struck me several times: when we found him, he appeared collected. He asked me to slack the cords, and not to hurt him.' The testimony of Charles Barwood and William Bardolph also proved the act to have been committed by the prisoner. John Davis, a surgeon at Mortlake, stated that he was sent for in consequence of the murder of the deceased. He examined the body, and found she had been killed by several violent blows which she had received; a great portion of her brains had been forced out on the right side of her head. He found a pistol, the handle of which was broke, and covered with blood and brains-(here the prisoner fainted away). It was produced in court. Elizabeth Carter, servant of the prisoner, had lived with him three weeks on the day of the murder: he appeared always sensible, but frequently said he would murder her. The prisoner, in defence, only said that he did not know what he did; his mind was very much distressed by her aggravating temper. Mr. Serjeant Best, for the defence, called one witness of the name of Brown, who deposed to circumstances which conveyed a doubt of the prisoner's sanity. Mr. Justice Heath said the only question for the jury was, whethe they could possibly infer insanity for that was the defence insinuated by the last witness. It appeared to him that the prisoner had worked himself up to a frenzy of passion, so as not to know what he was about; but that was not insanity COLONEL EDWARD MARCUS DESPARD, JOHN FRANCIS, EXECUTED FOR HIGH TREASON. IF these men seriously thought of such an imbecile plot must have been deranged, and that his assothat they could effect the overthrow of the government and the destruc- ciates were the victims of infatuation of the royal family, (and of tion. nothing less were they accused and convicted,) we know not in what terms to speak of their folly. We can only conclude that the leader VOL. III. The men who were found guilty were Edward Marcus Despard, a colonel in the army, aged fifty; John Francis, a private soldier, aged 87 a twenty-three; John Wood, a private soldier, aged thirty-six; Thomas Broughton, a carpenter, aged twenty-six; James Sedgwick Wratton, shoemaker, aged thirty-five; John Macnamara, a carpenter, aged fifty; and Arthur Graham, a slater, aged fifty-three: they were all married men, leaving numerous off springs to bewail their fathers' fate, and their own loss! Others of the accused were tried and acquitted, and some pardoned. Colonel Despard, the ill-starred leader of these misguided men, was descended from a very ancient and respectable family, in the Queen's county in Ireland. He was the youngest of six brothers, all of whom, except the eldest, had served their country, either in the army or navy. In 1766 he entered the army as an ensign, in the 5th regiment; in the same regiment he served as a lieutenant, and in the 79th he served successively as lieutenant, quarter-master, captain-lieutenant, and captain.-From his superior officers he received many marks of approbation, particularly from General Calcraft, of the 50th, General Meadows, and the Duke of Northumberland. He had been, for the last twenty years, detached from any particular corps, and intrusted with important offices. In 1779 he was appointed chief engineer to the St. Juan expedition, and conducted himself so as to obtain distinguished praise. He also received the thanks of the council and assembly of Jamaica, for the construction of public works there, and was, in consequence of these services, appointed, by the governor of Jamaica, to be commander-in chief of the island of Rattan, and its dependencies, and of the troops there, and to rank as lieutenant-colonel and field-en gineer, and commanded, as such, on the Spanish Main, in Rattan, and on the Musquito shore, and Bay of Honduras. After this, at Cape Gracious a Dios, he put himself at the head of the inhabitants, who voluntarily solicited him to take the command, and retook from the Spaniards Black River, the principal settlement of the coast. For this service he received the thanks of the governor, council, and assembly of Jamaica, and of the king himself. In 1783 he was promoted to the rank of colonel. In 1784 he was appointed first commissioner for settling and receiving the territory ceded to Britain, by the sixth article of the definitive treaty of peace with Spain, in 1783. He so well discharged his duty as colonel, that he was appointed superintendent of his majesty's affairs on the coast of Honduras, which office he held much to the advantage of the crown of England, for he obtained from that of Spain some very important privileges. The clashing interests, however, of the inhabitants of this coast, produced much discontent, and the colonel was, by a party of them, accused of various misdemeanors to his majesty's ministers. He now came home, and demanded that his conduct should be investigated; but, after two years' constant attendance on all the departments of government, was at last told by the ministers that there was no charge against him worthy of notice, and that his majesty had thought proper to abolish the office of superintendent at Honduras, otherwise he should have been reinstated in it; but he was then, and on every occasion, assured, that his services should not be forgotten, but in due time meet their reward. While in the Bay of Honduras the colonel married a native of that place. Irritated, it seems, by continual disappointments, he began now to vent his indignation in an unguarded manner; and, thus becoming a suspicious character, was for some time a prisoner in Coldbathfields, under the habeas-corpus suspension act, then lately passed, which empowered ministers to keep in confinement all suspected characters. On his liberation he could not conceal his malignancy towards government. Thus inflamed, he endeavoured to inflame others, and at ength brought upon himself, and those poor wretches who were seduced by his arguments, disgrace and death. On the 16th of November, 1802, in consequence of a search-warrant, a numerous body of the police went to the Oakley Arms, Oakley Street, Lambeth, where they apprehended Colonel Despard, and near forty labouring men and soldiers, many of them Irish. The next morning they were all brought up before the magistrates at Union Hall, and the result of the examination was, that Colonel Despard was committed to the county gaol, and afterwards to Newgate; twelve of his low as sociates (six of whom were soldiers) were sent to Tothillfields' Bridewell, and twenty to the New Prison, Clerkenwell. Ten other persons, who had been found in a different room, and who appeared to have no concern whatever with the colonel's party, were instantly discharged. The colonel's conduct, during all his examinations, was invariably the same: he was silent through out. The privy council, the more effectually to try the prisoners, is sued a special commission, and on Monday, the 7th of February, 1803, the trial took place. The indictment, which consisted of three counts, having been read, the prosecution was opened by the attorney-general. The prisoner, he said, Edward Marcus Despard, with the other prisoners, William Lander, Thomas Broughton, John Macnamara, James Wratton, John Wood,John Francis, Arthur Graham, Thomas Newman, Daniel Tyndall, &c. formed a society at the Oakley Arms, in the parish of St. Mary, Lambeth. The most active members were Francis and Wood, and their drift was to overturn the government. His majesty having intended to meet his parliament a week earlier than he actually did, (on the 16th of January, instead of the 23d,) they designed on that day to carry into effect their plan, by laying restraint upon the king's person, and destroying him. They frequently attempted to seduce soldiers into the association, in which they sometimes succeeded, aud sometimes failed. Francis administered unlawful oaths to those that yielded, and, among others, to Blades and Windsor, giving them, at the same time, two or three copies of the oath, that they might be enabled to make proselytes in their turn. Windsor, soon after becoming dissatisfied, gave information of the conspiracy to a Mr. Bonus, and showed him a copy of the oath. This gentleman advised him to continue a member of the association, that he might learn whether there were any persons of consequence engaged in it. On the Friday before the intended assassination of his majesty a meeting took place, when Broughton prevailed upon two of the associates to go to the Flying Horse, Newington, where they would meet with |