He was always denouncing "the accursed
system" of turning crews over from ship to
ship, so that they could never become attached
to the vessel or their officers. He was
constantly battling against the dishonest delays of
pay.

In 1801, there was great disaffection among
the navy. When Admiral Mitchell's squadron
was suddenly ordered from Bantry Bay to
pursue the Brest fleet to the West Indies, the
sailors mutinied; nor was the disaffection
quelled until fourteen of the ringleaders swung
from the yard-arm. The ideal liberty that the
French had first attempted to hold up as a
standard of the proper condition of man, so long
the slave of bad kings and the beast of burden
of brutal barons, was still producing discontent
in men's minds wherever liberty was still
imperfect. Secret political societies were busy in
England, in the barrack and the forecastle, the
factory and the tavern, enrolling men who
desired more freedom and an extension of political
privileges. It was no longer possible to maintain
the old boundaries, for the conditions had
changed. The bulk of these agitators were
honest and thoughtful foreseers of the future;
but there were among them a few soured and
disappointed persons, like ill-used Colonel Despard,
who were impatient for swifter changes, and
were for breaking in the doors that refused to
open. We must have suffered as they had,
before we can sufficiently know their feelings, or
sufficiently pity their fate. Nature is slow,
reasoned the cooler philosophers of their party;
it took centuries before Egypt was formed by
the alluvion of the Nile, or the coral island
became Otaheiti. Yes, said the desperate men
of progress, but nature works also through the
lightning, the hurricane, the storm, the volcano,
and the earthquake. Who shall say which works
the better: the coral insect or the avalanche?

Gradually the neglected and injured soldier
entered into the more dangerous and desperate
schemes of the Reformers of 1801. His mind
became absorbed by the one idea of his own
wrongs and those of his country. He mixed
with discontented men, who talked of nothing
else. Persons of Despard's temperament soon
persuade themselves that to avenge themselves
is to avenge the wrongs of millions. The
desperate conspirator always believes himself a
martyr. Even infamous Fieschi thought him-
self a Curtius; and that broken card-sharper,
Thistlewood, posed himself under the very noose,
as a Mutius Scævola. Despard began to talk
against the government in an unguarded way,
at taverns, in the Park, and at meetings. He
became conspicuous, and the Habeas Corpus
being at that time suspended whenever there
were fish in the river, he was soon snapped up,
and lodged powerless, unheard, and without
appeal, in Coldbath Fields, then a true Bastille,
quite as dangerous to liberty as those black
towers that once frowned over the Port St.
Antoine. Despard went into Coldbath Fields
a Louvet; he left it a Marat. His
rancour turned to malignancy, his hatred to
frenzy. He was now not for agitation, but for
assassination and revolt. He collected round
him all the disaffected soldiers in town, and
drew up a wild scheme to be instantly
executed.

His two usual places of meeting were the
Oakley Arms, Oakley-street, Lambeth, and the
Flying Horse, Newington. On November 12,
1802, John Emblin, a watchmaker, was taken to
the Queen's Arms, Vauxhall, by a soldier named
Lander. The men present were members of
one of the many societies which looked to
Despard as their head. He was known to
them to be a neglected and disgraced colonel,
newly out of prison for high treason, and his
rank, education, and desperate views rendered
him perfectly fit for their purpose. The men
then went on to the Flying Horse, in the
Clapham-road, and there saw Despard, the leader,
in disguise; some conspirators named Broughton,
Windsor, and Smith, were drinking with
him in a private room, and speaking of the
form used at the Tower in passing the keys.
Colonel Despard said the country was ready;
the attack was to be made in the country and
London on the same day; the stage and the
mail-coaches were to be stopped. Colonel
Despard also said that the whole of the royal family
must be secured, and that, if necessary, he
would attack the king with his own hand. It
was then agreed that the Bank should be seized
and the Tower taken. Windsor said with one
hundred men he would take the Tower himself.
The colonel said the arms at the Bank—six
hundred—had been rendered useless by taking
some part off. Lander afterwards remarked it
would be prudent to have a division march
from the Tower to New-street, Bishopsgate-
street, to secure the arms of the East India
Company; to go from thence to the Artillery
Ground, where they would get more arms, and
secure the pieces of artillery; then to march
forward and assist at the attack upon St. James's.
The colonel, on another day, objected to
Lander's plan, but spoke of taking the Bank and
Tower, and destroying the telegraph; he also
thought that St. Paul's would be a good place
for a garrison. It was resolved to raise
companies of ten men, with an eleventh to take
the command as captain. The oldest captain
of five companies was to take the command of
these fifty men, and was to be called colonel
of that sub-division. There were divisions
ready in the Borough, Blackwall, Marylebone,
Spitalfields, and Whitechapel. This being
settled, Colonel Despard said: "A regular
organisation was necessary; people were
everywhere ripe, particularly in Leeds, Sheffield,
Birmingham, and all the large towns." The attack
was to be made when his Majesty went to the
Parliament House. " His Majesty must be put
to death. I have weighed the matter well, and
my heart is callous."

There were cards printed with a form of oath,
and these were read over and kissed by all new
proselytes, who then took copies to distribute.
The following was the oath: