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him, and who, it is not improbable, was an active inftrument in this atrocious crune; for he was to receive, as a reward, his liferent in the farm he occupied, befides a new fet of farming utenfils, with horfes and other neceffaries; whereas the most that appears to be given to any of the reft was a guinea cach, and to fome of them only a little drink.

All things being now in readiness, on Sunday night, the 7th of January, they all met at Morgan's, and ftaid there a great part of the next day, drank ale, and conferred about the bulinefs they were to do at night; and, in thefe conferences, Williams often declared his intention of killing Powell, and that in the prefence of all the prifoners, except William Thomas, John Spiggot, and the little boy Charles.

That, about fix or feven o'clock in the e-, vening, they fet out for Powell's; that they blacked their faces; and fome of them took carters frocks, in order for a difguife; and armed themselves with piftols, guns, fwords, hangers, and tucks; that upon the road they met John Spiggot pretty near Mr. Powell's houfe, who, being a fervant, could not attend their meetings, and feemed to be wholly ignorant of any other defign than that of executing the writ for debt. When they approached the house, William Williams and William Spiggot put on the frocks, and the whole body, twelve in number, advanced to the back-door, where Williams having knocked gently, it was opened by a little girl, and then five or fix of them rushed in, among whom were Williams, William Spiggot, Llewellin, Morris, and Evans. E vans kept guard at the kitchen-door, while the others broke into the parlour. Llewellin was the firft that seized Powell by the breast, while Williams, Spiggot, and Morgan, ftabbed him in feveral parts of his body. That Powell's fervant, hearing from the kitchen what was paffing, and fearing for the life of his matter, made one generous effort for his relief, and, having no other weapon but a fire-fhovel, endeavoured to knock down Evans, who guarded the door; but, Evans calling out to fire, and a piftol being immediately difcharged, the man was intimidated, and inftantly retired. The three neighbours who were in company with Powell, when the affaffins entered, retired alfo, but not without danger to their perfons, one of them having received a fevere cut in the face, and being otherwife much hurt.

The villains, however, numerous as they wwere, feem to have been under the utmoft error of mind; for, though they were determined to kill, and, with that intent, had Stabbed the unhappy victim in twelve diffe

rent parts of his body, had almost cut off his nofe, and maimed his hand, yet they fled before they were certain he was dead, and one left behind him his hat and wig, and another his tuck, which, though not immediately known, led afterwards to identify the vil lains who actually did the murder. During this whole tranfaction it does not appear that one word was uttered in the house, except that Powell, when first seized, cried out, 'O God! Williams, Morgan, and Spiggot had fortified themselves with brandy before they could have courage to perpetrate the murder; and, when they had mastered the. object of their fury, and had got him upon the floor, they repeated their thrusts so fast, that thofe who were lookers on could hardly think they had accomplished their purpofe, when by their fudden return they began to retreat.

On their road back to Morgan's, heated with liquor, and reeking with blood, thofe who were the actual murderers boafted of their courage, and reproached the others with cowardice; and Williams actually beat one whom he fufpected to be faint-hearted. As foon as they had reached Morgan's, their fears for their fafety began to take place; and then it was that Williams discovered fome fymptoms of remorfe. He dispersed them all from Morgan's, and let none return to Llandovery but himself. It happened, however, unfortunately for them, that a deep fnow had fallen in the day, and that a hard froft had taken place in the night. In the morning the whole country was alarmed on the report of the murder, and the track of the murderers was traced to the houfe of Morgan, from whence they fet out, and to which they returned. The prints of two remarkable feet were particularly obferved; one, by the clumfinefs of the nails with which it was clouted; the other, by the neatness of the make by which it was diftinguished. A witnefs [Mr. William Pogson, one of the perfons who was in company with Mr. Powell when the affaffins entered the room] declared, that, as foon as he faw this latter print, he immediately concluded that Williams was concerned; and the reason he gave was that, being in company with Williams, at Caermarthen, he thewed him a pair of boots he had then on, which he faid were made by the completeft workman in London, and made off the fame laft as the King of Denmark's. And this circumstance, he added, ftruck him, the moment he faw the print.

The principal witnefs was Watt Morgan, an apprentice to William Walter Morgan, a travelling tinker. This fellow was an acCc z complice,

204

complice, and one whom Williams had been privately tampering with before to murder Powell privately; but the fellow, as he faid himself, being perpetually drunk with the money with which he was from time to time fupplied, very probably might imagine, that it was better he fhould live than be killed; for, when the patient was dead, there would be an end to the doctor's fees. He, therefore framed various excufes for omitting of that which he never intended to perform, and which, perhaps, never would have been performed, had not Williams formed the refolution of heading the party himself.

The prifoners, when upon their trial, feemed not to be much affected; but, when they were found guilty, the folemnity with which Sir Jofeph Yates pronounced the fentence, though they did not understand a word he faid, roufed them; William Spiggot appeared in great agonies, but Charles David Morgan had the appearance of a confirmed, hardened villain, and did not fhew the leaft concern at the lamentations of William Charles, his fon (who was acquitted) who clung about him with fuch cries of diftrefs After conas greatly affected every one. demnation they were conveyed back to the gaol, where they were attended by feveral Clergymen, and, in particular, by the Ordinary, and the Rev. Mr. Williams, who, being a Welchman, by his exhortations in their own language, endeavoured to perfuade them to make an ample confeffion of their refpective crimes, as being the best method they could take towards demonftrating the fincerity of their repentance, and a very neceflary step towards making their peace with

God.

The particular things which they confeffed to the Clergyman, more than what have been before mentioned in this narrative, the Printer of the Trial fays he cannot with fafety publifh, probably because it may affect fome perfons not yet under profecution.

The Trial over, the Hon. Mr. Juftice Yates
addreffed himself to William Spiggot as
follows:

William Spiggot, you have been tried, and apon evidence that leaves not the fmalleft doubt, have now been found guilty of the moft wicked, the most favage, and the moft horrid murder that ever ftained the hand of man. A cool, deliberate, concerted affaffination!-Without a quarrel to provoke, without a paffion to incite, without a motive to tempt you, but the blackest that ever difgraced human nature,-A willingness to earn the wages of iniquity, the execrable 3

wages of an hireling affaffin. And how
hardened, how determined the preparations
you made for that bloody work! Day after
day projecting the horrid defign, till, at last,
deliberately putting on the ruffian frock and
blackened face, you daringly entered the
doors of the deceased; and in his own house
murdered him, moft inhumanly murdered
him, with every circumstance of favage bar-
barity: Yet he had never done the leaft
wrong to you, not the smallest provocation
or offence. That unfortunate man is now
in his grave, and in two days you will be as
cold and lifeless as he. But how different
your departure! By your bloody hand he
was wickedly murdered. You for that mur-
der will justly die: It is now my duty to
pronounce that dreadful fencence; an office
which to me is ever painful. I feel for the
melancholy condition you are in, who are fo
foon to die by the hands of juftice; but how
little did you feel for the man you murdered!
Friday next, the day after to-morrow, will
in this world be your last: But think of the
more dreadful day to come, when you will
appear before a far more awful tribunal, be-
fore the great Judge of all mankind. Think
how you will stand before him, covered over
with the blood of your fellow-creature,
whom you fo wickedly murdered, moft da-
ringly prefuming to deftroy that life which
the Almighty gave, and which he alone had
á right to take away. You have now but
two days to live, and in that short time have
much work to do. I therefore most earnest-
ly intreat you to employ every moment that
is left you in imploring God's mercy and
forgiveness, that your foul may escape that
dreadful punishment which lafts through all
eternity. At this bar you must expect no
mercy. The fentence of the law will moft
certainly be executed upon you; and that
fentence is, That you must be taken from
hence to the place from whence you came,
and from thence on Friday next to the place
of execution; that you be there hanged by
the neck till you are dead; and that your
body afterwards be delivered to the furgeons
to be diffected. And the Lord have mercy
on your fou!!

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The Judge then proceeded to point out the remarkable and material circumstances of cach remaining cafe. Upon the whole, the Jury acquitted John Spiggot, William Thomas, alias Blink, and William Charles; and found William Morris, David Morgan, Walter Evans, Charles David Morgan, and David Llewellin, guilty; and, as they did not understand English, the fentence was repeated to them in Welch by the Interpreter.

*On Friday about twelve o'clock they were conveyed to execution by the Sheriff, and between one and two they were all turned off. Morris was fo deeply affected that he fell into a fit, and was totally fenfelefs when he came to the gallows, where he was obliged to be held up whilft the halter was placed round his neck.Spiggot's concern was about the difpofal of his body, which he begged might be buried in a church-yard.They all fubmitted to their fentence with much refignation.David Morgan made a speech in Welch to the fpectators, warning

them by his own untimely end, how they liftened to the perfuafions of bad men, and fuffered the artifices of fuch feducers to draw them afide from the plain path of virtue. Four of them were delivered to the furgeons for diffection, and two are hung in chains in fome part of the county of Hereford. Before their execution they appeared very penitent, and made ample confeffions to the Clergyman who attended them; but it was the particular order of the Judge, that thofe fhould not be made public at that time.

To the GENTLEMEN, CLERGY, and FREEHOLDERS of the County of MIDDLESEX.

GENTLEMEN,

Obey the strong impulfe of a lively gra

tion, that the many tedious months of my

I confinement were not ufchelsly enoploy

ments of my liberty to thank you for the many favours you have conferred on me, during a long, cruel, and unmerited imprisonment. My fufferings the two laft years were indeared to me, as well as rendered truly honourable, by the fupport and protection of the friends of freedom. The trial was indeed long and fevere, but the most happy confequences have followed. The favourable opinion you were pleased at first to entertain of my integrity and fortitude has been confirmed on a variety of occafions, and I have experienced as frequent proofs of your unwearied zeal for your country, and fteady regard to me. I will go on with the fame fpirit in the cause of a brave and free people. To their fervice, to the defence of the laws, and to the prefervation of the religious and civil liberties of the whole British empire, the remainder of my life fhall be dedicated. I rely folely and intirely on your protection, and I will form no connection, which may in the fimalleft degree warp me from my duty to you, either as the dependent of a Minister, or even as the fervant of the Crown; for, I think a Reprefentative of the people ought to be perfectly free and unbiafled, in order more effectually to keep every Minister in awe, and to oppofe every incroachment of the prerogative, against which the House of Commons was established as a firm barrier. I will therefore know no influence in Parliament, but that created by the Conftitution, that of the conftituents over their Reprefentative; and I do not mean to acknowledge any other conftituents than thofe patriotic friends, by whofe favour I am the legal Member for the county of MiddleTex.

I reflect, Gentlemen, with great fatisfac

ed in the common caufe of public freedom. I have enjoyed in prifon the fruits of my long labours, the glory of destroying that dreaded engine of arbitrary power, fo cruelly employed of late, and fo often fatal to our countrymen, a General Warrant. After every delay of privilege and chicane from May 1763, an upright Jury, in last November, declared a late Secretary of State guilty. No punishment however has reached that firft and great offender. The Treasury paid the fine and whole expence of the profecution, and he has been even rewarded with the cuftody of the Privy Seal. The very fuperior abilities of my worthy colleague, Mr. Serjeant Glynn, were exerted through the whole of this important caufe. To his indefatigable zeal and love of legal liberty every fubject of this empire has the most effential obligations. I have taken care that all the proceedings in this great struggle of the people against the ufurped power of Minifters thall be entered in the proper Court, and I hope the Record will remain unaltered to our lateft pofterity, as a complete triumph of liberty over defpotifm. I feel with indignant forrow that I have not been equally fuccessful in another national concern which I had at heart, I mean a ftrict Parliamentary inquiry into the horrid maffacre of our countrymen in St. George's-fields on the fatal tenth of May, 1768. I gave to the public all the original papers refpecting that wicked fhedding of innocent blood, by which the land is defiled; and I offered to bring the evidence to the bar of the House of Commons. The only hope which now remains to us is, that the virtue of a future Parliament, faithful to the truft repofed in them by the people, will foon pursue the murderers, that ju

tice will at length overtake them, and that the moft fhocking of all crimes will not be left unpunished. The horror of the action is ftill fresh in the mind of every man of humanity, and I hold it to be the greatest reproach of our age and nation, that fo many of our fellow-fubjects have been bafely murdered by an inhuman foldiery in St. George'sfields, and other hired ruffians at Brentford, without a fingle victim to the public juftice of our country, to the future fecurity of our lives, or to the violated laws of God and

man.

The state of this county, Gentlemen, is truly alarming. The H of C———— -s have not only rejected a Member chofen by a majority of the freeholders, but likewife obtruded upon you a perfon, whom you never elected. They have openly affumed the whole Legiflative power. By their vote they have declared an incapacity, where the law of the land, and common right, rendered the party eligible to Parliament. This proceeding is a direct attack both on the form and effence of the Constitution, a flagrant violation of the fundamental privileges of Englishmen, and a robbery committed on every elector of the kingdom, even in the most invaluable of all his poffeffions, the right of representation in the House of Commons. You have petitioned, you have remonftrated, in the fpirit of true fons of liberty, but in vain. The reafon is most manifeft. The measure of my expulfion and incapacity was previously fettled in the cabinet, and only brought to Parliament by the Minifter, in order to go through the common forms, as other bufnefs in the ufual course of the feffion. The nation however are not the dupes of this arti

fice, and they regard the prefent of as no longer a juft and fair Reprefentative of the collective body of the electors in this united kingdom.

I am happy, Gentlemen, to leave a hateful prifon without the leaft spark of anger or refentment against the authors of all my fufferings. I have no malice nor revenge to gratify. I feel no paffion but that of gratitude to my friends, and my only enemies fhall be thofe of my country, thofe who ftill manifeft a rooted, unrelenting malice against the liberties of this kingdom, and who endeavour to intail flavery on us and our pofterity. If my perfecutions are not yet ended, I will continue to bear up as a man, firm and determined in the belt of caufes; nor for your fakes will I fcruple to dare all the vengeance of those wretched Minifters, who are now the rulers over us, but poffefs neither the confidence, nor the esteem of the people. If his Majefty be graciously pleafed to liften to the cries of a loyal but injured nation, and to remove a moft corrupt and defpotic Adminiftration, who are every day bafely and defperately ftabbing the very vitals of the Conftitution, I fhall then hope to live among you in the enjoyment of the first bleffing and the moft fovereign good, liberty, both perfonal and political, and when I can no longer be useful to my country, to die happy in the applause of the friends of freedom and of England.

I am, with deference and regard,
Gentlemen,

Your faithful and obedient
humble fervant,

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To the worthy Inhabitants of the Ward of Farringdon Without.

Gentlemen, Freemen, and Fellow-citizens,

Cannot fufficiently acknowledge and ap

when, in fupport of your rights, I mean to lay claim to, and infift upon, the being admitted and fworn into office, as having the

I honour of being elected

nefs, with which you have struggled through the various difficulties arifing from my inability to attend the duty of this great and refpectable ward. My future conduct will beft fhew the fenfe I have of fo fingular an obligation. The tedious imprisonment, to which I was fentenced for the firm oppofition I made to a wicked Miniftry, is at length happily paffed. By regaining my liberty this day, I hope to acquire the power of rendering you real fervices, and from the fuperior rank you have conferred on me, of becoming more eminently useful. I shall not fail to attend the next Court of Aldermen,

of fo confiderable a part of the city.

It is a particular fatisfaction to me, Gentlemen, that I am to enter on my duty at a time when we are governed by fo excellent a chief Magiftrate, and have Sheriffs of the moft liberal principles, zealous promoters of the public good, and of approved virtue. But above all I rejoice that the high spirit of liberty, joined with prudence, temper, and intrepidity, in fo peculiar a manner now animates the whole body of the livery of Lon don. The late petition and remonstrance will reflect honour on them to the remoteft ages. The English history does not give a Atronger

the exclufion of placemen and penfioners, for the fhort duration of Parliaments, and for an equal reprefentation.

I know, Gentlemen, how much the power and wealth of this great city depend on its trade and commerce, which have always flourished moft in the freeft States, and never arrived at perfection but under the patronage of liberty. I fhall therefore be ever ready to receive your directions on thefe important points, and in whatever relates to the profperity of this city, and the particular intereft of our ward. Every probable plan for the advancement of the common welfare, as well as every mercantile confideration, fhall have its due weight in my mind. I will ever be a zealous defender of the rights and privileges of the livery, and of all the freemen of London. In the concerns of this extensive ward I hope to have the advice and affiftance of my conflituents, every one of whom may be affured of that attention and regard, which I owe to thofe, by whofe delegated power I act, and for whofe intereft I accepted this important truft. It fhall be my conftant and earneft endeavour to juftify to the world the choice you have been pleased to make of me as your Alderman, and to approve myself an upright Magiftrate, and a good citizen of the capital of the British empire. I am, Gentlemen,

Bronger Inftance of the uprightnefs of our
countrymen, nor an example of any body of
men more untainted by corruption, more un-
influenced by every confideration of fear or
intereft, and more calm, yet determined, in a
great caufe. In the time of the laft Stuart
King, in the general confufion, when the
daftardly tyrant fled, the principal Nobili y
and Gentry reforted to our Guildhall for
protection, and concerted with our ancestors,
the citizens of this metropolis, that generous
and equal fyftem of power, which was efta-
blished by the people at the glorious Revo-
lution, and confirmed by the fucceeding Par-
liament in the Bill of Rights. We have
feen the most valuable of thofe rights, the
right of reprefentation in Parliament, openly
violated. On this important occafion the li-
very of London have fhewn themselves the
worthy defcendants of fuch ancestors. The
petition and the remonftrance have carried
that enormous grievance to the Throne in a
fpirited and becoming manner. I truft that
their public virtue and firmnefs will at last
triumph over the tyranny of the present Ad-
miniftration, and that our Sovereign will re-
ftore the Conftitution, thus fhaken from its
foundation, by the speedy diffolution of the
of --Such a confequence,
I think must soon follow from the noble con-
duct of this city, and of other great and pub-
lic-fpirited bodies of men. After that happy
event the people of England may expect from
their true friends, in a future honeft Parlia-
ment, the three effential and only effectual
remedies of this diftempered State, acts for April 18, 1770.

6

Freemen, and Fellow-citizens,
With gratitude and refpect,
Your affectionate, and
obedient, humble Servant,
JOHN WILKĖS:

Abstract of an ACT to repeal fo much of an Act made in the 7th Year of his prefent Majefty's Reign, intitled, An Act for granting certain Duties in the British Colonies and Plantations in America; for allowing a Drawback of the Duties of Cuftoms upon the Exportation, from this Kingdom, of Coffee and Cocoa-nuts of the Produce of the faid Colonies or Plantations; for difcontinuing the Drawbacks payable on China Earthen-ware exported to America; and for more effectually preventing the clandeftine Running of Goods in the faid Colonies and Plantations,' as relates to the Duties upon Glafs, Red-lead, White-lead, Painters Colours, Paper, Pafle-boards, Mill-boards, and Scale-boards, of the Produce or Manufacture of Great Britain, imported into any of his Majefty's Colonies in America; and alfo to the Discontinuing the Drawbacks payable on China Earthen-ware exported to America; and for regulating the Exportation thereof.

HE preamble to this act recites the act

Tof 7 G. III, which, after Dec. 1, 1770,

is hereby repealed as to the duties upon the articles (pecified in the title, because the faid auties, in fo far as they affect the produce and

manufacture of Great-Britain, do in their

nature tend to the prejudice and difcourage

ment thereof, and are therefore contrary to the true principles of commerce; and the part of the aforefaid act, difallowing a draw

back

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