for the Lord only knows where to find them at the present day--the writer
does not. If he did, he would at any time go five miles to invite one of
them to dinner, even supposing that he had to go to a workhouse in order
to find the person he wished to invite. Amongst the real Radicals of
England, those who flourished from the year '16 to '20, there were
certainly extraordinary characters, men partially insane, perhaps, but
honest and brave--they did not make a market of the principles which they
professed, and never intended to do so; they believed in them, and were
willing to risk their lives in endeavouring to carry them out. The
writer wishes to speak in particular of two of these men, both of whom
perished on the scaffold--their names were Thistlewood and Ings.
Thistlewood, the best known of them, was a brave soldier, and had served
with distinction as an officer in the French service: he was one of the
excellent swordsmen of Europe; had fought several duels in France, where
it is no child's play to fight a duel; but had never unsheathed his sword
for single combat, but in defence of the feeble and insulted--he was kind
and open-hearted, but of too great simplicity; he had once ten thousand
pounds left him, all of which he lent to a friend, who disappeared and
never returned him a penny. Ings was an uneducated man, of very low
stature, but amazing strength and resolution, he was a kind husband and
father, and though a humble butcher, the name he bore was one of the
royal names of the heathen Anglo-Saxons. These two men, along with five
others, were executed, and their heads hacked off, for levying war
against George the Fourth; the whole seven dying in a manner which
extorted cheers from the populace; the most of them uttering
philosophical or patriotic sayings. Thistlewood, who was, perhaps, the
most calm and collected of all, just before he was turned off, said, "We
are now going to discover the great secret." Ings, the moment before he
was choked, was singing "Scots wha ha' wi' Wallace bled." Now there was
no humbug about those men, nor about many more of the same time and of
the same principles. They might be deluded about Republicanism, as
Algernon Sidney was, and as Brutus was, but they were as honest and brave
as either Brutus or Sidney; and as willing to die for their principles.
But the Radicals who succeeded them were beings of a very different
description; they jobbed and traded in Republicanism, an