todayinhistory: February 23rd 1820: Cato Street Conspiracy foiledOn this day in 1820, the Cato Stree
todayinhistory: February 23rd 1820: Cato Street Conspiracy foiledOn this day in 1820, the Cato Street Conspiracy plot to assassinate the British Prime Minister Lord Liverpool and his cabinet ministers was foiled. The conspirators were a group of Londoners who opposed with the policies of Lord Liverpool’s government and desired to see a revolution. They were organised by radical disciples of activist Thomas Spence, who pledged to work for an equal society, and met in pubs across London. The government became concerned about the groups, and sent a spy named John Castle to infiltrate the group. They became steadily more radical, as the militant Arthur Thistlewood gradually achieved control of the group. Their increasingly revolutionary ideas caused the government to recruit more spies. In February 1820, the conspirators learned that high-ranking government ministers were to have dinner in Grosvenor Square, and planned to execute their final plan and murder the ministers gathered there. They planned to display their victims’ heads on poles through the streets of London to inspire full revolution. The plotters gathered in a small building on Cato Street from which to launch their attack, but due to tips from the spies the plot was foiled and police officers apprehended the suspects. Eleven people were eventually charged with the conspiracy - five were found guilty and sentenced to death, and five others were sentenced to transportation to a penal colony. -- source link