Title continues: "With The Trials At Large of the Conspirators, for High Treason and Murder; A Description of Their Weapons and Combustible Machines, and Every Particular Connected With the Rise, Progress, Discovery, and Termination of the Horrid Plot. With Portraits of all the Conspirators, taken during their Trials, by Permission, and other Engravings." Led by Arthur Thistlewood, whose portrait is opposite the title page, the Cato Street Conspiracy was an attempt to murder all Britain's government ministers, including Prime Minister Lord Liverpool, in 1820. Motivated in part by the economic depression of the time, the conspirators wished to avenge the Peterloo Massacre and ensuing Six Acts. Ultimately, they wished to initiate a revolution similar to that of France. The plot failed and most of those involved were hanged; the final chapters of this book describe their last moments and sad letters to their families. Other men were sent to the penal colony of Australia. The Preface and Address go a little overboard in describing the "wild, wicked, and visionary schemes" of the conspirators.
