they should be
assembled at a Cabinet dinner, to be given by the Earl of Harrowby, Lord
President of the Council. Government knew all about the conspiracy, and
allowed it to ripen, and then "bagged" the conspirators. This was in
February, 1820; and on the first of May five of the assassins were
hanged and five others transported. When Sir Robert Peel was last
Prime-Minister, a fellow named M'Naughten sought his life, and killed
his private secretary, Mr. Drummond. Sir Robert was so indiscreet as to
charge Mr. Cobden with inciting persons to take his life!

Russia has lost several of her sovereigns through assassination,
accompanied or preceded by deposition. Ivan VI. was assassinated in
prison, almost a quarter of a century after the crown had been taken
from him. Peter III. survived his downfall but a week, when he was
poisoned, beaten, and strangled. The Czar Paul was so unreasonable as to
resist those who were deposing him, and they were under the disagreeable
necessity of squeezing his throat so long and so tightly, that breathing
became difficult, and at last stopped altogether. The murderers of both
Peter and Paul became great personages, held high offices, did important
deeds, and were received in the very best society, as well abroad as at
home. Macaulay, in his article on Madame D'Arblay, (Fanny Burney,)
mentions the number, the variety, and the greatness of the company which
her father, Dr. Burney, assembled frequently at his house. "On one
evening, of which we happen to have a full account," he says, "there was
present Lord Mulgrave, Lord Bruce, Lord and Lady Edgecumbe, Lord
Barrington from the War Office, Lord Sandwich from the Admiralty, Lord
Ashburnham, with his gold key dangling from his pocket, and the French
Ambassador, M. de Guignes, renowned for his fine person and for his
success in gallantry. But the great show of the night was the Russian
Ambassador, Count Orloff, whose gigantic figure was all in a blaze of
jewels, and in whose demeanor the untamed ferocity of the Scythian might
be discerned through a thin varnish of French politeness. As he stalked
about the small parlor, brushing the ceiling with his toupee, the girls
whispered to each other, with mingled admiration and horror, that he was
the favored lover of his august mistress [Catharine II.]; that he had
borne the chief part in the revolution to which she owed her throne; and
that his huge hands, now glittering with diamond rings, had given t