on. They even employed the pen
of Ferguson, who had been concerned in every plot that was hatched since
the Rye-house conspiracy. This veteran, though appointed housekeeper to
the excise-office, thought himself poorly recompensed for the part he
had acted in the revolution, became dissatisfied, and upon this occasion
published a letter to sir John Trenchard on the abuse of power. It
was replete with the most bitter invectives against the ministry, and
contained a great number of flagrant instances in which the court
had countenanced the vilest corruption, perfidy, and oppression. This
production was in every body's hand, and had such an effect upon the
people, that when the prisoners were brought to trial at Manchester,
the populace would have put the witnesses to death had they not been
prevented by the interposition of those who were friends of the accused
persons, and had already taken effectual measures for their safety.
Lunt's chief associate in the mystery of information was one Taaffe,
a wretch of the most profligate principles, who, finding himself
disappointed in his hope of reward from the ministry, was privately
gained over by the agents for the prisoners. Lunt, when desired in court
to point out the persons whom he had accused, committed such a mistake
as greatly invalidated his testimony; and Taaffe declared before the
bench, that the pretended plot was no other than a contrivance between
himself and Lunt in order to procure money from the government. The
prisoners were immediately acquitted, and the ministry incurred a
heavy load of popular odium, as the authors or abettors of knavish
contrivances to insnare the innocent. The government, with a view to
evince their abhorrence of such practices, ordered the witnesses to
be prosecuted for a conspiracy against the lives and estates of the
gentlemen who had been accused; and at last the affair was brought into
the house of commons. The Jacobites triumphed in their victory. They
even turned the battery of corruption upon the evidence for the crown,
not without making a considerable impression. But the cause was now
debated before judges who were not at all propitious to their views. The
commons having set on foot an inquiry, and examined all the papers and
circumstances relating to the pretended plot, resolved that there was
sufficient ground for the prosecution and trials of the gentlemen at
Manchester; and that there was a dangerous conspiracy against the king