The Cato Street Conspiracy is the name given to a plot to murder the entire British Cabinet at a dinner to be held in the Earl of Harrowby's house in Grosvenor Square, London on the 23rd of February 1820. Before this could take place, the plotters, a group of impoverished radicals and revolutionaries, were captured in a loft in Cato street in Westminster. Of the eighteen men who met in Cato street five were publicly hanged outside Newgate prison on May 1st 1820, six were transported to Australia for life, and the remaining “conspirators” were either rewarded or released due to their status as spies, agent provocateurs, or men who had turned King's Evidence. The “conspiracy”, as public records now make clear, and as was widely recognised at the time, was instigated by the…
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Citation: Gardner, John. "Cato Street Conspiracy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 03 November 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=1507, accessed 11 May 2024.]
