After the establishment of the The
Observer in 1791 Vincent Dowling was appointed as the newspaper's
first reporter. When the newspaper failed to make money for its owner,
W. S. Bourne, attempts were made to sell it to the government. This
move was unsuccessful but the government did agree to help subsidise
the newspaper in return for influencing its content.
The Home Office also decided to recruit Dowling as a government spy.
In 1815 Lord Sidmouth, the Home Secretary,
became worried about the growing demands for parliamentary reform.
One group of radicals causing particular concern was the Spencean
Philanthropists. Although the man who had inspired the group,
Thomas Spence, had died in 1814, this had
not dampened the Spenceans desire for a change in the political system.
Sidmouth gave John Stafford, chief clerk
at Bow Street, and the supervisor of Home Office spies, the task of
obtaining the evidence necessary to destroy this group. Stafford recruited
John Castle, a member of the Spenceans,
as a spy. He also asked Dowling to obtain information on the group.
In December 1816, John Stafford paid
Dowling to record what was said at a political meeting organised by
the Spenceans. The speakers at the meeting
at Spa Fields, Islington, included Henry 'Orator'
Hunt and James Watson. The magistrates
decided to disperse the meeting and while Stafford and eighty police
officers were doing this, one of the men, Joseph Rhodes, was stabbed.
The four leaders of the Spenceans,James Watson,
Arthur Thistlewood, Thomas Preston
and John Hopper were arrested and charged with high treason.
After the arrest of the leaders of the Spencean
Philanthropists Dowling was sent to Coldbath Fields House of Correction
in Clerkenwell. Dowling used his short-hand skills to record what
the prisoners said to their visitors. In one report that Vincent Dowling
sent to John Stafford, he warned him
that James Watson was intending to use
many "quotations from scripture" in his defence.
James
Watson was the first to be tried. The two main prosecution witnesses
were two government spies: John Castle
and Vincent Dowling. The defence council were aware of this and tried
very hard to undermine the testimony of these two men. During the
cross-examination the defence council was able to show that Castle
had a criminal record and had been acting as an agent provocateur
(a person employed to incite suspected people to some open action
that will make them liable to punishment).
The defence also tried to show that Dowling's testimony was suspect.
It was suggested that the information he gave in court was untrustworthy
as Dowling was a paid informer. Although Dowling admitted in court
that he had given information to John Becket, the Permanent Under-Secretary
at the Home Office, he denied he had received any money for his services.
After hearing all the evidence the jury concluded that the information
supplied by John Castle and Vincent Dowling
was unreliable and refused to convict James
Watson. As the case against Watson had failed, it was decided
to release the other three men who were due to be tried for the same
offence.
(1)
Vincent Dowling being cross-examined during the trial of James Watson
(June, 1817)
Question:
Have you ever applied for any employment under Government?
Vincent Dowling:
I have not.
Question:
Of any kind?
Vincent Dowling:
No.
Question:
Who desired you to attend on the second of December?
Vincent
Dowling: I
attended by desire of the proprietors of the Observer newspaper.
Question:
Had you any direction from anyone in the Secretary of State's office,
or any magistrate?
Vincent Dowling:
I had not, nor never had any previous communication with them.
Question:
Having taken this note on the second of December, to whom did you
give the copy when you transcribed it from your note?
Vincent
Dowling: I
gave it to Mr. Beckett.
Question:
Mr. Beckett the Under-Secretary of State?
Vincent
Dowling: Yes, so I understand.
(2)
Percy Bysshe Shelley, letter to a friend
in 1817.
It
is impossible to know how far the higher members of the Government
are involved in the guilt of their infernal agents. But this much
is known, that so soon as the whole nation lifted up its voice for
parliamentary reform, spies went forth. These were selected from the
most worthless and infamous of mankind, and dispersed among the multitude
of famished and illiterate labourers. It was their business to find
victims, no matter whether right or wrong.
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