My dear Lord.
You will receive with this the additional information of the person relative to whom I wrote to you yesterday, as far as it goes it is more clear than what I sent up last night, but it will be necessary that the whole should be [methodical], & made much more Explicit, before an accurate judgement can be form’d on the occasion,
How far this may or may not be worth while, will rest much on the result of an experiment we are trying this night—
The informer has given us information of Fifteen small depots of arms, all pretty much in the neighbourhood of Holmfirth, and I have just sent detachments to have them all search’d at the same time in the course of the night,
Should his information proved correct in as far as relates to those arms, it will give undoubtedly a considerable degree of confidence in every thing else he has said. The feeling of my own mind on the subject is, though I do not believe many of his broad assertions, particularly in regard to money, that we will find him pretty correct in the details he has given, but I say this not having seen the man, & merely judging from the kind of evidence he has given, & the minute particulars into which he has enter’d
I mention’d to your Lordship last night, that the seizing this man originally & the whole proceedings, had occasioned unpleasant feelings in various quarters. One of the Magistrates of the West Riding (Mr. Radcliffe,) was extremely [violent] on the subject of this man being brought out of the county, [illegible] the behest of Mr. Hay, who is a magistrate of the West Riding as well as this county – Mr. Hay on the other hand seem’d to entertain jealousies of a different nature, but I only mention this in consequence of my having stated something on the subject to your Lordship last night, happily it is not necessary for me to trouble you further with regard to it, as the thing appears to me to be going on now perfectly smoothly & I trust there will be no occasion to enter into any further discussion respecting it—
Your Lordship will perceive in reference to the whole of this information, that though it presents a system of organization in itself different & distinct from any that has hitherto, under my eye, & certainly more perfect as far as it goes, that still it stops exactly where every other information stopt, & that though four leaders appear, still we are totally in the dark beyond this point, and I most sincerely hope, this may be owing to there being in truth no great additional discovery to be made.
I feel myself disinclined to press any thing further on Your Lordship's notice till we known the result of the search for the arms; which will go up by to-morrow night, & am [etc]
T Maitland
P.S.
Since writing the above Mr. Hay has been with me, & I find from him that Mr. Radcliffe is still extremely indignant & perfectly ignorant of the facts on the occasion, the better mode of trusting him, is to say nothing on the subject & when he finds himself totally in the wrong, which he really is, I am sure he will be sorry to his present feelings—
TM
[To] Lord Viscount Sidmouth
&c &c &c
This letter can be found at HO 42/125.
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