John Haslam

“ Even during sleep they contrive to annoy him with their dream-workings, which consist in the power they exert of forcing their phantoms and grotesque images on his languid intellect. These assassins hold in their possession puppets of uncouth shape, and of various descriptions ; by looking steadily at which they can throw the form into his brain, and thus render the perception more vivid to the dreamer ”

“ I found great relief by so doing, and always imagined, that as soon as the lever was at the lowest, (by which time I had nearly let go my breath) the elasticity of the fluid about me made it recoil from the forcible suction of the loom, much in the manner as a wave recoils or shrinks back after it has been forced forward on the sands in the ebbing or flowing of the tide : and then remains solely upon its own gravity, till the general flux or stress again, forces it forward in form of a wave. ”

“ Poking, or pushing up the quicksilver.—When the person assailed possesses an intellect sufficiently strong to be conscious of his impregnation, he naturally revolts at the atrocities practised upon him by the workers of this infernal machine, and becomes prompted to express his indignation at their perfidy. While in the act, as he supposes, of venting the burst of indignation, they contrive to push a seeming thread of fluid through his back diagonally in the direction of his vitals. ”

“ The assailing gang consits of seven members, four of whom are men and three women. Of these persons four are commonly resident, and two have never stirred abroad since he has been the subject of their persecution. Of their general habits little is known ; occasionally they appear in the streets, and by ordinary persons would be taken to be pick-pockets or private distillers. They leave home to correspond with others of their profession ; hire themselves out as spies, and discover the secrets of government to the enemy, or confederate to work events of the most atrocious nature. ”

“ Fluid Locking.—A locking or constriction of the fibres of the root of the tongue, laterally, by which the readiness of speech is impeded.
Cutting soul from sense.—A spreading of the magnetic warp, chilled in its expansion, from the root of the nose, diffused under the basis of the brain, as if a veil were interposed ; so that the sentiments of the heart can have no communication with the operations of the intellect.
Stone-making.—The gang pretend they can at pleasure produce a precipitation in the bladder of any person impregnated, and form a calculus. ”

“ However, to shew what the nature of such event-working is, namely, how infamous human beings, making a profession of pneumatic chemistry, and pneumatic magnetism, hire themselves as spies ; and by impregnating persons, singled out by them as objects for interfering with, obtaining their secrets, actuating them in various ways, in thought, word and deed, as well as they can, to model their conduct, ideas or measures to favour the ends of assassin spies or event-workers, or their employers, &c. ”

“ Matthews experiences from being assailed, he appears to derive some consolation from the sympathy which prevails between himself and the workers of the machine.—Perilous as his present situation may be, it would be rendered still more alarming if he could not watch their proceedings, and thus be prepared to avert the force of their engine. This reciprocal impregnation and continuity of warp enables him to perceive their motions and attain their thoughts. Such seems to be the law of this sympathy, that mutual intelligence is the result ”

“ Thought-making.—While one of these villains is sucking at the brain of the person assailed, to extract his existing sentiments, another of the gang, in order to lead astray the sucker (for deception is practised among themselves as a part of their system ; and there exists no honor, as amongst thieves, in the community of these rascals) will force into his mind a train of ideas very different from the real subject of his thoughts, and which is seized upon as the desired information by the person sucking ”

“ Near every public office an air-loom is concealed, and if the police were sufficiently vigilant, they might detect a set of wretches at work near the Houses of Parliament, Admiralty, Treasury, &c. and there is a gang established near St. Luke’s Hospital. The force of assailment is in proportion to the proximity of the machine ; and it appears that the interposition of walls causes but a trifling difference : perhaps at the distance of 1000 feet a person might be considered out of the range of its influence. ”

“ These assassins are so superlatively skillful in every thing which relates to pneumatic chemistry, physiology, nervous influence, sympathy, human mind, and the higher metaphysic, that whenever their persons shall be discovered, and their machine exhibited, the wisest professors will be astonished at their progress, and feel ashamed at their own ignorance. The gang proudly boast of their contempt for the immature science of the present æra. ”

“ There are already too many maniacs allowed to enjoy a dangerous liberty ; and the Governors of Bethlem Hospital, confiding in the skill and integrity of their medical officers, were not disposed to liberate a mischievous lunatic to disturb the good order and peace of society. These gentlemen can have no advantage in detaining a person in confinement who has recovered his senses. ”

“ By this time it is probable that the curiosity of the reader is sufficiently satisfied concerning the mischievous and complicated science of event-working. Although the fable may be amusing, the moral is pernicious. The system of assailment and working events deprives man of that volition which constitutes him a being responsible for his actions, and persons not so responsible, in the humble opinion of the writer ought not to be at large. ”

“ Sometimes he says, “I’m to see fair play,” and makes a merriment of the business. Jack has very seldom worked the machine.
The third person is Sir Archy, who is about 55 years of age, wears a drab-coloured coat, and, according to the old fashion, his breeches button between the legs. Some of the gang assert that Sir Archy is a woman dressed in men’s apparel ; and whenever Mr. Matthews has endeavoured, by enquiry, to ascertain this fact, Sir Archy has answered in a manner so quaint and indelicate that I cannot venture to communicate his reply. He is considered as the common liar of the gang ”

“ In consequence of the numerous gangs established in this metropolis, all the persons holding high situations in the government are held impregnated. An expert of the gang, who is magnetically prepared, contrives to place himself near the person of a minister of state also impregnated, and is thus enabled to force any particular thought into his mind and obtain his reflections on the thought so forced.—Thus, for instance, when a Secretary at War is at church, in the theatre, or sitting in his office and thinking on indifferent subjects ”

“ Severally make oath and say, that they had, on Wednesday, the 29th day of November instant, a long examination of the patient, James Tilley Matthews, at Bethlem Hospital, and that they took considerable pains in ascertaining the state of his mind, and that it is their positive and decided opinion, as the result of such examination, that the patient is in a most deranged state of intellect, and wholly unfit to be at large. ”

“ Independently of the operation of this complex and powerful machine termed an Air-loom, which requires the person assailed to be previously saturated with magnetic fluid, a number of emissaries, who are termed novices, are sent about in different directions to prepare those who may hereafter be employed in the craft and mystery of event-working. This is termed Hand-impregnation, and is effected in the following manner : an inferior member of the gang, (generally a novice,) is employed in this business. ”

“ In person she is not fleshy, nor can she be said to be a thin woman ; she is not full-breasted. Ordinarily dressed, as a country tradesman’s wife, in black, without powder. Augusta seldom works the machine, but frequently goes abroad to correspond with other gangs at the West end of the town. Of agreeable deportment, and at first seems very friendly and cajoling ; but when she finds that she cannot influence and convince, becomes exceedingly spiteful and malignant. Her object is to influence women by her brain-sayings ”

“ Matthews’ insanity, by the highest and most respectable testimony, gave a different complexion to the case, and also suggested some reflections. Madness being the opposite to reason and good sense, as light is to darkness, straight to crooked, &c. ”

“ But the gang relate that they do not actually step back ; but, at the moment when they are observed, that they grasp a metal which has the power of weakening the sympathy between them and the person assailed, and of benumbing his perception. This metal appears to be formed like a distaff or truncheon, and two such are fixed on the top of the machine. At other times, they have pretended that each member of the gang is furnished with a separate metal. ”

“ All thoughts are made to assume a grotesque interpretation ; and the person assailed is surprised that his fixed and solemn opinions should take a form which compels him to distrust their identity, and forces him to laugh at the most important subjects. It can cause good sense to appear as insanity, and convert truth into a libel ”

“ Munro, the Physician to the Hospital aforesaid, for information, whether, by his knowledge and observation of the said James Tilly Matthews, he had been put in possession of any particular subject or subjects, which, on being mentioned within his hearing, did produce maniacal hallucination, and which this affirmant might not have been enabled to discover in the course of these conferences with Mr. Matthews ? to which question Doctor Munro replied, that he was not acquainted with any such subject, but that he believed him to be insane upon all. ”

“ Charlotte, the next in review, is about the same age as Augusta, and also of the middle stature, but more fleshy ; has the appearance of a French woman, being a kind of ruddy brunette. She constantly stays at home with Sir Archy, and complains that she is forcibly confined to this situation. They keep her nearly naked, and poorly fed. Mr. Matthews is led to suppose that she is chained ; for she has sometimes stated herself to be equally a prisoner with himself. Charlotte always speaks French, but her language and brain-sayings are conveyed in an English idiom. ”

“ On the 21st January 1798, he was placed on the incurable establishment. In this situation he continued for many years ; sometimes, an automaton moved by the agency of persons, hereafter to be introduced to the notice of the reader ; at others, the Emperor of the whole world, issuing proclamations to his disobedient subjects, and hurling from their thrones the usurpers of his dominions.
In the year 1809 his relatives again interfered, and confiding in their own opinion, that he was of sound mind, and possessed the proper direction of his intellects, requested that he might be discharged. ”

“ X. Suppose the assailed person at the greater distance of several hundred feet, the warp must be so much longer directly towards him, but the farther he goes from the pneumatic machine, the weaker becomes its hold of him, till I should think at one thousand feet he would be out of danger. ”

“ It may possibly effect some good, by turning the attention of medical men to the subject of professional etiquette, and to a consideration of those nice feelings and reciprocal charities, which confer on the practitioners of medicine the amiable distinction of a fraternity. If it should merely succeed in curbing the fond propensity to form hasty conclusions, or tend to moderate the mischief of privileged opinion, the purpose is sufficiently answered. ”

“ He also took Hadfield in tow, by means of magnetic impregnations, and compelled him to fire the Pistol at His Majesty in the theatre : but on this subject there is a difference of opinion, as some of the female part of the gang attribute this event to Blue-Mantle, of whom nothing farther is known. In working the machine Bill exerts the most unrelenting and murderous villany ; and he has never been observed to smile. ”

“ Lud Erskine and some others were Lord Grenville and Co’s. opponents in the cabinet to the philanthropic efforts to make more than common interest. They pretended they worked Ludlam into Dr. Monro’s hands, as completing the event of my being in them : asserting, that the working the former Administration out, and Lord Grenville in, the rendering all their measures abortive, and then pushing them on to be turned out, was to commemorate and retaliate upon them, for their parts in the persecution and imprisonment I experienced,”
second event-working. ”

“ It is said that he is a manufacturer of air-looms, and possesses the first rate skill in working this instrument. Altho’ he is unrelenting in his persecution of Mr. M. he appears to consider it as sport, and sits grinning, apparently delighted that he cannot be taken unawares. After his attacks, he generally observes that Mr. M. is the talisman ; then Sir Archy replies, with a sneer, “ Yes, he is the talisman.” ”

“ One of the assassins called by the rest Jack the Schoolmaster, who calls his exertions to prevent my writing or speaking correctly, dictating, he ever intruding his own style and endeavouring to force it upon me. He pretends to be the short-hand-writer, to register or record every thing which passes. ”

“ They have ever avowed also ; that my having immediately on my return set about exposing the quoted infamies, occasioned a magnetic spy to be appointed from each gang of event-workers in London, specially to watch and circumvent me : for that the chiefs of such gangs were the real persons who were cloked under certain names and titles used in the information given me, and which I have for years found such vile spy-traitor-assassins called by among their fraternity. ”