they entertained him hospitably, and made no secret of their impatience for the arrival of the happy time of which he spoke.  Unfortunately Thom became involved in some smuggling transaction, and having been found guilty of perjury in connection with it, was sentenced to six years’ transportation.  After his condemnation it was discovered that he was insane, and his sentence was not carried out, but he was removed from Maidstone gaol to the county lunatic asylum, where he remained four years.  In 1837 he was released by Lord John Russell, who considered that he was sufficiently recovered to be delivered up to the care of his friends.  They, however, failed to discharge their duty efficiently; and in 1838, Thom reappeared in Kent, conducting himself more extravagantly than ever.  The farmers and others supplied him with money, and he moved about the county delivering inflammatory harangues in the towns and villages—­harangues in which he assured his auditors that if they followed his advice they should have good living and large estates, as he had great influence at court, and was to sit at her majesty’s right hand on the day of the coronation.  He told the poor that they were oppressed and down-trodden by the laws of the land, and invited them to place themselves under his command, and he would procure them redress.  Moreover, he assured those whose religious convictions were disturbed, that he was the Saviour of the world; and in order to convince them, pointed to certain punctures in his hands, as those inflicted by the nails of the cross, and to a scar on his side, as the wound which had discharged blood and water.  By these representations he succeeded in attaching nearly a hundred people to himself.

On the 28th of May he set out at the head of his tatterdemalion band from the village of Boughton, and proceeded to Fairbrook.  Here a pole was procured, and a flag of white and blue, representing a rampant lion, was raised as the banner which was to lead them to victory.  From Fairbrook they marched in a kind of triumphal procession round the neighbouring district, until a farmer of Bossenden, provoked by having his men seduced from their employment by Thom’s oratory, made an application for his apprehension.  A local constable named Mears, assisted by two others, proceeded to arrest the crazy impostor.  After a brief parley, Thom asked which was the constable; and on being informed by Mears that he held that position, produced a pistol, and shot the unoffending representative of the law, afterwards stabbing him with a dagger.  The wounds were almost immediately fatal, and the body was tossed into a ditch.  The remaining constables fled to the magistrates who had authorised them to make the capture, and reported the state of affairs.  When the intelligence of Mears’s death spread abroad, the general indignation and excitement was very great, and a messenger was despatched to fetch some soldiers from Canterbury.  A military party soon arrived,