The National Register. — London, England, 1812-05-17 00:00:00

310 immassmsor sensation of the case to the various Departments of his Majesty's Go vernment, and in January last I applied for redress, by Petition, to his Royal flighnetss the Prince Regent, who was graciously pleased to refer the .fin ro Majesty's Illtn,ourable Privy Council—[See let • ter N.,. ' —The Council declined to act in the business, upon which I reqift e 1 an official copy of their Lordships' decision, and was an swerefti 'fit' the Clerk of the Council, it could not be complied with ; in come*. slue, I renewed my application to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, accompanied by a Petition to the House of Commons, praying his Royal Highness, that as the affair is purely national, he would be graciously pleased to direct my complaint to be brought before parliament; to which Petition I received the answer [No. s-of Havioe borne the weight of this unhappy affair abroad, for a serie years, a manifold way, on my return home I had the mortification to fir..,+ tx affairs going .to ruin, may propertysold off, my family dis— traete t, fzul suffering in the most severe manner by the inevitable ruin- Inv.; cocsofquences of my detention ; and for.t.he nrageding two years they had font keen able t o ascertain whether I of . x . alive or dead. Since my rei I have not only been bereaved of 4 ,4 further property (be queathed- in my absence) to make good the consequence of this busi ness, hut am now considerably involved--so fatal has it proved.—Thus circemstanced, I trust I shall be pardoned in addressing the House of Commons individually, in the hope that on the behalf of material jus tice, some Member will do me the favour to bring forward my said jnat Petition—as common justice is all that I solicit, and what every one will agree I ought to have, more especially as my sufferings for the last eight years have been almost too great for human nature to sustain. In soliciting your kind aid, I beg to be understood, that it. is far from my intention, by this address, to complain of any party whatever, being coovinced, that in no country upon earth is justice so purely adirinisk. - ed as in this ; and justice I am sure I shall have, so soon as die atfairis known to the Tribunal where alone it can be taken proper dognizgact of. I have the honour to be, Sir, Your very humble and obedient •lervant, JOHN BELLINGHAM. No. 9, New Millman-street, March 12, 1812. (The memorial contained in 0:15 letter contains an account of the private occurrences which befel this unfortunate man in consequence of his irregularity or violence in Rll.4ia. He went to that count , y, •iz. to Archangel, in 1804, and on the 15th of November in the same year, when setting out for St. Petershurgh, was thrown into prison upon an affidavit of debt made, by one Solomon Van Brienen. After various applications to Sir S. Shairpe and Lord Granville Leveson Gower, who took tip his case, till they ascertained that the pro ceedings against Hill had been correct, he at length obtained his liberty, and arrived at Tetersburgh, where he impeached the Military Governor of Arcl,angel. This frivolous prosecution led him into other difficulties from which he was at last extricated , an d on his return to r ngland, eiesiegechhe public offices with applications for redress of what he , - .!lotte to call a public and national grievance. Being disappointed in all these ai.plications, he at length determined to bring his case before Par liameet, and enclosed the inemorial, of which this is an abstract, to a great number of Members, in the preceding letter.) No. I. Whitehall, February 18, 1812. Sir—l am directed by Mr. Secretary Ryder to acquaint you that your Pctition to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent has been re ferred, by the command of his Royal Highness, for the consideration of the Lords of his Maje yst's most Honoueable Privy Council. I am, Sir, your most obedient eervant, J. BECKETT. _Jotm Bellingham, En. No. 2. Whitehall, March 9, 1812. atn directed by Mr. Secretary Ryder to acquaint you, that To. y Petition to his Royal Highness the Prince Regent, praying that he would be plcased to order your Memorial therein ettciosed, address ed to the Hrluse of Con7mons, to be brought before Piatiament, has been laid before his Royal Ilizhness, and that he was not pleased to si,,tnify a ny commands there-upon. Your Memorial to the House of Commons is accordingly herewith returned. I am, Sir, Your most obedient humble servant, John Bellingham, Esq. J. BECKETT. OLD B4IILLY, FRID4r, .11Lir 13. • TRIAL. OF BELI.INGHAM. In the memory of the oldest nun ,living, this Court was never so .erov. - ded. Every rank and every dec,ree of persons assembled to see and bear the trial of the asszsain Bellingham. At ri:tie o'clock, the Marquis Wellesley, accompanied by several dis tinguiphed personages, took their scats on the Bench. An unusual as • sernolave el the iCentletren of the Bar appeared, and every avenue to the Court was close up by thousands who could not obtain admission ; and dis:Tpointetl, were obliged to go away. Several ladies of dibtin pvished rank carne at a very early hoar, and occupied seats pi epared fen their' reception, in various parts of the Cour:. MAY 17 So great was the press, that a great number of eminent persons of both Houses of Parliament were compelled to intermix indiscriminately with the multitude in the body of the Court. At ten o'clock, the Duke of Clarence and the Lord Chief lestiee o f the Common Pleas, accompanied by the other Judges, via. Mr. Justice Grose, Baron Graham, and the Recorder, appeared, and took their seats on each side of the Lord Mayor, and immediately the prisoner was produced, and placed at the Bar. At this moment a deep horror was visibly depicted on every countenance. Even Bellingham himself seem ed dismayed; but in a few seconds he assumed the same species of de portment which he had all along displayed. Mr. Garrom: called on the prisoner to plead. Mr. Alley addressed the Bench, stating, that be ought not to plead, being insane. Mr. Attorney-General said, the usual mode for the prisoner to pursue was to plead. IVIr. Garrow—" This is the stage for the prisoner to plead, and the only stage." Mr. Alley said—" My duty is to state, that the prisoner is in that state that he ought not to be called on to plead." The Court—" He has no right to Counsel till he pleads." The prisoner being called on to plead, he complained of the prosecu tors refusing him his papers, which were beneficial to him, and pleadsd Not Guilty. The Attorney-General and Mr. Garrow both declared that he had an offer of copies of those papere. Mr. Alley then stated, that, as his instructions were to the insanity of the prisoner, he should confine himself to that. He then proceeded to move that bis trial should be put off, for the sole purpose of producing witnesses. He then read an affidavit of Ann Billet, stating in direct terms the insanity of the prisoner, and that several witnesses knew the face, but they were absent, and could not at this day be brought to Lon don from Liverpool, and elsewhere. The Learned Gentleman then appealed in forcible terms to the humanity as well as justice of the Court, to let the trial stand over till a more distant period. Here the•Attorney-General and Mr. Garrow interfered, and said, that in Arnold's ease the Court restrained the Counsel for defendant front proceeding with any observations, restricting him merely to the readill the affidavit ; which was accordingly put in, and read by Mr. Sheltoe. Another affidavit was read, made by Mary Clark, of Bagnio-court, Newgate-street, to the same effect. The Attorney-General contended, that this was a contrivance merely to impose upon the Court and delay justice. He put it to the Court that the prisoner had been four months in town, transacting every spe cies of business, and he did Hot call for any of those to show that he was in that deranged state of mind they would describe. The Attorney- General then adverted ti the observations made by the prisoner himself respecting his Papers, frost whence he deduced that the prisoner was in possession riot only of a sane but a masculine mind. Mr. Alley, in reply, maintained that the prisoner was entitled to have his trial put off. With respect to the circumstance of not producing those in town to testify his insanity, he said, that every effort was used to procure the attendance of such persons, as well as Doctors Simmons and Munro; but that one stated the impossibility of his appearance tu day, and no answer was received from the other. The Court then consulted for a short time, and Sir J. Mansfield pronounced the sentimen ts of the Court respecting the application, and said, that the affidavits were not sufficient to induce them to put off the trial, particularly as they did not specify what in duced the prisoner to go to Russia, and how he had been oc cu p ied since Ins return, and how his mind had been engaged since his retern, now two years. The motion was therefore refused, especially as the affidavits did not state, that at the time when the crime was committed, he was insane. The prisoner was then arraigned, and at the arraigning was allowed to challenge any of the Jurors, if h e thought tit. Here the of Cotheunselna m for e the Crown challenged peremptorily one of the Ju r y , Brown. 11r. Alley objected to the right of the Crown t o challenge, u nless in cases of High 'I reason. , Mr. Garrow replied ; and the obejection was o v e rruled. 01 A Mr. Bighy was then objected to by the Crown, and not di s p uted el the Counsel for the prisoner, and the Jury were sworn : on which pee clamation was made, and the trial proceeded. The Jury consisted sl the following persons : Ephraim Lee, Foreman. .English. Dar iel Haywood. I John Thomas Whittington. Charles Rii.isell. John Kennington. James Osborne. 'Thomas Juggins. James King. Lee Waters. George Gay ton, The indictment was then rend by Mr. Shelton, Clerk of the arraigns: and Mr. Abbott opened the pleadings, stating % that John Bellinghacet had committed the crime of murderi n g the Ri g ht Honourable Spe Perceval. The Attorney General then addressed the Jury.—He,began by saoeirig, that the peinfel task devolved on him of calling the attention f t Court and :he Jury to the case of the prisoner. He conjured thesis to ceitsider, the: jnatice, and not vengeance, was the object of tle 3 P"'" THE NATIONAL REGISTER. iass