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

THE N ATIONAL REGISTER.

V 2,

with his fee t placed nn two chairs sitting upon a table, and two gentle-
men stypoil:ing hint. He saw soate blood upon his white waistcoat,
and noon his shirt, which turning aside, he saw an opening in his skin,
he examinea the pulse, but no pulsation was there. He was quite dead.
He probed the wound, and the probe went three inches downwards,
without an,' obstructions. He had no doubt, from the direction which
the ball had taken, that it had either passed near, or entered his heart.
lie had no doubt but the wound which he examined was the cause of

his death.
Mr. Henry Burgess, examined by Mr. GURNEY, said, he was a Solid-
tor, and upesl the afternoon of Monday, the 11th inst. had attended the
lobby of the House of Commons. A few minutes atter five o'clock he
heard the report of a pistol, apparently from the door by which people
commonly enter to the lobby. He observed a person coming rapidly
towards the door of the House of Commons, who staggered before he
reached the pillars next to the door, which uphold the ceiling. He saw
him put his hand to his breast, and saying " Oh!" very faintly, he fell
forward on his face. At that moment he heard a voice say," That's the
man !" and observed a hand which pointed to the prisoner, who, by this
time, had st: ated himself on the bench by the lobby fire. Upon this,
he
tom up to the prisoner, who was sitting in great agitation with one or two
persons by him holding him by the coat. He looked at his hands, and
perceived that the left one was either nigh to, touching, or upon a pistoll1;
he took the pistol from his band, and inquired what reasons could have
induced him to do so base a deed. The prisoner answered, " Want of
redress of grievance, and refusals by Government," or words to that
effect. He asked the prisoner if he had another pistol in his pocket ; he
answered, " Yes," and it was loaded. He saw a person take a pistol
from the left side of the prisoner but whether from his pocket or not
be could not determine. When he took hold of the first pistol, he found
the barrel to he warm, and by the appearance of the cock, he conceived
that it had been recently discharged • the hammer was down upon the
pan—the pistol was of a large bore. ife searched the waistcoat pockets
Of the prisoner, and took from the right hand one, a small penknife,
and a petwil ; and from the other, a hunch of keys, and some money.
ht the same time that he saw the loaded pistol taken from the prisoner's
pocket, he perceived another person take a bunch of papers from ano-
ther -pocket. The prisoner was detained in custody, and immediately
afterwards examined before the Magistrates. In presence of the prisoner,
he related those facts which he had now related to the Court, and when
be concluded, the prisoner said, " 1 wish to correct Mr. Burgess in one
part of his statement, and only one, I believe him perfectly correct in
all the rest. Instead of my hand being on or near the pistol, I think he
took it from my hand."
-- Mr. ALLEY cross-c.ramincd him. The prisoner said, nothing concern-
ing personal resentment towards Mr. Perceval had actuated him. He
had been ill-used by the Government. There were about twenty persons
in the lobby, at the moment of the murder, not more—he heard the
call of " Shut the doors !" He would not pretend to take upon him to
sy, that, at the moment the deed was committed, that the prisoner had
the prip,fruse of his senses.
Re-erantined by Mr. Geis 14 EY . He said the prisoner appeared, on his
examination tip stairs, to be perfectly collected and cal"i. He could nt'
ciseidedly say, that de prisoner was within the lobby when the deed was
conmii cted, but he had no doubt of his being within it. At the bottom
of the passage, a few steps downwards from the entrance of the lobby,
a person was commonly stationed, by whom none co uld pass without
being within a yard of him, and which he must perceive.
LieuteGeneral Isaac Gascoyne, examined by Mr. ABBOTT, said, that
he was a 'siember of the House of Commons, and upon the 11th day of
May, which haepened to he Monday last, he was sitting in one of the
Committee Rooms, awaiting, according to appointment, the arrival of
Mr. Perceval, to show him a Petition from the City of Liverpool. This
was about five o'clock, and the House was in a Committee upon Peti-
tions relating to the Orders in Council. He sat in the Committee Room
in the story above the Lobby, with the door open, which fronts the
ballustrade, by which they can lock down and ste what is passing in
the lobby. In this situation he was nearly the same as being in the
lobby of the House. He heard; at about a quarter of an hour past
five, the loud report of a pistol, and an almost instantaneous cry of
" Close the doors He rushed down stairs through the House of Com-
mons into the lobby, aid the moment when he came there, he saw a
crowd collected around a person who was seated on a bench by the
lobby fire. A man near him pointed to the person, and said, "'That is
the man who fired the pistol," pointing to John Bellingham, the prisoner
at the Bar, whose name he knew, and with whose persen he had been
for some time acquainted. He flew towards the prisoner, who was
seate4 beside two other persons, and seizing him by the breast, lie lifted
up his hand, in which appeared a pistol, apparently cocked. The first
impressioa upon his mind when he perceived the prisoner in this position
was, that he would use the pistol against the person of the witness.
He kept down his arm with all his strength. and a person took away
the pistol from ben, ath his hand. He heard that perem ask the pri-
soner whether ur nut he had got another pis;ol about him, and he an-
swered " Yes." Ile then proceeded to search, whilst other persons
were searching bins also. He put his hand into the inside pocket of his
coat, and pulled out a bundle of pa,,ers tied with a piece of red tape.
ky this tune the prssiure of the peeple around them was so great, that
be was pushed up to the prisoner's breast. He held up the bundle of
papers in his hand, for it appeared to him, at that netsiniset, that the pri-

ATAY 17

sorer was intended to be rescued and carried through the lobby to the
outside front the hold which he had taken of him. He fastened on him
with both hands, :led told hint that he should nut escape, for he knee,
him well, and would not lose sight of him. The prisoner said he had
submitted, and complained that the witness had used him roughly and
hat he was the person who fired the pistol. By the assistance of other
persons he was dragged to the Bar of the House of Commons, and
placed in custody of two messengers. • He admitted, that his name was
John Bellingham. The prisoner was then taken up stairs to be exa-
mined, during which period he never lost sight of him until the exa-
mination was closed. The witness there related the evidence which he
had now eneployed in the Court, upon which, the prisoner said,
44 General Gasccrygne is too correct for me to question the accuracy of
what he has said, for at that moment he was certainly less agitated than
I was." The prisoner appeared with the same composure about him
which he had displayed before the fatal occurrence, during the time
while he was examined above stairs, but when he saw him first in the
lobby, he was in a state of fearful agitation as any man would be, who
was conscious he had committed a guilty action, his face was in a violent
perspiration. He had seen the prisoner towards the latter end of April,
when he came by appointment to the house of the witness, and had a
short conversation with him.
James Taylor was next examined, who said he was by trade a tailor,
at No. 11, North-place, Gray's Inn-lane, near Great Millman-street,
where the prisoner resided. During the month of March he met with
the prisoner at his shop, who ordered a pair of pantaloons and a waie-
coat, which were accordingly provided, and was paid for then whin he
took them home to Millman-street. The prisoner had left his address,
which he wrote in presence of the witness. The next time that he s.ov
the prisoner was on the 25th of April, when he met him in Guirdford-
street, and he told the witness that. he had a smalljob for him to do :
he accompanied the prisoner to the same house where he had taken the
former clothes to, and was shown into a parlour, where he was desired
to sit down. The prisoner went up stairs and returned in about ten mi-
nutes, bringing with him a dark coloured coat, in the left breast of which
he directed hint to make a pocket into which he could conveniently put
his right hand: he also wished to have it of a particular depth, and gave
him a slip of paper, about nine inches long, for the measure. This paper
the prisoner brought along with the coat into the parlour where the pri-
soner was waiting. He executed the order, and carrying it home, gave it
into the hands of the servant maid. He met the prisoner, six days before
the murder of Mr. Perceval, in Gray's Inn-lane, who told him, in a tew
days he would have something more for him to do.
DEFENCE.
The prisoner then proceeded in his defence. He wished to express
the great obligation which he felt to his Counsel for their endeaveur to
establish the plea of insanity in his favour: but he conceived it be far
more fortunate for him, if the Jury did not consider him to be so. He
then, having obtained the papers taken from him on Monday, addressld
the Court for nearly two hours in a connected and fluent manner. He
dented motives of personal enmity to Mr. Perceval, but said a dental
of justice had obliged him to take redress into his own hands. If he
had been the wretch he had been represented to be, who could delibe-
rately take a pistol and shoot Mr. Perceval, without any motive but
private malice, he would be a wretch unfit for this or another world.
He would, however, now unfold a scene of iniquity connected with
his affairs abroad and in this country, and which had led to that fatal
cata,trophe, which no one more heartily and sincerely regretted than
himself, Not even the family of Mr. Perceval. He then went into a
detail of the sufferings he had endured within the last eight years,
which, as well as we could collect, were, that he was suspected of
having sent intelligence to Lloyd's, that a ship had been unfairly
wrecked in she White Sea ; in consequence of which, the Underwriters
had refused to pay. But that he was therefore subjected to an unme-
rited persecution in Russia; that he was imprisoned at Archangel, ht:t
being afterwards released, he was sent to Petersburgh, when he maue
his complaint to tile Russian Government, but was again on a false
charge of debt thrown into prison ; that he again applied to Lord Le-
vison Gower, who had not afforded him proper assistance, but that he
was marched past his house daily, with common malefactors, which he
considered as a national disgrace. In consequence of his being thus
detained, his affairs became embarrassed at home and for this hs
thought himself entitled to compensation from our own Government,.
but he never could obtain justice. And this he urged as the reason of
his being compelled to take justice into his own hands. In the cot, ree
of this statement he complained much of Lord Granville Leyiso!l
Gower, and Sir Stephen Shairpe. It might have been a happy thing
if
the former had fallen instead of Mr. Perceval. He had been hurried
from prison to prison, and frosn torture to torture. Mrs. I3ellinghannro a
woman but 20 years of age, had been forced to quit the country, unp
tected, with an infant at her breast. In adverting to this circun!stanLe he_
exciaitned, 44 Oh, my God, what a heart rensling scene was this! placed
in this situation, he appealed to the Jury what would their feelings have
e‘
been ;—as men, as Christians, he asked them what they would have
petition,
In the course of his statement, he recited the contents of his
which is in another part of our publication, containing the sam"
matter,,
.--
v.
but thrown into somewhat d:fferet,t forms. These he severally La_
into at length, as also into the official answers which lie lia.l recetve,d_
from the diff.trent public offices, complaining with great appret,t
ar
guish of the neglect with Which he conceived he had be treated.