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

MEV 17.

character had been free from a spot, as the Attorney-General had very
candidly admitted, till that fatal, melancholy, and lamentable catastrophe,
on which he could never reflect without blasting into tears. .Again he
appealed to the feelings of the Jury, and asked, if his situation had been
their's, what would in such a situation have been their alternative ? He
had no private animosity against Mr. I'erceval; and he declared to God,
that rather than have deprived him of life from any feeling of malice he
would have lost his own. Whenever he might stand before the tribunal
of God, he could justify his conduct, and clear himself of the charge of
murder. That his arm had been the means of Mr. Perceval's death, he
allowed; but, to prove that he had committed mu rder, it must be proved
that the act had been done with malice. That which he had done could
amount to nothing, unless a felony were proved, which in his case was
impossible, and therefore he must of necessity be discharged. To con-
stitute a murder it was necessary to prove malice prepense. This could
not be traced to him; on the contrary, his uniform and undeviating
conduct in seeking redress by a regular legal course, had, be thought,
been proved to the Jury by that which they had already heard. He had
suffered the greatest distress for eight years, and been left in a ruined
state, because it was Ootahe will of Mr. Pereeval that justice shauld be
done, while he (Mr. P.) sheltered himself under the idea that do alter-
native remained to him (the Prisoner). When a man submitted such a
ease to Government as that which he had made out, to concede the re-
quired redress was not a matter of favour, but of right. He had given
information at Bow-street, against .his Majesty's Ministers, accusing
them of not doing their duty, and stating, that ifjustice were not dune
in his case, he should feel himself bound to do himself justice on them ;
and doing this, he would defend it against the Attorney-General, where-
ver he might meet him. On calling for an answer, he received his own
communication, with a little memorandum in the hand-writing of Mr-
Read, attached to it, informing him that that Office could not interfere
in the business. If means were not taken to make those power feel
this, the will of the Minister, for the time being, would he law, and law
would be one thing to-day, and another to-morrow. The injustice of
the Minister in the present instance had caused the melancholy catas-
trophe, in consequence of which be stood there. To obtain justice had
been his only object. If in such cases justice were not to be obtained,
what security was there for his person or for theirs, when their cora-
dons called them to a foreign country ? Their views might he thwarted,
their honour insulted, their characters blasted, their hearts rent and bro-
ken, and they return home to vent their sorrows in vain complaints with-
out hope of redress. He had hoped to bring the subjsct of his claims
before Parliament, when he would have brought serious charges against
Lord G. L. Gower and Sir Stephen Shairpe. If the charges he wished
to prefer were false, it was true that he ought to he punished ;
hat, if an the contrary, they proved to he true, his wrongs ought to be
redressed. Governmer.t had but to reflect on their own impure col:duct
for what had happened. If a poor wretch stopped a man on the high-
way, and took from him a few shillings, he was punished with death.
What was his case ? He had.been robbed of his liberty, torn from hie
family, disgraced and deprived of every thing valuable in this world,
and then he was called upon to forfeit has life because the Chancellor of
the Exchequer had thought proper to withhold the justice he had re-
quired. ' What was the crime which he had committed, compared with
the crime which Government had coneaitted against him ? Nothing.
It was a mite to a mountain, yet the one was to hurry its perpetrator to
the gallows, while the perpetrator of the other was insultieegly to stall:
at liberty with impunity. He had committed the act for which he stood
there to answer, not because he bore any malice against Mr. Pereeval,
but because he wished to bring his case before a Court of Justice. What
were the crimes of those who suffered a short time ago for their conduct
in the Isle of France against Government, compared with the crimes of
the Government against him ? If an individual was bound to obey Go-
vernment on the one hand, Government was bound to afford just ice to
the individual on the other. Ministers had denied him jtttiee. Every
one, he thought, must feel for his situation ; but to die mane he would
put it as husbands and fathers, what must be the anguish of his heart.
tie trusted that this serious lesson would haVe a psoper effect on the
conduct of all future Ministers, and induce them to da justice, which if
done in his case, would have saved the Court the trouele they were put.
to on the present occasion. Rather than suffer what he had endured
within the last eight years, he would willingly die five hundred dezolie,
and far from shrinking from the grave with horror, he would fly to it
as a refuge from sorrow, and welcome it as a resting place. Ile hal no
more to say after what he had said, and what they wuuld.hear from his
Lordship; the question on which they were to decide would remain be-
tween God and their consciences.
Mr. ALLEY then called witnesses to establish the fact of his in-
sanity.
Ann Billing was called up, and examined by Mr. ALLEY. She
said, she was a widow, who resided at Southampton, that having
learned from the Newspaper the circumstances of Mr. Perceval's assas-
sination, she had left her home, and arrived in London last night,
thinking that she was in possession of some particulars which would
contribute to save the Hie of the prisoner. She had known him troll]
his childhood, he was in business at Liveool, which place head left
last Christmas, and conic! to London ; his!wife and ch.ldren remained at
averpool; his father had died insane; she had frequently eppertunities
of knowing the state of the pm isener's mind ; he had been in a state
of derangement for the last four or five years, in her owo oiailion, and j

••••V

313

that of his other friendi, abant this busino,s; she had not an opportu-
nity of seeing him lately in London ; had not seen him fur more than a
year; he was always deranged when he spoke !of his claims on thLt
Government ; she had seen him at Liverpool about a year and a half
ago, at that time he did not wish to converse on the subject, saying,
that it irritated his mind. _

Mrs. Clarke examined by Mr. REYNOLDS, stated, that she had
known the prisoner for several years, and had considered lnin in an
unsound state of mind ever since his return from Russia ; had seen
him six or seven times, the last time he was in London ; his conversa-
tion then was that of a deranged person.
Hannah Fidget, a servant-maid of Mrs. Roberts, the prisoner's late
landlady, was next examined by Mr. REYNOLDS. She said, the pr'.-
soner had lodged in her mistress's house for four months before the
day he was taken into custody. She recollected observing, on the
day before, that he was somewhat confused and agitated; she bad not
made any bservation of that kind the Sunday before ; she had been out
hi the evening for two hours. On the Monday he was taken, she
thought before he went out that he was unwell.
Sir JAMES MANSFIELD then summed up the case ; he sired that
the indictment was for the murder of Mr. Perceeal, a man dear to
,'very Englishman. (Here the venerable Judge was so much affected,
that he paused some time unable to proceed.) In naming him, he said,
he was overpowered by his emotions; but the Joy y would consider it
only as the case of the meanest of their fellow subjects. The law knew
no distinction of persons ; they would attend to the evidence, and drew
their conclusion accordingly. His Lordship then read the evidence to
them, and observed that they had three things to consider ; first, whe-
ther Mr. Perceval died by the pistol shot ; secondly, whether the pri-
soner fired that shot; and, lastly, whether he was in sane mind, so as
to know what he was about when he fired it ? His Lordship then stated
the different degrees of mental derangement, and told the Jury that if
the prisoner, .at the time of the act, knew right from wrong, he was a
fit object for the Criminal Justice of the kingdom.
The Jury withdrew for about a quarter of an hour, and returned a
verdict of—Guilty.
The Recorder immediately, in an eloquent and impressive speech, in
which he eulogized the public and private virtues of Mr. Percesil, pro-
nounced the sentence of Death—by which the prisoner was ordered to
he hanged on Monday next, and his body to be dissected and anato-
mised.

The prisoner, during the whole trial, which lasted from ttn a. In. to
Aix p.m. was perfectly calm and unmoved, and htard his sentence with-
out the least change of countenance.

When the prisoner came into Dock, he appeared somewhat affected
by his situation ; but his countenance exhibited nothing of dirulay, and
after a few minutes his deportment was wondecfuily calm and coliected
On entering, he made a profound bow to the Court. Whif:i standing
at the Bar, he frequently looked round and appeared to comemo.ite the
crowd with a curious eye. He was attired in a brown great coat, a yel-
low wlistcoat,iwith small stripes of black, and nankeen trowsers. After
standing a considerable time, he asked if he might be allowed the indul-
gence or a chair ? This the Court permitted, and he accoriiingiv seated
himself And appearei very much at his ease. He frequent': tqok•up
sJifl of the leaves which were strewed in front el the Bar, and strell,4
to them, and was almost all the tune apparently trying in sonle measure
to amuse himself with them, Before he was accommodated w,th a
chair, he took an orange from his pocket, which he ate during one of tue
pauses which occurred duriNg the course of the nil'.
The Horse Guards were stationed in the vicinity of Black-friars
Bridge, during the trial.

Mr.WILK'E'S EXHIBITION of all Lis PICTURES he has Painted, is NOW
OPT- N. Nn. Pall-mall. Allatittance One Shilling.—Subscriptiow; for Mr.
it A. tAIIIACH'S PRINT of VILLAGE POLITICIANS, are reeived at the :ttnae

K. B. DAY.—Tickets and Shares are Selling by LADY BRA NSCOMB, N. t
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