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THE ASSASSINATION OF SPENCER PERCEVAL

12 May 1812

About a quarter past five Mr. PERCEVAL [the Prime Minister] was entering the Lobby of the House of Commons, where a number of persons were standing, when a man, who had a short time previously placed himself in the recess of the door-way within the Lobby, drew out a small pistol, and shot Mr. PERCEVAL in the lower part of the left breast. The ball is supposed to have entered the heart. Mr PERCEVAL moved forwards a few faltering steps, nearly half way up the lobby, and was in the act of falling, when some persons stept forward and caught him. He was immediately carried to the room of the SPEAKER’S Secretary, to the left of the lobby, by Mr. W. SMITH, Mr. BRADSHAW and another gentleman. Mr. LYNN, the Surgeon, in Parliament-street, was immediately sent for; but on examining the wound, he considered the case utterly hopeless. All that escaped Mr. PERCEVAL’S lips previously to falling in the lobby, was “murder,” or “murdered.” He said no more afterwards. He expired in about ten or twelve minutes after receiving the fatal wound. Several Members of both Houses of Parliament went into the room while he was dying: among others, his brother, Lord ARDEN: all of them appeared greatly agitated. There was very little effusion of blood from the wound, externally. His body was subsequently removed into the SPEAKER’S House. Lord FRANCIS OSBORNE, Lord OSSULTON, and some others, were crossing the lobby at the moment of the assassination, and were very near to Mr. PERCEVAL. The deed was perpetrated so suddenly, that the man who fired the pistol was not instantly recognized by those in the lobby; but a person passing at the moment behind Mr. PERCEVAL, seized the pistol, (which was a very small one) from the hand of the assassin, who retired towards a bench to the left; he surrendered it without any resistance. Mr. GOODIFF an Officer of the House, took hold of him, and asked if he were the villain who shot the Minister. He replied “I am the unhappy man” but appeared quite undisturbed. It is said, that he added something about the want of redress of grievances from Ministers; but if he did say so, it was heard by very few. On searching him, a few pounds were found in his pockets, and some printed papers, copies of which he is said to have previously distributed among Members. He was taken to the bar of the House of Commons, and identified as the assassin. Another pistol, similar to that which he had fired was taken from his pocket in the House. All the doors of the House were then locked, and he was conveyed by the private passages up stairs to one of the apartments called the prison rooms, in the upper story, over the Committee rooms. Here he underwent an examination for some time, which was attended by Aldermen COMBE and CURTIS, and by Mr. READ, Mr. COLQUHOUN, Mr. FIELDING, and other Magistrates; and several Members of the House of Commons, Mr. WHITBREAD, Mr. WYNNE, Mr. STEPHEN, Lord CASTLEREAGH, Mr. Secretary RYDER, &c. After an examination of various witnesses, among whom were Lord OSSULTON and FRANCIS OSBORNE, General GASCOYNE, Mr. H. SUMNER, the Officers of the House, and several strangers, the man was fully committed to Newgate for trial. A hackney-coach was brought to the iron gates in Lower Palace yard; but the crowd, which was at first composed of decent people, had been gradually swelled by a concourse of pick-pockets and the lower orders, who mounted the coach, and were so exceedingly troublesome and even dangerous that it was not deemed advisable to send him to Newgate in the manner intended.

An evangelical Christian and abolitionist, Spencer Perceval came to politics from the law and remains the only Prime Minister to have been Attorney-General – and the only one to have been murdered. Although his reputation faded fast following his untimely demise, he had been regarded as one of the Tories’ few stars after the death of Pitt the Younger.

The main achievement of his government, which had been formed in 1809, was to keep the future Duke of Wellington’s army in the field in Portugal, a decision Perceval had taken when Chancellor. The cost of this, and of other measures needed for the war against Napoleon, led to his personal unpopularity and popular unrest. This was also stoked by Luddites opposed to the industrialisation of work.

It was first feared that Perceval’s murder heralded a revolution. In fact, his assassin John Bellingham had long nursed an obsessive grievance against the state and its representatives. This stemmed from his ruin following imprisonment in Russia for debt. He was hastily tried and executed and, like his victim, just as swiftly forgotten by history.