On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
But the assassination , more generallyfelt from the higher Tank of the suffering party , owed its origin to wrongs real or pretended , which were confined entirely to the person , who performed the act , and these grew out of commercial transactions in the Russian empire . A
merchant there , hy name Bellingham , had a dispute relative to his business , which being refered to arbitration was given against him , and it ended in h ; s being thrown into prison . He conceived , that the English embassador and consul were not sufficiently attentive to his complaints , and he came to England
with this idea strong in his mmd , impressed deeply by the indignities he had suffered and heightened by a derangement , to which he appears to have been subject . Here he laid his complaints before ministers , members of parliament , and the Bow-street officers , but no -where obtained that attention , to which
he thought himself entitled . Hence he formed the idea of sacrificing a puulic man to his resentment , with a confused notion of teaching them their duty ; and It fell to the lot of the first minister to
receive the fatal blow . He was coming into the lobby of the Home of Commons , when , he received a pistol shot , the ball piercing his heart : and advancing only a step or two he fell , and expired in a few minutes .
Having perpetrated the act , Bell ingham retired to a seat behind , where he was siezed soon after , with a very unnecessary decree of violence , for he did not betray the slightest wish to escape , nor did he make any resistance . After an examination , in which he confessed the fact , and corrected wrJi great
coolness , the evidence of some of the witnesses , he was committed to Newgate , and four days after was brought to his trial In prison , and at the bar , he manifested the same firmness of mind , rejecting the plea , that had been set up for him of insanity , complaining of the
injuries he had sustained in Russia , and of the neglect of government towards hrm , both at home and abroad , and justifying his act , in which he maintained that there was no peculiar malice against the unhappy object , who fell a victim to the neglect of government in doing justice . The sentence of death he received with
the utmost composure , which he retained during the trying interval to the time of execution , which was employed in pious conversation and acts- of devotion ,
Untitled Article
for he was a very serious member of the establishment , and in writing . His fortitude did not foisake him to the last , for previous to his execution , on the third day after h s condemnation , just before he stepped on the scaffold , he was
examined by the Lord Mayor and Sheriffs , in the presence of a number of persons , before whom he justified the act , and denied the concurrence of any accomplice . Me looked upon death as a haven from his troubles , and was
launched into eternity , without betraying a symptom of remorse , or losing at any time h : s fortitude . Thus were completed the days of this extraordinary character , which manifested powers , that had they been exercised in a good cause , would have c : lied forth all our commiseration , all our
praise-It shews how strangely may be combined in the human m ? nd , the feelings of religion and the basest passions of ihe heart . Little had this unhappy man atrended to the precepts of religion . Ven ^ ean ^ e is mine , and I will rep : y , sailh the Lord : ' and how could he reconcile in his pious moments , his conduct viith lhat o ** our
Saviour , under more trying circumstances , whose charge to us jo love our enemies , to bless those who persecute us , had been exchanged for the unchristian , and unhallowed passion of revenge . Let the duellist , who in a similar manner
sends his adversary to the tribunal of his Creator , reflect upon the danger of giving way unto wrath ; and that he frequently has not so much to say in palliation of his crime , as the v » retched man , who has expiated his offence by the hand of the
e > ecutiorttr . The sudden death of Mr . Perceval % naturally occasioned a very great -ensation in all ranks of people , though in some places the news of it was received with joy , as he was looked upon as the author and supporter of these evils , under which the manufacturers were
suffering . Yet in his pnvaLe character , a > a father , a husband , and a friend , no one was more sincerely lamented . The House of Commons shewed the sense they entertained of his loss , by a most enormous grant , no less than an annuity
of two thousand a year to ' his vvidow , a thousand a year to his eldest son during her life , and afterwards two thousand a year during his own life , and fifty thousand pounds to has children . We are at a loss in looking for services , which particularly in the present state of the
Untitled Article
> ¦ ¦ 345 Slate of Public Ajffairs .
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1812, page 342, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1748/page/62/
-