receipt of your letter of the 13th instant, requesting to be
informed in what stage your claim on his majesty's government for
criminal detention in Russia now is. In reply, I am to refer you to
my several letters of the 18th of February, 9th and 20th of March,
by which you have been already informed that your first petition to
his royal highness the Prince Regent, praying for remuneration, had
been referred to the consideration of the lords of the council.
That upon your second memorial, praying his royal highness to give
orders that the subject should be brought before parliament, his
royal highness had not been pleased to signify any commands. And,
lastly, in answer to your application to Mr. Ryder, requesting
permission on the part of his majesty's ministers to present your
petition to the house of commons, you were informed that your
application should be addressed to the right hon. the chancellor of
the exchequer.
'I am, &c.
'J. BECKETT.'
"After this, on personal application at the office of the secretary of
state, and intimating my intention to take justice in my own hand, I was
told, by the mouth of Mr. Hill, that I was at liberty to take such
measures as I thought proper. Who then is to be reprobated in this
case?--those who were regardless of every feeling of honour and of
justice, or him who, spurred on by injury and neglect, and with a due
notice of his intentions, pursued the only course likely to lead to a
satisfactory termination of calamities which had weighed him down to the
lowest ebb of misery! I will now only mention a few observations by way
of defence. You have before you all the particulars of this melancholy
transaction. Believe me, gentlemen, the rashness of which I have been
guilty has not been dictated by any personal animosity to Mr. Perceval,
rather than injure whom, from private or malicious motives, I would
suffer my limbs to be cut from my body. (Here the prisoner seemed again
much agitated.)
"If, whenever I am called before the tribunal of God, I can appear with
as clear a conscience as I now possess in regard to the alleged charge
of the wilful murder of the unfortunate gentleman, the investigation of
whose death has occupied your attention, it would be happy for me, as
essentially securing to me eternal salvation; but that is impossible.
That my arm has been the means of his melancholy and lamented exit, I am
ready to allow. But to constitute murder, it must clearly and absolutely
be proved to have arisen from malice prepense, and with a malicious
design, as I have no doubt the learned judge will shortly lay down, in
explaining the law on the subject. If such is the case, I am guilty; if
not, I look forward with confidence to your acquittal.
"That the contrary is the case has been most clearly and irrefutably
proved; no doubt can rest upon your minds, as my uniform and undeviating
object has been an endeavour to obtain justice, according to law, for a
series of the most long-continued and unmerited sufferings that were
ever submitted to a court of law, without having been guilty of any
other crime than an appeal for redress for a most flagrant injury
offered to my sovereign and my country, wherein my liberty and property
have fallen a sacrifice for the continued period of eight years, to the
total ruin of myself and family (with authenticated documents of the
truth of the allegations), merely because it was Mr. Perceval's pleasure
that justice should not be granted, sheltering himself with the idea of
there being no alternative remaining, as my petition to parliament for
redress could not be brought (as having a pecuniary tendency) without
the sanction of his Majesty's ministers, and that he was determined to
oppose my claim, by trampling both on law and right.
"Gentlemen, where a man has so strong and serious a criminal case to
bring forward as mine has been, the nature of which was purely national,
it is the bounden duty of government to attend to it; for justice is a
matter of right, and not of favour. And when a minister is so
unprincipled and presumptuous at any time, but especially in a case of
such urgent necessity, to set himself above both the sovereign and the
laws, as has been the case with Mr. Perceval, he must do it at his
personal risk; for by the law he cannot be protected.
"Gentlemen, if this is not fact, the mere will of a minister would be
law; it would be this thing to-day and the other thing to-morrow, as
either interest or caprice might dictate.--What would become of our
liberties? Where would be the purity and the impartiality of the justice
we so much boast of?--To government's non-attendance to the dictates of
justice is solely to be attributed the melancholy catastrophe of the
unfortunate gentleman, as any malicious intention to his injury was the
most remote from my heart. Justice, and justice only, was my object,
which government uniformly objected to grant; and the distress it
reduced me to, drove me to despair in consequence; and, purely for the
purpose of having this singular affair legally investigated, I gave
notice at the public office, Bow Street, requesting the magistrates to
acquaint his majesty's ministers, that if they persisted in refusing
justice, or even to permit me to bring my just petition into parliament
for redress, I should be under the imperious necessity of executing
justice myself, solely for the purpose of ascertaining, through a
criminal court, whether his majesty's ministers have the power to refuse
justice to a well-authenticated and irrefutable act of oppression,
committed by the consul and ambassador abroad, whereby my sovereign's
and country's honour were materially tarnished, by my person
endeavouring to be made the stalking-horse of justification, to one of
the greatest insults that could be offered to the crown. But in order to
avoid so reluctant and abhorrent an alternative, I hoped to be allowed
to bring my petition to the house of commons--or that they would do what
was right and proper themselves. On my return from Russia, I brought
most serious charges to the privy council, both against Sir Stephen
Shairp and Lord Granville Leveson Gower, when the affair was determined
to be purely national, and consequently it was the duty of his majesty's
ministers to arrange it by acting on the resolution of the council.
Suppose, for instance, the charge I brought could have been proved to be
erroneous, should not I have been called to a severe account for my
conduct? But, being true, ought not I to have been redressed?
"After the notice from the police to government, Mr. Ryder, conscious of
the truth and cruelty of the case, transmitted the affair to the
Treasury, referring me there for a final result. After a delay of some
weeks, the Treasury came to the resolution of sending the affair back to
the secretary of state's office; at the same time I was told by a Mr.
Hill, that he thought it would be useless my making further application
to government, and that I was at liberty to take such measures as I
thought proper for redress.
"Mr. Beckett, the under-secretary of state, confirmed the same, adding
that Mr. Perceval had been consulted, and could not allow my petition to
come forward. This direct refusal of justice, with a _carte blanche_ to
act in whatever manner I thought proper, were the sole causes of the
fatal catastrophe--and they have now to reflect on their own impure
conduct for what has happened.
"It is a melancholy fact, that the warping of justice, including all
the various ramifications in which it operates, occasions more misery
in the world, in a moral sense, than all the acts of God in a physical
one, with which he punishes mankind for their transgressions; a
confirmation of which, the single, but strong, instance before you is
one remarkable proof.
"If a poor unfortunate man stops another upon the highway, and robs him
of but a few shillings, he may be called upon to forfeit his life. But I
have been robbed of my liberty for years, ill-treated beyond precedent,
torn from my wife and family, bereaved of all my property to make good
the consequences of such irregularities, deprived and bereaved of
everything that makes life valuable, and then called upon to forfeit it,
because Mr. Perceval has been pleased to patronize iniquity that ought
to have been punished, for the sake of a vote or two in the House of
Commons, with, perhaps, a similar good turn elsewhere.
"Is there, gentlemen, any comparison between the enormity of these two
offenders? No more than a mite to a mountain. Yet the one is carried to
the gallows, while the other stalks in security, fancying himself beyond
the reach of law or justice; the most honest man suffers, while the
other goes forward in triumph to new and more extended enormities.
"We have had a recent and striking instance of some unfortunate men who
have been called upon to pay their lives as the forfeit of their
allegiance, in endeavouring to mitigate the rigours of a prison. But,
gentlemen, where is the proportion between the crimes for which they
suffered, and what the Government has been guilty of, in withholding its
protection from me? Even in a Crown case, after the years of sufferings,
I have been called upon to sacrifice all my property, and the welfare of
my family, to bolster up the iniquities of the Crown; and then am
prosecuted for my life, because I have taken the only possible
alternative to bring the affair to a public investigation, for the
purpose of being enabled to return to the bosom of my family with some
degree of comfort and honour. Every man within the sound of my voice
must feel for my situation; but by you, gentlemen of the jury, it must
be felt in a peculiar degree, who are husbands and fathers, and can
fancy yourselves in my situation.--I trust that this serious lesson will
operate as a warning to all future ministers, and lead them to do the
thing that is right, as an unerring rule of conduct; for, if the
superior classes were more correct in their proceedings, the extensive
ramifications of evil would, in a great measure, be hemmed up--and a
notable proof of the fact is, that this court would never have been
troubled with the case before it, had their conduct been guided by these
principles.
"I have now occupied the attention of the court for a period much longer
than I intended; yet, I trust, they will consider the awfulness of my
situation to be a sufficient ground for a trespass, which, under other
circumstances, would be inexcusable. Sooner than suffer what I have
suffered for the last eight years, however, I should consider five
hundred deaths, if it were possible for human nature to endure them, a
fate far more preferable. Lost so long to all the endearments of my
family, bereaved of all the blessings of life, and deprived of its
greatest sweet, liberty, as the weary traveller, who has long been
pelted by the pitiless storm, welcomes the much desired inn, I shall
receive death as the relief of all my sorrows. I shall not occupy your
attention longer; but, relying on the justice of God, and submitting
myself to the dictates of your conscience, I submit to the _fiat_ of my
fate, firmly anticipating an acquittal from a charge so abhorrent to
every feeling of my soul."
Here the prisoner bowed, and his counsel immediately proceeded to call
the witnesses for the defence.
Anne Billet, who appeared under the strongest impressions of grief,
being sworn, deposed, that she lived in the county of Southampton; she
came to London in consequence of having read in the newspapers of the
prisoner having been apprehended for the murder of Mr. Perceval. She was
induced to come to town, from a conviction that she knew more of him
than any other friend. She knew him from a child. He resided latterly at
Liverpool, from whence he came at Christmas last. She knew him to be a
merchant. His father died insane in Titchfield-street, Oxford-road; she
firmly believed that, for the last three or four years, the prisoner was
in a state of derangement, respecting the business which he had been
pursuing. She had not seen him for twelve months until the present
moment. She always thought him deranged when his Russian affairs were
the subject of conversation.
When cross-examined by Mr. Garrow, she deposed, that when in London with
the prisoner about twelve months since, he was going to different
government offices to seek redress of his grievances. He was then in a
state of derangement, as he had been ever since his return from Russia.
There was one instance which occurred at the period to which she was
alluding, which strongly confirmed her in the opinion of his insanity.
About Christmas he told his wife and witness, that now he was come from
Russia he had realised more than 100,000_l_., with which he intended to
buy an estate in the west of England, and to have a house in London.--He
admitted that he had not got the money, but said it was the same as if
he had, for he had gained his cause in Russia, and our government would
make good all the loss he had sustained. He repeatedly said to her and
to his wife that this was assuredly the fact. Upon one occasion he took
Mrs. Bellingham and the witness to the secretary of state's office,
where they saw Mr. Smith, who said if he had not ladies with him he
would not have come to him at all.--The prisoner told Mr. Smith, that
the reason why he brought them was, to convince them that his claims
were just, and that he would very shortly receive the money. Mr. Smith
told him he could say nothing upon this subject; he had already sent him
a letter alleging that he had nothing to expect. The prisoner then
requested Mr. Smith would answer him one question--"My friends say I am
out of my senses; is it your opinion that I am so?" Mr. Smith said it
was a very delicate question, and one he did not wish to answer. Having
then departed, when they got into the carriage which waited for them, he
took hold of his wife's hand and said, "I hope, now, my dear, you are
convinced all will now end as we wish." Since that period she knew that
he had been pursuing his object _alone_, his wife remaining at
Liverpool.
Other witnesses were called, who deposed to like facts and to their
belief in the insanity of the prisoner, but Lord Chief Justice Mansfield
having summed up the case, the jury, after a consultation of two minutes
and a half in the box, expressed a wish to retire; and an officer of the
court being sworn, accompanied them to the jury-room. As they passed
out, the prisoner regarded them separately with a look of mingled
confidence and complacency. They were absent fourteen minutes; and, on
their return into court, their countenances, acting as indices to their
minds, at once unfolded the determination to which they had come. The
prisoner again directed his attention to them in the same manner as
before.
The names being called over, and the verdict asked for in the usual
form, the foreman in a faltering voice, announced the fatal decision
of--Guilty.
The prisoner's countenance here indicated surprise, unmixed, however,
with any demonstrations of that concern which the awfulness of his
situation was calculated to produce.
The Recorder then passed the awful sentence of death on the prisoner in
the most feeling manner, and he was ordered for execution on the
following Monday, his body to be anatomised. He received the sentence
without any emotion.
From the time of his condemnation, the unfortunate convict was fed upon
bread and water. All means of suicide were removed, and he was not
allowed to be shaved; a prohibition which gave him much concern, as he
feared he should not appear as a gentleman. He was visited by the
ordinary on Saturday, and some religious gentlemen called on him on
Sunday, with whose conversation he seemed greatly pleased. He appeared
naturally depressed by his situation; but persisted in a resolute denial
of his guilt. He frequently said that he had prepared himself to go to
his Father, and that he should be pleased when the hour came.
Being informed, by Mr. Newman, that two gentlemen from Liverpool had
called, and left word that his wife and children would be provided for,
he seemed but little affected; but, having requested pen, ink, and
paper, he wrote the following letter to his wife:--
"MY BLESSED MARY,--It rejoiced me beyond measure to hear you are likely
to be well provided for. I am sure the public at large will participate
in, and mitigate, your sorrows; I assure you, my love, my sincerest
endeavours have ever been directed to your welfare.--As we shall not
meet any more in this world, I sincerely hope we shall do so in the
world to come. My blessing to the boys, with kind remembrance to Miss
Stephens, for whom I have the greatest regard, in consequence of her
uniform affection for them. With the purest intentions, it has always
been, my misfortune to be thwarted, misrepresented, and ill-used in
life; but, however, we feel a happy prospect of compensation in a speedy
translation to life eternal.--It's not possible to be more calm or
placid than I feel, and nine hours more will waft me to those happy
shores where bliss is without alloy.--Yours ever affectionate,--JOHN
BELLINGHAM."
That the unfortunate man was afflicted with a strange malady, which
occasionally rendered him incapable of correct conclusions, must be
evident from the following note, which he wrote the night preceding his
execution:--"I lost my suit solely through the improper conduct of my
attorney and counsel, Mr. Alley, in not bringing my witnesses forward
(of whom there were more than twenty): in consequence, the judge took
advantage of the circumstance, and I went of [on] the defence without
having brought forward a single friend--otherwise I must inevitably have
been acquitted."
On the Monday morning at about six o'clock he rose and dressed himself
with great composure, and read for half an hour in the prayer-book. Dr.
Ford being then announced, the prisoner shook him most cordially by the
hand, and left his cell for the room allotted for the condemned
criminals. He repeated the declaration which he had frequently before
made, that his mind was perfectly calm and composed, and that he was
fully prepared to meet his fate with resignation. After a few minutes
spent in prayer, the sacrament was administered to him, and during the
whole of the ceremony he seemed to be deeply impressed with the truths
of the christian religion, and repeatedly uttered some pious
ejaculations. After the religious ceremony was ended, the prisoner was
informed that the sheriff's were ready. He answered in a firm tone of
voice, "I am perfectly ready also."
The executioner then proceeded to fasten his wrists together, and the
prisoner turned up the sleeves of his coat, and clasped his hands
together, presenting them to the man, who held the cord, and said, "So."
When they were fastened, he desired his attendants to pull down his
sleeves so as to cover the cord. The officer then proceeded to secure
his arms behind him; and when the man had finished, he moved his hands
upwards, as if to ascertain whether he could reach his neck, and asked
whether they thought his arms were sufficiently fastened; saying, that
he might struggle, and that he wished to be so secured as to prevent any
inconvenience arising from it. He was answered that the cord was quite
secure, but he requested that it might be tightened a little, which was
accordingly done. During the whole of the awful scene he appeared
perfectly composed and collected; his voice never faltered, but just
before he left the room to proceed to the place of execution, he stooped
down his head, and appeared to wipe away a tear. He was then conducted
by the lord mayor, sheriffs, under-sheriffs and officers (Dr. Ford
walking with him) from the room, in which he had remained from the time
his irons were taken off, through the press-yard and the prison to the
fatal spot, before the debtors' door at Newgate.
He ascended the scaffold with rather a light step, a cheerful
countenance, and a confident, a calm, but not an exulting air. He looked
about him a little, lightly and rapidly, which seems to have been his
usual manner and gesture, but made no remark.
Before the cap was put over his face, Dr. Ford asked if he had any last
communication to make, or anything particular to say. He was again
proceeding to talk about Russia and his family, when Dr. Ford stopped
him, calling his attention to the eternity into which he was entering;
and praying, Bellingham prayed also. The clergyman then asked him how he
felt; and he answered calmly and collectedly, that "he thanked God for
having enabled him to meet his fate with so much fortitude and
resignation." When the executioner proceeded to put the cap over his
face, Bellingham objected to it, and expressed a strong wish that the
business could be done without it; but Dr. Ford said that was not to be
dispensed with. While the cap was being fastened on, it being tied round
the lower part of the face by the prisoner's neckerchief, and just when
he was tied up, about a score of persons in the mob set up a loud and
reiterated cry of "God bless you!" "God save you!" This cry lasted while
the cap was fastening on; and, though those who raised it were loud and
daring, it was joined in by but very few. The ordinary asked Bellingham
if he heard what the mob were saying. He said he heard them crying out
something, but he did not understand what it was, and inquired what. The
cry having by this time ceased, the clergyman did not inform him what it
was. The fastening on of the cap being accomplished, the executioner
retired, and a perfect silence ensued. Dr. Ford continued praying for
about a minute, while the executioner went below the scaffold, and
preparations were made to strike away its supporters. The clock struck
eight, and while it was striking the seventh time, the clergyman and
Bellingham both fervently praying, the supporters of the internal part
of the scaffold were struck away, and Bellingham dropped out of sight
down as far as the knees, his body being in full view, and the clergyman
was left standing on the outer frame of the scaffold. When Bellingham
sunk, the most perfect and awful silence prevailed; not even the
slightest attempt at a huzza or noise of any kind whatever was made.
The body was afterwards carried in a cart, followed by a crowd of the
lower class, to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, and privately dissected.
The greatest precautions were adopted to prevent accidents among the
crowd.--A large bill was placarded at all the avenues to the Old Bailey,
and carried about on a pole, to this effect:--"Beware of entering the
crowd!--Remember thirty poor creatures were pressed to death by the
crowd when Haggerty and Holloway were executed," and no accident of any
moment occurred.
To prevent any disposition to tumult, a military force was stationed
near Islington, and to the south of Blackfriars Bridge; and all the
volunteer corps of the metropolis received instructions to be under arms
during the whole of the day.
THE LUDDITES.
The name of this deluded faction was taken from the person by whom they
represented that they were led on to commit the irregularities of which
they were guilty--General Ludd. It appears that the cotton manufacturers
of Nottinghamshire, Derbyshire, Leicestershire, and some parts of
Yorkshire, having suffered under a considerable reduction of wages and
scarcity of work, which they attributed to the very extensive
introduction of machinery, associated in such numbers for the
destruction of frames and looms, and the annoyance of those
manufacturers who had been most forward in introducing the machines,
that those counties became the seat of the most serious tumults.
The crimes of which they were generally guilty were those of
administering unlawful oaths, riotously assembling, and breaking the
frames and looms of the manufacturers of cloth, breaking into houses,
and in some instances those persons who had had sufficient hardihood to
oppose their proceedings were selected by them as victims to their
passions, and were barbarously murdered. The riotous proceedings of the
party continued during a considerable period, but at length the active
measures, which were taken by the government against them, effectually
put a stop to their depredations.
Many of them having been taken into custody a special commission was
issued for their trial, and was opened by Baron Thompson, at the city of
York, on Monday the 4th of January 1813, in a most impressive charge to
the grand jury.
On Tuesday, the 5th, the business of the court commenced with the trial
of John Swallow, John Batley, Joseph Fletcher, and John Lamb, for a
burglary and felony in the house of Mr. Samuel Moxon, at Whitley Upper:
the jury pronounced them all guilty.
It would be useless to go into a detail of all the cases tried before
the learned judges, all of which partook strongly of the same character,
and we shall therefore confine ourselves to the recital of those
instances which were marked by the spilling of blood.