like it. When he first fell, I thought that he might have been slightly wounded, and expected to save him, if he made an effort to rise. But, gazing at him for a few moments, I observed that he did not stir, and I therefore immediately stooped to raise him from the ground, requesting the assistance of a gentleman who stood the next by me for that purpose. As soon as we had turned his face upwards, I perceived that it was Mr. Perceval. We then took him in our arms, the other gentleman on his left side, and I upon his right. We carried him into the office belonging to the speaker's secretary, and seated ourselves upon the table there with Mr. Perceval between us, also sitting upon the table in our arms. His face was at this time completely pale, the blood issuing in small quantities from each side of his mouth, and there were scarcely any signs of life remaining. His eyes, however, were still open, but he did not appear to know me, nor to take any notice of any person or thing about him, nor had he uttered the least articulate sound from the moment that he fell. A few convulsive sobs, which lasted perhaps for three or four minutes together, with scarcely a perceptible pulse, were the only signs of life then remaining, and this continued but for a very short time longer." It appeared from the testimony of the surgeon, that the ball had penetrated the breast near the left nipple, and entered the centre of the heart. While these transactions were passing, and the body was conveyed into the speaker's house, Bellingham remained in the lobby without attempting to escape. As soon as the horror occasioned by the catastrophe had somewhat subsided, a person exclaimed, "Who is the villain who fired?" Bellingham stept forward and replied, "I am the unfortunate man ;" and, being interrogated as to his motive for the deed, he said, “My name is John Bellingham,-it is a private injury,-I know what I have done, it was a denial of justice on the part of government.' He was then searched and carried to the bar of the house, which had been sitting as a committee on the orders in council. The

speaker, on resuming the chair, suspecting that he might be aided by accomplices, proposed that he should not be led through the lobby, but be committed to the strong room, from whence he was conveyed to prison.

On Friday the 15th of May, he was tried at the sessions house of the Old Bailey, amidst a crowded court, composed of the highest personages in the nation. The facts of the assassination were fully proved, and his conduct displayed no indication of insanity. On being called upon for his defence, he began in a low tone of voice, but with a firm and unembarrassed deportment, to deliver the following address.

GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY,

I feel great personal obligation to the attorney-general for the objection which he has made to the plea of insanity. I think it is far more fortunate that such a plea as that should have been unfounded, than that it should have existed in fact. I am obliged to my counsel, however, for having thus endeavored to consult my interest, as I am convinced the attempt has arisen from the kindest motives. That I am or have been insane, is a circumstance of which I am not apprised, except in the single instance of my having been confined in Russia-how far that may be considered as affecting my present situation, it is not for me to determine. This is the first time that I have ever spoken in public in this way. I feel my own incompetency, but I trust you will attend to the substance, rather than to the manner, of my investigating the truth of an affair which has occasioned my presence at this bar. beg to assure you, that the crime which I have committed, has arisen from compulsion rather than from any hostility to the man whom it has been my fate to destroy. Considering the amiable character, and universally admitted virtues of Mr. Perceval, I feel, if I could murder him in a cool and unjustifiable manner, I should not deserve to live another inoment in this world. Conscious, however, that I shall be able to justify every thing which I have done, I feel some degree of

be considered as the commencement of that train of events, which led to the af flicting and unhappy fate of Mr. Perceval. This petition, I shall now beg leave to read.

confidence in meeting the storm which assails me, and shall now proceed to unfold a catalogue of circumstances which, while they harrow up my own soul, will, I am sure, tend to the extenuation of my conduct in this honorable court. This, as Here the prisoner read a petition to the has already been candidly stated by the prince regent, of date January 21st, 1812, attorney-general, is the first instance and containing a statement of the whole in which any, the slighest, imputation of his affairs while in Russia, as detailed has been cast upon my moral character. in his memorial to the house of commons. Until this fatal catastrophe, which no one In the course of narrating these hardships, can more heartily regret than I do, not he took occasion to explain several points, excepting even the family of Mr. Perceval and adverted with great feeling to the unhimself, I have stood alike pure in the happy situation in which he was placed, minds of those who have known me, and from the circumstance of his having been in the judgment of my own heart. I hope but lately married to his wife, then about I see this affair in the true light. For twenty years of age, with an infant at her eight years, gentlemen of the jury, have I breast, and who had been waiting for him been exposed to all the miseries which it at St. Petersburgh, in order that she might is possible for human nature to endure. accompany him to England-a prey to Driven almost to despair, I sought for all those anxieties which the unexpected redress in vain. For this affair I had the and cruel incarceration of her husband, carte blanche of government, as I will prove without any just grounds, was calculated by the most incontestible evidence, namely, to excite.-(In saying this, the prisoner the writing of the secretary of state him- seemed much affected)-He also described self. I come before you under peculiar his feelings at a subsequent period, when disadvantages. Many of my most material his wife, from an anxiety to reach her papers are now at Liverpool, for which I native country (England) when in a state have written, but have been called upon of pregnancy, and looking to the impromy trial before it was possible to obtain bability of his liberation, was obliged to an answer to my letter.-Without wit- quit Petersburgh unprotected, and undernesses, therefore, and in the absence of take the voyage at the peril of her life, many papers necessary to my justification, while lord Granville Leveson Gower and I am sure you will admit, I have just sir Stephen Shairpe suffered him to remain grounds for claiming some indulgence. I in a situation worse than death. "My God! must state, that after my return from my My God!" he exclaimed, "what heart voyage to Archangel, I transmitted to his could bear such excruciating tortures, royal highness the prince regent, through without bursting with indignation at conmy solicitor, Mr. Windle, a petition; and, duct so diametrically opposite to justice in consequence of there being no reply, I and to humanity. I appeal to you, gentlecame to London to see the result. Sur- men of the jury, as men-I appeal to you prised at the delay, and conceiving that as brothers-I appeal to you as Christians the interests of my country were at whether, under such circumstances of stake, I considered this step as essential, persecution, it was possible for me to as well for the assertion of my own right, regard the actions of the ambassador and as for the vindication of the national consul of my own country, with any other honor. I waited on colonel M'Mahon, who feelings but those of detestation and horstated, that my petition had been received, ror! In using language thus strong, I but, owing to some accident, had been feel that I commit an error, yet does my mislaid. Under these circumstances, I heart tell me, that being men who leut drew out another account of the par- themselves thus to bolster up the basest ticulars of the Russian affair, and this may acts of persecution, there are no observa