1812
The assassination of Prime Minister Perceval
The English-speaking world has a mixed record when it comes to political assassinations. Unlike the more excitable Latin nations who off their leaders with depressing regularity, the Anglosphere is slower on the assassination trigger but even so, there are distinctions to be made. American politicians have a high mortality rate (hello, Presidents Lincoln, Garfield, Mckinley, and Kennedy; Governors Huey Long, Charles Bent, William Goebel, and Frank Steunenburg; and a host of judges, congressmen, and state officials) and the situation in India and Pakistan is even worse. Only one minor politician has bit the dust in Canada; Australia records only one victim and New Zealand has no assassinated rulers on its watch. Clearly the difference is the presidential system — if you have a constitutional monarchy with an elected prime minister, you are pretty safe. With one exception.
In 1812 John Bellingham (1769-1812), a failed businessman who believed that the British government had not recompensed him for bad treatment at the hands of Russians, shot Prime Minister Spencer Perceval (1762-1812). At his trial he made the following speech in his defence:
“Recollect, Gentlemen, what was my situation. Recollect that my family was ruined and myself destroyed, merely because it was Mr Perceval’s pleasure that justice should not be granted; sheltering himself behind the imagined security of his station, and trampling upon law and right in the belief that no retribution could reach him. I demand only my right, and not a favour; I demand what is the birthright and privilege of every Englishman.
Gentlemen, when a minister sets himself above the laws, as Mr Perceval did, he does it as his own personal risk. If this were not so, the mere will of the minister would become the law, and what would then become of your liberties?
I trust that this serious lesson will operate as a warning to all future ministers, and that they will henceforth do the thing that is right, for if the upper ranks of society are permitted to act wrong with impunity, the inferior ramifications will soon become wholly corrupted.
Gentlemen, my life is in your hands, I rely confidently in your justice.”
Bellingham was found guilty and hanged three days later.