Reminiscences of a Literary Life
CHAP. XVI
SPENCER PERCEVAL
SPENCER PERCEVAL
Some scoffer said of this statesman, that he had missed his vocation; that
in him a first-rate Methodist parson had been spoiled by being turned into a Prime
Minister. Now here, as is usual with such sayings, there is more wit and point than truth.
Mr. Perceval had nothing of the Methodist,
nothing of the sectarian about him; he was a faithful, conscientious, devout member of our
Church, regular in his attendance on its services, and pious without being in any way
intolerant, sour, or fanatical. One Sunday morning, while he was Premier, he was going to
church with his wife and children, at St. Margaret’s, Westminster; and as he was
almost at the church door, a nobleman, with four smoking post-horses, drove up and told him
that His Majesty wanted to see him on important
business, immediately, or as soon as might be, at Windsor. “My lord,”
said Perceval, “I must first perform my duty to ![]()
| CHAP. XVI] | HIS GOOD QUALITIES | 157 |
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my Heavenly Master; and that done, I will
instantly attend on my earthly master.” He went calmly into the church and
remained the whole time of the service, after which a light travelling carriage and four
good horses swiftly wafted him to the King. This anecdote was told me, only the other day
(August, 1856) by my very handsome, very amiable, but very eccentric friend, John Thomas Perceval, the Minister’s second son, who
had it from his sister’s governess, who went with the family to church.
John himself was of the party, but he was too young to remember
the incident. In many other ways, Whig jealousy, malice, and virulence, did, and
occasionally continue to do, gross injustice to the character, courage, and abilities of
this Minister. If not a statesman of the very first order, the sort of man that appears
scarcely twice in a century, he could never be fairly ranked low down in that order. He had
great business talents, he was wonderfully steady to his work, thoroughly honest in his
motives, and firm and consistent in his principles. Even as a lawyer, as a House of Commons
man, as an orator, a debater, and as a writer of State papers, he had far more ability than
many of those who lampooned him. It is highly honourable to the memory of the late
Sir Samuel Romilly that, in despite of his
strong Whiggery, he did justice to the virtues and talents of
Perceval, in several of his letters and diaries, and left upon record
what ought by this time to have corrected the inadequate, unfair appreciation so generally
entertained of the unfortunate Minister, who fell murdered while in the act of serving his
King and country. In justice to Spencer Perceval it ought to be
remembered that the times of his Premiership were times which presented tremendous
difficulties, not the least of them being the transfer of the Royal authority and
prerogative from the poor, blind, mad old King, to his son, the Regent. Mr.
Perceval manfully stood by our great Commander ![]()
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[CHAP. XVI |
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when
the Whigs were for recalling him, if not for bringing him before a Council of War, to ruin
and disgrace; Mr. Perceval liberally fed the war in the Peninsula, and
Mr. Perceval conferred an inestimable benefit on the Army, by
having the moral courage, in 1811, to restore the Duke of York to the Horse Guards, in
spite of Whig and vulgar clamour, and the scandals brought forth, in 1808, by Mary Anne Clarke and her cher
ami, Colonel Wardle. Old
Sir David Dundas, a mere martinet and a very
incompetent man, had succeeded, during the short time he had been Commander-in-Chief, in
disgusting or in indisposing the whole Army. Under his sleepy, dreary regimen, not a single
thing had been done well at the Horse Guards, or across the way in the War Office. The
Duke of York instantly put a new life into those
departments, and into the whole Service.
I have said elsewhere, in a work which has long been before the world, and which is now being reproduced,
with my name unfairly taken out of the title-page, “the public character of
Perceval was much underrated, and his
private character little understood.” As a Minister, he showed courage when
courage was most wanted, and when timidity and hesitation must have brought on the most
ruinous and degrading consequences. His private character seems to have been not only
without a blemish, but rich in some of the high and generous virtues; and, with qualities
like these, his public character could not possibly be, as faction represented it, unmanly,
vile, treacherous, and every way base. His disinterestedness seemed to be proved by the
poverty in which he died.
“As a private man,” says Romilly, “I had a very great regard for Perceval. We went the same circuit together, and for
many years I lived with him in a very delightful intimacy. No man could be more
generous, more friendly, or more kind than he ![]()
| CHAP. XVI] | ASSASSINATION OF PERCEVAL | 159 |
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was. No man in private life had ever a nicer sense
of honour. Never was there, I believe, a more affectionate husband, or a more tender
parent.”
Wilberforce said of him: “Perceval had the sweetest of all possible tempers, and
was one of the most conscientious men I ever knew; the most instinctively obedient to
the dictates of conscience, the least disposed to give pain to others, the most
charitable and truly kind and generous creature I ever knew.”
Mrs. Perceval was quite worthy of her husband; she
was a most benevolent, tender-hearted, charitable person, an exemplary woman in all
essentials and in every respect. I know a good deal of her from having lived nearly a
twelvemonth on Blackheath, near to the family residence, and from my mother having rather
frequently been the medium of her bounty to the sick and needy. There must be yet living in
that neighbourhood many an elderly person to whom the name of Perceval
ought to be dear.
Sir James Mackintosh, who had just returned from
India, received a very friendly communication from Mr.
Perceval the very day on which he was shot. Had the pistol missed fire, or
had Bellingham missed his aim, Sir
James would soon have been properly provided for. I have elsewhere shown how
scurvily he was treated by his friends the Whigs. I shall never forget the mild May
afternoon on which the murder was committed.* I was walking towards the Houses of
Parliament, to look with boyish curiosity at the Peers and Members, when, in passing the
Horse Guards, I saw two military-looking men walking and smoking in the open street. This
was the very first time I had seen such a thing done by gentlemen, and almost the first
time I had ever seen cigars. In my young days only old gentlemen smoked, and they made use
of clay tobacco-pipes. Before I reached the lower end of Parliament Street
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| 160 | SPENCER PERCEVAL |
[CHAP. XVI |
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I saw people running at full speed towards the old House of Commons,
and I met an excited crowd, and heard many voices saying the Prime Minister had just been
shot in the Lobby. The cigar-smoking in the street and the horrible murder have ever since
been connected and linked together in my mind. When I think of those cigars I think of
Mr. Perceval, and when I think of him, I think of those cigars. My
old Scottish acquaintance, William Jerdan,
originator and very many years editor of the Literary Gazette, was at this period employed as
parliamentary reporter for a newspaper; he was in the Lobby when
Bellingham passed him, and discharged the pistol, and he was the
first to rush to the aid of the unfortunate Minister. I think he relates that he collared
the assassin, and forced the pistol from him. Mr.
Croker has convicted Miss Martineau
and other writers of the Liberal school of downright falsehood in stating that a multitude
yelled and exulted at the funeral of poor Lord
Londonderry. I am afraid that I cannot controvert what Sir Samuel Romilly states in his diary respecting the
death of Perceval. He says that among the multitude which rapidly
collected in the streets, and about the avenues of the House, the most savage expressions
of joy and exultation were heard. I can only say that they were not heard by me. I must,
however, add that the person in whose charge I was grew alarmed at the crowd and rush, and
soon took me away from the spot. Romilly says that he was induced to
think that the English character must have undergone some unaccountable and portentous
change. As I have stated elsewhere, I cannot believe that the national character was much
committed. The savage cries, if really raised, must have proceeded from the very rabble of
Westminster and Tothill Fields. I remember well walking through the populous streets and
suburbs of the capital on that afternoon, and seeing the mixed feelings of indignation,
horror, ![]()
| CHAP. XVI] | PUBLIC OPINION | 161 |
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and pity, expressed on almost every
countenance. There may possibly have been among the rabble some few individuals above the
common condition, or not of the very lowest classes, but these must have had their hearts
turned and set on fire by rabid Whigs and Parliament reformers, by demagogues and
haranguers, and by scurrilous party newspapers, such as the Independent Whig, which, if
addressed to a more excitable and more sanguinary people than the English, might have
induced some men not merely to applaud the deed, when it was done, but to have themselves
undertaken the assassination of the Minister, as a foe of the people, a traitor to his
country, and as the meanest and most hypocritical slave that had ever served an immoral,
depraved, and tyrannical Prince.
John Bellingham (1770-1812)
The bankrupt tradesman who assassinated the prime minister Spencer Perceval in the House
of Commons 11 May 1812; unrepentant, he was tried and executed within a week. Byron
witnessed his execution.
Mary Anne Clarke (1776 c.-1852)
Having married a Joseph Clarke, she was mistress to the Duke of York (1803-06) and
involved with selling government offices, as came to light in an 1809 House of Commons
investigation. She spent her later years living in Paris.
John Wilson Croker (1780-1857)
Secretary of the Admiralty (1810) and writer for the
Quarterly
Review; he edited an elaborate edition of Boswell's
Life of
Johnson (1831).
Sir David Dundas (1735 c.-1820)
Scottish military officer, the author of several books on drilling and tactics adopted by
the British Army. He was temporary commander-in-chief of the army (1809-11).
Frederick Augustus, Duke of York (1763-1827)
He was commander-in-chief of the Army, 1798-1809, until his removal on account of the
scandal involving his mistress Mary Anne Clarke.
William Jerdan (1782-1869)
Scottish journalist who for decades edited the
Literary Gazette;
he was author of
Autobiography (1853) and
Men I
have Known (1866).
Sir James Mackintosh (1765-1832)
Scottish philosopher and man of letters who defended the French Revolution in
Vindiciae Gallicae (1791); he was Recorder of Bombay (1803-1812) and
MP for Knaresborough (1819-32).
Harriet Martineau (1802-1876)
English writer and reformer; she published
Illustrations of Political
Economy, 9 vols (1832-34) and
Society in America
(1837).
Lady Jane Perceval [née Wilson] (d. 1844)
The daughter of Sir Thomas Wilson MP; she married Spencer Perceval in 1790 and had a
family of six sons and six daughters. In 1815 she married Lieutenant-col. Sir Henry Carr.
Charles Macfarlane described her as “a most benevolent, tender-hearted, charitable
person, an exemplary woman in all essentials and in every respect.”
John Thomas Perceval (1803-1876)
A younger son of the prime minister Spencer Perceval; after education at Harrow he
pursued a military career. After being involuntarily confined for insanity (1830-34) he
devoted himself to asylum reform.
Spencer Perceval (1762-1812)
English statesman; chancellor of the exchequer (1807), succeeded the Duke of Portland as
prime minister (1809); he was assassinated in the House of Commons.
Sir Samuel Romilly (1757-1818)
Reformer of the penal code and the author of
Thoughts on Executive
Justice (1786); he was a Whig MP and Solicitor-General who died a suicide.
Charles William Vane, third marquess of Londonderry (1778-1854)
Originally Stewart; he was the half-brother of Lord Castlereagh, and served under Sir
John Moore and the Duke of Wellington, fighting at Talavera; was minister to Prussia (1813)
and ambassador at the Congress of Vienna (1814) and held a variety of diplomatic and court
positions.
Gwyllym Lloyd Wardle (1762-1833)
Military officer and MP for Okehampton (1807-1811); with the assistance of the courtesan
Mary Anne Clarke he forced the resignation of the Duke of York as commander-in-chief. She
later turned on Wardle, who retired to Italy where he died.
William Wilberforce (1759-1833)
British statesman, evangelical Christian, and humanitarian who worked for the abolition
of slavery. He was an MP for Yorkshire aligned with Fox and Sheridan.
