Spencer Perceval, the son of the 2nd Earl of Egmont, was born in 1762.
After being educated at Harrow and Trinity
College, Cambridge, he became a lawyer.
In 1796 Perceval was elected MP for Northampton.
In the House of Commons Perceval became
a strong supporter of William Pitt and the
Tory group in Parliament. When Henry
Addington became Prime Minister in 1801 he appointed Perceval
as his solicitor-general. The following year he was promoted to attorney-general.
When Lord Portland became Prime Minister
in 1807 he appointed Perceval as his Chancellor of the Exchequer.
Perceval got on well with George III
and loyally supported the king's opposition to Catholic
Emancipation.
When Portland died in 1809, Spencer Perceval accepted the king offer
to become Prime Minister. Perceval's period of power coincided with
an economic depression and considerable industrial unrest. This resulted
in his government introducing repressive methods against the Luddites.
This included the Frame-Breaking Act which made the destruction of
machines a capital offence.
Perceval held the post until 1812 when he became the only British
Prime Minister in history to be assassinated. Spencer Perceval was
shot when entering the lobby of the House of
Commons by John Bellingham, a failed businessman from Liverpool.
Bellingham, who blamed Perceval for his financial difficulties, was
later hanged for his crime.
(1)
After Spencer Perceval's assassination in 1812, Stuart Wortley,
made a speech in the House of Commons about the former Prime Minister
(21st May, 1812)
Mr. Perceval had great talents. He was anxious to see an administration
formed upon a liberal basis, calculated to comprehend the talents
and influences of the country, and to promote its security and honour.
(2)
Archibald Prentice, wrote about the Luddite
disturbances in April 1812, in his book Historical Sketches and
Personal Recollections of Manchester.
On Saturday, the 18th April, a numerous body of women, chiefly women,
assembled at the potato market, Shude Hill, where the sellers were
asking 14s. and 15s. per load (252 lbs.) for potatoes. Some of the
women began forcibly to take possession of the articles; but the civil
and military power interposing, to fix a sort of maximum, for eight
shillings per load, at which they were sold in small portions. On
Monday a cart carrying fourteen loads of meal was stopped, and the
meal carried away. On 27th April a riotous assembly took place at
Middleton. The weaving factory of Mr. Burton and Sons had been previously
threatened in consequence of their mode of weaving being done by the
operation of steam. The factory was protected by soldiers, so strongly
as to be impregnable to their assault; they then flew to the house
of Mr. Emanuel Burton, where they wreaked their vengeance by setting
it on fire. On Friday, the 24th April, a large body of weavers and
mechanics began to assemble about midday, with the avowed intention
of destroying the power-looms, together with the whole of the premises,
at Westhoughton. The military rode at full speed to Westhoughton;
and on their arrival were surprised to find that the premises were
entirely destroyed, while not an individual could be seen to whom
attached any suspicion of having acted a part in this truly dreadful
outrage.
(3)
Lord Byron, speech in the House of Lords
(27th February, 1812)
During the short time I recently passed in Nottingham, not
twelve hours elapsed without some fresh act of violence; and on that
day I left the the county I was informed that forty Frames had been
broken the preceding evening, as usual, without resistance and without
detection.
Such was the state of that county, and such I have reason to believe
it to be at this moment. But whilst these outrages must be admitted
to exist to an alarming extent, it cannot be denied that they have
arisen from circumstances of the most unparalleled distress: the perseverance
of these miserable men in their proceedings, tends to prove that nothing
but absolute want could have driven a large, and once honest and industrious,
body of the people, into the commission of excesses so hazardous to
themselves, their families, and the community.
They were not ashamed to beg, but there was none to relieve them:
their own means of subsistence were cut off, all other employment
preoccupied; and their excesses, however to be deplored and condemned,
can hardly be subject to surprise.
As the sword is the worst argument than can be used, so should it
be the last. In this instance it has been the first; but providentially
as yet only in the scabbard. The present measure will, indeed, pluck
it from the sheath; yet had proper meetings been held in the earlier
stages of these riots, had the grievances of these men and their masters
(for they also had their grievances) been fairly weighed and justly
examined, I do think that means might have been devised to restore
these workmen to their avocations, and tranquillity to the country.
(4)
Colonel Fletcher of Bolton was shocked by how people in his town responded
to the death of Spencer Perceval.
The people expressed joy at the news. A man came running down
the street, leaping in the air, waving his hate round his head, and
shouting with frantic joy, "Perceval is shot, hurrah! Perceval
is shot, hurrah!"
Available
from Amazon Books (order below)
