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People & Parliament - A …er's Guide to Westminster
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People and Parliament - A Stranger's Guide to Westminster (1998)(House of Commons).iso
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00114_Text_114.txt
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1998-03-19
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On 11th May 1812, the Prime Minister, Spencer Perceval,
was passing through the Member's Lobby to the Commons
when a tall man in tradesman's dress stepped forward,
took out a pistol, and shot him dead on the spot. Perceval
(an otherwise undistinguished politician) thus became the
only British Prime Minister ever to be assassinated. His
last words were 'oh, I am murdered.'
The assassin was John Bellingham, the son of a
Huntingdonshire land surveyor who had died insane. Bellingham
had tried his luck in Russia, and been imprisoned there for five years
for debt. During this time, he had developed a grudge against the
government for failing to get him released. He was tried and hanged for his offence within seven days.