Volume I Part 117 (1/2)
[Footnote 18: The allusion is to a hoax played on the Premier, by a presentation made to him of a piece of the then novel fabric, velveteen, stamped with a free-trade design. Peel afterwards wrote that he was unaware that the specimen bore ”any allusion to any matters which are the subject of public controversy.”]
[Footnote 19: William Belsham (1752-1827) wrote, in twelve volumes, _A History of Great Britain to the Conclusion of the Peace of Amiens in 1802_.]
[Footnote 20: In the _Quarterly Review_, by Lady Eastlake.]
_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._
WHITEHALL (_4th March 1843_). (_Sunday morning._)
Sir Robert Peel presents his humble duty to your Majesty, and begs leave to acquaint your Majesty that the prisoner MacNaghten was acquitted last night, after a trial which lasted two days, upon the ground of insanity.
The fuller account of the evidence which Sir Robert Peel has seen is on the accompanying newspaper.
The only other information which has reached Sir Robert Peel is contained in a note (enclosed) from Mr Maule, the solicitor to the Treasury, who conducted the prosecution. The three Judges[21] appear to have concurred in opinion, that the evidence of insanity was so strong as to require a verdict of acquittal--and the Chief Justice advised the Jury to find that verdict without summing up the evidence or delivering any detailed charge upon the facts of the case and the law bearing upon them.
It is a lamentable reflection that a man may be at the same time so insane as to be reckless of his own life and the lives of others, and to be p.r.o.nounced free from moral responsibility, and yet capable of preparing for the commission of murder with the utmost caution and deliberation, and of taking every step which shall enable him to commit it with certainty.
[Footnote 21: Chief Justice Tindal, and Justices Williams and Coleridge.]
_Sir Robert Peel to Queen Victoria._
WHITEHALL, _10th March 1843._
Sir Robert Peel, with his humble duty to your Majesty, begs leave to acquaint your Majesty that the House of Commons was occupied last night with the attack upon Lord Ellenborough for the Somnauth Proclamation.[22]
The motion was made by Mr Vernon Smith.[23] The resolution proposed condemned the Proclamation as _unwise_, _indecorous_ and _reprehensible_. Mr Vernon Smith was followed by Mr Emerson Tennent,[24] one of the Secretaries to the Board of Controul.
Mr Macaulay next spoke, and condemned the conduct of Lord Ellenborough in a speech of great bitterness and great ability.
The motion was negatived by a majority of 242 to 157.
The minority included Lord Ashley, Sir Robert Inglis, and six other gentlemen, who generally support your Majesty's servants.
The debate was a very animated one, with a strong infusion of Party zeal.
[Footnote 22: See _ante_, p. 445. (Ch. XI, 'The Gates of Somnauth')]
[Footnote 23: Robert Vernon Smith (1800-1873), afterwards President of the Board of Control, created Lord Lyveden in 1859.]
[Footnote 24: James Emerson (1804-1869), afterwards Sir James Emerson Tennent, M.P. for Belfast, author of _Letters from the aegean_, etc.]
[Pageheading: CRIMINAL INSANITY]