Facts and occurrences combine to fix attention on the defective
ar- rangements for controlling criminally-disposed lunatics. On Saturday last, M`Nanghten was acquitted from the charge of shooting Mr. Drum- mond, because he was insane ; on Monday next, the Lord Chancellor is to call the attention of the Peers to that verdict ; in the interval, Mr. Gout- burn has claimed protection against threats of assassination from Mr. John Dillon ; and yesterday, a man was brought before the Lord Mayor on a charge of threatening to shoot the Queen and Sir Robert Peel ! The prisoner was James Stevenson, a tallish, sallow-complexioned Scotchman, about thirty years old, with light prominent grey eyes, mat- ted hair, large moustachios, and thick yellow beard. He lived with his father in Renfrewshire ; and having wandered to Hall, came up to London by the steam-packet. While on board, he was heard to say, that it was not proper for a woman to nee, and that "the woman must be destroyed! and he said that he had business with Sir Robert Peel, who" must answer him, or be destroyed." To the questions of the Lord Mayor he returned the most incoherent and rambling answers. He had been a servant, and a weaver ; but for the last three years he bad lived on his earnings, (304) studying the Bible, the Greek Testa- meat, John Knox's History, and many books that he could not name.
If his wandering words are intelligible, he conceived that there was a union, (which seems to be a confused idea between the union of the two kingdoms and a clerical combination.) to put out all truth from the Churches of England and Scotland ; he wanted to see Sir Robert Peel to break this union ; but when asked what he meant to do if he did not succeed, he evaded the question. Afterwards, when Mr. Hewitt, the Clerk of the Packet-Company, repeated his declaration that Sir Robert Peel must be destroyed, and the Lord Mayor asked, " Is that your idea ? "—he replied, "It is—that every Minister who holds up Antichrist must be put down." He adjudged that "man must reign, not the female" ; and he held that if the Queen did not lay down her office' she must be destroyed. Pistols being mentioned, he exclaimed, "I never in- tended the pistols." The Lord May or remarked, that there was no law in the Bible that he should destroy a man who would not fulfil what he thought proper : on which he answered readily, "I think there is such a thing : Whosoever will not serve the Lord, shall be put to death." He quoted other texts, and in some doggrel lines found upon him, he had joined "Such oppressors make wise men mad" to " That very justly they should stab. " The Bible does not teach you that," said the Lori Mayor. "Yes," he answered ; "you will see the passages in Judges: Ahab the King was stabbed ; and he was a very fat man, you know." He does not appear to have heard of the assassination of Mr. Drummond ; but he said that he first heard of Sir Robert Peel's being in power" when the man shot at the Queen—that first drew my atten- tion to the subject." He had but 2s. 2id. in his pocket when taken. He did not object to his father's being written to ; but he said his father thought him "bad beyond correction." He was remanded till Friday next; being lodged in the Compter.
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