London Legal Letter. case, such as : Were these two dreamers conversant with the locality or with the nephews? Did they have any prior knowl edge of each other? The lawyers, of course, were conducting a criminal case, and not a scientific inquiry. One cannot help wonder ing how much evidence of this sort is tendered to the detective police, and whether it is always duly investigated. One readily understands that much of such dubious testimony is suppressed at its very source, from fear of ridicule on the one hand or of suspicion on the other. . . . In May, 1812, Mr. Spencer Perceval, Prime Minister of England, was shot in the lobby of the House of Commons by one Bellingham. It was claimed that eight days before the assassination, it was foreseen in a dream by a gentleman, a Mr. Williams, living near Truro, in Cornwall. The story has been often told, sometimes carelessly, sometimes with added " effects." We shall give the version of a gentleman whose father was with the dreamer at the date of his dream, as corrected by the version of another friend, who frequently heard the story from the lips of the dreamer himself, when in advanced age. Mr. Williams, his brother and his partner, were, in the early part of May, 1812, visiting their mines in the eastern part of Cornwall. .Mr. Williams had lately sent his son, Michael 'afterward M. P. for the county), to London to xronfer with the Government respecting the duty on foreign copper. One morning, Mr. Williams, when driving with his friends, remarked that on the previous night he had had a singular dream of being in the lobby of
193
the House of Commons, and seeing a tall man shoot a short one in the left side. He repeated this dream so often that his com panions were rather annoyed. When he himself told the story in after years, he added that the shot was fired as from behind his shoulder, and that he heard an usher say that the murdered man was Mr. Perceval; that he had debated with his sons on the propriety of his going to London and warn ing the minister, but that they had dissuaded him, which he ever afterwards regretted. He added that it was eight days before the murder that he had this dream. His son, Michael, was in a committee room opening off the lobby when the murder took place, and returned straight home, where his father, the moment he saw him, exclaimed that he knew the news he had brought. When the old gentleman went to London, he sought for portraits of the assassin and his victim, but was not satisfied with the first he saw of the former, as the hero of his dream had "basket buttons " on his coat. Presently he found a print in which this detail was cor rectly portrayed. Mr. Williams was generally considered a very practical and unimaginative man. The murderer, Bellingham, in his confes sion, owned that the murder had been fully conceived in his own mind for a fortnight before the deed was committed! Is it possible that some " rapport " was established between Bellingham and Mr. Williams, by the presence of Michael Williams in London, and that the dream was a kind of " thought transference "?
LONDON LEGAL LETTER. LONDON, March n. 1893.
' I ^ H E English judiciary contains no more strongly 4 marked individuality than that of Mr. Com missioner Kerr, who presides in the City of London Court. The court in question is only a " county" court, but from the circumstances of being situate in the metropolis, and being the scene of an immense 25
amount of litigation, and more especially as the judgment-seat of Judge Kerr, it enjoys a great fame. He is a Scotchman, with the defects and virtues of his race; extraordinary acumen, legal insight, knowledge of men, force of character make him a model judge, and suitors love his rapid and sen sible methods of dealing with the cause list, al
