The Assassination of a British Prime Minister

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Jeffrey Collins, No, Prime Minister; Unemployment and hunger drove London crowds to celebrate Spencer Perceval's assassination with an obscene delight. Wall Street Journal, May 14, 2012.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB ... 37931469585316.html
(book review on Andro Linklater, Why Spencer Perceval Had to Die; The assassination of a British prime minister. Walker & Co, 2012)

Quote:

"On May 11, 1812, at 5 pm, Spencer Perceval entered the lobby of the Houses of Parliament in London's Palace of Westminster. Prime minister of Great Britain and, after Napoleon, the most powerful man in Europe, he was overdue in the House of Commons.

"Since 1865, we Americans have lost one out of every seven presidents to an assassin's bullet, but the British have been considerably more careful. * * * Perceval is the only prime minister to have met such a violent end.

"The prime minister's most loathed policy was an armed trade blockade aimed at Napoleonic Europe. The blockade's targets included the neutral American merchant fleet and touched off both the War of 1812 and a grim economic recession. It was this unemployment and hunger that drove the London crowds to revel in Perceval's murder.

Note:
(a) Spencer Perceval
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spencer_Perceval
(1762-1812; prime minister 1809-1812)
(b) The "driving" in "a driving rain" is an adjective that means
"having great force <a driving rain> <a driving beat>"
www.m-w.com
(c) The "obscene" in "an obscene delight" means
"disgusting to the senses : REPULSIVE"

(d) the review stated the assassin "pressed a pistol against his [Perceval's] chest and fired." In the print, "pisto" was ""revolver,"though the book cover showed a pistol.
* pistol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pistol
(a handgun with a chamber that is integral with the barrel, as opposed to a revolver, wherein the chamber is separate from the barrel as a revolving cylinder; section 1 History; section 2 Action: single shot)
* revolver
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Revolver
(The first true revolver — a flintlock — was made by Elisha Collier [1788–1856; of Boston, Massachusetts] in 1818)

(e) potboiler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potboiler

(f) The review said, "He [Perceval] was in office in 1810, when George III finally succumbed to dementia and was displaced by regency of his son."
* George III of the United Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_III_of_the_United_Kingdom
(1738-1820; reign 1760-1820; House of Hanover; section 8 Later life)
* George IV of the United Kingdom
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_IV_of_the_United_Kingdom
(1762-1830; reign 1820-1830; eldest son of George III; section 4 Regency: Prince of Wales became Prince Regent in 1811 (till 1820))

(g) The review also remarked that in Perceval's premiership "Britain was "perpetually terrified by the specter of a Jacobin uprising and guillotines in St James's Park."

* Jacobin (n; from Late Latin Jacobus (St. James); from the location of the first Dominican convent in the street of St James, Paris)
"[French, from Jacobin Dominican; from the group's founding in the Dominican convent in Paris] : a member of an extremist or radical political group; especially : a member of such a group advocating egalitarian democracy and engaging in terrorist activities during the French Revolution of 1789"
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/jacobin
* Jacobin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacobin
* St James's Park
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._James's_Park
(the oldest of the Royal Parks of London; The park lies at the southernmost tip of the St James's area, which was named after a leper hospital dedicated to St James the Less[, one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus Christ])
* Guillotins of course were French innovation, not british.

(h) The rock-ribbed" in "rock-ribbed Toryism" means
"firm and inflexible in doctrine or integrity <a rock–ribbed conservative community — John Hale>"
(i) William Wilberforce
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Wilberforce
(1759-1833; the independent Member of Parliament for Yorkshire (1784–1812))
(j) edify (vt):
"to instruct and improve especially in moral and religious knowledge : UPLIFT; also : ENLIGHTEN, INFORM"
(k) patsy (n; perhaps from Italian pazzo fool):
"a person who is easily manipulated or victimized : PUSHOVER"
(l) For "Regency England," see British Regency
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_Regency