158] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



the few, would operate beneficially 

 for the whole. On the question, 

 that the speaker leave the chair, 

 the house divided, when there ap- 

 peared for the question 104, ajrainst 

 it 143: consequently the bill was 

 lost. 



This bill, the object of which 

 was brought home to the bosoms 

 of so many individuals, in various 

 ways, made, as might be expected, 

 a greater noise, while it was under 

 consideration, than any other bill 

 that was brought in the course of 

 this session before parliament. 



Among the parliamentary acts of 

 this year passed without noise or 

 debate, we cannot omit to notice 

 the interference of the house of 

 commons, on the motion of Mr. 

 Abbot, for the better preservation, 

 arrangement, and more convenient 

 use of the public recordsof theking- 

 dom. On the eleventh of July, an 

 address to his majesty for that end 

 was unanimously agreed on, and the 

 expenses of the measures adopted 

 for accomplishing it were provided 

 by the commons. 



A bill of great importance to the 

 commerce of this country, which 

 had long been in contemplation, 

 was passed in the month of March. 

 This was the act for improving the 

 port of London, by the establish- 

 ment of wet docks at Wapping and 

 other places. 



Before we dismiss the parlia- 

 mentary proceedings of this session 

 it is necessary to take notice of 

 an accident which forced the at- 

 tention, and greatly interested the 

 feelings, not only of both houses of 

 parliament, but of the whole na- 

 tion. As soon as uis majesty had 

 entered his box at the theatre of 

 Drury-Lane, on the fifteenth of 

 May, a pistol was fired from the 



pit, apparently at his person. The 

 man who had fired it, whose name 

 was Hadfield, was immediately 

 dragged into the orchestra, and 

 carried behind the scenes. Being 

 examined by a magistrate, he exhi- 

 bited some symptoms of insanity ; 

 though some of his answers were 

 rational. The veneration and love 

 that the nation bore to his majesty's 

 person was by this accidentawaken- 

 ed into an enthusiastic joy at his 

 escape. Even the spirit of faction 

 was lost in a general stream of 

 loyalty and exultation. Addresses 

 of congratulation on the king's 

 escape were presented by both 

 houses of parliament, the universi- 

 ties, the corporation of London, 

 and, in a word, by all the other 

 corporations, as well as the counties. 

 Hadfield was tried in the court 

 of King's Bench for high treason. It 

 was proved that he had been for 

 some years insane, chiefly in con- 

 sequence of wounds received in his 

 head, when he acted as a serjeant 

 in the army, in 1794, in Holland. 

 He was therefore acquitted, but 

 not discharged. 



In consequence of what had been 

 done by Hadfield, and of repeated 

 instances of thefury of insanity, be- 

 ing directed against a personage, 

 whose safety was so dear and im- 

 portant to the state, two additional 

 clauses, by way of amendments, 

 were added to the insanity-bill. 



The lord chancellor, on the twen- 

 ty-second of July, after adverting 

 generally to the great and various 

 danger to be apprehended from in- 

 sane persons, when suflTered to go 

 at large, and observing, that nothing 

 in the insanity biU appeared to 

 him eftectually to remedy this evil, 

 stated, that the object of the first 

 additional clause, was to render 



