Spencer, an English statesman, the second son of John, Lord Egmont, was born in 1762, and received his education at Harrow, and at Trinity College, Cambridge. Becoming a member of Lincoln's Inn, and pursuing the study of law with a close and unwearied attention which stooped to the most minute details, he soon laid the foundations of future eminence. Accordingly, he had not been long in Parliament as member for the borough of Northampton, when he entered upon a career of promotion. Under the Addington administration, the office of solicitor-general was conferred upon him in 1801, and the office of attorney-general in 1802. On the overthrow of the Grenville ministry in 1807, he was appointed chancellor of the exchequer; and on the retirement of the Duke of Portland from the premiership in 1809, he succeeded to the post of prime minister of Great Britain. His administration was marked by strong opposition to the tolerant views which had ruined his predecessors; and he is one of the few English statesmen who have rendered themselves notorious from the rancour of their religious intolerance. He seems to have been a man of a cold, ungenial nature. Perceval was still at the head of affairs when he was shot by an assassin named Bellingham in the lobby of the House of Commons on the evening of the 11th May 1812.