The assassination attempt on Prime Minister Robert Peel CRIME AND PUNISHMENT - EDWARD DRUMMOND important letter signed dated December 4th 1837 by Edward Drummond, Secretary to Sir Robert Peel, who, in 1843 was murdered by a lunatic named Daniel M’Naghten, who had mistaken him for the Prime Minister. The letter, written to Chancellor of the Exchequer, Thomas Spring Rice, is in support of Drummond’s Civil List Pension of £250 p.a. [about £12,000 today], for his Government Service. 3pp 4to in good condition. Drummond was shot as he left Peel’s house in Whitehall Gardens and died five days later. M’Naghten, who had developed delusions about the Government, had intended to assassinate Peel. He was acquitted on the grounds of insanity, but the ruling led to the development of what are known as the M’Naghten (aka MacNaughton) rules which are still in place today and provide for a verdict of ‘not guilty by reason of insanity’ but nevertheless lead to an indeterminate sentence in a secure hospital – as in the case of the assassination and kidnap attempt on Princess Anne in the 1970s.