Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 August 1881 — VICTORIA’S PERIL. [ARTICLE]

VICTORIA’S PERIL.

The Attompte xm the Queen's Life stanoes Notably BeeemWfinfl the Attack on President Garfield. I>Ml i*diM Tim a<. The attempt upon the life of. the President recalls the series of like attempts to shoot Queen Victoria in the early yeers of her retan. Three times in two years after the marriage, says Mn. OBphant in a plehsant little biography, entitled “The young, innocent and virtuous woman, so attractive to all whe surrounded her t So fee of all persons! errors or disadstreets of her own cheerfid and boroditious London. That the offenders were contemptible in the highest de* wisdom of the Wise could hot undo, and the shock net only of alarm but of Incidents wss naturally v«y great The first of these attempts took place in June 1840, only a few months after the Queen’s marriage, when * mannamed Edward Oxford fired at the Queen when she was driving down Constitution Hill for her dafty airing. The royal couple were Ib a small phaeton. going to pay their dutiful visit to the Duchete of Kent in all the simplicity and confidence of nature, Prinee Albert driving his wife through the peacefulness of the Summer evening.

“We had hardly proceeded one hundred yards from the pdUibe when I noticed,” Prince Alber t writes, “on the foot-path on my side, a UUls, meanlooking man, holding something toward ua and before I could distinguish what it was, a shot was fired which almost stunned us both, it was so loud and fired barely six paces from us.. Vittoria had Just turned to the left to look at a horse, and could not understand why her ears were ringing, as. from its being so very near, she could hardly distinguish that it proceeded from a shot having been fired. The horses started and the carriage stopped. 1 seized Victoria’s hands and asked if the fright had not shaken her, but she laughed at the thing. I then looked again at the man, who was still standing in the same place, his arms crossed and a pistol in each band. His attitude was so theatrical and affected it quite amused me. Suddenly he again p inled bla pistol and fired a second lime. This time Victoria also saw the shot and stooped quickly, drawn down by me. The ball must have passed just above her head.” This was not a pleasant feature In an afternoon drive. The Queen,however, continued her course undaunted, with tbe cheerful apd simple courage natural to her, and Went on to her mother, • to carry the first news of the outrage, and set all anxiety to rest upon its Affect. Afterward “we took a short drive through the Park, partly to give Victoria a little air; partly, also, to show the public we had not lost confidence in them.” The Queen at tbs time was in a state of health such as is often affected seriously by a very much smaller matter, but her sound nerves and high spirits defended her better than armor or mail. The wretched culprit was a dissipated lad of seventeen, apparently moved by nothing more serious than depraved vanity and a desiYe to be notorious. It is not certain whether there was a bullet in the pistol he fired, andihe convenient plea of insanity was brought in to save England the bother of of executing such a being for high treason. Only the other day, during. the sitting of the Commission on Lunatic Asylums, it was mentioned that this pitiful criminal was still vegetating among the madmen—more respectable in their real misery than he—but not insane; “as sane' as any of of us,” the doctor said who spoke o! him. Thirty-seven years of imprisonment are perhaps, on the whole, even to the meanest spirit, as hard a punishment as one swift hanging once for all.

THE SECOND ATTEMPT. Two years later, at very nearly the same place, and the same time of the yea:, a still more exciting incident of the same kind occurred. Frince Albert saw, in the middle of the day on Sunday, on the return from church, “a man step out from tbe crowd and present a pistol full. He -was some two paces from us. I heard the trigger snap, but it must have missed Are. I turned to Victoria, who was seated on my right, and asked: ‘Did you hear that?” She had been bowing to the people on her right, and bad heard nothing. I said: ‘I may be mistaken, but I am sure I saw some one take aim at us.’ Nothing was said publicly, however, on the subject. No one among the Queen’s immediate attendants had observed it; and the Prince, though.fie informed the police and the Minister, wastbalf disposed to believe that he himself was deceived. However, during the Sunday afternoon, several corroborations turned up. A boy who was among the crowd bad seen the incident, and had seen and spoken to a third spectator, who also perceived it. This was enough to set the police and authorities in activity, and the vague danger thus known to exist conveyed a certain excitement into the palace. “We were naturally much agitated, Victoria very nervous and unwell,” says Prince Albert Notwithstanding, the Queen went out tor her daily drive as usual, though such precautions as could be taken were adopted. “You may imagine,” continues the narrative, “that our minds were not very easy. We looked behind , every tree and I cast ,my eyes around in search of the rascal’s iace. • • • • On our way home, as v e were approaching the Palace, between the Green Park and the garden wall, a shot was fifed at us about five paces off • It was the fellow with the same pistol—£ little swarthy, ill-lookiug rascal. We felt as if a load had been taken off bur hearta and we thanked tbe Almighty for having preserved us for a wecqud timefrom so great afianger.” “Her Majesty told me she had expected it, ahd it was.a relief to have it over,” rtys another witsaid she could never have existed under the uncertainty of-a concealed attack. She would much rather run the risk at once than have the presentment of danger constantly hovering over her.”

oxford’s imitators. The assailant on this occasion was another wretched c-eature called Francis, equally Without any motive of incentnMDt which could account for such a piece of cruel and cowardly folly. A still more remarkable thing however, remains to be told. A mon th afterward, Just after the trial of Francis, a third incident of the same kind occurred, du ugly deformed man called Bean being the culprit.* The cumulation in itself must have had a verypainful effect on the Queen’s mind, since nothing worse could have occurred to the most bated despot than these repeated shootings, which threatened the moat popular and beloved of Queens. The first of the three naively gave Ms interpretation of it afterward: “If I had bten hanged,” said Oxford, “there wouldhaye beett no more footing at the Queen. The original criminal despised his Imitators. “I Was not at all freight»ned,”.tbe Queen wrote to her uncle, “and feel very proud at dear Uncle Mensdorff calling me sebrumuthlg (very courageous), Which I shall ever remember with peculiar pride, coming from so great an offider tat he Isjr Thus the Queen gave proof ot her valor under fire—not lees an ordeal that her enemies were so contemptible and ail the greater atwiihout excitement or encouragement—a danger encountered not la passion but in cold

Hon of her Minister, Sir Robert Peel, not rally a Awnonetrative man, who, on seeing her for the first time after thia third attempt, pould not restrain his feelings, burst into tears—tears as honorable to him, in thought of such a dastardly Insult and outrage, as her steady nerves and bravery were to the young Sovereign,'<mlv twentythree, with all the susceptibility of a young mother and all the happiness of a most happy wife endearing her existence to her.