FAMOUS VICTIMS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 168, 17 July 1936, Page 8

FAMOUS VICTIMS.

PREVIOUS PLOTS. t Few Cases of Assassination In Britain. DEATH PENALTY PROVIDED. Though several English sovereigns . have fallen to the assassin's bullet I or knife, the history of Britain has, i. comparatively speaking, little record r of such crimes having been success- [ ful. In his history of England, Macaulay . refers to this fact as being due mainly t to the essentially British sentiment of . horror at the disposal of a political . enemy by underground means. There ; have, however, been notable eases, particularly during the Elizabethan and Jacobite periods, when political feeling ran high and the country of England was 1 threatened with civil war. The crime of assassination is dealt : with in English law under the heading ! of treason, and it is likely that in the I present ease unless there are special circumstances that will be .the charge eventually levelled. Clause Bof the 1 definition of treason, for which the death penalty is provided, states the following:—"The forming and manifesting, , by an overt act, of an intention to kill His Majesty or tu do him any bodily harm tending to death or destruction, maim, or wounding, or to imprison or restrain him." And clause E includes also in the definition any person "conspiring" with any person to do any of these things. Edward VII. and Victoria. The most recent record of an attempt on the lue of a British monarch occurred in the life of Edward VII. While still Prince of Wales lie was passing through Brussels in December, 1899, when he was fired on by a youth named Sipido, who, it is stated, was crazed by the reading of anarchist literature. There were, however, 111 all five attempts 011 the life of Queen Victoria, none of them having serious consequences. They were 011 June 10, 1840, May 30, and July 3, 1842, May 19, 1849, and March 2, 1882. Mr. Hector Bolitho related in "Albert the Good" that ill May, 1842, "a thorough scamp named John Francis fired a shot at the Queen. She ■ met the occasion with Hanoverian courage, and a few hours afterwards drove out again while the man was still at large, giving him the opportunity of firing once more. This he did; thus delivering himself up to the law." The second shot passed under the carriage. The Prince Consort wrote: —"The wretch was caught, tried, and deported for life." Again in July of that year "a hunchbacked wretch" tried to shoot at the carriage in which the Queen, Prince Albert and Prince Leopold were sitting, but the pistol misfired: At that time Peel, the Prime Minister, was governing a country traversed by disorderly mobs. The last attempt on Queen Victoria's life was a somewhat similar one, the Queen's carriage being fired upon bv u madman as she was entering a railway station yard. Famous Plots. History records that during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries political assassinations became prominent and that there were many attempts 011 the life of Queen Elizabeth. The most famous assassination plot in the history of England' was that planned by Sir George Barclay and a group of 40 Jacobites against William 111. He was to have been set upon by the assassins as he rode to the hunt. However, information of the attempt was conveyed to the King by three separate sources and the hunt was abandoned, and the conspirators arrested. Other famous assassinations or attempts included the death of Edward V:. one of the princes in the Tower, in 14,83. Babbington's conspiracy against Elizabeth, the conspiracy of Guy Fnwkcs against James 1, Gerard's conspiracy against Cromwell, and the Rye House, Despard's and Cato Street plots of the same period. All of these were frustrated and the participants punished. List of Tragedy. Among the most notable victims of assassinations in the world's history are those of Julius Caesar, 44 8.C.; Thomas A'Beekett, A.D. 1170; David Rizzio, the lover of Mary, Queen of Scots, and Lord Darnley, her husband, in lf)0(i and 1567; William of Orange, 1584; Wallcnstein, the great general of the Thirty Years' War, 1034; Marat, one of the foremost figures of the French Revolution, 1793; and Paul, Tsar of Russia, in 1801. Three presidents of the United States have been assassinated —Abraham Lincoln, 1805; James A. Garfield, 1881, and William McKinley, 1901. Coming to more recent times, there were the assassinations of the French president, Carnot, 1894; King Humbert I. of Italy, 1900; King Carlos I. of Portugal, and his eldest son, 1908; the Tsar of Russia, Nicholas 11., the Empress and members of tlieir family, 1918 (one of the initial acts of the Russian Revolution); Field Marshall Sir Henry Wilson, 1922; King Alexander I. of Yugoslavia, and M. Bar- . thou, French Foreign Minister, at Marseilles, in 1934. Prominent Attempts. In all these cases the cause of the crime was found to be political distortion, or personal animosity. Many attempts were laid at the door of such political organisations as the anarchists and the Nihilists. The attempts at assassination would make a formidable list, 'but among the most important during recent times were the following: Alfonso XI. of Spain, 1878; 1879; Amadous of Spain, 1872; Bismarck, 180G; | 1874; Francis Joseph of Austria, 1853; • George 111. of England, 1786 and 1800; George IV. (while Regent), 1817; ■ Humbert I. of Italy, 1878; 1897; Isabella ' of Spain, 1847; 1852; 1850; Louis Philippe of France, six attempts between : 1835 and 1846; Lord Lytton, Viceroy : of India, 1878; Napoleon 1., 1800; j Napoleon 111., 1855, twice; William 1. of Germany, 1861; 1875; 1878; Theodore Roosevelt, 1912; Mussolini, 1925, and three times in 1926; King Boris of Bulgaria, 1925; King George of Greece, 1927; King Zog of Albania, 1931; Franklin Roosevelt, present President of the United States, 1933; M. Venizelos, Premier of Greece, 1933; and Ibn Saud, King of the Hedjaz, 1935.