THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE QUEEN.

Otago Witness, Issue 1581, 11 March 1882, Page 22

THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE QUEEN.

The. attempt on the' life I of Queen Victoria; which happily failed but might so easily have succeeded, has, we are assured by cable, no political significance. , The perpetrator of ,the act — a man named Roderick M'Lean — is described as a miserable object, who pleads poverty as the only excuse for his crime — a plea quite unintelligible, except on the ground that his misery had temporarily affected his brain." He is said to have shown no sign of insanity in the police .court, but it has transpired that he was at one time an inmate of a lunatic asylum. Though the bullet has been found, he declares he had no murderous intent ; ■ but that will not easily be believed by a British jury, difficult as it is to assign an adequate motive to such an act. It is juat possible that the morbid broodings of a miserable man may have led him to imitate the miscreant G-uiteau, and if tho first intelligence received by cable is correct, he was only prevented from repeating his shot, as did Uuiteau, by the prompt intervention of the bystanders. It is sad, indeed, that such a monarch as Queen Victoria should be maue the mark for Buch an attack, and it is a matter for profound congratulation that a glorious reign has not been closed by a bloody tragedy. As usual, her Majesty acted with admirable calmness and courage, and showed herself every inch a Queen. It is one ©f the penalties of greatness, however it may be shielded by the cloak of a virtuous and noble life, to be the mark for madmen's bullets. Her Majesty has had her share of such alarms. In 1840 Edward Oxford fired twice at the then youthful monarch. In 1842 a pistol was fired at her byi John Francis, and in the same year a cripple named John William Bean snapped a pistol at her loaded with powder and some pieces of clay pipe, but failod to discbarge it. In 1849 an Irish labourer, William Hamilton, fired a point-blank shot which just missed General Wemyss sitting in the same carriage in a line with her Majesty, who, on that occasion, had three of her childrt>n with her. The attompt of the boy O'Connor in 1872 to gain a little personal notoriety by lovelling an unloaded pistol at the Qnoon hardly deserves mention, and from that time until Thurs- "< day hvii Ihus Laa b;,ou bo royfailiioi- of 1h05.5 asivuupts, cither to friglHeu uev , Miijcaly c<r io Ini-o Lw lid) iml of jmx »,ttonipUi thins rocor'ltid. JloiM" o/iJy | were apparoutly serloxisly and ile-

liberately, designed to take the Queen's life, and there were evidences of a certain degree of insanity about all of the perpetrators except William Hamilton. Francis and Bean, however, were regarded as accountable for their actions, and punished accordingly ; while Oxford was committed to Bedlam for life, a fate which is in all probability reserved for the wretched man Roderick M'Lean, now under arrest. It is marvellous that none of all these attempts succeeded, and that her Majesty has in each case escaped without a wound. The present outrage will be the signal for an outburst of loyalty throughout the Queen's vast dominions, and for expressions of sympathy from all parts of the- globe. Whereyer the name of Queen Victoria is known it is beloved, and the colonists of New Zealand will, among others, know how to express their thankfulness to that "Divinity which doth hedge a king " that the life of their Queen has thus been once more mercifully spared.