THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE PRINCE.

Wellington Independent, Volume XXII, Issue 2658, 7 April 1868, Page 2 (Supplement)

THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE PRINCE.

[Independent, March -24:] The report of the cowardly attempt made in Sydney on the life of H.E.H. the Duke of Edinburgh, was received on Saturday with feelings of the greatest horror and consternation. At first, few would believe that an outrage so diabolical could have been perpetrated on the son of our beloved Queen, especially as he was the invited guest of the colonists and had everywhere earned such golden opinions by his urbanity and kindliness. Anxiously were further tidings, confirmatory or otherwise, of this atrocious attempt, awaited by the people of Wellington, who, throughout Sunday, gathered round the door of the Telegraph Office, hoping that by the Rangitoto they might learn that their fears were unfounded. Alas ! the line was down ; there was no communication with the ! South, and the anxious crowd of sorrowing citizens were kept in suspense till yesterday afternoon, when, by the cour- 1 tesy of the Hon. J. C. Richmond, we were enabled to issue in an Extra, the gratifying intelligence that, though the outrage had been committed, and the Prince shot in the back, the ball had been extracted, and His Royal Highness was " getting on favorably and out of all danger." The thankfulness with which the announcement was eagerly read, showed how deep and sincere were the feelings of affection and sorrow for the Duke ; while the hatred and contempt for his cowardly assailant were made manifest in the most unmistakable manner. Thankful, indeed, must all true| subjects of her Majesty be that thebul- j let of the intending assassin has missed , its mark, and that the illustrious lady" his Royal mother, will not be bowed down by the grief of hearing that [ the life of one of her sons has been sacrificed. Thankful, truly, should, we be that the colonies of Great Britain should not have been the scene of a deed which, had it ended fatally, would have been the most infamous recorded in Modern History. From the knife or the bullet of the assassin no one is safe. Percival, the chief of England's statesmen, was shot dead in the lobby of the House of Commons. Abraham Lincoln was murdered by Booth, while at the theatre with his wife, relaxing from the cares of office. Crowned heads, too, have not been safe from such attempts, though "that divinity which doth hedge a king" has more than once seemed to preserve them providentially from the deaths to which their intending slayers had doomed them. That Orsini, Pierri, and Rudio, should try to slay the French Emperor, or that a Pole should fire his pistol with deliberate aim at the Russian Czar, are acts which, in the distempered minds of their perpetrators, may have had some tangible motive ; but that a Fenian should try to slay a young man who never by word or deed had taken part in public affairs — who in no way was responsible for the policy of the British Government — is absolutely monstrous. The Fenians are bringing back the old days of the reign of terror. They slay, or attempt to slay, unmeaningly and unreasoningly. They strike — not at their opponents — but wherever they think most pain and grief may be caused to the Queen and the nation. They stab at the mother through the breast of her son. They show hatred to England by attempting to slay the one of all others whom England loves best. A dastardly and wicked organisation such as this, must be put down by the strong hand, in the colonies to which its seeds have spread. Every overt act of the Fenians which is contrary to law, should be punished in the persons of its perpetrators with unshrinking rigor. We must have no more processions in honor of strangled murderers; we must have no more priests preaching sedition ; we must have no more wretched talk and writing in favor of a cause which can only be kept up by means of the knife and the bullet. Fenianism will henceforth be synonymous with assassination, and its apostles will be branded as murderers and the abettors of murder. Let us then stamp out this cursed thing from our midst! It is a terrible reflection that the son of the Queen of England cannot travel in safety through her colonial possessions, because the agents of a wicked conspiracy against law and order, in open day threaten his life. There must be an end put to this, and those who have been the agents of a cowardly act, which will arouse the indignation of the whole civilized world, must at any cost be discovered and made to expiate their offences. This is an occasion in which the whole people of the colonies should unite to aid in the work of discovery and punishment. Our honor is concerned in bringing to justice, not merely the perpetrators of this act, but his fellow-conspirators. The thousand pounds offered in New South Wales for the discovery of the accomplices might well be increased by the subscriptions of all the rest of Australia and New Zealand. No money would be illspent which helped to root out this hideous conspiracy ; because in doing so, we should be revenging an infamous act, and evincing our detestation of all concerned in it. On the whole, the later accounts we receive are cheering. His Royal Highness, under proper care, will s.oon recover ; but, we fear, Jiis colonial tour is at an end. And yet we trust that the expressed intention of the Commodore to send the Galatea direct home, may be reversed. Her Majesty haa no more loyal subjects than those of New Zealand ; and, did he come amongst us, we would guard her son with our very lives. But if it is not to be that he shall come here, then it is only left for us to express in the most public and emphatic manner our grief and indignation at the dastardly act which has stayed his progress and lajd him upon a bed of suffering. In Sydney and Melbourne the people have

met together to express their feelings in unmistakeable language, and it is meet that the settlers in the Capital city of New Zealand should not be laggard in I following their example.