Assassinated Rulers.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XLI, Issue 9, 26 August 1908, Page 14

Assassinated Rulers.

HOW THE DEED HAS BEEN DONE. The roported attempts on the life of the young King of Portugal so soon after the awful death of his father and brother at the hands of the assassin reminds us of the long list of crowned heads who have met with violent deaths. In reviewing the number of so-called political assassinations or attempted murders of rulers and royal personages in modern times, one cannot help being struck by the preference which seems to be displayed for the pistol over the knife or the bomb. King Humbert, (Shah Nasr-ed-Din, of Persia, King Alexander and Queen Draga of Servia, Prince Milosh of Servia, and no less than three Presidents of the United States, namely, Lincoln, Garfield, and McKinley, all succumbed io pistol bullets. Alfonso XII. the Duke of Aosta, while King of Spain, King George of Greece, King Frederick William IV. of Prussia, King Louis Philippe of France, Emperor Alexander 11. of Russia, Napoleon 111. of France, King Leopold of Belgium, the late Queen Victoria. the present King of Wnrtemburg, and Edward VII. have been shot at, some of them on several occasions. Only one, however, sustained wounds, he being the late Emperor William, who for several months in 1678 was prevented from transacting the business of the Government owing to wounds he received ftt the hands of the would-be assassin, Nobiling. Bresident Carnot died from a knife thrust, as did Charles HL, penultimate sovereign Duke of Parma, while Empress Elizabeth of Austria, was killed by a dagger in the form of a sharppointed file. Passante’s memorable attempt on Hie life of King Humbert, shortly after Ids accession to the throne was made with a knife, and would undoubtedly have ent short his reign did not his Prime Minister, Cairoll, thrust himself forward, and shielding his sovereign, received, a wound in his side. Isabella 11. was wounded by the poignard of an unfrocked priest, while entering the Church of the Attocha, not long after the birth of the Infanta Isabella, and Francis Joseph was severely injured by a stab between the shoulders shortly before his marriage, and undoubtedly would have been killed had it not been for the devotion of an aide-de-camp, a young officer of Irish parentage, of the name of O'Donnell. Only one monarch lias ben killed by a bomb, Alexander 11. of Russia, whose younger son, the Grand Duke Sergius, was also blown to pieces about two years ago at Moscow. Attempts to kill the present King of Spain have been made on at least two occasions, once in Paris, and again at the time of his wedding, bombs being used both times. They were likewise used against Napoleon Hl. and King Louis Philippe. These three sovereigns escaped unhurt, but numerous other lives were sacrificed by the outrages. Thus far only two real attempts have been made to assassinate a sovereign by wrecking a railroad train. On one occasion the baggage train of Alexander HL, of Russia, was blown to pieces near Moscow, in the belief that it was the Imperial special, while in the other instance the train on which Alexander, his Empress, and Ids children were travelling was ditehed at Borki, and burled down a steep embankment. Many of the members of the suite and of the Imperial retinue lost their lives, but the Emperor himself and his wife and children escaped injury beyond bruises and shoekin a manner that can only be described as miraculous. Poison, a- favourite agent for cutting short the lives of rulers, apparently no longer finds favour with regicides, and the only catfe in modern times was an attempt to kill Czar Alexander 111. by means of poisoned gloves, which cost the life of one of the members of Iris suite, Count (Iherniel ieff, whose gloves were mistaken for those of his sovereign.

DEATH INSTRUMENTS DESTROYED. Superstition is largely responsible for tho extraordinary care which is taken after any of these assassinations of rulers or of members of the reigning houses of the old world l to destroy the fireaims or the knives that have been used by the assailants. It is a custom of aneieut origin and extends not only to the weapons of regicides but also to the surgical instruments employed by surgeons in treating the injuries of the victims of these outrages or in post-mortem examinations and embalming. In olden times the weapons and instruments used to be filed to powder or ground to pieces. When, however, the priest Martin Merino, attempted to murder Queen Isabella of Spain in the manner that I have described above, it was found that the bladb of the poignard which he had used was of such exquisitely tempered steel that it resisted evory filo and stone. This was related in the newspapers, and the superstitious Spaniards became so excited that the Cabinet was forced to take steps for the destruction of the knife by sulphuric acid, to allay public feeling and to remove the impression that there was something ger. Since then sulphuric acid has always been used to destroy such weapons. It was used for the destruction of the sharpened file with which Empress Elizabeth was assassinated, and of the surgical inst uments employed by the physicians who made the postmortem examination, the weapon being destroyed in the presence of the Austro-Hungarian envoy in Switzerland, and of other representatives of the Emperor of Austria who had been summoned! to Geneva. In the same manner the agency of sulphuric acid was used at Lisbon to put out of existence the firearms that brought about the death of King Carlos and the Crown Prince of Portugal, the instruments used by the surgeons and those employed in the embalming the bodies. Thanks to this, there is no chance of their falling into the hands of dealers in curios or of their being placed on exhibition in a museum or travelling show. CARRIAGE STEPS DANGEROUS. It is possible that both King Carlos and the Crown Prince might have escaped with their lives at 'Lisbon had the carriage in which they were riding been constructed after the modtel of the equipages used by the present King and Queen of England and by the late Queen Victoria. It is related that the regicide who accomplished the most deadly work sprang to the step of the carriage from which he repeatedly shot while Queen Amelie vainly endeavoured to dislodge him by striking him in the face with a bouquet which she held in lier ■hand!. Cascrio, when lie murdered President Carnot, at Lyons, with a knife thrust, was able to accomplish his object by jumping on the steps of the Presidential carriage, In the first two attempts to assassinate King Humbert the criminal in each instance jumped on the steps of the sovereign’s barouche, and when ex-Lieutenant Bean, of the 10th English Hussar Regiment, struck the late Queen. Victoria across the face with a rattan cape)—a blow so severe that she retained the scar until the day of her death —'he jumped on the carriage steps. This resulted in the adoption of an entirely different style of carriage for the Queen. The wouldbe assassin of the late Shah of Persia mad l '? use of the same means to reach the ruler on the Persian monarch’s first visit to Paris. Innumerable other cases in modern and ancient times, comprising the murder of Henry IV. of France and the attempted assassination of Louis XV., of the sama country, show that whenever any attempt lias been made on the life of the sovereign when out driving, the carriage step has almost invariably played an important role by enabling the assailant to get within striking distance. That is why the carriage used by King Edward and Queen Alexandra is not only very high from the ground but it has no step visible for entering or leaving the conveyance. There are steps, but they are folded inside the carriage door and let down only when, needed, It is eaid that King Carlos and his two sons were armed, and that the Crown Prince killed ono of his assailants and. wounded another before being laid low himself. Rulers habitually go armed, though the Portuguese Crown Prince is first scion of royalty to have turned his revolver to good account. True, there are

stories of Alexander 111. and) of the prtf* sent Sultan of Turkey having shot retainers, mistaking them for would-be assassins, but these rumours have never been authenticated. King Edward, it hi well known, carries a pistol. That he useil to go armed when still Prince of Wale* was shown on one occasion when he wax riding in Hyde Park. A horse which had bolted and run into the railings had sustained such injuries as to make recovery impossible. As it was suffering, ridorS who had assembled on the spot decided that It should be put out of misery, and called on a policeman to shoot the ani< mal. The policeman declined on the ground that he was unarmed, and added that he Lad no authority to shoot the horsey even if a pistol were to’ be furnished. Tho Prince of Wales, who was looking on thereupon took a small revolver from his pocket and shot the horse, revealing the fact that he was the only inau present who carried a pistol. The Kaiser is never without liis re* vol ver. He is extremely skilful in tho us» of the weapon, and his Jaeger, or body servant, who accompanies him. everywhere, inspects it every morning to make sure that it is in perfect working order. Firmly convinced that ho is going to die by the hand of an anarchist, this having been prophesied to him long ago, he is determined to put up a fight for his life, and to have at any rate, the satisfaction of inflicting somo injury on his assailant. Nor can anyono blame him or the rulers of Europe for thus going ‘'heeled.” They are aware of the constant peril of attempts made on their lives, not merely by anarchists and revolutionists, but also by cranks of the character of tho assassin of President M'Kinley and the experiences of the last, 40 years have furnished numerous proofs, that not even the most careful elaborately organised system of protection on the part of military guards and police! can keep the executive of a country from the reach of a would-be assassin* from the reach of a would-be murderer* If rulers usually go armed it is not only for their own sake, but likewise for that of the- people over whose destinies they preside, since the murder of the head of the nation invariably leads to a disturbance of the normal course of events. Indeed, it is incumbent on them to take every possible measure that they can devise to protect themselves from the danger of assassination.