The Queen’s Escapes.

Cromwell Argus, Volume III, Issue 140, 16 July 1872, Page 3

The Queen’s Escapes.

The recent attempt by O’Connor to coerce the Qttten to an amnesty of the Fenian prisoners, by presenting a worthless old pistol at her head, is the fifth outrage of this sort of which Victoria has been the victim since she ascended the throne, though she has never given an occasion or the shadow of an excuse for the insults she has received, and the attempts which have been made upon her life. A milder or more harmless sovereign never wore a crown. The first attack upon the Queen’s life was that by the public-house boy Oxford, on June 10, 1840. She had then been about three years on the throne. The Queen and Prince Albert were leaving Buckingham Palace by a side-gate for their afternoon drive in a low phatoen, drawn by four horses with outriders, when the boy, who stood a little apart from the crowd, fired directly at them. The Queen, either in fright, or to show that she was nut hurt, rose from her seat; but the Prince immediately pulled her down again. A second shot was tired before Oxford could be seized, and it appears that the Prince heard both shots whiz by his head. Oxford was about seventeen, the same age as O’Connor, and, curiously enough, O’Connor’s attack was ou nearly the same spot as Oxford’s. The latter was found to he a lunatic, and was sent to the asylum accordingly. Two years later, Victoria was returning from her afternoon drive, when she was shot at by a fellow named Francis, who seems to have had no excuse excepting desperate poverty. Tim Queen showed great coolness on this occasion, and the same evening appeared in the royal box at the opera. Francis was sentenced to death ; but, at the Queen’s own instance, his sentence was commuted to life transportation. The example of Francis appears to have attracted a hump-backed boy named Bean, who, within a month, committed a similar assault. The Queen was driving through St. James’s Park, when this lad was observed to point a pistol towards her head Happily the pistol did not go oil', and, before he could be seized, he disappeared in the crowd. For some time seatch for him, despite his deformity, was ineffectual ; meanwhile some twenty or thirty hump-backed boys were arrested ou suspicion, He was finally taken, but not until the excitement caused by bis attempt had passed away. The most insulting of all assaults upon her Majesty was late in the spring of 1850. fehe had been paying a visit to her uncle, the Duke of Cambridge. As her carriage turned into Piccadilly, a ruffian named Pate rushed up to it and struck t lie Queen several severe blows across the face with a stout cane, crushing in her bonnet and leaving an indention ou her face. The Queen’s children were with her, and Pate seemed to have attacked them when he was seized. The royal lady displayed on this occasion remarkable courage, ordered the carriage to proceed, and drove quietly to the palace. The police with difficulty saved Pate from the fury of the populace, who mani'ested a disposition to applv lynch law on the spot. He was tried, and the defence of insanity failing, he was transported for seven years.