THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE QUEEN.

Globe, Volume XXIV, Issue 2495, 5 April 1882, Page 4

THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE QUEEN.

[Per City of New York, at Auckland.] The attempt made to assassinate the Queen was by a miserable looking creature named Rodk. McLean, a native ot London, where ho was employed ns a grocer's assistant. Pa deliberately firedn pistol at the Queen while she was about entering her carriage, at Windsor. The culprit, on being seized, said that hunger actuated the crime. When the train bringing her Majesty arrived at Windsor, about 525 pm, there was a large crowd assembled at the station anxious to get a view of her as she esme. The Queen walked acr.ss the platform of tha railway station te the carriage which was waiting to take her to the Castle John Brown had already ascended to tho seat behind the carriage, when a man, standing at tha entrance to the station yards among tho spectators, pointed his pistol at the carriage and fired. Judging by the report tho weapon was not heavily loaded. The Queen was not aware cf wtat happened till she heard of tho occurrence from her excited ladies-in-waiting She was immediately driven to the Ca’tle, bnt before she bad passed the man had been seized by the Superintendent of Borough Police, who was standing by. He was also seized by the crowd, hut rescued, when three or four officers came to tho superintend ont’s assistance and conveyed him to the police station in a cab. The pistol, found] by one of the crowd, is described aa a small German weapon, with six chambers, two of which contained empty cartridges, and two contained load d ones. One account said it was a six-chambered American Colt’s revolver. McLean intended evidently to deliver a second shot, when the pistol was knocked out of his hands. The crowd was very much excited, and a number of E’on boys were prominent in tho attempt to inflict summary justice on the prisoner. London was in a ferment over the affair, and resolutions were passed both there and in tha provinces expressive of horror at tho dastardly attempt. A few minutes after the shooting the Queen telegraphed to tho Prince of Wales as follows : “In case exaggerated reports should reach, I telegraph to say that aa I drove from _ tha station to the aatle a man shot at the carriage, but fortunately hurt no one. He was instantly seized. Am none tho wo.se.” Tho Prince, accompanied by a numerous suite, witnessed the performance at the Court Theatre tho same evening. On Clayton reading to the audience the nows of tho attack on the Queen, and Her Majesty’s safety, the who’e audience rose en masse, and remained standing until the Prince had bowed his acknowledgment, and the National Anthem was played amidst the loudest demonstrations of approval. The Czar, Emperor William, and tha Empress of Austria, telegraphed the expression of their sympathy. No political significance is attached in any quarter to the outrage. McLean is twentyseven years old. The doctors pronounced him sane, in spite of the general opinion that bis act was the result of lunacy. Upon his person was found a purse containing a penny and three farthings, and a pocket-book with the following entries Forth Path,” novel by McLean and Reynolds. “ This newspaper ” (name not mentioned), “ gives aa correct an idea of the wide difference that divides the people ot England aa any newspaper in the world. I venerate free and outspoken principles, and an unbiased thinker.” At his examination at the Town Hall, Windsor, two letters, written by thq prisoner, wore read. In the first, indited just before tho shooting, he said he was compelled to commit tho crime against the ‘ blasted aristocracy,” because of insufficiency cf relief offered him. In tho second letter, written after his arrest, he said his only object was to aronse public alarm and get bis pecuniary grievances redressed; that he did not mean to hut the Queen; and only fired at the wheels of her carriage. The police evidence, which prisoner tried to shake by cross-examination,went to prove he fired straight at the carriage, acd not at the wheels as ha alleged. After a close search a small ballet was found imbedded in tha ground at tho railway station ; it weighed about ouo-tbirdof an ounce, and corresponded exactly with the others found in the pistol. The ball had glanced off a railway truck. A solicitor has been retained by McLean’s friends to defend him at tho approaching trial. Harris, the leasee ot tho Drury Lane Theatre, is his brother-in-law It is reported that McLsan bears himself cheerfully and sings. The Queen’s demeanor since the attack is said to bo admirable. Although she is always apprehensive of assassination she attaches comparatively light importance to this outrage.