The Sun.
London, England, 1850-07-11 00:00:00

fourtbMbition

SUN OFFICE, Sevcn o' Cloch.

THE ASSAULT ON THE
QUEEN,

CRIMINAL COURT.-(THIS DAY.)
OLD COURT.

(Before Mr. Baron ALDERS9N, Mr. Justice PATTESON,
and Mr. Justice TAISOURD.)

- Some tiase before the opening of the court the doors
and entrances were besieged by crowds of well-dressed
people, who were anxious to be present at the trial of
the man Pate for assaulting her Majesty, but no one was
admitted without an order from the Under-Sheriffs, and
the court was at no time over-filled. There was an un-
usually large attendance of gentlemen of the long robe,
while on the bench and in other convenient parts of the
court a numerous bevy of flashionebly-attired ladies were
accommodated with seats. Their Lordships arrived a
few minutes after ten o'clock, and the prisoner was im-
mediately placed iu the dock. There was nothing new
in his appearance to call for remark. He was dressed, as
before, in a blue curt rut buttoned up to the neck, and
seemed to be but little concerned at the situation he
found himself in. He stood firm and erect, with his
hands behind him, and his whole demeanour
and bearing was that of a military mar.
He was de,cribed in the calendar as " Robert Pate,
need 30, gentleman," and the cherge against him was
thus stated—" Unlawfully and with a stick striking the
person of our Lady the Queen, with intent to injure
our said Lady the Queen." Upon being called
upon in the usual form, he pleaded " Not guilty" in a firm
. .
voice. -
The Attorney-Genera!, the Solicitor-General, Mr.
Welsby, Mr. Bodkin, and Mr. Clerk appeared for the
proseoution; and Mr. Cockburn, Q.C., with whom was
Mr. fluddlestone, defended the prisoner.
The ATTORNEY-GENERAL opened the case, and he
commenced by stating that it was always painful to him
to appear in that court as a public prosecutor, but it was
with increased pain that he appeared to prosecute in
the present instance. The prisoner at the bar, who had
hitherto moved in a high sphere, and pa: std as a gen-
tleman, was charged with having assaulted our most
gracious Majesty the Queer, and although such an of-
fence was calculated to excite di-gust and abhorrence
, in the minds of all loyal and well-disposed persons,
it was his duty to warn them not to attach any
weight to anything they might have hitherto heard
in connexion with this case prejudicial to the prisoner
or otherwise, and to try the case in a dispassionate tem-
per, and decide accuriting to the evidence that would be
placed before them. They must dispose of this case as
if they were dealing with an ordinary transaction, and
acquit or convict the prisoner according to the testimony
of the witnesses. The prisoner was the son of a gentle-
man of independent fertune, who had filled the office of
high-sheriff ot his county, and formerly held a commis-
sion in her Majesty's 10th Hussars, but he retired from
the regiment some time ago, and cad since been living
in retirement. The Learned Attorney-General
then proceeded to relate the facts of the case
as they were afterward disclosed in evidence,
and then went on to tell the jury that it
was not his province te speculate upon what could
have been the motives of the prisoner. He understood,
however, that it was intended to set up a plea of insanity,
but before the jury gave credence to that ph-a they mu't
be satisfied that it was true - beyond all possibility of
doubt.
Colonel Grey was the first witness called. He was
examined by the SOLICITOR-GENERAL. Icon Equerry-iu-
Waiting to her Majesty, and I remsm, er attending on
her Majesty on Thursday, the 27th ot June. Her Ma-
jesty left Buckingham Palace in an open barouche about
t o'clock. She was drivers up Constitution-hill and
down Piccadilly to Cambridge House. Her Majesty
alighted there and remained till halt-past six. On leiv-
iug Camb i,lge House I saw the serge ant-footman of
her Majesty seta:3 the prisoner by the collar and drag
him behind the rumble. The police shortly afterwards got
hold et him, and seeing that he was Fecund, the car-
riage was driven on to Buckingham Fleece. Sir Jarees
Clark was then sent- f et, and her Majeety'a eye-brow
Was bandaged. I saw blood flowing from it.
Mr, Robert Renwick, her Majesty's sereeant-footman,
was in attendance upon her Majesty on the 27th of June
last, while she was leaving Cambridge House. He saw
the prisoner strike her Majesty across the forehead, and
immediately seized him by the collar. Immediately af-
terwards the police came up, and the prisoner was given
into their custody.
James Silver, 8 A, of the Mceropolitan Police, stated
that he imaged the prisoner, who had a stick with him,
which he now produced. He protested the prisoner
- from the violence of the mob, and conveyed him to the
Vine•ttreet station, where the prisoner was searched.
Tne prisoner stated that his name was R ;beet Pate, that
he resided at 27, Duke street, St. James's, and that he
tv as formerly a lieutenant in the 10th Hussars. Ile
cautioned some men who were describing the assault at
this time, and said they did not know whether he hit
her Majesty's fors+ e td or h• r bonnet, adding that it was
a slight blow with a slight stick.
Cross-examined by Mee CCCKBURN—He gave his
rights address.
-Samuel Coling examined by Mr. CLERK—I am a
bookseller, residing in Fetter-lane. 1 remember being
at Cambridge House on Thursday evening, the .27th of
June, waiting for her 11.F7sty to come out. The pri
soner s teed by me, and as the carriage came cut, which
stopped for a moment at the gate, the prisoner struck at
her Majesty wi h a dick.
By tne COURT—It was on the Hyde-park side. 'The
blow appeared to me to fall partly on the bonnet and
partly on the face. It was hot a -violent blow, though it
was bard. He did not strike with all his force.
Examination continued—From the attitude of the
prisoner, it is my impression that the blow
was aimed so as to fall upon the face ( f her Ma-
jesty. I was the first person to seize the prisoner. I
observed three children in the carriage with her Majesty.
Cross-examined—There were bet,wke 1 200 and 300
persons present at the time. They were all round us
except in front.
Sir James Clark examined by the ATTORNEY-GENE-
RAL—I am physician to her Majesty. I was sent for to
her Majesty on Thursday evening, the 27,h of June,
and I leached Buckingham Palace between eight and
nine o'clock. I examined a Majesty's face and round a
tumour on the right angle of her Maesty's brow, and a
small cat. The bleeding had stopped. The wound
might have been int! cted by the stick produced, but I
was surprised to find that so severe a wound could
have been ii,flieted by so slight a stick.
Cress-examined-1 assume that the blow was struck
at the bonnet which was an elastic one.
This was the case for the prosecution.
Mr. COCKBURN then proceeded to address the jury
for the defence. He said he could not dispute the fact
that the prisoner had been guilty of the act imputed to
'him, and certainly, if the prisoner had been responsible
for what he did, it was an act meriting the severest
punishment, but his Learned Friend had rightly con-
jectured that the act would be excused on the ground of
insanity. Now let the jury look at the act
itself'. Here was a gentleman, living in a comfort-
able station of life, lifting his hand against a
Sovereign, who was not only respected for her
position, but beloved and reverenced for her good
ness and virtues, in the presence of a body of people
whose t.-elings he- must have known would be so out-
raged by the act that they would immediately take
summary vengeance upon its perpetrator. But it was
not in the folly of the act itself that they must look for
evidence of insanity. They must go beyond that, and
ascertain whether or no there was anything in the pre-
vious conduct of the man who had committed such an
act to justify a belief that at times he was not respon-
sible for his actions. Now, the prisoner had been rightly
described as the son of a gentleman of fortune, who re-
sided in Cambridgeshire. In 1841 he joined the 10th
Hussars in Ireland, and up to a particular period
which he should presently refer to, he performed ad
the duties of an officer to the. satisfaction of his supe-
riors. He was very much attached to animals, and lad
two favourite horses and a dog. The dog, while suffer-
ing from an attack of hydropnolsia, bit the two horses,
and eventually they died in a stare of frightful madness.
This circumstance so affected his mind that he becatee
gloomy and strange in his manner. His father, how-
ever, having heard of the loss, sent him over to Dublin
a very valuable horse; but before it reached there the
prisoner, without saying anything to his groom or ser-
vants, quitted Dublin and came over to London, where
he was met by some of his friends. His manner ap-
peared to them so wild and extravagant that they per-
suaded him to go down to his father's house, where he
became still more outrageous in his behaviour. He
declared to his father that the reason he
had left Dublin was that the cooks and mess
of his regiment had entered into a conspiracy
to poison him. His friends, however, succeeded in dis-
abusing his mind of this delusion, and he returned to
Dublin, but he had not been there long before he sent
word to his father that his inside was filled with brick-
bats. His father immediately repaired to Dublin,- and
consulted Dr. Murray, the surgeon of the regiment, upon
the state of his son's health. The general impression
then was that he was harmless and light-headed, no-
thing more, and his father allowed him to remain in
Dublin. Shortly afterwards the prisoner again came to
London, and, without communicating with his father or
his friends, he sold his commission, and went to live in
German-street. Here his habits were of the most re-
gular character; he always dressed the same both in
winter and summer, kept regular hours, and, strange
to say, for fifteen months, at four o'clock in the day,
no matter what the weather was, wet or dry, he
went in the same cab, which was a Hansom, to Putney.
common, where he would remain for an hour at a small
pound without any apparent purpose. His conduct in
the cab was always violent teal strange. After Ibis he
went to live in Puke-street, where his conduct was
equally preposterone and silly, while his mode of con-
dual( g- himself in the street, and the manner in which
he threw his arms about was' so utterly at variance- with
the practice of a sane man,
WI-1 kept a watch over hits, .. the pollee bad long
Now, if ell these aces were
i..,:,....v \A ' ' proved to the satisfaction of the guru could they have
mind?priseornsers:Wataesotfhatoa
madman;
-'''
l's' f any doubt about the piesen , state of t • •
Fes'
'Lite ...' he circumstances of the
0
•„
litoeefi, a commission of lunacy had been- aken out aeatnst 'the
a , Via . risoner, and these facts were adduced as evidence in sup-
, - . eeeste
~\ ! .
t,,L,,...e. -4"
..„. rt of it, could
anthey hesitate what would have been
Aese
,0,-- „:t -ho result of such ineintry? Tne very act itself, in
)
;W- - 1 it was without motive. The prisoner was not in want—an-
be was the son of a weal hy man and
-.
on the contrary.
- zel A in a state or affluence. Political motives were out of
the question; he bad no political grievance to complain
of, nor bad he suffered any individual wrong, done in a