The Sun.
London, England, 1842-06-01 00:00:00

SPIRIT of the PUBLIC JOURNALS.
FROM THE EVENING PAPERS OF YESTERDAY.
GLOBE.—The. excitement of. party has been again
act et Oxford, in 184:f0i,%.rtiiiati
suspended by an event which, but that it is, unhappily,
the second of its kind within a short period, would be re-
carded as too improbable for belief.—The life of our
beloved Qneen has been again attempted, under circum-
stances almost identical with those which attended the
ing, in
within
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(snltcgo
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to t-)
ftl i:eit.neu, es
thediitt edition,
sin tbsiimirbsel
co,
and ascertain the general authenticity of the statements,
various and conflicting, which were in circulation, and
flew with almost lightning speed throughout the me-
tropolis. The engrossing thought was the safety of the
Queen. Until that fact was ascertained, the ". when,"
where," and " how" of the • attempted assassination
were regarded as of little interest. In the House of
Commons, Mr. Charles Wood's interruption of the
Premier in his announcement to the House of the out-
rage—intelligence of which had been_ just eommuni•
Gated- to 'him from the- Home-office—was repeated by
„every one to whom the news was told—" The Queen !
The Queen Is her Majesty safe?" was heard from
!every mouth ; for anxiety respecting her Majesty's per-
sonal safety
,sprung up spontaneously in every heart.
That qUestion answered, and the assurance given
111:4 her Majesty had, through heaven's mercy, been
preserved, the other inquirieS followed With
almost breathlis:,,i rapidity. Every place at which the
slightest information respecting the act and its perpe-
trator meld be obtained vas literally besieged—not so
much for the purpose of gratifying curiosity, as to re-
lieve the pressure of conflicting emotions which a,,,ai-
tated the inquirers. In the absence et' evidence as to the
state of the individual's mental-powers by' whom this
horrible design was conceived, the •fi list • a xrlse> of cha-
rity is, to suppose that he is some wretched being in
whom reason has been dethroned, and whose insanity—
: takint, that monstrous bias which is a frequent attendant
upon mental disease—has sought its inexplicable gratifi-
cation in an attempt which, had it succeeded, would have
stricken the nation with horror, such as it has never felt
since it was numbered among the•nations.
STANDARD.-4.knother madman, or a nsonster with-
out the excuse of madness, has attempted the assassina-
tion of the beloVed Sovereigh of this- empire. At six
o'clock yesterday evening, as her Majesty, accompanied
• by Prince Albert, was returnit'er to the Palace, an assassin
presented a pistol, and tried to discharge it at the Queen,
from very nearly the-same spot from which Oxford fired ;
but the weapon flashed in the pan, and missed fire. " The
wretch Was instantly seized by a soldier of the Scotch
Fusilier Onards, and is now in custody. He was at
first supposed to be -a foreigner, but it appears, unhap-
pily, that lie is an Englishman, named John Francis,
son to a scene-shifter at one of the theatres: He is
about 20 years of age. We gave the principal, facts
in our Third and Fourth Editions last night, and must
refer for the detail of particulars to our. subsequent.
columns. Our readers will be gratified to know that the
Queen escaped even alarm from the atrocious
attempt made upon her, as she was not aware' of its
occurrence until after her arrival at the Palace,
'aid when the assassin had been some time
in the , hands of justice. When made acquainted
with it her Majesty received the intelligence with the
calmness and self-possession characteristic of her -gals
lant anti illuStrieus race—with less emotion than any
one of the. millions of her indignant subjects; disgraced
and outraged by the perpetration of such a crime
amongst us. There is not the least reason, however, to
believe that any living being is a participator of the mad-
man or monster's guilt. It at present appears to be
the ell'ect, if not of a disordered mind, of that prodi-
gious depravity which Providence permits, as it per-
mits the Occurrence of physical deviations with sonic
inscrutable design, -or perhaps to humiliate its creatures,
by showing to •what odious shapes their nature may be
corrupted. To reason from such prodigies must be as
idle as the attempt to account for them. All we can
know is, that an act of surpassing wickedness has been
committed ; fits the attempt, however unsuccessful,
consummates the crime—that an act as 'repugnant
to manhood ns to the moral or religious sense,
has dishonoured our name and nation—that an
attempt has been made to murder a young and
lovely woman, the mother of two infants, the happy
wife of a beloved husband, the deservedly adored Queen
of an intelligent and high-minded people—to murder
her, too, at the moment when her hand has been
stretched forth, when all her faculties have been tasked,
to relieve the sufferings of the distressed among her
subjects. This is all that we know at the present ; and,
knowing this, we are bound to believe that the unmanly
villany is confined to the one prodigy of wickedness to
whom it can be assigned with certainty.
COLTHIER.—We had yesterd4 the painful duty to
rerfin-m, in a third edition, of announcing another horri-
ble attempt upon the life of our beloved Sovereign. But
we have also once more to record another signal interpo-
sition of Divine Providence, through which her Gracious
Majesty was happily preserved from the fell intent of the .
assassin still to reign over,- as she lives in, the hearts of a
loyal people. From the concurring details derived from
various sources which have yet transpired respecting
this extraordinary event, it would seem, moreover, that on
the evening before something like a previous attempt at
assassination had been made, on the failure of which the
miscreant concerned, and supposed to be the same per-
son, contrived most unaccountably to make his escape.
Should these statements prove to be correct, it cannot
fail to impress the public with painful apprehensions that
the safety of the Royal Person is not watched over with
all that unslumbering care and vigilance which under
any circumstances should be felt a paramount duty ;
hut since the meditated atrocity of Oxford, from which
her Majesty so fortunately escaped, should undoubtedly
be regarded as of first and imperative consideration. As
the examination of the intending regicide was . very pro-
perly conducted with closed doors, we are yet necessarily
in the dark as to the motives, the frame of mind,
and other conditions which may have led to the medi-
tated perpetration of this heinous crime. We would fain
hope that the misgivings which' must so naturally gain
abroad upon the subject may be utterly groundless ; but
yet when we reflect upon the extent to which the minds
and morals of a certain class of the community, happily
not yet a numerous class, have been debauched by the
dissemination and preaching of the most abominable and
disorganising doctrines of a naked infidelity, we cannot
be altogether without our suspicions that the guilty
wretch now in custody may be found deeply inoculated
with this detestable moral poison. We cannot, with our
ConteinsiOraries, indulge the consoling hope that on the
present occasion the act is that of a wild and raving.
lunatic. •• There was too much " method in the madness"
to induce conviction of its reality and existence.

FROM LAST NIGHT'S GAZETTE.
ST. JAMES'S PALACE, MAY 30, 1842.
The Queen has been pleased to appoint Charlotte Duchess
of Norfolk to be one of the Ladies of the Bedchamber in Ordi-
nary to her Majesty, in the room of Sarah Dosyager Lady Lyt-
telton, resigned.
The Queen has also been pleased to appoint Charlotte Vis-
countess Canning to be one of the Ladies of the Bedchamber
in Ordinary to her Majesty, in the room of Susan Countess of
Dalhousie, resigned.
FOREIGN.OFFICE, May 31.
It is hereby notified,' that her Majesty's Secretary of State
. for Foreign Affairs has received a despatch, dated the 16th
ult., from her Majesty's Minister at Mexico, containing the
copy of a Pi•oclamation. said to have been issued by the Presi-
dent of the Republic of Texas, to the following effect :
OFFICIAL—BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE RE-
PUBLIC OF TEXAS,
A PROCLAMATION OF BLOCKADE.
To all whom these presents shall come : Know ye that 1,
Samuel Houston, President of the Republic of exv, and
Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy, by Virtue of my
authority and the power vested in me by law, and for the pur-
pose of more effectually prosecuting the war in which Texas is
now engaged with Mexico, do hereby order, decree, and pro-
claim, that all the ports of the Republic of Mexico on. the east-
ern coast, from Tabasco, in the state of .Tabasco, to Mata-
moros, in the state of. Tamaulipas, iricluding 'those ports
and comprisirig the mouth of the Rio "Grande del Norte,
and the Brazos Santiago, and all the inlets, estaneias, and passes
on the said eastern coast of Mexico, are. from and, after the
date of this Proclamation, in a state of actual and absolute
blockade by the armed vessels of the nation.
And for the purpose of carrying this Order, 'Decree, and
Proclamation into complete effeit, an armed naval force now is,
and will be continued to be, kept at, or near the said ports,
inlets, and passes of the eastern coast of Mexico, entirely suffi-
cient to enforce this Decree. For any breach or effort at breach
of this blockade, the offending vessel Old cargo will be liable to
confiscation, and the officers and mariners of ouch vessel will
be subject to the penalties attached to a breach of blockade.
'This Decree shall take effect, as to vessels sailing from New
Orleans, within three days after its publication in that city,
and within five days as to any neutral port' in. the Gulf of
Mexico, within twenty days as to any port in the United States
north of the Gulf of Meiji*, and in forty-five days as to vessels
from any ports in Europe.
In witness whereof I have hereunto affixed my hand, and
the groat seal of this Republic, at the city of Houston. this
26th day of March, in the year of our Lord, 1842, and of the
independence of the Republic, the seventh.
( Signed) SAMUEL HOUSTON.
Signed by the President.
( Signed) ANSON JONES, Secretary of State.,;
FOREIGN-OFFICE, MAY 31.
The Queen has been pleased to' approve of Mr. Timothy
Darling as Consul for the United States of America, at Nassau,
in the island of New Providence.
CROWN-OFFICE, MAY 31.
:NUMBER RETURNED TO SERVE IN THIS PRESENT
PARLIAMENT.
County of Londonderry.—Robert Bateson, of Belvoir Park.
in the county of Down, Esq., in the room of Sir Robert Bate-
son, who has accepted the Chiltern Hundreds.
'ORDNANCE OI'FICE, MAY 27.
Corps of Royal Engineers—To be First Lieutenant—Second
Lieut. A. O'Donnel Grattan, vice St. George L. Lyster, des
ceased ; Second Lieut. M. Vavasour, vice Lloyd; Second
Lieut. J. S. Baker, vice T. R. Lyster, deceased.
MEMORANDUM.—The date of Lieut. Jervois's promotion has
been altered to the Bth October, 1841,
Commission by the Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire.
Royal Regular The Honourable St. J. G. P.
Methuen to Ire Captain, vice Jacob, resigned, May 21.
DECLARATIONS OF INSOLVENCY.
JOHN HORATIO CLARK and HENRY CHARLES
FARROW, wine merchants, King William-street, City.