The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1880-02-27
The Winter Palace Plot.
PREVIOUS ATTEMPTS UPON THE LIVES OF
KINGS AND EMPERoRs RECALLED.

The past two years have witnessed a Sc
ries of attempts at the assassination of Faro
pean rulers quite unexampled for frequency
and persistency. 1t is true that, in former
epochs, close SUGGESTIONS of such attempts
have given rise to the theory of epidemics
expressing the obvious truth that one at
tempt suggests another. In 1S4S there was
unsuccessful attacks against Emperor Will
liam (then Crown Prince) and against the
Duke of Modens. Four or five years later,
in 1852 and 1858, occurred attempts on Ma
poleon ILL.,, first at Msrseilles by an infer.
nal machine, and afterward in Paris, near
the Opera Comique On Queen Victoria, on
the Emperor of Austria, and on King Vic
tor Emanuel. From 1854 to 1862 inclusive,
there were nine attempts, nearly half of
which were directed against Napoleon III.
Pianori's, who fired at him in the Champs
Elysees in 1850, the London plot of 1857,
the Orsini plot of 1888, and the second
Italian plot OF 1862 The other five of that
period were the stabbing of Ferdinand II.
of Naples, the attempt of Fuentes on lsa-
bella IT,, the mortal wounding of the Duke
of Parma Becker's attempt at the King OF
| Prussia, and that of BrusiOs at the Queen of
Greece. Then lull ensucd broken by the
| beginning of attempts on the Gar In 1866
| he was attacked in St. Petersburg, and the
| year following at Paris. In lS6G the Prince
of Servia was assassinated, and after that for
| ten years came cessation of attacks upon
| European rulers, except the one upon King
Amadeus of Spain. However, in that inter-
i'm, General Prim, in Spain, and the Earl
of Mayo, in India, fell victims to the as-as-
sin, and attempts were also made on Minis
ter Gorilla on the Viceroy of Egypt and on
the Mikado of Japan.
| The present group Of attempts at assassi-
nation-for their close connection with each
other requires them to be so lassed-began
in 1878 with HGdel's attempt on the Ger
man Emperor in May, followed by Nobil-
ing's in June, and those two by Moncasi's
attempt against King Alfonso of Spain in
October and Passanante's against King
Humbert of Italy in November, The year
| 1879 opened wich the assassination of Prince
krapotkine, Governor of kharkoh, in
March. Quickly upon that followed the
attempt of Solvietl against the Car at St.
Petersburg in April in December came the
dynamite train plow at Moscow; shortly af
ter followed the second attempt against
King Alfonso of Spain, and now has come
the Winter Palace plot, the fifth attempt
against the Cars life in all, and the third
within year.
1t is true that royalty has not alone been
aimed at by the assassin in the period OF
thirty odd years thus reviewed The fate o
Lincoln shows that republics are not ex-
empt, and the Presidents of Peru, Bolivia
Ecuador and Paraguay, all four of whom
perished between 1872 and 1877, teach the
same lesson. But the striking fact of tn,
present epidemic is the introduction of {
political principle into assassination, in ac
cordsnce with which assassins have sough
the lives of kings and emperors becsus,
they were kings and emperors, and not al
ways from individual hate or from sens
of personal grievance.-Ne1 York Sun.