San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1889-06-07

Will try IL now," he said-and on MAJ ~,
1912, one John Francis fired once at the
queen on the same spot on Constitution hill
"Aha" said Oxford when told Of it in the
asylum, 'it they had hanged me there would
have been no more shooting at the queen
Francis put on the airs of a mailman or
bravo, but when sentence was pronounced,
Of death for high treason, he fell in a swoon
of mortal terror.
Her ma jesty committed the sentence to i'm
prisonment for life, and on the very day this
Communication was published in the papers a
hunchbacked boy named Bean made an at
tempt to shoot the queen, but as he presented
the pistol q courageous boy seized his hand
and held on till both were dragged down. 1t
was found that Beams pistol was loaded only
with paper and fragments of a pipe; the
privy council decided that it was the best
policy to treat his act as that of silly,
drunken boy, so he was publicly whipped and
sentenced to eighteen months labor in the
Milbank penitentiary.
Both the queen and the prince insisted that
vindictive punishment never had made mon
archs more secure, and the prince added that
an offense to the feelings of the common peo-
pie would be a thousand times more danger
Gus than the lunacy of all the madmen at
large. A sort of epidemic seemed to set in,
and many persons were suspected of evil de-
signs as they attempted to force their way to
the royal carriage. On the same hill, May
10, lS49 an Irish laborer named Hamilton
fired pistol, charged with powder only, at
the queen, for which he received seven years
transportation. On the 27th Of May, 1850,
Robert Pate, lieutenant who had lost his
commission, struck the queen violently across
the face with a cane as she was entering her
carriage. He also was transported for seven
years and died an imbecile.
Many years Of exemption passed, and on
the 10Th Of February, 1872, Arthur O'Connor,
aged II, pointed at her majesty pistol
which proved to be unloaded, at the same
time holding up In his other hand a petition
for the release Of the Fenian prisoners He
was severely whipped and imprisoned for
year. And thus ended this remarkable and
altogether unexplainable series of outrages.
Just before midnight of Dec. IA, 1861, Lon
don was surprised by the tolling Of the great
bells of st. Paul's, and it was soon known
that the prince consort had died at ten min
utes before H. in the presence Of the queen,
the Prince of Wales and the Princesses Alice
and Helena Only the preceding day was it
known that he was seriously sick of cold and
fever. Then began the long and for many
years mournful widowhood of Queen Vic.
toria.
For some years the English people, espe-
cially the small traders, complained bitterly
that the queen continued her mourning and
seclusion so long that she withdrew as far as
possible from all public ceremonials and did
not take her proper place at the head of that
pageantry which is among the most import
ant functions of the sovereign under the Brit
ish constitution. Then, with that happy
perversity which is truly English, they be
came proud of her devotion to tho dead, and
read with absorbed interest her account of
her married life Finally-such is the deli
cate but powerful persuasiveness of love
they began to look at the late prince consol
through her eyes and endow him with all
possible virtues and graccs.