Several attempts have been made on the life of the queen during her reign. The first one occurred about four months after her marriage. She was driving in an open carriage, with the prince, up Constitution Hill, when a youth, seventeen years of age, named Oxford, fired two shots at her. Fortunately neither took effect, and the wretched creature was found to be insane, and confined in a lunatic asylum.
The prince could have no better proof of the high estimation in which he was held by both parties in parliament than when a bill was passed appointing him regent, in case the queen should die and leave minor children. There was only one dissenting voice, and that was the queen's uncle, the Duke of Sussex, who wanted the position himself, and thought he was entitled to it. Baron Stockmar then felt that his presence was no longer needed in England, and returned to his quiet home in Coburg, whence he kept up a regular correspondence with the prince, and always pointed out his line of conduct, and watched him at a distance with keen interest.
The queen had a daughter born on the thirteenth of November, at Buckingham Palace. She was baptized by the names Victoria Adelaide Mary Louisa. The sponsors were the Duke of Saxe-Coburg, represented by the Duke of Wellington, King Leopold, the Queen-dowager, the Duchesses of Kent and Gloucester, and the Duke of Sussex. Lord Melbourne declared next day to the queen that the infant "looked about her quite conscious that the stir was all about herself;" but as she was only three months old when the ceremony took place, it is not probable that she recognized herself as the heroine of it. The prince wrote his father: "The christening went off very well. Your little grandchild behaved with great propriety."
The Christmas holidays were kept that year at Windsor Castle. This had always been a favorite festival with the prince, and the custom of interchanging gifts, which marks the day in Germany, was introduced into his home. Christmas trees were set up, and every member of the household was remembered in the pretty articles that surrounded them.
This year the queen received some beautiful presents from the Emperor of China,—consisting of a golden bedstead, ear-rings worth a thousand pounds each, an exquisitely wrought shawl, and some rare silks and embroidery. This was at the close of the Chinese war with England, of which it is not necessary to give here all the particulars. The English gained victories that opened several ports in China for them to carry on trade; but they acted with unpardonable injustice towards the Chinese, and their victory ought rather to have made them blush than rejoice.
A.D. 1841. The Melbourne administration had by this
