February 27, 1882.
THE DUCHESS OF ALBANY.
The year was marked by an attempt to assassinate the Queen, which created much public alarm. On the 2nd of March her Majesty was driving from Windsor Station to the Castle, when a poorly-dressed man shot at her carriage with a revolver. Before he could fire again a bystander struck down his arm and he was arrested. He was a grocer’s assistant from Portsmouth, named Roderick Maclean; his excuse was that he was starving, and he probably desired to draw attention to his case. He was tried next month at Reading Assizes, where it was shown that he had been under treatment as a lunatic for two years in an asylum in Weston-super-Mare, but had been dismissed cured. He was acquitted on the ground of insanity, and ordered to be placed in custody during her Majesty’s pleasure. The sympathy which was expressed by all classes with the Queen, when tidings of the outrage were published, was universal. On the night of Maclean’s arrest the National Anthem was sung in all the theatres, and from every quarter messages came pouring in congratulating her Majesty on her escape. These demonstrations caused her to address a touching letter of heartfelt thanks to the nation.
THE DUKE OF ALBANY.
Another outrage on the Queen has to be set down in the record of 1882. On the 26th of May a young telegraph clerk, named Albert Young, was tried before Mr. Justice Lopes, and found guilty of threatening to murder the Queen and Prince Leopold. He sent a letter, purporting to come from an Irish Roman Catholic priest and fifty of his parishioners who had been evicted by their landlords, warning the Queen of her peril, and saying that if paid £40 a head these men would all emigrate. The money was to be sent to “A. Y.,” at the “M., S., & L.” Office, Doncaster. Young was sentenced to ten years’ penal servitude.