One hundred years ago
A determined attempt was made on Thursday to murder the Queen. As her Majesty, seated in a close carriage, was driving from Windsor Station to the Castle, a poorly-dressed man, standing by the station gate, fired directly at the carriage. The bullet missed, and the man was about to fire again, when his arm was struck down by a bystander, and he himself arrested by the police. He turns Out to be one Roderick Maclean, a grocer's assistant at Portsmouth, and he himself declares that his motive was hunger. He had, however, just purchas- ed the revolver, and spent money very freely at an inn, and was not, therefore, in want of bread, and as yet no evidence as to his real object is forthcoming. He does not appear to have had any Political impulse, and his motive, like that of all who have fired at the Queen, was probably a diseased wish for notoriety, sharpened, it would appear from some entries in his pocket-book, by discontent with the arrangements of society. His attempt was, however, a determined one, and it is difficult to conceive the distress, horror, and confu- sion in the whole community which would have resulted from its success.
Spectator, 4 March 1882
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