NEWS OF THE WEEK.
THE arm of the assassin has again been raised against the Sovereign, in one of those wretched outbursts of morbid peculiarity that
baffle satisfactory solution. Returning to Buckingham Palace from the daily drive, on Monday afternoon, the low open carriage in which the Queen rides with her consort was approached by a young
man who had been idling in the Park ; he presented a pistol, and fired : fear, or inexpertness, turned his aim, and the Queen was unhurt. The young man was seized without resistance; within two hours he was undergoing examination before the Privy Council at the Home Office, and within a day he was committed to New- gate for trial. Unharmed, the Queen passed on to the Palace, and was soon in the embraces of her agitated mother. With the speed of the wind the news swept abroad ; and the people were roused, in a time of political apathy, to sudden thanksgivings for that the life of the Sovereign had been spared : as if revolution had come and gone before they were aware that the peace of the country had been menaced; and the name of Josh FRANCIS was exalted to a bad eminence before the night was out. The brief danger passed, the Queen and People were drawn into more intimate communion. Compassion for the woman- young, a mother, and present to the view in all the most engaging relations of life-thus exposed to senseless perils, from which no general loyalty, no guards, and scarcely any precautions might be able to shield her ; admiration at the fortitude with which the Queen's tender youth and sex met the not unanticipated risk ; and the suddenly revived remembrance of all the evil consequences that might flow from any disturbance in the existing occupation of the throne,-all these considerations prompted a display of popular feeling that had a deeper seat than mere " loyalty" or attachment to the office of the Sovereign. The People perhaps, of all classes and all parties, never appeared in so favourable a light to the Royal eyes. Their admiration was enhanced when it was known that the Queen had been forewarned of the danger, by a more hesitating attempt which the same miserable fool had been observed to make the day before; but that, while she would not quail before the idle ruffian and forego her usual recreation, she would not suffer her female attendants to share her danger. Know- ing that she bad done so-knowing that she had braved a lurk- ing murderer-knowing, too, that it was now to be determined whether or not Queen VICTORIA would still trust her people and venture forth among them as usual, or adopt the unpopular seclu- sion of her uncle GEORGE the Fourth, or the not more popular practice of the French King, who moves with the rapidity and the guards of a man in an enemy's country-it was with some anxiety that the assembled multitude watched at the gates of Buckinghatn Palace on Tuesday afternoon. The Queen answered their expec- tations: at the usual hour, with no abatement or disguise of her Royal aspect, but still without guards, other than her husband and a few personal attendants, she came forth, smiling and bowing to the shouts that welcomed and reassured her,-flushed, it is said, at first, with the excitement of the moment, but paler afterwards, under the pressure of those thoughts which must have weighed upon the spirits in first retracing the ground so lately the scene of her own intended murder. The spectacle that presented itself throughout the ride must have satisfied her, that if she had one senseless foe, she had innumerable defenders at her call. One effect of the whole affair on the public mind is curious. With OxFoaD, the instant disposition was to assume that the folly which could dictate a crime so motiveless and so objectless must have been insanity ; and he was set down at once for acquittal or pardon. With FRANCIS the case is reversed. There is as yet no vast difference known between the two : ORFORD was presumed to be the victim of diseased vanity ; it is not known that FRANCIS is any thing else ; and .his indignant repudiation of the style and title of " scene-shifter" for his father is a trait worthy of any crazy hero-" Scene-shifler ! no, he is a stage-carpenter !" Instead, however, of anticipating his escape, there is a common disposition to assume that he must suffer punishment : the papers put forth strained and formal appeals to justice and mercy, as if a ceremony of balancing the possibilities in his favour ought not to be forgotten, though it is felt to be a supererogatory hindrance ; a worthy Al- derman almost regretted that Lynch-law had not been inflicted on the culprit ; and even judicial Lord BROUGHAM talks betimes of " condign punishment. OXFORD'S escapade, criminal as it was, amused our love of moral stimulants : the crime of FRANCIS is no novelty, but a stale repetition ; the joke is no longer entertaining, and the consequences are now seen in naked deformity. The re- vulsion of feeling has anticipated the verdict on the copyist-assassin.
