Shooting Victoria

by Paul Thomas Murphy

  220: … he collapsed with agitation on entering the room: Times 5 July 1842, 5.

  221: … he helpfully told Inspector Martin where he had bought the gun; that evening, Martin, accompanied by Bean’s father, confirmed the sale: Morning Chronicle 5 July 1842, 3; 6 July 1842, 5; Times 5 July 1842, 5.

  221: He was stripped and bathed, a process open to reporters: Examiner 9 July 1842, 442.

  221: “I remarked to Albert, I felt sure an attempt on us would be shortly repeated”: Charlot 222.

  221: Peel—according to Albert’s first biographer “in public so cold and self-commanding, in reality so full of genuine feeling”—burst into tears: Martin 1:124.

  222: “The Queen and People … were drawn into more intimate communion”: Spectator 4 July 1842, rpt. in Dodds 68.

  222: … her ministers commanded her to remain while they gathered more information: Times 5 July 1842, 5.

  222: Another rumor was that the Queen was “deeply affected” by the news of the attempt: Morning Chronicle 4 July 1842, 5.

  223: He was a “deformed, decrepit, miserable looking dwarf,” “that crooked piece of malignity,” a “hunchbacked little miscreant,” and a “miserable and contemptible-looking wretch”: Newcastle Cou-rant 8 July 1842, 3; Illustrated London News 1:130, 1:134; Liverpool Mercury 8 July 1842, 214.

  223: Prince Albert referred to him as a “hunchbacked wretch,” Home Secretary Graham described him as “an hump-backed boy of an idiotic appearance,” and Peel told the Queen that Bean was “the most miserable object he ever saw”: Martin 1:123; Gash 342; Charlot 222–23.

  223: … “these repeated attempts on the life of our beloved Sovereign are utterly incomprehensible”: Morning Chronicle 4 July 1842, 4.

  224: … “the savage and impotent monomania, which has emigrated from France to England, is one of the gravest symptoms of the profound disorders which agitated modern societies;” Messenger, qtd. Illustrated London News 1:130.

  224: “What is this strange mania of queen-shooting?”: Browning and Browning 6:25.

  224: Men, not boys, shot at Louis-Philippe: The fullest treatment of Louis-Philippe’s assailants is in Jill Harsin’s Barricades.

  224: “If I had killed the tyrant … we would have conquered the universe and all the despots”: Harsin 195.

  224: “I die for Liberty!”: Harsin 172.

  225: The hail of bullets from this primitive machine-gun—twenty-five loaded gun barrels on a wooden frame—instantly created “a void around the King”: Harsin 147–66.

  225: This did not prevent partisan commentators from seeing the attempts as indirectly political: Poole 188–92; Caledonian Mercury 11 July 1842.

  225: … “Are not these strange times?”: Thomas Carlyle to Margaret A. Carlyle, 4 July 1842: Carlyle.

  226: … they were all driven by a “morbid craving after notoriety”: Or a “diseased passion for notoriety,” or “villainous anglings for notoriety,” and so on. Liverpool Mercury 3 June 1842, 180; 8 July 1842, 214; Examiner 11 June 1842, 369; 9 July 1842, 433; Times 5 July 1842, 4; Morning Chronicle 5 July 1842, 3; “Security of the Queen’s Person” (in a speech by Lord John Russell).

  226: If “we would make up our minds to flog them in the sight of their companions”: Times 5 July 1842, 4.

  226: On the day after Bean’s first Privy Council examination, Graham met with the two commissioners of the police and with George Maule: Morning Chronicle 6 July 1842, 5.

  226: Bean … would be charged not with High Treason but with common assault: Morning Chronicle 7 July 1842, 5.

  227: On the next day … John Bean, discernibly sunk into a depressed torpor, was brought from Tothill Fields for a final examination before Peel and the Privy Council: Morning Chronicle 7 July 1842, 5.

  227: He was charged with a misdemeanor and sent back to Tothill Fields for the night, to be brought to Newgate the next day to await trial: Morning Chronicle 6 July 1842, qtd. Liverpool Mercury 8 July 1842.

  227: … “contempt and ridicule … was quite enough to act as an effectual antidote”: Liverpool Mercury 8 July 1842, 214, qtd. from Morning Chronicle 6 July 1842.

  227: John Francis, having tearfully taken leave of his family forever on Monday … was removed to Gosport: Examiner 9 July 1842, 445.

  227: Peel had no intention of modifying existing laws of treason, he made clear: “Security of the Queen’s Person.”

  227: … “publicly or privately whipped”: “Treason Act 1842.”

  228: “These are the offences of base and degraded beings”: “Security of the Queen’s Person.”

  228: … the Irish people in particular would be grateful for a law to “brand … with contemptuous execration” any future assailant: “Security of the Queen’s Person.”

  228: “And yet, Hume maintained—echoing the complaint of the Chartist petition—while the people’s sufferings increased, the Queen and her court lived in comfort”: “Security of the Queen’s Person.”

  228: “If anything could be more dissatisfactory to the great mass of the people than another”: “Security of the Queen’s Person.”

  229: … “for these contemptible acts they shall receive the degrading punishment of personal chastisement”: “Security of the Queen’s Person.”

  229: He was placed in a cell near Reverend Carver: Ipswich Journal 16 July 1842, 1.

  230: … a rash of strikes and demonstrations, beginning in June in the collieries of Staffordshire: Chase 211.

  230: Two policemen were killed in Manchester; two rioters were shot dead by soldiers in Preston: Gash 343; Chase 215.

  230: Peel called the Privy Council to meet and issue a royal proclamation: Gash 343.

  230: “I have not had a spare moment since the close of the session”: Parker 1:323.

  231: “… our arrangements were quickly and vigorously made”: Gash 345.

  231: … he got word that Victoria had been assassinated: Gash 344.

  231: … he did acknowledge to Graham … that the Queen would face no more danger there than in England: Gash 346.

  231: In Edinburgh, expectation for the visit had “superseded all other topics of the day”: Examiner 20 August 1842, 4.

  231: … in London the public scrambled to obtain choice seats on steamers to see the royal party: Caledonian Mercury 27 August 1842.

  231: Lord Abinger in his younger days (when he was James Scarlett) had been the most successful advocate in England: Barker.

  232: Bean was charged on four counts: For accounts of Bean’s trial, see Morning Chronicle 26 August 1842, 4; Times 26 August 1842, 6–7; “John William Bean.”

  232: “Was not there a good deal of laughing going on?”: “John William Bean.”

  232: … he risked being tried a second time for the same offense, “contrary to all the principles of English law”: Morning Chronicle 26 August 1842, 4.

  233: … “it is probable I must have seen it”: “John William Bean.”

  233: “Lord Abinger.—If you saw the prisoner for ten minutes”: Times 26 August 1842, 6.

  234: When his father took the stand to plead to his son’s “mild, peaceable, and inoffensive” conduct, Bean wept bitterly: “John William Bean”; Freeman’s Journal 27 August 1842, 4.

  234: He cited as evidence the curious case where a man had once been indicted for grinning at George III: Morning Chronicle 26 August 1842, 4.

  234: Bean heard the verdict without emotion: Times 26 August 1842, 7.

  234: “I know of no misdemeanour more affecting the public peace of the kingdom, of greater magnitude or deserving more serious punishment”: Times 26 August 1842, 7.

  Chapter 13: Tory Spies

  236: … bad weather forced the steamships to tow the yacht most of the way up the coast, the royal couple spending much of the time below-decks, ill: Gill 229.

  237: Early the next morning, the royal procession shot through the city on the way to Dalkeith Palace, without sufficient warning to the public and before city dignitaries had assembled: Times 5 S
eptember 1842, 4.

  237: “Scotland has rarely seen a prouder day—perhaps never”: Times 6 September 1842, 4.

  237: “The crowds of persons were beyond description”: Peel, Private Letters 206.

  237: … a man with an overwhelming urge to kill was watching and awaiting his opportunity: Daniel McNaughten’s movements, and his psychological state, are best set out in the accounts of his trial for murdering Edward Drummond: Times 4 March 1843 5–6; 6 March 1843, 5–7; West and Walk, eds. 12–73.

  237: … Paisley—incidentally one of Britain’s worst-suffering towns, that hungry summer: Hurd 262.

  238: Daniel McNaughtan saw the carriage, saw one man in it—and committed that man’s face to memory: Charles Greville, clerk of the Privy Council, diarist, and acquaintance of both Drummond and Peel first made the credible speculation that McNaughtan first mistook Drummond for Peel during the Queen’s visit to Scotland: Greville 1:143–4.

  238: Drummond later joked about his being taken for “a great man” in Scotland: Greville 1:143–4.

  238: Until 1841, he had been a very successful craftsman … a woodturner in Glasgow: Richard Moran, in his study of McNaughtan, Knowing Right from Wrong, makes a compelling case that McNaughtan’s delusions of persecution “were lodged firmly in the political reality of the day.” His further claim that those “alleged” persecutions were nothing of the kind, but the actual malevolent acts of Glasgow’s Tories, is far less compelling. Moran, Knowing 25–59.

  238: One man repeatedly threw straw at him: West and Walk, eds. 59, 66.

  239: “I can do nothing for you. I fear you are labouring under an aberration of mind”: West and Walk, eds. 64.

  239: But Daniel McNaughtan Senior refused, thinking that his son’s delusions would pass: West and Walk, eds. 59.

  239: … the instant he set foot on the quay at Boulogne, he could see one of them scowling at him from behind the custom-house watch box: West and Walk, eds. 65.

  240: He took up his post in the heart of Tory darkness: the streets outside of Whitehall, standing all day for two weeks on the steps leading to the Privy Council office: West and Walk, eds. 25–27.

  240: Two policemen from A Division—including P.C. Partridge—took note of him: Times 4 March 1843, 4.

  240: … he twice pointed Drummond out to a police constable, asking if that man was Robert Peel: Moran, Knowing 38.

  240: McNaughtan … came down the steps and shadowed Drummond: Times 21 January 1843, 5.

  240: Drummond’s jacket caught fire: Times 27 January 1843, 5.

  241: Constable James Silver, standing next to the two, was upon McNaughtan an instant after the first shot: Times 4 March 1843, 4.

  241: An apothecary was sent for: Times 4 March 1843, 4.

  241: … the best doctors in town finished what the bullet had started, leeching and bleeding him relentlessly: Times 23 January 1843, 5; 24 January 1843, 5; 25 January 1843, 4; Moran, Knowing 7–8.

  241: … “he” or “she” (Silver could not tell which) “shall not break my peace of mind any longer”: Times 4 March 1843, 5.

  241: “I suppose you are aware who the gentleman is you shot at?” Tierney asked him: Times 3 March 1843, 5; West and Walk, eds. 24.

  241: “The evidence of his mental delusion is strong”: Victoria Letters (first series) 1:572.

  242: “There is and should be … a difference between that madness which is such that a man knows not what he does”: Peel, Sir Robert Peel 2:553.

  242: “Who can doubt but that Bellingham was as insane as Oxford?”: Times 30 January 1843, 5.

  242: “Every preparation is in progress to meet this vague and dangerous excuse”: Victoria Letters (first series) 1:459.

  242: On the second of February, McNaughtan was brought to the bar of the Old Bailey to enter his plea”: Times 3 February 1843, 7–8.

  242: The judge, Baron Abinger, gave the defense a month to prepare. Moreover, he granted counsel’s request that McNaughtan be allowed access to his bank account: Times 3 February 1843, 7–8.

  243: At 10:00 on 3 March 1843, an excited Daniel McNaughtan was again brought to the bar of the Old Bailey: For differing accounts of the McNaughtan trial, see the Times 4 March 1843, 5–6: 6 March 1843, 5; West and Walk, eds. 12–73.

  243: … Follett freely admitted that McNaughtan might be suffering from a “morbid affection of the mind”: West and Walk, eds. 15.

  244: “If there be thought and design”: The case is that of Lord Ferrers. West and Walk, eds. 16.

  244: “I never thought him unsettled in his mind”: West and Walk, eds. 27.

  244: “I did not have any idea that his mind was disordered”: West and Walk, eds. 29.

  244: … sequestered in a local coffee house: Times 4 March 1843, 6.

  245: “It is but as yesterday”: West and Walk, eds. 34.

  245: … “the greatest deference should be paid”: West and Walk, eds. 33.

  245: … “the perception, the judgment, the reason, the sentiments, the affections, the propensities, the passions”: West and Walk, eds. 42.

  245: … “profound and scientific” Scottish jurist, Baron Hume: West and Walk, eds. 43.

  246: … there existed in McNaughtan “the presence of insanity sufficient to deprive the prisoner of all self-control”: Times 6 March 1843, 6.

  246: … “the delusion was so strong that nothing but a physical impediment could have prevented him from committing the act”: Times 6 March 1843, 6.

  247: “Mr. Solicitor General, are you prepared … with any evidence to combat this testimony?”: West and Walk, eds. 71.

  247: … “the whole of the medical evidence is on one side”: West and Walk, eds. 72.

  247: … McNaughtan followed Oxford’s path from Newgate to South wark in a cab with Governor Cope: Moran, Knowing 23–4.

  248: … “I have in contemplation the accomplishment of a certain pet project”: Times 7 March 1843, 5.

  249: “It is a lamentable reflection … that a man may be at the same time so insane as to be reckless of his own life and the lives of others”: Victoria Letters (first series) 1:586.

  249: “The law may be perfect”: Victoria Letters (first series) 1:587.

  250: … no one was criminally liable of a crime when he “is under the influence of delusion and insanity”: “Insanity and Crime.”

  250: “What are the proper questions to be submitted to the jury when a person”: West and Walk, eds. 74.

  250: “… at the time of committing of the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason”: West and Walk, eds. 79.

  251: This curious protection was designed in 1842: A record in the database of the Museum of London holds that the parasol was “used by Queen Victoria after [an] assassination attempt, possibly 1840 (or 1842).” Logic points to the latter date—and leads one to question whether it was ever used at all.

  251: … at three and a quarter pounds: Staniland 144.

  PART 3: EXHIBITIONS

  Chapter 14: Birthday

  255: Observing the spectacle for the first time was the seven-year-old Prince of Wales: Liverpool Mercury, 22 May 1849, 325.

  256: … “the most beautiful dress at the drawing-room”: Liverpool Mercury 22 May 1849, 325.

  256: … the Queen required dresses of British manufacture at all her drawing rooms: Weintraub, Victoria 199.

  257: Albert had been her sole confidant and her private secretary: Weintraub, Victoria 170.

  257: “It is you who have entirely formed me”: Weintraub, Victoria 170.

  257: “The Prince is become so identified with the Queen”: Greville 1:323.

  257: … the Cambridges absented themselves from the Court in a huff: St. Aubyn, Queen Victoria 220.

  257: “I was forced to give him a strong push and drive him down a few steps”: Gill 208.

  258: “The life I led then was so artificial and superficial and yet I thought I was happy”: Charlot 215.

  258: … he kept the keys and constantly
checked the locks: Jerrold, Married Life 85–6.

  258: The Queen … thought infants unpleasantly “frog-like”: St. Aubyn, Queen Victoria 167.

  258: … she “only very exceptionally” found conversation with her children “either agreeable or easy”: Hibbert, Queen Victoria 184.

  258: “I am coming more and more convinced … that the only true happiness in this world is to be found in the domestic circle”: St. Aubyn, Queen Victoria 204.

  259: … he set to work and replaced the bureaucratic anarchy of the three competing household departments: Gill 197–8.

  259: … he made the monarchy profitable, removing it forever from the chronic indebtedness that had plagued the Queen’s royal uncles: St. Aubyn, Queen Victoria 182.

  259: By 1843, they wanted even more seclusion—a residence bought with their own funds, and thus free of government administration: St. Aubyn, Queen Victoria 185.

  259: “a pretty little Castle in the old Scotch style”: Victoria, Leaves 59.

  260: “The papers … are most kind and gratifying”: Victoria Letters (first series) 2:27.

  260: The population, employment, exports, and gross national product all shot up: Evans 74.

  261: “Oh, Men, with Sisters dear!” Punch 5:260 (1843).

  262: No one knew exactly where the fungal disease Phytophthora infes- tans, or potato blight, came from: Donnelly 41.

  262: … in a month, a third of that country’s overwhelmingly predominant crop transmogrified into a stinking, inedible goo: Donnelly 41–3; Woodham-Smith, Great Hunger 94–102.

  262: Disraeli “hacked and mangled Peel with the most unsparing severity”: Greville 2:117.

  263: Ultimately, Peel won—and lost: Hilton 511–513.

  263: … “rotten potatoes have done it all”: Greville 2:350.

  263: He continued importing food, but demanded that local relief committees buy the food at market price: Donnelly 49.

  263: … he allowed public works to continue, but government loans ceased completely: Woodham-Smith, Great Hunger 105.

  263: … fever ravaged the population: Woodham-Smith, Great Hunger 187–188.

  264: “The great evil with which we have to contend,” declared Trev-elyan at the end of 1846, is “not the physical evil of the famine”: Woodham-Smith, Great Hunger 156.