he public
business whilst in that state of excitement. Next day both Houses voted
congratulatory addresses, and the same were sent by every corporate body
throughout the Kingdom. The Queen, who could not fail to be affected by
this attempt upon her life, nevertheless attended the Opera the same
evening, and met with a most enthusiastic reception.

Francis was tried, on the charge of High Treason, at the Central Criminal
Court, on 17 June, and found guilty; there being no reasonable doubt but
that the pistol was loaded with something more than gunpowder. His
sentence was: "That you, John Francis, be taken from hence to the place
from whence you came, that you be drawn from thence on a hurdle to the
place of execution, and that you be hanged by the neck until you be dead:
that your head be, afterwards, severed from your body, and that your body
be divided into four quarters, to be disposed of in such manner as Her
Majesty shall deem fit. And the Lord have mercy on your soul!"

This sentence was commuted to transportation for life, and on 6 July he
left Newgate for Gosport, and he was sent to Norfolk Island by the first
transport sailing thither.

This mania for shooting at the Queen was infectious. If Oxford had not
been treated so leniently, there would have been no Francis; and if there
had been no Francis, there would have been no Bean. This was another
young miscreant, aged 18, deformed, and very short. It was on Sunday, 3
July, when the Queen was going from Buckingham Palace to the Chapel
Royal, St. James's, that, in the Mall, this boy was seen to present a
pistol at the Queen. A young man named Dassett saw the act, and this is
a resume of his evidence at the trial on 25 Aug.: He said he saw the
royal carriages coming along, and saw the prisoner come from the crowd,
draw a pistol from his breast, and present it at the carriage, at arm's
length, and breast high; and then he heard the click of a pistol hammer
upon the pan; but there was no explosion. He seized him, and, assisted
by his brother, took him across the Mall, and gave him to Police
Constable Hearn, who said "it did not amount to a charge." Another
policeman, likewise, refused to take the prisoner, who only asked to have
his pistol back again. The pressure of the crowd was so great, that he
was obliged to let Bean go; and, afterwards, the people said that witness
himself had been shooting at the Queen, and a policeman took the pistol
away from hi