The Sun.
London, England, 1862-09-15 00:00:00

N EINS I'APE R
V't • ,
ALLEGED SUICIDE 0 *l.-,1114
ra\": rib.!
On Saturday Mr. Payne, the co liefilrfanW
of London, resumed, at the United es
Liverpool-street, City, the inquiry toufriling,liao S
death of Mr. John Wm. N. Brewer, aged 2.9, who
was alleged to have committed suicide on Tuesday,
last under the following circumstances :
It appeared from the evidence of numerous wit-
nesses that deceased was a chemist, carrying on a
good business in Liverpool-street, but that his health
was broken through intemperate habits; and that
he threatened to commit suicide. On Friday even-,
ing about 5 o'clock he came down from his room to
the top of the kitchen stairs, and naked the servants
where Mrs. Brewer was. They answered that she
was upstairs; when be said, "I will take prussic
acid, and get rid of it." They noticed that he had a
glass in his hand containing about half an inch of
opaque liquid, and he went over to a tap and noared
some water into it. and drank the whole off. Ho
then called out, "I have dope it, I have done it,"
and throwing the glass. irato -a- pail c!ose by, fell for-
ward on the stairs, and. breathed very faintly. Me-
dical assistance was immediately procured, but dc-
ceased was manifestly dying, and though he con-
tinued to breathe slightly for half an hour, he died,
es his medical attendant supposed, from poison. A
post mortem examination, however, was made two
days afterwards with the following result.
Dr. Brown said that he and Dr. Gibbon and two
surgeons examined the body, and found the brain
diseased.from drink. The lungs were also diseased.
The heart was malformed, there being only two
instead. of three valves. The contents of the
stomach showed no trace of prussic acid or other
poison. Neither did the blood. In the opinion of
the medical men death resulted not from poison
but from failure of the heart's action, resulting
from congenial malformation.
The Coroner asked if traces of prussic' acid might
not have disappeared after death.
Witness replied that any quantity of that poison
which would be sufficient to cause death would
leave a post mortem trace.
Dr. Gibbon concurred in that opinion, and said
that the contents of the stomach when given to a
rabbit produced not the slightest symptom of poison-
ing.
The Caroner _aid that the case was a most extra-
ordinary one, but-the jury, he thought, would bavo
no option but to be guided by the medical evidence,
even though there might be something'in it which
they could not quite account for.
The ,jury, after deliberating in private, returned.
a verdict in accordance with the medical testimony.

SUICIDE OF A SPITAL.bIELDS WEAVER.

An inquiry was held at the Duke of York Tavern,
Bethnal-green, by Mr. H. R. Walthew, the deputy
coroner, on Friday night, touching the death of Wm.
J. Robineau, aged 68, a Spitalfields weaver, who
committed suicide on Thursday last by hanging him-
self to his loom under very melancholy circum-
stances :
Mary S. Robineau, 26, Camden-street, said that
her husband had been for a long time out of employ-
ment, owing to the market being flooded by French
silks, in consequence of the recent treaty with
France. Their only mode of existence had been
occasional sixpences received from a friend, and
they were in expectation of a distress warrant fi om
their landlady for 16 weeks' arrears of rent. The
previous week her husband's employer had given
him a " cane" of silk to weave, but he was so re-
duced by suffering and ill health and anxiety that
he was unable to do it. That preyed upon him in a
dreadful manner, and on Thursday last, at 3 o'clock
in the morning, she missed him from bed. Upon
searching she found him hanging by a thick rope
from the top of his loom. The rope was so firmly
knotted that she could not unfasten it, and when
she, by raising an alarm, procured assistance,
he was found to be quite dead. She believed
that his sufferings had upset his reason. Most of
the weavers were out of employment and in great
distress in consequence of the competition of the
French manufacturers.

Mr. James Appleton, 22, Catherine-street, said
that he noticed a woman running down the street
in her night-dress, screaming frantically, and upon
learning the cause of her distress he went and cut
down the deceased, who was warm but quite dead.
The Coroder said that the distress existing
among them was most severe, and ho had held more
than one inquest in cases of suicide resulting from it.
The jury, in returning a verdict of " Suicide,
whilst of unsound mind," expressed a hope that the
fact of the prevalence of extreme distress might be
made known to the public, with a view to the
alleviation of the sufferings of the weavers.

SUICIDE OF ONE OF THE 2d LIFE
GUAPDS.

A very horrible occurrence took place in the
Regent's Park Barracks on Saturday. William
Gamble, a private in the 2d Regiment of Life
Guards, committed suicide by shooting himself
through the head. It appears that the deceased had
been in the regiment 18 years. He was married,
and both he and his wife had been for some time in
the service of Colonel Vyse, Lieutenant-Colonel of
the Regiment. This gallant officer is at present re-
siding at his country seat near Windsor, and
Gamble's wife is cook in his establishment there.
Gamble himself was in charge of the Lieutenant-
Colonel's horses at the head quarters in the Regent's
Park Barracks ; and he lodged with the family of
an acting sergeant of police in the Mornington-road.
That the unfortunate deceased had been a steady
soldier may be inferred from the fact of his having
been chosen as groom by Colonel Vyse. On Friday
morning he left his lodgings at a very early hour,
and proceeded to the Colonel's stables in the bar-
racks, where he remained till nearly 11 o'clock.
About that time ho asked for some beer, and spoke
of the pleasure ho would enjoy in taking a pot of
beer with his brother who was in the same regi-
ment, and who was to come to town in a day or two
Ifor the purpose of obtaining his discharge. -He then
borrowed a percussion cap from a comrade and left
the Colonel's quarters. In a few minutes after tho
report of a pistol was heard from a water-closet,
and on one or two of the men going to the spot to
ascertain who had fired the shot they found
Gamble lying dead with a pistol in his hand and
his head frightfully mutilated. He had loaded
one of the Colonel's rifle pistols with
two balls and fired it into his month, blowing away
some portions of his his face. The body was at once
removed to the of the barracks, where it
awaits an inquest. The men in the same troop
his employment in the Colonel's service.
with GanThie did not see much of him, in conse.
meet him occasionally, and the opinion
was that he was a tolerably sober man.
qTuheeny e editodhfe
among
It would
who knew. more of him that he was very much
appear, however, from the observations of
on
tmhee
those
occasions
kenas good deal by him-
for antod rthatdrink,
ko, lately ho was very
unsettled and excited •
his
manner, and complained
of the temporary separation from his •
wife. It is
also rumoured that he was in pecuniary embarrass-
meat. He had not,
however, expressed any inten-
tion of putting an end to himself, and the suicide
has caused much astonishment and regret in the
regiment. The deceased was only 36 years of age.