The Sun.
London, England, 1831-08-26 00:00:00

BATH, At t.

IN ILE-CLIIIIIINT, A SUPPOSED LUNATIC.
'rids c se has excited more than common hoe-
, sr, fro;» the fact of a petition having been pre-
-wed to Lord Eldon for a commission de lunatic°
;71:irendo, which his Lordship refused, and a simi-
!sr petition having also been refused by Lord Lyrd.
Lerd Brougham, however, has, upon
ion have been made to him, issued a commission.
-"rile matter has therefore been for some time before
Cie three Chancellors. The Commissioners ate
jr.\ Taunton and the two Messrs. Smith, all bar-
isters of Bristol. The .Jury were summoned for
•ri o'clovk this day, at the White. Hirt, but it was
i,arlv twelve before business commenced. The
astial preliminaries having been gone through,
e(-
r.
1,11,1
kanstiki t
isPu
Counsel
wife.i' a had
fortTiieh teh es honourec
subject
appear
petitioners, f
the
erJohnn(itii lef
inquiry
%t e
hßush
gentleman long known as carrying on the business
of a banker in this city, under which he had realized
ru ample fortune, and had gained the esteem of all
.vho ever knew him. The question for them
could be, whether Mr. Clement's memory had so
tiled him as to produce that imbecility which rens
lered him incapable of managing his own affairs.
The Learned Counsel then described various occa-
sions of the loss of memory which so incapacitated
the party as to become insanity: and this was pre-
, isely the situation in which he should place Mr.
Clement. He should prove, that after passing a
life engaged as a banker from 1793, in 1825 he be-
gan to exhibit signs of loss of memory, such as
called for the protection of those connected with
him in business. He had taken a partner by the
name of Tugweil, and in 1812 a Mr. Mackenzie bi-
eame associated with them. Mr. Clement had mar-
ried two wives; but a young lady, his niece, ti e
present petitioner, had engaged his thoughts, for
whose welfare he evinced a very strong inte-
rest. This lady had married the petitioner,
Mr. John Bush, twenty-six years of age, with
the consent of her uncle, and she became the
happy mother of fifteen children. Mr. Bush
had, on the wish of his uncle, entered into much
larger concerns than he would otherwise have done,
relying on the support of his relative. The eldest
•On Of Mr. Bush was apprenticed to Mr. Clement,
under the belief that so soon as his time %vas ex-
pired, lie would be taken into the house as a part-
ner. These circumstances had rendered Mrs. Bush
the happy mother he had described, but all her hopes
were doomed to perish and decay. In 1824 the
extinction of the faculty of memory began to show
itself, and in 1825 and 1826 it became so apparent,
that no one could entertain the least doubt of its
power being completely gone; that his partners
Messrs. Tugwell and Co. entertained no doubt of it,
he should be able to prove by the manner in which
they treated him. (These circumstances will be de-
tailed in the evidence.) So far did they carry their
impression, that they dissolved the partnership
without consulting him, though he was the senior
partner : he was allowed to drop off like a dead
branch, being no longer capable of acting. In 1825
he went to Clifton, and there excited the pity of
those who saw him ; he was a tended by his coach-
roan, who used hint in a way that low minds are in
the habit of tiiumphitig over those who have had
better minds, but whose faculties the Almighty has
deprived them of. The Learned Counsel, after having
detailed other acts, stated that they had no oppor-
tunity of proving the state of Mr. Clement's mind
since 1826, as they had not been allowed since that
period to see him, having at that period petitioned
for a commission to inquire into his state of mind.
This was the shape in which the case would be pre-
sented to them. Tire topics for their consideration
would be, whether or not Mr. Clement from the
years 1825 arid 1826 was capable of managing his
own affairs, and of doing those acts which a man of
sound mind ought to do.
John Whittington Bush, son of the petitioner--
I have known Mr. Clement the whole of my life,
and served my apprenticeship to him, as a banker.
My term expired on the Ist of Januaty, 1826. I
then became a clerk in the house, and continued so
till the 21st of November, 1826, when I was dis-
charged by Mr. Tugwell, without the knowledge of
Mr. Clement, as I supposed. I observed a defect
in the memory of Mr. Clement about the year 1823.
It increased from that time, and became much worse
soon afterwards. In 1825 I considered the state of
his mind very bad. I was in the habit of dining
with him continually in 182.5 and 1826, and had
done so for years anttcedent, and he had then al-
ways carved; but in 1825 and 1826 he scarcely
ever carved. His conversation and manners were
also very different. He frequently, in 1825 and
1826, scarcely spoke at table. Ir became proper
that some one should make an affidevit before the
Mayor as to my having served my time, and it is
usual it should be done by the persons to whom the
party is apprenticed. Mr. Clement did trot make
the affidavit, because I did not consider him com-
petent so to do from many circumstances. Mr. Cl-
ement had a house at Bath at that time. In 1825
and 1826 I was occasionally in the habit of accom-
panying him from the bank to his house, and he had
then several times asked me the number of his
house, and the name of the street in which it was„
and he was not at those times at all under the in-
fluence of wine. He was not in those years :reated
in the bank as if he was of sound mind, In my
opinion, Mr. Clement was riot, during 1825 and
1826, in a capacity fit to transact business at the
bank.

Cross-examined by Mr. Seljeant LupLow—This
is my affidavit, which I made on the 9th of Decem-
ber, 1826. I was discharged by Mr. Tugwell on
the 21st of November. I never applied to Mr. and
Mrs. Clement that I should be taken in as a partner
in the bank, though I had always been given to un-
derstand by Mr. Clement, when he was competent,
that I should. I never understood that he had re-
fused it. Mrs. Clement made a proposition to me
to go into partnership' with Mr. Clement, in a new
hank, to which I acceded in November, 1926. It
was after this that my fether employed Mr. Palmer
to file this petition. This affidavit was made in
1827, and I believe the commission then applied for
was riot allowed by Lord Lyndhurst. I then made
a third affidavit, and Lord Brougham issued the pre-
sent commission.

Adjourned till to-morrow.

The last proceeding in the House of Com-
mons, yesterday moroing—natnely, two o'clock, was, the
granting of leave of absence to Lord Mit:roN for " three
weeks ;" no cause was assigned.
Much speculation Was excited yesterday in
he political circles, in consequence of the interview which

took place between the Duke of WELLINGTON and Earl
GREY, in the course of the forenoon. We are informed
that the illustrious Duke having, at the dose of the last
war, been deputed by the Allied Sovereigns to superintend
the construction of the iOrtresses on the Belgian frontier,
and to see that they were at all times kept in good repair,
it was considered due to hit high professional character to
consult with him relative to the preservation of some of
those fortresses, and the demolition of others. Such, we
are assured, is a brief but correct solution of an enigma
which has puzzled not a few of the leading Statesmen on
both sides.---Moraiing Herald.

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