The Sun.
London, England, 1840-12-04 00:00:00

SUICIDE.

A determined ace' of suicide was committed on TLIC.I.
day by Mr. Self, collitotor to a distiller, who resided at
South Lambeth. His throat was cut on either side,
and a small piece of flesh in the front and back was all
that had not been separat;td. There were five stabs
near the jugular vein on the Yight, evidently done with
a penknife, but the vein had not been touched. By
his side were a razor, penknife, a.ytti a large bottle con-
taining laudanum. The floor of the' room was covered
with blood ; a wash-hand basin was completely filled,
and a sponge saturated with it was found lying on the
dressing-table. This must, for some purpcpse, have been
applied to the wounds. From all the circumstances it
was evident the deceased had made no less than three
separate attempts to destroy his life—the first probably
with the penknife ; and, not succeeding, the laNtianuna
was taken, and then the razor used, and with both
hands. In one of the pockets of the deceased the fol-
lowing letter was found

"Pain, pain—ever, for ever.
" Day by day, and all day long, the same dull round
goes on—the same endless, hopeless toil—no prospect
of good—no respite—no sympathy—no reward.
" Without a friend—tossed and swung about in the
turbid region of my thoughts ; the light of hope, that
once threw a trivial ray upon me, now diminished to the
smallest point.
" Once I had friends, kind friends, but they are dead
or estranged—my children, too, as if in mockery, have
by their conduct destroyed themselves, and then turned
round in falsehood and villainy to charge upon me their
misfortunes and their •ices. I can bear no more, life is
to me a terror---4eath not at ail.

" For here, in the last moment of my existence, be-
fore the Almighty God, my Maker and Creator in
u hose presence I may soon stand, I solemnly declare
that I never entertained, nor put in practice deliberately,
any act to the injury of my fellow-man ; but, on the con-
trary, have been most anxious to do all possible good.
I despair, however, for all my efforts seem to have but
one ill termination.

I again, before heaven, assert that I have done my
best according to my nature—the results arc the decrees
of destiny or circumstances, over which I had no control.
" To William and Elika I owe the last weight upon
an already broken heart. I could forget all, but at my
last hour pronounce them wicked and diabolical liars,
and to the justice of their Maker 1 leave them. God
bless you, Henry—take care of poor Fanny, for she is
indeed the child of my affection. I have been treated
very unjustly ; but God bless them all ; let them forgive
themselves.

(Signed) " SAML. SELF."
There was another letter to his son, in which he al-
ludes to his funeral, and desires, in case of any " acci-
dent," that application be made to Messrs. Tariquerays,
Bloomsbury Distillery ; Vincent and Pugh, Rood-lane ;
Gurney, Lambeth-walk ; Stannal, Lambeth ; and other
houses in that trade.
It scents that on the day in question the servant took
his shaving-water up stairs at eleven o'clock, but he was
in bed. She went again at two, and heard the (I.‘ceased
trying to fasten the door, and, upon examining it, the
lock was found to be covered with blood from his hands,
so that there is little doubt it was at this time he had
made the stabs with the penknife, and was applying the
sponge to his throat. The deceased was 61 years of age.
Information was immediately sent to Mi. Carter, the
Coroner for Surrey, and the inquest will be held to-
morrow (Saturday' ).

EXTRAORDINARY SHIPWRECK ON TIIE
SCILLY ISLANDS..---WC have had very heavy gales lately,
and several damaged vessels have been brought in by our
pilots; but one wreck here has been attended with such
extraordinary circumstances, that had any person read it
in the papers, one would be tempted to set it down as a
Yankee story. On Wednesday afternoon last a vessel,
bottom upwards, was seen about two miles off St. Agnes,
when some of our pilot-boats put off to her, the sea being
then very rough. I w.as looking at them until darts, and,
after great difficulty, they sneceeded in attaching a hawser
to the wreck, which stior.ly broke, and night coming
on, they were obliged .to leave her. On the Thurs-
day morning, at day.light, she was discovered by
a young man to have Ar:ftcd in the same position
on a reef of rock at the entrance of the bay where
the famous Sir Cloudesley I.Thovel was washed ashore.
He got into the water, and in attempting to pull
a sail on shore which was hanging to the wreck, he dis-
covered the body of one of the crew entangled therein,
and to his utter aatonsshmcnt, heard voices within the
wreck. He immediately called two or three men to his
assistance, and on their pulling away a piece of plank suf-
ficiently for one of them to pass his arm into the vessel, his
band was eagerly seized by a person within ; they then went
to work, and after some little time managed to make a hole
sufficiently large to drag a person down through the deck
(the parties being then up to their middles in the sea), and
in this manner, to their astonishment, brought on shore
three men and a boy alive and well. Two of them proved
to be the master and mate, from whose account it ap-
pears she was a French vessel from Dunkirk, bound
'to Marseilles, wieh a cargo of oil ; that on the Monday
evening previous, about eight o'clock, two men were on
deck, and the parties saved, with the one found along-
side, were in the cabin, when, in a heavy squall, the vessel
in a moment turned completely over, not allowing time for
the water to run into her, by which means the internal
air kept the water Out ; the two men on deck were, of
course washed away, but those in tbc cabin had ex.
isted there without food from the Monday evening until
Thursday morning, and the poor fellow, whose corpse was
found alongside, had been killed that morning by some
of the cargo getting loose on her striking the rocks,
and drifted him out through a part of the deck which was
broken away in deep water. The men saved ate a
earty
breakfast on landing, and I saw them all this afternoon
looking as well as if they had not been under water at
MAYO ELECTION.—The writ went down on
Wednesday night. Mr. M. Blake is the Repeal Can-
didate.

CARLOW ELECTION.--The Paing began on
Tuesday ; at its close the numbers announced by the She-
riff were—Colonel Bruen 280, the non. Mr. Ponsonby
201. The majority, however, in favour of the Conserva-
tive caydidate cannot be considered decisive of the ulti-
mate rLsult, for, as Mr. Ponsork remarked, the majority
is actually less by one than that which occurred on the
first day of the election, in which the Reform representa-
tive, the late lamented Mr. Vigors, was ultimately returned
by a triumphant majority. The Pilot says Colonel Brucn
owes his majority to intimidation, and " that there is an
appearance of the circumstances often alluded to of late,
as calculated to break down the spirit of Carlow, having
been operative.