The Sun.
London, England, 1856-04-02 00:00:00

A CURIOUS SPECULATION.

The Dublin Yation contains a currious article, in which
the writer declares his deliberate conviction that there
exist reason. of a reliable character for beli, ving that
Mr John Sadleir has not committed suicide, but has
simply leeti playing the trick, so well known both in
hi.tory anal romance. of a pretended death and a suppo-
giti.us corpse. The follqwing may he cited as the
grounds on which the writer bases his scepticism as to
John Sadleir's suicide :

1. While the dates of the letters written by Mr. Sad-
leir to his friends Chow that he meditated suicide a full
week before he is tipposerl to have effected it, he was
-tti%ing all that week to net in money from every source,
aid did receive large sums—some on the day of his
death—not a farthirg of which has been traced or ac-
counted for. At the very brink of the grave, it is urged,
when money ought naturally to ceasa to be valuable in
his ryes, he was as intent as ever on acquiring if.
2. In P-ris and Po- hi:pique's " Medical Jurispru•
deuce " it is laid down as a general rule that the more
sudden the death the longer is cadaverous stiffness from
taking place ; and it is further stated, as to causes of
sudden death, "If a body in such cases be cold and
stiff we may be certain that more than 12 hours have
elapsed since the fatal event." The evidence at the in-
quest showed that in any case Mr. Sadleir could not
have reached Hampstead before 12 o'clock, at the ear-
liest, and might not have reached it before half past 1,
at the latest ; and, supposing him to have really com-
mitted suicide, that event would have taken place at the
earliest at half-past 12 o'clock, and at the latest—say,
2 o'clock At a quarter before 9in the morning Police
man S 323 found the body at Hampstead "quite cold
and stiff." Mr. Nichol), surgeon, gave similar evidence.
3. Doubtful identification of deceased—John Sadleir's
body was removed, says the article, to the Hampstead
workhouse, without having been examined by any com-
petent person. I•s sworn identification before the jury
was, extraordinary to relate, not by any of the relatives,
though they were in town, but by a person named El-
wyn, who had been in Sadleir's employment but 18
months. The body was not identified by him by marks
• • peculiarities of structure. One passage in the evidence
of Mr. Norris, the solicitor, showed, moreover, of what
extremely little value was Elwyn's evidence in this par-
ticular ; for while the latter states that "he had not ob-
served any change in his master during the last month
or two," and that his master's " manner on Saturday
was the same as usual." the jury are, on the contrary,

_
informed by Mr. Norris that Mr. Sadleir " latterly ap-
peared haggard," and that "he noticed an extraordinary
change in his appearance during the last week," and
especially on Saturday, &c.
As to the identification of the body, it may, in addi-
tion, be not undeserving of remark that the reports in
the public press speak of a change in the features of the
deceased, and of his looking older than be really was.
4. In the work of Dr. Taylor, the toxicologist, which
Sadleir, it is stated, had been perusing on the day of his
death, is the discussion of a question as to whether dark
hair can be artificially changed to light, and his account
of sundry washes of recent invention which effectual),
produce the result. Most important, it is remarked, in
connexion with this fact, is the evidence of Elwyn, who
deposed to the jury—" Mr. Sadleir had previous'y that
evening asked him to clean two bottles, and place them
on the sideboard, which he did. He (witness) did not
know that it was poison he h.d to get at Mr. Maitland's.
He thought it, was some.ingredient in a bairwash which
his master was going to mix in the two bottles which had
been placed on the sideboard." A man who had just
po.ted letters etatingbis intention to commit suicide, who
had sent out for poison, who was racked with the burden
of frauds, forgeries, tottering banks and railways, was
engaged as a prelude to his extraordinary end, in pre•
paring a bairwash.
5. The place where the body was found.—Why should
Sadleir, intending to make away with himself by poison
instantaneous in its effects, trudge out to Hampstead
heath, in the middle of the night, for the purpose, first
putting into his pocket a piece of paper to tell his name ?
A very intelligible purpose is suggested by the following
head of inquiry, extracted from a long list of such from
the second volume of "Paris and Fonblanque's Medical
Jurisprudence" :
" Whether the spot in question he of a description to
explain the cause of the deceased having been found
there, or bow far its retired situation excites the suspi-
cion that the body bad been conveyed for concealment
or some other purpose."
The article concludes with a remark upon the exces-
sive ease with which a body for the nonce could be pro-
cured -among the 2i millions oftlie populatitrid of Lon•
don.