The Sun.
London, England, 1856-03-11 00:00:00

ADJOURNED INQUEST ON THE LATE
MR. SADLEIR, M.P.—(This Day.)

The adjourned inquest on the body of the late Mr.
Sadleir was resumed thig morning at the Workhouse,
Hampstead, before Mr. Wakley and the jury impanelled
on the first occasion.

The jury having answered to their names,
The Coroner asked Mr. Manning, the solicitor to the
deceased family if he had any more witnesses to examine ?
Mr. Manning said he had not, but he bad some docu-
ments to lay before the jury. With regard to the money
said to have been paid to the deceased on the Saturday
previous to his death, he had found the deceased bad
been paid 1,384/. in Bank of England notes, but neither
of the notes had been since paid in to the bank. Again
the deceased was paid the above amount in a 1,0001.,
3001., 501., 201., 101. Bank of England notes, and the
remainder in cash. He (gr. Manning) had received a
letter from Messrs. Freshfield, solicitors to the London
and County Joint-Stock Bank, stating that they had
examined the deeds deposited by the deceased, as
security with that bank, and found them to be genuine.
It was believed that the statement that had been put
forth with regard to the deceased's forgeries were ex-
aggerated, if not unfounded.
The Coroner said that if the matters to which Mr.
Manning had referred were to become evidence, wit-
nesses must be called in support of them.
Mr. Manning said it would be impossible to produce
evidence that the deceased bad, as he had accused him•
self, ruined thousand, and he suggested that the in-
quiry should be strictly confined to the cause of
death. The Clown here could have no claim to the
chattels of the deceased ; but the Lord of the
Manor of Hampstead, under the terms of the
original grant of 1561, to Sir Thomas Roth, if the cre-
ditors could not prove their right to it. -
The Coroner said the jury had no power to decide on
that question. The case since they last met had assumed
a more serious aspect than it first appeared to present,
and many astounding facts had come to ligkt through
the usual channels of information. The question of
claim must be decided elsewhere, and he would not anti-
cipate that decision by discussing the question then.
Mr. Manning said he considered it would be a waste
of time to produce more evidence. The case must rest
on the evidence of the deceased's friends, and the letters
he had written to show the state of the deceased's mind.
The letters if produced in the Court of Chancery relative
to the testamentary disposition of his property would
have been sufficient to prove him of sound mind, but he
(Mr. Manning) considered that when,it was recollected
the deceased was in the habit of freely using opium,
there could be no doubt that when its effects went off
he became much dejected, and it bad an effect on his
mind and spirits, and in that desponding state it was
probable be had destroyed himself.
Mr. Nicholls, the surgeon, was recalled, and said he
had again examined the stomach of the deceased, and he
believed it contained opium.

Mr. Manning again urged the effect which probably
the opium had in depressing the deceased's mind, and
the distressing circumstances in which he was placed, to
show it was not possible the deceased could have been
in his right mind. He had no other evidence to offer.
The Coroner then summed up, and said he should re- '
fer to the most important points of the case to guide the
jury in arriving at a right conclusion, but before doing
so he said that looking at the letter sent by the deceased
to the chemist of whom he had the poison, that he
acqeitted him and also the butler from all blame—the
mariner in wlsich it was ordered, and the quan-
tity, being sufficient to throw any person off his
guard. He deeply deplored that coroners' juries
had to inquire into the state of mind of persons at the
time of their committing suicide, because he knew of
nothing more calculated to involve persons in a labyrinth
of doubt. He believed such inquiries to be utterly use-
less, and in many cases they were most mischievous ; be
cause every now and then verdicts of insanity were re-
turned as a matter of course, and they had this per-
nicious effect, that jurymen, Irons getting into the habit
of returning such verdicts where crime was not appa-
rently charged, when they had to discharge their duties
as jurymen at the Old Bailey on charges of murder, re
c Alecting on what slight grounds they returned verdicts
of insanity before the coroner, the worst of cri-
minals escaped justice, and now and then a mad-
man suffered extreme punishment. After referring to
the course adopted by the Court of Chancery in ascer-
taining the state of a person's mind he said they (the
jury) had only to deal with the actions of a dead man,
which they must couple with the letters he bad written,
and which must be taken as his dying statements. He
next referred to the difficulty of defining insanity, and
Raid that the jury, from the evidence that had been ad-
duced, would have to say whether the deceased was a
responsible agent at the time of his committing suicide,
or, in other words, that he was in such a condition of
mind as made him morally and legally responsible
for his actions. It was deeply to be regretted that
this was a subject of so much difficulty. He
always noticed that jurymen were disposed to
lean on the side of mercy and humanity ; but
then it should be borne in mind that that feeling re-
ferred more largely to society generally than to the
individual, and on that point he again said the practice
of coroners' juries is returning verdicts of temporary in-
sanity where the evidence was slight., was producirg the
moat dis +Estrous consequences in Criminal Courts of jus-
tice, and he hoped that before long that practice would
be put an end to by an alteration of the law. The Coro-
ner then referred to the decemea's letters, which he
said were written at a time when he was not so far dis-
turbed as to create a confusion of ideas. They were writ.

ten as if by a man of reasoning and reflective powers, and
possessed of a correct memory. At the sane time, it was
impossible not to know tl:at he was suffering intense
agony, and the act which he had committed showed, of
itself, the mental sufferitn:4 that drove him to such an act
of desperation ; but then the question arose, was the
deceased in that state of mind that made him responsible
for hie actions ; was he driven to it from an uncontrul.
able impulse ? The evidence of the medical gentleman
showed that., on the post mortem examination, the brain
presented no symptoms indicative of its being in a dis-
ease l state. Reference had been made to the deceased
being in the habit of taking opium, which would be a
matter for their consideration, and it would be for them
to say, on the whole of the evidence that had been laid
before them, whether the deceased committed murder
by destroying himself in a sound state of mind, or whe-
ther lie did it at a time when he was labouring under
insanity. If they had a doubt upon it let them give
the deceased the benefit of it, and rescue hie memory
from the charge of being a murderer. Having referred
to the evidence,
The jury retired to consider their verdict. After an
absence of 25 minutes, the jury returned into court, and
returned a verdict that the deceased died by his own
hand whilst he was in a perfectly sane state.
The Coroner—Then that is self-murder.
The Foreman—Yes. We are unanimous in that

opinion.
Tho Coroner—My own conviction is, after the most
mature and careful investigation, that you could have
come to no other conclusion.
. .

vv
-- -
The jury then signed the inquisition, and the inquiry
closed.

READING SERMONS.—NOTICE TO QUIT.—A clergyman
at Doune, in Perthshire, has given notice to his congre-
gation that he will be under the necessity of reading his
sermon in the pulpit. It would appear that his people,
who evidently prefer preaching to reading, have given
him notice, in return, that if he is not able to preach
without notes he had better resign his charge.
CRUSADE AGAINST THE SUNDAY NEWSPAPlM—Yes-
terday, before Joseph Lobb and Peter Dickson, Esqrs.
Mr. Bonney, bookseller, of E ot-street, Southampton,
was charged by P. C. Ford, with having his shop open
for the sale of goods on Sunday last. It appeared that
the constable, who hail been " planted," as the phrase
is, a few doors below Mr. Bonney 's shop, the shutters of
which were closed up, saw a person go into the house,
upon which he went to the door, heard the sound of
money rattling, and then saw the person come out with
a newspaper in his hand, which he believed to he Lloyd's
Paper or the Weekly Times. The information was laid
by some " Great Unknown" under a clause in the Local
Improvement Act, which is copied from that in tho act
of the merry and moral Monarch, Charles 11. Mr.
Lobb ' that under the Acts of Charles 11. and Wil-
liam ill., toe only goods that could be sold on a
Sunday were milk and maokerel, and as a newspaper
came sot under the category, the defendant was guilty,
and fined ss. He pronounced this decision without
any reference to the Sabbatarian question. Thus has
commenced a crusade which will recoil in its effects
upon the objects of the promoters of it. Punch should
immortalise their stupidity. How can these well-mean-
ing but silly persons expect to stop the sale of a news-
paper, sanctioned by the Government stamp and trans-
mitted by the Government mail ? The next step will be
on the side of the newspaper vendors—an information
will be laid by one against another under the Act of
Charles 11. The payment of t'ae penalty will be refused,
and the magistrates will have to put the recusant in the
stocks ! Will the magistrates presume to do so in the
year 1856 ? Assuredly not, and how contemptible then
are the proceedings of these people, who dare not show
their faces as informers against one of their fellow-
' townsmen who distributes a paper sanctioned by the
fiscal stamp of the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Can
they stop the postmen as they distribute the papers on a
Sunday morning ? We hope to get boll of the names of
the informere.—Hampshire Advertiser.