The Sun.
London, England, 1857-10-28 00:00:00

THE MILITIA.

having completed a The sth West York Militia,
month's training and exercise at Knaresborough,
will be- dismissed this day. On Friday last the
regiment was reviewed by Col. Douglas, Inspector
of Militia for the Northern Division. The men
went through the various movements. with great
preciion, and were-warmly complimen!ed by
the reviewing officer. At the close of the review a
great number of the inen volunteer el into regiments
tf the line—namely, the 2d; or Queen's Own ; the
.6th, and the 60th Rifles.

A. letter from St. Petersburgh states that the valuable
s'epot of maps and charts shall be no longer withhsld from
the inspection of the public. They are to be all en-
rraved and sold. Among others there is one of the
Crimekincluding
ninety-three sheets, and laid down on a
3arge scab- There is also one of Poland,also on a large
Neale ;• and one of
rear. India, perfected up to the present
Tan FATHER OV RAILWITEL—An address was on
Friday presented to Mr. Edward Pease, of Darlington,
as some sort of acknowledgment of the eminent ser-
vices he did to this Canary and the world by his first
;encouragement of railways. The address was presented
-1-1 Mr. Meynell, chairman of
,the Stockton and Dar-
3ington Compapy ; and, in adjition to the names of
the principal men of Durham, bore
.als.o. those of Mr.
George Stephenson and Sir W. Cuintt.

,SUICIDE Off MAJOR WARBURTON, M.P.

THE INQUEST.

On Ft May morning last Major Warburton, M.P.
for Harwich, committed suicide while labouring
under a fit of temporary insanity, at his residence
at Henly, in the vicinity of Tunbridge-wells, under
the circumstances related below, as given in evidence
on the coroner's inquisition, which was opened on
the following day to investigate the melancholy
event, before Mr. F. H. Gell and a jury composed
mostly of the neighbouring gentry, of which the
Rev. Sir H. Thompson was foreman. The deceased
gentleman was a younger brother of the ill-fated
Eliot Warburton,linown to fame as the author of
" The Crescent and the Cross," who perished a few
years ago on the loss of the Amazon steam-ship.
He was educated at the Royal Military College,
Woolwich, and served in the Royal Artillery from
June, 1833, until N0v.,1854, when he retired as a
major on full pay. He was 41 years of age, and in
1853 married the.flon.Elizabeth Augusta, daughter
of the first Lord Bateman.

Tha jury were sworn at the Abergavenny Armq,
in the neighbouring village of Frant, and then pro-
ceeded to view the body at the residence of the de-
ceased gentleman. He was lying on the floor of his
dressing-room in his shirt and dressing-gown, with
a pistol resting on his left arm, just as he had fallen
by his own hand. One barrel appeared to have been
discharged, and one if not two balls had gone
through his head, penetrating the skull and s`iat-
tering the face, and then, after grazing the ceiling
of the apartment, passing through the window.
The Rev. T. A. Warburton was called. He said
—I am incumbent of Iffiey, near ()ford. The de-
ceased was my brother, a retired major of artillery.
I was on a visit to him at Henly. I should think
his age was about 39 or 40. At dinner on the day
preceding his death he appeared in good health and
spirits. The evening passed as usual. We left the
drawing-room about a quarter to 1, and I went with
deceased to his dressing-room. Mrs. Warbuton had
previously left the drawing-room. We talked a
few minutes in his dressing room and then he said
he was not well. He went to the closet and I bade
him " good night" and went to bed. About 3in
the morning Mrs. Warburton came into my bed-
room and said that having missed my brother, the
deceased, she went to his dressing-room and found
him lying on the floor on his face with the candle
in his hand. She did not say whether it was alight
or not. She added that he had not been to bed.
She said she could not lift him. I immediately
jumped up and went into his dressing-room, where
I found him in the position described by his lady.
I lifted him up and he immediately began to vomit,
which he continued doing copiously for some time.
We got him to sit down in a chair, and I began to
chafe his hands and legs, which were very cold. He
opened his eyes, but did not speak for some time.
We asked him what was the matter, but he made
no reply. I think for about half an hour Mrs.

Warburton and I were engaged chafing his limbq,
and at intervals he vomited a little more. When I
,aw that the vomiting did not relieve hint I became
much alarmed. He began to make inarticulate
sounds. I then wrote and despatched by one of
the men servants a letter to Mr. Turner, surgeon,
of Tunbridge-wells, requesting his immediate at-
tendance. He came without delay. I went on
chafing my brother's body, and after that he vomited
a little once or twice. He then began to speak arti-
culately, but sillily. About 5 o'clock Mrs. War-
burton and I raised him up. He staggered, but
we managed to get him into bed. We then sat by
the fire for about half-an-hour, waiting for Mr.
Turner. About half-past she came and examined
the deceased. He did not think well of him. The
deceased went to sleep, and when he awoke Mr.
Purner gave him some medicine, and afterwards, on
leaving, that gentleman left a second paper of me-
dicine, which we wera to give him in a certain time
—three or four hours, I think. I lay down. Mr.
Turner told us we wera to watch my brother, as he
was not exactly satisfied as to his stat 3. We
had been talking the evening before of going
to London by the 8.30 train next morning.
While I was dressing in the morning I heird

nothing of his getting up, but about half-past 8
I heard him go to his dressing-room, and on ,
going there I found him walking about in an uncer-
tain hurried, unsteady sort of way. I said, " I
think we will not think of going to London until a
later train." He replied in a strange sort of way;
"Well, I think I will not go, for I am rather
knocked up ;" and then he said, "I must go to
the closet." He staggered towards it. I should
not have left him but for his going there. When I
stw his hand on the door I turned to go to my
bed-room for a moment, which is a short distance
off, and I had hardly got in there before I heard
the report of a pistoL I sprang down stairs and
bract open the door of the study, which was just
at the end of the passage,, and only latched, then
the door of the closet, wich was next to it, and
then his dressing-room door. I suppose it took me
about 5 or 6 seconds to do all that. When I
reached his dressing-room I found him as you have
seen him. He was lying on his back, and a (inan-
ity of blood was on the floor, near his head, from
.vhich it was flowing. His right hand was across

bis breast, and the left.hand ►vas extended by the
side of the body. The pistol was lying on his left
Arm. He was perfectly dead. The deceased hai
been subject to bilious attacks of a violent charac
ter. On those occasions he was not deprived of
speech. He had never shown any tendency to
lunacy. For the last two years he had been sub
ject to a violent pain in the head, at intervals of
about five months, when he was low-spirited. I
have seen him sit for hours when under the in-
duence of that pain wit!l his head on his hands and
indisposed to speak. He once went to Mr. Beau-
mont, an eminent surgeon in London, who gave
him an emetic for bile. Three nights ago, I should
mention, he had a violent attack of vomiting.
During the Thursday evening I had seen no spiv-
' toms of what was coming or, and he showed no
symptoms of wandering. From 3 until the time
of his death I did not think he knew what he was
doing. He had never fallen down in a bilious
attack before. Once, when under such an attack,
he complained of great pain. His eyes
looked odd. I thought at first it was apoplexy.
I think this attack was precisely like what he
had had before. He appeared in good spirits
up to the time he went to bed. He had not
taken anything uncommon, nor an unusual quantity
of wine. When he spoke of g ling by a later train
he talked in a mechanical sort of way. He had lately
kept the pistol by the side of the bed. He had nit
the pistol in his hand when he went to the cicset.
The reason he kept the pistol by the side of the bAI
was that in the former occupant's time the hoes;
was broken into. It was a double-barrelled pistol.
I found a bullet on the floor. I thought both
barrels were discharged at the same time. There
were two bullet holes in the window glass, so I
cannot account for the bullet on the fi )or.

Sir Henry Thompson (the foreman)—You are
not aware of any subject pressing on his mind ?
Witness—Our conversation the night before wa-
on his happy position in this world, the great bless-
jugs he had, and his domestic happiness. I know
that his circumstances were extremely comfortable,
and that he was pleased ' with his short Par'ia-
mentary career. He had a desire to get into Par-
liament unfettered as to party, arid on a request
from the electors he put up for Harsvicb, and was
returned as an independent member by a large
majority.
Mr. Richard Turner, surgeon, of Tunbridge-
wells, deposed—ln the early part of the year the
deceased came to me respecting an attack of neural-
gia over the eye. He told ma he had sufferel from
indigestion and consequent vomiting. About five
o'clock on the morning of Friday last his servant
called me up. I reached the house of the deceased
between 5 and 6, and found him in bed acileep. His
brother told me he had been breathing rather
heavily, but at that time it was not so. I leaned
over him to observe his breathing, and observing
his eyes move I asked him what was the matter
with him. He replied in a muttering way, "I am
tired." I asked him if he had not been sick. He
said, "No, but sickish." Ho then seemed disposed
to go to sleep, but I purpos,Ay roused him in order
to speak to him. I examined his tongue and his
eyes, but saw nothing remarkable about eithi r. His
pulse was quiet and feeble. I then mixed a powder
and he took it and drank a little water after it. He
remarked, " I must go to London to-thy," to
which' objected. He said it was the stomach, and
he should soon be right again. As his stomael was
empty, and he continued drowsy, I thought it must
be something more than a merastomachic-il derange-
ment. I 'therefore suggested that- he should be
watched. I ►hen returned home and about 9 o'clock
I received another message to attend immediately.
I was at the house very shortly afterwards, and I
found the dece used as you h ►ve just Ee,en him. I
noticed that a bullet had passed through the mouth
and left the head at the upper part, penetrat:n4
'the brain and skull completely, and shittering the
bones of the face. I cannot say from the wound
that there was more than one bullet. What th 3 de-
ceased had brought up appeared to be an undigested
pleal. His dinner on the previous evening was, I
am told, or s.iraole character. I intagina that he
was not in a sound stain of mind when he did the
deed, and that physical disea-e occasioned that
state. From the way he spoke to me I think ho
was not in his right mind. When he came to me
he showed a nervous anxiety about his bilious at-
tack.
The Coroner said there seemed to be an end of
the case under the circumstances, and if the jury
were satisfied that the unfortunate gentleman shot
himself when he was insane they would say so, tut
if they had any doub,, it was only fair and right
that the relative 4 shoul4 have au oppottunity of