The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-30 00:00:00

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LONDON, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 1845.

A melancholy exemplification of the unequal degree of
sympathy manifested by the law in its practical administra-
tion for the rich as compared with the poor, occurs in a para
graph we have transcribed from the Somerset County Gazette.
It relates to one of the most deplorable catastrophes
into which madness or despair can precipitate a rea-
Boning being. It regards the case of a wounded, impetuous
spirit, stung by the intolerable pressure of a present distress,
presumptuously withdrawing from its appointed sphere
of existence and of duty,—and " rushing"—as it is somewhat
vaguely but impressively described—" into the presence of
its CREATOR,"—unbidden, unanealed!" GOD forbid I that we
should be misunderstood—in our observations on this
melancholy event—to speak irreverently of that Divine
prohibition which has its echo in the conscientious and
abhorrent convictions of every human breast. We should
be reluctant, to the last degree, to be suspected of
regarding with levity or irreverence that stern
but wise and solemn reprobation with which human institu-
tions resent this insult on the Supreme Majesty of the Uni-
verse. But it is with no such feelings—it is in the absence
of any such Purpose—that we find ourselves compelled to
denounce the Coroner's verdict returned on the inquest at-
tending the circumstances which led to the death of JAMES
LOVELL, of Norton Kewstoke, Somersetshire, who com-
mitted suicide on Saturday last by hanging himself.
This is but one exemplar of a very numerous class of cases
in which we are too often shocked—not by the servile
and obsequious promptitude of inquest juries,in devising every
possible construction of circumstances proved in evidence—
every possible assumption that can be formed in the absence of
proof, and every possible straining of the existing law, render-
ing self-murder liable to certain penal visitations of ex post
facto ignominy—(for these things have almost ceased to
startle by their daily occurrence)—but, by the careless,
unhesitating, and reckless consistency with which they re-
turn verdicts of felo-de•se against those children of misery
and wretchedness whose crime against the decree of GOD
himself, is aggravated in the eyes of these duodecimal
councils by the more inexpiable guilt of poverty ! Is there
a country in the world where poverty is more persecuted in
life—more hunted down after death, even—than this, with
all its boasted institutions, its moral bearing, its
munificent charities. We seriously fear that there is not.
A Pharisaical, conventional propriety appears to be at once
more diffusively established, and more highly appreciated,
thanp
plain,t unobtrusive, meek, and sustained Christian
en of benevolence to, and pity for, our
peees It was but to the excess of this pseudo-
species.
co
irt a.
m
correctness ;" this meretricious shadow of a
tmhoisraliwtyhite.as
bewauthifeud, decorum-hiding, beautiful
dbyoveryrdzr
not of ita simplicity;
atoningfor,
the
" multitude of sins," that the miscreant TAWELL, in the
beginning of the present year, sacrificed the substantial
merits of his private charities and good works, and all the
worldly advantages of a competent fortune and a " respect-
able position in society." How many hundreds of thousands
yet remain among us who, without so far losing their calcu-
lating
habits of self-possession as to be hurried into crimes of
so deep and revolting a dye as those of TAWELL, do
yet maintain this " respectable position" in the great world
by sacrifies of principle, of integrity, of candour, of affections;
by violations, one day to be atoned for in this world, or be-
yond it, of the most sacred ties of kindred, honour, and good
faith ; and the studied contravention of the great rule of human
conduct, "to do to others as we would be dealt by ourselves"
—every slay in the year, and almost every hour in the day ?
If they be not great convicted criminal offenders,
like the heartless poisoner, they are not less heartless as moral
delinquents of another kindi—the plausible but worthless
Pecksniffs of society. Were not this the case, it is certain
that so pernicious an example would not affect, as we are per-
suaded it does, the judgment of jurors in that remarkable
manner which the verdicts of coroners' inquests exhibit.
If an honourable or noble speculator on a race-course, or
a wealthy and influential dealer in the money !market,
after being defeated in the projects which he has raised on
some operation of extraordinary magnitude in his peculiar
sphere, communes with his friends, or settles under his own
handwriting his worldly affairs, all this evidence of
mental collectedness and deliberation is at once passed
over as nugatory, or accepted as establishing the case
for a certain inevitable verdict—that the " unfortunate
nobleman," or " lamented gentleman," committed suicide