The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-30 00:00:00

SUICIDE OF A LITERARY CHA,

RACTER.

NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE, MONDAY NIGHT,

A melancholy suicide has just been discovered in
this town. Mr. William Gill Thompson, a name
well known as a poet, and the author of some excel-
lent pieces in our periodical magazines, has just been
found in the water-closet of the Literary and Philo-
sophical Society, in our town, with his throat cut in
several places, and evidently had been dead for
some hours. Mr. Thompson was reporter for the
Newcastle Chronicle, and had held the situation for 20
years or more, and on the occasion of Mr. Hutt being
entertained at Gateshead the week before last, he was
required to attend and report the proceedings. He
attended, but after the dinner was over he repaired to
a public-house and enjoyed himself, so that he was
incapable next morning of copying his notes. That
day and the following passed over without his pre-
paring copy, and as the paper is published on the
Friday morning, the proprietors were under the ne-
cessity of procuring a report of the proceedings else-
where. Thompson was accordingly discharged. He
subsequently applied to be reinstated, promising
amendment, but his application was refused ; and on
the Monday following he left the office of his former
employers, the Messrs. Hodgson, of this town, went
to a public-house, known by the name of Hill's
Kitchen, where he drank some beer; from thence he
proceeded to the Literary and Philosophical Society,
and, having taken out a book, went home with it ;
returned again to the Society, and obtained the
key of the water-closet from the librarian. He re-
paired thither, and with his pen-knife inflicted several
deep wounds on his throat, which caused his death.
He lay from Monday night, last week, till to-night,
when he was discovered through his daughter hav-
ing returned the book, and the librarian asked her for
the key of the water-closet, saying her father had taken
it away a week before. The child replied her father
had been missing for a week, and then the suspicions
of the librarian were excited, and search made, when
the body of the deceased was found in the water-
closet, dreadfully cut about the throat, and the blood
flowing in all directions. A jury was immediately
summoned, and after viewin? the body the inquest
was adjourned till the following day.

MONUMENT TO THE LATE ADMIRAL SIR T. M
HARDY, GOVERNOR OP GREENWICH HOSPITAL.—Monday
Oct. 21, being the anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar,
was appropriately selected as the day for the commence-
ment of this national and county testimonial. Long
before the hour fixed (one o'clock) numbers were seen
wending their way to the summit of Blagdon-hill, the
site determined on. All being ready the first stone was
laid in due form by the esteemed lady of the High
Sheriff, John Floyer, Esq., Amidst the cheers of the
numerous assemblage, among whom we noticed the
nigh Sheriff, the Mayor of Dorchester, Lieut. Criswick,
R.N., Arthur H. Dyke Acland, Esq., Robert Williams,
jun., Esq., John Hardy Thresher, Esq., T. Balston, Esq.,
the Rev. Lundy Foot, the Rev. F. J. C. Trenow, Messrs.
Hawkins, Symes, Samson, Dunning, J. Wood, Hodges,
&c. There was also a goodly array of ladies present,
which added much to the animation of the scene. An
elegant cold collation, with choice wines and strong beer
in profusion, was provided in a spacious marquee erected
on the hill, of which the company were liberally invited
to partake. The arrangements of the Committee gave
general satisfaction; good cheer was also supplied in
abundance to the poor. Mr. Henry Goddard, of Brid-
port, is the contractor for the erection of the monument,
which, from its elevated position, will be seen at a great
distance both by sea and land.—Sherburne Journal.
EXTRAORDINARY CASE OF STRANCULATION.—On
Monday last a fine child of ten months old, named Ca-
therine Ford, came by her death under the following
circumstances :—The deceased was the child of a rope-
maker, residing at No. 5, Globe-court, Ratcliffe-high-
way, and it aptears that her father went to his work on
Monday morning as usual. The mother also went out
at six o'clock to carry about milk for a person in the
Minories, as she was accustomed to do ; but before
going, she took the precaution of placing two chairs
with their backs to the bed, so as to prevent the child,
who was asleep at the time, from falling out. Tho child
must have rolled from the place it was lying to the edge
of the bed, and got its head through the small rails of
the chair. The body then must have fallen from the
bed, for the child was afterwards found by a young girl
named Fitzgerald, hanging in the way above described,
and quite dead. Information of the circumstance has
since been forwarded to Mr. Baker, the Coroner, by Mr.
Overton, the
optc:bleed ofsr
t ©headSipt .p zG. n
g e
o ragnoedf Mercantile' s nr-rtohdeu-Eeea sma
inquest is t ,
Gazettearnkde
Markets,"
of the 23d inst., under h
in that paragraph which touches upon guano, allusion
is made to the probability of a substitute being shortly
found near home ; may not this have reference to those
immense beds of coprolithcs said to exist in the neigh-
bourhood of Bath, Clifton, and other places, pointed out
by Liebig in his " Familiar Letters on Chemistry," see
page 180, and might not these antediluvian remains be
obtained in a similar way as coal ?—Correspondent.

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