The Sun.
London, England, 1818-07-21 00:00:00

11ORRI BLE SUICIDE.

COEONER'S INQUEST.—Saturday an Inquest was
held at the Jolly Brewers, kVardour-street, Soho,
before A. GELL, jun. Esq. Coroner for Westmin-
ster, on the body of Mr. James Fox, aged 30
years, who put a period to his existence in the
folio wing dreadful manner :—Froin the evidence
of Mr. Andrews, the landlord of the Jolly Brewers,
and a man who slept in the same room with the
deceased, and other witnesses, it appeared that
the deceased was brother-in-law to Mr. Andrews,
was a single man, and lived on his income. A
few years ago he had a fall on board of a ship
which fractured his skull, in consequence of
which be had to undergo trepanning, and had a
silver plate put into his head. Of late he was
subject to temporary fits of insanity. The de-
ceased occupied an apartment in Mr. Andrews's
house, in which he had been but three weeks,
during which time he exhibited such marks of
derangement of mind, that it was deeMed neces-
sary to have a man to sleep in the same room with
him, and knives, .forks, and other sharp instru-
ments, were kept out of his way. Friday night
he went to bed about I] o'clock; there was al-
ways a rush-light at night burning in his room.
About two o'clock in the morning, the man who
slept in the room with him was atvoke by hearing
the deceased get up ; he watched what he was
about, when, by the light, he observed him take
something-. from his pocket, which appeared like
a razor ; the man immediately jumped out of bed,
and laid hold of him, to pr. vent his committing
suicide ; a hard struggle took place between
them, the man using his endeavours to force the
razor from him, whilst the unfortunate maniac
kept shilling the razor from hand to hand, each
time making a cut at his throat, and inflicting se-
veral dreadful gashes on himself ; at length, by
one desperate effort, he got the razor in his right
hand, and with one stroke he cut his throat from
ear to ear, and nearly severed his (iced from his
body. Both fell to the ground. The other man's
cries for assi•tanee alarmed the family, sonic of
whom hastened to the spot, but too late to pre-
vent the dreadful catastrophe. Verdict—lnsanity.

DISCOVERY of a MURDER by DREAMING.

Friday night Mrs. PEAT, the landlady of the
Carpruters'-arms public-house, in John-street,
Tot tenhani-court-road, retired to rest about twelve
o'clock, but hod not slept many minutes before
she dreamt that some person had givqn three
knocks at her chamber door, and she fancied she
heard a female voice exclaim—" Mistress, Mis-
tress, here's some one putting a child down the
privy !" During the whole of the night the idea
haunted ber, and she arose extremely troubled.
Ou coming to the breakfast table she related the
circumstance to Mr. Peat, the brother of her late
husband, who treated the idea with ridicule; but
seeing chat it had made more than a common im-
pression on her mind, he endeavoured by every
means in his potter to direct her thoughts from
sub an 'improbable circumstance. In order to
gratify her curiosity she determined to explore the
drain of the privy. For this purpose she provided
herself with -tielej.:-;:bd after about a minute's
search suceee''ed in bringing the arm of an infant
above the surface of tle!..drain ! ! This terrible
confirmation of- her 'dream had such an effect on
her as nearly to overpower her ;—she could only
call her brother-in-law, who, • with another
person, came immediately to her assistance, and
after a few minutts trouble succeeded in getting
the body out, which had every appearance of a
full grown child, and did not seem to have been
long placed th.n.e. As the story got wile! ;u the
neighbourhood, the utmost coe.•a:,!rnajon pre-
vailed, and various and eli.say were the conjec-
tures formed. Liformation was at length sent to
the Parish Officers, who caused proper tlteps to
be taken to investigate the matter.
Saturday evening, at nine o'clock, an inquest
was held at Mrs. Peat's house, before T. STIhLING,
Esq. and Mr. RAYNSFORD, the Police Magistrate,
with many other Gentlemen.
The first witness examined was the tusid-ser-
vant, but after a most ingenious examination no-
thing could be elicited to throw the least light
upon the subject ; and from her manner the girl
seemed to have' no, guilty knowledge of the trans-
action.

Mts. Peat detailed, in a firm unhesitating man-
lier, her singul,r dream to the Jury, and her bro-
ther-in-law confirmed her in that part which re-
lated to finding the body.
I. Moodie, the waterman at the coach-stand,
stated, that on Saturday be.was in the Carpenters'
Arms ;—he heard Mrs. Peat scream, and accom-
panied her brother-in-law to her assistance. She
told them she had found the body of a child in the
water-closet, but although she said she had
found it in !calf a. minute, witness could not find
it in fire minutes or more! He was afterwards
told that she had dreamt over night that some
person had buried it there. Mrs. Peat had been
for some time a widow. -

Mr. Upham, a surgeon, said he bad examined
the body ; it appeared full grown, but be could
not positively say whether it was still-born.—
The nails on the fingers and toes were perfect,
and it seemed, in every respect, to have come to
its full time.

This witness, at the request of the Coroner and
Jury, examined Mrs. Peat and her female ser-
vant, and be gave it as his opinion that neither
could have been recently delivered.
The Coroner charged the Jury at some length,
and at two o'clock on Sunday morning they
brought in a verdict of—" Wilful Murder against
some person or persons unknown."

ACCIDENT AT NORTHUMBERLAND HOUSE.---
Yesterday afternoon one of the labourers employ-
ed in building the towers, which bad been some
time ago damaged in consequence of the fire at
Northumberland-house, Charing-Cross, having
fixed a stone of considerable weight to a pully,
he remained underneath gazing upon some other
object, till the stone was pulled up nearly to the
top, when, shocking to relate, it fell right upon
the,poor fellow, and by the weight forced the
ribs through the skin. He died before he could
be taken to the hospital.