The Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1837-1867, 1846-06-06
Melancholy Death.
From the Now EmgIand Puritnn.

- From the New EIBianu EuTlthh.
MrGEouGE w. BURNHAM, who has been
connected with this Office rs clerk, for sever
al years, on Monday morning last committed
suicide in state of mental arrangement.
He was young man of rare excellence OF
moral and Christian character, and SO regnr-
ded, we believe, by all who knew him For
the last six months his health had been evil
IDENTITY declining, and he was subject to great
depression of spirits, to which he seemed to
have constitutional predispositiOn Though
ne was able TO do the business at the office,
with all its perplexing details and compllca-
Hions, with correctness, down to the very NOR
ming of his death, he occasionally excited our
nuxieties by marks of evident mOnomania,
touching particular class ofsuigects, and 10y
expressions ofdesPOndency and mental dis
tress. We urged him TO take vacation and
recruit his health, by travelling, aud visiting
his friends ia GrOton, Vermont. And we
called in medical advice, and his physician
assured him that serious consequences would
follow, ifhe did not leave his employment in
theS office for time. Twice we induced him
tn commence jnhrney to he gone some
weeks; hut he returned in both cases, after All
absence of two or three days. And as the
apprehenson that we were about to dismiss
him was one Of the groundless fancies with
which he was torrnenting himself, we appre-
hended the worst consequences TO him, from
our Insisting upon his going away; as other
wise it would seem that we ought to have
DONE His mind was filled, now with the
Conceit that he had done some flagrant INJURY
10 some one, and next that some dreadful
conspiracy wns forming against him. But
for the last week or two, we were not aware
that ne was materially worse than ne had
been before Nothing excited our suspicious
rill we came into the Office Monday morning,
and found that as usual he had swept the Of
flee, and put every thing in its place with re-
rnarkable care and precision,- and then,
contrary TO his custom, was absent. After an
hour or two our anxieties induced us to seek
him at his lodgings. lie boarded with an in
innate friend, who had been induced to take
him TO his house from having Witnessed his
peculiar state Of mind, and seen the need
which'he. had to he with his friends. we
foundhi in his lodging chamber, already
dead He left several letters addressed tC
his friends. and these were deposited in hls
Bible, with leaf turned down TO the third
chapter in the Lamentations of jeremiah
apassage most expressive of his distress ant
despair. All his preparations seem to have
been made with as much GOODNESS and pre-
cision, as if they were ordinary affairs. II
his letters ne speaks of leaving the world Il
escape storm, that was about TO break upol
him. He had been scrupulotsly conscien
tious in the smallest details; and this was car
ried out, in his leaving enclosed in a lette
twenty five cents for an individual whom h
fancied he owed that amount. And yet sucl
was the wandering oihis mind, that he seem
ed to have no idea of sin attaching To suicide
In his letters he spoke witiIeonfidence ofmee
) ing his, friends IN heaven; and those WIN
hest know his character, have an assurance
that suci, a confidence was well grounded
Distressing as the termination of his life ina
been TO his friends, the whole tenor at bi
life since or acquaintance with lis,, hasbeel