The Sun. — 1837-07-20 (London, England)

DREADFUL CIRCUMSTANCE.  Yesterday morning a considerable degree of excitement prevailed in Surrey-street, Blackfriars•road, in consequence of a man, named Chamberlain, residing in that street, having stabbed his wife and mortally wounded her, and afterwards destroyed himself. Chamberlain is a French polisher by trade, and, with his wife and two children, occupied a lodging at No. 22, in Surrey-street. About a month ago a distant relative of his died, and left him upwards of 1,0001. Since the property, however, had come into Chamberlain's possession, he and his wife were in the habit of drinking to great excess, and this produced such quarrels between them that the landlord of the house, annoyed by their repeated disturbances at. all hours of the day and night, gave them warning to quit. Yesterday morning, agreeably to this determination on the part of the landlord, a bill was placed in the window of Chamberlain's room of " lodgings to let." Chamberlain, who had been out at the time, on his return, evidently under the influence of liquor, expressed dissatisfaction on finding that lie would be compelled to leave the house, and in the excitement of  the moment he drew out his watch and flung it through the pane of glass which contained the bill, and it fell into the street. The watch, however, was subsequently picked up and given to his wife, and sometime afterwards Chamberlain, unconscious of what he- had previously done avith his watch, accused his wife of depriving him of it for the purpose of pledging it. This she denied, and an altercation took place between them, during which a woman lodging in the next apartment went into the room where they were, and endeavoured to pacify them. Chamberlain was at that time in a violent rage, in the midst of which he seized a table knife, and, running towards his wife; plunged it with desperate force into her back. As he stood 'considerably above his wife at the time, the knife passed in a slanting direction down the blade-bone, and the point entered a portion of the lungs. The unfortunate woman immediately fell to the floor, bleeding profusely, which the fe, male, who was with her at the time, tried to stop, by placing her hand over the orifice of the wound. The moment that Chamberlain had stabbed 'his wife he walked coolly down stairs, calling out that he had stabbed his wife, and he passed out into the street, where he still continued ejaculating that he had murdered his wife, and that he wanted to give himself up into the hands of justice. He was shortly afterwards taken into custody by a policeman of the M. Division, and conveyed to the station-house in the Southwark-bridge road. He had not been long in the lock-up place before he fell into a sound sleep, but previously to which he was searched, for the purpose of depriving him of anything by which he was likely to attempt self destruction. Ile however, contrived to destroy himself in the course of the day, and he accomplished the act by taking a piece of tape from his left arm, which had been bled a day or two previously, and strangling himself. There was another man in the same cell at the time, but Chamberlain had made so little noise in effecting his purpose that the fact of his death having taken place was not known until a considerable time after it had occurred, and too late to attempt resuscitation. The deceased's wife was still alive at a late hour yesterday evening, but the medical man. who is attendant upon her is of opir,iOn that the wound which has been inflicted on her neck is of such a dangerous nature .as to preclude the hope of her recovery. At the period of the altercation which occurred between the parties, and which led to the above catastrophe, it appears that the unfortunate woman was under the influence of liquor, for she was known to some females living in the same house to have drank off two glasses of rum and Shrub a short time previously to her having been stabbed.  "