The Sun. — 1842-06-10 (London, England)

SUICIDE OF LORD CONGLETON. re! Con-,.; fete', (cormcrly. ISir Henry Parnell) put a period to his existence on Wednesday night, at his residence, in Cadogau-place, by hanging himself with a handkerchief. No authentic particulars of this melancholy event have as yet transpired. The deceased Henry Brooke (Lord Congleton), who was raised to that dignity by the Melbourne Ministry in 1841, was the second son of Sir John Parnell, Bart., by the second daughter and coheir of the Right Hon. Sir Arthur Brooke, Bart. He was born in 1776, and was consequently sixty-six years of age. He married in 1801 the eldest daughter of the first Earl of Portarlington, by whom he has left a son, the Hon. John Parnell (now Lord Congleton), and five other children. His late Lordship succeeded his eldest brother in the baronetcy in 1812. He was Chairman of the Finance Committee in IS2B. In 1833 he was appointed a Member of the-Excise Inquiry Commission, and filled the post of Secretary at War in 1831. In April, 1835, he was appointed Paymaster-General of the Forces, and Treasurer of the Ordnance and the Navy, which offices he continued to hold until June, 1841. He represented Queen's County in Parliament from 1803 to 1832, and Dundee from the latter period till 1841. His Lordship was author of a well-known work on Financial Reform, and of a great number of pamphlets on currency and banking ; also of a work upon roads and road-making. His Lordship was a descendant of Parnell, Archdeacon of Clogher, author of the admired poem of " The Hermit." It appears that the unfortunate Nobleman had for some time past been in a low, desponding state of mind, and had in consequence been under medical treatment ; but the causes of his mental depression were supposed to be purely physical, for it did not appear that there existed any others which could account fir his dejection ; and as his Lordship continued to take his regular exercise, and observe his accustomed- hours and habits—which were remarkable for their punctual regularity—no suspicion ever entered the heads of any of his family, his friends, or domestics, that he contemplated laying violent hands upon himself: His Lordship had retired to bed on Tuesday night at his usual time, and rose on Wednesday morning between eight and nine o'clock. A barber attended to shave him shortly after nine, and on his departure his Lordship was left alone in his dressing-room, as it was supposed engaged in the act of dressing himself ; but the butler, some short time afterwards, having gone into the room was horror-struck at discovering his master suspended by the neck, and quite dead. The alarm was instantly given, and medical assistance procured, but it was of no avail, for life's subtle spark was extinct. It is difficult to say whether the melancholy occurrence more excited the feeling of surprise or of horror when this discovery was made ; for, as was remarked by some of the family, he was the very last man who could have been supposed likely to have committed such an act, being a person of singular equanimity and mildness of manners. The mind had, however, doubtless lost its balance, and he had ceased to be master of his own actions.