The Sun. — 1842-02-17 (London, England)

SUICIDE OF GENERAL BUZEN. On the suicide of General Buzen, the Belgian Minister of War, the Independant of Brussels gives the following : " Some days ago a Radical Journal, the Patriote Beige, published a statement of the services of General Buzen in France and Holland, under the Government of the Kins of the Netherlands and in the Belgian army. From these accounts it appeared that the General was not a Belgian by birth, but had deserted the ranks of the French army in 1307, and that he never was a member of the Legion of :lonour. This publication was repeated by several Journals. At a meeting of opposition Deputies on Friday last, held at the residence of M. Puissant, it was proposed that the Minister of ‘Var should be questioned on the subject at the next meeting of the Chamber of Deputies, but in the end it was resohed that a deputation of two Members of the strong Opposition party, and two of the moderes, should first call upon him to demand an explanation. These font- gentlemen, Messrs. Verbaegen and Orts, D'Hoffschmitlt and De Millet, waited upon the General, and executed their mission with all possible delicacy. The General replied that a full explanation should amear in the next number of the Moniteur Beige, On Saturday, however, he put an end to his own existence by discharging a pistol against his right temp .e in a small wooden building in the garden near his house, outside the Louvain Gate. Whether what was published of him was true or false we know not ; but we would not for all the world have to reproach ourselves with having put it forth, for General Buzen was a brave soldier, full of energy and zeal, and the great services he has rendered to Belgium since the revolution are incontestible. The General was employed on Saturday morning at his office for two hours with his SecretaryGeneral. At eleven o'clock he shut himself in his own cabinet, ' and continued writing till half-past twelve, when he came out and gave a sealed letter to one of the porters in attendance, desiring that it should be delivered to his aide-de-camp at one, but not before. This order was punctually executed. The letter was received and opened by his aide-de-camp, in the presence of M. Geard, the General's private Secretary. It contained the following words :-4 When you read this, I shall be no longer existing. YOu.will find my body in the small pent-house of the kitchen garden.' The two gentlemen instantly hastened to the spot, and there found the General lifeless, his head being dreadfully shattered. The servant had already become acquainted with the event, but Madame Buzen was still in ignorance of it. To communicate to her the shocking fact was a distressing tasst, for the fatal news gave rise to the most heart-rending scene. She for a time insisted on being taken to him, and was with the utmost difficulty dissuaded. She has ever since remained in an indescribable state of agony." The Obserrateur, of Brussels, in giving its account of the above lamentable occurrence, in which, as to the act and its causes, it concurs with the Independant, says,— " When the deputation came to General Buzen, he received them very politely, and, having heard them, replied that he had been made acquainted with the publication two or three days before by his colleague, M. Van Voixem, who had given y. riournsi ae, whichothe fhisl him the number of the Patriote Beige in which the article in question was contained. He treated the matter with contempt, and teemed to think it beneath him to take any notice of such calumnies. It was represented to him that a great many copies of the journal had been distributed among the troops, and some had even been posted up in the neighbourhood of the citadel of Ghent and in other places. The General listened to these arguments, and entered into a discussion. As to his not being a Belgian by birth, he admitted that he was born in North Brabant, which is part of Holland ; but, as his father was a Belgian, he, according to the civil code, was a Belgian also. As to the accusation of his having deserted from the French army in one of the wars of the Empire, he replied that his disappearance from his ranks was the consequence of his having e eoahrbeps:e afterwards,nGo absence, Gn,eaernnai been made prisoner at Alberstadt, with some of his comrades, and sent ymet os gthoatephwhee dh:rod emaaanrhfioevrf favourable juxtohrpialenabeil dnee,ne attestation, fArotmdhowever,ewoh3 tnmttehyGse'tsaactiaali Buzen, was able to produce. The deputation still urging the necessity of a public answer to the repo Ls circulated against him, the General promised to insert his justification in the Moniteur. Upon this the deputation took leave of him in the most friendly terms."  The Observateur, in another paragraph, says--" It is generally reported that the portfolio of the Alinister of War is to be confided ad interim to General Evain, but General Nypels and several other officers are talked of."  The Globe of Brussels mentions a report that the Belgian Ministers, the colleagues of Genetal Buzen, had requested him, on the morning of his death, to make explanations on the rumours circulated about him, which would prevent questions being put in the Chamber. The General, irritated at this demand, is stated to have beeome so warm as to have struck one of the Ministers, and it was after this that, letting them go to the Palace of Lacken without him, he carried his fatal intentiwn into execution. The Courrier Belge states that King Leopold was at table with the King of Prussia, and the guests invited to meet his Majesty at Lacken, when a letter was brought him, written by General Buzen before he destroyed himself. The King, it adds, could not repress his emotion, but did not communicate the cause of it to anybody at the time, and afterwards sent General dllane with a message of condolence to the General's widow, te whom his Majesty wrote during the evening. The following communication, promising to untold the circumstances involved in this affair, has just come to hand:— '" RaUCSELS,