Denton & Haughton Weekly News, and Audenshaw, Hooley Hill, and Dukinfield Advertiser. — 1874-08-28 (Denton, Greater Manchester, England)

MURDER AND SUICIDE  MANCHESTER CLUB.  An event of deeply painful interest, and of a character distressing in the highest degree, excited an extraordinary sensation in Manchester on Tuesday evening among those who remained in the city after six o'clock. At that hour the rumour of a tragedy in one of the city clubs had unfortunaLly been verified by facts which report c'uild not well invest with greater horror than their bare recital called forth. Two gentlemen, well known in commercial circles, one bebngiug to a family identified with the business prosperity of Manchester for upwards of a century, had met in a club, apparently in friendship, and in the next moment were seen, by persons alarmed at the sound of pistol shots, in the last agonies of deati. The social position of the deceased, the place in which the tragedy cc curred, and the mystery which at present surrounds the desperate deed, 'while at first throwing doubt upon the report, of course combined to heighten its startling effact when its truth was established. The Club in which the tragedy occurred was the Prince's Club, in Cheapside, King-street, Manches ter, and the gentlemen whose lives have been de7 stroyed are Mr. Alexander Maeßan (formerly of Jeffries and Maclean) lately residing at higher Broughton, and Mr. Herbert Thomas Barge (of Barge Brothers), merchants, Spring Gardens. The few known particulars of the sad affair are these: On Tuesday evening Mr. Barge was frequently seen in the vicinity of tile Prince's Club, of which boil' he and Mr. Maclean were members. In the afternoon he called at the club and asked the. porter whether Mr Maclean was in the building. An answer was given him in the negative, and he went away without further remark. HO is said, however—although this is a recolketion after the tragical events which followed—to have then exhibited some excitement of manner. Mr. Maclean shortly afterwards arrived, and in course of time went upstairs to a corresponce room adjoining the billiard room on the second storey. Here, as we believe was his custom, Mr. Maclean was engaged in writing his private letters, when Mr. Barge again called at the club and repeated his enquiry. On learning that Mr. Maclean was in the correspondence room, Mr. Barge went upstairs, and was followed by the porter, who opened the door for him, saw him accost Mr. Maclean and shake hands with him, Mr. Maclean apparantly returning to his writing table as the door was closed upon both gentlemen. There were no others in the rootn,and, indeed, only one other member in the club. He singularly enough as it now seems, was the brother of Mr. Barge, who had entered almost at his brother's heels, though not, so far as it has been ascertained, conscious of this fact. Mr. Frederick Barge had gone into the lavatory; and he and the porter, who had just reached the foot of the stairs again, were suddenly startled by the noise of three pistol shots heard in rapid succession. The correspondence room was, of course, the immediate resort of both men. Prepared, however, as they must have been for 801113 unfortunate consequence of a rash use of firearms, they could not but be totally unnerved at the fearful sight that awaited them. Mr. Barge, who first saw the scene, without fully comprehending its meaning, excitedly shouted, "Good God, my brother is shot I" Further investigation revealed that he had been shot by his own hand after inflicting a similar injury on Mr. Maclean, and that both lives were unhappily , beyond recall. The detective police office a lmost adjoins the club'; and the alarms at once. raised Inspectors Thompson, Clayton, anti Shandley rapidly to the spot. Under their direction medical aid was sent for; and meantime the Deputy Chief Constable, who is himself, a member of the club, arrived to make what must in these circumstances have been a plinful investigation. The deceased men were found lying, Mr. Maclean between the chair in which he had been sitting and the window of the small room, and Mr. Barge beside the door. Mr. Maclean had received a bullet behind the left ear, which had penetrated the brain and found an exit at the jaw. From this it is presumed that as he was resuming his seat on the chair aim had been deliberately taken at him. The 830ond shot fired, was also probably intended for him, but had missed his falling body ; and the third, without doubt was the means of Mr. Bares selfdestruction. Mr. Barg-e, who was a tall, dark young man of about 30, with moustachios, and of a •diguified bearing, was shot throng!' the head. The weapon had bee I iteld to the heal above the rightear, and the ball had lodged in the left temple. He held a six barrel revolver in his hand and three of the barrels were empty. Mr. Maclean lived probably less than five minutes after the discnvery. Air. Barge's slow death was, however, extremely pa nful to witness, although during the ten minutes by which he survived his victim, and probably 41— the fataishot" was fired, he was uot sensible. When Mr. Birch, the house surgeon at the Infirmary, arrived, both gentlemen were dead.  The coroner's inquiry into the circumstances. of the murder and suicide which took place in the Prince's Club House was opened at two o'clock on Wednesday afternoon, before Mr. Herford, the city coroner, and a select jury composed almost entirely of merchants.  The witnesses having been examined, the jury after an absence of a few minutes, came into court with the following verdict :- The Coroner said: On view of the bodies the jury at once agreed upon their verdict, which I will naw read to you: " With regard to the death of Alexander Maclean, we find that Herbert Thomas Barge, cf Broughton, feloniously, wilfully, and ,of his malice aforethought did kill and murder the said Alexander Maclean, being at the time, in the opinion of the jury, of unsound mind. Also that Herbert Thomas Barge shot himself with a certain revolver which he held in his right hand, thereby giving himself a mortal wound in the head, of which he then and there died, and that he so corn mittted suicide while in an unsound state of mind.', • The Coroner asked if the jury had any suggestion to make. The Foreman (Mr. Bannerman) said that most of the jnry—he had not heard the opinion of them all— wished to remark on the great impropriety of the corn. meats which had appeared in one or the morning papers in reference to the motives of the deceased man.  Mr. Addison: There was no ground for (molt iropu, tations.