The Sun. — 1824-05-01 (London, England)

XIV. it was asked at Paris," what do they say of such or such things at Court ?" Under Louis XV. it was asked at Court, " what do they say at Paris ?" Then commenced the social change which has now reached its utmost development. The system of public loans has not only given, according to the Abbe, a social, but a political supremacy also to the Democracy.— " I ask," he says, " whether, without the pecuniary assent of a dozen houses exercising a dictatorship in credit, it would not be easier to break an armed coalition, than a league between twelve of the leading European banking-houses?"  INQUEST on REUBEN FLETCHER, ESQ•  Last night an Inquest was held at the Castle Inn, Brockley, near Lewisham, before JOSEPH CARTTAR, Esq. Coroner for Kent, on the body of Reuben Fletcher, Esq. of Camberwell, who for many years filled an important situation in his Majesty's Mint. The Jury being sworn, took a view of the body of the deceased, and after returning to the Jury Room, the Coroner addressed them :--He stated, that their inquiry upon the present occasion was, first, how the deceased came to his death, and it would, he understood, be very satiSfactorily proved, that he was the author of his own death ; in the second place, they would have to decide upon the state of the mind of the deceased at the time the melancholy event took ' place....._He (the Coroner) had frequently given it as his opinion, that suicide indicated insanity in the person who committed the act without any apparent motive ; but in this case he believed that evidence would be adduced, clearly showing the disordered condition of the mind of the deceased. Mr. W. Forbes, a surgeon, of Camberwell, stated that he had been acquainted with the deceased upwards of twelve years ; for the last twelve months he had attended him professionally, his disorder was the stone in the prostrate glands, which is much more painful than the common disease of stone and gravel ; the anguish occasioned by the former being constant, and the latter intermitting. Such a continued state of bodily suffering as the deceased endured was very likely to occasion great irritation of mind ; and he had observed that the deceased, when speaking of his disorder, had entertained the most incorrect and absurd notions on the subject; for instance, he at times would fancy the stone in his brain, and at other times in his heart and stomach. Witness's observations had led him to suspect some disorganization existed in the mental faculties of the deceased. On Monday witness saw the deceased at his house at Camberwell, about 11 o'clock in the day, and on the same morning lie saw him again in Camberwell Grove; but on those occasions he observed nothing particular in his conduct. On Tuesday morning, witness called between 12 and 1 o'clock at the deceased's residence, and saw Miss Fletcher, who said, that her father left home at 10 o'clock, and expressed great uneasiness lest something should happen to bins of a calamitous nature. About half-past four o'clock the same afternoon, witness received a letter from a person named Colly, stating, that a gentleman had been taken out of the canal, near Brockley, on whose person a note was found, addressed to witness ;_he therefore took a chaise and went to identify the body of his friend. On arriving at the place where the bode was lying, the letter was handed to witness (which he produced), and he found it was in the hand-writing of the deceased. It was addressed—" Mr. Win. Forbes, Camberwell-green," and was underwritten--" Reward for carrying this is in my hat," and the contents of the letter were— " Adieu, my dear Forbes ; I cannot bear with my feelings any longer. Your's, The Jury examined the letter, which appeared to be written in a pretty firm hand. Thomas Scales, a resident at Camberwell, stated, that on Tuesday last he was walking along- the bank of the Surrey Canal, for the purpose of getting work b' unloading some of the barges, and saw a cane lying on the side of the river, and a little farther on lie observed the body of the deceased in the water. A snan named Hawkins came up to him and assisted him in getting the body out. The deceased had no hat on ; but witness observed a hat floating on the surface of the water some distance from him, and near to it a letter was lying upon the water ; the letter was the one produced by the above witness. The body appeared to have been but a short time in the water. There was no money in the hat. Coroner.—ls it not very probable that the deceased placed the hat with money in it on the side of the canal, and the wind blew it in ?_Witness continued—He thought it was very probable. In the pockets of the deceased were found a purse, containing a sovereign and some silver, and in his fob pocket a gold watch, Sec., which had stopped at five minutes past one o'clock, the time, in all probability, when the deceased threw himself into the water. Mr. Steel and a Mr. Hawkins who were in the company of the last witness when the body was found, confirmed his evidence. The Coroner said, that there could be no doubt of the deceased having occasioned his own death by drowning himself, and after the evidence of the Surgeon who attended him, little doubt could be entertained of his being affected in his mind at the time. The Jury coincided with the Coroner, and returned a verdict,—"'That he drowned himself, being insane at the time." The body was placed in a hearse, and was conveyed in it last night to the house of the deceased, at Camberwell, followed by the deceased's private carriage.  An Inquest was held before THOMAS Gi:LL, -Esq. Coroner for Westminster, -at the Feathers public-house, Deanstreet, Westminster, on view of the body of Mr. C. Schmitz, a Bavarian. The body was found in the Thames. No explanation of the cause or manner of the death of the deceased was elicited. On his person was found a card with the following address :—" C. Schmitz, Commissary Inspector of Mines and Manufactures of Porcelain to his august Majesty the King of Bavaria, Member of the Royal Accademy of Sciences at Munich ; Correspondent of the Society of Philomatique and Na-, tural History at Paris, No. G, Norfolk-street, Strand." The Jury returned a verdict of—" Found drowned."