The Warwickshire Herald. — 1885-09-17 (Birmingham, West Midlands, England)

INQUIRY IN LUNACY.  An important inquity has been held at the Royal Courts of Justice, before Alaster Nicholson and a special jury, in putsuance of an order made by Mr. Justice Fry, into the state of mind of Edward Blackburn, of the Bath Hotel,Piccadilly, and Kingsclere,in Hampshire. It appeared that Mr. Blackburn, the subject of the inquiry, was a deaf mute, born in 1832, his father (lying in 1837. He had always manifested some feebleness of mind, and up to the age of maturity was undiT the care of his mother, who sent him to undergo a C of instruction at the Deaf and Dumb Asylum at Rugby. On coming of age he inh'ritd some 1:200,000, and subsequently resided at li:ingsclere, in Hampshire, up to June of the present year, under the control of a Dr. Andrew, and afterwards of a Mr. Hutchinson, who managed all his affairs, pecuniary and otherwise, subject to the direction of an elder brother, Mr. Joshua Blackburn, who, a short time ago, was found insane by inquisition of the court, and is now under control. On the death of Mr. Huthinson a Mr. Blythe, who was Mr. Edward Blackburn's "private " solicitor, with the sanction of the relatives, got a gentle man of the name of Burke to take charge of the lunatic, which he did until June last. In May, however, Mrs. Serutton, a married sister, and her two sons had reason to disapprove of Mr. Burke as the custodian, and gave him notice to quit," but he declined to accept it, and appealed to Mr. Blythe, who took ct.tinsel's opinion on the matter, which was to the effect that Burke should be retained - as the  keeper. In the temporary absence of Burke, however, Edward Blackburn was taken away from Kingsclere, so that Burke had not been able to Mad him, and had lost all control over him. Hence these proceedings, which were taking place at the instance of the Lord Chancellor, to determine Mr. Blackman's state of mind.—Dr. Smiles, of Guildford, stated that he had married a sister of the aleged lunatic, for whom considerable property was purchased at Kingsclere when he came of age. Witness was one of the committee appointed by the court to take charge of him since he had been removed from the custody of Mr. Burke. He had examined him several times, and was quite convinced that he was incapable of looking after his own affairs. Edward had once attempted to commit suicide in a pond at Brockley. Witness, while examining him on one occasion, wrote on a piece of paper, and handed it to him, "Who would you like to be with you now that Joshua is unable ?" to which he wrote in reply "Yes." Another question put was, "Joshua always used to arrange about you?" and to that the reply was "Joshua stay room. Joshua Bath chair."—Dr. Edwin Andrew, who had formerly had charge of Edward Blackburn, gave corroborative evidence.—Dr.Wood deposed that he had examined Mr. Blackburn, and amongst other tests applied he asked him to draw witness a cheque for £lO,OOO, which he readily did filling in the words as " ten pound thousand," and afterwards offering witness his hand to confirm the gift. Blackburn was clearly insane. —Dr. Langdon Down, physician to the London Hospital, said he had examined Mr. Blackburn, and shewed him a sovereign, asking him what coin it was. He wrote down £1 Iv. Id. He was unquestionably incapable of looking after his own affairs.— The learned commis• sioner then wrote several questions to Mr. Blackburn, one being "What is *our income?" to which he replied, "I will read Johnson's Dictionary ;" and another, "Would you give me a cheque for V),000?" to which he replied "Yes."—The jury said they had heard enough, as they were quite convinced of his insanity.