The Sun. — 1832-01-14 (London, England)

PARTICULARS OF THE SUICIDE OF LIEUTCOLONEL BRERETON. The report of this tragical event, as we have already stated, reached Bristol about nine o'clock this morning, and, 113 may be imagined, it created an in describable sensation throughout the city. It took place at Redfield-lodge, Lawrence-hill, an exceedingly neat and pretty cottage, the residence of the unfortunate deceased, and situate about a mile and a , half from Bristol, in the upper Bath-road. Colonel 13rereton, it appears, returned home there last night about eleven o'clock, from Reeve's Hotel, in this city, where he had been stopping during the progress of the Cqurt-martial. He came home in his gig, accompanied by his gardener. There was nothing unusual observed by his domestics in his manner or deportment on that occasion. He retired ro his bedchamber some time after twelve o'clock, but he must j have remained up a considerable time in committing i to writing the reasons which had induced him to perpetrate the fatal deed, for he leftafter him on the table a statement on the subject that occupied nearly half a quire of paper. His pistols had been as usual deposited on the table in his bed-room. He did not undress himself, but merely took off his coat and threw himself on the bed. About a quarter before three o'clock, the housekeeper, hearing the , report of a pistol in Colonel Breretort's bed-room, ; gave the alarm, and the Colonel's footman immediately proceeded thither. He there found his unfortunate master stretched on his bed, and life completely erinct. The ball had entered in the left side, directly in the region of the heart, which it must have penetrated, for instantaneous death was the result. The pistol was lying on the floor, which as well as the bed, was inundated with blood, in consequence of the profuse hemorrhage from the wound. It was observed yesterday that the unfortunate deceased appeared more than usually affected by the evidence which was given towards the conclusion of the courtmartial. In the written statement which he is reported to have left behind him, he is said to have attributed to some particular quarter the immediate cause of his untimely end. He was a widower, and has left two daughters of very tender years to mourn the fate of a good and kind-hearted parent. Colonel Brereton was very respectably connected, and was about fifty-two years of age, thirty-three years of which had been spent in the army. Though never present in any remarkable engagement, he had acquired the reputation of being a trustworthy and meritorious officer. He served at the Cape of Good Hope during the government of Lord Charles Somerset. Appointed to the command of a regi meet on the Caffre frontier (reported as being in a state of insubordination), be was intrusted by the Governor with the command of the whole frontier. The officers of his regiment (the 49th, we believi') presented him, through Sir Henry Torrens, with a sword, valued two hundred guineas. He was eight years Inspecting Field-officer of the Bristol district, where he succeeded Colonel p amen, by exchange. In the disastrous occurrences which led to the investigation into his conduct, the character of the officer suffered from the benevolence of of the man. Deficient in the great military principle of decision, averse to the shedding of blood, and obliged to seek instructions from a magistracy anxious to shift  the burden of responsibility for severe measures from their collective shoulders, he neither discerned with the requisite precision, nor acted with the promptitude which the exigency of the occasion demanded. The censure of thoge who were most bitter in their condemnation of him when living, extends no further, now that he has made his fearful and rash appeal from a tribunal of his fellowcreatures to the judgment-seat of God. In his private relations, his conduct was un impeachable. He was distinguished by invariable kind-heartedness to ail ; and when his death was made known in the neighbourhood of his dwelling, a crowd of women and children, many of whom wept him as a benefactor, gathered to his threshold to mourn his loss. His liberality was the more estimable, as, with respect to fortune, he possessed hut a small private independence.