The Express. — 1850-05-16 (London, England)

THE SUICIDE FROM THE DUKE OF YORK'S COLCMN. Yesterday afternoon Mr. Bedford, the coroner fcr Westmin• suer, held an inquest at St. Margaret's workhouse, on the body of M. Henri J,,seph Stephan, aged 38, who destroyed himself by leaping from the gallery of the Duke of York's column. The jury having been sworn, proceeded to view the body, which was that of • fine and well grown man. No traces of injury presented themselves beyond a slight contusion on the forehead, and a psrtia destructim of the arm, although almost every bone in the body was broken. (The ii,serepancy between this account of the rate of the body and that which appeared in the Express on the day on which the occurrence to k piece, ie the result, doubtless, of the reporter having then bad hut a hasty glsnce at the body prior to its removal to the hospital.) On the return of the jury, the following evidence was seduced: William Pleb, 01 Kennington, stated that he was hall keeper of her Majesty's Theatre. He knew the deceived, whose name wee Henri Joseph Stephan. lie was employed ea horn player in the theatre. Withers saw him there on Monday, when he appeared dull. He had of late appeared more dull than he did last year. Witness bad no con Lion with him on Monthly. M. Emile Petit, of Gerarthstreet, S said he was balletmuter at her Majesty's Theatre. Deceased W..b hi. brotherin-law, and resided with him. He had been in an unsettled state for &time a week Noe hating become gloomy and satred in his appearance. He expressed • wish to leave his peofessioo, but did not appear in full possession of his mental tacu.ties when he said so. There was no reason for his deur-lying himself, as ter as *lineal knew He was not in nad circumstances, and WAS SUbICCS to no diseare.—William Smith, 01 9, Cleary street, Vincent-square. deposed that he was the keeper of the York Column. He saw eseemeth on Tuesday moraine, about • quarter past 10 o'clock. He looked at the tweed over the monument gate and asked what was the charge for admission. Witness told him it was 6d., whereupon the deceased went up. The remainder of the witness's testimony WAS confirmatory of the account given in our paper of Tuesday. Henry Hutton, of Mortimer-street, Cavendish-square, stated that on Tuesday morning, about haltpast 10 o'clock, he was proceeding stone Waterloo-place, and happened to to k up to the Duke of York's Column. lie saw a man in the gallery put his leg over the ratting and push himself f reward into the air. He turned over two or three times in the descent, struck terminal the base of the column, and fell on the pavemoot on his face, with his arm doubled under him. Several persons were near the column at the time. Want et fetched assistance, and ran to the spot. Robert Ilutehinion was passing under the column when tee deceased threw himself over. He corroborated the lest witners's testimony. The jury returned a verdict of "Temporary insanity," and recommended that there should be some railing round the top of the column, to prevent such occurrences in future. The Coroner inquired whether many persons had been permitted to amend the column since the fatal cceorrerce ? Smith, the officer, replied that no one had been admitted on Tuesday after M. Stephan leaped from the column, but largo numbers had visited the I lace that day ( Wednesday). In reply to a question from • juryman, Smith said a railing would prevent persons tbrawtng them,elve. over, and would not interfere with a view of the surrounding scenery. The proceedings then terminated. THE SEIZURE OF FOREIGN WATCHES AT SOUTHiirrrow.—As the case of commercial fraud committed by some foreigner in attempting to export fur. ign-maae watches as British, reported in the; apress a few days since, has excited considerable attention, and as the circumstances attending the seizure of the watches at Southampton have not been explained, the following particulars will p owe of interest : Just prior to the sailing of the Royal West India Mail packet Dee, on the 17th ult., • ewe of watches was entered by Mr. Lefevre, the French Consul and one of the principal shipping agents at Southampton, for exportation by the packet to Chartres. The export documents stated that the watches (20 in numb-r) were of British manufacture. On being exunined, however, by the Custom-house officers it was found that the whole of them were of German make, that a portion of them were apparently stamped with the Gildsmiths'-hall names of two eminent English chronometer makers—viz., French, of London, and Roskell, of Liverpool. The other portion had no maker's name upon them. Now, as the law requires that all clocks and watches of metal of foreign manufacture imported into the United Kingdom must have the name of some forego maker upon the lice and on the frame, and also prohibits the importation of any watch or clock of foreign make having any mark or name purporting to be that of an English manufacturer, it was evident that the watches had been smuggled into this country, and they were seized and sent to the London customs, in order that the parties implicated in the fraud might be exposed and punished. There was • case of jewellery entered for exportation by the same packet, and which acne from the same foreign house as the watches. Now it is known from the documents which accompanied the jewellery when and by what ship it was imported into London from Hamburg, and the police are endeavouring to discover by what means the watches came into this country. It often happens that there is not time to examine minutely every thing that is entered for exportation, and the customs authorities are occasionally satisfied with a guarantee from some known and respectable party that goods are what they pur-1 port to he. There does not appear the slightest round for believing that Mr. Lefevre was aware that any (mod had been committed, or was attempted. In teM there is not much doubt but what he was selected as an agent bemuse his respectability would disarm suspicion, and would cause ' minute examination to appear unnecessary. Previ.us to the passing of the law above alluded to respecting the importation of foreign manufactures into this country the most extensive fonds need to be committed in the exportation from England of foreign made cutlery, atockinge, cloths, cloche, watches, and a variety of other articles, as British manufactures, to the most serious Wary of the manufacturers of this country and their foreign customers.