[68] This was no doubt an hallucination of the senses. On another occasion, when in the House of Commons, Lord Castlereagh fancied he saw the same “Radiant Boy.” Does not this fact establish that his lordship’s senses were not always in a healthy condition? It is possible that when impelled to suicide he laboured under some mental delusion.
[69] Notes to Metzger.
[70] Annales de Hyg. pub. et de Méd. Lég. tom. v. p. 156.
[71] We have availed ourselves of Dr. Taylor’s translation of the particulars of the prince’s death, which are recorded with much minuteness in the “Annales d’Hygiène Publique, et de Médecine Légale.”
[72] Foderé, vol. iii. p. 167; from the Causes Célèbres. See also Grimm’s Historical and Literary Memoirs, (from 1753 to 1769,) vol. ii. pp. 41, 117, and 166.
[73] Travels in Asia, Africa, &c.
[74] To which may be added, anticipation of punishment, or disgrace from misconduct.
[75] Méd. Légale, iv. § 948; and Smith on Med. Jurisprudence.
[76] The committee made no report. Lord Delamere undertook to draw it up, but before he did so, parliament was prorogued. Bishop Burnet, who has given the particulars of the case with great minuteness, says, he had no doubt that the Earl of Essex committed suicide. He was subject to fits of deep melancholy, and maintained the lawfulness of suicide. This is also Hume’s opinion.
[77] This is confirmed by the fact that within the jurisdiction of the metropolitan police, the two districts in which the greatest number of suicides were committed or attempted, in 1836 or 1837, were those of the Regent’s Park and Stepney, through both of which the Regent’s Canal runs. This circumstance tends to shew that drowning is the mode of suicide most frequently resorted to in London, and that a canal offers greater facilities for that purpose than the river.