Mail News.

Thames Star, Volume VII, Issue 2067, 19 August 1875, Page 3

Mail News.

SuiciDE.—An inquest has just been held at Dulwich on the body of Joseph Launceiot Bretherick, aged twenty, of Hatcham, who was found in the Sydenham-road shot through the heart. Mrs Buckingham stated that she heard the report of a pistol, and upon proceeding to the spot with her hxisband, found the deceased lying in the road apparently dead. A police-sergeant came Up at the time, and it was discovered that the deceased had apparently shot himself, as a loaded revolver, one chamber of which had- been discharged, Was lying near him. Mr Thomas Bretherick said that the deceased was his brother, and they were about to proceed to Rio Janeiro to join their father, who was engaged upon some engineering works. Deceased purchased the revolver (produced) to take with him, and it was never thought he would take his own life. There had been some unpleasantness between deceased and his mother in consequence of his attachment to a young lady of whom the mother disapproved, and a fortnight ago the young girl was forbidden to enter his mother's house. Deceased had bitterly complained of this harsh treatment. The following letter, found on the deceased and addressed to his affianced, was read :—" My own darling Emily,—l dare say you little thought when I saw you this evening that it would be for the last time in your, life; but I could not bear to tell you all my unhappiness and how all my dearest hopes had been crushed by mother. Sooner than spend such another twelve months of misery I have determined to quit this world, and trust we may meet in heaven. Keep my watch, dearest, and forgive me. —Your loving Launcelot." The coroner having pointed out the somewhat romantic and very painful features of the case, the jury recorded a verdict of " Suicide whilst of unsound mind."

Statistics of Modern London.—The metropolis of the British Empire, the largest city the world ever saw, covers, within fifteen miles radius of Charingcross, nearly 700 square miles, and numbers within these boundaries 4,000,000 of inhabitants. It comprises 100,000 foreigners from every region of the globe. It contains more Jews than the whole of Palestine, more Eoman Catholics than Rome'itself, more Irish than Dublin, more Scotchmen than. Edinburgh. The port of London has every day on its waters 100 ships and 9000 sailors. Upwards of 120 persons are , added to the population daily, or 40,000 yearly, a birth taking place every five minutes, and a death every eight minutes. On an average, twentyeight miles of streets are opened and 90,000 new houses built every year. In its postal districts there is a yearly delivery of 238 millions of letters. On the police register there are the names of 120,000 habitual criminals, increasing by many thousands every year. More than one-third of all the crime of the country

is committed in London, or at least brought to light there. There are as many beershops and gin palaces as would, if their fronts were placed side by side reach from Charing-eross to Portsmouth, a distance of seventy-three miles, and 38,000 drunkards are annually brought before its magistrates. The shops open on Sundays would form streets sixty miles long. _It is estimated that there are above a million of the people who are practically heathen, wholly neglecting the ordinances of religion. At least 900 additional churches and chapels would be required for tho wants of the people.