THE BRAVO CASE.
MHAT there has been a failure of justice in the result of the
inquiry into Mr. Bravo's death no one is as yet prepared to affirm, but that there has been a failure of effort to do justice, is unhappily too clear. Coroner, witnesses, all concerned, even the doctors, appear to have done and said as little as could pos- sibly be managed. In ordinary cakes of the kind, no judicious - person would attach much importance to rumours invented, per- haps by malice, and made important by journalists' desire for something sensational to write about ; but in this instance the materials for forming a judgment are not rumours, but things much more trustworthy. They are the notes of a regular inquest, sup- plied to the Press by the Coroner himself, who knows that he is on his defence before public opinion ; and supplemented by the notes of another person—presumably either the foreman of the jury, or a witness with a legal turn of mind, or some special habit of carefully recording evidence—and vouched for by the Daily Telegraph as deserving of all confidence. The two sets of notes are sufficiently similar for both to be accurate, and taken together, with a statement from Dr. Johnson, they certainly indicate a discredit- able laxity in the conduct of the inquiry. Mr. Carter, the Coroner for Surrey, found, on entering the house at Balham, and com- mencing the inquiry, the following facts :—Mr. Charles Delaney Turner Bravo, a young and healthy barrister of thirty, who was very well thought of in his profession, and who, four months before, had married the wealthy widow of a Captain Ricardo, had died suddenly on Friday, April 21, from a dose of antimony, swallowed on Tuesday, the 18th of the same month. There was no shadow of doubt as to the cause of death. The doctors who attended him, among whom was Sir William Gull, believed him to be dying from the effects of some irritant poison ; after his death the evacuations, and vomit, and entrails were examined by Dr. T. Redwood, pro- fessor of chemistry to the Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain —that is, by one of the most competent men in the country— and antimony was discovered sufficient to have killed ten persons. There was not, therefore, at the inquest, nor is there now, the slightest dispute as to the cause of death, and the whole inquiry was narrowed down to the single question how Mr. Bravo, a healthy, wealthy, and apparently happy young man, who on Tues- day morning talked to a friend, Mr. McCalmont, as easily as if he had nothing on his mind, and invited him to spend the following day with him, came on that very Tuesday to swallow a deadly dose of one of the most excruciatingly painful of poisonous drugs. This clearly was the object of the investigation, and this was the point least carefully investigated of all. The circumstances of the household were in this wise. Mr. Bravo, after his marriage, removed to the house of his wife, a large establishment in Balham, with several servants. In this house lived with him, first, his wife, Mrs. Bravo—a daughter, it is said, of a planter named Campbell, and formerly wife of a wealthy military officer named Ricardo —a companion of hers, Mrs. Jane Cannon Cox, a widow, who had lived with Mrs. Bravo for four years ; and the usual servants, including a butler, who was accustomed to decant for his master the burgundy which he habitually, and it would seem, exclusively, drank. On Tuesday, the 18th, Mr. Bravo had been out for a ride, and came in saying a new horse which he had been riding had "pulled" very much and tired him, but sat down to dinner apparently in full health. The dinner consisted of soup and fish, of which he did not eat, a leg of lamb, of which he ate, some egg on spinach, of which he did not eat, and the burgundy, of which he alone drank three glasses. This burgundy had been decanted for lunch, in readiness for him, and remained on the sideboard till dinner. After dinner, Mr. Bravo and the ladies all retired to their rooms, Mr. Bravo having slept for a few days apart from his wife, who was ill, and at 9.30 he appeared at his room door, calling to his wife very urgently, "Florence, Florence. Hot water, hot water !" It does not appear that Mrs. Bravo went to him, and as she was not called on the inquest, her action throughout the subsequent proceedings is uncertain ; but Mrs. Cox went to him, and found him standing in his night-dress by the window, and "looking very ill. He said, as soon as I went to him, he had taken poison. I saw two bottles on the chimney-shelf, both labelled,—one a blue bottle, labelled Chloroform, poison ;' there was a small quantity of a whitish fluid in it; it had a cork stopper ; the other bottle, white, labelled 'Laudanum;' there was a small quantity of a brown fluid in it. I had seen these bottles before. He used these ingredients for neuralgia, rubbing his gums therewith. I asked him how he came to do so, but he made no reply. Dr. Harrison was sent for, who came. Before he arrived, Dr. Moore had come. I did tell Dr. Harrison what deceased had said." We extract this statement from the Coroner's notes, and it is confirmed by the notes of the independent reporter, who, however, says that Mr. Bravo, according to Mrs. Cox, added, "Don't tell Florence," and also, "He asked me afterwards why I had told." Doctors were then summoned, a Dr. Moore and Mr. G. Harrison, who at first thought Mr. Bravo ill of some disease of the heart or rupture of a blood-vessel, and treated him for syncope. They remained all night, and next day other doctors were sent for,—Dr. Johnson, Mr. Royes Bell, a surgeon, and cousin of the deceased, and Sir William Gull. Mrs. Cox in her evidence says she told Mr. Harrison of Mr. Bravo's statement about the poison, but in the Coroner's notes Mr. Harrison appears not to have confirmed this statement; while from the notes of the independent reporter it appears that Mr. Harrison was recalled, but denied that Mrs. Cox had told him of deceased's confession. She had said to him "she was sure Mr. Bravo had taken chloroform." Moreover, Mr. Harrison says distinctly he treated Mr. Bravo for syncope, which he would not have done if he had suspected poison. Dr. Johnson appears to have questioned Mr. Bravo during his momentary recovery on Wednes- day very closely, as did also Mr. Bell and Sir William Gull, but to the first two gentlemen, he denied absolutely that he had taken any- thing but a little laudanum for his neuralgia, and this although he was aware and had said to the housemaid that he was dying. He gave no explanation either, to his step-father, who was called as a witness, and whose wife's lady's-maid, Mrs. Bushell, appears to have acted as nurse from Wednesday to Friday, and testifies strongly that he gave in her hearing no explanation of his con- dition. He died on Friday, still silent, having previously executed a will, in which it is stated he bequeaths all his property to his wife.
The story, as it unrolled itself before the Coroner, was enough to excite the strongest suspicion in the mind of any one accus- tomed to legal investigation. Here was a young man just married, apparently in possession of everything which could make life happy, dying of a heavy dose of a painful poison, waited upon by his wife's companion and his mother's lady's-maid, and for all that appears upon the evidence, nobody else except the doctors, and declaring, according to the companion, that he had taken poison, which all-important fact was never mentioned to the
doctors first summoned. At least, they say so, though Mrs. Cox affirms that she mentioned it to Mr. Harrison, and the matter was mentioned hours afterwards to Mr. Bell and Dr. Johnson. Surely the very first point to which a competent Coroner would have directed his attention would have been this discre- pancy in the evidence, and then, as the medical statements be- came clear, to the food taken by the deceased man, and especially the burgundy in which it was so probable the poison had been swallowed. It could not have been taken before dinner, or it would have operated sooner ; it could not have been taken after Mr. Bravo had retired, or he would not have called at once for help,—though Dr. Moore questions this, and thinks it was swallowed in some brandy and seltzer ; and it could not have been taken in the lamb, or it would have killed all who ate it. It was probably taken in the burgundy, if taken at all, at dinner, yet the butler who decanted the wine was never called, no inquiries were made as to what had become of the remainder of the bottle, and no evidence was sought as to who had entered the dining-room between lunch and dinner. The wine had stood all that time upon the sideboard de- canted, and if the poison was taken in that, it must have been put in between the two meals. Mrs. Bravo was not called on for possible evidence as to any motive to commit suicide, a point most important to the verdict, and usually carefully investigated, in order to find reason for avoiding the verdict of felo de se,—which, if Mr. Bravo really poisoned himself, ought unquestionably to have been returned. He certainly was not out of his mind, as Mrs. Cox, when asked, at once admitted, although her theory was one of suicide. No adjournment was proposed in order to communicate with the police, and ask if Mr. Bravo or any one else had purchased antimony recently ; and rich as the deceased man was, no reward was offered for the discovery of the chemist or doctor who sold the antimony, till the public attention had been drawn by the Telegraph to the case. The investigation was conducted, in fact, as laxly as possible, and as if Coroners were appointed in order that the feelings of respectable people, wounded by an unexplained death, were to be spared, first of all. It is stated that but for the obstinacy of the jury, who did not see why a healthy young man should kill himself, or why, if he had killed himself, and said so, the doctors should not have been told at once of the facts, a verdict of suicide would have been recorded, instead of the " open " verdict which allows all proceedings to be recom- menced; and but for the suspiciousness of some legal friends, and the desire of the journals for a topic, the case would have been forgotten. As it is, it will be reopened by the Police, and if the Queen's Bench will give the order, by a new inquest, now abso- lutely essential, if only to protect people who may be totally innocent from the horrible injustice of suspicion. The new enquiry, we may rely on it, will be searching ; but whatever its result, the necessity for it will deepen the growing impression that the barbar- ous method now pursued of electing Coroners ought to be abolished. It affords no guarantee whatever for the competence of the officer, who may be a lawyer, or a doctor, or an auctioneer, or anybody else ; it is opposed to every constitutional principle respected in the country ; and it does not produce the kind of officer who, in an age of universal publicity, is able to secure public confidence. The power of election—an election often marked by dis- creditable incidents—ought to be abolished, and the right of selecting Coroners transferred, either to the Lord Chancellor, or as we should prefer, to the Home Secretary, who has always so much experience in the selection of Inspectors for other purposes, and who has always to answer to opinion for any defect in the proceedings of Courts of Justice.
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