A commission of lunacy was held before Dr. Phillimore on
Wednes- day, at the Cadogan Hotel, Sloane Street, to inquire into the state of mind of Mr. Robert Henry Pearce, late of Blacklands House, Chelsea. Mr. Samuel Charles Whitbread, a friend of Mr. Pearce, gave proof of his aberration of intellect—
Be had been acquainted with Mr. Pearce for a number of years : in 1836 he observed that there was an alteration in his conduct—one day he would join in the sports of the field and mix with society, and the next ho would shut him- self up and refuse to sec anybody. The first thing he more particularly ob- served was about January 1837, when Mr. Pearce lighted a fire in the front of his house, in the garden. From that period it became necessary, for his own safety, that he should be watched ; and when he could be induced to spend his evenings with witness, he would frequently complain of seeing two kites flying ia the air with lanterns attached to them. He accused Mr. Whitbread and others of robbing him, and fancied that he was conversing with persons when be was alone and talking to himself.
Dr. Sutherland gave similar evidence ; and the Jury returned a verdict that Mr. Pearce had been of unsound mind since the 2;th of March 1837.
On Wednesday evening, a Coroner's Jury assembled at the George, Beech Street, Barbican, to inquire into the circumstances of the death of Mrs. Emily Norrington, aged twenty-six, and with of a scalemaker in Fan Street. Mrs. Norrington bad been attended by Dr. Epps, who treated her on the homceopathic system ; and the point on which the inquiry chiefly turned was, whether this treatment was judicious in the case of a person labouring from fever and a pressure on the brain, caused or coexisting with excessive constipation—the bowels having been re- lieved only once during eleven days. The nurses and two surgeons were of opinion that active purging medicine should have been used. One of the surgeons said that the opium pills which Dr. Epps gave, and which were the size of a small pin's head, could do neither harm nor good. Dr. Epps stoutly defended the homeopathic system, to which he had become a convert, and declared that he would have treated his own wife in the same way as the deceased. The Coroner, Mr. Payne, whose animus against the homeopathic Doctor was visible throughout the in- quiry, said, he did not pretend to know any thing of the system of homoeopathy, but from the accounts he had heard he should not recom- mend it : such investigations as that would open the eyes of the public to its pernicious doctrines, and lead to the explosion of the system. Verdict of the Jury—" That the deceased died front an effusion on the lr aim and that her death was accelerated by improper treatment."
On Monday, information from the Secretary of State's Office was dis- tributed throughout the Police districts, offering, on the part of Govern- ment, a reward of 1001. for the discovery of the wretches who, on the night of Monday the 25th ultimo, attempted to set fire to St. Mary's Church, Sheffield, by throwing inflammable balls in at the windows. The above reward is in addition to a reward of RIO/. offered for the same purpose by the Churchwardens, Messrs. Walter Gilbee and John Parkin. It is stated also that the Secretary of State will, in addition to the rewards, recommend the grant of her Majesty's pardon to any one but the actual perpetrator of the outrage, who shall give such informa- tion as may lead to conviction.
On Tuesday, an old bellhanger at St. George's Church, Hanover Square, hung himself in one of the vaults of that church.
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