A duel with fatal result took place at Camden Town
on Saturday morning. Two carriages, a brougham and a phaeton, were observed at a quarter to five o'clock, by Policeman Jones, S. 130, passing by the Camden Villas towards the Brecknock Arms Tavern : at the toll-gate tkey stopped ; and the toll-keeper, Edward Davis, saw five gentlemen alight, and go by diffrent directions, in parties of two and three, into the adjoining fields. In about ten minutes, two gentlemen returned, and entering the phaeton, drove off quickly towards the Regent's Park. Davis did not hear any shot, or did not pay attention to it, as shots are often heard in that neighbourhood early in the morning ; the Brecknock Arms has a rifle-ground attached to it. But he told the Policeman who had come up, that he thought a duel had been fought; and the two went to the ground. Here they found three gentlemen, one lying on the ground, and two standing over him : the wounded man wasLieutenant Colonel David Lynar Fawcett, of the Fifty-fifth Regiment, and of 188 Sloane Street ; one of the others was Mr. George Gulliver, Surgeon in the Royal Horse Guards (Blue); and the third, a slender gentleman, not of military aspect, is understood to have been Colonel Fawcett's second, but his name did not transpire. He went, by the Colonel's desire, with the brougham, to fetch Mrs. Fawcett. Jones asked what was the matter ? and the Colonel answered, " What is that to you—it is an accident." The Policeman procured a board, and the wounded man was carried to the Brecknock Arms; but the waiter, whose master was ill in the country and mistress in bed, refused to admit them. They succeeded in obtaining admittance at the Camden Arms in Randolph Street. Mr. Sandys, a surgeon at Kentish Town, was immediately summoned ; and the Colonel's friend sent Mr. Liston and Sir Benjamin Brodie. It was ascertained that the ball had penetrated the right side, and entered the cavity of the chest ; and the sufferer was put under the proper treatment, though with slender hopes of his recovery. On the arrival of Mrs. Fawcett, her husband confessed that his antagonist was his brother-in-law, Lieutenant Alexander Thompson Munro, of the Royal Horse Guards (Blue), now at Knightsbridge. The two gentlemen had some dispute about family property, at Colonel Fawcett's, on Friday night ; Mr. Munro said something offensive; the Colonel rang the bell and ordered Mr. Munro's carriage ; and afterreturning to the Regent's Park Barracks, where he was then staying,. the Lieutenant sent a challenge by Lieutenant Grant. According to another account, which has been contradicted, some insult to Mrs. Fawcett was the reason why Mr. Munro was dismissed from the house. The Colonel lingered till six o'clock on Monday morning, when he died.
An inquest was opened at the Camden Arms Tavern, on Monday evening, before Mr. Wakley and a Jury of fourteen ; who chose Mr. Cumberland for their foreman. Several Coroners were in town to watch a bill in Parliament, and no fewer than fourteen were present at the inquest, besides several military officers and friends of the deceased. The evidence detailed the facts narrated above. The medical witnesses were Mr. Sandys and Mr. Liston, who had assisted at a post mortem examination of the body. The wound, they said, was about a quarter of an inch in diameter: the ball had entered the integuments covering the seventh rib, fractured the rib, passed through the back of the right lung, carrying with it several small pieces of the fractured rib, lodging its
The ninth dorsal vertebra of the spine, and fracturing a portion of the bone, which was broken away, though not displaced. The ball was surrounded by a quantity of woollen cloth. The immediate cause of death was an effusion of blood from the lung into the right cavity of the chest. Even had it been possible during life to ascertain the course of the bullet, death would have been inevitable. The further inquiry was adjourned to Thursday ; when some fresh evidence was produced. Mr. Isidore Blake, Assistant-Surgeon in the Eighth Hussars and half-brother of the deceased, identified the body. He received information of the duel at Newcastle, on Sunday, in a letter from Mrs. Fawcett. He produced this letter with very great reluctance. It only stated, with expressions of grief, that "Fawcett has had a duel with Munro, and is shot through the body." Charles Longman, private in Mr. Munro's regiment and coaahman to that gentleman, said that his master called him at the Regent's Park Barrack's at four o'clock on Saturday morning, and told him to get the phaeton ready directly : he was up at the time, as the regiment was about to march to Kensington. Mr. Munro got into the carriage, with Mr. Gulliver, and told him to drive to the Brecknock Arms. When they arrived, two more carriages came up, (a close one and a cab,) and three gentlemen got out. While they were away, he heard the report of fire-arms—a very " large " report, but he could not say whether of one or two pieces. In about half an hour two gentlemen returned ; Mr. Munro, and a tall thin gentleman whom he did not know. They got into the carriages, and his master told him to drive to the Barracks. The next witness was John Holland, a coachman employed by Mr. Cate of the New Road, of whom the brougham was hired. He said that Colonel Fawcett came to the yard on Friday night, and ordered the brougham to be at his house at four in the morning. When the brougham arrived at Sloane Street, the Colonel got in alone ; they took up a tall young man, fair, with no moustachios, at a house in the Haymarket, and then drove to Great Portland Street ; where the young man went into a house. A street cab also drove up ; a gentleman, tall and fair, with sandy moustachios, alighted, with a card in his hand, and went into the house. The two gentlemen came out ; the young man resumed his seat in the brougham ; and the other told Holland to follow his cab to the Brecknock Arms. There they all three alighted, and went into the fields, with two other gentlemen. While he was waiting, he saw the Colonel where he stood in the grass, but not the others. He heard a report, and the Colonel fell. John Belford and James Coop, labourers in the employ of Mr. Rhodes the dairyman, said that they heard three shots ; two, said Coop, who was once in the Army, "as quick as thought," and a third after an interval about half as long as the time sufficient to reload a pistol. Mr. Wakley abstained from examining Mr. Gulliver, as he might criminate himself; but he desired PoliceInspector Aggs to consider that gentleman in his custody ; and the inquest was adjourned to Thursday next.
Mr. Gulliver was brought up at Marlborough Street on Saturday and • Wednesday ; being charged on the second day with complicity in "murder." The evidence taken was the same as that given before the Coroner's inquest. On Saturday, the prisoner was released on bail ; and at the close of the inquiry, which was adjourned for a week, on Wednesday, he was again held to bail, under increased penalties—himself for 1,0001. and four others for 250/. each—namely, Colonel Richardson, Captain Oliver, the Earl of March, and Sir Watkin Williams Wynn. Mr. Bodkin applied to Mr. Justice Coleridge yesterday for a writ of habeas corpus to discharge Mr. Gulliver from custody so far as the Coroner's detention extended, as a Coroner has no power to commit to custody until after the verdict is given ; and for a writ of certiorari to show on what grounds Mr. Gulliver was committed to custody by the Coroner and held to bail by the Police;Magistrates. The writs were _granted.
A correspondent of the Morning Chronicle gives some of the gossip -about the two antagonists
" Colonel Fawcett was stationed in India for some years past with his regiment; and on being ordered to China, about two years since, Mrs. Fawcett returned to England with her two children, one of which is only recently dead. After serving through the principal events of the late war in China, Colonel Fawcett, whose health had become seriously affected by an attack of the yellow fever, obtained leave of absence to visit his native country, and arrived in England, in company with Major Daubeney, of the Fifty-fifth Regiment, on the 18th of last month; taking up his residence in private lodgings, at 188 Sloane Street.
"Nineteen years since, Lieutenant Munro, a young Scotchman, entered the Royal Horse Guards (Blue) as a private soldier. A very short time elapsed before his superior attainments were observed by his commanding officers, and he was soon raised to the rank of corporal-depute. The various grades of a full corporal and a corporal-major were successfully passed through by Mr. Munro, until, in 1829, he was appointed Adjutant and Sub-Lieutenant of the regiment. Subsequently to this date, the event occurred which brought into family connexion the unfortunate deceased and Lieutenant Munro, by the marriage of the latter with a sister of Mrs. Fawcett. Lieutenant Munro is one of the finest men in her Majesty's service, and is universally beloved by all the officers and soldiers of his regiment."
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