INQUEST UPON MR. SADLEIR.

Lyttelton Times, Volume VI, Issue 396, 23 August 1856, Page 4

INQUEST UPON MR. SADLEIR.

VEHDICT. .('.-■.- ""The opinion of the jury is, that Jolni Sadleir died by his o.vn hand when in a perfectly sane mind. That is the unanimous opinion of the jury.' I —The Coron :r : That amounts to a verdict of self-murder.—The Foreman : Yes, it does.—The Coroner: My own-conviction is, that after the most mature deliberation, and ths most patient investigation, you could not have come to any oilier conclusion." Upon the case the Times remarks—-"It is a sutprising fact that it should be in the power of any man to swindle his fellow-subjects to the amount of a million sterling, and yet this sura will probably f"ll short of the reality when the full extent of John Sadleir's frauds has been ascertained. What with'the Tipperarv Bank— what with the forgeries of private acceptances —what with the frauds arising from the forgery of title-deeds—lreland alone will stand as sufferer for the larger portion of the sum. The railway and bank accounts'in London will complete the tale. There is no instance in history, as far as our recollection extends, which can serve as a parallel to this gigantic fraud, for in ■the case of Law, the Scotch adventurer represented rather the Regent and the Government of France than himself. The present periotl, for the majonly of Englishmen, is one of ecojiomy, not of speculation. In the midst of all our caution, however, of all our thrift, of all our circumspection, a knave slips unawares into the -camp, and swindles his fellow-subjects out of the enormous sum of '£l',000;OJO sterling. .The history of John Sadleir—let us rather say John and James Sadleir—is curious enough when contrasted with their performances. They are not in the position o'" gamblers who have thrown a heavy stake upon the table and lost it Their father is at present living-, a small tenantfarmer in the south of Ireland. From such an origin—respectable enough, no doubt—John Sadleir started in life, and contrived to swallow up a million o.f money before he put.in end to his existence on Hampstead-healh. -The career of John Sadleir after his departure from the farm is now notorious enough. Provincial attorney, and then attorney in Dublin, political intriguer, Parliamentary agent, member of Parliament, Lord of.the Treasury, railway chairman, and bank director—such were the steps of his career, until he concluded it as speculator, swindler, and suicide. " This hideous history may not, we earnestly trust, prove without effect. It is impossible to be mixed up with society in London—and the provincial capitals, it appears, are not behind us in this respect, without becoming painfully aware of the range of illegitimate speculation. The men who engage-in this.unfortunate career never seem to consider that they are playing against loaded dice. One succeeds in the desperate game, and a thousand perish—the success of the one is magnified, and pioclaid-%1 with admiration from mouth to mouth; the ruin of the thousand passes without notice and without comment. The art of converting airy nothings into solid coin is far too much in vogue for public security or public happiness. This is an error beyond the reach of legislation. Under any system of laws which grants to commerce that freedom without which commerce cannot subsist, the unfair speculator will have his opportunities, and will abuse them. On persons who are inclined to enter upon such a path remonstrance would be thrown away—we can simply point to the grave of John Sadleir, ami say, ' Take warning !' It may well be thai to few persons will be granted the opportunity of perpetrating frauds upon so gigantic a scale. Thus, from want of occasion, rather than of will, they may avoid the full 'measure of his despair and the full horror of his fate. Let them, however, he well assured that, without the dismal success of John Sadbir, aud without the agony of his

closing life, the Demon of Speculation has secondary punishments In store for its victims, sharp enough to deter any but madmen from venturing their good name and happiness in such a career."