TERRIBLE SUICIDE OF A CLERGYMAN.

Patea Mail, Volume IX, Issue 1099, 15 October 1883, Page 2

TERRIBLE SUICIDE OF A CLERGYMAN.

A fearful tragedy was enacted on board the steamer Manitoban, on. her voyage to Quebec. Among the cabin passengers from Glasgow was the Rev Mr Sweet, a Presbyterian clergyman, whose most remarkable conduct can only be accounted for on the theory of temporary insanity. When the* vessel was passing through the Straits of Belle Isle, the unfortunate man was observed to rush on deck with his throat cut, and, before anything could be done to prevent him, he had thrown himself overboard. The alarm was at once given, and the ship was put about with all possible despatch. The Manitoban was running, however, at the time at a rate of 14 knots an hour, and it was therefore nearly half an hour before the body of Mr Sweet could be recovered. Strange to say it floated on the water, and when brought on board there was still life in the body. The unfortunate man seemed to have suffered little or nothing by his half hour’s float upon the surface of the sen, but the gash in the throat was a fearful one and had to he stitched by the medical officer on board in four or five different places. The unfortunate man expired soon after the Manitoban arrived in port. Mr Sweet was forty years of age.