Shot himself through the heart

Mr. Henry Quin, a gentleman well known in the fashionable circles of Dublin, shot himself through the heart with a pistol as he lay in bed. He quitted a party at lady Glandore’s at two this morning, and appeared afterwards in good spirits at the Kildare-street Clubhouse. No reason has been assigned for this fatal act. Mr. Q. was remarkable for his taste for scarce books, of which he possessed a most valuable collection. He was son ofthe late Dr. Quin, and brother of lady Monk; and is a melancholy instance of the fatal effects of that ennui into which an active mind is apt to sink from the want of a solid and rational employment suited to its powers. He inherited from his father an estate of 500l. a year; which, added to a place of 800l. a year in the castle of Dublin, put him in possession of ample means; if it be considered that he had no family, and was not of expensive habits. He bespoke the case of pistols, with one of which he shot himself, a few days before the fatal event, and was very particular in his directions that they should be of the largest bore. The ball passed through his heart, through the bed, and lodged in the wall at the bedside. The report of the pistol was not heard by any of the domestics, and his death was neither known nor suspected until the next morning, when his elder brother called on business; and, having entered the bed-chamber, found him dead, and in a state which justified the conclusion that he never moved after the shot. He had often lamented, in the course of his life, that he had not been brought up to a profession, but had never betrayed any symptoms of a disordered mind. The Jury, under these circumstances, brought in a verdict of suicide. At the time of his death he had 1000l. in his banker’s hands.