The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1865-07-25 00:00:00

AN EXTRAORDINARY WILL
(Before Vioe-Chanoellor Sir W. P. Wood, July 19.)

MONTAGU V. LANSDOWNE.

This ogee afforded • forcible illustration of the truth
of the old saying,—" The best friend of the lawyers is
the man who makes his own will." The subject-matter
of litigation was the will of the late Captain Montagu,
R.N.; and a more extraordinary document, or one
framed with more perverse ingenuity for creating
difficulties and benefiting the lawyers—for whom the
testator professed more than even the ordinary aversion
of a sailor—has seldom come before the Court. The
will in question, with its attendant codicils, instructions,
memorandums, directions, and elucidations, occupied
no less than 42 brief-sheets, and ALs the unaided com-
position of the testator, who was a retired navy captain
of advanced age residing at Bath, of ample means, a
collector of books, authographs and pictures, and • firm
believer in his own power of literary and especially
poetical composition.
The testator, after stating his age, mental and bodily
health, and belief in the Christian religion, is an exoridum
garnished with quotations from Young and Phcedrun,
and the following singularly apposite text from psalm
xxxix. 6,—"We heap up riches, and know not who
shall gather them," described the contents of his will in
what he called a "synopsis." The "preamble," which
immediately followed, was as follows, and is interesting,
as affording an instance of that species of irony by which
the testator has unconsciously occasioned that very
result which he has most carefully sought to avoid:—

"In drawing up the following eheets, which had
already passed through legal hands—Messrs.- --,—and
been extended there to ten times their present dimen-
sions with superfluous and ridiculous circumlocutions
and repetitions, forensic wordery, besides being unin-
telligibly expressed to common lay intellects, my object
has been to make them as brief, simple, and plain as
possible, Raying no more than seemed absolutely
necessary to their being understood."
Lest, however, the learned gentlemen in whose legal
hands the will had been thus expanded should think
themselves aggrieved, the testator had appended the
following note:- "It is not here intended to cast any
blame on those gentlemen for this, as, of source, the
evil lies, not on any fault of theirs, but on the customary
legal practice which they are bound to follow, hut that
Is much to be wished could be corrected in accordance
with common sense, and for the benefit of all but the
profession." One of the Bret bequests WAS of £i,ooo to
the proprietary of the Morning Advertiser, in aid of
"the independent and old English opposition to unequal
privileges and arbitrary power" shown by that news-
paper, and, "above all, for its consistent and unflinching
exposition of the errors and resistance to the encroach-
ments of Popery, and its ...import of Protestantism."
Then followed a variety of charitable and other legacies,
including certain gifts of pictures and busts, with
respectful homage," to Her Majesty. The portion of
the will, however, which created the greatest difficulty
was a series of most elaborate directions as to the pub-
lication of his own MBB., including an autobiography
from 1812 to 1859, a new version of the Psalms, trans-
lations from Anacreon and Juvened, "my divine poems,"
epigrams, sonnets, and "Urania, a series of astronomical
poems." £1,500 was devoted by the testator towards the
publication of these precious memoranda, and "the
authorities of the Boldeian Library may, perhaps, be
consulted;" though in a subsequent codicil the testator
seems to have thought that the better way would be to
advertise for PODM "competent, conscientious, and
suitable person" to act as editor. That which was not
suitable for publication—though the greater part was
stated to be " well worthy of having a last hand put to
them"—was in the first instance to be preserved (as
some solace under his affliction) for the perusal of the
residuary legatee. No alteration was to be made in
the orthography and punctuation, which had " been
very carefully attended to upon the justest principles,
altogether my own." The testator trusted that "a
fully competent hand or more would be employed" for
revision, correction, and arrangement, but expressly
protested against having " the composition of other
hands incongruously mixed with my own." Nothing
seems to have escaped his attention, no one was
forgotten ; even his landladies, his washerwomen, and
the waiters at his club receiving small legacies.
Everything was provided for with such minute and
elaborate care as to occasion the greatest perplexity,
especially when these directions were changed, modified,
revoked, and again repeated in a series of no less than
four oodicils. The executors, finding themselves unequal
to the task of solving the many complicated questions
arising out of this extraordinary will, kid filed the
present bill for the purpose of having the estate ad-
ministered under the direction of the Court, and
obtaining that legal intervention which was so much
deprecated by the testator. The present bill was filed
in August, 1884, just a year after the testator's death,
and in less than a year the cause has been heard and
decided. We mention this as showing that the evil of
long and heart-breaking delays can hardly now be
charged against the Court of Chanoery, whatever may
have been the case in former days.
- -

Mr. Ampblett, Q.C. ' and Mr. Surrage were for the
plaintiff ; and Mr. Koh, Q,,C., Mr. Willeoek, Q.C., Mr.
Daniel, Q.C., Mr. W. M. Janice, Q.C., Mr. Boyle, Mr.
Bagabswe, Mr. Drum, Mr. Phear, Mr. Wilkins,and Mr.
Wolatenholme also appeared in the owe.

The VioeZhancellor, in a long and elaborate jtidg-
t meet, disposed of the various questions that had been
raised, holding that the MKS. passed to the residuary
subject to the right of the executors to direct
Ainatiou of suoh, if any, of them as they should
6nink at, for which purpose the tumoral sums set apart
by the testator, amounting cuinttlatively to £2,800,
might, in the discretion of the executors, be applied.
If, however, the executors should decide against publi-
cation, the money devoted to that purpose must fall into
the residue; for, although the testator had oomtem.