The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-02-14 00:00:00

A DISPUTED WILL.

In the Curt of Probate, the Conic at 4' White v. Ifatford "
hae been heard.

Dr. mpinks, Q C , and Dr. Tristram appeared for the plain-
tiff; and litr W. Y. Clare for the daemimt.
The plaintiff propounded a will, dated the 29th of
Au.,ust, 1872, of John Holford, a jeweiler, formerly
carrying on busine-s in Clerkenwell. By this will he
ft a life interest in his property to his sister, Mrs.
Robotham, who had lived with him and bad been sup-
ported by him for several years, and &acted the
property to be divided after her death between her
child and the children of Mrs. Whit*, another sister.
The value of the property was estimated at £l,OOO. It
appear-d that for some time before the making of the
will the deceased had been much depressed in spirits in
consequence of the house in which he had carried on
businees in Glerkenwell being required for some metro-
politan improvements, and hie lease having expired he
was obliged to leave it without compensation. A night
or two before the will was made he had thrown
himself out of the bedroom a indow, and inflicted some
severe injuries on himself. He afterwards repeated his
attempts at suicide, and he WRB eventually removed to
: a lunatic asylum, and died in confinement on the 2nd of
February, 1873. According to the plaintiffs case the
deceased's mind was perfectly sound, with the ex ep.
tion of the depreseion caused by the idea that he should
be ruined by the removal from his place of business In
Curkenweli, and he woe perfectly able to understand
the effect of his will, which was in sccordance with his
previously expressed intentions. The will war pro-
pounded by the brother-in-law of the deceased, 14r.
White, as executor. One of the deceased brothers con-
tested the validity of the will, and his case was that
the attempts to commit suicide were inconsistent with
testamentary capaeby, and th .t he had not recovered
from the effects of his fall from the window when the
will was exscuted. . .

Sir J, liannen, in summing up, remarked that •
man's mind could not bi- said to be unsound merely be-
cause he took a deepouding view of his affairs; but if
his spirits sunk to so low a point that life became •
burden which he could no logger support awl be at-
tempted to commit suicide, there could be little dcubt
thst at the moment, at ant rate, when the attempt Wl6B
committed, the mind must he unsound. After advert.
ing to the evidence as to the attempt made by the de-
ceased to commit sui ide some time before and some
tune after the execution of the will, and as to
the circumstances under which the will WAS signed,
his Lordship left it to the jury to eay, first, whether at
the time when the will was executed the deceased was
in the enjoyment of a lucid inter sal. It they came to
the conclusion that he was not, but was under the in.
flueuce of actual delusions as to matters of fact, be
should ask them whether those delusions were such as
in any way to interfere with his capacity to form an
opinion upon the claims of those about him, and Will/11l
it had foruaelly been his intention to btaiefit.
The jury found a verdict for the plaintiff.
The Court pronounced for the will, but made no
order as to costs.

THE ORDEAL FOR NEW MEMBERS
OF PARLIAMENT.
(From the Daly Nem.)
An old and familiar story is told of a foreigner
who, being invited by an Englishman to be pre-
Bent at one of our public banquets, was much
struck by the sickly appearance of certain ef the
emerge. "Who are three gentlemen," he asked,
who look so ghaetly white and ? " '"l'hese,"
answered his friend, "are the gentlemen who
have got to reply to the toasts when dinner
is over." Just at th• momeot we have noire
than 150 gentlemen returned to Parliament for
the first time ; and it is quite conceivable that a fair
proportion of them are already beginning to
make uneasy forecasts about their appearance in the
Douse. Few new members present themselves in
St. Stephen's with the deliberate intention of remain-
ing silent during the Session. They know that their
constituents have an eye on their actions, and will look
out in the morning papers for reports of their speeches.
They must do something to justify their election ; and
though the silent member who votes correctly and lets
others conduct the baeiness of spesking is in reality far
more useful than the loquacious member who is ever
ready to throw the greatest poesiole amount of fog and
cent widen on whatsoever nut je;tmay turn up, constitu-
encies are not alwaya quick to recognimthe fact. More-
over, some vague impression that the new member is
to electrify the House has very prebalc y been produced
by the conficreat assertions of friendly canvassers,
aided by one or two desperate efforts at speech making
on the part of the candidate himself. It is compara-
tively easy to arltiress a meeting in the shires, where
a carefully-prepared joke tells better than an argu-
ment, and where all manner of noisy interruptions
cover the breaks in the speaker's delivery. If he should
become confused and distressingly silent, the awkward
pause is attributed to the unseemly conduct of his op-
ponents. Or it may be, too, that the candidate has
earned a reputation for oratory by employing a
gentleman to do his speaking for him by proxy. We
had lately an opportunity of admiring the arraege-
went by which a candidate made his rounds in com-
pany with a spokesman who was supposed to translate
his unutterable thoughts into something like approxi-
mate words. The ceancte are that the majority of
those who heard the person of fluent speedo put for-
ward the views and opinions of the other person who,
like the sailor's perrot, was only good at thinking,
came in the end, by a little stretch of imagination, t
credit the latter with the oratory of the joint perform-
ance. In ordinary cases, however, the candidate has
to nerve himself to address meetings of his constituents.
It is a dir, r necessity. But he has the consciousness
toot even if be stammer and blunder it does not much
matter, for the world at large is not listening t what
he says, and his friends' applause is sure to be louder
than his enemies' ridicule.
When t rice ie is elected, however, the whole situa-
tion is changed. A. far more dreadful ordeal awaits
him than the mere appearai cc on the platform of a
provincial c 'lnert-room. Ia tie House of Commons
he is to be tried by his intellectual peers • and his
friends show a curious and sometimes malicious in-
t ereet in his debut. Now, there are few things IS)
difficult to acquire as self-possession in addressing an
audience if a man does rot happen to hare it
naturally ; and in this particular ease the anxiety of
him who means to make an essay as a Parliamentary
speaker is indefinitely heightened by the know-
ledge that the House of Commons is the most
mit cal, unsympathetic, and ridicule-loving Astembly
in the world. Here windy rhetoric, and ad captandum
appeals, and " bunkum " of all norm, are detected off-
hand by a whole houseful of gentlemen, most of whom
are themselves quite capable of using these oratorical
arts when occasion demands. There are men who would
rather ride with another Balaclava Charge than face
the laughter of the Lower House ; and there are few
indeed who meet with that reception on their first
endeavouring to obtain a hearing, who have the
courage, like Mr. Disraeli, to turn 110011 their assailants
and challenge the future to decide between them.
Ordinarily the position of a member ia the Houee
Is—for a considerable time at least—pretty well fixed
by his maiden speech ; and the occasion is therefore
midurally a critical one. Every one has heard of the
Irish representative who, withing to stand well with
his constituents, managed to introduce into his very
first speech, which was on an insignificant Bill intro-
duced by a private member, a demand for a subaidy to
Irish Fisheries, for the endowment of a Boman
Catholic University, and for an immediate repeal of
the Union. But even if the newly-elected member
should have carefully prepared some such speech
as this, calculated to shake the Empire to its
foundations' and delight the electors whom he
represents, he is etill in an agony of fright as to
his capacity for remembering it. Most young speakers
know that, as soon as they stand up, they forget en-
tirely what they meant to have said; and generally
say something quite different, apposite or not, as
fortune may ordain. Ilecce it is that young barristers
areindustrious in seizing every occasion of practising
self-poeoession in public speaking, beginning with care-
fully composed lectures at small literary soeetiee,
rising to toasts after private dinner parties, and finally
getting up to the sublime heights of delivering ex-
tempore addresses at public meetings. Queer stories,
Indeed, sae told of the now celebrated men who were
wont but a few years ago to frequent one or other of
the debating societies which meet in more or less
obscure taverns, there to plunge into the conflict of
discussion, on the chance of their keeping their head.
The ordinary Member of Parliament, however, has
not had even this training. Of course he has had a
few opportunities of speaking In public—or rather, he
has been driven into situations where it could not
decently be avoided. Doubtless he has had to mumble
out • few incoherent sentences when the guests
assembled at his veldt g-breakfast drank to the future
happiness of himself and his wife. Probably he has
had to reply at a few public dinners on b-half of "The
Visitors," or "The Ladies," or some such equally lively
toast; and during his canvass he may have had to
appear on one or two platforms, saying as little as he
cruld, as well as he could, and leaving his friends
to speak for him. Now he is lifted from this happy
obscurity ; and he kuows that the ey 5 of all the
country are upon him. He looks forward to the as-
sembliog of Parliament with anything but a light
heart, and perhaps with some vague hope that he may
find some means of having his speech before him in the
shape if closely written notes. Perhaps he wonders
whether, in the eveot of his becoming confused and
talking inartitulately, the reporters would kindly
accept a brief and intelligible summary of his speech,
and allow that to go into the papers. None the
leea he knows the terrible weight that will lie on his
heart, and the frightful velocity that will seize his
pulse when, having caught the Speaker's eye, he
rises up for the twat time to address that august
Asseintny which is familiar with the speaking of
the greatest orwors of our time. It may be that,
after having fixed in the subject on which he means
. . details. and