The Press.
London, England, 1855-10-06 00:00:00

THE PRESS.

table which looked ready laid for dinner, so thickly was it
covered with dishes and decanters. She addressed me
immediately, kissing me on both my cheeks.
" I ant happy to tell you," she said, " that Horace is
here; not in this room you see, for, poor dear fellow, he.
has gone to wash his hands. He left Bovington at sunrise,
and has only been four hours on the road. I tell him he
must have ridden too hard—but a gentleman should excel
in horsemanship, should not he? No person could rind
fault with him for coining as fast as possible when he had
so mueb to expect." Then, in a whisper as of a southern
breeze, " Do you know why he has come, poor dear fellow?
Entirely because I described you to him, my child! He
declared it must be a flattering description, and has come
to judge for himself !"
How ridiculous !" I exclaimed; for I thought her infi-
nitely so, since she had rallied me on being a beauty in the
bud—a bijou beauty—" Afignonne, love, but still a belle;
and preferred by highly-refined tastes, I assure you, very
frequently!"
Had I not been curious to behold this only son of hie
mother, I should have retreated upon discovering her
mood ; but, almost while yet she spoke, Lord Barres ap-
peared, filling the height and breadth of the doorway.
This being was of immense proportions, so tall as nut
to seem stout, and so stout as not to look tall. He had a
certain sort of symmetry too, the symmetry one may ob-
serve in a very fat baby that has not a bone to show. His
hands, red as roses, had apparently no muscle, there being
big dimples in the place where knuckles should be deve-
loped, and his wrists were marked by creases in the super-
abundant flesh. His complexion, originally blond, had
yielded to a stress of sunshine, and was profusely freckled;
his hay-coloured hair was weather-bleached at the extremi-
ties, and a little straggling stubble composed his whiskers.
A bland, foolish expression dwelt in his gooseberry-coloured
eyes, which would have been actually swinish but for their
human insolence, lurking under flaxen lashes.
To describe the minntite of his breakfast would suffi-
ciently indicate his idiosyncrasy; but I did not dare to
watch him, because the whole time he ate he was staring
at me as though he should very much prefer to eat me
rather than what was upon the table. I noticed, however,
that he partook of no bread, and that after devouring seve-
ral kinds of meats he drank claret and complained of it,
then finished with cheese and a liquor be called stingo,
which his mamma must have had brewed especially for him,
as it never appeared upon the table before or after his visit.

Lord Barres is so well drawn that we are
sorry to find him killed off by delirium
tremens a few pages further on. " His mother,"
we are told, " erected a monument to his
" memory, and for it Chantry carved a bust
" from the features of Lady Barres." This
tendency to sketch and kill off her best cha-
racters is a failing of the authoress. Lord
Mayfair, a dissolute young marquis, lives but
for a few pages, and is then consigned to the
Morgue.—
The Marquis of Mayfair was a very young man, looking
old but not mature—the fatal prematurity not of genius
or of sorrow, but of vice, had exaggerated every line of his
strait, hard forehead into that hieroglyph of retributive jus-
tice—reckless despair. There was no beam of youthful
ingenuousness in his eye, but soft insatiable vanity lurked
under lids whose lashes were blighted by the fever of

shameless sin

Lord Mayfair seemed looking at no lady in particular—
indeed, l should have thought him too far spent to examine
anything ; but it was evident that every lady looked at him
in particular, nor with disfavour in her glances either.

Struck with the youth and ingenuousness of
Beatrice, his lordship requests an introduc-
tion, which Lady Barres is only too proud to
permit :

Before I knew where I was, Lord Mayfair was presented
to me formally, and I was too timid at the moment to out-
rage etiquette by refusing his lordship when he imme-
diately requested me to dance. However, I felt that he
only so distinguished me--perhaps the only unknown indi-
vidual present—because I was fresh, inexperienced, and
new to the world of beauty.
But I cannot express my horror when face to face with
him. It is no chimerical hypothesis which maintains
there is an actual and material impression conveyed by
moral darkness. Darker than doom, far darker than the
night of death, is the reaction of depravity upon its votaries
or its victims, and methinks a fallen angel has fallen not
so far as a fallen man. I had been glanced upon with ad-
miration by several that evening, and my heart had warmed
beneath their glances—this man gazed upon me with
homage, and a bitter loathing seemed to chill my blood.

A masterlyhand is shown in the sketch
of a ball-room scene. Maya, George Ailye's
intended bride, appears for the first time
in fashionable society. Lady Barres, aware
who she is, attempts to sneer her down, and
answers an inquiry from her friend, the
duchess, by representing the family as adven-
turers :

Whispers circling the room caught my ear on every side.
" Who is she ?"—" who is she ?"—hissed young men and
fair woman, dowagers and dandies ; and the piquancy of
the question consisted in nobsdy being able to answer it.
In these days men take with their eyes the measure of
ladies' ankles, bet upon their fort ones, and discuss whether
complexions be genuine when the fair are false. Now,
ladies do not invariably ask whether men's fathers have
been in trade. There are other social changes—have people
ceased to lisp " who is she?"
Maya must have heard the snake-like sihilation, but it
Pained her not; it hod no power urn her. tier ingeuuotus

SATIj4DAX,

and commanding countenance showed that she was at ease,
occupied with her own thoughts, and unconscious of giving
or taking offence. Her dancing was exquisite for the
grace and harmony of her movements, which nymph-like
sprung from the elastic step of her small and slender feet
—a charm far rarer than the most beautiful of hands.

" What name did they say ?" asked the duchess, fol-
lowing Maya with her glass. " Henry ! But it cannot be
Henry—there is an excellent Irish stock of that name."
" Pray do not foist them upon the protection of poor
vice-royalty," replied Lady Barres, with a soft laugh.
" The name is not Henry, nor any other that any one has
ever heard of; it is an alias. The people who assume it,
however, unfortunately for their credentials; chose one
most likely to betray their sore need of its shelter. Poor
persons, however, one ought, perhaps, never to blame; for
poverty is not a crime, any more than namelessness."
" How then," asked the duchess, in a hard haughty tone,
" did they contrive to get here—to be asked, as I suppose
they were ?"
" The girl is pretty," returned Lady Barres; " a charm-
ing savage in a civilised crowd : she is too simple to know
her place. I doubt not her beauty is the whole capital of
her needy relations ; and they have speculated in it too
rashly for success. When my cousin's ear is gained, he
will indiscriminately grant any favour; and to gain the ear
of a youth who has scarcely tasted life, we all know is
easy. It is only for an elder person, one who affects
wisdom because he has passed years in obscurity—to
whisper of beauty yet unseen, and graft imaginary charms
on a slight reality."
" You doubt her beauty then !—For my part, I had
scarcely seen her; but those massive marble outlines I
dislike, and the unnaturally large eyes which stare and
roll so."
" Marble !" exclaimed Lady Barres as the duchess made
this remark. " Marble ! oh my dear creature, do not ca-
lumniate the charm of statuary—those classic forms which
only the rarest symmetry can emulate. That complexion
yonder is frightful ; it is the sallow white, which passes for
delicate pale only by lamplight. One does not meet with
it amongst the English women, so it imposes here ; but
abroad is common among the bourgeoisie, and it is the type
of the ballet."

It required a woman's pen to write this
conversation ; it has all the delicate, keen,
cutting satire of the sex, and " the type of
the ballet " is a concluding sneer of feminine
pungency. The book is full of such clever
sketches—poets, preachers, nobles, and ladies,
with a footman and lady's-maid for the low
comedy, are all hit off with nice sarcasm and
skilful portraiture. The narrative is always
in movement, the style terse and pointed, and
the whole book remarkable for its keen satire
and general cleverness.

A Treatise on the Administration of Trust Funds,
under the Trustee Relief Act. By John Dar-
ling, Esq., Barrister-at-Law. London :
Stevens.

WE have seldom seen a legal treatise upon
any particular act in which the intent, the
principles, the provisions, and the working of
the statute are more clearly and expressly laid
down than in this commentary by Mr. Dar-
ling. Though the Trustee Relief Act is o f
limited application, extending only to sums of
money and Government Stocks, yet as far as
it goes it proceeds on the reasonable and
equitable ground that trustees should be at
liberty to relieve themselves of the distribu-
tion of such funds when they think proper, by
handing them over to the Court of Chancery.-
The intent of the act no doubt was, that
trustees should be able to take this step when
difficulties in the execution of their trusts.
presented themselves ; but as the act is per-
missive in all cases without exception,
trustees are at perfect liberty to avail them.
selves of it whenever they think proper, pro-
vided they exercise their discretionary power
in a bona-fide manner. Cases are given hers
in which the costs of trustees in paying their.
funds into court have been refused, on 019.
ground that they acted capriciously, and in a
way detrimental to the parties interested in
the fund. Such cases are rare, and we think
it questionable whether in the case of In re
Fagg's Trust the costs should have been re-
fused, as it does not appear that there were
any circumstances of main fides bn the part of
the trustees, and it was hard that they should
in the administration of a trust fund be made
to suffer for an error of judgment upon what it
is admitted was " a reasonable ground of
doubt." All matters relating. to the working
of the act, with the various decisions which
have been given on litigated points, are so well
laid down here, that the treatise may be
accepted as a most complete guide to Ow
practical application of 1,4 stai,ut,

OqtoliNp 6, 1855.

One point, kowever, still fewains in dis-
pute, and it is, whether when a trust fund has
been paid into court, in which fund several
remainderships have been created, and the
tenant for life applies to the court for the
dividends, the costs of such application should
come out of the corpus of the fund or out of
the interest of the tenant making the appli-
cation. In the cases of Ex parte Fletcher and
Ex parte Pegit, Vice-Chancellor Knivht
Truce, who with some eccentricity has a mind
essentially equitable, refused to charge the
capital of the fund with the costs of the appli-
cation, and directed them to be paid out of the
dividend. A like decision was made by Vice-
Chancellor Wigram in the case In re (Jaffee.
In the case of Staples' Settlement, where the ques-
tion arose whether the costs of application for
dividend should be paid out of the corpus or
out of the dividend, Vice-Chancellor Shadwell
decided that they should be taken from the
oorpus ; while iu the analogous case of
Lorimer, Lord Langdale ordered the costs to
come out of the dividend. One of the most
important cases is that of Ross's Trust, in
which, after a lengthened argument, Lord
Cranworth, while Vice-Chancellor, decided
that the costs of an application for dividend
by a life-tenant should be borne by the corpus.
This decision was followed in other cases;
but, on the other hand, Vice-Chancellor
liindersley has distinctly laid it down as his
principle of action that the costs of applica-
tion must be charged on the dividend of the
person claiming. He had, he said, conferred
with the judges on this subject, but without
being able to secure unanimity of opinion,
and, therefore, was compelled to act on his
own judgment :
I do not think it fair or just that the remaindermen
should bear the costs of the applications by the tenants
for life. Suppose there were half a dozen tenants for life,
are the remaindermen to bear the costs of all the applica-
tions by these parties? In my opinion the tenant for life
ought to bear the costs of administering the fund so far as
he is concerned, and the remaindermen so far as they are
concerned.

Vice-Chancellor Kindersley went on to show
that the analogy attempted to be drawn
between the costs of an administration fund
and the costs in such a case as this was not a
correct one, inasmuch as the costs of an ad-
ministration suit were necessary to the fund
being realised and determined, resembling in
that respect the costs necessary for paying
the fund into court under the Trustees Relief
Act, and, affecting the corpus, ought properly
to be paid from the corpus, whereas the costs
of applications relating to the distribution of
the income of the fund, as they concerned in-
come, should be paid out of income.
So far as the equitable principle is con-
cerned it would be impossible to contravene
this decision, but Mr. Darling adduces many
arguthents to show that in practice the costs
of application for obtaining income ought to
come from the capital fund, his reasoning
being based mainly on what would have been
the practice had this statute not been passed.
We recognise the acuteness of his argument,
but we think at the same time that it is tinged
by special pleading, and that it overlooks
that fundamental equity and primary reason
which should influence the judgments of the
Court of Chancery when it has, as in this in-
stance, to establish precedents and make rules
of law.
It must be held that a testator or devisor,
in creating remainderships in a fund, intends
the fund itself to remain intact, and that the
expenses of management, unless otherwise
expressed, should be borne by income. This
is a rule of general applicability in all affairs
of life, and should be held as true of a fund
consisting of money-securities as of a real
estate. Supposing the income of a freehold
estate to be left with several remainderships,
it surely ould not be held that the costs of
management under each successive tenant
should be defrayed by sale of portions of the
estate, yet this is substantially the principle
contended for by Mr. Darling. It might hap-
pen that in the case of a trust fund, with
several remainderships, a considerable portion
of the principal would be sunk in the
costs of the successive tenants, so that
little of the corpus would be left to the person
to whom the whole was intended to descend.
The costs of aprication mipt form a lies./