The Sun.
London, England, 1864-05-17 00:00:00

A Scotch Romance,

A morning paper gives a summary of the main facts of
a remarkable case which is being heard in the Scotch Court
of Session. The plaintiff is Mr Gordon M'Leod, and the de-
fendant Mr Hans G. Leslie, of Denlugas, and the object of
the action is to establish the terms of a document whioh has
been lost. The plaintiff was married in 1854 to a sister of
the defendant, greatly against the wishes of old Mr Leslie,
In May, 1856, Mr Leslie was seized with the illness of which
ho died, and then for the first time since the marriage sant
for his daughter, Mrs M'Leod, to attend him on his death-
bed. In April of the same year Mr Leslie made a settlement

by which he provided for Mrs M'Leod the life interest of
£5,000, the principal sum to go to the children of the mar-
riage. This fact was communicated by the factor of Mr
Leslie to Mr M'Leod when he arrived at Denlugas, after his
father-in-law's death. Before the lid of the coffin was
finally screwed down, a mysterious incident occurred
which was the beginning of a train of circumstances which
led to the present action. The factor states that he was
ordered by Mr Leslie to place a certain packet near his
heart when he died. The factor told Mr M'Leod that it
merely contained a pair of slippers which a lady had
worked for the old gentleman, while another story
was that it enclosed a lady's portrait. After the death
of Mr Leslie his estates were taken up by the defendant
the action, Mr Hans George Leslie, the only son, who
at the period of his father's death was captain in the ',7th
Bengal Native Infantry. Mrs M'Leod died about the
year 1860, leaving three children, for whose interests Mr
M'Leod, as their administrator, prosecuted the action,
Shortly after his marriage, and before his father-in-law's
death, Mr M'Leod states that ho had been told by the late
Mr Shepherd, a writer to the signet, in Edinburgh, that
there was a contract of marriage between the late Mr Leslie
and his wife, under which Mrs M'Leod had certain rights
as one of the children of the marriage. Mr M•Leod could
find no trace of such a document, but about three years after
his wife's death he received from a gentleman who had been
a clerk with the late Mr Jas. Souter, W.S. (brother to the
Denlugas factor), information of a much more definite
kind. It appears, from the mass of evidence already
taken on commission, that two contracts had been made,
about 1828, between the late Mr Leslie and his wife.
Miss Ramsay, of Barra; the one antenuptial, in view
of the marriage, and the other postnuptial, in implee
went of the agreement made before marriage. By these
contracts the late Mr Leslie provided an annuity to his
wife of £5OO in the event of her survival, and also a sum of
£4,000 payable to herself and her heirs, The lands of Den-
lugas were conveyed in security of these provisions. He
also bound himself to provide £16,000 for the younger
children of the marriage in the eventof there being an heir
male, or £20,000 if no heir male was born of the marriage.
Mrs Leslie ii:ed many years ago, Mrs M'Leod being the
only younger child of the marriage who survived her and
Mrs Leslie, while the defendant is the heir male born of
the:marriage. These contracts have in some mysterious
manner disappeared, and it is to prove their contents that
the present action has been brought. They were in exist-
ence in 1854, when Mr M'Leod was married to Miss Leslie, old
Mr Leslie having sent them to James Souter, W.S., of Edin-
burgh, by the hands of his factor, to obtain the
opinion of counsel upon their effect. The greatest secrecy
was observed in this transaction. Lord Kinloch, one of
the judges of the Court of Session, formerly Mr. Penney,
of the Scotch bar, and Mr, George Moir, ad vocate, have
given evidence that they gave an opinion at the-time stated
on such a case. Five persons alone were acquainted with
the existence of the contracts, Mr Sheppard, W.S. who had
been agent for the Barra family, and who first gave Mr
M'Leod a hint of their existence, being dead. The five were,
old Mr Leslie himself; Mr Souter, the factor; Mr Souter's
clerk (who copied the papers, but who has, as yet, not been
discovered—the factor declaring he cannot now tell which
of his clerks it was) ; Mr James Souter, W.S.; and bis
clerk, who laid the papers before counsel. Mr. James
Souter and Mr. Leslie having died, and the clerk who made
the copies in the factor's office not being known, the parties
who knew of the contracts were reduced to Mr. Souter, the
factor, and the clerk of the late Mr. Souter, Mr. Reid,
who was the sole clerk of Mr. 3, Souter, states in his evi-
dence that he made copes from the principal documents,
blank so far as regarded the names of the parties and of
the estate, and that the copies were so made out by order
of Mr. James Souter, that it should not be known nor
traced that those had reference to the marriage contract
of Mr. and Mrs. Leslie, whose daughter was interested in
them, and was married, or about to be married, to Mr.
M'Leod, The plaintiff found that infeoffmont or seisin had
been taken upon the marriage contracts by search in tho
Register House in Edinburgh, where such documents are
preserved. In this instrument the two contracts are nar-
rated and the attesting clauses given at length. The name
of the solicitor who prepared the contracts of 1828 was thus
discovered, and although he had long been dead, his busi-
ness books were traced, it is said, to the waste room of a
paper mill, and the whole charges for preparing the con-
tracts found carefully stated, including the price of the
stamps and the charge for "extending" or copying out
upon the stamped paper. Moreover, in an old tin box, the
draft of the postnuptial contract was found, in the hand-
writing of the solicitor who had been the agent both for
the Barra family, of which Mre. Leslie was a member, and
for Mr. Leslie himself, But the contracts themselves
have not been discovered. The question accordingly
recurs :—What did the packet contain which was buried
with Mr. Leslie? The factor declares he does not sus-
pect that the parcel contained the contracts, because
he had received instructions in relation to it in
1851. The case is still going on, and the Court may
tifil
ffi.. find
that the existence and terms of the contracts are 5
ciently proved, in which case it will be unnecessary
to to invade the tomb with the view of discovering
decide should
th
la
esealedfavpeauckretef reallythe h f
children
I th
entitled to the sum of £16,000 provided for the
younger children of tho marriage
is
in the e ot tetracts of
e i Court
1828, as coming in place of their mother, Mrs.
.M'Leod,
and to the half of £4,000 as joint heirs with the defendant
to old Mrs Leslie; the two earns amounting, with interest
since 1856, to considerably more than £20,000 ; and in ad-
dition they will be entitled to the sum of £5,000 which old
Mr Leslie provided for them in his trust settlement, evi-
dently
the provisions i pinrtoevnidionngs inth their attobeinplace of, and not in addition
to, grandmother's carriage contract.

lif Tanc Histoire de la Litterature Anglaise"
havt;gheeinp'raesented to the French Academy to compete
for the Bordin Prize, the committee unanimously recog-
nised its claim to that distinction, The Academy, how-
ever, in its last sitting, rejected the conclusions of the com-
mittee, and decided that the prize should not be awarded
this year. It is said that the philosophical opinions of the
author were the cause of this decision,