The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-04 00:00:00

HINTS TO EXECUTORS.

VERITAS VERITATIS.-Dr. Verity withheld a legacy
bequeathed by Dr. Robertson to the Phrenological
Society of Edinburgh, as alluded to in our first num-
ber, p. 41. We give the following. summary from the
Gazette des Tribuneaux, of the 4th and sth inst :
" About two years since, a Dr. Robertson, died at
Paris, where he had resided above twenty years,
bequeathing a considerable sum to the Geological
Society of France, and the remainder of his fortune,
which was estimated at 16,0001., to the-Phrenological
Society of Edinburgh; constituting Dr. Verity his
sole executor. Upon the ground, however, that the
Phrenological Society of Edinburgh had no legal
existence, Dr. Verity absolutely refused to pay the
amount of the legacy to the claimants ; and, having
realised the various securities, paid over two-thirds to
the heiress-at-law, and quietly put the remaining
third into his own pocket. It seems, however, that
no account of the actual amount of the. proceeds
could be obtained from him. " But," said the senior
Judge, Seguier, to Dr. Verity's counsel, " you have
your pockets full of the bequeathed money ; why do
you not give an account of it ?" " Doubtless,"
replied the counsel, " we have our pockets full, but
we do not want to empty them into the pockets of
those who have no right to it, who arc only a being
of the imagination, and do not fulfil the first of all
conditions—that of existing," &c. The Society,
having instituted proceedings against Dr. Verity,
prayed that an inventory of the securities on the
moneys arising from the sale of them might be paid
into Court. Dr. Verity resisted this in every way,
raising all kinds of technical objections; and action
after action was brought by the Society in the dif-
ferent French Courts. " What," exclaimed the senior
Judge," again to Dr. Verity's counsel, " you make
an appeal upon such contemptible grounds as these ?
Why you want the whole of the legacy to be swal-
lowed up in law expenses !" These remarks of the
Judge clearly show his view of Dr. Verity's conduct,
upon which we need offer no remark. By the last
judgment of the Court of Appeal, it has been awarded
that Dr. Verity shall pay into the Court, within three
days of the verdict, the value of the securities, or the
proceeds arising from their sale ; in default of which,
he is condemned immediately to pay into Court the
sum of 1,200/., on account of the same, and 21. a day
until the above sum be paid.—The joist.

Mus. GiLmoures TRIAL.—On Wednesday evening,
the indictment for trial was served on Mrs. Gilmour in the
prison here. The trial, as we lately stated, is to take place at
Edinburgh, and the day fixed is the 12th of January. We
learn that Mrs. Gilmour received the intimation with the same
simple unaffected demeanour which she has always exhibited in
her difficult and trying situation, and she is understood to be
rather pleased than otherwise that the long period of suspense
in which she has been kept approaches to a termination.
This trial will be one of the most interest:ng which has taken
place in the criminal proceedings of Scotland for several years
past.— Cakdunian Mercury.