Star.
London, England, 1822-11-14 00:00:00

eras rich a case of it get double intl. lent,
cIA ...-
made out, as to ' t conclusion It
was pleaded, on the otheii side, that a commission of
lunhcy was actually taken out against the deceased
in July, 1813, bat afterwards superseded in Decem-
ber, 1815 ; that shortly after the latter period the de-
ceased entered into improvident and wasteful :peal.
latinns • that he invested all his property in the Funds
(15,0001. or 16,00014 in the purchase of a Govern.
tent annuity of 1,1001. a year ; that he then went to
Brighton for a few months; then came back to the
Horns Tavern, in Doctors Commons, where he re.
sided till July, 1817; and then went to Calais on a
party of pleasure with some friends, proposing shortly
•to return to London; but that when he got over he
refused to return, and continued on the Continent;
—ln subsequent articles it was set forth, that the
other parties in this cause, who went to the Continent
on matters connected with their respective pursuits,
there got possession, as it were, of the deceased, and
treated him as a person who had lost the use of his
mental faculties: and that, in point of tact, he Was
at the time of executing this instrument in a state of
mental derangement. On this plea, two witnesses
had been examined—Mr. Lovegrove, the proprietor
of the Horns Tavern, and Mr. Newman, the deceased's
solicitor ; and several letters and papers, especially
from Keys (who appeared to have been dissatisfied
with what •the deceased had done for him, subse-
quently to engaging him for a travelling companion
at a salmi Of 2001. a-year ; and who seemed to have
intimated in his letters to Mr. Griffiths and Mr. N.
tnan, -the deceased's incapacity of mind), . had alys
been annexed by way of exhibits. The Court pm.
needed to observe, that with respect to Mr.Griffit:li
(deceased), who' was appointed the testator's com-
mittee when the commission of lunacy was taken out,
the; e..was nothing that savoured of in an:ty in the
deceased's irritation against him : for it was to be re-
membered, that it was not Mr. Griffiths who applied
for the 'superseder ; and the deceased laboured und-r
animpression (which this Court was not quite
pra-
pared to call a' delii,ive one) that he had rJeen wrong-
fully subjected to the hardship au .i i-,!onverlience
such a commission. As to the dec.easeu's going
abroad; he did indeed appear to be afflicted with the
mania-of travelling into foreign countries that a few
years ago was so extremely prevalent; bet his for-
tune, his unembaira.sed circumstances, his being
without wife or relation, rendered such a determina-
tion as little insane in him as in almost any case that
could be imagined. These two witnesses pr
thing but insanity in the deceased. As to his it:.-
provident speculations—the purchase of a Govern-
vernment annuity, by sinking the whole of his
funded property, was a measure by is,) means
unadvisable or injudicious in a man situated as
the Court had just described him to
While on the Continent, lie dre.v bills on his barker,
wrote shrewd and sensible letters, and was in every
respect a man sui juris. He went abroad, not as
pleaded in a mere tit of passion, but of his own ac-
curd, and in the company of two very revectable
men, his private 4ienth—Mr. George Robinson and
Afr. From the manner in which
-that plea
sias arawn,lt wodld seem that the deceased, while
abroad, was picked up by .three needy aAventurers,
also had led him about from place to place in order
to plodder him while living, and to secure his
perty When dead, to thenistives. But how
.did
fr
case tarts out? Mr. Hinde and Mr. Taylor did not
goats-a:W..lller ely in consequence of their bankrupts-,
needy-adventurers. Mr. tinkle, indeed, liaa
ti.ee-illnifciaqnate enough to be a bankrupt ; but el.tt
was-as Jong.Affro as the year 1809. A commi,sio 1
had been sued suit against Taylor, but es ea th::t
was in 181+r...end-it- became necessary— not in coa.,e-
quence of rirrXy_loes own-imprudence—but in vw.-
sequence.,of Raving "bedii bond tor a very 1.1:-ie
sum of money, of, which ,fa tai-gather in his
was afterwards deficient ; and the commission was
actually superseded, ffiese two Gentlemen were ant
adventurers, again, but, at the date of-these transac-
tions the, offiCuil Cotitiactors for the supply of the
British Army of Occupation id France ; and there-
fore -very extensively engaged. The Court, after
minute and laborious inseAigation of the whole
deuce in tire cause, and alter expressing its conviction
that Mr. Hinde anirMr.Vaylor. had acted through-
out the business as the friends of Mr. Ruffin, and with
perfect openness and attention to his interests, and
that the deceased himself had executed his last wia
in a state of perfect mental capacity and
pronounced for the force and validity of the will turd
codicil propounded, and decreed probate to the exe-
cuters named therein, accordingly.