The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1875-04-24
A Gift Revoked.

Last July, James Lick, the San Francisco million
aire, executed q deed of trust making over an i'm
mense property, estimated at $4,000, 600, to seven
trustees nominated by himself, to be applied to phi
lanthropic purposes. Says the S. +. Chronicle
His benefaction was projected upon a scale of al
most unparalleled magniicence; and the fact that he
consecrated the bulk of his vast fortune to this grand
scheme of philanthropy during his lifetime, instead
of postponing its execution till the hour when he was
about to cross the threshold of that world into which
the millionaire can carry no more than the beggar,
clothed the act with a luster which belongs to no
death-bed bequest. Meantime, the fruit Of James
Lick's philanthropy had made the circuit of the globe.
In every civilized nation of the earth peans went up
to the great Californian philanthropist, whose benef-
cence had quite eclipsed the fame of the Cornells, the
Vassars, and the Peabcdys. His country and his
State shared in the credit and renown Of his unpar-
alleled bounty
On the 9th of last month, the ommunity of San
Francisco was startled by the announcement that
Mr.. Lick had filed in the Recorders Office a revoca-
tion of the great deed Of trust. This unexpected and
singular act excited all kinds of comment. eff
says the Chronicie7s' he now revokes the act which
has given him so conspicuous C nicho in the temple Of
fame. his country and his State will in like manner
share the disgrace and humiliation of his repentance.
There is reason to believe that the grand and noble
act which he now seeks to nullify was the inspiration
of his own mind, while the afterthought was the re-
suit of the appeals and opportunities of interested
parties and their paid agents. 1t is rumored that for
weeks and months Mr.. Lick has been besieged by
lawyers employed by those to whom his vast wealth
would descend in case his large philanthropic plans
could be frustrated. To men animated by sordid
aims and eager to appropriate his immense fortune,
"
rally seemed an act Of personal wrong and outrage.
They could not be expected to sympathize with pro-
jects of benevolence which would benefit an entire
people at their individual expense. While he, by pa
tent industry, sagacious business tact and ~self-deny-
ing ~frugality was accommodating o colossal fortune, o
swarm of relatives we're waiting anxiously expectant
for his death as the happy moment that should enable
them to revel in his wealth. The intelligence of the
grand phiauthropic act which promised to win for
the plain and homely name of James Lick an immor-
tality of fame filed these hungary expectants with
disappointment and alarm, and they at once COM
menced bringing to bear upon him every influence in
their power to induce him to reconsider his act. We
are not yet prepared to believe that Mr.. Lick has, in
the free and uninfuenced exercise of his own will,
determined to revoke his deed. We trust, for his own
good name and fame in the future. that he will shake
himself free from the selfish and sordid Influences by
which he is surrounded and reassert his original in
tent"
1t is stated that the trustees under the deed are ad-
vised by eminent counsel that Mr.. Lick has no legal
power to revoke his solemn act. 1t is their intention
to contest his attempt at revocation upon the ground
that rights in the public have become fixed and vested
under the original deed. In this determination we
think they are right. 1t seems clearly to be their
duty to test the question of Mr.. Lick's power of rev.
ocation, since they represent the public and not them
selves. But it is sincerely to be hoped that the case
will never be permitted to come before a legal tribu-
nal for adjudication. There is something in the idea
of bringing such a question before a Court of Law
which is unalterably rePugnant to all the finer feel
iDgs mere delicate sensibilities of our nature.
California has not been fortunate in her phiIanthro-
pists. The late Horace Hawes-once U. S. Consul at
Tahiti, and afterwards a resident of Honolulu-bay-
ing amassed great wealth in San Francisco, wanted
to found a great educational institution, to be called
the : Monteagle University" At least he persuaded
himself that he wanted to de this. But hisingrained
love of money, and Of the power which money car
ries with it, was so deeply rooted in his nature that
be could naASmake up his mind TO place his wealth
beyond his control until the moment when death was
about to wrench it from his grasp. The consequence
was that the benevolent enterprise suggested by his
tardy philanthropy was frustrated by his procrasti-
nation, and his immense estate went to his widow
whom be hated in his lifetime-and to his son, a boy |
at school.