The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-01-08
ROY ATTY.
Their Savings
Kept in
BANK OF ENGLAND.
This Considered Safest Fl
nancial Institution.

IN spite of her costly way of living,
the empress of Austria has left an i'm
msnse personal fortune. writes an ex-
attache in The New York Tribune. Dur
ing the "A years that she enjoyed the
magnificent civil list of an empress
queen of Austria Hungary, she habit
ually lived within her income. In the
early part of her married life. her saw
sngs, which amounted to a large sum
annually, We're invested in the purchase
of real estate in the suburbs of Vienna,
the land then unbuilt upon being now
covered with residences of one kind and
another, and having increased almost a
hundred-fold in value.
The sums thus realized, together with
the unspeDt balance of her yearly in
come throughout the latter half of her
married life, were invested in stocks
dealt with on the London market. her
scrip and certificates being lodged in
the Bank Of England. In this manner
almost the whole of her vast fortune
amounting 10 many millions of dollars
Is al the present moment in the pos
SESSION Of the Bank of England. and a.
very awkward question has arisen with
regard to its disposal.
only week or two ago the house
o. lords, sitting as the supreme court
OF appeal of the British empire, decid-
ed that bonds, stocks and other prom
erV belonging to foreigner domici1ed
doroao could not be placed at the dis
poSal of his or her executors after death
nntn the will had been. admitted to mo ~
pate by the English courts. and tha
extremely heavy succession duties
amounting to as much as I per cent
oao peen paid on the estate. No mat
Ter whether the stock is that of some
1erGgn enterprise or government the
mere circumstance that the Scrip is de-
poslted IN some bank or kindred insti-
tu1ion IN England, renders it subject
TO British probate duty, and the test
case which has brought about this
oeclsfon was that of a citizen of Nav
1ork owning an immense amount Of
STOCK in New York breweries who dia5
IN New York, but who for one reason
or another had deposited the greater
part OIL his American debentures ana
oonds IN English banks He died hara
as Gle United States. and not in Enc
laiG' 1et. according to the decision
Oh the mouse of lords. his American aI--
ecutors cannot touch his American eo,in
Ieposlted IN English banks until thev
nave probated the document in tba
Ehsilsh courts and paid the British snc-
cession duties gu
empress Elizabeth's property. demos
ited almost in its entitrev in fne Hi,
~ HhSidHu' IS at the present moment
the subject ola somewhat acrirnoyio,ie
discussion between the Austro- II Jl,'rilo US
ian embassy in London, the EngIieb
torelsn office. the great law officers Of
me BRUSH crown, the revenue autbori-
LES ana the management of the hanl,
ne revenue department claims succes.
Of en- +h uuty on the whole Of the property
VI the oead empress that hapnens tn
- ~ tne possession OF the bank, while
,lle Jaw officers have intimated to the
latter that the executors of her ATsN
trian majesry's will are debarred from
touch1ng the estate, and must he looly-
ca upon as perfect strangers with re-
gard to the latter until the document
mas oeen probated by the English court
va pIupdte, and they have obtained
proper letters of representation
The Austrian embassy. on the other
hahd, demurs to this pretension on tha
part OF the British treasury. and do
Hounces the demand in connection with
the empress fortune as breach of the
rules governing international comfy.
taxing the ground that foreign sover-
elshs' IKE their ambassadors, possess
exra-territorial privileges. exemntine
them, as well as their properly from
the jurisdiction of the native courts,
as well as from local taxation.
very much of the same question arose
at the death of the late car. who left
a sum amounting to several million dol
lars deposited in the Bank of England.
An attempt was made by the revenue
authorities to collect English succession
duties on the property in question. But
IN Difference to the protests of the Rus
san ambassador, Baron de Staal. Sir
William Vernon Harcourt. then chan
cellor of the eXchequer. gave wav. and
agreed to remit the duties, the under
standing being at the time that the
FUNDS IN question constituted "a legacy
from the late czar to his sister-in- Flaw.
the princess of Wales, to whom he was
deeply attached. Members of the reign
ing house Of Great Britain are constitu-
uonally exempted from every species
of taxation, and thus the plea of the
Russian ambassador for the exemption
OF his dead masters property in the
Bank of England acquired additional
force in the eyes Of Sir William, who
is one of the foremost of British ex-
perts in international law.
But at that epoch the house of lords
had not given its final judgment in the
question of the treatment Of property in
England belonging to foreigners, and
IL is exceedingly doubtful under the
circumstances whether the Bank of
England will consent to release the
Austrian empress fortune confided to
its charge until the issue between the
English courts and revenue officials on
the one side and the London foreign
office and Austrian embassy on the
ether hand has been 6erIded either by
means of a compromise or in a British
court of law.
There is every reason, however to
believe that the difficulties which have
been raised by the British Authorities
in connection with the disposal of the
property Of the late empress Of Aus
tria, as well as of Gar Alexander III,
will have the result Of checking the
practice which foreign mona"chs and
royal personages have been following
for the last hundred years or SO of de-
posting their savings for safe keeping
in the Bank of England, which in their
eyes apparently, is the only institution
of its kind in the world, by reason of its
solidity and incalculabe resources. that
offers sufficient degree of security
against loss.
Empress Elizabeth and Alexander III
have been by no means the only
crowned customers Of the old lady of
Threadneedle street. When Car Alex
ander II wished to provide for the flu
ture OF his morganatic WIFE Princess
Jourieffska, and of his illegitmate
children, he deposited a sr,n amount
Ing, II is stated, to about 500, 900 in
her name i'm the Bank of England.
firmly convinced rhat in no other in
stitution would this large fortune be
secure either from seizure by his sue
cessors on the throne or from disap-
pearance through collapse of the bank.
Ead the money in question been placed.
for instance, in the Banque de France
or in any analogous establishment in
Vienna, Berlin or Amsterdam. the To-
cal registration Of a decree OF iniunc-
ton obtained by the Russian crown
from the Muscovite courts would have
been perfectly sufficient TO debar the