A STRANGE WILL CASE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 1672, 26 September 1887, Page 3

A STRANGE WILL CASE

The Loodon correspondent of tbe Auckland "Herald" Bays:— A suit has juat been determined In the Probate Court, m .Which the aieters of the late General R. Hussey Vivian, who served m the Maori ware, and owned property m New Zealand, ■ought to set aside his will, whereby he had left the bulk of hiß property to his nlfe. It appears that General Vivian was of eccentric habits— he had given one proof of his eccentricity by marrying Mb housemaid— and hia relatives alleged that at the time he made his will ont he waa of uneound mind, Bnd on the Eame grounds they disputed the validity of his marriage. The case really turned upon the question whether General Vivlan'B " eccentricity " waa ench aa to amount to positive mental incapacity. It was cot denied tbat he had been confined In a lunatic asylum a short time before his death ; but he had been discharged as recovered. Among tbe evidences a ddoced as to bia insanity was the fact that "he attributed all the misfortunes of the country to Mr Gladstone.'' But if this is to be accepted ac proof of unsoundness of mind, there ara many persona m the country who are mentally deranged. Again, after hia marriage, he used to speak of his "miisus" as a woman of ■trong passion, and said that hia life was a hell opon earth ; bnt are there not numerous sane husbands who wonld nee Similar language— if they dared 1 The General, too, we are told, had a fondness for Irish whiskey, but would any true ■on of Erin perm t this to be accepted as A proof of Insanity ? Upon the whole, the Instances of the General's unsoundness of mind hot j rather calculated to incr.ase one's opinion of him than to tempt one to put him down as unfit to manage his own affairs. Thiß clearly waa the view whioh commended itself to the jury, and hence they found for the will which bad been made In favor of the widow.