QUEEN VICTORIA AS A MILLIONAIRE.

Hawke's Bay Times, Issue 1525, 14 November 1873, Page 16

QUEEN VICTORIA AS A MILLIONAIRE.

On the 30th August, 1852, there died a gentleman, aged seventy-two, of the name of John Camden Neild. He was son of a Mr James Neild, who acquired a large fortune as a gold and silversmith. Mr James Neild was born at Sir Henry Holland's birthplace, Knutsford, a market town in Cheshire, in 1744. He came to London when a boy, in 17G0, the first year of George Ill's reign, and was placed with one of the king's jewellers, Mr Hemming. Gradually working his way up, he started on his own account in St. Jaines'-street, a very fashionable thoroughfare, and made a large fortune. In 1822 he retired. He appears to have been a man of rare benevolence and some literary ability. He devoted himself to remedying the condition of prisons, more especially those in which persons were confined for debt; indeed, his efforts in this direction would seem to have rivalled those of Howard, for in the course of forty years Mr Neild visited most of tho prisons in Great Britain, and was for many years treasurer, as well as one of the founders, of the society for the relief of persons imprisoned for small debts. He described his prison experiences in a series of papers in the Gentleman's Magazine, which were subsequently republished, and highly praised by the Edinburgh Review. %Mr Neild had three children ; but only one, John Camden Neild, survived him. This gentleman succeeded to his father's very large property in 1814. Mr James Neild had acquired considerable landed estate, and was sheriff of Buckinghamshire in 1804. His son received every advantage in the way of education, graduated M.A. at Trinity College, Cambridge, and was subsequently called to the Bar. He proved, however, the very reverse of his benevolent father. He was a miser born, and hid all his talents in a napkin, making no use of his wealth beyond allowing it to accumulate. From the date of the death of his father, who left, him £250,000, besides real estate, he had spent but a small portion of his income, and allowed himself scarcely the necessaries of life. He usually dressed in a blue coat with metal buttons. This ho did not allow to be brushed, inasmuch as that process would have worn the nap. He was never known to have worn an overcoat. He gladly accepted invitations from his tenantry, and would remain on long visits, because he thus saved board. There is a story of how a benevolent gentleman once proffered assistance through a chemist in the Strand, in whose shop he saw what he supposed to be a broken-down old gentleman, and received for reply, "God bless your soul, sir, that's Mr Coutts,the banker, who could buy up you and me fifty times over." So with Mr Neild, his appearance often made him an object of charity and commiseration, nor would it appear that he was at all averse to being so regarded. Just before railway travelling began, he had been on a visit to some of his estates, and was returning to London. The coach having stopped to allow of the passengers getting refreshment, all entered the hotel except old Neild. Observing the absence of the pinched, poverty-stricken-looking old gentleman, some good-natured passenger sent him out a bumper of brandy-and-water, which the old niggard eagerly accepted. A few days before his death he told one of his executors that he had made a most singular will, but that he had a right to do what he liked with his own. When the document was opened it was found that, with the exception of a few small legacies, he had left all "to Her Most Gracious Majesty Queen Victoria, bogging her Majesty's most gracious acceptance of the same, for her sole use and benefit, and that of her heirs," Probably vanity dictated this bequest. To a poor old housekeeper, who had served him twenty-six years, he had left nothing ; to each of his executors, £IOO. But the Queen made a handsome provision for the former, and presented £IOOO

to each of the latter. The property bequeathed to her amounted to upwards of £500,000 ; so that, supposing her Majesty to have spent every penny of her public and duchy of Lancaster incomes, and to have only laid by this legacy and the interest of it, she would, from this source alone, now he worth at least £1,000,000. lie this as it may, even that portion of the public which survives her will probably never know the amount of her wealth, for the wills of kings and queens are not proved ; so that there will be no enlightenment on this head in the pages of the Illustrated London News. Both Osborne House, in the Isle of Wight, and Balmoral, were bought prior to Mr Neild's bequest. These palaces are the personal property of her Majesty, and very valuable : probably the two may, with their contents, be valued at £500,000 at the lowest. The building and repairs of these palaces are paid for by the Queen herself, but those of all the palaces of the Grown are at the expense of the country, and about a million has been expended on Buckingham Palace and Windsor Castle during the present reign. The claims made on the Queen for charity are exceedingly numerous. Thej' arc most carefully examined by the keeper of her privy purse, and help is invariably extended to proper objects.