WINGED RICHES.

Lyttelton Times, Volume XI, Issue 645, 12 January 1859, Page 3

WINGED RICHES.

(From the' Times.') " ~Xe~WIIO ~llBt«ir~w:ltli— raoauU*,- *i-Ao- «.Waiin«i.-a(>-vanity, and pursue with eagerness the phantom of a :name, attend ; tp; the history of-one richer ithan-; Rasselas,—even to the history of one Peter Thellusr son," late. of the city .of London, merchant. It is. partly detailed in the columns of our this day's law report, hut scarcely plainly enough to be understood. without labour by non-legal minds. ' : It is now/sixty-two years' since, that Peter Thellussoii took stock of his wordly possessions, and found that he had £600,000 in money, and land of the annual value of .£4,500. Peter Thellusson had satisfied the ordinary; ambition of an English bourgeois— he had founded a family. Peter Isaac, the son of his youth and the prop of his house, was heir to £35,000 a-ryear in money and land, and might claim to be a born gentleman. Peers and Peeresses might hereafter spring in intermediate succession from the loins of that denizen of a dingy little "back; parlour behind the bank.1 The best men upon 'Change envied the rich and prosperous Peter/ Thellusson; whohadno object of ambition unsatisfied. ; - Peter was of a different mind; he had not; nearly money enough. Let other men be; satisfied: to found one family; Peter ;was lucky ; enough to have three sons, and: he would found three families. It was not that he loved his sons or Ms sons' sons; but it was the hope and desire of this magnificently: posthumous miser, to associate his name in, future : generations with three colossal fortunes. If he did not love his sons, he did not hate them; he. was. simply indifferent to everything but his one cherished object. 'Peter Thellusson took the very best legal advice, and made a will. He left a few trifling legacies;-probably to show that no unnatu-> : ral antipathyto •■•.his children tainted that will with mania. But his great-fortune was all conveyed to; trustees. It was to accumulate until every man, woman, and,child of the offspring:of Peter, and alive or begotten at the time of Peter's deaths should : also be defunct. No one;of-the children or grand-' children who; had ever looked Peter in the face, or- '■ trembled in- his presence, or -squalled at the sound' of his' harsh hard-voice, should ever be the richer; i for Peter's: wealth.; "And the rich:man also died*!!; Twelve months after making--this will, and sixtyone years from the present time, Peter was gathered to his unknown fathers. The will was opened, andcreated sensations which vibrated through the land in widening circles. Our law books picture to us ; the blank disappointment of the then living relatives, the. gentle cachinriations' of a-past generation of lawyers, and the gaping wonder of the general public. There were three sons and six grandsons of' this malignant old merchant then alive—all destined'to live the life of Tantalus; to see this great pagoda-tree' growing up before them, yet; never to pluck one unit of'its fruit. The terms of the will, enjoined, that when the last survivor of all the nine, children, and grandchildren should yield up his breath, then the. charm was to end - the great mountain of accumulated wealth was to be divided into three portions,, and one third was * to be given to each of the "eldest male lineal descendants" of his three sons. Having thus donewhat he liked with his own, and excluded all his living progeny from all benefit, he ends with a whine to the -Legislature worthy of. Shylock appealing against mercy—he had earned his: money with honesty and industry,1 and he hoped the Legislature would not alter his, will. Of course, the first thing that followed was a Chancery suit of the fattest bulk. The common-sense yjew, of the case would have been tosetasidethe will, as the product of a diseased mind—a mind rendered morbid as to its disposing powers by dwellingupon an irrational object. But Lords Lbughborbugh and'Alvanley and Eldon, and iudtrfes of kindred sympathies, seem to have been ted W their 'love of art to i admire the skill with whichtheitechnicalities.of our blessed real property law had beenadaptedto the object of,this old trader; Perhaps, also, they,sawsomething eminently,sane and rnatter-of'factin this goodold sordid vice of accumulation, or were excited to admiration by. seeing Koanest vice of man expanded .mto something like sublimity in its gigantesque proportions. .Tho Sgatloh Verit upto the House of Lords;-and^fche wil 4»* coaflrmed.f , This affair naturally made a

PS^. nowo?,, .Tho 'Xcgislaturo, took it up, arid, they would.not set aside the will by an™ post t facto law, they''branded Peter Theihisson's lnompry with'theimputation of " vanity, illiberally ana: tolly_; and enacted by statute, 39th: and 40th 6f• Ueorge niv, : cnp. 98, that the power of devising property,for,tho purpose of accumulation shall bo restrained m general to 21 years after the death of Jj^estatpr.persons ,of an arithmetical and statisnca^liurn of mmd also occupied themselves with the !"?*%> aptl, with the' aid of life insurance tables *"£'.W^ calculated tliat'tins fund, accumulating at compoiindintcrest, could hot amount to less than nineteen millions at the moment of distribution, and would' very probably reach•> the tremendous figure of thirty-two^ millions. But "nothing;is so false as facts, except figures.'^ The calculators had forgotten to take account of that unknown quantity which must in practical matters be represented, not by the letter "x," but by the word "litigation." Contemporaneously with the Chancery suit to sqt aside the will there was a cross-suit to have the trusts of the will performed under the direction of the' Court of Chancery: That suit isnow 60 years bid,' and, although children and grandchildren are dead, the suit is as hale and lively as it was in their earliest youth: WTh'at suit was the true .heir to Peter Thellusson,: and it is still spending his money like a frolicsome young^corjiet. Necessarily, there were other suits; There. were :suits about. posttestament, acquisitions of. real property, there were suits about ad vowsons,. there were suits about other matters, so numerous ; tliat even equity lawyers, not stingy of their words,1 are fain to describe them as " varioits." : The careful and : improving management of the Court ;of;Chaneery has also exercised its influence, • upon this' estate. The Yorkshire estates haveiparticipated in that excellent system, which has been so: uniform in:its action, that when wesee a house all windowless and unpainted, tottering, :anci:decaying, we can predicate with a tone of undoubting conviction, "That property.is in Chancery." \ . Tlie last survivor of the nine lives died in Feb., 1856, arid four new bills were - immediately filed. The property^is now to.be divided, not into thirds,, but !into : moieties. There is, however, a question raised as to; who is entitled. Who were the eldest male lineal ■ descendants of old Peter Thellusson in February, 1856?" There are two who. are eldest in point of lineagej;arid two-who are eldest in point of personal: age.' This point is; still sub judice. . It would not be very difficult to guess how it will be decided; but that is no matter of ours, nor would it have been a matter of the least interest to old Peter! Thellusson.. His object-was to make the heap very large;' he evidently cared not a lock of woo! as to , which.of his descendants might be the possessors. The public' interest in this long line of litigation is confined to its general aspect. Peter •Thellusson's clever sclieme has turned out a foolish failure; No single- Thellusson will; stalk: over the. lancl," over- ; shadowing our/dukes and crushing our barons by the magnitude of his territorial possessions. No thirty-two millions; of money- are expanded into broad acres, where men • may travel'and say—-• "Behold the conquests of the great Peter Thellusson;"1 TV'hether; Lord Keridlesham. arid Charles Sabine Augustus' Thellusson divide the estate as the: eldest in lineage, or whether Thomas and Arthur take as eldest in- years, we should equally desire to be able to call up old! Peter Thellusson to seethe division of his anticipated accumulations. - The. Ccfurt of Chancery has so clipped and pollarded his ■ ;oak,that it js: not much larger than when heleft it. It would be a fit punishment for that purseproud, vain, cruel old: man, to see that he disin-. herited his own children only to fatten a generation of lawyers; that he T^as. the dupe of his own subtlety, arid that/hi 3 name, instead of being associated with the foundation Of a house of fabulous wealth, is only known in connexion, with an abortive scheme of i vulgar vanity. 'i:- i C:; ■■ ■■_ ;; :