Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 21.pdf/175

 154

The Green Bag

between 1751 and 1855, though the proclamation was made on each anni versary of the bequest. The servant-girl problem vexed our forefathers as it does us of the pres ent day. In 1674 John How bequeathed a sum of money sufficient to award twelve pounds to a maid-servant "who shall have lived for two years under the same mistress in the old borough of Guilford, in Surrey." Every year the prize is still, awarded if any claimant appears, though to qualify the maid must prove that she has been "obedient and faithful" during the two years. In the reign of George III was passed an act of Parliament known as the Thellusson Act (39 and 40 George III, c. 98) for the purpose of checking the disposition of testators to accumulate the income of their estates until it should form a large fortune. Peter Thellusson, merchant, of London, pos sessed a considerable fortune, which he was firmly determined should be put out of the reach of any of his family living at the time of his death or born in a certain time thereafter. Therefore he limited the accumulated property in favor of certain of his descendants who might be living at a remotely distant time. The remote posterity for whom this heaped-up wealth was destined did not, however, profit to the extent pro posed. For three quarters of a century there was constant litigation with a view to upsetting the will. It was claimed that the will was too uncertain to be carried into execution and that the accu mulation was illegal, and asked whether males claiming through females would be entitled to a share; all of which attempts to upset the will failed. When the accumulated fund came to be dis tributed among a large number of claim ants it was found that the litigation had

swallowed up,£1,300,000, leaving only £600,000 to be divided. Doubtless the lawyers found the bequest a veritable nest egg. The litigation was ended only by the passage of an act of Parlia ment as recently as 1858. The peculiar provisions of the will of Dr. Jeremy Bentham•. who died in 1832, recall the cold-blooded cynicism and even brutality perpetrated in the will of Dr. Messenger Monsey, a physi cian of Chelsea Hospital, who died in 1788 in his 95th year. A few days be fore he died he wrote to a friend, Cruikshank, a famous anatomist, beg ging to know if it would suit his con venience to undertake the dissection of his body, as he felt he could not live many days. When Monsey died he directed in his will that his body must be dissected, and not "subjected to the insult of any funeral ceremony," but after the surgeon had finished with him "the remainder of my carcase may be put in a bag or box with holes and thrown into the Thames." His wishes as regards dissection were carried out, and a lecture was given on his remains to the students of Guy's Hospital. A prior will was found among his papers in which he had desired that his body should be buried in his garden with the following epitaph on his tomb stone: — Here lie my old bones; my vexation now ends, I have lived much too long for myself and my friends. As to churches and churchyards, which men may call holy, 'Tis a rank piece of priestcraft, and founded on folly; What the next world may be never troubled my pate, But be what it may, I beseech you, O Fate, When the bodies of millions rise up in a riot, To let the old carcase' of Monsey lie quiet! •See "Wills—Quaint, Curious and Otherwise," by John De Morgan, Green Bag, December, 1901.