said he would enter a little into the history of the late Mr. Blundell, of Ince. This gentleman, with an ample patrimony, had from early life an ardent passion for the cultivation of the fine arts. He had travelled the continent, and had resided at Rome, occasionally visiting other places most deserving notice, as containing the valuable and classical remains of antiquity. In collecting these monuments of ancient grandeur, he spared neither pains or cost; and it was his pride and ambition to have it said that the finest collection of antique statues was in the possession of a private English gentleman. Having imported these valuable remains of the Grecian and Roman artists, he erected a superb pantheon at Ince, the place of his residence in this country, and directed that it should be constantly open for the gratuitous inspection of men of taste and learning. This pantheon was his chief delight, and the chief object of his expenditure; but not withstanding all its cost, he increased the value of his estates sixfold, and the whole of his immense property he certainly at one time proposed to leave to his son, the present defendant. He had besides that son, two daughters, who were married, the one to a Mr. Tempest, and the other to a Mr. Stoner, both men of fortune, but they had large families. Mr. Blundell the father, though desirous his son should inherit his property, yet wished, in the event of his son not marrying, or not having issue, that his daughter's children should have the property settled upon them. This, the learned counsel said, was the subject of remonstrance on the part of the defendant, who conceived that the intention his father had manifested would have the effect of disin heriting him. He contended with his father, that he had a right to the whole of his property, his sis. ters being provided for. The testator, considering that if he left his daughters and their children to the future liberality of their brother, the defendant, they would not derive the ultimate benefit he intended them, resolved to settle upon them a considerable portion of his property, and by his will thereupon he left the defendant about 15,000l. a-year, including the Ince estate, and as much more he left to his daughters. By a codicil he provided, that if his son disputed his will, he should defray. all the expense of the litigation. After his death, the defendant insisted that his father was not in a capacity to make either the will or the codicil, and he accordingly contested both. It was true, that when Mr. Blundell executed his testamentary dispositions, he was in an advanced stage of life, nearly 90 years of age: his sight was greatly impaired, and he was extremely deaf; but it would be shewn that he was in full possession of all his intellectual faculties. The learned attorney-general assured the jury, he should make out such a strong and irresistible case, as would not leave a particle of doubt on the minds of the jury as to the sanity of the deceased testator. He first read the depositions of the solicitor who made the will and codicil. It shewed that Mr. Blundell was perfectly aware of the contents, that he had the draughts read over to COMMONS. him, and entirely approved of PREROGATIVE COURT, DOCTORS' them. Dr. M'Cartney, the physician who attended him, described him as a man of a vigorous mind; in a state competent to business; incapable of being imposed upon, but at times subject to lethargy, arising from the jaundice, which, however, he always soon got the better of. He should have had no hesitation in attesting his will at any period of his life. It was proved by other witnesses, that Mr. Blundell, within the year he died, had meditated a plan for the establishment of an academy for the fine arts, for the benefit and emulation of artists in the northern part of the king. dom, and that he gave 1600l. towards it. It was also shewn, that about the same period he edited and printed fifty copies of a grand edition of the engravings of the Statues and Monuments in his Pantheon; the letter-press of which was most ably and classically written by himself; and that one copy he intended for the British Mu seum. Mr. Topping, the defendant's counsel, now said, he was authorized by his client, Mr. Charles Blundell, not to keep up the cause any longer. It was a vast stake for which Mr. Blundell was contending, and conceiving himself to have been disinherited, he thought he had a right to have it proved in a court of justice that he had been ülsinherited in due form by a will duly executed. It was impossible to resist the weight of the evidence, and therefore he cheerfully submitted.-Verdict for plaintiff. VOL. LVI. Fisher and Wheeler against Mills.-This was a suit to try the validity of the will of Mr. Andrew Mills, late of Streatham, Surrey, deceased, at the instance of Mr. Robert Fisher, of Streatham, and Mr. Henry Wheeler, jun. of the Stock Exchange, the executors, against Mr. John Mills, the deceased's nephew, and one of his next relatives. It appeared that the deceased was a wheelwright, and carried on his trade in a small house at Streatham, the lower part of which served for his workshop, and the upper contained two rooms, in which he lived without any servant. By his labour and habits of economy, he had saved property in the funds and elsewhere to the amount of about three thousand pounds. He had nephews and nieces to the number of ten or twelve; but it did not appear that he kept up any great intimacy with them. He was in the habit of receiving many attentions from the families of the two executors who lived in the neighbourhood, particularly from that of Mr. Fisher, whose shop adjoined the deceased's residence, and with whom he frequently took his meals, &c. Mrs. Fisher and her daughters attended, and sat up with him in his last illness. He died on the 20th of July, 1812, at the advanced age of seventyfour, and for about two years preceding had been subject to occasional deafness. His infirmities increased so as to confine him to his bed for the last five or six weeks of his life, during the lat ter part of which he was totally blind. On the 6th of July pre ceding his death, Mrs. Wheeler applied, as was stated, by the directions of the deceased, to Mr. Noy, an attorney in the neighbourhood, and gave him instructions for a will, which was drawn up immediately by him, and executed the same day. By this will the testator gave legacies of from 100l. to 250l. stock to several of his relations, and after some trifling pecuniary legacies, the residue of his property to Mr. Robert Fisher and Mrs. Wheeler, sen. appointing the former and Mr. Henry Wheeler, jun. executors. On the 9th of July a second application was made to Mr. Noy, by Mr. Fisher, stating that the deceased was not quite satisfied with his will, as his book debts, household furniture, &c. which were included in the residue of his property bequeathed to Mr. Fisher and Mrs. Wheeler jointly, he meant to leave exclusively to Mr. Fisher. Mr. Noy accordingly prepared a codicil, embracing this alteration, but confirming the will in other respects; and being introduced to the deceased by Mr. Fisher, as a person who was come about his book debts, the codicil was executed. On the 11th of July, Mr. Noy was again applied to, and attended at the deceased's house, where he met Mr. Fisher and Mrs. Wheeler, who told him that they thought it would be better for the deceased to dispose of his property by one instrument than by two, and that the residue of his general property was to be given to Mr. Fisher only, as Mrs. Wheeler was to have the remaining part of his funded property after payment of the legacies charged on it. They then gave him the will and codicil, and the alterations required, being, as he described them, but trivial; be drew up, on the spot, the new will, and was then introduced by Mr. Fisher and Mrs. Wheeler into the deceased's bed-room to get it executed, for which purpose he was lifted up in bed by Miss Fisher, who was attending him. Mr. Noy then, as he stated, read the will over to him, pausing at the end of each legacy, and the deceased expressed his assent by inclining his head. A pen was then put into his hand, which was guided by Miss Fisher, and the will signed. The words of publication were then repeated to him, and he again nodded his head. He survived eighteen days from this period, and then died. The three testamentary papers were exhibited in the cause, the two former ones appearing to be cancelled; and they were opposed by the next of kin, on the ground of a confederacy amongst the Fishers and Wheelers to obtain the deceased's property, and his total incapacity to know or understand the nature and object of the act he was performing at the time of executing the papers in question, to prove which a number of witnesses were examined. Sir John Nicholl recapitulated their evidence, and observed it was not so material to inquire into the motives of the parties, in paying attention to the deceased, if the effect should appear to have been produced, and he to have really entertained an intention to benefit them by his will. The short account given of the execution of the codicil was also immaterial, as that was not the ques tion at issue between the parties; it was sufficient to observe, that if fairly executed by the testator, with an ample knowledge of its contents, it would have the effect of recognizing and rendering legal the will it refers to, respecting which the testator's mind might have been previously fluctuating. The circumstances attending the execution of the last will were certainly such as to excite the vigilant attention of the Court; the consolidation of the two instruments into one appeared to have been effected by agreement of the parties interested, but it was not negatived that this might not have been done by desire of the deceased; he was deaf and blind, and had been for some time confined to his bed; it was to be lamented, that, in such a situation, the deceased's real intentions had not, at the time of executing the will, been more pointedly ascertained; but still, if those intentions were proved, the Court was bound to pronounce for the will. He might have understood what was going on, though prevented by his infirmities from expressing his assent more perfectly than he did; and it was to be presumed that he would not have lent his hand, as he did, for guidance, to sign the will, had he not intended it as an expression of his concurrence in that act. There was no proof of the case of control by the parties interested set up on the part of the next of kin; they had pleaded only occasional deafness in the deceased, but that was no proof of his incapacity. One of the witnesses who attended him constantly, stated only an occasional wandering of his mind, and that only within a fortnight of his death, but the will in question was executed eighteen days prior to that event. Another, who called upon him within that time, proved that he conversed very collectedly about the sale of some wood belonging to him, and other matters of business. His deafness was said to be only occasional; deafness was a disorder always greater or less according to the state of the body; cold, amongst various other causes, tended greatly to augment it; and it was not improbable but that the deceased's deafness might have been greatly diminished by so long a confinement to his bed. It was material to look to the contents of the wills: the greater part of the property was given to the Fishers and Wheelers, for whom he had a great regard, living on terms of great intimacy, and receiving numerous civilities from them. Now, if their intentions had been fraudulent, the first will would not have given so much to his relations, and comparatively so little to them; they might have introduced a few trifling legacies to give a colour to the transaction, but they would not have done so to the extent of that will. was, therefore, most probable that the augmentation of the bequests to these parties in the latter will originated with the testator himself, though by what means could not appear, as the instructions came from the parties; but if that will, when read, was adopted by the deceased, it was equally valid as if prepared pursuant to his own verbal or written instructions. The fact of its execution then took place in the presence of one of the deceased's own relations; there was no appearance of any conU 2 straint straint being used, and the act was positively supported by the evidence of the two subscribing witnesses. Under these circumstances, the Court was of opinion that the mind of the testator went along with the act of guiding his hand to sign the paper in question, which must, therefore, be pronounced for, as containing his will, but without costs against the next of kin, MATRIMONIAL CAUSES. Consistory Court, Doctors' Com mons. Parnell (acting by Thomas Rownell, his Committee), against Parnell-This was a question as to the competency of a lunatic to prosecute, by the agency of his committee, a suit against his wife, for a divorce, by reason of adultery. A libel was offered to the Court on the part of the plaintiff, stating that the parties (Mr. Peter Parnell, and Ann his wife, of Islington, Middlesex) were married in June 1790; that they lived together from that period, until some time in the year 1807, and had two children, a son and a daughter. About that time, the intellects of the husband became deranged, and he was in consequence removed to a house for the reception of insane persons. His malady continuing with but little prospect of abatement, upon the necessary inquisition being taken, ascertaining that fact, letters patent were issued by the Court of Chancery, appointing Mr. Rownell committee of the lunatic's person and property. The libel then proceeded to state, that shortly after the cohabitation of the parties had thus necessarily ceased, the wife formed an adulterous intercourse with one Philip Crask; that she passed as his wife, and had several children by him; with a detail of other particulars tending to support the charge of adultery. The admission of this pleading to proof was opposed by the wife's counsel, on the ground that the power of the committee of a lunatic extended only to the protection of his property; that in a civil proceeding, between a man and his wife, for a divorce à menså et thoro, the complaining party alone was entitled to sue, and that the judicial separation which would be effected between the parties by a sentence of divorce, had already, in effect, taken place, in consequence of the lunatic's situation. Sir William Scott observed, that it had not been stated in argument, and it was certainly not within his experience of the practice of the Court, that a suit of this nature had ever before occurred. It was impossible, therefore, to decide upon the objections taken in the present case from precedent, but the decision must be ruled by principle and analogy. In this point of view, the question seemed to divide itself into two considerations: 1st, whether a lunatic has a right to seek a remedy for his wife's profligacy; and, 2dly, if he has, whether there is any other mode of doing so than the one which has been adopted in the present case. Upon the first point, it appeared absurd to assert that the husband's being visited with the affliction of mental derangement was sufficient to exonerate the wife from the obligation of fidelity imposed by the marriage contract; and that she should be suffered |