APPENDIX TO CHRONICLE. 



283 



caution in listening? to the evidence 

 of servants in the house, still these 

 circumstances must have their 

 weight. They were, however, 

 strongly confirmed by the account 

 given of the deceased's incohe- 

 rent correspondence ; and the very 

 fact of his wishing his wife and 

 son to visit him when living in a 

 state of open prostitution with this 

 girl was in itself a proof of insa- 

 nity. A further confirmation was 

 afforded in the transaction at Lord 

 Northwicks ; and the Court could 

 not but think the attempt to give 

 it the colour of intoxication to have 

 proceeded from fraudulent mo- 

 tives. Looking, then, at this evi- 

 dence, it was not only sufficient 

 to throw the burden of proving 

 capacity upon the parties setting 

 up the will, but it likewise proved 

 the influence they exercised over 

 the deceased ; and it would be 

 difficult to imagine the evidence 

 that would be sufficient to sustain 

 a will under such circumstances. 

 Mr. Fox must have known of his 

 daughter's prostitution • and this, 

 added to his general conduct, did 

 not go far to confirm his good 

 character and hand-writing, in at- 

 testation of the act in question. 

 Mr. Johnson and Mr. Cooke were 

 both renouncing executors, and 

 had released their legacies : the 

 latter was also the writer of the 

 codicil in his own favour. It was 

 therefore probable, that they had 

 expectations from the bounty of 

 the executrix ; and though this 

 was not sufficient to disci edit 

 them, it must necessarily raise 

 the presumption of their evidence 

 being somewhat biassed. There 

 was no reason to believe that the 

 deceased's declarations of having 

 made his will referred to either 

 of the papers in question : and 



they had the effect of disinherit- 

 ing his son from one considerable 

 part of his property, only to make 

 an unreasonable provision for a 

 woman with whom he lived in 

 public adultery. The will itself 

 bore strong internal marks of 

 confusion and irregularity, and 

 appeared to have been copied from 

 some other not before the court. 

 It was written very irregularly, 

 vi^ith some names partly omitted 

 in places, and others repeated in 

 a varied manner, altogether show- 

 ing the deceased's confusion at the 

 time, and, in the language of 

 Lord Thurlow, " sounding his 

 folly." So far, therefore, from 

 any lucid interval being proved, 

 there was every presumption of 

 the continuance of the disorder, 

 a presumption confirmed not only 

 by the general state of the evi- 

 dence, but also by the con- 

 tents and appearance of the will 

 itself. The Court was, therefore, 

 bound to pronounce against its 

 validity ; and considering the ac- 

 tive part taken by Miss Fox in this 

 transaction, with all its attendant 

 obloquy, the Court felt that it 

 would not sufficiently mark its 

 disapprobation of such practices, 

 and hold out a discouragement of 

 them for public example, did it 

 not condemn her in the costs in- 

 curred. Costs decreed accord- 

 ingly. 



Lady Frances Elizabeth Brude- 

 nell Wilson, and the Right Hon. 

 Charles Abbott, Speaker of the 

 House of Commons, against Sir 

 Berkeley William Guise, Bart. — 

 This was a question upon the ad- 

 mission of an allegation, pleading 

 a nuncupative codicil to the will of 

 William Wright, Esq. late of Chel- 

 sea, deceased. 



