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Turning now to the properties of the new material under consideration: it may be noted that the employment of dynamite is decreasing in favour of blasting-gelatine, whose suitability for mining and other kindred purposes is amply demonstrated by the successful manner in which it scatters the mass surrounding the boreholes in which it is placed. Insoluble in water, and uninjured by months of submersion, this new rival to dynamite-a material notoriously unsuited for such work-possesses a property essentially valuable, and which cannot fail to secure its adoption on an extended scale in all places where it becomes necessary to resort to subaqueous blasting. It will be no matter of surprise that attempts have recently been made to utilise so powerful and effective an explosive in shells; but these experiments, owing to the extreme sensibility of the gelatine, have not as yet realised the expectations formed of them.

Some interesting experiments, having for their object the determination of the relative blasting power of various explosives, give the following results: If the blasting power of gunpowder be represented by 1, that of gun-cotton will be represented by 13; dynamite by 2 to 3, according to composition; nitro-glycerine by 4; and blasting-gelatine by 51. The present cost of blastinggelatine exceeds that of dynamite, a fact, however, more than counterbalanced by the increased safety and handiness of the former, in addition to its valuable suitability for subaqueous work.

There can be but little doubt that as dynamite superseded nitro-glycerine, so dynamite in its turn must largely give place to blasting-gelatine, and that this new compound is destined to figure largely in the future history of the explosives of

commerce.

TO AN ENGLISH GIRL.

BY ALEXANDER ANDERSON.

You smile, and half in jest you ask
A song from me. A simple task,
If he who sings had all the youth
And freshness of thy maiden truth,
To give to words the glow and light,
Without which who can sing aright?
But other years than those which make
Thy brow a splendour for thy sake,
Are mine, and at their touch I feel
A certain sadness upward steal,
That whispers, only heard by me:
'He must be young who sings to thee.'

*

You answer: 'It is said or sung
That poets must be always young-
That unto them the years pass by,
And leave no shade on brow or eye-
That youth still keeps its summer day,
And age is ever far away.'
Alas! a sage has said, who dwelt
Where beauty like a sun is felt,
That poets start this life in gladness,
But in the end there cometh madness.
Sad truth; for when we journey on,
The golden mists of fancy gone,
Which, fools of our own dreams, we threw
O'er all that came within our view,
We catch, with sadness in our eye,
Dull hills beneath a duller sky,

* Wordsworth.

And miss the light that came and went
Like music o'er an instrument.
Enough! No threnody from me;
No sorrow when I sing to thee.

But what to say or sing? In sooth,
My muse must be thy blooming youth,
And that fair face and cheeks, whereon
Love has his sweetest roses thrown,
And touched with dainty finger-tips
The dewy crimson of thy lips,
And set in light, with half a sigh,
His own sweet language in thine eye-
This must my inspiration be,

Or how else could I sing to thee?

I dream, and dreaming, place thy feet
In woodland paths when spring is sweet,
Where in the silence scarcely stirred,
The bursting of the leaves is heard,
And like a murmur through the air
The new life throbs, and all is fair.
Or better, on an afternoon

In some rich English lane in June,
With all the hedge on either side
Aglow with roses in their pride;
The winds of summer in thy hair,
As loth to wander otherwhere;
And overhead a sky serene,
Where not a single cloud is seen;
And humming as you trip along
Stray snatches of an English song,
Of lovers talking as they pass

Through meadows thick with springing grass,
Or plighting love-troth at the stile,
And I to see thee all the while,
Deeming thy voice-ah, who would not?-
The fairy echo of the spot.

This, this, were sweeter for your prime,
An English lane in summer-time,
Than this cold city, where the dust
Of streets corrodes and eats like rust;
Where life roars on, and pulses beat
With throbbing blood at fever-heat,
And all the weary waves we see
Of this strange, sad humanity,
Flow and re-flow without a pause,
Like tidal-breaths that ocean draws,
Till weary of such yearning quest,
They moan at midnight into rest.

Ah, wherefore ask a song from me,
As if it could be aught to thee?
For sweeter far than verse, is all
Thy young heart's happy madrigal,
Which, sung to thee when all is still
And fancy wanders at her will,
Wafts thee, as light as clouds are blown,
To that fair realm where dreams alone
May enter, and where, low and clear,
Love with his lips against thine ear
Whispers those words, that said or sung,
Remould this world, and make it young,
Till fields and woods, and seas and skies
Draw back the light of Paradise,
And in its sunshine thou dost stand,
Full maiden in a maiden's land,
And on thy brow, as horoscope,
The golden aureole of hope.

Ah! wherefore ask a song from me?
He must be young who sings to thee.

Printed and Published by W. & R. CHAMBERS, 47 Pater noster Row, LONDON, and 339 High Street, EDINBURGH

All Rights Reserved.

CHAMBERS'S JOURNAL

OF

POPULAR

LITERATURE, SCIENCE, AND ART

Fifth Series

ESTABLISHED BY WILLIAM AND ROBERT CHAMBERS, 1832
CONDUCTED BY R. CHAMBERS (SECUNDUS)

No. 56.-VOL. II.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 24, 1885.

THE STORY OF THE CHANCERY

FUNDS.

THERE are probably few matters which are more shrouded in mystery, so far as the public are concerned, than the Chancery Funds. The old prejudice which, not without reason, attached to the Court of Chancery still clings to it, in spite of the drastic changes which it has undergone in recent years, and many, if not most, people are as sceptical as ever as to the reality or at least the 'realisability' of 'money in Court' or 'an estate in Chancery.' Yet, as a matter of fact, the records of the Chancery Pay Office would furnish materials for many a golden romance. They could tell many a tale of fabulous riches as securely buried as if they had been hermetically sealed-up in the Great Pyramid; and they could also reveal many a pitiful story about the widow's dole and the orphan's pittance, which neither was ever destined to receive.

The extraordinary powers possessed by the Court of Chancery were not, as may be supposed, acquired at a bound, but are the result of the slow growth and constant accretion of centuries. As far back as the twelfth century, the state minister who held the high dignity of Chancellor, and who in those days was generally an ecclesiastic, wielded a kind of independent legal jurisdiction. About that time, also, the powers of jurisdiction previously possessed by the ecclesiastical courts were abrogated, and these courts restrained from any further meddling with such questions as breach of faith or trust arising between laymen in regard to civil matters. Many of these questions were thenceforth left to be dealt with by the Chancellor in his court, hence called of Chancery; and the funds in dispute between litigants as to wills, trust estates, trade contracts, and the like, being as a rule ordered, until the decision of the bench had been given, to be paid into Court, the basis was laid for that great accumulation of money now known as Chancery Funds. The machinery which produced

PRICE 1d.

and guarded these vast accumulations has long been so cumbrous, that any dealing with funds in Court has always involved great trouble and expense. In the case of those who were entitled to small sums, it was often practically impossible to obtain payment of the same, except after an outlay which absorbed the whole fund. Further, the system was such, that those who were not prepared with proofs of their claim, could only obtain information as to the moneys in question by securing the services of agents or solicitors, with the certainty of incurring a heavy bill of costs, while it was extremely problematical whether they could make good their claims. The consequences were inevitable. In the course of time, a large fund, formed to a great extent of small sums to which no claimants were forthcoming, accumulated, and this eventually became known as the Dormant Funds in Chancery. At intervals of fifteen years, it is true, a list of titles of accounts has in latter times been published, but in such a way as to have had very little publicity, since the list was merely posted on the doors of the Chancery Pay Office.

As a matter of fact, indeed, a great many people and poor people too-were, and still are, interested in the Chancery Funds without knowing anything about it; for it is according to the traditions of the Court of Chancery to be more ready to take charge of the keeping and division of money than to publish information, or afford access to information, except at inordinate expense. It will, then, we imagine, be agreeable news to these, if not to the public generally, to learn that under the Supreme Court Funds Rules, 1884, which are now in full operation, there should, once and for all, be an end to all mystery as to the Chancery Funds. These may, in fact, be regarded as a new departure in red-tapeism, which can hardly fail to be blessed with definite results. The Chancery Funds, in common with all those vested in the Supreme Court of Judicature, have been placed under entirely new management.' But the most

practical and tangible alteration effected by the new rules is, that by their instrumentality folks who are entitled to funds in Court will in many cases be able to obtain payment without having to go shares with an avaricious agent or a professional man who places a value on his services too frequently limited only by the means of his client. The new powers which have been granted to the Paymaster-general, who, as a main part of the machinery of reform enacted by the Chancery Funds Act of 1872, superseded the old Accountant-general of the Court of Chancery, are, too, of great importance, since they will greatly facilitate dealing with these funds, and do away with many wearisome and expensive technicalities of procedure.

of a Master, a clerk in Chancery, and the Governor and two Directors of the Bank of England, before some family plate, for instance, could be handed over to a successful claimant. It is, then, not wholly surprising to learn that in 1725 a general order was made under the Great Seal, then in Commission, which placed all moneys in the safe custody of the Bank of England. This was the beginning of the Suitors' Fund, which was the first account of the Chancery Funds. But instead of more than seventy millions in about thirty thousand accounts, as at the present day, the books of the first Accountantgeneral showed a total of only seven hundred and forty-one thousand nine hundred and fifty pounds in four hundred and fifteen accounts. But in order to understand the changes which Little further change in the management of the have been inaugurated by these new rules, it is funds was introduced until the year 1739, when necessary to glance briefly back at the story of the system of investing these moneys was inaugu the Chancery Funds. Roughly speaking, this is rated by laying out thirty-five thousand pounds the generic name for all funds with which the in Exchequer tallies. These were exchanged old Court of Chancery has ever been concerned, for consols in 1752. This plan has since been whether trust funds, moneys deposited during greatly extended, as the interest of these funds the dependence of cases, or sums payable by has long been applied in payment of working way of fees and official charges. These now expenses; but, of course, a large surplus accumuamount to the enormous total of nearly seventy-lated, and, by various statutes, this has been three millions of money! We must, however, devoted to various special purposes. This, howhasten to add that there is but little probability of more than a small part of this sum being divided. As to much of it, the Supreme Court of Judicature is only in the same position as a banker. And a very fine banking business, too, is conducted by this office with its turnover of nearly twelve millions a year. Of course, there are very considerable returns, and these have accumulated into a nice little fortune, upon which no one seems to have any claims, except the Crown at intervals, when dividends not likely to be claimed are carried over to the 'Suitors' Unclaimed Dividend Account;' that is, in effect to the Consolidated Fund. It will be surmised that many an estate in Chancery bears a curious analogy to the talent which the unprofitable servant buried in the ground, at least so far as the owner is concerned. This huge reservoir of wealth has been filled by a number of streamlets, as well as a few steadily flowing rivers, in the course of upwards of a hundred and fifty years.

Until early in the last century, the Masters and Ushers of the Court of Chancery had the no small privilege and profit of taking care of the property and money of suitors. But since many of them proved unable to resist the temptation of speculating with these funds during the South Sea Bubble craze, and about one hundred thousand pounds of the suitors' moneys lost, though it was afterwards made good by increasing the suitors' fees-other arrangements were made, and each Master was required to deposit in the Bank of England, as the regulation ran, 'a chest with one lock and hasps for two padlocks.' One of the keys was kept by the Master, and the other two by one of the six Chancery clerks and by the Governor of the Bank of England respectively. These chests, in which all the property and money of the suitors was supposed to be deposited, were kept in a vault, which could only be opened in the presence of two directors of the Bank; and we can well understand how irksome, though secure, must have been a system which required the attendance

ever, can only be regarded as public property upon the understanding that it is the profit which the Court makes as banker, or which the Crown succeeds to from those who have died without heirs.

The surplus funds have steadily increased, and from time to time have been applied for building purposes or for purchasing ground for the use of the nation. Thus it was out of this fund that the Royal Courts of Justice were mainly paid for, and its importance may be instanced by the illustration that in 1881 Mr Gladstone borrowed from this source forty million pounds for National Debt purposes. Here we must mention another fund-the Suitors' Fee Fund-which owed its creation to Lord Brougham, and which was originally formed out of the fees which Masters, Registrars, Examiners, &c., formerly retained as perquisites, but were by statute ordered to pay into Court. fund is also augmented by sundry other sources of income, such as the brokerage charges of the Chancery broker, who is a salaried official. Suitors' Fee Fund, it should be added, is entirely an income account, which now bears all charges such as salaries, &c. Any surplus that may remain is invested in consols, and the dividends only are added year by year to the Suitors' Fee Fund.

This

The

But perhaps of all the Chancery Funds none has attracted more attention than those which are classed as 'dormant.' It is easy to understand how these have come into existence. It is, for instance, scarcely surprising that during the progress of a 'Chancery suit' many of the interested parties should die and their representatives might easily be ignorant of their claims, or they might have no relatives. Again, many doubtless abandoned in despair the hope of making good their claim, and wiped off the account, especially in cases when it was small in amount, as a bad debt. And here it may be remarked, that a good many litigants, both present and future, would be the richer if they were to follow their example. But

Jan. 24, 1885.]

whatever the cause, the existence of these funds is a real fact. Meagre as is the information which has from time to time been forthcoming as to these funds, it goes to show that they form a very considerable aggregate amount, and that their management has long justly been the cause of great dissatisfaction.

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For a considerable time, no investigation was really made into these accounts. But in 1829, a Return was presented to parliament which showed that the sums of stock with dividends and sums of cash to the amount of nearly four hundred and fifty thousand pounds had been lying dormant; or in other words, had not been claimed or otherwise dealt with for periods varying from five to twenty years. It was, however, not till 1855 that a list of five hundred and sixty-six accounts, amounting to two hundred and fifty-seven thousand one hundred and seventy-six pounds in value, which had been dormant for fifteen years, was issued, with the natural result, that claimants to about one half appeared, and got their money. Similar lists have since then been published at intervals of fifteen years. From one of these, it appeared that as to twelve hundred accounts, three hundred and fifty-one were less than one pound, and eight hundred and thirty-one less than five pounds. It is scarcely necessary to add that it would not pay to get these out of Court.

As examples of the age and nature of many of the items in the Chancery accounts, the following may be given, though the sums themselves are not mentioned:

Heyden v. Owen.-The account of the seamen of

H.M. ships Decade and Argonaut (year 1813). Blaney v. Arnold.—The legatees' account (year 1774).

Bruce v. Kinloch.-The creditors' account (year
1814).

Chadwick v. Chadwick (year 1738).
Coppock v. Coppock.-Moneys to answer James
Colbourn's claim for ten thousand pounds
and interest when proved.

Court v. Jeffrey. The account of unpaid and
lapsed legacies.

ally and in alphabetical order; but this has not been complied with, and it remains to be seen whether the re-enactment of this regulation by the new rules, which require these lists to be published every third year on or before the 1st of March, will have any definite result. If the story of many of these buried fortunes is ever made fully public, we shall once more be reminded that truth is stranger than fiction. In the meantime, those in search of sensational facts would do well to search the back lists and the archives of the Bank of England, where boxes of diamonds, trinkets, plate, chipped money,' securities, the Princess Banatinsky's box of jewels, George Colman's will, and other articles curious or valuable, have been waiting for their owners from long beyond human memory.

But we have said enough to indicate the nature of the Chancery Funds; and it will probably be admitted that it is hopeless to expect such intricate financial machinery to work in a manner which shall be wholly satisfactory to the public, the suitors, and officials concerned. Still, the system is a vast improvement on the old. It is, for instance, a wholly novel regulation which empowers any one claiming to be interested in funds in Court to obtain a transcript of the account, and such other information as may be required, upon application to the Paymaster-general, a privilege that should certainly greatly facilitate the establishment of claims without incurring those expenses which have hitherto been exacted. Again, amongst other innovations, is one whereby any person residing in the United Kingdom and entitled under an order to any dividend, annuity, or other exceeding five hundred pounds, may obtain a periodical payment, or any other payment, not remittance of the same by post.' To those who are acquainted with the traditions of the now defunct Chancery Pay Office, this will indeed seem an earnest of a great reformation.

Possibilities of still more satisfactory facilities are, too, foreshadowed by the fact, that the order be taken as equivalent to an order of Court. If of the Paymaster-general is in certain cases to Derelict property brought into the port of this power be exercised, claimants may be saved Nassau, in New Providence, and sold for the immense sums of money. But the scope of the benefit of the rightful owner when appear-system of dealing with these funds is remonew rules is most comprehensive. The whole ing (year 1824).

Drever v. Mawdesley.-The hundred years'

account.

The account of John Hames (a convict) and

his children.

The account of John Hardman, convicted of felony.

The account of the unclaimed legacy of Sebas

tian Nash de Brissac.

Unknown persons interested in certain free-
holds in Bill Alley and White's Alley, in
the city of London.

Unknown persons interested in certain free-
holds in Great Swan Alley, city of London.
The account of the creditors of Charles, Duke
of Bolton (year 1781).
Winter v. Kent.-Fund to answer unclaimed
legacies given by the will of James Under-
hill (year 1784).

One of the enacted reforms of the Act of 1872 was to require these lists to be published trienni

delled. It will in future be easier than ever to lodge money in Court; and the exchange, with the National Debt Commissioners have also or conversion, of securities and the transactions been greatly facilitated.

The Court of Session in Scotland, which is

a court of equity as well as law, has always within its territory practically discharged the functions of the English Court of Chancery, its long arm to administer estates in foreign though it has never, like that court, put forth countries. For example, it has never done for any Englishman's estate what the Court of Maxwell's Scotch estate of half a million, and Chancery is now doing for Sir W. Stirlingrecently attempted to do for Mr Orr Ewing's notorious. But the Scotch court does sometimes, estate in a style and with results sufficiently with a view to the protection of drawers of money, order payment of money, not exactly into court, but into some chartered bank, subject to

the orders of court. The money is paid into the bank specified in the order. A deposit receipt is taken from the bank, specifying the cause or person for whom it is held, and that receipt and all such receipts are held by the Accountant of Court, who discharges in so far as required the functions of the Chancery Paymaster-general. Indorsations on the back of the receipt record all changes in the fund. When money thus consigned is not claimed by its owner, it simply remains in the bank, and may, after the course of forty years has cut off, by prescription, the right to claim it, fall to be the property of the bank, as has been the fate of the contents of countless deposit receipts which have been burned or lost, or whose owners have died without making a claim, or leaving information to enable their heirs to make a claim. Where there are no heirs, the Queen's Remembrancer makes and establishes a claim for the Crown. With money paid into court there is no difficulty, owing to the ready information of the Accountant's office; but vast sums of what would be 'dormant funds' in Chancery, if the English system prevailed in Scotland, are unclaimed deposits in bank, of which the public know nothing, and, in the present state of the law, can never learn anything. It is a matter of no inconsiderable interest whether the Scotch banks ought not to be obliged to publish lists of their unclaimed deposits,' such lists as public opinion has wrung from the Court of Chancery. If this were done, it would appear that the romance of treasure held as if by enchantment was not entirely confined to London and the Bank of England.

A HOUSE DIVIDED AGAINST ITSELF.

CHAPTER IV.

Ir was natural that this occurrence should take a great hold of the girl's mind. It was not the first time that she had speculated concerning their life. A life which one has always lived, indeed, the conditions of which have been familiar and inevitable since childhood, is not a matter which awakens questions in the mind. However extraordinary its conditions may be, they are natural; they are life to the young soul which has had no choice in the matter. Still, there are curiosities which will arise. General Gaunt foamed at the mouth when he talked of the way in which he had been treated by the people at home;' but still he went 'home' in the summer as a matter of course; and as for the Durants, it was a subject of the fondest consideration with them when they could afford themselves that greatest of delights. They all talked about the cold, the fogs, the pleasure of getting back to the sunshine when they returned; but this made no difference in the fact that to go home was their thought all the year, and the most salient point in their lives. Why do we never go home?' Frances had often asked herself. And both these families, and all the people to whom she had ever talked, the strangers who went and came, and those whom they met in the rambles which the Warings, too, were forced to take in the hot weather, when the mistral was blowing, talked continually of their country, of their

parish, of their village, of where they lived, and where they had been born. But on these points Mr Waring never said a word. And whereas Mrs Gaunt could talk of nothing but her family, who were scattered all over the world, and the Durants met people they knew at every turn, the Warings knew nobody, had no relations, no house at home, and apparently had been born nowhere in particular, as Frances sometimes said to herself with more annoyance than humour. Sometimes she wondered whether she had ever had a mother.

These thoughts, indeed, occurred but fitfully now and then, when some incident brought more forcibly than usual under her notice the difference between herself and others. She did not brood over them, her life being quite pleasant and comfortable to herself, and no necessity laid upon her to elucidate its dimnesses. But yet they came across her mind from time to time. She had not been brought face to face with any old friend of her father's, that she could remember, until now. She had never heard any question raised about his past life. And yet no doubt he had a past life, like every other man, and there was something in it, something, she could not guess what, which had made him unlike other men.

She

Frances had a great deal of self-command. She did not betray her agitation to her father; she did not ask him any questions; she told him about the greengrocer and the fisherman, these two important agents in the life of the Riviera, and of what she had seen in the Marina, even the Savona pots; but she did not disturb his meal and his digestion by any reference to the English strangers. postponed until she had time to think of it, all reference to this second meeting. She had by instinct made no reply to the question about where she lived; but she knew that there would be no difficulty in discovering that, and that her father might be subject at any moment to invasion by this old acquaintance, whom he had evidently no desire to see. What should she do? The whole matter wanted thought—whether she should ask him what to do; whether she should take it upon herself; whether she should disclose to him her newborn curiosity and anxiety, or conceal that in her own bosom; whether she should tell him frankly what she felt-that she was worthy to be trusted, and that it was the right of his only child to be prepared for all emergencies, and to be acquainted with her family and her antecedents, if not with his-all these were things to be thought over. Surely she had a right, if any one had a right. But she would not stand upon that.

She sat by herself all day and thought, putting forward all the arguments on either side. If there was, as there might be, something wrong in that past-something guilty, which might make her look on her father with different eyes, he had a right to be silent; and she no right, none whatever, to insist upon such a revelation. And what end would it serve? If she had relations or a family from whom she had been separated, would not the revelation fill her with eager desire to know them, and open a fountain of dissatisfaction and discontent in her life, if she were not permitted to do so? Would

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