Arrest of the Body after Death.
It was long erroneously believed that the body of a debtor might be taken in execution, in this country, after his or her death. Such, however, was the practice in Prussia, till its abolition by the Code Frédérique.
The above idle notion we remember to have been repeated in connexion with the pecuniary embarrassments of Sheridan, at the time of his death, in 1816. It may have been fostered through the mis-reading of an account of a sheriff’s officer arresting the dying man in his bed; “he would have carried him off in his blankets, had not Dr. Bain assured him it was too probable his prisoner would expire on the way to the lock-up house!” After Sheridan’s death, the removal of his remains from Savile-row to Mr. Peter Moore’s house, in George-street, Westminster, to be near the Abbey for interment, more probably led to the story that the body was removed to escape arrest.
The Duty of making a Will.
When in 1859, Lord Northwick’s collection of pictures was about to be disposed of by auction, at Thirlestane-house, Cheltenham, we paid a visit to the gallery, and great was our regret at the thought of the dispersion of so extensive a collection, which had long been the pride of Cheltenham, and had been to that thriving town what the National Gallery is to the metropolis. Lord Northwick had collected these pictures during a life extending for nearly a quarter of a century beyond the average term allotted to man. Until within a year or two of Lord Northwick’s death, in 1859, he spent much of his time every day among his pictures, and took great delight in pointing out their beauties to any intelligent visitor. The collection, and another at Campden, were swept away by sale, which realized nearly 100,000l. Upon our visit to the Thirlestane Gallery, much as we were gratified with the pictures, we became impressed with the futility of devoting a long life to their collection, without providing against their dispersion; and subsequently to the sale, there appeared in the Morning Post the following remarks, which more fully bespeak our own feelings upon the subject:
We contemplate the dispersion of these pictures with two painful reflections, which, by way of caution or suggestion to other collectors, we wish to impress upon the public. The first is the comparative uselessness of collecting works of art without some provision for their preservation. The purpose of a life is dissipated, and a new illustration is given to the preacher’s moral, “Vanitas vanitatis est omnia vanitas.” Undoubtedly, he who collects treasures of art in the way Lord Northwick did, and gives the public the benefit of them during his life, does a great service in his day and generation; but it is impossible not to remember how much greater a service he renders who not only forms a collection but provides for its perpetuity. In the next place, see the duty of making a Will. These collections are dispersed because they form a portion of the personalty of the deceased, and there being no instructions as to their disposal, there is no choice but to sell them, and appropriate their proceeds among the heirs-at-law. Next to the mischief of making an unfair Will is that of making none at all. Had Lord Northwick ordered by Will the sale of his pictures, however disappointed the world might have been, it would have been felt that he had a right to do as he liked. But dying intestate, the sale follows as a matter of course, and the results of a long life and large fortune devoted to works of art are just nowhere. A gallery of pictures left to a family or to the public is an offering at the shrine of art; but, sold by auction, and dispersed among innumerable private purchasers, is sheer vanity and labour lost.
Don’t make your own Will:
Lord St. Leonards, in his Handy-Book of Property Law, says: “I am somewhat unwilling to give you any instructions for making your Will, without the assistance of your professional adviser; and I would particularly warn you against the use of printed forms, which have misled many men. They are as dangerous as the country schoolmaster or the vestry-clerk. It is quite shocking to reflect upon the litigation which has been occasioned by men making their own Wills or employing incompetent persons to do so. To save a few guineas in their lifetime, men leave behind them a Will which it may cost hundreds of pounds to have expounded by the courts before the various claimants will desist from litigation. Looking at this as a simple money transaction, lawyers might well be in despair if every man’s Will were prepared by a competent person. To put off making your Will until the hand of death is upon you, evinces either cowardice or a shameful neglect of your temporal concerns. Lest, however, such a moment should arrive, I must arm you in some measure against it.
“If you wish to tie up your property in your family you really must not make your own will. It were better to die without a will, than to make one which will waste your estate in litigation to discover its meaning. The words “children,” “issue,” “heirs of the body,” or “heirs,” sometimes operate to give the parent the entire disposition of the estate, although the testator did not mean any such thing. They are seldom used by a man who makes his own will without leading to a lawsuit. And now an operation has been given to like words by the new statute, which I could not explain to you without you possessed more knowledge of law than I give you credit for. It were useless for me to show how to make a strict settlement of your property, and therefore I will not try. I could, without difficulty, run over the names of many judges and lawyers of note, whose wills made by themselves have been set aside, or construed so as to defeat every intention which they ever had. It is not even a profound knowledge of law which will capacitate a man to make his own will, unless he has been in the habit of making the wills of others. Besides, notwithstanding that fees are purely honorary, yet it is almost proverbial that a lawyer never does anything well for which he is not fee’d. Lord Mansfield told a story of himself, that feeling this influence, he once, when about to attend on some professional business of his own, took several guineas out of his purse and put them into his waistcoat pocket, as a fee for his labour.”