Yesterday week the Probate Court, acting with a jury, in-
validated two wills of Mr. William Henry Ray Smee, on evidence that the testator was under a delusion at the time of making both wills, to the effect that he was the eon of George IV., and that a large sum of money was placed in the hands of trustees in trust for him by that monarch. In other matters, he remained sane, and, indeed, master of considerable intellectual powers, up to the last, but the question was whether at the time of executing either will he had a sufficiently clear judgment con- cerning the state of his property, to be fit for such an act. And the jury decided that neither the earlier nor the later will, both of which were executed after he was subject to the delusion, though only the latter betrayed the presence of the delusion, was valid. We should not greatly object, if only our in- testacy laws were as good in relation to real as they are in rela- tion to personal property, to see the Courts of Law even more jealous than they are of unreasonable wills, whether on the ground of intellectual incompetence or of Undue influence, and strongly disposed to distribute property devised by such wills on the gene- ral principles laid down by the State for intestates, But while the laws of intestacy as to real estate are what they are, we must say it is a little alarming to see a will upset on the strength of a delusion not in any way betrayed in the dispositions of the will.
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