A Bill with the dreadful title "Reductions ex eapite lecti
" has been hurried through the Lords, and has elicited a formal " pro- test " from Lords Redesdale, Skehnersclale, Denman, and Ha war- den. Lord Redesdale knows business, and if his first assertion is correct a blunder has certainly been committed. We know nothing about the matter, but he says that since the passing of this Bill there is no mortmain law left iu Scotland. The effect of that will be that Scotland within a few years will be covered with endowments wretchedly managed, and devoted iu the majority of instances to objects which could be better attained without them. Lord Redesdale adds that the Bill was smuggled through the House of Commons, and is at this moment entirely unknown to the people of Scotland, who certainly did not intend to in- crease testators' liberty of creating " mortificatious."
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