The story about Sir John Soane's will which we quoted
last week from a contemporary turns out to be nearly base- less. The Trustees of the Museum were obliged, indeed, to open certain receptacles at considerable intervals, but they knew what they contained,—namely, certain letters bearing upon quarrels between Sir John Soave and his family which the testator wished to have published when the writers were dead, but which in the interval have lost all interest. Soon after Sir John Soane's death the receptacles were opened and examined, great lawyers holding that they must be searched for valuables, we presume in order that legaci duty might be paid. There was, however, no concealment of property, and therefore no opportunity for the rifling which seemed to us to be possible. The novelists ought to take note of the case, for they are always locking up inherited property for long periods, and never remember that the Commissioners of Inland Revenue might in such cases have remarks to make.
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