ending supply; besides which there are the
provinces to work upon. Of course he gives the
preference to new establishments desirous of
pushing business, as they respond more liberally
and with less hesitation to his verbal and written
applications.

MORE OF WILLS AND WILL MAKING.

THE PANTON CASE.

THE will, true to its character, seems to
beget strange and exceptional spasms of
inconsistency; in its mysterious presence men will
delight to belie their own whole life, or steady
course of love and affections. The annals of
wills show that there is no security in a long
course of love on one side, or of devotion
on the other, between parent and child,
husband or wife. The word "will" is suggestive;
and, with a sort of devilish freak, all is reversed
of a sudden, and at the moment of discovery
the faithful and loving child finds herself
defrauded and cast out.

In the year 1838, a most respectable Welsh
gentleman, "Thomas Williams, Esq., of
Bryncross Castle, near Carnarvon, "was placed in
the dock at the Central Criminal Court,
charged with forging the will of his father-in-
law, Mr. Panton, a wealthy Welsh proprietor.
It was a most suspicious transaction, and when
the case against the prisoner closed, no one in
court could have a doubt of his guilt, as, indeed,
no one could who reads through the next few
paragraphs.

At a castle in Wales, near Carnarvon, there
was living, in the year 1837, a wealthy old
gentleman named Mr. Jones Panton. He was
possessed of large estates, and many shares and
stocks, and his son, Mr. Barton Panton, was
high sheriff of the county. Knowing as we
do the monotonous nomenclature of Wales, it is
scarcely a surprise to learn that the son was
married to the daughter of a Williams, or that
another Williams had married a sister of the
high sheriff. Both the gentlemen bearing that
name were local solicitors, and some awkward
circumstances made the marriage of Miss
Lauretta Panton singularly unfortunate. When the
wealthy owner of the castle found himself
obliged to bring some charge concerning a
diamond ring against his own son-in-law, no one
could have been surprised to learn that a
complete alienation had taken place between those
branches of the family. But it naturally turned
to the profit of the son, who had behaved as
became him, and it was accepted that the unlucky
business of the diamond ring had entirely cut off
Lauretta and her solicitor husband from all
chances of inheritance. And this seemed
reasonable, for the theory that those need
pardon who have done the wrong would, of
course, be fortified in the case of one armed
with the powers of a testator.

The position of the son was, besides, a strong
one. From the day he left his cradle, to use his
own words, to the death of his father, there
was the most unbounded affection between
them. When the son married, the father
stipulated that both wife and son should come
and live with him. He talked to other people
of this attachment, and was known to dote
upon his little grandchild. In due course of
time he had prepared wills. In an early one,
he had divided his property between his son
and daughter; but after the diamond ring
affair he had cut the latter off with a miserable
two hundred pounds. In May, 1837, he pointed
his wishes still more emphatically, and on one
occasion, when his last sickness was on him, and
in presence of an intimate friend, he handed
over to his son, with great solemnity, a bundle
which he said was his will, adding a sort of
proclamation: "I give you all the money I
have got in the house, with the arrears of rent
now due, my canal shares, stocks, plate, books,
pictures, wines, and farming stock." During
the fortnight's illness that followed, the old
gentleman received his medicines only from
the hands of his son and daughter-in-law; and
on the 24th of May he died. At the funeral it
was noticed that the disinherited solicitor
arrived very late; and, indeed, bearing in mind his
old disagreeable associations with the deceased,
any alacrity of attendance at the obsequies
was scarcely to be expected. All the relatives
and friends then assembled at the castle to
hear the document read, which was to make
Mr. Barton Panton the heir. This was a sort
of local custom, but here, again, it was remarked
that the solicitor of "diamond ring" notoriety,
just as the recital was about to commence, left
the room abruptly. This embarrassed the
new owner, who, with some courtesy, put off
the reading to another occasion. The
behaviour of the solicitor grew more and more
mysterious. He drove up one morning in his
carriage, and asked his brother-in-law if he
had any communication to make to him. It
must have been a disagreeable surprise for the
latter, though a solution of this doubtful
conduct, when, having duly proved his will in all
form, the solicitor came hesitatingly to the
front, and, announcing that he was in
possession of a later will, proceeded to enter a
caveat. This faltering was suspicious in the
extreme, but when the document itself was
produced, these suspicions became very grave
indeed. By this document the solicitor was
named executor, the disinherited Lauretta
residuary legatee. The body of the instrument
was written in the solicitor's handwriting, and,
though the signature was admittedly genuine,
a close examination with strong glasses discovered
some highly suspicious matters.
Underneath the writing were pencil-marks,
imperfectly rubbed out, of plans and names of streets,
and the name "Hurlock" was distinctly made
out. It was then recollected that some one of
that name had been co-tenant with the
deceased of some property in London, and that
the solicitor had negotiated the matter; further,
the witnesses were his own man, since dead,
and his two maid-servants. Taking the whole
circumstances together, no reasonable man
could doubt but that this had very much the
air of a clumsy forgery and a more clumsy plot.