Under these
circumstances--on which I offer no comment--I beg to perform my promise
of again communicating with you on the subject of your late husband's
Will.
"Be so kind as to look at your copy of the document. You will find that
the clause which devises the whole residue of your husband's estate to
Admiral Bartram ends in these terms: _to be by him applied to such uses
as he may think fit._
"Simple as they may seem to you, these are very remarkable words. In the
first place, no practical lawyer would have used them in drawing your
husband's will. In the second place, they are utterly useless to serve
any plain straightforward purpose. The legacy is left unconditionally
to the admiral; and in the same breath he is told that he may do what he
likes with it! The phrase points clearly to one of two conclusions. It
has either dropped from the writer's pen in pure ignorance, or it has
been carefully set where it appears to serve the purpose of a snare. I
am firmly persuaded that the latter explanation is the right one. The
words are expressly intended to mislead some person--yourself in all
probability--and the cunning which has put them to that use is a cunning
which (as constantly happens when uninstructed persons meddle with law)
has overreached itself.
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