Still, there does remain an enormous amount that must be accepted or not, according as to whether or no credence can be placed in the unsupported testimony of Miss Smithers, for we cannot call on a child so young as the present Lord Holmhurst, to bear witness in a Court of Justice.

If Miss Smithers, for instance, is not speaking the truth when she declares that the signature of the testator was tattooed upon her under his immediate direction, or that it was tattooed in the presence of the two sailors, Butt and Jones, whose signatures were also tattooed in the presence of the testator and of each other--no will at all was executed, and the plaintiff's case collapses, utterly, since, from the very nature of the facts, evidence as to handwriting would, of course, be useless.

Now, I approach the decision of this point after anxious thought and some hesitation.

It is not a light thing to set aside a formally executed document such as the will of Nov.

10, upon which the defendants rely, and to entirely alter the devolution of a vast amount of property upon the unsupported testimony of a single witness.