A ROMANTIC STORY OF FORTUNE.

An advertisement appeared fti tho Mcl bourne Age from Mr Cullmer, solicitor, of Chancery Lane, London, inquiring for tho . address or whereabouts of Henry Mottlee, 1 as the sum of £17,000 was awaiting pay1 ment to him by the Court of Chancery. ■ The man advertised for is, it seems, a : resident of Ballarat, and he became aware • of his good luck in a somewhat singular manner. Mottlee, who together with his wife and family occupies a small house on the Smythesdale Road, sent one of his t children one day to a reighboring shop to 1 purchase a tallow candle. Tl c candle^ on 1 being purchase 1 was wrapped in a piece . of The Age, which contained the "missing ■ friends " advertisements, and on the gW taking the candle home Mottlee p'eked up the wrapper after it had been throw a on to . the floor, and commenced to read it. It is , almost needless to mention that he was i surprised when he read that ho had come into a fortune of £17,000. The bottle gatherer, it appears, was aware that'his relatives in bygone times had money in Chancery, and that originally it came from ' one Hawkins, who died in 1791, exactly 100 years ago. The advertisement mentions this fact, and a missing link in a certain chain o£ evidence having been supplied, the £17,000 goes to Mottleo as the next of kin. The lucky man, who has been a resident of the colony for 17 years, has to apply personally in London for tho money before the 30th of nest August.