GURZON’S CAUTION.

Waipawa Mail, Volume XLVI, Issue 147, 9 September 1925, Page 1

GURZON’S CAUTION.

SURVIVAL OF THE LANDED ARISTOCRACY. A SECRET DOCUMENT.

LONDON, July 27. 1 Lord Curzon of Kedleston has a ; high idea, if not of his own importance, at least of the importance of the family. Hence the manner in which lie has left Kedleston. His own lan- ’ gunge deserves exact reproduction:— “It is from no motives of pride or vanity that I desire to keep the Kedleston estate intact, and the mansion with its contents well cared for, but ; because, attaching as I do, a high value to the survival of the landed aristocracy of Great Britain, and be--1 Moving that they will still continue to ; be a source of stability to the Htate, I desire that my family, which has owned and resided at Kedleston for over 800 years, shall continue to live there and maintain the traditions of a not unworthy past. “I have sought to assist my successors in doing this with dignity, but without extravagance. Should 1 leave a son be will be the natural heir of these traditions, and my wife will, I know, assist him to carry out the ideas which I have described. Should I not leave a son, or should the Kedleston estates pass into collateral hands, 1 trust that future owners will : equally acknowledge the obligation.” But this great figure of our time left also a literary testament, the contents of which being, by his will, kept secret, would for that fact alone, I he intriguing. But there is a far deeper interest attached to this sec-

ret document, for he put in this testament so pungent a reference to a certain contemporary that it has been thought discreet to except the document from probate. The reflections, we are told, concern a Prime Minister under whom Lord Curzon served. As Lord Curzon held office under five Prime Ministers, sinister rumor is at once rife. The “Morning Post” says:—“As the document was intended rather- for guidance, than for publication,' it would he an important curiosity even to guess at its contents, and so, although we are but human, we refrain. Yet it does seem unfair to four innocent men that they should share even in the shadow of a censure which belongs to the hypothetical fifth. The Muse of History, to which this strange bequest is made, may herself, be disabled from giving it to the world, at least until all are dead and gone, whom it vitally concerns the secret locked in its tin box lies ill the lap of Time. But Lord Curzon need not have been so careful. A life devoted to the public service; great gifts in life and great gifts in death offered freely to his country should he an adequate monument “more enduring than brass.”