A WEALTHY COMMONER.

Waikato Times, Volume XXXV, Issue 2826, 23 August 1890, Page 5 (Supplement)

A WEALTHY COMMONER.

Laegis fortunes are no longer so infrequent as to cxcitc astonishment when a paragraph appears in the newspapers giving particulars of some newly discovered prodigy of wealth. Besides the Rothschilds, the Vanderbilts, the Mackays, and a score or two of other known and reputed millionaires, there are many persons comparatively unknown to fame, or whose retired mode of living protects their worldly possessions from the curiosity of public inquisitiveness. The late Mr C. 11. M. Talbot, for many years "Father of the House of Commons" was notoriously a man of superabundant means, though his modest habits screened him from the inconvenience of the pubiic gaze. The proportions of his colossal wealth have been disclosed by the official procedure in connectiou with the probate of his will. He has bequeathed to his eldest daughter estates valued at £2,000,000, and his Great Western Railway stock, worth over £1,01)0,000 ; to another daughter an inheritance is left of £800,000 in London and North Western stock ; whilst a third daughter succeeds to the residue of the railway stock, valued at another £1,000,000. To these special legacies must be added the enormous capital, represented by the house property in London and certain provincial cities, before an approximate estimate is obtained of the princely fortune which helonged to the " disgustingly rich " testator up to the time of his death.