caught,  and  the  net  was  spread  in  vain  in  sight  of  the  bird.  They
were  told  what  would  happen.  One  of  the  peers,  who  had  aecumu-
lated  a  large  personal  estate  in  the  exercise  of  a  profession  which
produces  peers  regularly,  declared  that  he  would  never  pay  the
legacy  duty.  When  age  came  on,  he  gave  all  his  personal  estate  to
his  eldest  son,  reserving  to  himself  a  life  interest  in  the  whole;
The  son  became  a  lunatic,  and  died.  The  bereaved  father  had  to
pay  probate,  legacy,  and  intestate  duty  on  his  own  property,  and
died  shortly  afterwards  of  the  double  grief.  Then  the  estate  paid
legacy  duty  again.
If  Pitt's  finance  was  bad,  that  of  his  successors  was  worse.  Hi&
efforts,  well  meant  I  do  not  doubt,  were  full  of  misery  for  the  poor.
They  wore  him  out,  and  he  died  mox  daturas  progeniem  vitiogiorem.
After  a  short  interval,  he  was  succeeded  by  Perceval,  Perceval  by
Vansittart,  perhaps  with  the  exception  of  Dashwood,  sixty  years
before,  the  most  incompetent  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  who
ever  did  mischief.  Eobinson  and  Huskisson  were  incomparably
superior  to  him,  and  gradually  sounder  principles  of  finance  at  last
prevailed.  Parliamentary  reforms  came,  and  for  nine  years  the
Whigs  were  in  of5ce.  They  were  not  successful  in  finance.  Their
fiscal  policy  led  to  their  downfall  in  1841,  and  a  new  departure
began  with  Sir  Eobert  Peel.
