Testamental Oddity

That Lord Morley, who recently died (TIME, Oct. 1), biographer of Rousseau, Voltaire, Gladstone, Burke, Cobden and others, should have forbidden the use of his papers to persons who " may desire to write a memoir of my life" seems the strangest of fiction. Yet a passage in his will makes it an unfortunate but transparent fact: " I give to my nephew, Guy Estell Morley, all my correspondence, diaries and written fragments, to be dealt with as he may think fit, at his own discretion. And, as it is possible that some person may desire to write a memoir of my life, I enjoin upon my executors and each of them to refuse to aid or encourage any such designs and not allow any such person to have access to any of my papers, whether personal or acquired in the course of official duty, either for perusal or otherwise.

"I also desire that the same refusal of access to my papers shall be extended to persons writing memoirs or biographies of friends of mine or others."