payment of the annuity, and he, therefore never
presented himself to prove his existence till
he was sought out and fetched. He had
always forgotten all about it. When I
proposed to give him a per centage upon the
receipts, in order to secure his attendance,
our solicitor—or rather my solicitor, as I
was now compelled to move individually—
consulted counsel, as usual, who told the
attorney, as usual, who then told me, that
the law gave me no power whatever to act in
such a sensible manner. There was no
course left open but to use all due diligence
in finding the Tontine annuitant when he
was wanted, which I was bound to do in my
capacity of trustee, under penalty of all the
terrors of the Court of Chancery. My plan
was to watch the published insolvents' list,
which saved me a good deal of useless labour.
To go to any shop or house that had been in
the possession of the Tontine annuitant on
the last day of payment, was only to find it
empty and closed, or with another name on
the door-plate or over the window front.
The explanation of this peculiar restlessness
on the part of the Tontine annuitant was
found in his description when he came before
the commissioner. He had always been
trading under the firm of Inkstand and Co.,
as general merchants; he had always been
first of one street, then of another street, and
afterwards renting furnished apartments in
another street, while he followed no trade or
occupation; he had always been a director
of a loan-office, a manager of a gold mining
company, and auditor of some provident
tradesmen's association, an accountant, a
photographic artist, a temperance lecturer
or speaking convert, a chorus singer, a dealer
in pictures, an author, a public reader of
plays, a traveller on commission, and a
keeper of a servants' registry office. He had
always been acting part of the time as a
house-agent at the new marine settlement of
Stillwater, and during the whole of the time
had given lessons in animal magnetism and
the art of clairvoyance.

All this apparent industry and activity
never seemed to meet with a substantial
reward, and he went as regularly to Portugal
Street for the benefit of the Act, as some
people do to the Bank of England for the
benefit of the dividends. He knew all the
Commissioners of Insolvency, with their
tempers, their prejudices, their weaknesses,
and their peculiar interpretations of the law,
and he was almost as much interested in the
death or retirement of one of these judges as
the crowd of rising old barristers who hoped
to get the appointment.

So far my Tontine annuitant was always
to be found; but the trouble of searching for
him in the particularly stifling atmosphere
of a Portugal Street law court, or the equally
unsavoury atmosphere of a Portugal Street
tavern, had soon too little of novelty about it
to make it any longer agreeable. I had
seriously begun to consider what course I
could adopt to secure him in one spot, and
had even written to a friend who had some
interest about procuring him a government
appointment, when, to my great relief, I
heard that he had suddenly sailed for British
Columbia to introduce a new system of fire
and life insurance. I have used all due
diligence as a trustee to find him out, by writing
a few letters to the colony, without obtaining
any reply; and I consider my labours as an
Executor finally closed. I never expect to
see my Tontine annuitant again, and I shall
certainly never blindly accept another similar
trust.

A LAST HOUSEHOLD WORD.

THE first page of the first of these Nineteen Volumes, was devoted to a Preliminary
Word from the writer by whom they were projected, under whose constant supervision
they have been produced, and whose name has been (as his pen and himself have been),
inseparable from the Publication ever since.

The last page of the last of these Nineteen Volumes, is closed by the same hand.

He knew perfectly well, knowing his own rights, and his means of attaining them, that
it could not be but that this Work must stop, if he chose to stop it. He therefore
announced, many weeks ago, that it would be discontinued on the day on which this final
Number bears date. The Public have read a great deal to the contrary, and will observe
that it has not in the least affected the result.

THE END OF THE NINETEENTH VOLUME, AND OF THE SERIES.