to the nation has been announced this week in the shape of the late Sir Richard Wallace's grand collection of paintings and art treasures of every kind. It had been the intention of Sir Richard Wallace himself to make provision in his will for this great gift to England; but this intention was never carried into legal effect. His widow, however, was well aware of his desires in the matter, and she has by will carried them: into effect. Lady Wallace died quite recently, and the will' has just been proved. Practically the only condition imposed is that the Government shall erect a special museum in a central site in London for the collection, and that it shall he named the Wallace collection; and as the treasures it contains are valued at upwards of a ion pounds this is not by any means an unreasonable condition. The collection was in the main made by the fourth Marquis of Hertford, whose father has secured a not altogether enviable. immortality in the works of Thackeray and Lord Beaconsfield as the Marquis of Steyne and Lord Monmouth. The third Marqais of Hertford it may be remembered left the whole of his fortune to Sir Richard Wallace, who had been his constant companion, and whose profound knowledge and keen sense of art are largely responsible for the value of the inheritance which has just come to the nation. The parentage of Sir Richard Wallace, whose philanthropy and public services gained him a _baronetcy, is still wrapped in. mystery. By some he is supposed to have been an illegitimate son the "Marquis of Steyne,", and by others-a son. of the fourth Marquis, who was never married.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.