Occasionally, through domestic differences, homes are broken up and the members dispersed, some perhaps going abroad.  In many cases, such persons it may be are not only lost sight of for years, but are never heard of again, and hence, when they become entitled to money, large sums are frequently spent in advertising for their whereabouts, and oftentimes with no satisfactory results.  Indeed, advertisements for missing relatives are, it is said, yearly on the increase, and considerable sums of money cannot be touched owing to the uncertainty as to whether persons of this description are alive or dead.  An interesting instance occurred in the year 1882, when Sir James Hannen had the following case brought before him:  “Counsel applied on behalf of Augustus Alexander de Niceville for letters of administration to the property of his father, supposed to be dead, as he had not been heard of since the year 1831, and who, if alive, would be 105 years old.  In early life he held a commission in the French army, but in the year 1826 he came to this country and settled in Devonshire.  On the breaking out of the French Revolution he returned with his wife to France, but his wife came back to England, and corresponded with her husband till the year 1831, when she ceased to hear from him.  In spite of every means employed for tracing his whereabouts, nothing was ever heard of him, his wife dying in the year 1875.  Affidavits in support of these facts having been read, the application was granted.”

Then there are the well-known unclaimed funds in Chancery, concerning which so much interest attaches.  It may not be generally known what a mine of wealth these dormant funds constitute, amounting to many millions; indeed, the Royal Courts of Justice have been mainly built with the surplus interest of this money, and occasionally large sums from this fund have been borrowed to enable the Chancellor of the Exchequer to carry through his financial operations.  By an Act passed in the year 1865, facilities are afforded to apply L1,000,000 from funds standing in the books of the Bank of England to an account thus designated:  “Account of securities purchased with surplus interest arising from securities carried to the account of moneys placed out for the benefit and better security of the suitors of the Court of Chancery.”  Not so very long ago the subject was discussed in Parliament, when it was urged that, as the Government were trustees of these funds, something should be done, as far as possible, by publicity, to adopt measures whereby the true owners might become claimants if they had but the knowledge of their rights.