To Josiah Wedgwood III   25 [April 1853]¹

Dear Jos.

I am very much obliged to you for giving yourself so much trouble & going so thoroughly into the Puzzle; & for all your clear statements.²

I received the conclusive document this morning from you. The whole has been an odd mistake.—

Yesterday I wrote an enormous letter to you, in which I traced the marriage settlement, & proved that the ^£5000 must have been Emma’s; but this masterly demonstration is now rendered superfluous, & you are spared reading a very long letter.

I do not understand in the least about the advantages of the Trust: but Erasmus seemed to think it safest to keep all things as they have been, & as it will cause very little trouble (& none for Dividends, as they send coupons for 7 years) I will transfer the Newcastle & Carlisle shares to you two in place of the Leeds & Bradford, & that makes all right, in fact ^£500 more than ought to be in trust by your yesterday’s statement. Erasmus had better keep the certificates, I sh^d. think, when signed by you.—

Do you understand whether it is of any consequence the declaration which was cancelled; it applied, I presume to Major Owen’s mortgage³ & not to Lord Powis’s.— I never had any declaration about the other Trust Property. Yet M^r Salt would not have drawn out the Paper without some use. What must be done?

Yours affec^ly | C. Darwin

I have asked Eras. to give me a list signed of the Securities which he holds as Trustee.