self, for the purpose of providing an agricultural home for poor boys, in connection with an industrial school. "Witness my hand and seal this fourth day of February, A. D. 1879. [Signed] “MICHAEL KEEGAN. [Seal.]" And underneath this instrument is written an acceptance by Bishop Ireland, of the following tenor: "I hereby accept the above trusts for the purposes above specified. "JOHN IRELAND." [Signed Upon the back of this instrument is written the following letter from Keegan to Bishop Ireland: "Right Reverend John Ireland, D. D., Coadjutor Bishop of St. Paul, Minne sota: "RIGHT REVEREND SIR-To what is written on the other I add further that if my child should refuse to comply with your orders and wishes, and go from under your control, then while she so remains she is not to receive a dollar from you, either towards her support or education; but in case of her sickness do as your heart suggests. If she should become a religious, which God grant, before coming of age, place $10,000 at her disposal when fully professed, and the balance when she is 21 years old. Should she marry before becoming of age, she can have $5,000 on her marriage, to be placed at interest, and have the yearly interest of it until she is of age; the yearly interest or rent is to be put in staple coupon stocks, and as it falls due. But 10 per cent, of the interest or rent is to be regularly deducted from the income and devoted to such charities as your lordship thinks proper; but one-third of this 10 per cent. is to be given for masses for my soul, in union with the souls in purgatory, and the masses are to be said by priests in poor missions, or who need a little help. Regarding my wife, I will hereafter make a separate statement, which must be satisfactory to your approval. But if I should die suddenly, then let her have a decent support while she remains unmarried. These conditions are to apply to my property in your hands at the time and after my death. "I remain, my lord, most respectfully, your most obedient servant, The proof shows that the deed to Bishop Ireland, and the declaration of the trusts upon which the deed was made and the personal property delivered to him, were both prepared at the same time by the same attorney, and after consultation between Keegan and his attorney as to the best mode of creating the trust, so as to probably cause the least trouble to the bishop, and, if possible, to avoid litigation with any prospect of success; and whether the declaration or statement of the trusts was signed and delivered simultaneously with the deed, or at a subsequent date, in my estimation is of but little consequence. It may be, as I have already suggested, that the statement of the trusts was not signed and delivered to the bishop until the bishop was in Chicago, some time in the month of April, and possibly the letter upon the back of the declaration of the trusts was written thereon at or before the time it was delivered to the bishop. This, however, seems to me to be of little consequence, as there can be no doubt of the proposition that if a conveyance is made to a trustee upon trusts thereafter to be declared or designated by the grantor, and the trustee accepts the designation of uses so made by the grantor, the trustee is bound by such declaration and designation as completely as if the deed and declaration of trust were simultaneous, and part of one and the same transaction. There can be no doubt of the fact that by the conveyance of the property in question to the bishop he became a trustee, and until the objects of the trust were designated he was a mere naked trustee; but as soon as the grantor had in writing indicated the uses to which the property was to be applied, and the trustee had accepted the terms of the trust so indicated, the transaction was complete; so that even if we assume or admit that the letter on the back of the declaration of trust was written there before the delivery of the instrument and the acceptance of the trusts, then the written declaration of trust, dated February 4th, must undoubtedly be considered as modified by the letter of April 18th; but the modifications so made are of no importance at this time, as they only related to the management of the estate during the life and minority of the child, and during the life of the wife after her husband's death and while she remained a widow. If this child or the widow of Keegan were yet alive, important questions might arise as to the support of the child during her minority, and the support of the widow; but the particulars in which the letter modifies the declaration of trust in no way affect the questions as to the disposition to be made of the estate in case of the death of the child without issue. The child, Mary Gertrude Keegan, was born November 15, 1875, and on the seventh day of February, 1876, when the child was but little more than four months old, a deed in fee-simple was made by Keegan and his wife, conveying to this child two lots then owned by Keegan, described as No. 425 May street and 457 West Twelfth street, in this city, and being part of the property conveyed to Bishop Ireland by the deed of February 4, 1879. At the time this deed was executed and acknowledged Keegan remarked to the notary, pointing to the child, who was held in her mother's arms, "She is early in acquiring property," and he handed the deed towards the child, but did not give it into her hands, but kept it himself. This deed was never recorded, and was found among Keegan's papers after his death. The questions raised upon these leading facts are these: (1) Geraghty, the cross-complainant, insists that the deed from Keegan and wife to the infant child, made in February, 1876, is an operative conveyance, and vested the fee-simple to the lands therein described in the child, and that he, as the sole heir at law of the child, is entitled to hold the property, and to have the conveyance from Keegan to Bishop Ireland set aside as a cloud upon his title to the property covered by the deed to the child. (2) That the conveyance of the real and personal property to Bishop Ireland was obtained by reason of the undue influence of Bishop Ireland upon the mind of Keegan. (3) That the object of the trust in Bishop Ireland is left so obscure, uncertain, and ill-defined as to render such trust void and inoperative, and make it impossible to uphold or execute it as a trust to a charitable use. (4) It is insisted that the trust was never so far completed as to make it a valid trust in Bishop Ireland for the purposes designated in the declaration of trust of February 4, 1879. As to the deed from Keegan and wife to the child, the only question is whether it can be treated as ever having become an operative deed. It never was delivered to the grantee, and, considering the immature age of the grantee, it was, perhaps, impossible to have made such a delivery, and unnecessary that it should have been so made; but there is no doubt that the grantor in such a deed should do some act manifesting an intention to deliver the deed and make it effective. The testimony does not disclose the motives which led these parents, so soon after the birth of this child, to unite in a conveyance of this character. We only know from the proof that such a paper was signed and acknowledged by them. It was never recorded or published, in any way, by either of the parents, or ever after, alluded to in such way as to show that they, or either of them, considered it a consummated transaction. Whether the deed was made at the instance or request of the mother, and to please her, or whether it was a part of some inchoate plan or purpose of one or both of these parents, which was subsequently abandoned, we do not know. We do know this, however, that Keegan was a man of affairs, well acquainted with the forms of procedure requisite to make a valid conveyance of real estate; that he prepared most of his own deeds and business papers; and this fact, coupled with his retention of the deed without recording it, is quite conclusive evidence, to my mind, that he never intended it to become operative, especially when you supplement this fact with the manner in which he subsequently dealt with this property, and the disposition which he subsequently made of all his prop erty for the benefit of this child. I therefore feel impelled to the conclusion, from the testimony in this case, that the deed was never delivered, and has never become an operative grant to this child; and therefore that no title to the lands mentioned in this deed was cast upon the cross-complainant, Peter Geraghty, by descent as the sole heir at law of the child. As to the allegation of undue influence, I can find no evidence in the record that Bishop Ireland ever exerted, or attempted to exert, any influence to induce Mr. Keegan to convey his property to him, or make him a trustee. On the contrary, whatever evidence there is bearing on that question tends to show that Bishop Ireland accepted this trust reluctantly, and only out of consideration for his long friendship towards Mr. Keegan, and at Mr. Keegan's earnest and pressing instance and request. That Keegan was an earnest and zealous Catholic, and that his relations to Bishop Ireland for many years had been especially friendly and confidential, are facts amply shown from the proofs in the case. But it nowhere appears that the bishop advised this disposition of Keegan's property, or sought the office of trustee. As to the objection to the validity of the trust upon the ground that it is not so sufficiently defined that it can be executed with certainty, it seems to me very clear that Keegan's first and leading purpose was to make provision for his child. He had, by his industry and close economy, accumulated quite an estate for a man in his position of life, valued, as he deemed it, about the time this transaction took place, at from $75,000 to $80,000. He had unfortunate differences with his wife. He felt that his health was rapidly declining, and was anxious to make some sure disposition of the property by which it could be preserved for the benefit of his child; this seems to have been his first and controlling thought. Running throughout the whole web of this record is the constant expression of his anxiety to secure his property for the benefit of this child. At times, he seems. to have made some provision for his wife; but the papers making such provision were destroyed, and whatever arrangement of that kind was contemplated was never completed, so that finally, when, after consultation with his attorney, he came to a definite conclusion, it was to convey all his real and personal property to the bishop, in trust for the child; and the document which, undoubtedly, was intended to define that trust clearly, as the guide for the trustee in the subsequent disposition of the estate, was the paper prepared simultaneously with the deed by the attorney, and dated February 4, 1879. The subsequent letter of April 18th, indorsed upon the back of this paper, may be taken, in some respects, to be a letter of more minute direction as to the manner in which the bishop was to execute the trust for the benefit of the child, and, in a certain contingency, for his wife. He goes more into the details of how he would have the trust executed. What should be done with the estate in the event of the death of the child was a matter which he seems to have fully settled from the time the declaration of trust was signed, and is nowhere changed, nor is any intent to change it manifested. What he directed was that, in the event of the death of the child leaving no issue, the property was to be held by Bishop Ireland "for the purpose of providing an agricultural home for poor boys, in connection with an industrial school." This seems to me as definite as most donors, contemplating the founding of a charity, would consider necessary, and as definite and explicit as is necessary to point out the charitable use to which the property is to be applied by the trustee. It seems to me that a fair test as to whether this trust is stated with sufficient certainty or not is to inquire whether, if Bishop Ireland should neglect or refuse to execute this trust in accordance with the directions of the grantor, there is sufficient certainty in the terms of the declaration of trust to enable a court of equity to take possession of the trust through its own trustee, or receiver, and execute the trust and carry out the wishes and intentions of the donor. The direction is to provide an agricultural home for poor boys. It seems to me that such a direction would be clearly understood by any court of equity having jurisdiction of such matters; that such court could, without difficulty, see to it that the trustee which it should appoint should carry out the purpose thus clearly manifested. I am, therefore, of opinion that this trust cannot be defeated by reason of any uncertainty as to its object, or the purposes of the donor. But it is urged that this trust never became fully created, because the deed to Bishop Ireland was not recorded during Keegan's life, and very shortly after the securities were, forwarded to the bishop, he returned a portion of them to Keegan, who collected and reinvested and expended a portion of them in the exercise of his own judgment, and to some extent in accordance with the arrangements he had previously made; and that, shortly after the death of Mrs. Keegan, Bishop Ireland returned to Keegan, at his request, at Chicago, the box of securities, and that Keegan retained possession of those securities from that time until his death, thereby depriving the transaction of the character of a donation inter vivos, or a completed gift during the life |