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exclude a grandfather; and so on, in the higher degrees of ascendants.

In regard to the mother, the rule that she can claim nothing in the succession of her child, appears to be both cruel and absurd. If a person were dying without issue, leaving a mother, every natural feeling would prompt him to leave to this mother a competent part of his substance: but the law upon this subject is opposed to every such natural feeling.

To what extent a mother should take, in competition with her own children and their descendants, may be matter for consideration in England the statutes have regulated this apparently in an equitable way, by giving a third in such case to the mother.

3. The total exclusion of maternal relations from the succession, in any case, appears to require revision.

The succession of maternal relations is one deserving of much consideration: perhaps it is too much to put them. precisely on the same footing, in all cases, with relations on the father's side (as is done in England); but it appears to be manifest that they ought not to be entirely excluded.

4. The total exclusion of representation in every case in Scotland, in regard to the succession in personal estate, appears also to be most inequitable. Why should not representation be admitted among descendants to the remotest degree; and among collaterals to a limited and reasonable extent? This is the rule of the civil law, and it is the same under the statutes in England.

5. The rights of the executors, or nearest in kin of a wife predeceasing her husband in Scotland, also appear to require revision. Great inconveniences might occur from the state of the law upon this subject, as it now is.

We have little to direct us in regard to the precise nature of the obligations which a father might incur to his children, in regard to their interests in the personal estate

of a predeceasing mother. But unpleasant family disputes have arisen, and must arise in the present state of the law, upon this subject. We have seen that the rule of law, according to which the collateral relations of a wife, predeceasing without children, carry off the half of the goods in communion from a surviving husband, might be attended with strange consequences.

6. There appears to be no reason, why a person of illegitimate birth should in Scotland be unable to dispose of his personal estate by will or testamentary disposition, as he may so dispose of it according to the law of England. The habilitation of a bastard, by letters of legitimation from the King, is so easily obtained, that the present state of the law may be said only to affect the poor and the unwary.

But it is not in Scotland only, that alterations may be made with advantage to the public, on the law of personal succession. There are also various matters, which appear to require consideration and revision in the law of England, as connected with this subject.

1. It has been seen that it was well understood, that the statutes of distribution were originally penned with little correctness. (c) The decisions of the Courts have, in addition to, and in explanation of these statutes, established rules, which, in the province of Canterbury, perhaps, could not be very materially improved. But there is reason to doubt whether some of these rules, upon a revision of them, might not still be put upon a more equitable footing. I allude to the succession of the father, in total exclusion of the nearest classes of collaterals; the succession of maternal relations, as upon the same footing, in all cases, with that of the relations on the father's side; and the want of distinction,

(c) Supra, p. 36.

in any case, between the relations of the full and those of the half-blood.

2. But the great incongruity in England is, that the law of personal succession is placed upon a different footing in the different parts of that country.

It would be much more convenient, if the whole of England were put under the same rules of succession, instead of having, as at present, one system for the greater part of the province of Canterbury; another for the province of York; a third for the city of London; and other rules for the principality of Wales. It is true, that the universal power of disposing of personal estate by will, has tended to lessen the mischiefs arising from the present state of the law of England in this respect; but great anomalies still prevail, and, from time to time, form the subject of litigation and discussion. There can be no sound reason why these should not all be blended into one equitable common system.

In every partial alteration that may be adopted in either country, it will be highly expedient to keep in view, that it should have a tendency rather to advance than to retard that period, which sooner or later must arrive, when the rules of the law of personal succession shall be the same in every part of the empire. (d)

(d) It would have led into much too wide a field, to have attempted any inquiry in regard to the rules of the law of personal succession, established in the different dependencies and colonies of the British empire. These are of prodigious extent and variety. It is worthy of remark, that the French, when establishing their code, extended its operation, not only over the whole of France, but over every colony and dependency of the French Empire.

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Notes of what passed in the House of Lords, at the hearing of the Cause on the 20th and 30th of April, and the 4th and 7th of May, 1792.

(Taken by James Allan Park, Esq. Barrister at Law.)

MR. GRANT* for the Appellant.

This case is brought under the consideration of your Lordships, in order to settle some points of very general importance in the law of Scotland.

By that law, a person having neither wife nor child may dispose of his property in what manner he pleases. In marriage, if there be no special contract to exclude it, a communion of moveables takes place between husband and wife. But if a man die, leaving a wife and children, one third part of his personal property goes to the wife, which is called the jus relicta; one third part to the children, which is styled the legitim; and the remainder, called the dead's part, the owner may dispose of to whom he pleases. This right of legitim may be renounced, with or without a consideration; and, upon such renunciation, the general doctrine seems to be, that the share of the child renouncing accrues to the other children, unless a contrary intention of the father has been manifested. From

* Afterwards Sir William Grant.

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