DISTRESS. 308 DISTRIBUTION. iind the claim of the distrainor satisfieil out of the proceeds. In such a jurisdiction, the cliarac- Icr of the renieUy by distre.-is has been completely chanjied from a s|)ecies of Icfjal duress to a vari- ety of attachment or execution. See Landlord AND Te.xa.nt; Kent. Consult: lUackstone, Commentaries on the J.iius of Knffland; Maine, Aticiciil Late ( New York, 1872) •. Lectures on the Early History of IiistiltilioDS ((ith cd., London, IS'.tSt; Gilbert, Treatise on the Lair of Distresses unit lieplerins (1st ed., London, 1857) ; Bullen, Practical Treat- ise on the Lair of Distress for Rent (London, 1842): and the authorities referred to under Landlord and Tenant. D'ISTRIA, de'strc-a, Dora. See Dora d'I.stkia. DISTRIBUTION (Lat. distributio, from dislribmri . to cli>tribute. from dis-, apart + tribiicrc, to j;ive. from trihiis, tribe). The de- partment of political economy devoted to the con- sideration of the rewards which are allotted to the several factors in proiluctiim. It is a famil- iar axiom of political economy that land, labor, and capital arc united in the production of goods, and that to each is accorded :i share of the prod- uct. Distribution studies the laws which gov- ern the recompense of the several factors, and thus includes the law of rent, the law of wages, and the law of interest and profits. It is as- sumed that the three factors are in possession of three difierent sets of persons, although this is not essential to the formulation of laws. The union in one person of two of the factors would give to him a mixed reward, the componeifts of which would be governed by different laws. There has been a tendency in recent years to draw more sliarply than formerly the line between interest and profits, to distinguish between the owner of capital, who receives interest, and the employer of capital, who receives profits. This distinction is of increasing importance in the modern world, which, with its extension of credit, permits so large a share of the world's business to lie car- ried on by borrowed ca])ital, and i)lace5 oppor- tunities at the disposal of energetic and enter- prising men which did not exist before. The area of discussion thus outlined represents the most controverted field in economic writing. It lias assumed prominence especially through the attacks of the socialists, whose contention is that the distributive process is radically at fault, and (horougbly inequitalile. It is interesting to ob- serve that as the discussion of exchange gave place in Adam Smith's writings to that of pro- duction, ,so later,' in the writings of Malthus, Ricardo, and Mill, distribution became the lead- ing element in economic discussion. The interest shifted somewhat from questions affecting the in- crease of the aggregate product to the considera- tion of the laws governing the distribution of the proiluct. Consult the works of Ricardo, .Tohn Stuart Mill, Cairnes, ilarshall, .Jevons, Walker, Clark, and Patten. Sec Tolitical Lcosomy; Inteb- E.ST; riKiHT; and Kknt. DISTRIBUTION. In its most general sense in llic law. the division of a surplus fund among those legally entitled to share therein. It applies equally to (he division of a trust fund among the rrstuis que trust, of the surplus assets of a bankrupt or insolvent among the creditors, of partnership jiropcrty after payment of debts among the copartners, and of the surplus in the hands of an administrator of an intestate among those entitled, as next of kin or otherwise, to sliare it among them. Distribution usually refers to the last of these, and the statutes which have been enacted in tireat Kritain and in the L nited States to regu- late the distribution of an intestate's pcrs(mal estate are known as statutes of distribution. The matter is one wholly of st-atute regulation at the present time. Formerly the personal estate of one dying in- testate passed at once into the hands of the bishop of the diocese, and the disposition made of it was determined by the ecclesiastical law, administered by the so-called 'ordinary court' of the diocese. There seems originally to have been no provisiim for the piiyment of the delits of the decedent, and the bulk of the estate, after deduct- ing some small provision for the widow and chil- dren, was devoted to the purposes of the Church ( in pios usiis) . It was, however, as early as 1285, provided by statute (St. Westminster II. c 10) that the ordinary should pay the intestate's debts just as an executor was bound to do, and in "i:i,")7 it was further enacted (.'il Edw. III. st. 1, c. 11) that the ordinary should commit the ad- ministration of the intestate's goods to his next and most lawful friends. The jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts over the administration of decedent's estates, whether tesUite or intestate, continued in England till 1857, when it was transferred by act of Parliament to the newly cre- ated Court of Prob;ite. It is now vested in the Probate. Divoiie, and .dmiralty Divisicm of the High Court of .lusliee, instituted by the .Tudica- tuie Act of 1873. In the I'nited .'states separate courts of this character, known variously as sur- rogates' courts, probate courts, ordinary courts, and orphans' courts, have existed from the earli- est period for the exercise of this jurisdiction. The administration of decedents' estates in- cludes (1) the payment of funeral expeii-ses, of the costs of ailministration, and of the decedent's debts: (2 I in the ca>e of an executor, the pay- ment of the legacies given by the will: and (;!) in the case of either aii executor or adminis- trator, the distribution of the surplus, if "any, among those entitled thereto under the statutes of distribution. The feudal law of land, which confined the descent of real estate to a certain jierson or class of [)crsons. taking as heir of the intestate, had no application to the transmission of the personal estate. That was from the beginiiing distributed on a more rational and humnne jilan. due, in large part, at least, to the mild iniluence of the canon, or ecclesiastical, law. It ha* been noticed that in the earliest period the riL'bt of the widow and children to share reasonably (partes ratio- iiiiliiirs) in the decedent's estate wius recognized. The same principles prevail to-day. There is n niueli less rigid <lassification of those who stand in the order of distribution than is the case in the law of tho descent <if land, and there is noth- ing rescml)ling the feudal preference of the male to the fi'iii:ile. of the eldiT to the youn;;er, of the whole to the half blood. In Knghind the matter is regulated by the statutes 22 and 2.1 Car. II., c. 10 and 1 .Tac. II., c. 17, known as the Statutes of Distribution, and the order of distribution provided for by them follows closely that of the
