the municipal law of the country then ſteps in, and declares who ſhall be the ſucceſſor, repreſentative, or heir of the deceaſed; that is, who alone ſhall have a right to enter upon this vacant poſſeſſion, in order to avoid that confuſion, which it's becoming again common would occaſion[1]. And farther, in caſe no teſtament be permitted by the law, or none be made, and no heir can be found ſo qualified as the law requires, ſtill, to prevent the robuſt title of occupancy from again taking place, the doctrine of eſcheats is adopted in almoſt every country; whereby the ſovereign of the ſtate, and thoſe who claim under his authority, are the ultimate heirs, and ſucceed to thoſe inheritances, to which no other title can be formed.
The right of inheritance, or deſcent to the children and relations of the deceaſed, ſeems to have been allowed much earlier than the right of deviſing by teſtament. We are apt to conceive at firſt view that it has nature on it's ſide; yet we often miſtake for nature what we find eſtabliſhed by long and inveterate cuſtom. It is certainly a wiſe and effectual, but clearly a political, eſtabliſhment; ſince the permanent right of property, veſted in the anceſtor himſelf, was no natural, but merely a civil, right. It is true, that the tranſmiſſion of one's poſſeſſions to posterity has an evident tendency to make a man a good citizen and a uſeful member of ſociety: it ſets the paſſions on the ſide of duty, and prompts a man to deſerve well of the public, when he is ſure that the reward of his ſervices will not die with himſelf, but be tranſmitted to thoſe with whom he is connected by the deareſt and moſt tender affections. Yet, reaſonable as this foundation of the right of inheritance may ſeem, it is probable that it's immediate original aroſe not from ſpeculations altogether ſo delicate and refined; and, if not from fortuitous circumſtances, at leaſt from a plainer and more ſimple principle. A man's children or neareſt relations are uſually about him on his death-bed, and are the
- ↑ It is principally to prevent any vacancy of poſſeſſion, that the civil law conſiders father and ſon as one perſon; ſo that upon the death of either the inheritance does not ſo properly deſcend, as continue in the hands of the ſurvivor. Ff. 28. 2. 11.
