Athenian laws[1] carried this principle into practice with a ſcrupulous kind of nicety: obliging all children to provide for their father, when fallen into poverty; with an exception to ſpurious children, to thoſe whoſe chaſtity had been proſtituted by conſent of the father, and to thoſe whom he had not put in any way of gaining a livelihood. The legiſlature, ſays baron Monteſquieu[2], conſidered, that in the firſt caſe the father, being uncertain, had rendered the natural obligation precarious; that, in the ſecond caſe, he had ſullied the life he had given, and done his children the greateſt of injuries, in depriving them of their reputation; and that, in the third caſe, he had rendered their life (ſo far as in him lay) an inſupportable burthen, by furniſhing them with no means of ſubſiſtence.
Our laws agree with thoſe of Athens with regard to the firſt only of theſe particulars, the caſe of ſpurious iſſue. In the other caſes the law does not hold the tie of nature to be diſſolved by any miſbehaviour of the parent; and therefore a child is equally juſtifiable in defending the perſon, or maintaining the cauſe or ſuit, of a bad parent, as a good one; and is equally compellable[3], if of ſufficient ability, to maintain and provide for a wicked and unnatural progenitor, as for one who has ſhewn the greateſt tenderneſs and parental piety.
II. We are next to conſider the caſe of illegitimate children, or baſtards; with regard to whom let us inquire, 1. Who are baſtards. 2. The legal duties of the parents towards a baſtard child. 3. The rights and incapacities attending ſuch baſtard children.
1. Who are baſtards. A baſtard, by our Engliſh laws, is one that is not only begotten, but born, out of lawful matrimony. The civil and canon laws do not allow a child to remain a baſtard, if the parents afterwards intermarry[4]: and herein they differ moſt materially from our law; which, though not ſo ſtrict as to re-
