cially as it ſubſiſts among the cuſtoms of gavelkind, and as, in the charter or laws of king Henry the firſt, it is not (like many Norman innovations) given up, but rather enforced[1]. The true reaſon of preferring the males muſt be deduced from feodal principles: for, by the genuine and original policy of that conſtitution, no female could ever ſucceed to a proper feud[2], inaſmuch as they were incapable of performing thoſe military ſervices, for the ſake of which that ſyſtem was eſtabliſhed. But our law does not extend to a total excluſion of females, as the Salic law, and others, where feuds were moſt ſtrictly retained: it only poſtpones them to males; for, though daughters are excluded by ſons, yet they ſucceed before any collateral relations: our law, like that of the Saxon feudiſts before-mentioned, thus ſteering a middle courſe, between the abſolute rejection of females, and the putting them on a footing with males.
III. A third rule or canon of deſcent is this; that, where there are two or more males in equal degree, the eldeſt only ſhall inherit; but the females all together.
As if a man hath two ſons, Matthew and Gilbert, and two daughters, Margaret and Charlotte, and dies; Matthew his eldeſt ſon ſhall alone ſucceed to his eſtate, in excluſion of Gilbert the ſecond ſon and both the daughters: but, if both the ſons die without iſſue before the father, the daughters Margaret and Charlotte ſhall both inherit the eſtate as coparceners[3].
This right of primogeniture in males ſeems antiently to have only obtained among the Jews, in whoſe conſtitution the eldeſt ſon had a double portion of the inheritance[4]; in the ſame manner as with us, by the laws of king Henry the firſt[5], the eldeſt ſon had the capital fee or principal feud of his father's poſſeſſions,
