view as the civil, it may ſeem as if it ought to proceed according to the civil computation. But as it alſo reſpects the purchaſing anceſtor, from whom the eſtate was derived, it therein reſembles the canon law, and therefore counts it's degrees in the ſame manner. Indeed the deſignation of perſon (in ſeeking for the next of kin) will come to exactly the ſame end (though the degrees will be differently numbered) whichever method of computation we ſuppoſe the law of England to uſe; lince the right of repreſentation (of the father by the ſon, &c) is allowed to prevail in infinitum. This allowance was abſolutely neceſſary, elſe there would have frequently been many claimants in exactly the ſame degree of kindred, as (for inſtance) uncles and nephews of the deceaſed; which multiplicity, though no inconvenience in the Roman law of partible inheritances, yet would have been productive of endleſs confuſion where the right of ſole ſucceſſion, as with us, is eſtabliſhed. The iſſue or deſcendants therefore of John Stiles's brother are all of them in the firſt degree of kindred with reſpect to inheritances, as their father alſo, when living, was; thoſe of his uncle in the ſecond; and ſo on; and are ſeverally called to the ſucceſſion in right of ſuch their repreſentative proximity.
The right of repreſentation being thus eſtabliſhed, the former part of the preſent rule amounts to this; that, on failure of iſſue of the perſon laſt ſeiſed, the inheritance ſhall deſcend to the iſſue of his next immediate anceſtor. Thus if John Stiles dies without iſſue, his eſtate ſhall deſcend to Francis his brother, who is lineally deſcended from Geoffrey Stiles his next immediate anceſtor, or father. On failure of brethren, or ſiſters, and their iſſue, it ſhall deſcend to the uncle of John Stiles, the lineal deſcendant of his grandfather George, and ſo on in infinitum. Very ſimilar to which was the law of inheritance among the antient Germans, our progenitors: "haeredes ſucceſſoreſque ſui cuique liberi, et nullum teſtamentum: ſi liberi non ſunt, proximus gradus in poſſeſſione, fratres, patrui, avunculi[1]."
- ↑ Tacitus de mor. Germ. 21.
