fiction of law; ſince it is only upon a like ſuppoſition and fiction, that brethren of purchaſors (whether of the whole or half blood) are entitled to inherit at all: for we have ſeen that in feudis ſtricte novis neither brethren nor any other collaterals were admitted. As therefore in feudis antiquis we have ſeen the reaſonableneſs of excluding the half blood, if by a fiction of law a feudum novum be made deſcendible to collaterals as if it was feudum antiquum, it is juſt and equitable that it ſhould be ſubject to the ſame reſtrictions as well as the ſame latitude of deſcent.
Perhaps by this time the excluſion of the half blood does not appear altogether ſo unreaſonable, as at firſt ſight it is apt to do. It is certainly a very fine-ſpun and ſubtile nicety: but, conſidering the principles upon which our law is founded, it is neither an injuſtice nor a hardſhip; ſince even the ſucceſſion of the whole blood was originally a beneficial indulgence, rather than the ſtrict right of collaterals: and, though that indulgence is not extended to the demi-kindred, yet they are rarely abridged of any right which they could poſſibly have enjoyed before. The doctrine of whole blood was calculated to ſupply the frequent impoſſibility of proving a deſcent from the firſt purchaſor, without ſome proof of which (according to our fundamental maxim) there can be no inheritance allowed of. And this purpoſe it anſwers, for the moſt part, effectually enough. I ſpeak with theſe reſtrictions, becauſe it does not, neither can any other method, anſwer this purpoſe entirely. For though all the anceſtors of John Stiles, above the common ſtock, are alſo the anceſtors of his collateral kinſman of the whole blood; yet, unleſs that common ſtock be in the firſt degree, (that is, unleſs they have the ſame father and mother) there will be intermediate anceſtors below the common ſtock, that may belong to either of them reſpectively, from which the other is not deſcended, and therefore can have none of their blood. Thus, though John Stiles and his brother of the whole blood can each have no other anceſtors, than what are in common to them both; yet with regard to his uncle, where the common ſtock is removed one degree higher, (that is,
