Page:Joseph Story, Commentaries on the Constitution of the United States (1st ed, 1833, vol I).djvu/207

 CH. XVII.] pervades the Union, is a strong proof of the general sense, not merely of its equity, but of its political importance.

§ 181. Avery curious question was at one time agitated before the king in council, upon an appeal from Connecticut, how far the statute of descents and distributions, dividing the estate among all the children, was conformable to the charter of that colony, which required the laws to be "not contrary to the laws of the realm of England." It was upon that occasion decided, that the law of descents, giving the female, as well as the male heirs, a part of the real estate, was repugnant to the charter, and therefore void. This determination created great alarm, not only in Connecticut, but elsewhere; since it might cut deep into the legislation of the other colonies, and disturb the foundation of many titles. The decree of the council, annulling the law, was upon the urgent application of some of the colonial agents revoked, and the law reinstated with its obligatory force. At a still later period the same question seems to have been presented in a somewhat different shape for the consideration of the law officers of the crown; and it may now be gathered as the rule of construction, that even in a colony, to which the benefit of the laws of England is expressly extended, the law of descents of England is not to be deemed, as necessarily in force there, if it is inapplicable to their situation; or at least, that a change of it is not beyond the general competency of the colonial legislature.

§ 182. (2.) Connected with this, we may notice the strong tendency of the colonies to make lands liable to