Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/477

 Ch. 17. the everal pecies of guardians, the firt are guardians by nature: viz. the father and (in ome caes) the mother of the child. For, if an etate be left to an infant, the father is by common law the guardian, and mut account to his child for the profits. And, with regard to daughters, it eems by contruction of the tatute 4 & 5 Ph. & Mar. c. 8. that the father might by deed or will affign a guardian to any woman-child under the age of ixteen; and, if none be o aigned, the mother hall in this cae be guardian. There are alo guardians for nurture ; which are, of coure, the father or mother, till the infant attains the age of fourteen years : and, in default of father or mother, the ordinary uually aigns ome dicreet peron to take care of the infant's peronal etate, and to provide for his maintenance and education. Next are guardians in ocage, (an appellation which will be fully explained in the econd book of thee commentaries) who are alo called guardians by the common law. Thee take place only when the minor is entitled to ome etate in lands, and then by the common law the guardianhip devolves upon his next of kin, to whom the inheritance cannot poibly decend; as, where the etate decended from his father, in this cae his uncle by the mother's ide cannot poibly inherit this etate, and therefore hall be the guardian. For the law judges it improper to trut the peron of an infant in his hands, who may by poibility become heir to him; that there may be no temptation, nor even upicion of temptation, for him to abue his trut. The Roman laws proceed on a quite contrary principle, committing the care of the minor to him who is the next to ucceed to the inheritance, preuming that the next heir would take the bet care of an etate, to which he has a propect of ucceeding: and this they boat to be "umma providentia ." But in the mean time Rh