Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/233

 Ch. 14. two ons, A and B, and A dies leaving two ons, and then the grandfather dies; now the eldet on of A hall ucceed to the whole of his grandfather's etate: and if A had left only two daughters, they hould have ucceeded alo to equal moieties of the whole, in excluion of B and his iue. But if a man hath only three daughters, C, D, and E; and C dies leaving two ons, D leaving two daughters, and E leaving a daughter and a on who is younger than his iter: here, when the grandfather dies, the eldet on of C hall ucceed to one third, in excluion of the younger; the two daughters of D to another third in partnerhip; and the on of E to the remaining third, in excluion of his elder iter. And the ame right of repreentation, guided and retrained by the ame rules of decent, prevails downwards in infinitum.

this right does not appear to have been thoroughly etablihed in the time of Henry the econd, when Glanvil wrote; and therefore, in the title to the crown epecially, we find frequent contets between the younger (but urviving) brother, and his nephew (being the on and repreentative of the elder deceaed) in regard to the inheritance of their common ancetor: for the uncle is certainly nearer of kin to the common tock, by one degree, than the nephew; though the nephew, by repreenting his father, has in him the right of primogeniture. The uncle alo was uually better able to perform the ervices of the fief; and beides had frequently uperior interet and trength, to back his pretenions and cruh the right of his nephew. And even to this day, in the lower Saxony, proximity of blood takes place of repreentative primogeniture; that is, the younger urviving brother is admitted to the inheritance before the on of an elder deceaed: which occaioned the diputes between the two houes of Mecklenburg, Schwerin and Strelitz, in 1692. Yet Glanvil, with us, even in the twelfth century, eems to declare for the right of the nephew by repreentation; provided the eldet on had not received a proviion in lands from his father, (or as the Rh