Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/235

 Ch. 14. the firt feudatory or purchaor. In conequence whereof, if a vaal died poeed of a feud of his own acquiring, or feudum novum, it could not decend to any but his own offspring; no, not even to his brother, becaue he was not decended, nor derived his blood, from the firt acquirer. But if it was feudum antiquum, that is, one decended to the vaal from his ancetors, then his brother, or uch other collateral relation as was decended and derived his blood from the firt feudatory, might ucceed to uch inheritance. To this purpoe peaks the following rule; "frater fratri ine legitimo haerede defuncto, in beneficio quod eorum patris fuit, uccedat: in autem unus e fratribus a domino feudum acceperit, eo defuncto ine legitimo haerede, frater ejus in feudum non uccedit ." The true feodal reaon for which rule was this; that what was given to a man, for his peronal ervice and peronal merit, ought not to decend to any but the heirs of his peron. And therefore, as in etates-tail, (which a proper feud very much reembled) o in the feodal donation, "nomen haeredis, in prima invetitura expreum, tantum ad decendentes ex corpore primi vaalli extenditur; et non ad collaterales, nii ex corpore primi vaalli ive tipitis decendant :" the will of the donor, or original lord, (when feuds were turned from life etates into inheritances) not being to make them abolutely hereditary, like the Roman allodium, but hereditary only ub modo; not hereditary to the collateral relations, or lineal ancetors, or huband, or wife of the feudatory, but to the iue decended from his body only.

, in proces of time, when the feodal rigour was in part abated, a method was invented to let in the collateral relations of the grantee to the inheritance, by granting him a feudum novum to hold ut feudum antiquum; that is, with all the qualities annexed of a feud derived from his ancetors; and then the collateral relations were admitted to ucceed even in infinitum, becaue they might have been of the blood of, that is decended from, the firt imaginary purchaor. For ince it is not acertained Rh