the male only, and (among the males) whether the eldeft, youngest, or other fon alone, or all the fons together, fhall be his heir; this is a point, that we must refult back to the ftanding law of defcents in fee-fimple to be informed of. In order therefore to treat a matter of this univerfal con- [202] fequence the more clearly, I fhall endeavour to lay aside such matters as will only tend to breed embarrassment and confufion in our inquiries, and shall confine myself entirely to this one object. I shall therefore decline confidering at present who are, and who are not, capable of being heirs; reserving that for the chapter of efcheats. I fhall alfo pafs over the frequent divifion of descents in those by custom, ftatute, and common law for descents by particular cuftom, as to all the fons in gavelkind, and to the youngest in borough-english, have already been often hinted at, and may also be incidentally touched upon again; but will not make a feparate confideration by themselves, in a fyftem fo general as the prefent: and defcents by ftatute, or fees-tail per formam doni, in pursuance of the ftatute of Westminster the fecond, have also been already copiously handled; and it has been feen that the defcent in tail is reftrained and regulated according to the words of the original donation, and does not entirely pursue the common law doctrine of inheritance; which, and which only, it will now be our business to explain. AND, as this depends not a little on the nature of kindred, and the feveral degrees of confanguinity, it will be previously neceffary to state, as briefly as poffible, the true notion of this kindred or alliance in blood", CONSANGUINITY, or kindred, is defined by the writers on thefe fubjects to be "vinculum perfonarum ab eodem flipite "defcendentium;" the connexion or relation of perfons de See Vol. I. pag. 74, 75. Vol. II, pag. 83. 85. c See pag. 112, &c. d For a fuller explanation of the docrine of confanguinity, and the confe quences refulting from a right apprehen- fcended [203] fcended from the fame ftock or common ancestor. confanguinity is either lineal, or collateral. This LINEAL Confanguinity is that which fubfifts between perfons, of whom one is defcended in a direct line from the other, as between John Stiles (the propofitus in the table of confanguinity) and his father, grandfather, great-grandfather, and fo upwards in the direct afcending line; or between John Stiles and his fon, grandfon, great-grandfon, and fo downwards in the direct defcending line. Every generation, in this lineal direct confanguinity, conftitutes a different degree, reckoning either upwards or downwards: the father of John Stiles is related to him in the firft degree, and fo likewise is his fon; his grandfire and grandson in the fecond; his great-grandfire and great-grandfon in the third. This is the only natural way of reckoning the degrees in the direct line, and therefore univerfally obtains, as well in the civil, and canon', as in the common law 5. THE doctrine of lineal confanguinity is fufficiently plain and obvious; but it is at the first view astonishing to confider the number of lineal ancestors which every man has, within no very great number of degrees; and fo many different bloods is a man said to contain in his veins, as he hath lineal ancestors. Of thefe he hath two in the first afcending degree, his own parents; he hath four in the fecond, the parents of his father and the parents of his mother; he hath eight in the third, the parents of his two grandfathers and two grandmothers; and by the fame rule of progreffion, he hath an hundred and twenty-eight in the feventh; a thoufand and twenty-four in the tenth; and at the twentieth degree, or the diftance of twenty generations, every man. hath above a million of ancestors, as common arithmetic will demonftrate. This lineal confanguinity, we may ob • Ff. 38. 10. 10. f Decretal. 4. tit. 14. & Co. Litt. 23. h Ibid. 12. This will feem furprizing to thofe who are unacquainted with the encreafing power of progreffive numbers: but is palpably evident from the following table of a geometrical progreffion, in which the first term is 2, and the denominator alfo 204 ferve, falls ftrictly within the definition of vincalum personarum ab eodem flipite defcendentium; fince lineal relations are fuch as descend one from the other, and both of course from the fame common ancestor. COLLATERAL kindred answers to the fame defcription: collateral relations agreeing with the lineal in this, that they defcend from the fame ftock or ancestor; but differing in this, that they do not defcend one from the other. Collateral kinsmen are fuch then as lineally fpring from one and the fame ancestor, who is the ftirps, or reot, the fipes, trunk, or common stock, from whence these relations are branched out. As if John Stiles hath two fons, who have |