tween John Stiles (the propositus in the table of consanguinity) and his fa ther, grandfather, great-grandfather, and so upwards in the direct ascend ing line; or between John Stiles and his son, grandson, great-grandson, and so downwards in the direct descending line.) Every generation, in this lineal direct consanguinity, constitutes a different degree, reckoning either upwards or downwards: the father of John Stiles is related to him in the first degree, and so likewise is his son; his grandsire and grandson in the second; his great-grandsire and great-grandson in the third. This is the only natural way of reckoning the degrees in the direct line, and therefore universally obtains, as well in the civil (e), and canon (ƒ), as in the common law (g).

The doctrine of lineal consanguinity is sufficiently plain and obvious; but it is at the first view astonishing to consider the number of lineal ancestors which every man has, within no very great number of degrees; and so many different bloods (h) is a man said to contain in his veins, as he hath lineal ancestors. Of these he hath two in the first ascending degree, his own parents; he hath four in the second, 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 same rule of progression, he hath an hundred and twenty-eight in the seventh; a thousand and twenty-four in the tenth and at the twentieth degree, or the distance of twenty generations, every man hath above a million of ancestors, as common arithmetic will demonstrate (i). This lineal consanguinity, we may observe, falls strictly within the definition of vinculum *personarum ab eodem stipite descendentium; since lineal [*204] relations are such as descend one from the other, and both of course from the same common ancestor.

A shorter method of finding the number of ancestors at any even degree is by squa..ng the number of ancestors at half that number of degrees. Thus 16 (the number of ancestors at four degrees) is the

• This calculation is right in numbers, but is founded on a false supposition, as is evident from the results; one of which is to give a man a greater number of ancestors all living at one time than he whole population of the earth another would se, that each man now living, instead of being de

524288 1048576

square of 4, the number of ancestors at two; 250 is the square of 16: 65536 of 256; and the number of ancestors at 40 degrees would be the square of 1048576, or upwards of a million millions.

scended from Noah and his wife alone, might clain to have had at that time an almost indefinite num ber of relatives. Intermarriages among relatives are one check on this incredible increase of rela tives. This is noticed afterwards by Blackstone, as to collateral relatives.

Collateral kindred answers to the same description: collateral relations agreeing with the lineal in this, that they descend from the same stock or ancestor, but differing in this, that they do not descend one from the other. Collateral kinsmen are such then as lineally spring from one and the same ancestor, who is the stirps, or root, the stipes, trunk, or common stock, from whence these relations are branched out. As if John [*205] Stiles hath two sons, who have each a numerous issue; both these issues are lineally descended from John Stiles as their common ancestor; and they are collateral kinsmen to each other, because they are all descended from this common ancestor, and all have a portion of his blood in their veins, which denominates them consanguineos.)

We must be careful to remember, that the very being of collateral consanguinity consists in this descent from one and the same cominon ancestor. Thus Titius and his brother are related; why? because both are derived from one father: Titius and his first cousin are related; why? because both descend from the same grandfather; and his second cousin's claim to consanguinity is this, that they are both derived from one and the same great-grandfather. In short, as many ancestors as a man has, so many common stocks he has, from which collateral kinsmen may be derived. And as we are taught by holy writ, that there is one couple of ancestors belonging to us all, from whom the whole race of mankind is. descended, the obvious and undeniable consequence is, that all men are in some degree related to each other. For indeed, if we only suppose each couple of our ancestors to have left, one with another, two children; and each of those children on an average to have left two more (and, without such a supposition, the human species must be daily diminishing); we shall find that all of us have now subsisting near two hundred and seventy millions of kindred in the fifteenth degree, at the same distance from the several common ancestors as ourselves are; besides those that are one or two descents nearer to or farther from the common stock, who may amount to as many more (k). And if this calculation should appear in

(k) This will swell more considerably than the former calculation; for here, though the first term is but 1, the denominator is 4; that is, there is one kinsman, (a brother) in the first degree, who makes, together with the propositus, the two descendants from the first couple of ancestors; and in every other degree the number of kindred must be the quadruple of those in the degree which immediateJy precedes it. For, since each couple of ancestors

(5) "The learned Judge's reasoning is just and correct; and that the collateral relations are quadrupled in each generation may be thus demonstrated:-As we are supposed, upon an average, to have one brother or sister, the two children by the father's brother or sister will make two cousins, and the mother's brother or sister will produce two more, in all, four. For the same reason, my father and mother must each have had four cousins, and their children are my second cousins; so I have eight second cousins by my father, and eight by my mother; together sixteen. And thus again, I shall have 32 third cousins on my father's side, and 32 on my mother's, in all, 64. Hence it follows that each preceding number in the series must be multiplied by twice two or four.

This immense increase of the numbers

has two descendants, who increase in a duplicate ratio, it will follow that the ratio, in which all the descendants increase downwards, must be double to that in which the ancestors increase upwards; but we have seen that the ancestors increase upwards in a duplicate ratto: therefore the descendants must increase downwards in a double duplicate, that is, in a quadruple ratio. (5)

depends upon the supposition that no one marries a relation; but to avoid such a connexion it will very soon be necessary to leave the kingdom. How these two tables of consanguinity may be reduced by the intermarriage of relations, will appear from the following simple case: If two men and two women were put upon an uninhabited island, and became two married couple, if they had only two children each, a male and female, who respectively intermarried, and iu like manner produced two children, who are thus continued ad infinitum; it is clear, that there would never be more than four persons in each generation; and if the parents lived to see their great-grandchildren, the whole rumber woul never be more than sixteen; and thus the families might be perpetuated wit' out any in cestuous connexion."

compatible with the number of inhabitants on the earth, it is because, by intermarriages among the several descendants from the same ancestor, a hundred or a thousand modes of consanguinity may be consolidated in one person, or he may be related to us a hundred or a thousand different ways.

The method of computing these degrees in the canon law (4), [*206] which our law has adopted (m), is as follows: we begin at the common ancestor, and reckon downwards: and in whatsoever degree the two persons, or the most remote of them, is distant from the common ancestor, that is the degree in which they are related to each other. Thus Titius and his brother are related in the first *degree; for from [*207] the father to each of them is counted only one; Titius and his nephew are related in the second degree; for the nephew is two degrees removed from the common ancestor; viz. his own grandfather, the father of Titius. Or (to give a more illustrious instance from our English annals), king Henry the Seventh, who slew Richard the Third in the battle. of Bosworth, was related to that prince in the fifth degree. Let the propositus therefore in the table of consanguinity represent king Richard the Third, and the class marked (f) king Henry the Seventh. Now their common stock or ancestor was king Edward the Third, the abavus in the same table from him to Edmond duke of York, the proavus, is one degree; to Richard earl of Cambridge, the avus, two; to Richard duke of York, the pater, three; to king Richard the Third, the propositus, four; and from king Edward the Third to John of Gant (a) is one degree; to John earl of Somerset (b), two; to John duke of Somerset (C), three; to Margaret countess of Richmond (), four; to king Henry the Seventh (f), five. Which last-mentioned prince, being the farthest removed from the common stock, gives the denomination to the degree of kindred in the canon and municipal law. Though, according to the computation of the civilians (who count upwards, from either of the persons related, to the common stock, and then downwards again to the other: reckoning a degree for each person both ascending and descending), these two princes were related in the ninth degree, for from king Richard the Third to Richard duke of York is one degree; to Richard earl of Cambridge, two; to Edmond duke of York, three; to king Edward the Third, the common ancestor, four; to John of Gant, five; to John earl of Somerset, six; to

This calculation may also be formed by a more compendious process, viz. by squaring the couples, or half the number of ancestors, at any given degree; which will furnish us with the number of kindred we have in the same degree, at equal distance with ourselves from the common stock, besides those at unequal distances. Thus, in the tenth lineal degree, the number of ancestors is 1024; its half, or the couples, amount to 512; the number of kindred in the tenth collateral degree amounts therefore to 262144, or the square of 512. And if we will be at the trouble to recollect the state of the several families within our own knowledge, and observe how far they agree with this account; that is, whether on an average every man has not one brother or sister, four first cousins, sixteen se cond cousins, and so on; we shall find that the pre sent calculation is very far from being overcharged.

(m) Co. Litt. 23.

John Juke of Somerset, seven; to Margaret countess of Richmond, eight; to king Henry the Seventh, nine (n) (6).

*The nature and degrees of kindred being thus in some measure explained, I shall next proceed to lay down a series of rules or canons of inheritance, according to which, estates are transmitted from the ancestor to the heir; together with an explanatory comment, remarking their original and progress, the reasons upon which they are founded, and in some cases their agreement with the laws of other nations (7).