In England, where the testamentary laws Teave a freedom scarcely known else where for the disposition of an individual's effects after his death, it seems as if in the ordinary course of events the testamentary power should be the most nataral outgrowth of the Jaws of property. That such has not been the case, we may judge even from the legal history of Great Britain, where landed property only slowly emerged from its feudal shackles, and where, to the present moment, it alone remains bound under certain conditions and stipulations to which personal property is not liable. Turning to France, professedly the champion of revolutionary ideas, we find in full force there a Jaw of entail such as England, even in the fall prevalence of feudalism, never submitted to, So tyrannical, in fact, that the power of making a will, which seems to us one of the first offshoots of free institutions, is so hampered and restricted that in the great majority of cases a Frenchman prefers to leave the narrow laws of inheritance to take their course, and cares little for what may follow after him. In point of fact, the legality of wills is a matter of late introduction in law, and like many, if not most, of the improvements in that science, is to be traced' directly to Roman influence. We may therefore expect that most nations whose legal inspirations were @oveloped before the period when Roman law started on its forward journey, or whose connection with the Roman stem cessed before that time, should have but crude ideas, if any, of testamentary forms. In this position, we accordingly find the Chinese at the present day. Wills do exist in most rudimentary form in China, but they are at best merely directions to the natural heirs, not invested with the sacred powers of law attaching to European testaments. In other countries, such as India, the place of wills is occupied by the power of adoption, the adopted son in every particular standing in the position of the natural born offspring; and this right, as we have mentioned incidentally, likewise exists in China, but is nob so clearly and distinctly defined as in Hindu jurisprudence. So, again, the rights of succession were apparently originally in Romen, Hindu and Chinese law, connected with the duties of maintaining the family cult, In the oldest periods of Roman legislation, as even now in Indian, they formed an intolerable barden on inheritances, and even as late as the time of Cicero, the separation of the religious from the legal aspects of the succession was not complete. In China, though the religious ealt has bad to give way in theory, it still retains too great a hold on the feelings and prejudices of the people to be lightly set aside. In the old days of the Chows, the religions view was still prominent, and it was the care of the Wang, as head of the family, to see that the sacrifices of dependent heirs of princes were duly kept up. Hence, when the Empire of the Yins was finally upset, Wei-tsze-ki, the morning star, who, as became his prototype, bad attached himself to the fortunes of the newly risen house, was daly appointed to continue the sacrifices of Yin. Now-n-days, if the worship of ancestors has lost' some of its legal force, it still retains its hold on the imaginations of the people, and the heir who should refuse or neglect to perform the proper obsequies to the maues of the departed would have to look for the contempt of his fellows, as well as the more fearfal, because unknown, dangers which the neglected spirit would not fail to raise in his path. The success sion to property in China is a thing on which the occupier for the time being has comparatively little say. If the property has been inherited, the owner possesses at least but a life interest. It has come down to him by certain rules, and beyond him it must descend by similar. Over his own individual earnings he possibly has more power, but the fact thata will isan exception, rather than the rule, seems to show that individual ownership is searcely as yet recognised in China, In such a case any property left would descend to his heirs male in common, case of a failure of immediate descendents, to the agnates of the next degree. The case of a will attempting to upset any auch devolution of property would be of the rarest oceurrence, and seeing the intimate manner in which the family cult and the family property descends, we can readily understand the small desire to depart from the beaten track. It is hard to say how in such a case the law would decide, for as we have before remarked, there is really no competent tribunal nor any authoritative rule of law to intervene. The clamour of the rela tives left out in the cold would' probably prevail more than any calm consideration as to what we should assume to be the legal rights of the case. So, with regard to the position of the widow, we have to go back to the earliest period of Roman jurispradenco fora parallel. As we stated previously, the position of the wife in the more ancient period was really more like that of daughter. She came under the patria postestas of the husband, and in this position remained for the romainder of her life. She had, in fact, no independent position of her own, and became sunk in her husband's identity. Nor did the situation change on the death of her husband. The patria postestas then merely changed bands, The eldest son a3 head of the family assumed allthepower and responsibilities of his deceased father. Hence, although the position of the widow was always an honoured one, and the influence she exercised over her son was always considered right and proper, she in her own per-had no legal status; and except as a trasted adviser, or in the case of the infancy of the heir, as guardian, had no acknowledged power. In precisely similar case is the position of the widow in China. She has-come under the patria postestas of the family into which she has married, and as such has to render implicit obedience to the immediate head. As an individual she is in the eyes of the law nobody, and though she occasionally contrives to exercise considerable personal influence, this arises not from any legal right, but from merely personal and intellect tual considerations.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.