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Untitled Article
& fourth at his Free disposal , each child taking his fourth of right ; and if the family consist of more than three children , still the fourth bf his property is legally at the disposal of the father . Should any child have received in the life-time of the father a tnarriage portion or gift , this is to be accounted for and considered as part of what he would be legally entitled to on the division
of the property ; or if found to exceed the legal proportion bf the child , the overplus is to be refunded ; but if such child renounce all claim to any further share , then , notwithstanding what he may thus have received exceed a child ' s proportion , he may retain the same . * Males and females being alike entitled In the eye of the law , the marriage portion or inheritance of a man ' s wife not unfrequently makes him as rich a man as his
father ; thus , in the best possible , because in the most equitable Way , preventing the eldest son of a family from losing his place in society , even in the estimation of those with whom wealth is every thing , and talents and virtue nothing . This does not at first sight appear a very unrighteous disposition of a man ' s
property , or one very different from what natural affection and justice might dictate ; but it must be confessed , it is not calculated to gratify the ambition of making or continuing a greats that is to iay , a rich man in the family at the expense of its younger branches . It therefore finds little favour in the sight of those
who pride themselves on the recollection of the courtly servility 6 f ancestors , and is anathematized in particular by ' les freres de la doctrine Chretienne ?\ who , it would seem , are not of the opinion that a good father ought to allow of no preference in his affection for his children but what arises from good or bad conduct on their p&rts . It must also be admitted that these laws stand grievously in the way of the revival of those i pious frauds , which in England &s well as in France beggared whole families to enrich the Church .
On the other hand , many persons contend that nothing can justify the desertion of a child by its parent ; and they consider the doubling of the share of any one child to be sufficient reward for greater devoted ness , personal attachment , or superior good conduct on the part of that child ; and that it is as unjust as it is
opposed to the dictates of paternal affection to make one child affluent at the expense of half a dozen others . The Americans say , no man left to the operation of natural feeling would do so Cruel tin act . In America the law of primogeniture has been long abolished ; but the American may leave to his eldest son the Whole of his fortune , if he be so evil-minded . s Still no man does
ztj says Cooper in his * Notions of the Americans . 'J < It is true , ' adds he , 4 that the father of an only son might create a sort of ihdtl etitail ; that would work injustice to descendants he cbiild * Code CHWUyphap . iii . « . U .. ... . f Charles the Tenth ' s Jesuits , who had the modesty to assume that designation . 1 Vol . ii . p . 447 .
Untitled Article
• - # 542 French Laws of Succession .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1833, page 342, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2614/page/54/
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