come the brothers and sisters, and their issue as collaterals. Failing
collaterals, the inheritance ascends to the father and his relations,
to the entire exclusion of the mother and her relations. Even when
the estate has descended from mother to son, it can never revert to
the maternal line. As to succession of brothers, a distinction must
be taken between an estate of heritage and an estate of conquest.
Conquest is where the deceased has acquired the land otherwise than
as heir, and corresponds to the English term purchase in the technical
sense explained. Heritage is land acquired by deceased as heir.
The distinction is important only in the case when the heir of the
deceased is to be sought among his brothers; when the descent is
lineal, conquest and heritage go to the same person. And when
the brothers are younger than the deceased, both conquest and
heritage go to the brother (or his issue) next in order of age. But when
the deceased leaves an elder and a younger brother (or their issues),
the elder brother takes the conquest, the younger takes the heritage.
Again, when there are several elder brothers, the one next in age to
the deceased takes the conquest before the more remote, and when
there are several younger brothers, the one next to the deceased takes
the heritage before the more remote. When heritage of the deceased
goes to an elder brother (as might happen in certain eventualities),
the younger of the elder brothers is preferred. The position of the
father, after the brothers and sisters of the deceased, will be noticed
as an important point of difference from the English axioms; so
also is the total exclusion of the mother and the maternal line. As
between brothers and sisters the half-blood only succeeds after the
full blood. Half-blood is either consanguinean, as between children
by the same father, or uterine, as between children having the same
mother. The half-blood uterine is excluded altogether. Half-blood
consanguinean succeeds thus: if the issue is by a former marriage,
the youngest brother (being nearest to the deceased of the consanguinean)
succeeds first; if by a later marriage than that from
which the deceased has sprung, the eldest succeeds first.
United States.—American law has borrowed its rules of descent considerably more from the civil law than the common law. “The 118 novel of Justinian has a striking resemblance to American law in giving the succession of estates to all legitimate children without distinction and disregarding all considerations of primogeniture. There is one particular in which the American law differs from that of Justinian, that while generally in this country lineal descendants if they stand in an equal degree from the common ancestor share equally per capita, under the Roman law regard was had to the right of representation, each lineal branch of descendants taking only the portion which their parent would have taken had he been living, the division being per stirpes and not per capita. But in some of the states the rule of the Roman law in this respect has been adopted and retained. Among these are Rhode Island, New Jersey, North and South Carolina, Alabama and Louisiana” (3 Washburn’s Real Property, pp. 408, 409; 4 Kent’s Comm. p. 375). When such lineal descendants stand in unequal degrees of consanguinity the inheritance is per stirpes and not per capita (In re Prote, 1907; 104, N.Y. Supplement 581). This is the rule in practically all the states. But as in no two states or territories are the rules of descent identical, the only safe guides are the statutes and decisions of the particular state in which the land to be inherited is situated. The law of primogeniture as understood in England is generally abolished throughout the United States, and male and female relatives inherit equally. In some states, as in Massachusetts, relatives of the half-blood inherit equally with chose of the whole-blood of the same degree; in others, like Maryland, they can inherit only in case none of whole-blood exist. In some of the states the English rule that natural children have no inheritable blood has been greatly modified. In Louisiana, if duly acknowledged, they may inherit from both father and mother in the absence of lawful issue. Degrees of kindred in the United States generally are computed according to the civil law, i.e. by adding together the number of degrees between each of the two persons whose relationship is to be ascertained and the common ancestor. Thus, relationship between two brothers is in the second degree; between uncle and nephew in the third degree; between cousins, in the fourth, &c.
In a few states such degrees are computed according to the common law, i.e. by counting from the common ancestor to the most remote descendant of the two from him—thus, brothers would be related in the first degree, uncle and nephew in the second, &c. In most states representation amongst collaterals is restricted—in some to the descendants of brothers and sisters, in others to their children only.
In some states, e.g. in California, Louisiana and Texas, the law of “community property” of husband and wife prevails. This is derived from the French and Spanish law existing in the territories out of which those states were formed, as the result of the conquest of Mexico by Spain and the colonizing of Louisiana by France. The foundation idea is an equal division at death of either party of all property acquired during their marriage except by gift, devise or descent. In general the husband has the control and management thereof during the marriage, and either survivor has the administration of the moiety of the one deceased. There is a conflict in the laws in such states as to the exact definition and as to whether or not the gains or profits of such property are to be deemed separate property or community property [Succession of Dielman (Louisiana, 1907), 43 Southern Rep. 972].
INHIBITION (from Lat. inhibere, to restrain, prevent), an act of restraint or prohibition, an English legal term, particularly used in ecclesiastical law, for a writ from a superior to an inferior court, suspending proceedings in a case under appeal, also for the suspension of a jurisdiction of a bishop’s court on the visitation of an archbishop, and for that of an archdeacon on the visitation of a bishop. It is more particularly applied to a form of ecclesiastical censure, suspending an offending clergyman from the performance of any service of the Church, or other spiritual duty, for the purpose of enforcing obedience to a monition or order of the bishop or judge. Such inhibitions are at the discretion of the ordinary if he considers that scandal might arise from the performance of spiritual duties by the offender (Church Discipline Act 1860, re-enacted by the Clergy Discipline Act 1892, sect. 10). By the Sequestration Act 1871, sect. 5, similar powers of inhibition are given where a sequestration remains in force for more than six months, and also, by the Benefices Act 1898, in cases where a commission reports that the ecclesiastical duties of a benefice are inadequately performed through the negligence of the incumbent.
INISFAIL, a poetical name for Ireland. It is derived from Faul or Lia-fail, the celebrated stone, identified in Irish legend with the stone on which the patriarch Jacob slept when he dreamed of the heavenly ladder. The Lia-fail was supposed to have been brought to Ireland by the Dedannans and set up at Tara as the “inauguration stone” of the Irish kings; it was subsequently removed to Scone where it became the coronation stone of the Scottish kings, until it was taken by James VI. of Scotland to Westminster and placed under the coronation chair in the Abbey, where it has since remained. Inisfail was thus the island of the Fail, the island whose monarchs were crowned at Tara on the sacred inauguration stone.
INITIALS (Lat. initialis, of or belonging to a beginning, initium), the first letters of names. In legal and formal documents it is usually the practice in appending a signature to write the name in full. But this is by no means necessary, even in cases where a signature is expressly required by statute. It has been held that it is sufficient if a person affixes to a document the usual form in which he signs his name, with the intent that it shall be treated as his signature. So, signature by initials is a good signature within the Statute of Frauds (Phillimore v. Barry, 1818, I Camp. 513), and also under the Wills Act 1837 (In re Blewitt, 1880, 5 P.D. 116).
INITIATION (Lat. initium, beginning, entrance, from inire, to go in), the process of formally entering, and especially the rite of admission into, some office, or religious or secret society, &c. Among nearly all primitive races initiatory rites of a bloody character were and are common. The savage pays homage to strength, and the purpose of his initiatory rites is to test physical vigour, self-control and the power of enduring pain. Initiation is sometimes religious, sometimes social, but in primitive society it has always the same character. Thus, in Whydah (West Africa) the young girls consecrated to the worship of the serpent, “the brides of the Serpent,” had figures of flowers and animals burnt into their skins with hot irons; while in the neighbouring Yorubaland the power of enduring a sound thrashing is the qualification for the throne. In no country was the practice of initiatory rites more general than in the Americas. The Colombian Indians compelled their would-be chief to submit to terrible tests. He had first to bear severe beatings without a murmur. Then, placed in a hammock with his hands tied,
