Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/477

Of the ſeveral ſpecies of guardians, the firſt are guardians by nature: viz. the father and (in ſome caſes) the mother of the child. For, if an eſtate be left to an infant, the father is by common law the guardian, and muſt account to his child for the profits^[1]. And, with regard to daughters, it ſeems by conſtruction of the ſtatute 4 & 5 Ph. & Mar. c. 8. that the father might by deed or will affign a guardian to any woman-child under the age of ſixteen; and, if none be ſo aſſigned, the mother ſhall in this caſe be guardian^[2]. There are alſo guardians for nurture^[3]; which are, of courſe, the father or mother, till the infant attains the age of fourteen years^[4]: and, in default of father or mother, the ordinary uſually aſſigns ſome diſcreet perſon to take care of the infant's perſonal eſtate, and to provide for his maintenance and education^[5]. Next are guardians in ſocage, (an appellation which will be fully explained in the ſecond book of theſe commentaries) who are alſo called guardians by the common law. Theſe take place only when the minor is entitled to ſome eſtate in lands, and then by the common law the guardianſhip devolves upon his next of kin, to whom the inheritance cannot poſſibly deſcend; as, where the eſtate deſcended from his father, in this caſe his uncle by the mother's ſide cannot poſſibly inherit this eſtate, and therefore ſhall be the guardian^[6]. For the law judges it improper to truſt the perſon of an infant in his hands, who may by poſſibility become heir to him; that there may be no temptation, nor even ſuſpicion of temptation, for him to abuſe his truſt^[7]. The Roman laws proceed on a quite contrary principle, committing the care of the minor to him who is the next to ſucceed to the inheritance, preſuming that the next heir would take the beſt care of an eſtate, to which he has a proſpect of ſucceeding: and this they boaſt to be "ſumma providentia^[8]." But in the mean time

1. Co. Litt. 88.
2. 3 Rep. 39.
3. Co. Litt. 88.
4. Moor. 738. 3 Rep. 38.
5. 2 Jones 90. 2 Lev. 163.
6. Litt. §. 123.
7. Nunquam cuſtodia alicujus de jure alicui remanet, de quo habeatur ſuſpicio, quod poſſit vel velit aliquod jus in ipſa haeriditate clamare. Glanv. l. 7. c. 11.
8. Ff. 26. 4. 11.