The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-07-14
D,.po..l OF Property by win.

| pretences upon which, in at least one noted
case, contestants have sought to get will
broken may perhaps justify an inquiry
| whether the hw on that subject does not
need amendment. When man makes
| will which does not satisfy all who claim to
| be his natural heirs his estate must be large
| if q considerable proportion Of lis not con-
srmed in unseemly litigation before it gets
| into the hands to which the law finally
awards it. II the contestants of will, like
other litigant parties, had to pay
| their own costs, there would be less
| temptation to such controversies but mas
much as the expenses OF litigation on both
sides are paid out of the estate the law
| offers Il standing invitation to natural heirs
to contest every will which disappoints their
| expectations. The money which is SO pro-
iusely squandered on lawyers might have
been more wisely bequeathed to the disin-
| herited or partly disinherited heirs As
| it actually turns out, the legal profession
| are among the largest inheritors of property,
| which is diverted from the channels in
| which 1t would descend ii the owner died
| intestate. Between the sighted heirs and
the lawyers the former would seem to have
the bes. claim, on grounds of natural JUS
tice, even when an estate is too colossal to
be destroyed by such waste.
Besides the enormous consumption OF
| property in legal costs, attacks are some
times made on the character of the testator
altogether more injurious than anything his
bitterest personal enemies would have ven-
tured to say against him during his lite
! time, and SO atrocious and scandalous
as to- dishonor those who make them
even more than they do their deceased OBJ
ject Such exhibitions OF want of natural
affection and such unscrupulous willing
Aess to poison the memory and good name
of men who lived among their nelghbors
without much reproach are so revolving to
all the better feelings OF human nature that
any just change in the laws which might
lessen the frequency Of such spectacles
would be wise and salutary.
1t is n fair question for consideration and
discussion whether the law of England and
of all our States, with a single exception,
which allows testator to dispose OF his
property as he pleases, even ifhe disinherits
! all of his kindred. is not against public ex-
pcdicncy and contrary to good morals. If
the law regulating wills were the same in
all countries such question would be
permissible, even as u topic for discussion;
because universally accepted law should
be presumed, by the very fact Of it's univer-
salty, to express the natural sense of justice
Of all mankind. But the English and
American law on the subject of wills is not
thus generally accepted, and whether other
enlightened nations have not been wiser on
this subject is a question which ought to
be decided on broad grounds of reason and
justice.
The Code Napoleon is regarded by histo-
rians and jurists as the most useful if not
the most illustrious achievement Of the
first Emperor. The fruits Of his resplen-
dent military victories have all persisted,
| although the fame of them will n yer be ex-
tinsuished; but the Code Napoleon is still
the law OF France, having survived all the
revolutions and fit.ul changes OF the three
quarters Of century since it was estab-
iished. There is no part OF that code, as the
tory historian, Alison, deprecatingly testi-
fes, which has always been SO dear to the
whole French people as that part which re-
lates TO the succession of property. The
equal distribution which it makes among
the natural heirs is what Alison SO vehe-
mently denounces as having committed
France irretrievably 10 democracy or des.
potism. We allude to Alison's invective
only for the purpose Of showing how
strongly the law OF SUGGESTIONS contained in
the Code Napoleon is intrenched in the sense
OF justice of the French people. It's sub
stance is that only specified proportion of
mans proper can be devised by will,
this proportion differing with the number
of his natural heirs. We will not explain
this part of the French law in detail,
because it hns been transplant 3D. with
some notifications, into one of our own
States.
The Louisiana Code, framed in the early
part of this century by that accompli shed
jarst, Edward Livingston, instead of taking
the English common law as basis, adopted
tho principles of the civil law, or in other
words, the Roman Jurisprudence in the form
accepted by most of the nations of CONT
mental Europe; borrowing more largely
from the Code Napoleon than from any
other modification of the civil law. The
Louisiana law of succession is almost iden-
teal with that of France on the same SUBJ
ject, and we prefer to describe it in the form
which was carefully adapted to American
institutions. BY the Louisiana Code man
who has one child can dispose OF only two
thirds of his property by will if he has
two children hc can dispose OF only one
half OF his property by will ii he has three
or more children only one-third if he has
no children and one or both of his parents
arc living he is free to dispose of only two
thirds of his proportY by will the same as