Owingsville outlook. [volume] (Owingsville, Ky.) 1879-192?, 1898-06-09
Wills and Bequests.

tBy Lady Cook. nee Tennessee G, Ciafiin. ]
The manner in which property de-
scends must always he a matter of
great importance to a people, and
particularly so in a country where
great possessions exist, or where the
bulk of lands and money is in the
hands of a comparative few. For 1t
is generally admitted fact that a
very unequal distribution of either is
incompatible with a nations welfare.
Excessive wealth and extreme pow
erty run together, and are naturally
inseparable. Notwithstanding, equal
ity is, and always must be, an impos-
sibility. Frugality, enterprise, in
dustry, and intelligence, will, if per-
mitted, ever continue to produce
superiority in riches and power, and
it is right that 1t should do so, other
wise the strongest incentives to hu-
man exertion would be taken away,
and the whole people would relapse
into Incidence and want and pristine
savagery. Theprotection Of property,
therefore, in giving every man the
absolute enjoyment Of whatever he
may have honestly acquired, is the
foundation and support of national
and individual happiness, and of all
prosperity and progress. But while
reason and experience prescribe that
he should In all cases have free en-
joyment of his goods and lands during
his life it does not follow that it must
be equally just that he should have
the absolute disposal Of them after
death, because this tends to despOtic
exercise of power, and opens the door
to many other evils. If young he may
be guided by passion; il old, by vim
dictiveness, by unjust partiality, or
even by imbecility. There should be a
limit, therefore, to the power of dis
posal, so that no man may be legally
able to set aside the natural claims
of wife and children or to make an
inequitable distribution of his prop
erty either during life or after. 1t is
too much the custom to venerate the
English laws of inheritance as il they
were sacredly immutable, instead Of
regarding them as having COM
menced In blood and tyranny-and
as being the scarcely disguised relics
of an age of lust and conquest. They
have come down to us from the ear
liest feudal times, altered in some
respects to meet modern changes, but
nevertheless bearing the unmistak-
able features of their originals. And
il we compare them with the laws of
inheritance in many other countries
we shall find good reason to doubt
their fancied superiority. The semi
savage Jews, for example, of ancient
Palestine had more righteous sys-
TEN, which they no doubt borrowed
chiefly from the Egyptians; and that
of Arabia, from the days Of Mahomet
and earlier, still surpasses ours in all
the elements of equitable jurispru-
dence. In neither of these could the
husband deprive his widow Of her
lawful share Of his property, nor cut
any of his children of with a shil-
ling. He might curse but could not
disinherit them. Each had by law
right to certain strictly defined pro-
portion. In point Of priority the wild
ow came first, next the children, and
failing these, the next of kin in their
order. No one could will any part OF
that which he had inherited, and on
ly a reserved portion of that which
he had acquired of himself. In the
latter case 1t was deemed fit that
some part of that which had been
personally acquired by the testator's
abilities should be at his absolute
disposal, SO that he might be able to
satisfy his feelings, whether actuated
by love, gratitude, friendship, cap
rice, or any other motive, provided
his family were otherwise compe-
tently provided for.
The right to make a will Is not, as
some appear to suppose, a natural
and immemorial right. In this coun-
try it was first exercised as a royal
privilege. Next royal permission was
given in a few cases, or wills were
made subject to the mOnarch's ap-
probation. The testator usually
prayed the King that the royal sane
tion might be given to his last wish
es, and the church for obvious pur-
poses encouraged the extension of
the practice until 1t became popular.
Hence what had at first been craved
as a privilege became afterwards
prescrIptive right, so that ultimately
any adult male, widow, or single
woman, could make any sort of will
respecting all kinds Of property, per-
sonalty and realty, except so much
of the latter as happened to be en-
tailed.
The fright to a mans own," al
though generally looked upon as an
absolute right, is not really 80. but
exists relative to the rights of the
whole community of which he forms
AMT. lie can lawfully DO as ne