by _descent_, is the receiving of it from an
ancestor or other relative dying intestate. If a person dies without
making a will, his property falls, or _descends_ to his lawful heirs.
The order or rule of descent is not uniform in this country, being
determined, to a great extent, by the laws of the states. In general,
however, the real estate of an intestate descends, first to his lineal
descendants, that is, persons descending in a direct line, as from
parents to children, and from children to grand-children. The lineal
descendants most nearly related to the intestate, however distant the
relation may be, takes the estate.

Sec.11. If any children of an intestate are dead, and any are living, the
inheritance descends to the children living, and to the descendants of
the children dead, so that each child living shall receive such share as
he would receive if all were living, and the children of those who are
dead such share as the parents would receive if living. Thus, suppose an
intestate had three sons, one of whom is dead, but has left children. In
this case, each of the sons living would share one-third of the
property, and the children of the deceased son the remaining third.

Sec.12. But if the children are all dead, and there are grand-children
living, the grand-children share equally, though not an equal number are
children of each parent. If, for example, an intestate dies leaving no
children, but having had two sons, one of whom had left three children,
and the other two, the five share equally in the estate. The laws of
Rhode Island, New Jersey, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee,
Louisiana, and Alabama, unless recently altered, are exceptions to this
rule. In these states, and perhaps in a few others, though the children
of the intestate are all dead, the grand-children do not share equally,
but those of each stock, or family, take the portion which their parent
would have taken if living.

Sec.13. The order of descent is so different in the states, especially when
there are no lineal descendants of an intestate, that it can be
ascertained only by reference to the laws of each state. As a general
rule, real estate passes, (1.) to the lineal descendants; (2.) to the
father; (3.) to the mother; (4.) to the collateral or _side_ relatives,
as brothers, sisters, nephews, nieces, &c. But even to this general rule
there are exceptions in the laws of some states.

Sec.14. The rule of descent given in the