ming, as appears from his charters, the crown
by hereditary right[g]: that is to say, he was next of kin to the
deceased king, being his surviving brother; whereas Arthur was removed
one degree farther, being his brother's son, though by right of
representation he stood in the place of his father Geoffrey. And
however flimzey this title, and those of William Rufus and Stephen of
Blois, may appear at this distance to us, after the law of descents
hath now been settled for so many centuries, they were sufficient to
puzzle the understandings of our brave, but unlettered, ancestors. Nor
indeed can we wonder at the number of partizans, who espoused the
pretensions of king John in particular; since even in the reign of his
father, king Henry II, it was a point undetermined[h], whether, even
in common inheritances, the child of an elder brother should succeed
to the land in right of representation, or the younger surviving
brother in right of proximity of blood. Nor is it to this day decided
in the collateral succession to the fiefs of the empire, whether the
order of the stocks, or the proximity of degree shall take place[i].
However, on the death of Arthur and his sister Eleanor without issue,
a clear and indisputable title vested in Henry III the son of John:
and from him to Richard the second, a succession of six generations,
the crown descended in the true hereditary line. Under one of which
race of princes[k], we find it declared in parliament, "that the law
of the crown of England is, and always hath been, that the children of
the king of England, whether born in England, or elsewhere, ought to
bear the inheritance after the death of their ancestors. Which law,
our sovereign lord the king, the prelates, earls, and barons, and
other great men, together with all the commons, in parliament
assembled, do approve and affirm for ever."

[Footnote g: "_Regni Angliae; quod nobis jure competit haereditario._"
Spelm. _Hist. R. Joh. apud_ Wilkins. 354.]

[Footnote h: Glanv. _l._ 7. _c._ 3.]

[Footnote i: Mod. Un. Hist. xxx. 512.]

[Footnote k: Stat. 25 Edw. III. st. 2.]

UPON Richard the second's resignation of the crown, he having no
children, the right resulted to the issue of his grandfather Edward
III. That king had many children, besides his eldest, Edward the black
prince of Wales, the father of Richard II: but to avoid confusion I
shall only mention three; William his second son, who died without
issue; Lionel duke of