THE LAW OF INHERITANCE. 389 



as completely and as promptly as possible, that even compulsion 

 should be resorted to for the attainment of that most desirable 

 object. But if education be rendered compulsory, it evidently 

 must also be gratuitous : even where its reception may be purely 

 optional, I still consider that instruction to the million should be 

 free of all charge, since such charge must tend to check its diffu- 

 sion. But the course of instruction would in this case be limited 

 strictly to reading, writing, and the four simple rules of arithmetic : 

 should parents ask for a more comprehensive educational course, 

 they should then be liable for a moderate payment. 



At the time of emancipation, and as late as the year 1845, the 

 Spanish law of inheritance was the law of the land : by that law, 

 the children, legitimate or illegitimate, had a proportionate share 

 in their parents' estate, and the latter could discretional ly dispose 

 of only a part of such estate. That law was replaced by the English 

 jurisprudence on the subject. The English statute, however 

 coupled even with a prospective operation was certainly pregnant 

 with injustice, as applied to the peculiar circumstances of this com- 

 munity. But, with a retroactive effect, it was the height of inhu- 

 manity; for, it must have been foreseen that, with respect to the 

 great majority, the saving provisions of the Ordinance could not 

 have been made available. 



The period of three months allowed for compliance with its 

 requirements, was but a blind a refinement in deception. Ab- 

 sence of parties, the death of one of the parents, subsequent con- 

 nections, and a variety of other causes incidental to a benighted 

 class, as yet unconscious of the immoralities of slavery, must have 

 conspired to render impossible the union of parents ; and the 

 sentence of disinheritance, in all cases that is, in the majority of 

 cases was therefore inhumanely pronounced by law against a host 

 of children, who here found themselves in that position. Was it 

 the fault of those children, or that of their parents? or, was it not 

 rather the fault of the social institutions under which they had 

 already suffered so many wrongs? A law protective of their rights 

 had indeed existed, but had been abolished ; and yet, both equity 

 and humanity exacted that, had it never even existed, it ought 

 to have been established. I am aware that the following reason 

 is given in extenuation, viz., that on many occasions, unexpected 

 claims would have been preferred against parties, and that such a 

 position of affairs was a serious check to commercial transactions; 



