the said debt or debts so discovered after the distribution made as aforesaid."

Finally, Section 9 enacts that the Act shall not extend to administration with the will annexed.

Such administrations arise under the following circumstances :1. If no executor appointed.

2. If the executor appointed has died either before or after the testator.

3. If the executor has renounced, or been cited in Court and has not appeared; or,

4. Where the Court shall use the discretion given to it by the Court of Probate Act, 1857.(t)

The 29 Car. 2 c. 3 (Statute of Frauds), § 25, provides that neither the Statute of Distribution nor anything therein contained "shall be construed to extend to the estate of femme coverts that shall die intestate, but that their husbands may demand and have administration of their rights, credits, and other personal estates, and recover and enjoy the same, as they might have done before the making of the said Act."

1 Jac. 2 c. 17, enacts (§ 7) "that if, after the death of a father, any of his children shall die intestate without wife or children, in the lifetime of the mother, every brother and sister, and the representatives of them, shall have an equal share with her."

Before this statute was passed if a child had died intestate without a wife, child, or father, his mother succeeded to his whole personal estate.

The Act 19 & 20 Vict. c. 94, abolished the customs of London, the province of York, and certain other places with reference to all persons dying on or after 1st January, 1857.

The following concise and lucid summary of the law is taken from Francis Maxall's excellent "Digest of the Law "(u):—

222. "Right of a Widow: General Rule.-If the intestate leave a widow, not barred by jointure, and a descendant or descendants, the widow shall take only a third part of the clear surplus of the personal estate. But if, leaving a widow, he leave no descendant, she shall have a moiety. So that the widow, where there is one, constitutes no class, but partakes with the one entitled, as will be shown in the enumeration of the nine following classes.

(t) Coote's Prac. p. 61.

(u) Edition 1818.

223. "Right of a Husband (1st Class).-The husband of a femme covert (unless he have departed with his right thereto) is entitled to his deceased wife's personal estate, and excludes every other person. The husband, therefore, of the following classes or descriptions of persons entitled, constitutes the first; and it is to be observed that every preceding class excludes all the subsequent ones.

224. "Right of a Descendant or Descendants, with or without a Widow of the Intestate (2nd Class).-If the intestate leave no husband, but a descendant or descendants, and a widow not barred by jointure, she takes a third, and the descendant or descendants, whether by the same or different wives, the remaining two-thirds, divisible as follows, viz.-of a plurality of children, those who are fully advanced are excluded; those partially advanced must bring their partial advancements into hotchpot. If only some or one of the intestate's children be dead, the children of a deceased child of the intestate take per stirpes-i.e., they take amongst them the share which their parent, if living, would have been entitled to. But if all the children of the intestate be dead, his grandchildren take per capita,-i.e., each grandchild takes an equal share in his own right, as one of the next-of-kin. Such also would be the case with respect to the great-grandchildren of the intestate, if both his children and grandchildren had all died before him. For when all the parents, being descendants of the intestate, are deceased, their children, if equally near to the intestate, take per capita, but when some only, they take per stirpes. And the right of representation amongst the descendants of the intestate is not confined within any degree, since any descendant, however remote, excludes all ascendants and collaterals.

If the intestate leave neither husband nor widow, but a descendant or descendants, the sole descendant takes the whole; and if there be a plurality of descendants, whether by the same or different wives or husbands, the whole is divisible amongst them, either per capita or per stirpes, according to the circumstances of the case, those totally advanced being excluded, and partial advancements being brought into hotchpot.

225. "Right of a Father, with or without a Widow of the Intestate (3rd Class).-If the intestate leave neither husband nor descendant, but a father, if there be no widow, he takes the

whole; but if there be a widow, not barred by jointure, he take one half, and the widow the other half.

226. "Right of Mother, Brothers, Sisters; the Children of deceased Brothers and Sisters, claiming either by Representation along with a living Brother or Sister, or claiming quasi by Representation along with the Intestate's Mother; with or without a Widow of the Intestate (4th Class).—If the intestate leave neither husband, descendant, nor father, but a mother, and a brother or brothers, sister or sisters, either of the whole or half-blood, or any child or children of such brother or brothers, sister or sisters, the mother shall take an equal share with each of the surviving brothers and sisters of the intestate, and the child or children of each of such brothers and sisters as are deceased; the child or children of a deceased brother or sister taking the share which the parent, if living, would have taken. And it makes no difference whether all the brothers and sisters of the intestate be dead or not; for if they be dead, still one of the persons entitled-viz., the mother-taking an original share in her own right, the children of the brothers and sisters on that account take quasi by representation. The persons constituting this class, if there be a widow, not barred by jointure, take one-half, and she the other. If there be no widow they take the whole. And, amongst collaterals, the right of taking by representation extends no further than to brothers' and sisters' children. Moreover, a grandfather, although he is in an equal degree of consanguinity with the brother of the deceased, shall have no share with the brother in the distribution. This arises from the words in the statute, "pro suo cuique jure," letting in the preference of the brother to the grandfather, to which the brother was entitled by law before the statute.

If the intestate leave neither husband, descendant, father, brother, sister, nor any child of a brother or sister, but a mother, if there be a widow not barred by jointure, the mother shall take one-half, and the widow the other; but if there be no widow, the mother shall take the whole.

If the intestate leave neither husband, descendant, father, nor mother, but a brother or brothers; sister or sisters, either of the whole or half blood, if there be no nephew or niece, the brothers and sisters take each of them an equal share; and if there be only one of such persons,-viz., a brother or sister,—such one takes the whole of what is distributable amongst the next-of-kin. But

if, besides a brother or brothers, sister or sisters, there be also any child or children of a deceased brother or sister, or of deceased brothers or sisters, the living brothers and sisters take equally with the children of the deceased brother or sister, who take by representation the share which their parent, if living, would have taken. This fourth class, if there be a widow not barred by jointure, takes one-half, and she the other; if there be no widow, it takes the whole.

"In every other class but this fourth, any one person who ranks as a claimant in it may, in the absence of the others, be the only person entitled. This class may also consist of a single person, where that person is either a mother, sister, or brother of the intestate. But it differs from every other in this particular, that a description of persons-viz., the children of deceased brothers or sisters may be entitled to rank in this class, when there is any one of the other three descriptions of persons who always rank in it (viz., a mother, sister, or brother), along with whom they may claim; but without whom they must be postponed to the fifth class, and rank in the sixth. For the child of a deceased brother or sister of the intestate cannot claim in the fourth class, except by representation, along with a brother or sister of the intestate; or quasi by representation along with the mother of the intestate. So that a person,-viz., a child of a deceased brother or sister,although he may, under certain circumstances, be a claimant, can never, in any circumstances, be the sole claimant in the fourth class.

227. "Right of Grandfathers, or, if they be dead, Grandmothers, with or without a Widow of the Intestate (5th Class).—If the intestate leave neither husband, descendant, father, mother, brother, nor sister, but a grandfather or grandfathers (or, if one or both of the grandfathers be dead, a grandmother or grandmothers), if there be a widow not barred by jointure, the grandfather or grandfathers shall take one-half, and the widow the other; but if there be no widow, the grandfather or grandfathers shall take the whole, and exclude nephews and nieces claiming in their own right. For, there being no brother or sister living, nephews and nieces cannot claim by representation; and, the mother being also dead, they cannot claim quasi by representation, but only as of kin in the third degree in their own right. Uncles, it may be observed, are also in the third degree, and are equally entitled with nephews and nieces claiming in their

own right; but as the grandfather, who is in the second degree, excludes uncles, who are in the third, so also shall he exclude nephews and nieces claiming in their own right, who are, when they so claim, entitled only in respect of that degree of proximity in which they themselves are related to the intestate.

228. "Right of Ascendants and Collaterals in the Third Degree, including Nephews and Nieces claiming in their own right (that is, where there is neither a Brother nor a Sister of the Intestate to give them a claim by representation, nor a Mother of the Intestate to entitle them to claim quasi by representation), with or without a Widow of the Intestate (6th Class).—If the intestate leave neither husband, descendant, father, mother, brother, sister, grandfather, nor grandmother, then the great-grandfather or great-grandfathers (or, if the great-grandfather or great-grandfathers be dead, then the great-grandmother or great-grandmothers), uncles, aunts, and nephews and nieces, claiming in their own right (who are all in the third degree), take per capita—that is, each an equal share in his or her own right. If there be a widow, not barred by jointure, they take one-half of the clear surplus, and she the other; if there be no widow, they take the whole. And it is to be remembered, that dignity of blood is immaterial, the preference of males to females having no place in the distribution of the personal estates of intestates, since the females of any one class take equally with the males of the same class, even though such females be the descendants of female kindred of the intestate.

229. "Right of Ascendants and Collaterals in the Fourth Degree, with or without a Widow of the Intestate (7th Class). If the intestate leave neither husband, descendant, father, mother, brother, sister, grandfather, grandmother, greatgrandfather, great-grandmother, uncle, aunt, nephew, nor niece (the ascendants and collaterals in the third degree of consanguinity, and also all claimants, prior to them, being thus extinct), recourse must be had to the ascendants and collaterals in the fourth degree, -viz., great-great-grandfathers (or, if they be dead, great-greatgrandmothers), great-uncles, great-aunts, first cousins, greatnephews, and great-nieces; of whom, as many as are living, take per capita-i.e., each an equal share in his own right. If there be a widow not barred by jointure, they take one-half, and she the other; if there be no widow, they take the whole.