The civil law[d] obliges the parent to provide maintenance for his child; and, if he refuses, "judex de ea re cognoscet." Nay, it carries this matter so far, that it will not suffer a parent at his death totally to disinherit his child, without expressly giving his reason for so doing; and there are fourteen such reasons reckoned up[e], which may justify such disinherison. If the parent alleged no reason, or a bad, or false one, the child might set the will aside, tanquam testamentum inofficiosum, a testament contrary to the natural duty of the parent. And it is remarkable under what colour the children were to move for relief in such a case: by suggesting that the parent had lost the use of his reason, when he made the inofficious testament. And this, as Puffendorf observes[f], was not to bring into dispute the testator's power of disinheriting his own offspring; but to examine the motives upon which he did it: and, if they were found defective in reason, then to set them aside. But perhaps this is going rather too far: every man has, or ought to have, by the laws of society, a power over his own property: and, as Grotius very well distinguishes[g], natural right obliges to give a necessary maintenance to children; but what is more than that, they have no other right to, than as it is given them by the favour of their parents, or the positive constitutions of the municipal law.
[d] Ff. 25. 3. 5.
[e] Nov. 115.
[f] l. 4. c. 11. §. 7.
[g] De j.b. & p. l. 2. c. 7. n. 3.
Let us next see what provision our own laws have made for this natural duty. It is a principle of law[h], that there is an obligation on every man to provide for those descended from his loins: and the manner, in which this obligation shall be performed, is thus pointed out[]. The father, and mother, grandfather, and grandmother of poor impotent persons shall maintain them at their own charges, if of sufficient ability, according as the quarter sessions shall direct: and[k] if a parent runs away, and leaves his children, the churchwardens and overseers of the parish shall seise his rents, goods, and chattels, and dispose of them towards their relief. By the interpretations which the courts of law have made upon these statutes, if a mother or grandmother marries again, and was before such second marriage of sufficient ability to keep the child, the husband shall be charged to maintain it[l]: for this being a debt of hers, when single, shall like others extend to charge the husband. But at her death, the relation being dissolved, the husband is under no farther obligation.
[h] Raym. 500.
[] Stat. 43 Eliz. c. 2.
[k] Stat. 5 Geo. I. c. 8.
[l] Styles. 283. 2 Bulstr. 346.