fuch a work.
The plan of the revifal was this. The common law of England, by which is meant, that part of the Englifli law which was anterior to the date of the oldeft ftatutes extant, is made the bafis of the work. It was thought dangerous to at- tempt to reduce it to a text: it was there- fore left to be coUefted from the ufual monuments of it. Neceflary alterations in that, and fo much of the whole body of the Britifh ftatutes, and of adls of af- fembly, as were thought proper to be re- tained, were digefted into 126 new ads, in which fimplicity of ftyle was aimed at, as far as was fafe. The following are the moft remarkable alterations propofed:
To change the rules of defcent, fo as that the lands of any perfon dying inteftate fliall be divifible equally among all his children, or other repreientatives, in equal degree.
[ 267 3 To make flaves diftributable among the next of kin, as other moveables^ To have all public expences, whether of the general treafury, or of a parifh or county, (as for the maintenance of the poor, building bridges, court-houfes, &c.)