h a view to
compel him to change his religion, the lord chancellor shall by order
of court constrain him to do what is just and reasonable. But this did
not extend to persons of another religion, of no less bitterness and
bigotry than the popish: and therefore in the very next year we find
an instance of a Jew of immense riches, whose only daughter having
embraced christianity, he turned her out of doors; and on her
application for relief, it was held she was intitled to none[n]. But
this gave occasion[o] to another statute[p], which ordains, that if
jewish parents refuse to allow their protestant children a fitting
maintenance, suitable to the fortune of the parent, the lord
chancellor on complaint may make such order therein as he shall see
proper.

[Footnote m: Stat. 11 & 12 W. III. c. 4.]

[Footnote n: Lord Raym. 699.]

[Footnote o: Com. Journ. 18 Feb. 12 Mar. 1701.]

[Footnote p: 1 Ann. st. 1. c. 30.]

OUR law has made no provision to prevent the disinheriting of children
by will; leaving every man's property in his own disposal, upon a
principle of liberty in this, as well as every other, action: though
perhaps it had not been amiss, if the parent had been bound to leave
them at the least a necessary subsistence. By the custom of London
indeed, (which was formerly universal throughout the kingdom) the
children of freemen are entitled to one third of their father's
effects, to be equally divided among them; of which he cannot deprive
them. And, among persons of any rank or fortune, a competence is
generally provided for younger children, and the bulk of the estate
settled upon the eldest, by the marriage-articles. Heirs also, and
children, are favourites of our courts of justice, and cannot be
disinherited by any dubious or ambiguous words; there being required
the utmost certainty of the testator's intentions to take away the
right of an heir[q].

[Footnote q: 1 Lev. 130.]

FROM the duty of maintenance we may easily pass to that of
_protection_; which is also a natural duty, but rather permitted than
enjoined by any municipal laws: nature, in this respect, working so
strongly as to need rather a check than a spur. A parent may, by our
laws, maintain and uphold his children in their lawsuits, without
being guilty of the legal crime of maintaining quarrels[r]. A parent
may also justify an assault and battery in defence of the persons of
his children[s]: nay, where a man's son was beaten by another boy, and