SUCCESSION is a legal term used in Scotland, but not used technically in England, where the same subject is spoken of under the name of next of kin (q.v.), and descent; see also INTESTACY, STATUTES OF DISTRIBUTIONS, EXECUTORS, ADMINISTRATOR. In Scotland the term is used to denote the taking of property by one party in place of another. Where the devolution takes place in consequence of a conveyance from the proprietor, the acquirer is termed a singular successor, as the conveyance is the single title under which he acquires. Where, however, the person dies intestate, his heir suc ceeds to the whole of the heritage, and is called the universal successor. Where no will or disposition by the owner is executed, the law makes a disposition for him, and distrib utes the property according to certain rules of relationship by blood. 1. In the case of heritable succession, primogeniture (q.v.) is the rule, the eldest son and his issue taking the property; and after that stock is exhausted, the next eldest son; and so on. When males fail, then the succession opens to the daughters, who take not in order of seniority, but all together, and are called heirs-portioners (q.v.). When descendants fail, then the succession goes to collaterals; thus, brothers and sisters succeed first--,the brothers according to a certain priority, and, failing them, the sisters all together as heirs-portioners. When the descendants and collaterals are exhausted, the succession
then goes to ascendants (the mother, however, being entirely excluded), the father first, and then uncles and aunts, etc. In heritable succession, the right of representation exists, i.e., when an heir is dead, his children represent him, and take that share which, if alive, he would have taken. Brothers and sisters consanguinean, i.e., by the same father, but not by the same mother, succeed after brothers and sisters german (i.e., by the same father and mother), before the remoter line of the full blood. The English law of descent or succession differs considerably from the above. See INTESTACY, and Pat erson's Comp. of English and Scotch Law (2d ed.), a. 751, et seq.-2. As to succession in movables, or to the personal property of the intestate, see KIN, NEXT cw. There are taxes called succession duties, which are payable to the revenue on all property, real and personal, acquired by succession. The duty payable on lineal issue or lineal ancestors is 1 per cent; by brothers and sisters and their descendants, 3 per cent; and so on, the duty increasing as the relationship is more distant. The husband or wife of the pro prietor is exempted from the duty.