_Canon_ I.
Estates go to the issue (_item_)
Of him last seized _in infinitum_;
like cow-tails, downward, straight they tend,
But never, lineally, ascend:
_Cannon_ II.
This gives that preference to males,
At which a lady justly rails.
_Canon_ III.
Of two males, in the same degree,
The eldest, only, heir shall be:
With females we this order break,
And let them all together take.
_Canon_ IV.
When one his worldly strife hath ended,
Those who are lineally descended
From him, as to his claims and riches,
Shall stand, precisely, in his breeches.
_Canon_ V.
When lineal descendants fail,
Collaterals the land may nail:
So that they be (and that a bore is)
_De sanguine progenitores_.
_Canon_ VI.
The heir collateral, d’ye see,
Next kinsman of whole blood must be:
_Canon_ VII.
And, of collaterals, the male
Stocks are preferred to the female;
Unless the land come from a woman,
And then her heirs shall yield to no man.
* * * * *