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The subject of competition was the executry of Janet Gemmil, wherein her nephews and nieces, children of her full sister, were preferred to her sister consanguinean, upon this medium, that they were descendants by the whole blood, whereas their competitor was only related to the defunct by the half blood; and it was argued, That amongst persons of equal degree, since the whole blood excludes the half-blood, it follows that all the descendants of the whole blood do exclude the half-blood; for the difference of a degree never enters into the consideration, where there is a separate ground for devolving the succession; just as a great grand-child is preferred in the succession of his predecessor to the brother or father, though nearer of kin to the defunct; and all this not by right of representation, which takes no place in moveables, but because the descendant line excludes the collateral and ascendant in infinitum, and so does the full blood the half-blood. See Appendix.
