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The taking of property by inheritance or will is not an absolute or natural right but one created by the laws of the sovereign power. The court points out the state 'may foreclose the right absolutely, or it may grant the right upon conditions precedent, which conditions, if not otherwise violative of our Constitution, will have to be complied with before the right of descent and distribution (whether under the law or by will) can exist.' Further, this power of the state is one of inherent sovereignty which allows the state to 'say what becomes of the property of a person, when death forecloses his right to control it.' McClintock v. Guinotte, supra at 808, 809. While living, a person may manage, use or dispose of his money or property with fewer restraints than a decedent by will. One is generally restrained from wasteful expenditure or destructive inclinations by the natural desire to enjoy his property or to accumulate it during his lifetime. Such considerations however have not tempered the extravagance or eccentricity of the testamentary disposition here on which there is no check except the courts.
In the early English case of Egerton ...
