No one has the natural right to transfer property to others at his death either by will or by intestacy. The right to take property by will or descent is derived from and regulated by municipal law. It is a privilege, and the authority conferring the privilege may impose conditions upon its exercise.1 In assessing a tax or excise upon such privilege, the amount thereof may be measured by the value of the property passing.2 But such a tax is not upon the property. The thing taxed is the transmission of property from the dead to the living.3 Confusion of thought may arise unless it be always remembered that, fundamentally considered, there are two underlying theories: viz., although it is and must be the property of the decedent which bears the incidence 4 of the tax, the tax is not upon the property but is laid upon the privilege of transmitting property or on the privilege of receiving property so transmitted.5 The right to transmit and the right to receive are distinct, and each is alike under legislative control. So distinct are these privileges that either or both may be taxed as respects the same property.6 The one is collected on the transfer of his estate by a decedent, and is known as an estate or transfer