I.

their original government introduced, and which C H A P. remained after that government was greatly altered, neceffarily forced them into this unnatural and retrogade order.

CHAP. II.

Of the Difcouragement of Agriculture in the ancient State of Europe after the Fall of the Roman Empire.

WHE

II.

HEN the German and Scythian nations C H A P. over-ran the western provinces of the Roman empire, the confufions which followed fo great a revolution lafted for feveral centuries. The rapine and violence which the barbarians exercised against the ancient inhabitants,interrupted the commerce between the towns and the country. The towns were deferted, and the country was left uncultivated, and the western provinces of Europe, which had enjoyed a confiderable degree of opulence under the Roman empire, funk into the lowest state of poverty and barbarism. During the continuance of those confufions, the chiefs and principal leaders of those nations, acquired or ufurped to themselves the greater part of the lands of thofe countries. A great part of them was uncultivated; but no part of them, whether cultivated or uncultivated, was left without a proprietor. All of them were engroffed

VOL. III.

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BOOK groffed, and the greater part by a few great proprietors.

III.

This original engroffing of uncultivated lands, though a great, might have been but a tranfitory evil. They might foon have been divided again, and broke into finall parcels either by fucceffion or by alienation. The law of primogeniture hindered them from being divided by fucceffion: the introduction of entails prevented their being broke into fmall parcels by alienation.

When land, like moveables, is confidered as the means only of fubfiftence and enjoyment, the natural law of fucceffion divides it, like them, among all the children of the family; of all of whom the fubfiftence and enjoyment may be fuppofed equally dear to the father. This natural law of fucceffion accordingly took place among the Romans, who made no more diftinction between elder and younger, between male and female, in the inheritance of lands, than we do in the diftribution of moveables. But when land was confidered as the means, not of fubfiftence merely, but of power and protection, it was thought better that it should defcend undivided to one. In thofe diforderly times, every great landlord was a fort of petty prince. His tenants were his fubjects. He was their judge, and in fome refpects their legislator in peace, and their leader in war. He made war according to his own difcretion, frequently against his neighbours, and fometimes against his fovereign. The fecurity of a landed eftate, therefore, the protection

II.

which its owner could afford to thofe who dwelt C H A P. on it, depended upon its greatnefs. To divide it was to ruin it, and to expofe every part of it to be oppreffed and swallowed up by the incurfions of its neighbours. The law of primogeniture, therefore, came to take place, not immediately, indeed, but in procefs of time, in the fucceffion of landed eftates, for the fame reason that it has generally taken place in that of monarchies, though not always at their firft institution. That the power, and confequently the fecurity of the monarchy, may not be weakened by divifion, it muft defcend entire to one of the children. To which of them fo important a preference shall be given, must be determined by fome general rule, founded not upon the doubtful diftinctions of perfonal merit, but upon fome plain and evident difference which can admit of no difpute. Among the children of the fame family, there can be no indifputable difference but that of fex, and that of age. The male fex is univerfally preferred to the female; and when all other things are equal, the elder every-where takes place of the younger. Hence the origin of the -right of primogeniture, and of what is called lineal fucceffion.

Laws frequently continue in force long after the circumftances, which firft gave occafion to them, and which could alone render them reafonable, are no more. In the present state of Europe, the proprietor of a single acre of land is as perfectly fecure of his poffeffion as the proprietor of a hundred thoufand. The right of primogeniture,

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BOOK niture, however, ftill continues to be refpected, III. and as of all inftitutions it is the fitteft to fup

port the pride of family distinctions, it is ftill likely to endure for many centuries. In every other refpect, nothing can be more contrary to the real intereft of a numerous family, than a right which, in order to enrich one, beggars all the reft of the children.

Entails are the natural confequences of the law of primogeniture. They were introduced to preferve a certain lineal fucceffion, of which the law of primogeniture first gave the idea, and to hinder any part of the original eftate from being carried out of the propofed line either by gift, or devise, or alienation; either by the folly, or by the misfortune of any of its fucceffive owners. They were altogether unknown to the Romans. Neither their fubftitutions nor fideicommiffes bear any refemblance to entails, though fome French lawyers have thought proper to drefs the modern institution in the language and garb of thofe antient ones.

When great landed estates were a fort of principalities, entails might not be unreasonable. Like what are called the fundamental laws of fome monarchies, they might frequently hinder the fecurity of thousands from being endangered by the caprice or extravagance of one man. But in the present state of Europe, when fmall as well as great eftates derive their fecurity from the laws of their country, nothing can be more completely abfurd. They are founded upon the moft abfurd of all fuppofitions, the fuppofition

that

II.

that every fucceffive generation of men have not c HA P. an equal right to the earth, and to all that it poffeffes; but that the property of the prefent generation should be restrained and regulated according to the fancy of thofe who died perhaps five hundred years ago. Entails, however, are ftill refpected through the greater part of Europe, in those countries particularly in which noble birth is a neceffary qualification for the enjoyment either of civil or military honours. Entails are thought neceffary for maintaining this exclufive privilege of the nobility to the great offices and honours of their country; and that order having ufurped one unjuft advantage over the rest of their fellow-citizens, left. their poverty should render it ridiculous, it is thought reasonable that they should have another. The common law of England, indeed, is faid to abhor perpetuities, and they are accordingly more reftricted there than in any other European monarchy; though even England is not altogether without them. In Scotland more than one-fifth, perhaps more than one-third part of the whole lands of the country, are at prefent fuppofed to be under ftrict entail.

Great tracts of uncultivated land were, in this manner, not only engroffed by particular families, but the poffibility of their being divided again was as much as poffible precluded for ever, It feldom happens, however, that a great proprietor is a great improver. In the disorderly times which gave birth to thofe barbarous inftitutions, the great proprietor was fufficiently em:ployed

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