1881.] on the Land Syvtems of England and of Ireland. 561 



(2) Tlio peculiar nature of family settlements, which convert the 

 nominal owner of liind into a tenant for life, with very limited powers 

 over the estate. (3) The consequent distribution of landed property 

 among a comparatively small and constantly decreasing number 

 of families. (4) The direction of cultivation by a class of tenant- 

 farmers, usually holding from year to year without the security of a 

 lease. And (5) the dependent condition of the agricultural labourers, 

 who are mostly hired by the day or the week, and have seldom any 

 interest in the soil. It is the combination of these features which 

 makes the rural economy of England so entirely unique, unlike that 

 of any other European country, and still more unlike that of the 

 United States or our own colonies. They are often represented as 

 the sjjontaneous growth of our national character and history, coupled 

 with the peculiarities of our soil and climate. I think I shall be 

 able to show tbat such is not the fact — that, in reality, they are 

 mainly the result of artificial causes, and that it is quite within the 

 l^rovince and the power of law to remodel — of course gradually — 

 the land systems of England and of Ireland. 



1. Let us first glance at the institution of Primogeniture. The 

 right of the eldest son to inherit all the land, in case of intestacy, 

 was not recognised by Roman law, or by any of the primitive codes 

 known to us, such as those of the ancient Hindoos, the ancient 

 Germans, the Irish, or the Anglo-Saxon. The Saxon rule of descent, 

 as is well known, was that of gavelkind, or equal division ; nor was 

 it superseded by the Norman rule of Primogeniture uutil about the 

 year 1200. It has often been observed that under a charter of 

 Henry I., which seems to have continued in force only five years, the 

 eldest son did not succeed to all his father's land, but only to his 

 " principal fee," or the chief of several estates. A very similar rule 

 still prevails in the Channel Islands, which are virtually a fragment 

 of that Normandy from which England was conquered. This was, iu 

 fact, the old Norman law, and it was only for military reasons that 

 William the Conqueror and his successors adopted the strict and 

 absolute law of Primogeniture which has now been firmly established 

 in England for nearly seven centuries. After a careful study of the 

 subject, I am convinced that it is this law of Primogeniture which has 

 produced and kept alive the custom, and that it is not the custom 

 which has perpetuated the law. Before the law was introduced in 

 England, there is no reason to believe that any general custom of 

 Primogeniture existed in English families. After the law was swej)t 

 away iu America, an equal partition of laud became the almost uni- 

 versal custom, although American testators enjoy almost the same 

 liberty of making wills that is allowed iu England. Moreover, iu 

 the case of 2)ersonal property, where the law is different iu England, 

 the custom is also different, and hardly any one thinks of accumulating 

 all his personalty on one son. Nor must we suppose that because the 

 law seldom operates directly, it has not a very wide and powerful 

 operation indirectly. When a man makes a will, or settlement, he 



