140 MIGRATORY PROPENSITY. 



dants. In the former country the abnegation 

 of the law of primogeniture in a manner pre- 

 cludes the establishment of family estates, 

 and land is so universally an article of com- 

 merce, that to ask a gentleman to sell his house 

 and land, is just as permissible as it were in 

 England to ask a dealer to sell a horse. 



Hence, perhaps, arose a migratory propen- 

 sity, observable in the generality of persons 

 engaged in the business of agriculture, and 

 hence the difficulty of reconciling them to 

 meliorating modes of husbandry involving 

 fixedness of residence. The States, many of 

 them argue, are a wide field, and there is in 

 them plenty of land to be reclaimed. It will 

 therefore be long ere it be necessary to take 

 heed how soils are managed. When one farm 

 ceases to be profitably productive, another may 

 be cleared, and economising the fructifying 

 quality of the soil is therefore a matter not 

 yet worth consideration. In short, a profit 

 which is immediate, is the profit which most 

 of them seek after, and consequently an expen- 

 diture on land, which is to be productive of a 



