In Peace 



The gain of primogeniture came in 

 the fact that the younger sons and the 

 (laughters' sons were forced constantly 

 back into the mass of the people. 

 Among the people at large this stronger 

 blood became the dominant strain. The 

 Englishmen of to-day are the sons of 

 the old nobility, and in the stress of 

 natural selection they have crowded 

 out the children of the swineherd and 

 the slave. The evil of primogeniture 

 has furnished its own antidote. It has 

 begotten democracy. The younger 

 sons in Cromwell's ranks asked on 

 their battle-flags why the eldest should 

 receive all and they nothing. Richard 

 Rumbold, whom they slew in the 

 Bloody Assizes, " could never believe 

 that Providence had sent into the world 

 a few men already booted and spurred, 

 with countless millions already saddled 

 and bridled for these few to ride." 

 Thus these younger sons became the 



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