12 INFLUENCE OF LAND LAWS I 



evaded. Surely, this being the case, it cannot be held that 

 the accumulation of lands in a few hands is the direct 

 result of our land laws. Besides, if for argument's sake 

 this were admitted, the question would at once arise why 

 these same laws did not affect the small owner, and 

 prevent his property from coming into the market to be 

 absorbed by the neighbouring magnate. 



Thus we seem to be led to the conclusion that we must 

 look elsewhere for the causes of this peculiarly English 

 phenomenon. The answer, I believe, to the question is to 

 be found in the habits and prejudices of the class of larger 

 landowners, who, as it has been said, look upon the law 

 (or rather custom) of primogeniture as 'a fundamental 

 law of nature as applied to their own class ', l and in the 

 economical and social forces of the country and its inhabi- 

 tants. 'Let me have control of the ballads of a people. 

 I care not who makes the laws.' I would amend this 

 saying by substituting customs for songs. Nil leges sine 

 mores. , For reasons which I shall hereafter inquire into, 

 the accumulation of landed property has been the passion 

 of the rich, while it has been comparatively little desired 

 by the poor. It has been this prejudice on the part of the 

 rich which has led them to follow the rule of the law of 

 primogeniture in their wills. No doubt it would have 

 been more difficult to satisfy this prejudice if the law of 

 England had forbidden all wills and enforced the system 

 of equal division among the children. But the experience 

 of other countries, notably of France, since the publication 

 of the Code Napoleon, which limits the parental power of 

 testamentary disposition to a part equal to one child's 

 share and divides the remainder among the children 

 equally, goes to show that evasion of such a law is not 

 only possible but probable if such evasion is desired. 



1 Wren Hoskyns, Systems of Land Tenure, Cobden Club, p. 375. 



