THE LA W OF SETTLEMENT OF LAND. 277 



more than anything else causes settlements to be made. 

 Their wishes go even "beyond the law, and they would 

 tie their estates up longer if they could. If settle- 

 ments were forbidden by law, it is very doubtful if 

 to a great extent the same habits and ideas, which 

 cannot be rooted out, would not keep the land in 

 families much as at present. A few spendthrifts 

 might be sold up the mass of landowners of steadi- 

 ness and character would act much as they do now. 



It has never yet been proved that owners in fee 

 lay out more money in improving their land than 

 limited owners so spend. It is a pity the new Dooms- 

 day Book does not enter on that question. It is so 

 probable, if settlements were forbidden, that owners of 

 land would still in substance act as now, that in France, 

 where they are more logical than we are in carrying out 

 consequences, the law goes a step farther, and hinders 

 men from making their own wills. The law makes a 

 will for them to insure the partition of land. But even 

 in France the landowners' instinct prevails, and this 

 instinct is the same in the small French proprietor as 

 in the great English landlord. I think the subject of 

 settlements has not at all been thought out by many 

 of those who have taken it up. It involves settle- 

 ments of personal property really as much as of land. 

 Different rules could not stand. Distinctions would 

 be impossible between settlements of land and settle- 

 ments of the money for which land would sell. 

 Lawyers doubtless see the bearings of the subject and 



