364 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



re-settlement on the next generation ; and thus the property is preserved in 

 the family. Primogeniture, therefore, as it obtains among the landed gentry 

 of England, is a custom only, and not a right ; though there can be no doubt 

 that the custom has originated in the right which was enjoyed by the eldest 

 son, as heir to his father, in those days when estates-tail could not be barred. 



To complete this explanation, it should be added that almost 

 all modern settlements contain a power of sale, enabling the 

 trustees, with the consent of the tenant in possession, to sell 

 portions or even the whole of the property, and to re-invest 

 the purchase-money in other land. Under these powers out- 

 lying estates, or estates which may have come into the family 

 collaterally, are very commonly sold off, and the produce is 

 either applied in rounding off the central domain, or held upon 

 trust for the same persons as would have received the income 

 of the land, till it is sooner or later absorbed in paying charges 

 which must otherwise have been raised upon the entire prop- 

 erty. In default of such powers being inserted in the settle- 

 ment, the Court of Chancery may direct sales, with the consent 

 of the parties interested ; and it may be asserted that with the 

 exception of a very few domains inalienably settled, like Blen- 

 heim, on a particular family, no estate in England is literally 

 unsaleable. It should also be remarked that a settlement of 

 the kind described by Mr. Joshua Williams implies that full 

 control has been acquired over the land before it is executed. 

 For this purpose, most family properties are disentailed in each 

 generation with a view to re-settlement, by the joint act of the 

 life-owner for the time being as "protector," and of his eldest 

 son as tenant-in-tail in reversion. The former is actuated by a 

 desire to perpetuate the entail by fresh limitations, to a period 

 as distant as the law permits, and often gains, in the process 

 of re-settlement, the means of discharging his own debts or 

 making provision for those who have claims upon him. The 

 son, on the other hand, taking a life-estate in lieu of his estate- 

 tail, forfeits the prospect of becoming master of the property 

 on his father's death ; but in consideration of this sacrifice, he 

 usually receives an immediate rent-charge by way of allowance, 

 and is placed in a position to marry early. 



