376 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



condition of an arrangement of the nature above described, 

 that the person who remains in possession of the property and 

 becomes its owner, is bound during a certain number of years 

 (after the payment of their shares to all the children) to provide 

 any one or all of them with board and lodging at the homestead, 

 in the event of their falling into distress from sickness, want of 

 em.ployment, etc." In short, the peasant proprietors of Bavaria, 

 who are admitted to be a thriving class, appear to keep up their 

 family estates with as much tenacity as our own landed gentry, 

 but with a jealousy for the rights of younger children which re- 

 minds us of the Irish peasant farmers. In the Austrian Empire, 

 on the contrary, the devolution of all property, real and personal, 

 is regulated by the Civil Code, by which '' no preference is 

 accorded to eldest sons," nor have sons any advantage over 

 daughters ; but " an exception exists in the case of family en- 

 tails {majorats).'' Of course these entails are mainly created on 

 large properties. Whatever be the instrument which constitutes 

 such an entail, Mr. Lytton remarks that it has no legal validity 

 without the special consent of the legislative power. 



It is almost superfluous to state that Switzerland is a land 

 of small proprietors, the law of equal division being heartily 

 supported by custom. According to Mr. Mackenzie's report 

 " the quantity of land usually held by each varies from six to 

 twelve acres, small lots held together, and the larger intersected 

 by other properties," yet, instead of being pauperised by sub- 

 division, the Swiss are proverbial for successful enterprise in 

 trade both at home and abroad. In Belgium morcellement has 

 notoriously been carried, under the Code Napoleon, to a greater 

 extreme than in France itself ; so that Mr. Wyndham estimates 

 the average size of estates, deducting woodlands and wastes, 

 at seven acres ; and Mr. Grattan cites official statistics which 

 show that four- fifths did not exceed twelve acres. " The dis- 

 persion of land is increased by the system which generally 

 prevails at public sales of dividing real estate into small parcels 

 or lots " ; otherwise the properties of small families, sold for 

 the purpose of effecting a more convenient distribution among 

 children, would be constantly passing into the hands of rich 



