THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 383 



than the opposite law of equal partibility, which, in a few gener- 

 ations, would break down the aristocracy of the country, and, by 

 the endless subdivision of the soil, must ultimately be unfavour- 

 able to agriculture and injurious to the best interests of the 

 State." Very similar opinions are expressed by Mr. McCul- 

 loch, in combating the well-known dictum of Adam Smith, 

 that " nothing can be more contrary to the real interest of a 

 numerous family than a right which, in order to enrich one, 

 beggars all the rest of the family." Mr. McCulloch, indeed, 

 though he condemns the old indestructible Scotch entails, since 

 abolished by law, treats it as a characteristic merit of English 

 primogeniture that it sustains a high standard of luxury among 

 country gentlemen of which the example is not lost 'upon the 

 mercantile classes. 



If we analyse this plea for primogeniture somewhat more 

 closely, it will be found to resolve itself into several distinct 

 lines of reasoning. In the first place, it is alleged, or rather 

 suggested, that without primogeniture it would be impossible 

 to maintain an hereditary peerage. The sufficient reply to any 

 such allegation is that an hereditary peerage may be kept up, 

 and is kept up in some Continental states, either by means of 

 majorats specially created, or by making certain estates " run " 

 with the titles derived from them, without any general law or 

 custom of primogeniture. Moreover, unless primogeniture be 

 defensible on other grounds, as beneficial to the whole com- 

 munity, it would surely be monstrous that it should be imposed 

 on the families of some hundred thousand freeholders not to 

 speak of those who may be rendered landless by its indirect 

 operation for the sake of the few hundred families composing 

 the hereditary nobility. In fact, Burke himself, with all his 

 aristocratic bias, was careful not to rest the case on so narrow a 

 ground ; and few admirers of primogeniture would now venture 

 to advocate it in the interest of the Upper House as distinct 

 from that of the nation at large. 



But, secondly, it is urged, and not without great force, that 

 primogeniture is actually productive of greater benefits, politi- 

 cal and social, to English society as a whole than could be 



