384 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



expected from a system of more equal partibility. It is bet- 

 ter, we are told, for rural England at least, to be paternally 

 governed by a comparatively limited hierarchy of eldest sons, 

 whose successors are usually designated long beforehand, than 

 for estates to become subject to division once in each genera- 

 tion, with the risk of passing into the hands of new purchasers 

 having no ancestral connection with land. It is contended 

 that an heir born to a great position and trained from his 

 earliest years to make himself worthy of it acquires habits, and 

 is fortified by motives, which are powerful securities for his 

 future virtue and capacity. This ideal landowner, having been 

 thoroughly instructed in all the manifold duties of property 

 during his father's lifetime, and conscious that a large body of 

 tenants and dependants look to him for guidance and example, 

 enters upon the management of his estate in a spirit altogether 

 superior to commercial self-interest, prepared to do for it what 

 no mere land-speculator would think of doing, and no small 

 proprietor could afford to do. If he is a religious man, he 

 builds churches in neglected hamlets ; if he is an agriculturist, 

 he sinks more in drainage and farm buildings than he will ever 

 live to receive back in rent ; if he is a social reformer, he erects 

 model cottages, carries out sanitary improvements, patronises 

 schools, or devotes himself to bringing forward the most prom- 

 ising youths in the parishes of which he is lord. In all 

 these enterprises, as well as in the unpaid services which he 

 renders on the magisterial bench, on local boards, and in the 

 varied spheres of influence open to resident landlords, he is 

 actuated by no hope of pecuniary reward or even of personal 

 gratification, but rather by that peculiar sense of honour, com- 

 pounded of public spirit and family pride, which has played so 

 large a part in the history of England. His character, thus 

 developed, exhibits a marked individuality, but it is by no 

 means a one-sided individuality. With education enough to 

 understand the economical and legal questions which he is 

 daily called upon to settle in practice, with leisure enough to 

 follow the course of affairs both at home and abroad, with 

 refinement enough to appreciate art and literature, with energy 



