390 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



training than by future prospects ; and a youth brought up in one 

 of our ducal palaces, though destined to be cut off with a beggarly 

 fortune, is more likely to be an aristocrat in character than if 

 brought up in a frugal home with great expectations. 



But these are not the only, or the main, fallacies which beset 

 the social argument in favour of primogeniture. That argument 

 rests upon the further assumption that entails and settlements are, 

 at least, effectual to give us a resident proprietary capable of dis- 

 charging the first duty of property, by developing to the utmost 

 the productive energies of the soil. This assumption will scarcely 

 bear examinatibn by the light of every-day experience. Instead 

 of primogeniture creating a wealthy resident proprietary, it is 

 certain that it produces, and almost demonstrable that it must 

 produce, the very opposite effect. Out of three English propri- 

 etors owning above 100,000 acres each, two have properties 

 scattered, respectively, over eleven counties. Most of our great 

 aristocratic houses possess more than one family place. It is 

 impossible for the head of the family to reside continuously at 

 each ; during the whole London season he is nominally in atten- 

 dance on the House of Lords, and, unless he is exceptionally 

 conscientious, he easily satisfies himself with a flying visit once 

 a year to his less favoured estates. In short, absenteeism is the 

 inevitable consequence of a system which concentrates landed 

 property in few hands, and, where absenteeism exists, the raison 

 d'etre of primogeniture is materially weakened. But this is not all. 

 Entails and settlements provide an ample security against landed 

 property being divided according to the dictates of natural affec- 

 tion, but they provide no adequate security against its remaining 

 practically without a responsible owner during a whole lifetime, 

 or even against its ultimately passing into the hands of strangers. 

 If a duke ruins himself by gambling, and is declared bankrupt, 

 his domains may be managed for the sole benefit of his assignees 

 during half a century, unless he can obtain the concurrence of 

 his eldest son to sell them outright. In this case, the whole 

 inheritance of a family may be converted into money at a stroke 

 by collusion between two of its members, for the exclusive profit 

 of themselves or their creditors, without the semblance of consent 



