THE LAW AND CUSTOM OF PRIMOGENITURE 393 



return. As the father grows older, and the son's expectation of 

 succeeding becomes nearer and nearer, painful jealousies are very 

 apt to spring up between them, till at last, perhaps, not a lease 

 can be granted or a fall of timber authorised, lest it may preju- 

 dice or be represented as prejudicing the reversion. Of course, 

 there are many examples of families owning settled estates, where 

 the father and eldest son work together in harmony, both looking 

 upon themselves as trustees not only for the rest of the family, 

 but for all placed under their control. But it is self-evident that 

 an indefeasible right of succession vested in the eldest son must 

 tend to weaken parental authority and to facilitate borrowing 

 money upon the security of reversionary interests. 



We have already seen that it is fallacious to speak generally 

 of primogeniture as inflicting injustice upon younger children. 

 It is, however, equally fallacious to describe it as securing 

 younger children, regarded individually, a full equivalent for an 

 equal share of the family heritage upon the father's death. In 

 what does this imaginary equivalent consist ? Certainly not in any- 

 thing capable of being reduced to a definite conception, unless 

 it be the enjoyment of a rank determined by that of their elder 

 brother, and of a claim on his influence for their advancement in 

 life, as well as the maintenance at his expense of a country seat 

 where they are welcome and honoured guests. Of these privileges 

 the two last depend entirely on their remaining on good terms 

 w r ith the head of the family, whose interest naturally centres in 

 his own children rather than in his father's children, and whose 

 residence, however freely thrown open to them, cannot after all 

 be treated as their home. As for the first privilege it may well be 

 doubted whether rank or status out of proportion to a man's pecu- 

 niary means be not an encumbrance rather than a boon. To have 

 acquired, under a parent's roof, habits, tastes, and ideas of style 

 which cannot be gratified in maturer years without running into 

 debt has been the ruin of many a promising career. To this 

 cause, more than any other, is traceable the self-imposed celibacy 

 too prevalent among younger sons of good family in the me- 

 tropolis, and inevitably prejudicial not to morality only, but to 

 steadiness and earnestness in practical w r ork. By this cause more 



