408 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



perish out of the county. But this, as we have seen, is a very 

 inadequate view of the whole case. Might it not be expected 

 that if each successive heir of an illustrious house were actuated 

 at once by ancestral pride and the fear of forfeiting his birthright 

 through misconduct or incompetency, a healthy kind of atavism 

 would develop itself in the landed aristocracy, and the virtues 

 manifested by the founders of families would be more frequently 

 reproduced in their descendants ? Nay, more, does not our 

 knowledge of human nature, confirmed by the experience of 

 Germany, America, and the Colonies, encourage us to hope that 

 in terminating all indefeasible rights of succession, we should be 

 unlocking hidden springs of energy and genius, calling into 

 action the mettle of that " lounging class " which is the reproach 

 of English primogeniture, infusing unwonted industry into our 

 aristocratic public schools and universities, and making henceforth 

 the antiquity of a family a true mark of hereditary strength ? 



In the meantime, no sudden or startling change would be 

 wrought by the new law in the characteristic features of English 

 country life. There would still be a squire occupying the great 

 house in most rural parishes, and this squire would generally be 

 the eldest son of the last squire ; though he would sometimes 

 be a younger son of superior merit or capacity, and sometimes 

 a wealthy and enterprising purchaser from the manufacturing 

 districts. Only here and there would a noble park be deserted 

 or neglected for want of means to keep it up and want of reso- 

 lution to part with it ; but it is not impossible that deer might 

 often be replaced by equally picturesque herds of cattle ; that 

 landscape gardening and ornamental building might be carried 

 on with less contempt for expense ; that game preserving might 

 be reduced within the limits which satisfied our sporting fore- 

 fathers ; that some country gentlemen would be compelled to 

 contract their speculations on the turf, and that others would 

 have less to spare for yachting or for amusement at Continental 

 watering-places. Indeed, it would not be surprising if greater 

 simplicity of manners, and less exclusive notions of their own 

 dignity, should come to prevail among our landed gentry, leading 

 to a revival of that free and kindly social intercourse which made 



