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Show 434 ON TilE IlHMEDIATE CAUSES [CH. VII. n1anentl y to regulate the descent of property in France; if no modes of evading it should be invented and if its effects should not be weakened ' . by the operation of an extraordinary degree of pru-dence in marriage, which prudence such a la,v would certainly tend to discourage, there is every reason to believe that the country, at the end of a century, will be quite as remarkable fo_r its extraordinary poverty and distress, as for Its un~sual equality of property. 1'be O\vners of the 1111nute divisions of landed property will be, as they ahvays are, peculiarly ,vithout resource, and n1ust perish in o-reat numbers in every scarcity. Scarcely any will be rich hut those \Vho receive salaries frotn the govetnment. In this state of things, 'vith little or none of the natural influence of property to check at once the power of the cro"\vn and the violence of the pc~ple, it is not possible to conceive that such a n11xed o-overnment as France has now established can be maintained. Nor can I think that a state of things, in which there would be so much povet~ty, could be favourable to the existence and duratton of a republic. And when, in addition to this, we consider how extremely difficult it is, under any circumstances to establish a well--constituted republic, and h~w dreadfully the chances are a~ainst its continuance, as the experience of all h1story shews ; it is not too much to say, that no wellgrounded hope could he entertained of the permanent prevalence of such a forn1 of government. But the state of property above described would be the very soil for a military despotisn1. If the SEC. VII.] OF TlriE PROGRESS OF \VEA.LTH. 435 government did not adopt the Eastern mode of considering itself as sole territorial proprietor, it might at least take a hint from the Econon1ists, and declare itself co-proprietor '~rith the landlords, and from this source, (\vhich might still be a fertile one, though the landlords, on account of their numbers, might be poor,) together with a few other taxes, the army might easily be n1ade the richest part of the society; and it \Vould then possess an overwhelming influence, which, in such a state of things, nothing could oppose. The despot might no\v and then be changed, as under the Roman emperors, by the Prretorian guards; but the despotism would certainly rest upon very solid foundations. It is hardly necessary to enter into the question, whether the wealth of the British empire would be essentially increased by that division of landed property which would be occasioned by the abolition of the right of · pri1nogeniture, and the la \V of entails, without any interference with testamentary dispositions. It is generally acknowledged that the country, in its actual state and under its actual laws, presents a picture of greater wealth, especially when 'compared with its natural resources, than any large territorial state of modern times. By the natural extinction of some great families, and the natural imprudence of some others, but, above all, by the extraordinary growth of manufactures and co1n~erce, the immense landed properties Which formerly prevailed all over the cou~try have been in a great deo-ree broken down, notwith- . 5 standing the right of prin1ogeniture. And the few ~· F 2 |
