Page:The Settled Estates Act, 1882.djvu/14

10 own age and the present as a political thinker, and a Whig moreover, though of the old type, said: "The custom of primogeniture, without question, has a tendency—I think, a happy tendency—to preserve a character of consequence, weight., and prevalent authority over others in: the whole body of the landed interest." The Real Property Commissioners of 1828 considered that "it was a law far better adapted to the constitution and habits of the country, than the opposite law of equal partibility." Take away this power, and in how many cases should we see great estates squandered by spendthrifts too young to have learnt that the position they hold is one they should keep as a trust for their posterity? At present, however extravagant a man may be, he can, at worst, only ruin himself, and not his whole family; and, surely, it would be monstrous, unless it can be shown that the system is dangerous and prejudicial to the State, to deprive our great landowners of these wholesome safeguards.

Let us see shortly what a modern settlement of land is: (and I may premise here that it is only in the case of large ancestral estates, which perhaps constitute a little more than half of the land in the country, that these strict settlements are usual.) Suppose an estate, held by A for life, with remainder to his eldest son, in tail. On the eldest son attaining 21, or on marriage, the entail is barred, and the father and son join in resettling the property, cutting down the son's estate tail to a life estate, in consideration of his obtaining an immediate allowance from his father, and giving the son's eldest son in turn an estate tail. Provision is made for jointuring the widow of the tenant for life, and for raising portions for his