Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/390

 374 that the ame man is heir to many others, though by art and management he may frequently become their deviee. Thus the antient law of the Athenians directed that the etate of the deceaed hould always decend to his children; or, on failure of lineal decendants, hould go to the collateral relations: which had an admirable effect in keeping up equality and preventing the accumulation of etates. But when Solon made a flight alteration, by permitting them (though only on failure of iue) to dipoe of their lands by tetament, and devie away etates from the collateral heir, this oon produced an exces of wealth in ome, and of poverty in others: which, by a natural progreion, firt produced popular tumults and dientions; and thee at length ended in tyranny, and the utter extinction of liberty; which was quickly followed by a total ubverion of their tate and nation. On the other hand, it would now eem hard, on account of ome abues, (which are the natural conequence of free agency, when coupled with human infirmity) to debar the owner of lands from ditributing them after his death, as the exigence of his family affairs, or the jutice due to his creditors, may perhaps require. And this power, if prudently managed, has with us a peculiar propriety; by preventing the very evil which reulted from Solon's intitution, the too great accumulation of property: which is the natural conequence of our doctrine of ucceion by primogeniture, to which the Athenians were trangers. Of this accumulation the ill effects were everely felt even in the feodal times; but it hould always be trongly dicouraged in a commercial country, whoe welfare depends on the number of moderate fortunes engaged in the extenion of trade.

this be, we find that, by the common law of England ince the conquet, no etate, greater than for term of years, could be dipoed of by tetament ; except only in Kent, and in ome antient burghs, and a few particular manors, where their Saxon immunities by pecial indulgence ubited. And Rh