the Highlands of Scotland. When called in to
determine the legal powers of the chieftain over the domains which
gave sustenance to the clan, Scottish jurisprudence had long since
passed the point at which it could take notice of the vague
limitations on completeness of dominion imposed by the claims of the
clansmen, and it was inevitable therefore that it should convert the
patrimony of many into the estate of one.

For the sake of simplicity I have called the mode of succession
Primogeniture whenever a single son or descendant succeeds to the
authority over a household or society. It is remarkable, however, that
in the few very ancient examples which remain to us of this sort of
succession, it is not always the eldest son, in the sense familiar to
us, who takes up the representation. The form of Primogeniture which
has spread over Western Europe has also been perpetuated among the
Hindoos, and there is every reason to believe that it is the normal
form. Under it, not only the eldest son, but the eldest line is always
preferred. If the eldest son fails, his eldest son has precedence not
only over brothers but over uncles; and, if he too fails, the same
rule is followed in the next generation. But when the succession is
not merely to _civil_ but to _political_ power, a difficulty may
present itself which will appear of greater magnitude according as the
cohesion of society is less perfect. The chieftain who last exercised
authority may have outlived his eldest son, and the grandson who is
primarily entitled to succeed may be too young and immature to
undertake the actual guidance of the community, and the administration
of its affairs. In such an event, the expedient which suggests itself
to the more settled societies is to place the infant heir under
guardianship till he reaches the age of fitness for government. The
guardianship is generally that of the male Agnates; but it is
remarkable that the contingency supposed is one of the rare cases in
which ancient societies have consented to the exercise of power by
women, doubtless out of respect to the overshadowing claims of the
mother. In India, the widow of a Hindoo sovereign governs in the name
of her infant son, and we cannot but remember that the custom
regulating succession to the throne of France--which, whatever be its
origin, is doubtless of the highest antiquity--preferred the
queen-mother to all other claimants for the Regency, at the same time
that it rigorou