ct and, as it were, the physical effect of the
law. It follows, then, that in countries where equality of inheritance
is established by law, property, and especially landed property, must
have a tendency to perpetual diminution. The effects, however, of such
legislation would only be perceptible after a lapse of time, if the law
was abandoned to its own working; for supposing the family to consist of
two children (and in a country people as France is the average number
is not above three), these children, sharing amongst them the fortune of
both parents, would not be poorer than their father or mother.

But the law of equal division exercises its influence not merely upon
the property itself, but it affects the minds of the heirs, and brings
their passions into play. These indirect consequences tend powerfully
to the destruction of large fortunes, and especially of large domains.
Among nations whose law of descent is founded upon the right of
primogeniture landed estates often pass from generation to generation
without undergoing division, the consequence of which is that family
feeling is to a certain degree incorporated with the estate. The family
represents the estate, the estate the family; whose name, together with
its origin, its glory, its power, and its virtues, is thus perpetuated
in an imperishable memorial of the past and a sure pledge of the future.

When the equal partition of property is established by law, the intimate
connection is destroyed between family feeling and the preservation of
the paternal estate; the property ceases to represent the family; for
as it must inevitably be divided after one or two generations, it
has evidently a constant tendency to diminish, and must in the end be
completely dispersed. The sons of the great landed proprietor, if they
are few in number, or if fortune befriends them, may indeed entertain
the hope of being as wealthy as their father, but not that of possessing
the same property as he did; the riches must necessarily be composed of
elements different from his.

Now, from the moment that you divest the landowner of that interest in
the preservation of his estate which he derives from association, from
tradition, and from family pride, you may be certain that sooner or
later he will dispose of it; for there is a strong pecuniary interest in
favor of selling, as floating capital produces higher interest than real
property, and is more readily available to gratify the