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that every fucceffive generation of men have not c HA P. an equal right to the earth, and to all that it poffeffes; but that the property of the prefent generation should be restrained and regulated according to the fancy of those who died perhaps five hundred years ago. Entails, however, are ftill refpected through the greater part of Eu rope, in thofe countries particularly in which noble birth is a neceffary qualification for the enjoyment either of civil or military honours. Entails are thought neceffary for maintaining this exclufive privilege of the nobility to the great offices and honours of their country; and that order having ufurped one unjust advantage over the reft of their fellow-citizens, left their poverty fhould render it ridiculous, it is thought reasonable that they should have another. The common law of England, indeed, is faid to abhor perpetuities, and they are accordingly more re ftricted there than in any other European mo. narchy; though even England is not altogether without them. In Scotland more than one-fifth, perhaps more than one-third part of the whole lands of the country, are at prefent fuppofed to be under ftrict entail.

Great tracts of uncultivated land were, in this manner, not only engroffed by particular families, but the poffibility of their being divided again was as much as poffible precluded for ever. It feldom happens, however, that a great proprietor is a great improver. In the diforderly times which gave birth to thofe barbarous inftitutions, the great proprietor was fufficiently employed

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BOOK ployed in defending his own territories, or in extending his jurifdiction and authority over those of his neighbours. He had no leisure to attend to the cultivation and improvement of land. When the establishment of law and order afforded him this leifure, he often wanted the inclination, and almost always the requifite abilities. If the expence of his house and perfon either equalled or exceeded his revenue, as it did very frequently, he had no stock to employ in this manner. If he was an œconomist, he generally found it more profitable to employ his annual favings in new purchases, than in the improvement of his old eftate. To improve land with profit, like all other commercial projects, requires an exact attention to finall favings and fmall gains, of which a man born to a great fortune, even though naturally frugal, is very feldom capable. The fituation of fuch a perfon naturally difpofes him to attend rather to ornament which pleases his fancy, than to profit for which he has fo little occafion. The elegance of his dress, of his equipage, of his houfe, and household furniture, are objects which from his infancy he has been accustomed to have fome anxiety about. The turn of mind which this habit naturally forms, follows him when he comes to think of the improvement of land. He embellishes perhaps four or five hundred acres in the neighbourhood of his house, at ten times the expence which the land is worth after all his improvements; and finds that if he was to improve his whole estate in the same manner,

and

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and he has little tafte for any other, he would be CHA P. a bankrupt before he had finished the tenth part of it. There ftill remain in both parts of the United Kingdom fome great eftates which have continued without interruption in the hands of the fame family fince the times of feudal anarchy. Compare the prefent condition of thofe eftates with the poffeffions of the fmall proprietors in their neighbourhood, and you will require no other argument to convince you how unfavourable fuch extenfive property is to improvement. If little improvement was to be expected from fuch great proprietors, still lefs was to be hoped for from thofe who occupied the land under them. In the ancient ftate of Europe, the occu- | piers of land were all tenants at will. They! were all or almost all flaves; but their flavery was of a milder kind than that known among the ancient Greeks and Romans, or even in our Weft Indian colonies. They were fuppofed to belong more directly to the land than to their master. They could, therefore, be fold with it, but not separately. They could marry, provided it was with the confent of their mafter; and he could not afterwards diffolve the mar riage by felling the man and wife to different perfons. If he maimed or murdered any of them, he was liable to fome penalty, though generally but to a small one. They were not, however, capable of acquiring property. Whatever they acquired was acquired to their mafter, and he could take it from them at pleasure. Whatever cultivation and improvement could be carried

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BOOK carried on by means of fuch flaves, was properly carried on by their mafter. It was at his expence. The feed, the cattle, and the inftruments of husbandry were all his. It was for his benefit. Such flaves could acquire nothing but their daily maintenance. It was properly the pro. prietor himself, therefore, that, in this cafe, occupied his own lands, and cultivated them by his own bondmen. This fpecies of flavery still fubfifts in Ruffia, Poland, Hungary, Bohemia, Moravia, and other parts of Germany. It is only in the western and fouth-western provinces of Europe, that it has gradually been abolished, altogether.

But if great improvements are feldom to be ex+ pected from great proprietors, they are leaft of all to be expected when they employ flaves for their workmen. The experience of all ages and nations, I believe, demonstrates that the work done by flaves, though it appears to cost only their maintenance, is in the end the deareft of any. A per, fon who can acquire no property, can have no other interest but to eat as much, and to labour as little as poffible. Whatever work he does beyond what is fufficient to purchase his own maintenance, can be fqueezed out of him by violence only, and not by any intereft of his own. In ancient Italy, how much the cultivation of corn degenerated, how unprofitable it became to the master when it fell under the management of flaves, is remarked by both Pliny and Colu mella. In the time of Ariftotle it had not been much better in ancient Greece. Speaking of the

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ideal republic described in the laws of Plato, to CHAP. maintain five thousand idle men (the number of warriors fuppofed neceffary for its defence), together with their women and fervants, would require, he says, a territory of boundless extent and fertility, like the plains of Babylon.

The pride of man makes him love to domineer, and nothing mortifies him fo much as to be obliged to condefcend to perfuade his inferiors. Wherever the law allows it, and the nature of the work can afford it, therefore, he will generally prefer the fervice of flaves to that of freemen. The planting of fugar and tobacco can afford the expence of flave cultivation. The raifing of corn, it seems, in the present times, cannot. In the English colonies, of which the principal produce is corn, the far greater part of the work is done by freemen. The late refolution of the Quakers in Pennsylvania to fet at liberty all their negro flaves, may fatisfy us that their number cannot be very great. Had they made any confiderable part of their property, fuch a refolution could never have been agreed to. In our fugar colonies, on the contrary, the whole work is done by flaves, and in our tobacco colonies a very great part of it. The profits of a fugar-plantation in any of our Weft Indian colonies are generally much greater than thofe of any other cultivation that is known either in Europe or America: And the profits of a tobacco plantation, though inferior to those of fugar, are fuperior to thofe of corn, as has already been obferved. Both can afford the ex

pence