Secondly, I fhall confider these privileges as a moral wrong. Thirdly, I fhall confider them as a dangerous political evil.

And, Laftly, I fhall conclude, by propofing a remedy againft the numerous abufes of which thefe privi leges are the primeval fource.

Firft Title.

The privileges of primogeniture, which are now converted into rights originated with the feudal fyftem, in the early ages of military barbarifm. In the first dawning of fociety, before the population was equal to the extent of country, each man feized up. on the fpot of ground which he conceived to be moft fit for his purposes; when it became inadequate to them, be removed from it; and at his removal any other perfon could occupy it, without a violation of the common rights and laws of nature. Af. terwards, as the population increased, it was found to be productive of effential and general utility, for a num ber of families to affociate together and to form themfelves into tribes: and in that event it was neceffary for each family to occupy and cultivate the fame spot for a fucceffion of years; the circumftance of doing fo, conftituting a fufficient right of property. When the intereft of different tribes were contrary to each other, each party naturally had recourfe to force, to fupport that which was moft dear to it; and amongst a number of men, there always was, and ever will be, fome perfon particularly diftinguifhed from the generality, for his fuperior powers; and fuch a perfon, in cafes of difficulty, as a teceffary confequence, took the chief command, and conducted and directed the operations of his countrymen. When a chief was fuccefstul in battle, and con

according to their merit, the poffeffions of the vanquished; and in order that he might the better preferve his conqueft, and at the fame time fupport his own power and that of his tribe, he made it a condtion, that each, according to the extent and the value of his property, fhould either attend perfonally or furnish a certain quota of foldiers, in cafe of war or of any emergency that might render their affilance and fupport requifite, "These captains (alfo,) after retain"ing what was proper for them"felves, proportioned the refidue a"mong a lower rank of officers, un"der the conditions of fidelity and "military fervice;" (Erfkine, B. II. Tit. iii. §. 3.) and these again dif. tributed part of their poffeffions a mong the peaceable and unwarlike part of the tribe "under the condit "tion that the Grantee fhould, in "place of ferving the Granter in war, "cultivate and fow the grounds "which the Granter kept in his na"tural poffeffion." (Erskine, B. II. Tit. iv. §. 5.)-Hence arose the Feudal Syftem.

Thefe chiefs, who were at first appointed by the general voice of their tribe to command only for a certain time, in cafes of neceffity, found fupreme power fo intoxicating, that they made attempts, and frequently with fuccefs, to continue it during their lifetime; and their foldiers who were in ufual ardently attached to them, from admiration of their fuperior bravery, bodily ftrength, good conduct, and other perfonal motives, foon had an additional tye to induce them to continue their fupport, in the hopes of plunder and of reward.

Hence originated Nobility.

To continue the prerogative of government to his pofterity, was the next defire that arofe in the mind of the chief; for this purpose, and to prevent any diffenfions in his family,

it was neceffary to fix upon fome particular distinction to afcertain the fucceffor to his dignity and power; and his eldest fon naturally occurred to him as being, on many accounts, the perfon molt fit to fulfil his inten tions.

In the event of his vaffal having a numerous progeny, the chief retain ed the power of nominating any one of the fons of the deceased to fill his father's station; and although the chofen perfon was obliged by the law of nature and by general practice to provide for the remainder of the family, as he received the whole property belonging to it, he alfo had it in his power to fend fome of his brothers to fulfil the duties of his vaffalage; while he himself, if his difpofition inclined not to warfare, enjoyed the "otium cum dignitate," at home. These foldiers, if their party was successful, received the rewards of their valour; but if on the contrary they were defeated and efcaped the perils of the battle, they returned to the land, of their ancestors, and affifted in domeftic employments until they were again called upon to take a hare in more active fcenes.

Although it would be foreign to my fubject, and inapplicable to the purposes I have in view, to trace the origin of Parliaments, it may be neither improper nor unneceffary to mention here, that when the chief and his followers went to fight the battles of their country, the people appointed those men who were rendered venerable on account of their age, and whose wisdom was prefumed to be matured by experience, to attend to the affairs of the community; that they had a military body under their command fufficient to enforce their refolutions; and that the public, finding them to be a very proper, and often an effectual check upon the en croachments of the chief and his principal vassals, afferted and support ed their right to have a Council of

Ancients, whofe opinion had great weight, and was of effential use, ia urging forward war, or preferving peace.

When it was afterwards perceived, that the intereft of feveral tribes had a near connection, and that it was neceffary to combine their mutual forces agaiuft a common enemy; the different chiefs met together and chofe, from amongst themselves, fome one as a fupreme commander, who was peculiarly diftinguished by his fuperior talents, and who was invefted with power, not only to controul the inclinations of the others, but alfo to procure by the means of coercion, an implicit obedience to his orders. These commanders in chief, during the course of the war, had many opportunities of gaining the affections of the foldiery and of the inferior officers, in an eminent degree: urged by a wish to aggrandife their family they often endeavoured to retain the fupreme command when it was no longer neceffary to do so, and when the purposes to effectuate which they had been invefted with it, were completed; and although oppofition to fo infamous an ufurpation and fo flagrant a breach of faith was often fuccefsful, yet it fometimes had only the effect of confirming that power which it was intended to deftroy.

Actuated alia by an anxious defire to perpetuate to their defcendents the authority which they had ufurped, they continued, by the utmost attention to the public intereft, and by carefully avoiding every fpecies of tyranny, to ingratiate themfelves with their fubjects, and to render their authority folid and lafting. They alfo had the policy to attach the military part of their vaffals to the intereft of their intended fucceffors, by caufing them to take an active part in the exercifes and fatigue of the foldiers, and by rendering them if poffible, complete malters of the

practical

practical part of war. And to thefe circumftances does Monarchy owe its origin.

As the poffeffions of the king in creased, it was no longer in his power to difcriminate the various qualities of the children of his numerons vaffals, or to discern the one moft fit for his fervice; he therefore gave up the privilege of naming a particular fucceffor, and in place thereof, he ef tablished the rights of primogeniture. By this act, he was affured of fome perfon being always prepared to fulfil the obligations of the feudal te nure; and he had reason to believe, that by connecting the interefts of his eldeft fon with that of his vaffals, his throne would be more powerfully fupported.

Second Title.

When the clouds of fuperftition and barbarim began to difperfe; when the lights of reafon and literature began to beam upon and illumine the minds of the majority of the nation, the feudal fyftem became no longer neceffary for its prefervation and protection; military tenures were firft neglected, next allowed to fall into diffuetude, and finally abolifhed, or converted into a pecuniary confideration. The magnificence and the pomp of chivalry yielded to the lefs heroic, but more valuable interefts of commerce; the activity of the knights to the buftle of the feamen; and the people in fome degree emerged from the miferable fituation of flavery, in which they had been fo long plunged, into the proud and dignified rank of freemen. But although the feudal fyftem was ftripped of its most evident and pernicious powers, the baneful effects of it are ftill to be discovered at this period. It was the intereft of the opulent and of the noble, to preferve the fecret links of that oppreffive chain, which had apparently been burit by the efforts of the public, and in the

injurious and deftructive confequences of entails, in the oppreffion of younger brothers for the aggrandifement of the elder, we may difcern that fyftem of aristocracy which muft eventually deftroy the liberty of every nation in which it is exercised.

After having detailed the origin of the privileges of birthright, I have now to confider them as a moral wrong to iociety, and as an injury of the greateft magnitude to all younger children, particularly to those of landed proprietors. In order to illuftrate this affertion, I fhall trace the fate of the family of a man poffeffed of an estate, the annual income of which may be L.5000; fuppofing him to have five fons, befides daughters. To begin with the eldeft fon. As he is to be the future reprefentative of an antient family, derived from a long line of ancettry, his early years are watched over with the moft anxious folicitude; he is indulged in every caprice that youthful imagination may prompt him to be guilty of, and his palate is gratified with every nicety which may be deemed not prejudicial to the fuppofed delicacy of his conftitution. Thus he is foftered in the downy, lap of pleafure and eafe until he arrives at an age when it is neceffary he should begin to learn not only his native language, but also thofe foreign ones which are efteemed effentially requifite in completing the education of a gentleman; for this purpose a tutor is procured, who is restricted from curbing those unruly paffions which have been acquired by the mode in which the young gentleman has been brought up; and from forcing a strict attention to ftudy, as his health might thereby be injured, or he might adopt the pedantic manners of his preceptor. He is early introduced into company, and is encouraged by the parafites of the family, and by the fondness of his parents, to perfevere in pertness, which is called wit, and