THE WEALTH UE NATIONS.

533

called the right of Majorazzo* takes place in the successionof all those great estates to which any title of honour is an-nexed. Such estates go all to one person, and are in effectentailed and unalienable. The French colonies, indeed, aresubject to the custom of Paris, which, in the inheritance ofland, is much more favourable to the younger children thanthe law of England. But, in the French colonies, if anypart of an estate, held by the noble tenure of chivalry andhomage, is alienated, it is, for a limited time, subject to theright of redemption either by the heir of the superior, or bythe heir of the family; and all the largest estates of the countryare held by such noble tenures, which necessarily embarrassalienation. But, in a new colony, a great uncultivated estateis likely to be much more speedily divided by alienation thanby succession. The plenty and cheapness of good land, ithas already been observed, are the principal causes of therapid prosperity of new colonies. The engrossing of land, incflect, destroys this plenty and cheapness. The engrossingot uncultivated land, besides, is the greatest obstruction to itsimprovement. But the labour that is employed in the im-provement aud cultivation of land affords the greatest anti mostvaluable produce to the society. The produce of labour, inthis case, pays not only its own wages and the profit of thestock which employs it, but the rent of the land too uponwhich it is employed. The labour of the English colonists,therefore, being more employed in the improvement and cul-tivation of land, is likely to alford a greater and more valuableproduce, than that of any of the other three nations, which,by the engrossing of land, is more or less diverted towardsother employments.

Thirdly, the labour of the English colonists is not onlylikely to alford a greater and more valuable produce, but, inconsequence of the moderation of their taxes, a greater pro-portion of this produce belongs to themselves, which theymay store up and employ in putting into motion a still greaterquantity ot labour. The English colonists have never yetcontributed any thing towards the defence of the mothercountry, or towards the support of its civil government.They themselves, on the contrary, have hitherto been de-fended almost entirely at the expense of the mother-country.But the expense of fleets and armies is out of all proportiongreater than the necessary expense of civil government.

* Jus Mujorntus.