“Before the Revolution of 1789, there had been a great accumulation of the landed property of the country, and, indeed, of all its property,—­by means of laws of entail, majorats, and other legal contrivances,—­in the hands of the privileged classes; chiefly in those of the nobility and the clergy.  The injury and injustice done by long continued legislation in this direction were obviously great; and it was not, perhaps, unnatural, that the opposite course to that which had brought on the mischief should be deemed the best one to cure it.  At any rate, such was the course taken.

“In 1791 a law was passed, preventing any man from having any interest beyond the period of his own life in any of his property, real, personal, or mixed, and distributing all his possessions for him, immediately after his death, among his children, in equal shares, or if he left no children, then among his next of kin, on the same principle.  This law, with a slight modification, made under the influence of Robespierre, was in force till 1800.  But the period was entirely revolutionary, and probably quite as much property changed hands from violence and the consequences of violence, during the nine years it continued, as was transmitted by the laws that directly controlled its succession.

“With the coming in of Bonaparte, however, there was established a new order of things, which has continued, with little modification, ever since, and has had its full share in working out the great changes in French society which we now witness.  A few experiments were first made, and then the great Civil Code, often called the Code Napoleon, was adopted.  This was in 1804.  By this remarkable code, which is still in force, a man, if he has but one child, can give away by his last will, as he pleases, half of his property,—­the law insuring the other half to the child; if he has two children, then he can so give away only one third,—­the law requiring the other two thirds to be given equally to the two children; if three, then only one fourth under similar conditions; but if he has a greater number, it restricts the rights of the parent more and more, and makes it more and more difficult for him to distribute his property according to his own judgment; the restrictions embarrassing him even in his lifetime.

“The consequences of such laws are, from their nature, very slowly developed.  When Mr. Webster spoke in 1820, the French code had been in operation sixteen years, and similar principles had prevailed for nearly a generation.  But still its wide results were not even suspected.  Those who had treated the subject at all supposed that the tendency was to break up the great estates in France, and make the larger number of the holders of small estates more accessible to the influence of the government, then a limited monarchy,