larger the properties, the greater must be the tendency to
absenteeism, centralization, and slavery; and yet Mr. McCulloch
assures his readers that

"The advantage of preserving large estates from being frittered down
by a scheme of equal division is not limited to its effects on the
younger children of their owners. It raises universally the standard
of competence, and gives new force to the springs which set industry
in motion. The manner of living in great landlords is that in which
every one is ambitious of being able to indulge; and their habits of
expense, though somewhat injurious to themselves, act as powerful
incentives to the ingenuity and enterprise of other classes, who
never think their fortunes sufficiently ample unless they will enable
them to emulate the splendour of the richest landlords; so that the
custom of primogeniture seems to render all classes more industrious,
and to augment at the same time the mass of wealth and the scale of
enjoyment."--_ Principles_.

The modern system tends necessarily to the consolidation of land, and
the more completely that object can be attained, the greater must, be
"the splendour of the richest landlords," the greater the habits of
expense among the few, the greater their power to absent themselves,
the greater the power of the rapacious middleman or agent, the greater
the poverty and squalor of "the poor and needy dependants," and the
greater the necessity for seeking shelter in the cellars of
Manchester, the wynds of Glasgow, or the brothels of London and
Liverpool; but the larger must be the supply of the commodity called
"cheap labour." In other words, slaves will be more numerous, and
masters will he more able to decide on what shall be the employment of
the labourer, and what shall be its reward.