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    the question were to be asked me , to which will you give your vote ? My answer would be , at once , the apothecary for me . Why ? Because I should be sure of finding in the mind of the apothecary , knowledge and talents , of the kind and quality suiting to the exigencies of that useful

    and respectable profession , including the branches of art and science that belong to it . And I should expect that the already acquired stock of general knowledge and talents , necessarily gained in the acquirement of the particular knowledge and talents required by his profession , would be capable of being transferred and applied to the newly-adopted branch of industry , namely legislation . *

    Since then it appears , first , that wealth will always predominate in government ; and , secondly , that industry affords the best qualification for governing—consequently , the interest of good government requires , that the two should be , as much as possible , united . The system of primogenitive inheritanoe utterly destroys this salutary principle ; and for the following reasons : —•

    1 . It confines the great majority of the property of the country in the hands of a few inheritors by birth , and depr ives the nation at large of that , which would otherwise constitute the grand object and incentive to industry and emulation , and would likewise promote moral amelioration , by educing and stimulating the worthiest energies of the people .

    2 . It confers property and power on men , whom , by the virtue or rather evil of its nature , it especially divests of the qualification of industry , and of every other tuition necessar y to the attainment of a competency , to use such power beneficially . Bentham having concluded his view of the claim of the apothecary to legislative capacity , through the principle of industry , thus illustrates the foregoing assertion , in his negative portrait of the gentleman of 10 , 000 ? . per annum : —

    'Now , as to the gentleman . This gentleman , with his 10 , 000 / . ayear , —having been bred up in the expectation of it—on what assignable ground could I build any equal expectations that he would possess the requisite knowledge and talents , in any tolerable degree ,

    in any shape , at any rate , in which it would possess a tolerable chance of being transferred to this purpose ? Knowledge and talent ^ to whatever subject applied , are the fruit of labour , and are not to be had without labour . How then should he have come by it ? By the force of what motives shall the pain attached to the labour have been overcome ?'

    But the system of primogenitive inheritance goes further still in evil effect . It actively fosters those qualities , peculiarly productive of the abuse of power . First and foremost , it engenders the withering and palsyingcurse of mental and moral indolence—that prolific germ of every human vice ! Opulence , indolence ., selfishness , intellectual weakness , cowardice

    Untitled Article

    The Evils of Primogenitive Inheritance , 349

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1834, page 349, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2633/page/37/