•  The  reader  wUl,  throughout  this  treatise,  find  under  this,  and  other  branch-
es of  the  law,  the  most  important  steps  of  historic  development

(9)


§    2  LAND   TITLES  IN   THE   UNITED   STATES.  [Ch.  1

but  it  was  soon  followed  by  the  abrogation  of  the  privileges  of  the
firstborn  in  those  states  (all  but  New  Hampshire,  Maiisachusetts,
and  Ck)nneeticut)  which  had  adopted  the  British  system  of  conferring
the  lands  of  an  intestate  on  the  eldest  son,  the  eldest  brother,  or
the  eldest  agnate.  The  breaking  up  of  landed  properties  was  alleged
by  the  lawmakers  of  the  time  to  be  indispensable  in  order  to  prevent
those  gross  inequalties  in  wealth  and  power  which  would  undermine
and  overthrow  the  republic  Estates  tail  were  also  abolished  in
Virginia  and  in  several  other  states, — a  matter  of  very  slight  impor-
tance,  as  "fetrict  settlements"  were  rather  favored  than  discouraged;
and  the  meaning  given  to  the  estate  tail  in  Connecticut,  since  fol-
lowed in  Ohio  and  other  Western  states,  made  its  restrictions  much
more  effective  than  they  had  been  before.
