If the estates in Egypt were all of the same size as the military allotments mentioned by Herodotus, and the probability is that they were, they must have been about ten acres each. This may be reckoned as fully equal to thirty acres here; for in Egypt the land is all of the best description, and is manured every year by the inundation; and two crops at least can every year be secured from it, the cultivation being almost like that of a garden under irrigation. This would be ample for those who cultivated their land themselves. Those who let it for a fifth would of course get that proportion of every crop. The man therefore who had forty-two estates, as we find it recorded of an old Egyptian on his tomb, had a very considerable income. It would be interesting to know how he came to acquire so many estates; whether by inheritance, by purchase, or by favour of the Crown; whether there were any statutory limits to the acquisition of landed property; and whether provisions were made for dispersing a man’s accumulations at his death: for instance, supposing he had received several estates from the Crown, was he merely a life-tenant without power of absolute disposal, the estates reverting at his death to the Crown? What was the rule of distribution generally followed in their wills? How was the property of an Egyptian, who died intestate, disposed of? CHAPTER XXXIII. CASTE. Ne sutor ultra crepidam. In old Egypt, where we find the earliest development of Aryan civilization, every occupation was hereditary. In the United States, where we have its most recent development, no occupation is hereditary. In Egypt a man’s ancestors from everlasting had practised, and his descendants to everlasting would have to practise, the same business as himself. In the United States it is a common occurrence for the same man to have practised in succession several businesses. With respect to ourselves, it is a trite remark that in this country legislation is the only work that is designedly made hereditary. It is, however, obvious that this is an instance which is subject to considerable limitations, both as to its hereditary character, and as to its actual extent. For our legislator caste is always receiving into its ranks recruits from outside, and its legislative power is only a power that is exercised co-ordinately with that of an unhereditary chamber. Circumstances, not positive institution, except indirectly, have hitherto made our agricultural labourers very much of a caste. Those who are engaged in this kind of work are generally descended from those who have for many generations been so employed. Multitudes of the class, however, escape from it; and every village school that is at work amongst us is supplying means of escape from it for many of those whose horizon it enlarges.