Called yesterday upon Mr. H*****: the conversation turned upon the right of primogeniture, a right which (scarcely deserving to be so called) is not recognised here. It is true that a man is permitted to exercise it in his testamentary dispositions, but it is scarcely ever acted upon. I observed, that though the descent of estates to the eldest son was strictly agreeable to the spirit of our government, yet many with us wished its abolition were practicable, and were of opinion that this would be a great point gained to the cause of rational liberty; regarding it as strictly an act of justice, that a father should divide his property evenly among children who all claimed an equal share in his affection. In answer, he acknowledged, that his mind too was so strongly impressed with the equal claim of children to a parent's support, that he believed he might in his {202} own case act upon it: yet, he added, that should he do so it would be entirely unaccordant with his actual observation of its effects; for, out of very many instances which had come under his observation, he had hardly known any which had succeeded; the children had received their equal portions, but not the experience necessary to proper management and economy, and consequently nine times in ten they bought experience with every dollar, and in the end became either idle, dissipated, good-for-nothing characters, or had at least to begin the world again with nothing.--I asked how the children, in the instances which he called to mind, had been brought up, and if they had been placed out properly at first; for if so, it seems to be a manifest advantage that a young man should possess a sum of money for immediate support and with which to start in life. He said, that in many cases the parents had given excellent educations, but he acknowledged that they had died before the children had been well introduced into life. "Were it otherwise," he observed, "were the parent to live long enough to induce habits of industry and economy, and to see his children well settled in their respective professions or trades, there can be no objection to their being equally portioned; else, an elder brother, especially if he conducts himself worthily, {203} forms a sort of support to the rest of the family, a point d'appui, which preserves a share of respectability to them that in America they experience the want of; he keeps together that property which would otherwise probably be squandered, that respectability which would otherwise be lost."