had thrown out the contents, and had carried off the bottles, fo· that nothing remained in the cheft that could be of any further use. However, it fortunately happened, that Mr. Sharp, the furgeon, at the time he quitted the fhip, conceiving he never fhould get back to her any more, had providently brought away fome of the moft ufeful medicines.

When those who returned with the pinnace brought this intelligence, and had informed our people that thefe canoes were gone up to Pelew, Captain Wilfon made this tranfaction known to Raa Kook, not fo much as a matter of complaint, as to exprefs to him his uneafinefs for the confequences which might atife to the natives from their tafting or drinking fuch a variety of medicines. Raa Kook begged Captain Wilson would entertain no uneafinefs whatever on their account; that if they fuffered, it would be owing entirely to their own mifconduct, for which he faid he felt himfelf truly concerned. This converfation paffing at fupper, where the general and linguist were eating with our people, feemed greatly to difturb Raa Kook; his countenance fully defcribed be indignation he felt at the treacherous behaviour of his own men, and afked, why our people did not fhoot them? begging, that if they, or any others, should dare again to attempt plundering the veffel, they would, and he should take upon himself to juftify their conduct to the king.

At their firft coming, the Malay, who was quite naked, had requested a pair of trowsers and a jacket, which were given him; and a pair of trowfers, together with an uniform`coat, were at the fame time prefented to Raa Kook, who directly put them on, not a little pleafed in appearing like his new friends, often looking at himself, and faying, "Raa Kook Englees;" but it was fuppofed he found the heat and confinement of drefs very inconvenient, for after this vifit he never wore them; and when Captain Wilfon was at his houfe at Pelew, he perceived he had put them up carefully among what he deemed his valuables.

[To be continued]

THOUGHTS

THOUGHTS

on making WILLS.

[By a Lawyer.]

THER HERE is no fubject, in the whole voluminous mafs of our laws, of equal importance with that of wills; nor is there one of greater moment, in point of family peace, and good-will among men.

The fhadow of the feudal law might have appeared in England, from the time of the Saxons; but the fubftance of it was not established here, at least not univerfally, till the Norman tyrant, who ruled us with a rod of iron, and tranfmitted his favage nature with his blood. By this fatanic law, pride took its deepest root in this land; and as the most valuable branch of this poisonous tree, the defcent of the whole real estate of a family, caft upon the eldest fon of it, ftrikes the eye of calm reafon with aftonishment; not because it first exifted here, through fuch means, but that it should continue through the moft enlightened ages, down to the prefent, the paragon of all !. It was firft devifed by artful and bloody conquerors, to preferve their ill-gotten and ill-governed dominions. In order to hook their dependent vaffals to their subjection, they threw out the gilded bait of property; as if each of them had faid to their flaves "Swear to be true to my arms in every cause, juft or unjuft, and I will give you that fine, large wooded eftate, with liberty to hunt upon it, as all the land in England is my own; and all the game too of course, because, whatever feeds upon the land, belongs to it, confequently all the men, and all the beafts, and all the birds, and all the fish in England are my own. I am conqueror of the whole from the port of Milford to the land's end; it is mine as Lord Paramount by right of conqueft. I was ftronger than the natives, therefore I claim their property; a part of it I now give you, on condition that

you

you fhall ferve me in my wars in perfon, or by knight-fervice: and, for your farther encouragement, it fhall defcend to your eldefl fon, as my heir of the land, for I, or my deputy may be, if we choofe, the real father of your fon: and fo the eftate, thus originally held of me, fhall defcend, not to any daughter at all, but from eldeft fon to cldeft fon for ever; who fhall hold it on the original terms of the royal grant. As for all your younger children, as it is probable they may be none of mine, and as I want to fecure one warrior in every family for myfelf, you and Providence fhall take care of the rest!" *

Thus, the right of primogeniture, from this righteous origin, was entailed upon the nation. Defcendible honours too were very fhrewdly tacked, foon after, to this right, refpecting land; fo that the rest of the family, however numerous, were left in a difgraceful, as well as a flarving condition, by the general law of the land. To counterbalance which, in fome mealure, the particular tenures of gavel kind and Borough-English, in the counties of Kent and Monmouth, and in other parts of the kingdom, were left to prevail, and fill happily fubfift, from time immemorial. But the antient power of devifing, or giving real eftates by will, which was made to give way to the spirit of the Norman feuds, was revived, for the first time, in the latter

"In confequence of this change, it became a maxim of cur English tenures, that the king is the univerfal lord and original proprictor of all the land in this kingdom; and that no man does or can poffefs any part of it, but what has mediately or immediately been derived as a gift from him, to be held upon feudal principles. Our English ancestors probably meant no more than to put the kingdom in a flate of defence, by efablifhing a military fyflem, and to maintain the king's title and territories; as if they had received their lands from his bounty, as pure, proper, beneficiary feudatories; but the Norman interpreters gave a different conftruction to this proceeding, and thereupon took a handle to introduce moft rigorous doctrines, never known to other nations; as if the English had in fact, as well as theory, owed every thing they had, to the bounty of their Sovereign Lord." Blackftone's Com, vol. ii. p. 51. 5th edit.

VOL. XIV.

U

end

end of the reign of Henry the VIIIth. by act of parliament, which was another heavy weight in the balance against the effect of primogeniture. However, it fill bears too hard against thre younger branches of every landed family in the kingdom, which is manifeft in three ftrong and ftriking inftances.

1. Whenever a marriage-fettlement takes place, it regards the eldeft fon fo much, fo vaftly beyond any proportion of divifion, that the eftate, be it ever fo large, is, by the common courfe of entail, wafted on him, with a referve of fome fmall modicum as a charge out of it for each younger child. The first, therefore, in all right reason, is to be brought up the noble or the gentleman of the family, with or without the fhadow of fome profeffion! while the younger branches are to bow down to their lordly brother through life. Providence, by forming mankind into fuch tender connections as families, intended to counteract the evil of our nature, as well as for the propagation of the fpecies, for his own great ends of reftoring them to their original blifs and righteoufnefs; but man thus counteracts the defigns of his Maker; inftead of cementing his family, in bonds of love and amity, he fows the feed of diffention thus before they are born. Whatever is unnatural, muft be against the order of Providence, whole tender mercy is over all his works, and more equally than we imagine.

2dly. The idea of primogeniture tends often to warp men (who have made no fettlements) even in their last moments, just before they go to meet the juft God, for a fmall branch of their families against all the reft, be they ever fo many, equally the offspring of their own bowels. Wills are often made and expected by heirs, to be made by their fathers, to an extreme, in their favour. If eldeft fons, as fuch, were always, of course, wifer and better than the reft, and would always act only as the fathers or guardians of the reft, there would be fome reason for crowning them thus in preference; but, as this is feldom, if ever, the cafe; the father, fo ele&ting the heir, is under a monftrous mistake, in point of nature, and policy, to fay no

worfe :

worfe and I would thus address myself to one of these, under a fuppofition of a common cafe.

"Lorenzo, you are confcious of your approaching end: you want to put your houfe in order; you have made no fettlement, therefore you ask me to make your will: you have a large real eftate, and you have a large family of children. Here are they all, weeping round your bed! not one without the honeft and affectionate tear of nature. "This flate of nature is the ftate of God." They are all, equally, his care, and therefore fhould be yours. Look at their innocent faces; how can you think of making a difference? Even the eldest does not now feel as if he willed it. For God's fake, in whofe name you are to make your will: for your own fake, as you are on thẹ edge of an eternal world of fpirits, and would wish to be among the best of them; and for the fake of thofe orphans, whofe angels fee the face of God in glory; fow the feeds of peace among them, and of cordial affection. Divide your fubftance equally between the children of the fame parents; and let not the rifings of ill-will or bitter reflection flop one filial tear from dropping on your coffin!"

The 3d and laft confequence of this feudal eli&t of barbarity, is, That, if Lorenzo should die suddenly before his will can be made, all his large, real eflate, falls upon his heir, turns his brain into the full tide of vice or folly; perhaps to make him die like Dives; and every other branch of the tree inflantly withers on the fialk! Nay, if fome money or flock should remain, it all finks into the real cftate for the heir, if it be mortgaged, and his wants or his vices fhould demand it.

:

So ftands the law in fpite of the poffibility and the frequent cafes of fudden death; and notwithstanding the cries of nature, and the golden rule, which Englishmen in theory know too well, to need a larum for their memory! I hope my betters will forgive me in fuch a caufe! To be cool and indifferent here would neither become a Lawyer nor a man: for each should be reasonable, and therefore I long to fee reafon and humanity pervade