The Sun.
London, England, 1828-02-14 00:00:00

ENTAIL LAW OF SCOTLAND.

Our readers may not be in general aware of the
fact, that the proprietor of any piece of land or
house, in Scotland, has it in his power to destine
-both the succession of his property, and the terms
upon which those who succeed to it shall hold it. A
Scotch Laird can, by alibiing his name to a. piece of
paper, -regulate the order in which his estate shall
descend through all future ages, whilst an individual
can be fOund who can show that he is the heir of
the• last favoured person who enjoyed the estate 1)5-
a ,deed;written ,generations prior to bis birth. Hecan
stipulate that no debt shall_ be coutracted, and that
the estate shall not be sold under the penalty of the
heir, so disobeying the orders of his great-siTeat-great
great grandfather, losing the property ; and the nul-
lity of the sale or contraction of "debt into the bar-
gain. This is legislating for future ages with a
vengeance. The landholders of Scotland have thus
the power of locking np every pere of land undo:
the fetters of au entail, or, in . other words, of de.-
daring that land shall no longer be. a saleable cam-
; modity. This is already the case with more than
!the half of Scotland, and the evil is rapidly increas-
ing. The fact that such is the case, gives a melan-
choly picture of human nature. The system was
commenced by a proud aristocracy, who seized with
avidity any Scheme which the wicked ingenuity of
lawyers could suggest, for preventingtheir descend-
ants from ever mixing with the plebeian part of the
community. Pride of birth is a notorious attribute
of Scotch character. 'Whether the Entail Law was
-originally the cause or the effect of such a universal
disease as the. family pride with which the 'Scotch
are now infected, it is 'difficult to say ; but it is
most' certain, that in their course to their present
magnitude, they have aided each other hi no small
degree. It is one of the infirmities of our nature,
• ,
that people-are more apt to imitate the vices mail
the virtues of their superiors. The people of 'Scot-
land, instead of setting themselves in opposition to
the measures dictated by the pride of those who first
adopted them% set themselves to imitate them. In-
stead of shunning the disease by which ttleir haughty
aristocracy was tainted, they became themselves in-
fected by it. Every man who could purchase a few
acres of land had it in his power to make it into a fa-
mily estate. The inferior classes of society were not
to be outstripped in folly by their superiors; and, if
they had it not in their power to make their de-
scendants Peers or Baronets, they could make them
the next' thing to it, "Sawizeys of that ilk." As
family pride became more and more the predominant
feature of the Scottish character, the Entail Law
became more perfect, until, •at length, the Legisla-
ture interposed, in 1685, to give it complete strength
and:security.Thins we see that pride fostered the law,and
the law fostered pride, until Scotland arrived at that
blessed state in which she now exists, with consi-
dembly 'more than one half of her territory fairly
shut out of the market. • .

We shall endeavour to point out some of the more
prominent evils which such a state of matters must
and do produce. In Scotland men come into the
world with the certainty that they must, in spite of
late, succeed to an estate, if they live long enough
to see their fathers safely deposited in the church.
yard, and a certainty that any extravagance they may
commit cannot deprive them of their property, which
is sure of going to their own children, free from
their debts. - Figure a young man coming into the
world with such certainties before him. He knows
that his father cannot disinherit him, let his conduct
be what it may. Here is one powerful check upon
immorality and disrespect to parents sacrificed to
Scotch family pride. The very knowledge that they
must succeed to their fathers' estates, generates a
spirit of opposition and disrespect, which would
not exist where , there are no expectations
at all. As the English Poor Laws, by
extracting by force what ought to be given
from pure benevolence, smother up and extinguish
the feelings of charity on the one hand and gratitude
On the other, so does the Scotch Entail Law deaden
and stop the growth of the mutual affection that
ought to exist between parent and child. If it left
the natural authority of pares is over children entire,
it would not be objectionable on that score.; on the
contrary, however, it net only creates a feeling of in-
dependence, but also stirs up a spirit of rebellion on
the part of the child, hick must in its turn produce
in the heart of the parent jealousy and dislike, where
nothing ought to dwell .but pure and unmingled
parental fondness. Let it not be supposed that this
is an imaginary evil. We know. from experience
that it is the way the system works. Nor does the
evil stop there. Young men brought into the world
and educated with the prospect of succession to
entailed estates, are those who are destined to lead
the fashions, and give a tone to society at large.
They inevitably look forward to the day when they
are to supplant their parents. They are, in the lan-
guage of Scotch society, " young men of great pros-.
peets " and they comport themselves as such. They
look forward with impatience to the time when the old
boy will pop off. As might have been expected,
this stylerof thinking has spread from the high and
influential 'classes of society, through all who are
capable of aping the manners and adopting the
opinions of their superiors. In Scotland, young men
are not estimated by their quantum of moral attain-
ments, Or Mental endowments, but by the extent of
their prospects and possessions, calculated in acres,
or pounds, shillings, and.pence.. In Scotland a mar.
riage is only considered good if there be a good
estate in question. We may be wrong in attributing
this corruption of moral feeling, in its whole extent,'
to the law of entail. It would exist to a certain
extent under any system, but we are confident that.
'to that source Scotland is indebted
,for a very large
portion of it.- National -character is mainly formed
by the institutions under which men live. We do
not doubt that the Scotch are naturally more calcu-
lating than their southern neighbours, but it is to the
feelings and sentiments generated by the entail law
that we must look, as the cause 'of the Scotch being
proverbially .almost a• nation of Jews. Scotchmen
are taught from their cradles to regard worldly pos-
sessions as the god of their idolatry, and the law
univisely-sanctions such mean sentiments, by making
careful provisions for preventing men from dissipating
what has once been accumulated by some rake-hell
miter. The Seotch continual contact with
the system,of law, the faults of which we have been
considering, cannot possibly be
,sensible of the in-
fluence it exercises upon their Opinions and moral
feelings.. Family pride, and the desire to acquire
riches, are the mainspring of a, Scotchman's actions.
We have endeavoured to lay open what we consider
to be oneof :the principal causes leading to, this
blemish, upon the national character of the. North
Britons, To'eXplain our views fully, would occupy
more space than can be'devoted'to such a subject in
the columns of .a newspaper,, and, we shall for that
reason defer our 'objections to the law of entail,
viewed as agent, until another opportunity:

COURT
HIGII OF' JUSTICIARY, EDIN-
BUJ:GIL-0u Monday ANDREW Eve.,tivr, labourer, residing
at Broken-bridge, in the parish of Libberton, was placed at
the bar, charged with the murder of lIENav PENNYCOOK.
It appears that EIVART formed one of a partyat Libberton,
who were in the habit of watching the church-yard, in
order to prevent the spoliation of ;raves by resurrectionists.
Unfortunately the deceased (with' whom EIVART was on
the most friendly terms) was on the 4th of December,
last engaged in the p.a.= occupation, and being mistaken by
his friend for a resurrection man, was shot by him.
Evidence being adduced of the fact, the Jury returned
a verdict of murder; but strongly recommended the panel
to mercy ; first, on the ground that the deceased was his
friend, against whom he bore no malice ; secondly, that his
character had been hitherto irreproachable ; and, thirdly,
that he had fancied himself justified in using fire-arms for
the protection of the church-yard. Lord GILLIES then ad-
dressed the panel. The Court had no alternative but to
denounce against him the last and dreadful sentence of the
law. It never had before been his lot, and he trusted it
never would be so again, to denounce that sentence against
an individual for whom every feeling of commiseration was
so powerfully roused. He (Lord GILLIEs) had read cases
of fictitious distress; but this was one of real calamity,
which far surpassed any fiction. His Lordship, after sonic
other remarks, read the sentence of the Court, ordering
Ewattr to he executed at Edinburgh on the 19th March.