The morning call., 1893-10-22

The wealth Of the sristocracy of England
consists in great part of land, which has
been kept in the families during genera
tions by the system of entail in favor of
heirs male. In recent times, during what
may be termed the iron age. a very large
increment of wealth has accrued from
minerals in the strata under these lands,
for, according to law, the owner of the
soil is also owner of all that lies beneath.
Beds of coal and ironstone. lime. marble,
freestoDe and lead ore are thus aids to for
tune, whether the proprietor works the
minerals himself. or, as is generally the
case. leases them On royalties charged upon
the quantity extracted. third source Of
income is from ground rents in cities.
In London, Liverpool, Manchester and
most other cities the building land is
leased for term of years. ninety-nine or
less, and the ground tenant erects the
buildings at his own cost. pays a stipu-
lated rent, and at the end of his lease the
buildings become the property Of the
owner of the land, who has not paid one
penny toward their erection. This is GER
tainly royal road to wealth when The
leases fall in and the buildings are sub
stantial, as they are on that very fat eS-
tate in London owned by the Duke of
Westminster, who insists upon stylish
structures of a very durable character
being erected.
Other sources OF wealth consist of
markets in cities and towns. which are
often in the nature of a downright mon
opOly prohibtive of rivalry within the
civic bounds Thus the Duke of Bedford
10.
the heart of London, whence the principal
supply of vegetables, flowers and fruit is
distributed over the metro pOlis Most of
the other markets are in the hands Of the
Corporation of London, which in its turn
clings to its prerOgatives of eXcluslveness
very tenaci0usly and reDresses competi-
ton. Fisheries in streams. estuaries and
even on the seashore are also tributary
10 family revenue. Thus the Duke of
Northum berland claims that every salmon
is his on the line of coast from the Tyne
almost to Berwick, and woe betide the
trespasser.
Account must be taken of this steady
income, growing rather than diminishing,
to comprehend how so many thousands of
families in England can live, as 1t were
in supeIfluiiy of doing nothing. They
have their rent rolls, their tenants in
W
to collect rents, their houses In different
parts of the country whittier they betake
themselves according to the season, and
provided no scallywags arise to break
down the family fortunes by vice aud
prodigality the skies are always serene for
them, no matter what tides OF dis aSter
overwhelm trade.
It is also part of the reckoning that the
aristocracv have vast wealth in their man
sions, their home estates, which are laid
oft with exquisite taste IN gardens, parks
and lakes, with sometimes wild country
for the sportsman eDvirOning. The whole
United Kingdom has but an area of 121.-
600 square miles. not much more than half
the area of France, yet when the man.
sODs OF the aristocracy and upper middle
classes are considered as form of wealth
locked away which has been accumulating
s' during many centuries, extensions being
added from time TO time, surprise is eX-
cited az the prOdigious possessions in COM
paratiyely few hands. II would be an i'm
possibility to find the means to-day out of
the rents of a single generation to build all
these grand houses and fill them with rich
furniture and costly pictures, to lay out
great areas in gardens and ornamental
grounds, and 10 timber and turf many
thousands of acres of park given up to
deer as a spectacle and made very i'm
pressive with avenues of lines. chestnut,
beech or oak.
line entail IL al duI1ITdDlb u6YlC6 Oh me
feudal times 10 sustain families in the pride
of possessions. A proprietor under en-
tailed settlements is never quite the master
OF what he calls his own. He has his life
interest but his son has his contingent life
interest too. The consequence of this
beautiful arrangement is that creditors are
kept at a distance, however pressing, by
the strength of entails, and when entails
are broken care is taken by the Court of
Chancerv that the purchase money is
guarded for the sake of others who have
an interest and not squandered.
When the Marquis of Aylesbury parted
with Savernake To one of the Guinness
brewer family, and had SO. SOC. 900 in sight
to pay his horde of creditors and fill his
purse for more dissipation. his lordship
was not allowed 10 handle more than his
proper interest. His estate was converted
into cash, but it did not all go to him. But
for these entails, which tie up property so
that it is difficult to sell it, most of the So
called great families would, by providen-
tial tend ency to retrOgressi0D, have gone
down in their substance and become an
insignificant part of the plebs. The estates
would have been put into the melting pot
for the sake of raising and squander-
ing money, and there would have
been no income to keep up In state
many of the titles. AS matters stand,
there are not few peers who have very
little cash at their bankers, who have TO
pinch and economiZe, and are glad to sell
old master pictures and family plate. or to
mortgage their lands, let their houses,
and even to live abroad cheaply.
But IN contrast with them are mum bers
VINO are very opuient. who have hall
dozen great estates and fine mansions.
VINO own the sites OF towns or large slices
OF cities, who have collieries. and are
shareholders in railways and Shipping
companies, and must have riches 10 the
extent OF many millions il their income
was capitalized. There are also in the
RANKS OF the aristocracy-what fine,
swelling, rotund word it is, verbally sug-
gestlve OF noble, demi-god man, but in
realty often an ignObIe berd-a consider
able proportion who are just com fortably
circumstanced, according TO their station,
but VINO have to be careful in their ex-
penditgre Of from $4,000 to 100000 a
year. Ihe great Duke Of Argyle, for in
stance, Is regarded as poor man. He has
broad acres, for the most part under a
crop of heather, but he has family re-
spOnsibilites which tax severely eyary
pound of income. Under the entail nrjn-
ciple, combined with primogenitive sue
cessioD. his eldest SOB, he Maronis of
Lorne, lnher its the entailed estates. and