"Mr. Webster held a different opinion. He said, 'In respect,
however, to the recent law of succession in France, to which I have
alluded, _I would, presumptuously perhaps, hazard a conjecture,
that, if the government do not change the law, the law in half a
century will change the government; and that this change will be,
not in favor of the power of the crown, as some European writers
have supposed, but against it_. Those writers only reason upon what
they think correct general principles, in relation to this subject.
They acknowledge a want of experience. Here we have had that
experience; and we know that a multitude of small proprietors,
acting with intelligence, and that enthusiasm which a common cause
inspires, constitute not only a formidable, but an invincible
power.'
"In less than six years after Mr. Webster uttered this remarkable
prediction, the king of France himself, at the opening of the
Legislative Chambers, thus strangely echoed it:--'Legislation ought
to provide, by successive improvements, for all the wants of
society. The progressive partitioning of landed estates,
essentially contrary to the spirit of a monarchical government,
would enfeeble the guaranties which the charter has given to my
throne and to my subjects. Measures will be proposed to you,
gentlemen, to establish the consistency which ought to exist
between the political law and the civil law, and to preserve the
patrimony of families, without restricting the liberty of disposing
of one's property.
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