Excerpt from Primogeniture: A Short History of Its Development in Various Countries and Its Practical Effects The book professes in the main to be a compilation, rather than original. The nature of the subj ect ren ders this almost a necessity and the method adopted of treating the subject by nations - makes a certain amount of repetition inevitable, which, however, it has been attempted readably to condense by cross references. I have to add that in the last and more political chapter I have earnestly tried to preserve an impartial tone throughout the argument; and I trust it is not too much to hope, in this rather vituperative age, that if political opponents should think the matter worth notice, they will condescend to adopt the same moderate, even if unfashionable, course. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.