others. It is
exceedingly common for men to contract their love to their country into
an attachment to its petty subdivisions; and they sometimes even cling
to their provincial abuses, as if they were franchises and local
privileges. Accordingly, in places where there is much of this kind of
estate, persons will be always found who would rather trust to their
talents in recommending themselves to power for the renewal of their
interests, than to incumber their purses, though never so lightly, in
order to transmit independence to their posterity. It is a great
mistake, that the desire of securing property is universal among
mankind. Gaming is a principle inherent in human nature. It belongs to
us all. I would therefore break those tables; I would furnish no evil
occupation for that spirit. I would make every man look everywhere,
except to the intrigue of a court, for the improvement of his
circumstances or the security of his fortune. I have in my eye a very
strong case in the Duchy of Lancaster (which lately occupied Westminster
Hall and the House of Lords) as my voucher for many of these
reflections.[35]

For what plausible reason are these principalities suffered to exist?
When a government is rendered complex, (which in itself is no desirable
thing,) it ought to be for some political end which cannot be answered
otherwise. Subdivisions in government are only admissible in favor of
the dignity of inferior princes and high nobility, or for the support of
an aristocratic confederacy under some head, or for the conservation of
the franchises of the people in some privileged province. For the two
former of these ends, such are the subdivisions in favor of the
electoral and other princes in the Empire; for the latter of these
purposes are the jurisdictions of the Imperial cities and the Hanse
towns. For the latter of these ends are also the countries of the States
(_Pays d'Etats_) and certain cities and orders in France. These are all
regulations with an object, and some of them with a very good object.
But how are the principles of any of these subdivisions applicable in
the case before us?

Do they answer any purpose to the king? The Principality of Wales was
given by patent to Edward the Black Prince on the ground on which it has
since stood. Lord Coke sagaciously observes upon it, "That in the
charter of creating the Black Prince Edward Prince of Wales there is a
_great mystery_: for _less_ than an estate of inherit