py
Pa

Ls. oF

AN ESSAY

ON THE

PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION;

oR,
A VIEW OF ITS PAST AND PRESENT EFFECTS

ON

HUMAN HAPPINESS;

WITH

AN INQUIRY INYO "OUR PROSPECTS RESPECTING THE FUTURE
REMOVAL OR MITIGATION OF THE EVILS WHICH
IT OCCASIONS.

BY
Tue Rey. T. R. MALTHUS, A.M. F.R.S.

LATE FELLOW OF JESUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, AND PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND POLITICAL
ECONOMY IN THE EAST-INDIA COLLEGE, HERTFORDSHIRE.

oa
SIXTH EDITION.
IN TWO VOLUMES.

VOL. II.

LONDON :
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

MDCCCXXVI.

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- 2

CONTENTS

THE SECOND VOLUME.

BOOK IIL.

OF THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OR EXPEDIENTS WHICH
HAVE BEEN PROPOSED OR HAVE PREVAILED IN SOCIETY,
AS THEY AFFECT THE EVILS ARISING FROM THE PRIN-
CIPLE OF POPULATION.

CuHap. Page
I. Of Systems of Equality. Wallace, Condorcet. 1
II. Of Systems of Equality. Godwin... . . . .18
III. Of Systems of Equality Sia i Sees.

TV.-Of Emigration.” dutaret at wg artto dS d ig: (2 |
V. Of Poor-Laws. . . wt ae aot Oe aan’ aha Coe
VI. Of Poor-Laws (eabidteaeete eee ar an area oe
VII. Of Poor-Laws (continued), . . . . . . 96
VIII. Of the Agricultural System. © 2. °. 1 118
IX. Of the Commercial System. aes Ane

X. Of Systems of Agriculture ‘aid Gamers: com-
Baned:. * sais. tae SOR ars ahr, ot 2S

XI. Of Corn-Laws. Binlutsee upon Exportation. 162
XII. Of Corn-Laws. Restrictions upon Importation. 185
XIII. Of i increasing Wealth, as it affects the Condition

ofithe:Poor, . haere SPL RT Oo ah ary
XIV. General Observations, ... . . . . . . 229

lv CONTENTS.

BOOK IV.

OF OUR FUTURE PROSPECTS RESPECTING THE REMOVAL
OR MITIGATION OF THE EVILS ARISING FROM THE PRIN-

CIPLE OF POPULATION.

Cuap.
I. Of moral Restraint, and our iy eee Be to
practise this Virtue. :
II. Of the Effects which would mefult' to Sockely
from the Prevalence of Moral Restraint.

III. Of the only effectual Mode of improving the

Condition of the Poor. .
IV. Objections to this Mode att uA ae:

V. Of the Consequences of pursuing the opposite

Mode.

VI. Effects of the orowicdie MG; the aed eat

of Poverty on Civil Liberty.
VII. Continuation of the same Subject. °.

VIII. Plan of the gradual Abolition of the Poor-Laws

proposed.

IX. Of the Modes of correcting os BAS

Opinions on Population.
X. Of the Direction of our Charity.

XI. Different Plans of improving the Condition of

the Poor considered. :
XII. Continuation of the same Subject. .

XIII. Of the Necessity of general i on this

Subject.

XIV. Of our rational Eaicieeens -daiedaens the

future Improvement of Society. .«
Apperndixi. «> +> 5 Aloe

Page

311
3528

335 .

351
361

374
394

412

431
443

ESSAY,
nC. Cae

BOOK III.

OF THE DIFFERENT SYSTEMS OR EXPEDIENTS
WHICH HAVE BEEN PROPOSED OR HAVE PRE-
VAILED IN SOCIETY, AS THEY AFFECT THE
EVILS ARISING FROM THE PRINCIPLE OF POPU-
LATION.

CHAP. I.
Of Systems of Equality. Wallace. Condorcet.

To a person who views the past and present
states of mankind in the light in which they have
appeared in the two preceding books, it cannot
but be a matter of astonishment, that all the
writers on the perfectibility of man and of so-
ciety, who have noticed the argument of. the
principle of population, treat it always very lightly,
and invariably represent the difficulties arising
from it as at a great and almost immeasurable
distance. Even Mr. Wallace, who thought the
argument itself of so much weight as to de-
VOL. Il. B

2 Systems of Equality. Bk. in.

stroy his whole system of equality, did not seem
to be aware that any difficulty would arise from
this cause, till the whole earth had been culti-
vated like a garden, and was incapable of any
further increase of produce. If this were really
the case, and a beautiful system of equality were
in other respects practicable, 1 cannot think that
our ardour in the pursuit of such a scheme ought
to be damped by the contemplation of so remote
a difficulty. Anevent at such a distance might
fairly be left to Providence. But the truth is,
that, if the view of the argument given in this
essay be just, the difficulty, so far from being re-
mote, is imminent and immediate. At every pe-
riod during the progress of cultivation, from the
present moment to the time when the whole earth
was become like a garden, the distress for want of
food would be constantly pressing on all mankind,
if they were equal. Though the produce of the
earth would be increasing every year, population
would have the power of increasing much faster,
and this superior power must necessarily be
checked by the periodical or constant action of
moral restraint, vice, or misery.

M. Condorcet’s Esquisse d'un Tableau Historique
des Progres de l Esprit Humain was written, it is
said, under the pressure of that cruel proscription
which terminated in his death. If he had no hopes
of its being seen during his life, and of its interest-
ing France in his favour, it is a singular instance
of the attachment of a man to principles, which
every day’s experience was, so fatally for himself,

Ch. i. Wallace. Condorcet. 3

contradicting. To see the human mind in one of
the most enlightened nations of the world, de-
based by such a fermentation of disgusting pas-
sions, of fear, cruelty, malice, revenge, ambition,
madness and folly, as would have disgraced the
most savage nations in the most barbarous age,
must have been such a tremendous shock to his
ideas of the necessary and inevitable progress of
the human mind, as nothing but the firmest con-
viction of the truth of his principles, in spite of
all appearances, could have withstood.

This posthumous publication is only a sketch of
a much larger work, which he proposed should be
executed. It necessarily wants therefore that de-
tail and application, which can alone prove the
truth of any theory. A few observations will be
sufficient to shew how completely this theory is
contradicted, when it is applied to the real, and
not to an imaginary, state of things.

In the last division of the work, which treats of
the future progress of man towards perfection, M.
Condorcet says that, comparing in the different
civilized nations of Europe the actual population
with the extent of territory, and observing their
cultivation, their industry, their divisions of la-
bour, and their means of subsistence, we shall see
that it would be impossible to preserve the same
means of subsistence, and consequently the same
population, without a number of individuals who
have no other means of supplying their wants than
their industry.

Having allowed the necessity of such a class of

B2

4 Systems of Equality. Bk. ii.

men, and adverting afterwards to the precarious
revenue of those families that would depend so
entirely on the life and health of their chief,* he
says very justly, ‘‘ There exists then a necessary
“* cause of inequality, of dependence, and even of
‘“‘ misery, which menaces without ceasing the most
‘“< numerous and active class of our societies.” The
difficulty is just and well stated; but his mode of
removing it will, I fear, be found totally ineffica-
cious.

By the application of calculations to the proba-
bilities of life, and the interest of money, he pro-
poses that a fund should be established, which
should assure to the old an assistance produced in
part by their own former savings, and in part by
the savings of individuals, who in making the
same sacrifice die before they reap the benefit of
it. The same or a similar fund should give as-
sistance to women and children who lose their
husbands and fathers ; and afford a capital to those
who were of an age to found a new family, suffi-
cient for the developement of their industry. These
establishments, he observes, might be made in the
name and under the protection of the society.
Going still further, he says, that by the just ap-
plication of calculations, means might be found of
more completely preserving a state of equality, by
preventing credit from being the exclusive privi-

* To save time and long quotations, I shall here give the sub-
stance of some of M. Condorcet’s sentiments, and I hope that I
shall not misrepresent them; but I refer the reader to the work
itself, which will amuse, if it do not convince him.

Ch. i. Wallace. Condorcet. 5

lege of great fortunes, and yet giving it a basis
equally solid, and by rendering the progress of in-
dustry and the activity of commerce less depend-
ent on great capitalists.

Such establishments and calculations may
appear very promising upon paper; but when
applied to real life, they will be found to be abso-
lutely nugatory. M. Condorcet allows that a class
of people which maintains itself entirely by in-
dustry, is necessary to every state. Why does he
allow this? No other reason can well be assigned,
than because he conceives, that the labour ne-
cessary to procure subsistence for an extended po-
pulation will not be performed without the goad
of necessity. If by establishments upon the plans
that have been mentioned, this spur to industry be
removed ; if the idle and negligent be placed upon
the same footing with regard to their credit and
the future support of their wives and families, as
the active and industrious ; can we expect to see
men exert that animated activity in bettering their
condition, which now forms the master-spring of
public prosperity? If an inquisition were to be
established to examine the claims of each indivi-
dual, and to determine whether he had or had not
exerted himself to the utmost, and to grant or re-
fuse assistance accordingly, this would be little
else than a repetition upon a larger scale of the
English poor-laws, and would be completely de-
structive of the true principles of liberty and
equality.

But independently of this great objection to

6 Systems of Equality. Bk. iii.

these establishments, and supposing for a moment
that they would give no check to production, the
greatest difficulty remains yet behind.

If every man were sure of a comfortable provi-
sion for a family, almost every man would have
one; and if the rising generation were free from
the fear of poverty, population must increase with
unusual rapidity. Of this M. Condorcet seems to
be fully aware himself; and after having described
further improvements, he says,

‘* But in this progress of industry and happi-
“« ness, each generation will be called to more ex-
** tended enjoyments, and in consequence, by the
‘* physical constitution of the human frame, to an
‘** increase in the number of individuals. Must
‘* not a period then arrive when these laws, equally
** necessary, shall counteract each other; when,
** the increase of the number of men surpassing
* their means of subsistence, the necessary result
“must be, either a continual diminution of hap-
*‘ piness and population—a movement truly re-
“ trograde; or at least a kind of oscillation be-
*“tween good and evil? In societies arrived at
“this term, will not this oscillation be a con-
** stantly subsisting cause of periodical misery ?
“« Will it not mark the limit, when all further me-
** lioration will beccme impossible, and point out
“that term to the perfectibility of the human
“‘ race, which it may reach in the course of ages,
*‘ but can never pass?” He then adds,

«« There is no person who does not see how
‘very distant such a period is from us. But

Ch. i. Wallace. Condorcet. 7

«shall we ever arrive at it? It is equally im-
possible to pronounce for or against the future
“< realization of an event, which cannot take place
‘* but at an era when the human race will have
“attained improvements, of which we can at
*« present scarcely form a conception.”

M. Condorcet’s picture of what may be ex-
pected to happen, when the number of men shall
surpass their means of subsistence, is justly
drawn. The oscillation which he describes will
certainly take place, and will without doubt be a
constantly subsisting cause of periodical misery.
The only point in which I differ from M. Con-
dorcet in this description is with regard to the
period when it may be applied to the human
race. M.Condorcet thinks that it cannot possibly
be applicable but at an era extremely distant. If
the proportion between the natural increase of
population and of food in a limited territory, which
was stated in the beginning of this essay, and which
has received considerable confirmation from the
poverty that has been found to prevail in every
stage of human society, be in any degree near the
truth; it will appear, on the contrary, that the
period when the number of men surpasses their
means of easy subsistence has long since arrived ;
and that this necessary oscillation, this constantly
subsisting cause of periodical misery, has existed
in most countries ever since we have had any
histories of mankind, and continues to exist at the
present moment.

M. Condorcet, however, goes on to say, that

8 Systems of Equality. Bk. iil.

should the period which he conceives to be so
distant, ever arrive, the human race, and the ad-
vocates of the perfectibility of man, need not be
alarmed at it. He then proceeds to remove the
difficulty in a manner which I profess not to un-
derstand. Having observed that the ridiculous
prejudices of superstition would by that time have
ceased to throw over morals a corrupt and de-
grading austerity, he alludes either to a promis-
cuous concubinage, which would prevent breeding,
or to something else as unnatural. To remove
the difficulty in this way will surely, in the opinion
of most men, be to destroy that virtue and purity
of manners, which the advocates of equality and
of the perfectibility of man profess to be the end
and object of their views.

The last question which M. Condorcet proposes
for examination is the organic perfectibility of
man. He observes, if the proofs which have
been already given, and which, in their develope-
ment, will receive greater force in the work itself,
are sufficient to establish the indefinite perfecti-
bility of man, upon the supposition of the same
natural faculties and the same organization which
he has at present; what will be the certainty,
what the extent of our hopes, if this organization,
these natural faculties themselves, be susceptible
of melioration ?

From the improvement of medicine; from the
use of more wholesome food and habitations ; from
a manner of living, which will improve the strength
of the body by exercise, without impairing it by

Ch. i. Wallace. Condorcet. 9

excess; from the destruction of the two great
causes of the degradation of man, misery and too
great riches; from the gradual removal of trans-
missible and contagious disorders by the im-
provement of physical knowledge, rendered more
efficacious by the progress of reason and of social
order; he infers, that though man will not abso-
lutely become immortal, yet the duration between
his birth and natural death will increase without
ceasing, will have no assignable term, and may
properly be expressed by the word indefinite.
He then defines this word to mean either a con-
stant approach to an unlimited extent without
ever reaching it; or an increase in the immensity
of ages to an extent greater than any assignable
quantity.

But surely the application of this term in either
of these senses to the duration of human life is in
the highest degree unphilosophical, and _ totally
unwarranted by any appearances in the laws of
nature. Variations from different causes are es-
sentially distinct from a regular and unretrograde
increase. The average duration of human life will,
toa certain degree, vary from healthy or unhealthy
climates, from wholesome or unwholesome food,
from virtuous or vicious: manners, and other
causes; but it may be fairly doubted whether
there has been really the smallest perceptible ad-
vance in the natural duration of human life, since
first we had any authentic history of man. The
prejudices of all ages have indeed been directly
contrary to this supposition; and though I would

10 Systems of Equality. Bk. iii.

_not lay much stress upon these prejudices, they
must have some tendency to prove that there has
been no marked advance in an opposite direction.

It may perhaps be said, that the world is yet
so young, so completely in its infancy, that it
ought not to be expected that any difference
should appear so soon.

If this be the case, there is at once an end of all
human science. The whole train of reasonings
from effects to causes will be destroyed. We
may shut our eyes to the book of nature, as it
will no longer be of any use to read it. The
wildest and most improbable conjectures may be
advanced with as much certainty, as the most just
and sublime theories, founded on careful and re-
iterated experiments. We may return again to
the old mode of philosophizing, and make facts
bend to systems, instead of establishing systems
upon facts. The grand and consistent theory of
Newton will be placed upon the same footing as
the wild and eccentric hypotheses of Descartes.
In short, if the laws of nature be thus fickle and
inconstant; if it can be affirmed, and be believed,
that they will change, when for ages and ages
they have appeared immutable; the human mind
will no longer have any incitements to inquiry,
but must remain sunk in inactive torpor, or amuse
itself only in bewildering dreams and extravagant
fancies.

The constancy of the laws of nature, and of
effects and causes, is the foundation of all human
knowledge; and if, without any previous observ-

Ch. i. Wallace. Condorcet. 11

able symptoms or indications ofa change, we can
infer that a change will take place, we may as
well make any assertion whatever; and think it
as unreasonable to be contradicted, in affirming
that the moon will come in contact with the earth
to-morrow, as in saying that the sun will rise at
its expected time.

With regard to the duration of human life,
there does not appear to have existed, from the
earliest ages of the world to the present moment,
the smallest permanent symptom or indication of
increasing prolongation. The observable effects
of climate, habit, diet, and other causes, on
length of life, have furnished the pretext for as-
serting its indefinite extension; and the sandy
foundation on which the argument rests is, that
because the limit of human life is undefined, be-
cause you cannot mark its precise term, and say
so far exactly shall it go, and no farther, therefore
its extent may increase for ever, and be properly
termed indefinite or unlimited. But the fallacy
and absurdity of this argument will sufficiently
appear from a slight examination of what M.
Condorcet calls the organic perfectibility or de-
generation of the race of plants and animals,
which, he says, may be regarded as one of the
general laws of nature.

I have been told that it is amaxim among some
of the improvers of cattle, that you may breed to
any degree of nicety you please; and they found
this maxim upon another, which is, that some of
the offspring will possess the desirable qualities of

12 Systems of Equality. Bk. iii.

.the parents in a greater degree. In the famous
Leicestershire breed of sheep, the object is to
procure them with small heads and small legs.
Proceeding upon these breeding maxims, it 1s
evident that we might go on, till the heads and
legs were evanescent quantities; but this is so
palpable an absurdity, that we may be quite sure
the premises are not just, and that there really is
a limit, though we cannot see it, or say exactly
where it is. Inthis case, the point of the greatest
degree of improvement, or the smallest size of the
head and legs, may be said to be undefined ;_ but
this is very different from unlimited, or from in-
definite, in M. Condorcet’s acceptation of the
term. Though I may not be able in the present
instance to mark the limit, at which further im-
provement will stop, I can very easily mention a
point, at which it will not arrive. I should not
scruple to assert, that were the breeding to con-
tinue for ever, the heads and legs of these sheep
would never be so small as the head and legs of a
rat.

It cannot be true therefore, that, among ani-
mals, some of the offspring will possess the desi-
rable qualities of the parents in a greater degree;
or that animals are indefinitely perfectible.

The progress of a wild plant to a beautiful gar-
den-flower is perhaps more marked and striking
than any thing that takes place among animals;
yet, even here, it would be the height of absur-
dity to assert that the progress was unlimited or
indefinite. One of the most obvious features of

Ch. i. Wallace. Condorcet. 13

the improvement is the increase of size. The
flower has grown gradually larger by cultiva-
tion. If the progress were really unlimited, it
might be increased ad infinitum; but this is so
eross an absurdity, that we may be quite sure
that, among plants as well as among animals,
there is a limit to improvement, though we do
not exactly know where itis. Itis probable that
the gardeners who contend for flower-prizes have
often applied stronger dressing without success.
At the same time it would be highly presump-
tuous in any man to say, that he had seen the finest
carnation or anemone that could ever be made to
grow. He might, however, assert, without the
smallest chance of being contradicted by a future
fact, that no carnation or anemoné could ever, by
cultivation, be increased to the size of a large
cabbage ; and yet there are assignable quantities
greater than a cabbage. No man can say that he
has seen the largest ear of wheat, or the largest
oak, that could ever grow; but he might easily,
and with perfect certainty, name a point of mag-
nitude at which they would not arrive. In all
‘these cases, therefore, a careful distinction should
be made between an unlimited progress, and a
progress where the limit is merely undefined.

It will be said, perhaps, that the reason why
plants and animals cannot increase indefinitely in
size is, that they would fall by their own weight.
I answer, how do we know this but from experi-
ence? from experience of the degree of strength,
with which these bodies are formed. I know,

14 Systems of Equality. Bk. im.

that a carnation long before it reached the size of
‘a cabbage would not be supported by its stalk;
but I only know this from my experience of the
weakness and want of tenacity in the materials
of a carnation-stalk. There might be substances
of the same size that would support as large a
head as a cabbage.

The reasons of the mortality of plants are at
present perfectly unknown to us. No man can
say why such a plant is annual, another biennial,
and another endures for ages. The whole affair
in all these cases, in plants, animals, and in the
human race, is an affair of experience; and I
only conclude, that man is mortal, because the
invariable experience of all ages has proved the
mortality of that organized substance, of which
his visible body is made.

*«« What can we reason but from what we know ?”

Sound philosophy will not authorize me to alter
this opinion of the mortality of man on earth,
till it can be clearly proved that the human race
has made, and is making, a decided progress to-
wards an illimitable extent of life. And the chief
reason why I adduce the two particular instances
from animals and plants was to expose and illus-
trate, if I could, the fallacy of that argument,
which infers an unlimited progress merely because
some partial improvement has taken place, and
that the limit of this improvement cannot be pre-
cisely ascertained.

The capacity of improvement in plants and

Ch. i. Wallace. Condorcet. 15

animals, to a certain degree, no person can possi-
bly doubt. A clear and decided progress has al-
ready been made; and yet I think it appears that
it would be highly absurd to say, that this pro-
gress has no limits. In human hfe, though there
are great variations from different causes, it may
be doubted whether, since the world began, any
organic improvement whatever of the human
frame can be clearly ascertained. The founda-
tions, therefore, on which the arguments for the
organic perfectibility of man rest are unusually
weak, and can only be considered as mere con-
jectures. It does not, however, by any means,
seem impossible that, by an attention to breed,
a certain degree of improvement similar to that
among animals might take place among men.
Whether intellect could be communicated may
be a matter of doubt; but size, strength, beauty,
complexion, and, perhaps, even longevity, are in
a degree transmissible. The error does not lie in
supposing a small degree of improvement possi-
ble, but in not discriminating between a small
improvement, the limit of which is undefined,
and an improvement really unlimited. As the
human race, however, could not be improved in
this way, without condemning all the bad speci-
mens to celibacy, it is not probable that an atten-
tion to breed should ever become general; in-
deed I know of no well-directed attempts of this
kind, except in the ancient family of the Bicker-
staffs, who are said to have been very successful
in whitening the skins and increasing the height

16 Systems of Equality. Bk. 11.

of their race by prudent marriages, particularly
by that very judicious cross with Maud the milk-
maid, by which some capital defects in the con-
stitutions of the family were corrected.

It will not be necessary, I think, in order more
completely to shew the improbability of any ap-
proach in man towards immortality on earth, to
urge the very great additional weight, that an
increase in the duration of life would give to the
argument of population.

M. Condorcet’s book may be considered not
only asa sketch of the opinions of a celebrated
individual, but of many of the literary. men in
France at the beginning of the revolution. As
such, though merely a sketch, it seems worthy
of attention.

Many, I doubt not, will think that the attempt-
ing gravely to controvert so absurd a paradox,
as the immortality of man on earth, or, indeed,
even the perfectibility of man and society, is a
waste of time and words; and that such un-
founded conjectures are best answered by neglect.
I profess, however, to be of a different opinion.
When paradoxes of this kind are advanced by in-
genious and able men, neglect has no tendency
to convince them of their mistakes. | Priding
themselves on what they conceive to be a mark
of the reach and size of their own understandings,
of the extent and comprehensiveness of their
views, they will look upon this neglect merely as
an indication of poverty and narrowness in the
mental exertions of their contemporaries, and only

Ch. 1. Wallace. Condorcet. 17

think that the world is not yet prepared to receive
their sublime truths.

On the contrary, a candid investigation of these
subjects, accompanied with a perfect readiness
to adopt any theory warranted by sound philoso-
phy, may have a tendency to convince them that,
in forming improbable and unfounded hypotheses,
so far from enlarging the bounds of human sci-
ence, they are contracting it; so far from pro-
moting the improvement of the human mind,
they are obstructing it: they are throwing us
back again almost into the infancy of knowledge;
and weakening the foundations of that mode of
philosophizing, under the auspices of which sci-
ence has of late made such rapid advances. The
late rage for wide and unrestrained speculation
seems to have been a kind of mental intoxication,
arising perhaps from the great and unexpected dis-
coveries, which had been made in various branches
of science. To men elate and giddy with such
successes, every thing appeared to be within the
grasp of human powers; and under this illusion
they confounded subjects where no real progress
could be proved, with those where the progress
had been marked, certain and acknowledged.
Could they be persuaded to sober themselves with
a little severe and chastised thinking, they would
see that the cause of truth and of sound philoso-
phy cannot but suffer, by substituting wild flights
and unsupported assertions for patient investiga-
tion and well-supported proofs.

VOL. Il. Cc

me 3)

CHAP. II.
Of Systems of Equality. Godwin.

Iw reading Mr. Godwin’s ingenious work on po-
litical justice, itis impossible not to be struck
with the spirit and energy of his style, the force
and precision of some of his reasonings, the ar-
dent tone of his thoughts, and particularly with
that impressive earnestness of manner which gives
an air of truth to the whole. At the same time it
must be confessed that he has not proceeded in
his inquiries with the caution that sound philoso-
phy requires; his conclusions are often unwar-
ranted by his premises; he fails sometimes in re-
moving objections which he himself brings for-
ward; he relies too much on general and abstract
propositions, which will not admit of application ;
and his conjectures certainly far outstrip the mo-
desty of nature. The system of equality, which
Mr. Godwin proposes, is, on a first view of it, the
most beautiful and engaging of any that has yet
appeared. A melioration of society to be pro-
duced merely by reason and conviction gives more
promise of permanence than any change effected
and maintained by force. The unlimited exercise
of private judgment is a doctrine grand and ‘cap-
tivating, and has a vast superiority over those

Ch. ii. Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. 19

systems, where every individual is in a manner
the slave of the public. The substitution of be-
nevolence, as the master-spring and moving prin-
ciple of society, instead of self-love, appears at
first sight to be a consummation devoutly to be
wished. In short, it is impossible to contemplate
the whole of this fair picture, without emotions of
delight and admiration, accompanied with an ar-
dent longing for the period of its accomplishment.
But alas! that moment can never arrive. The
whole is little better than a dream—a phantom of
the imagination. These “ gorgeous palaces” of
happiness and immortality, these ‘solemn temples”
of truth and virtue, will dissolve, ‘ like the base-
“‘ less fabric of a vision,” when we awaken to real
life, and contemplate the genuine situation of man
on earth.

Mr. Godwin, at the conclusion of the third
chapter of his eighth book, speaking of popula-
tion, says, “‘ there is a principle in human society,
“ by which population is perpetually kept down
** to the level of the means of subsistence. Thus
‘*among the wandering tribes of America and
** Asia we never find, through the lapse of ages,
“ that population has so increased, as to render
‘necessary the cultivation of the earth.”* This
principle, which Mr. Godwin thus mentions as
some mysterious and occult cause, and which he
does not attempt to investigate, has appeared to
be the law of necessity—misery, and the fear of
misery. |

* P. 460, 8vo. 2d edit.
c2

20 Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. Bk. iii.

. The great error under which Mr. Godwin la-
bours throughout his whole work is, the attri-
buting of almost all the vices and misery that pre-
vail in civil society to human institutions. Political
regulations and the established administration of
‘property are, with him, the fruitful sources of all
evil, the hotbeds of all the crimes that degrade
mankind. Were this really a true state of the
-ease, it would not seem an absolutely hopeless
task, to remove evil completely from the world;
and reason seems to be the proper and adequate
instrument for effecting so great a purpose. But
the truth is, that though human institutions ap-
pear to be, and indeed often are, the obvious and
‘obtrusive causes of much mischief to society, they
are, in reality, light and superficial, in comparison
with those deeper-seated causes of evil, which re-
sult from the laws of nature and the passions of
mankind.

In a chapter on the benefits attendant upon a
system of equality, Mr. Godwin says, ‘‘ The spirit
‘of oppression, the spirit of servility, and the
‘« spirit of fraud, these are the immediate growth
‘‘ of the established administration of property.
«« They are alike hostile to intellectual improve-
“ment... The other vices of envy, malice and re-
“‘ venge, are their inseparable companions. Ina
‘< state of society where men lived in the midst of
‘* plenty, and where all shared alike the bounties
* of nature, these sentiments would inevitably ex-
‘‘ pire. The narrow principle of selfishness would
‘‘vanish. No man being obliged to guard his

Ch. ii. Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. 21

‘little store, or provide with anxiety and pain
<< for his restless wants, each would lose his indi-
«‘ vidual existence in the thought of the general
*«cood. No man would be an enemy to his
“‘ neighbours, for they would have no subject of
*‘ contention; and of consequence philanthropy
** would resume the empire which reason assigns
“her. Mind would be delivered from her perpe-
‘* tual anxiety about corporal support; and be free
‘« to expatiate in the field of thought which is con-
‘“‘ genial to her. Each would assist the inquiries
“< of all.”*

This would indeed be ahappy state. But that
it is merely an imaginary picture with scarcely a
feature near the truth, the reader, I am afraid, is
already too well convinced.

. Man cannot live in the midst of plenty. All
cannot share alike the bounties of nature. Were
there no established administration of property,
every man would be obliged to guard with force
his little store. Selfishness would be triumphant.
The subjects of contention would be perpetual.
Every individual’ would be under a constant
anxiety about corporal support, and not a single
intellect would be left free to Bapaiate in the
field of thought.

How little Mr. Godwin has turned his attention
to the real state of human society, will sufficiently
appear from the manner in which he endeavours
to remove the difficulty of a superabundant popu-

* Political Justice, b. viii. c. iii. p. 458.

22 Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. — Bk. iii.

lation. He says, ‘“‘ The obvious answer to this ob-
** jection is, that to reason thus is to foresee dif-
“ficulties at a great distance. Three-fourths of
“‘ the habitable globe are now uncultivated. The
** parts already cultivated are capable of immea-
“ surable improvement. Myriads of centuries of
“« still increasing population may pass away, and
‘‘ the earth be still found sufficient for the subsist-
‘* ence of its inhabitants.”*

I have already pointed out the error of sup-
posing that no distress or difficulty would arise
from a redundant population, before the earth ab-
solutely refused to produce any more. Butletus
imagine for a moment Mr. Godwin’s system of
equality realized, and see how soon this difficulty
might be expected to press, under so perfect a
form of society. A theory that will not admit of
application cannot possibly be just.

Let us suppose all the causes of vice and misery
in this island removed. War and contention cease.
Unwholesome trades and manufactories do not
exist. Crowds no longer collect together in great
and pestilent cities for purposes of court intrigue,
of commerce, and of vicious gratification. Simple,
healthy and rational amusements take place of
drinking, gaming and debauchery. There are no
towns sufficiently large to have any prejudicial
effects on the human constitution. The greater
part of the happy inhabitants of this terrestrial
Paradise live in hamlets and farm-houses scattered

* Polit. Justice, b. viii, c. x. p. 510.

Ch. u. Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. 23

over the face of the country. All men are equal.
The labours of luxury are at an end; and the ne-
cessary labours of agriculture are shared amicably
among all. The number of persons and the pro-
duce of the island we suppose to be the same as
at present. The spirit of benevolence, guided by
impartial justice, will divide this produce among
all the members of society according to their
wants. Though it would be impossible that they
should all have animal food every day, yet ve-
getable food, with meat occasionally, would sa-
tisfy the desires of a frugal people, and would be
sufficient to preserve them in health, strength and
spirits.

Mr. Godwin considers marriage as a fraud and
a monopoly.* Let us suppose the commerce of
the sexes established upon principles of the most
perfect freedom. Mr. Godwin does not think him-
self, that this freedom would lead to a promiscuous
intercourse; and in this I perfectly agree with him.
The love of variety is a vicious, corrupt and unna-
tural taste, and could not prevail in any great
degree in a simple and virtuous state of society.
Each man would probably select for himself a
partner, to whom he would adhere, as long as that
adherence continued to be the choice of both par-
ties. It would be of little consequence, according
to Mr. Godwin, how many children a woman had,
or to whom they belonged. Provisions and assist-
ance would spontaneously flow from the quarter

* Polit. Justice, b. viii. c. viii. p. 498, et seq.

24 Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. Bk. iii.

in which they abounded to the quarter in which
they were deficient.* And every man, according
to his capacity, would be ready to furnish instruc-
tion to the rising generation.

¥ cannot conceive a form of society so favourable
upon the whole to population. The irremediable-
ness to marriage, as it is at present constituted,
undoubtedly deters many from entering into this
state. Anunshackled intercourse on the contrary
would be a most powerful incitement to early at-
tachments; and as we are supposing no anxiety
about the future support of children to exist, I do
not conceive that there would be one woman in a
hundred, of twenty-three years of age, without a
family. .

With these extraordinary encouragements to
population, and every cause of depopulation, as
we have supposed, removed, the numbers would
necessarily increase faster than in any society
that has ever yet been known. I have before
mentioned that the inhabitants of the back settle-
ments of America appear to double their numbers
in fifteen years. England is certainly a more
healthy country than the back settlements of Ame-
rica; and as we have supposed every house in the
island to be airy and wholesome, and the encou-
ragements to have a family greater even than in
America, no probable reason can be assigned, why
the population should not double itself in less, if
possible, than fifteen years. But to be quite sure,

* Political Justice, b. viii. c. viii. p. 504.

Ch. ii. Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. 25

that we do not go beyond the truth, we will only
suppose the period of doubling to be twenty-five
years; a ratio of increase, which is slower than is
known to have taken place throughout all the
United States of America.

There can be little doubt that the equalization
of property which we have supposed, added to
the circumstance of the labour of the whole com-
munity being directed chiefly to agriculture, would
tend greatly to augment the produce of the country.
But to answer the demands of a population in-
creasing so rapidly, Mr. Godwin’s calculation of
half an hour a day would certainly not be sufficient.
It is probable that the half of every man’s time
must be employed for this purpose. Yet with
such or much greater exertions, a person who is"
acquainted with the nature of the soil in this coun-
try, and who reflects on the fertility of the lands
already in cultivation, and the barrenness of those
that are not cultivated, will be very much disposed
to doubt, whether the whole average produce
could possibly be doubled in twenty-five years
from the present period. The only chance of
success would be from the ploughing up of most
of the grazing countries, and putting an end almost
entirely to animal food.’ Yet this scheme would
probably defeat itself. The soil of England will
not produce much without dressing; and cattle
seem to be necessary to make that species of ma-
nure, which best suits the land.

Difficult however as it might be to double the
average produce of the island in twenty-five years,
let us suppose it effected. At the expiration of

26 Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. Bk. iii.

‘the first period therefore, the food, though almost
entirely vegetable, would be sufficient to support
in health the population increased from 11 to 22
millions.*

During the next period, where will the food be
found, to satisfy the importunate demands of the
increasing numbers? Where is the fresh land to
turn up? Where is the dressing necessary to im-
prove that whichis already in cultivation? There
is no person with the smallest knowledge of land
but would say that it was impossible that the
average produce of the country could be increased
during the second twenty-five years by a quantity
equal to what it at present yields. Yet we will
suppose this increase, however improbable, to
take place. The exuberant strength of the argu-
ment allows of almost any concession. Even
with this concession, however, there would be 11
millions at the expiration of the second term un-
provided for. A quantity equal to the frugal sup-
port of 33 millions would be to be divided among
44 millions.

Alas! what becomes of the picture, where men
lived in the midst of plenty, where no man was
obliged to provide with anxiety and pain for his
restless wants; where the narrow principle of
selfishness did not exist; where the mind was de-
livered from her perpetual anxiety about corporal
support, and free to expatiate in the field of
thought which is congenial to her? This beauti-

* The numbers here mentioned refer to the enumeration of
1800.

Ch. ii. Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. 27

ful fabric of the imagination vanishes at the severe
touch of truth. The spirit of benevolence, che-
rished and invigorated by plenty, is repressed by
the chilling breath of want. The hateful passions
that had vanished re-appear. The mighty law. of
self-preservation expels all the softer and more
exalted emotions of the soul. The temptations to
evil are too strong for human nature to resist.
The corn is plucked up before it is ripe, or se-
creted in unfair proportions ; and the whole black
train of vices that belong to falsehood are imme-
diately generated. Provisions no longer flow in
for the support of a mother with a large family.
The children are sickly from insufficient food.
The rosy flush of health gives place to the pallid
cheek and hollow eye of misery. Benevolence,
yet lingering in a few bosoms, makes some faint
expiring struggles, till at length self-love resumes
his wonted empire, and lords it triumphant over
the world.

No human institutions here existed, to the per-
verseness of which Mr. Godwin ascribes the ori-
ginal sin of the worst men.* No opposition had
been produced by them between public and pri-
vate good. No monopoly had been created of
those advantages which reason directs to be left
in common. No man had been goaded to the
breach of order by unjust laws. Benevolence had
established her reign in all hearts. And yet in
so short a period as fifty years, violence, op-

* Polit. Justice, b. viii. c. iii, p. 340.

28 Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. Bk. iii.

‘pression, falsehood, misery, every hateful vice and
every form of distress, which degrade and sadden
the present state of society, seem to have been
generated by the most imperious circumstances,
by laws inherent in the nature of man, and abso-
lutely independent of all human regulations.

If we be not yet too well convinced of the reality
of this melancholy picture, let us but look for a
moment into the next period of twenty-five years,
and we shall see that, according to the natural in-
crease of population, 44 millions of human beings
would be without the means of support; and at
the conclusion of the first century, the population
would have had the power of increasing to 176
millions, while the food was only sufficient for 55
millions, leaving 121 millions unprovided for: and
yet all this time we are supposing the produce of
the earth absolutely unlimited, and the yearly in-
crease greater than the boldest speculator can
imagine.

This is undoubtedly avery different view of the
difficulty arising from the principle of population
from that which Mr. Godwin gives, when he says,
‘“‘ Myriads of centuries of still increasing popula-
“‘ tion may pass away, and the earth be still found
‘« sufficient for the subsistence of its inhabitants.”

I am sufficiently aware that the redundant mil-
lions which I have mentioned could never have
existed. It is a perfectly just observation of Mr.
Godwin, that “there is a principle in human
“ society by which population is perpetually kept
‘‘ down to the level of the means of subsistence.”

Ch. 1i. Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. 29

The sole question is, what is this principle? Is it
some obscure and occult cause? Isit some mys-
terious interference of Heaven, which at a certain
period strikes the men with impotence, and the
women with barrenness? Or is it a cause open
to our researches, within our view; a cause which
has constantly been observed to operate, though
with varied force, in every state in which man has
been placed? Is it not misery and the fear of
misery, the necessary and inevitable results of the
laws of nature in the present stage of man’s ex-
istence, which human institutions, so far from ag-
gravating, have tended considerably to mitigate,
though they can never remove ?

It may be curious to observe, in the case that
we have been supposing, how some of the princi-
pal laws, which at present govern civilized society,
would be successively dictated by the most im-
perious necessity. As man, according to Mr.
Godwin, is the creature of the impressions to
which he is subject, the goadings of want could
not continue long, before some violations of public
or private stock would necessarily take place. As
these violations increased in number and extent,
the more active and comprehensive intellects of
the society would soon perceive that, while the
population was fast increasing, the yearly pro-
duce of the country would shortly begin to di-
minish. The urgency of the case would suggest
the necessity of some immediate measures being
taken for the general safety. Some kind of con-
vention would be then called, and the dangerous

30 Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. Bk. 11.

. situation of the country stated in the strongest
terms. It would be observed that while they
lived in the midst of plenty, it was of little con-
sequence who laboured the least, or who possessed
the least, as every man was perfectly willing and
ready to supply the wants of his neighbour. But
that the question was no longer, whether one man
should give to another that which he did not use
himself; but whether he should give to his neigh-
bour the food which was absolutely necessary to
his own existence. It would be represented that
the number of those who were in want very greatly ©
exceeded the number and means of those who
should supply them; that these pressing wants,
which from the state of the produce of the country
could not all be gratified, had occasioned some
flagrant violations of justice ; that these violations
had already checked the increase of food, and
would, if they were not by some means or other
prevented, throw the whole community into con-
fusion; that imperious necessity seemed to dic-
tate that a yearly increase of produce should, if
possible, be obtained at all events; that in order
to effect this first great and indispensable purpose,
it would be advisable to make a more complete
division of land, and to secure every man’s property
against violation by the most powerful sanctions.
It might be urged perhaps by some objectors,
that as the fertility of the land increased, and va-
rious accidents occurred, the shares of some men
might be much more than sufficient for their sup-
port; and that when the reign of self-love was

Ch. i. Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. 31

once established, they would not distribute their
surplus produce without some compensation in
return. It would be observed in answer, that
this was an inconvenience greatly to be lamented ;
but that it was an evil which would bear no com-
parison to the black train of distresses inevitably
occasioned by the insecurity of property; that the
quantity of food, which one man could consume,
was necessarily limited by the narrow capacity of
the human stomach; that it was certainly not
probable that he should throw away the rest; and
if he exchanged his surplus produce for the labour
of others, this would be better than that these
others should absolutely starve.

It seems highly probable therefore that an ad-
ministration of property, not very different from
that which prevails in civilized states at present,
would be established as the best (though inade-
quate) remedy for the evils which were pressing
on the society.

The next subject which would come under dis-
cussion, intimately connected with the preceding,
is the commerce of the sexes. It would be urged
by those who had turned their attention to the
true cause of the difficulties under which the com-
munity laboured, that while every man felt secure
that all his children would be well provided for by
general benevolence, the powers of the earth
would be absolutely inadequate to produce food
for the population which would ensue; that even
if the whole attention and labour of the society
were directed to this sole point, and if by the

*

32 Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. Bk. iii.

most perfect security of property, and every other

‘encouragement that could be thought of, the
greatest possible increase of produce were yearly
obtained, yet still the increase of food would by
no means keep pace with the much more rapid
increase of population; that some check to popu-
lation therefore was imperiously called for; that
the most natural and obvious check seemed to be,
to make every man provide for his own children ;
that this would operate in some respect as a
measure and a guide in the increase of population,
as it might be expected that no man would bring
beings into the world for whom he could not find
the means of support; that, where this notwith-
standing was the case, it seemed necessary for the
example of others, that the disgrace and inconve-
nience attending such a conduct should fall upon
that individual, who had thus _inconsiderately
plunged himself and his innocent children into
want and misery.

The institution of marriage, or at least of some
express or implied obligation on every man to
support his own children, seems to be the natural
result of these reasonings in a community under
the difficulties that we have supposed.

The view of these difficulties presents us with
a very natural reason, why the disgrace which
attends a breach of chastity should be greater in
a woman than in a man. It could not be ex-
pected that women should have resources suffi-
cient to support their own children. When there-
fore a woman had lived with a man who had

Ch.ii. Of Systems.of Equality. Godwin. 33

entered into no compact to maintain her children,
and aware of the inconveniences that he might
bring upon himself, had deserted her, these chil-
dren must necessarily fall upon the society for
support, or starve. And to prevent the frequent
recurrence of such an inconvenience, as it would
be highly unjust to punish so natural a fault by
personal restraint or infliction, the men might
agree to punish it with disgrace. The offence is
besides more obvious and conspicuous in the wo-
man, and less liable to any mistake. The father
of a child may not always be known; but the same
uncertainty cannot easily exist with regard to the
mother. Where the evidence of the offence was
most complete, and the inconvenience to the
society, at the same time, the greatest, there it
was agreed that the largest share of blame should
fall. The obligation on every man to support his
children, the society would enforce by positive
laws ; and the greater degree of inconvenience or
labour, to which a family would necessarily sub-
ject him, added to some portion of disgrace which
every human being must incur who leads another
into unhappiness, might be considered as a suffi-
cient punishment for the man.

That a woman should at present be almost
driven from society for an offence, which men
commit nearly with impunity, seems undoubtedly
to be a breach of natural justice. But the origin
of the custom, as the most obvious and effectual
method of preventing the frequent recurrence of
a serious inconvenience to the community, ap-

VOL. TF. D

oil

x

34 Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. Bk. iii.

pears to be natural, though not perhaps perfectly
justifiable. This origin is now lost in the new
train of ideas that the custom has since generated.
What at first might be dictated by state neces-
sity is now supported by female delicacy; and
operates with the greatest force on that part of the
society, where, if the original intention of the cus-
tom were preserved, there is the least real occa-
sion for it.

When these two fundamental laws of society,
the security of property, and the institution of
marriage, were once established, inequality of
conditions must necessarily follow. Those who
were born after the division of property would
come into a world already possessed. If their
parents, from having too large a family, were
unable to give them sufficient for their support,
what could they do in a world where every thing
was appropriated? We have seen the fatal effects
that would result to society, if every man hada
valid claim to an equal share of the produce of
the earth. The members of a family, which was
grown too large for the original division of land
appropriated to it, could not then demand a part
of the surplus produce of others as a debt of
justice. It has appeared that from the inevitable
laws of human nature some human beings will be
exposed to want. These are the unhappy persons,
who in the great lottery of life have drawn a blank.
The number of these persons would soon exceed
the ability of the surplus produce to supply. Mo-
ral merit is a very difficult criterion, except in

Ch.ii. Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. 35

extreme cases. The owners of surplus produce
would in general seek some more obvious mark
of distinction; and it seems to be both natural
and just, that, except upon particular occasions,
their choice should fall upon those who were able,
and professed themselves willing, to exert their
strength in procuring a further surplus produce,
which would at once benefit the community and
enable the proprietors to afford assistance to
greater numbers. All who were in want of food
would be urged by necessity to offer their labour
in exchange for this article so absolutely neces-
sary to existence. The fund appropriated to the
maintenance of labour would be the aggregate
quantity of food possessed by the owners of land
beyond their own consumption. When the de-
mands upon this fund were great and numerous
it would naturally be divided into very small
shares. Labour would be ill paid. Men would
offer to work for a bare subsistence; and the
rearing of families would be checked by sickness
and misery. On the contrary, when this fund
was increasing fast; when it was great in propor-
tion to the number of claimants, it would be
divided in much larger shares. No man would
exchange his labour without receiving an ample
quantity of food in return. Labourers would live
in ease and comfort, and would consequently be
able to rear a numerous and vigorous offspring.
On the state of this fund, the happiness, or the
degree of misery, prevailing among the lower
D2

36 Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. Bk. iii.

classes of people in every known state at present,
chiefly depends; and on this happiness or degree
of misery, depends principally the increase, sta-
tionariness, or decrease of population.

And thus it appears that a society constituted
according to the most beautiful form that imagi-
nation can conceive, with benovolence for its
moving principle instead of self-love, and with
every evil disposition in all its members corrected
by reason, not force, would, from the inevitable
laws of nature, and not from any fault in human
institutions, degenerate in a very short period
into a society constructed upon a plan not essen-
tially different from that which prevails in every
known state at present; a society, divided into a
class of proprietors and a class of labourers, and
with self-love for the main-spring of the great ma-
chine.

In the supposition which I have made, I have
undoubtedly taken the increase of population
smaller, and the increase of produce greater, than
they really would be. No reason can be assigned
why, under the circumstances supposed, popula-
tion should not increase faster than in any known
instance. If then we were to take the period of
doubling at fifteen years instead of twenty-five
years, and reflect upon the labour necessary to
double the produce in so short a time, even if we
allow it possible ; we may venture to pronounce
with certainty, that, if Mr. Godwin’s system of
society were established, instead of myriads of

Ch.ii. Of Systems of Equality. Godwin. 37

centuries, not thirty years could elapse before
its utter destruction from the simple principle of
population.

I have taken no notice of emigration in this
place, for obvious reasons. If such societies were
instituted in other parts of Europe, these countries
would be under the same difficulties with regard
-to population, and could admit no fresh members
into their bosoms. If this beautiful society were
confined to our island, it must have degenerated
strangely from its original purity, and administer
but a very small portion of the happiness it pro-
posed, before any of its members would voluntarily
consent to leave it, and live under such govern-
ments as at present exist in Europe, or submit to
the extreme hardships of first settlers in new
regions.

CHAP. III.
Of Systems of Equality (continued ).

Ir was suggested to me some years since by
persons for whose judgment I have a high respect,
that it might be advisable, ina new edition, to
throw out the matter relative to systems of equa-
lity, to Wallace, Condorcet and Godwin, as having
in a considerable degree lost its interest, and as
not being strictly connected with the main subject
of the Essay, which is an explanation and illus-
‘tration of the theory of population. But inde-
“pendently of its being natural for me to have some
little partiality for that part of the work which led
to those inquiries on which the main subject rests ;
I really think that there should be somewhere on
record an answer to systems of equality founded
on the principle of population; and perhaps such
an answer is as appropriately placed, and is likely
to have as much effect, among the illustrations and
applications of the principle of population, as in
any other situation to which it could be assigned.
The appearances in all human societies, parti-
cularly in all those which are the furthest advanced
in civilization and improvement, will ever be such,
as to inspire superficial observers with a belief
that a prodigious change for the better might be
effected by the introduction of a system of equality
and of common property. They see abundance

Ch. iii. Of Systems of Equality, continued. 39

in some quarters, and want in others; and the
natural and obvious remedy seems to be an equal
division of the produce. They see a prodigious
quantity of human exertion wasted upon tri-
vial, useless, and sometimes pernicious objects,
which might either be wholly saved or more
effectively employed. They see invention after
invention in machinery brought forward, which
is seemingly calculated, in the most marked man-
ner, to abate the sum of human toil. Yet with
these apparent means of giving plenty, leisure and
happiness to all, they still see the labours of the
great mass of society undiminished, and their
condition, if not deteriorated, in no very striking
and palpable manner improved.

Under these circumstances, it cannot be a
matter of wonder that proposals for systems of
equality should be continually reviving. After
periods when the subject has undergone a thorough
discussion, or when some great experiment in
improvement has failed, it is likely that the ques-
tion should lie dormant for a time, and that the
opinions of the advocates of equality should be
ranked among those errors which had passed away
to be heard of no-more. But it is probable that
if the world were to last for any number of thou-
sand years, systems of equality would be among
those errors, which like the tunes of a barrel organ,
to use the illustration of Dugald Stewart,* will
never cease to return at certain intervals.

Iam induced to make these remarks, and to

* Preliminary Dissertation to Supplement to the Encyclopedia
Britannica, p. 121.

40 Of Systems of Equality, continued. Bk. i.

add a little to what I have already said on sys-
tems of equality, instead of leaving out the whole
discussion, by a tendency to a revival of this kind
at the present moment.*

A gentleman, for whom I have a very sincere
respect, Mr. Owen, of Lanark, has lately pub-
lished a work entitled A New View of Society,
which is intended to prepare the public mind for
the introduction of a system involving a commu-
nity of labour and of goods. It is also generally
known that an idea has lately prevailed among
some of the lower classes of society, that the
land is the people’s farm, the rent of which ought
to be equally divided among them; and that they
have been deprived of the benefits which belong
to them from this their natural inheritance, by the
injustice and oppression of their stewards, the
landlords.

Mr. Owen is, I believe, a man of real benevo-
lence, who has done much good; and every friend
of humanity must heartily wish him success in
his endeavours to procure an Act of Parliament
for limiting the hours of working among the chil-
dren in the cotton manufactories, and preventing
them from being employed at too early an age.
He is further entitled to great attention on all
subjects relating to education, from the experience
and knowledge which he must have gained in an
intercourse of many years with two thousand ma-
nufacturers, and from the success which is said
to have resulted from his modes of management.

* Written in 1817.

Ch. ii. Of Systems of Equality, continued. A]

A theory professed to be founded on such experi-
ence is, no doubt, worthy of much more consi-
deration than one formed in a closet.

The claims to attention possessed by the author
of the new doctrines relating to land are certainly
very slender; and the doctrines themselves indi-
cate a very great degree of ignorance; but the
errors of the labouring classes of society are al-
ways entitled to great indulgence and considera-
tion. They are the natural and pardonable re-
sult of their liability to be deceived by first ap-
pearances, and by the arts of designing men, owing
to the nature of their situation, and the scanty
knowledge which in general falls to their share.
And, except in extreme cases, it must always be
the wish of those who are better informed, that
they should be brought toa sense of the truth,
rather by patience and the gradual diffusion of
education and knowledge, than by any harsher
methods.

After what I have already said on systems of
equality in the preceding chapters, I shall not
think it necessary to enter into a long and elabo-
rate refutation of these doctrines. I merely mean
to give an additional reason for leaving on record
an answer to systems of equality, founded on the
principle of population, together with a concise
restatement of this answer for practical applica-
tion.

Of the two decisive arguments against such
systems, one is, the unsuitableness of a state of
equality, both according to experience and theory,

42 Of Systems of Equality, continued. Bk. iu.

_to the production of those stimulants to exertion
which can alone overcome the natural indolence
of man, and prompt him to the proper cultivation
of the earth and the fabrication of those conve-
niences and comforts which are necessary to his
happiness.

And the other, the inevitable and necessary
poverty and misery in which every system of
equality must shortly terminate from the acknow-
ledged tendency of the human race to increase
faster than the means of subsistence, unless such
increase be prevented by means infinitely more
cruel than those which result from the laws of
private property, and the moral obligation imposed
on every man by the commands of God and na-
ture to support his own children.

The first of these arguments has, I confess,
‘always appeared to my own mind sufficiently
‘conclusive. A state, in which an inequality of
conditions offers the natural rewards of good con-
duct, and inspires widely and generally the hopes
of rising and the fears of falling in society, is un-
questionably the best calculated to develope the
energies and faculties of man, and the best suited
to the exercise and improvement of human vir-
tue ;* and history, in every case of equality that
has yet occurred, has uniformly borne witness to

* See this subject very ably treated in a work on the Records of
the Creation, and the Moral Attributes of the Creator, by the Rev.
John Bird Sumner, not Jong since published ; a work of very
great merit, which I hope soon to see in as extensive circulation
as it deserves,

Ch. iii. Of Systems of Equality, continued. 43

the depressing and deadening effects which arise
from the want of this stimulus. But still, per-
haps, it may be true that neither experience nor
theory on this subject is quite so decisive as to
preclude all plausible arguments on the other
side, It may be said that the instances which
history records of systems of equality really car-
ried into execution are so few, and those in socie-
ties so little advanced from a state of barbarism,
as to afford no fair conclusions relative to periods
of great civilization and improvement; that, in
other instances, in ancient times, where ap-
proaches were made toward a tolerable equality
of conditions, examples of considerable energy
of character in some lines of exertion are not un-
frequent; and that in modern times some so-
cieties, particularly of Moravians, are known to
have had much of their property in common
without occasioning the destruction of their in-
dustry. It may be said that, allowing the stimu-
lus of inequality of conditions to have been ne-
cessary, in order to raise man from the indolence
and apathy of the savage to the activity and in-
telligence of civilized life, it does not follow that
the continuance of the same stimulus should
be necessary when this activity and energy of
mind has been once gained. It may then be al-
lowable quietly to enjoy the benefit of a regimen
which, like many other stimulants, having pro-
duced its proper effect at a certain point, must be
left off, or exhaustion, disease, and death will
follow.

44 Of Systems of Equality, continued. Bk. iii.

These observations are certainly not of a nature
‘to produce conviction in those who have studied
the human character; but they are, to a certain
‘degree, plausible, and do not admit of so definite
and decisive an answer as to make the proposal
for an experiment in modern times utterly absurd
‘and unreasonable.

The peculiar advantage of the other argument
against systems of equality, that which is founded
on the principle of population, is, that itis not
only still more generally and uniformly con-
firmed by experience, in every age and in every
‘part of the world, but it is so pre-eminently clear
in theory, that no tolerably plausible answer can
be given to it; and, consequently, no decent pre-
tence can be brought forward for an experiment.
‘The affair is a matter of the most simple caleula-
tion applied to the known properties of land, and
‘the proportion of births to deaths which takes
place in almost every country village. There are
many parishes in England, where, notwithstand-
ing the actual difficulties attending the support of
a family which must necessarily occur in every well-
peopled country, and making no allowances for
omissions in the registers, the births are to the
deaths in the proportion of 2 to 1. This propor-
‘tion, with the usual rate of mortality in country
places, of about 1 in 50, would continue doubling
the population in 41 years, if there were no emi-
grations from the parish. But in any system of
equality, either such as that proposed by Mr.
Owen, or in parochial partnerships in land, not

Ch. iii. Of Systems of Equality, continued. 45

only would there be no means of emigration to
other parishes with any prospect of relief, but the
rate of increase at first would, of course, be much
greater than in the present state of society.
What then, I wouldask, is to prevent the division
of the produce of the soil te each individual from
becoming every year less and less, till the whole
society and every individual member of it are
pressed down by want and misery ?*

This is a very simple and intelligible question.
And surely no man ought to propose or support a
system of equality, who is not able to give a ra-
tional answer to it, at least in theory. But, even
in theory, I have never yet heard any thing ap-
proaching to a rational answer to it.

It is a very superficial observation which has
sometimes been made, that it isa contradiction
to lay great stress upon the efficacy of moral
restraint in an improved and improving state of

* In the Spencean system, as published by the secretary of the

Society of Spencean Philanthropists, it unfortunately happens, that
after the proposed allowances have been made for the expenses of
the government, and of the other bodies in the state which are
intended to be supported, there would be absolutely no remainder;
and the people would not derive a single sixpence from their es-
tate, even at first, and on the supposition of the national debt
being entirely abolished, without the slightest compensation to the
national creditors.
. The annual rent of the land, houses, mines, and fisheries, is
estimated at 150 millions, about three times its real amount ; yet,
even upon this extravagant estimate, it is calculated that the divi-
sion would only come to about four pounds a head, not more than
is sometimes given to individuals from the poor’s rates; a misera-
ble provision! and yet constantly diminishing.

46 Of Systems of Equality, continued. Bk. iu.

society, according to the present structure of it,
“and yet to suppose that it would not act with
sufficient force in a system of equality, which
almost always presupposes a great diffusion of
information, and a great improvement of the hu-
man mind. ‘Those who have made this observa-
tion do not see that the encouragement and
motive to moral restraint are at once destroyed
in a system of equality, and community of goods.

Let us suppose that in a system of equality, in
spite of the best exertions to procure more food,
the population is pressing hard against the limits
of subsistence, and all are becoming very poor. It
is evidently necessary under these circumstances,
in order to prevent the society from starving, that
the rate at which the population increases should
be retarded. But who are the persons that are to
exercise the restraint thus called for, and either to
marry late or not at all? It does not seem to be
a necessary consequence of a system of equality
that all the human passions should be at once ex-
tinguished by it ; but if not, those who might wish
to marry would feel it hard that they should be
among the number forced to restrain their inclina-
tions. As all would be equal, and in similar cir-
cumstances, there would be no reason whatever
why one individual should think himself obliged
to practise the duty of restraint more than another.
The thing however must be done, with any hope
of avoiding universal misery; and in a state of
equality, the necessary restraint could only be
effected by some general law. But how is this

Ch. iii. Of Systems of Equality, continued. 47

law to be supported, and how are the violations:
of it to be punished? Is the man who marries early
to be pointed at with the finger of scorn? is he to
be whipped at the cart’s tail? is he to be con-
fined for years in a prison? is he to have his
children exposed? Are not all direct punish-
ments for an offence of this kind shocking and un-
natural to the last degree? And yet, if it be ab-
solutely necessary, in order to prevent the most
overwhelming wretchedness, that there should be
some restraint on the tendency to early marriages,
when the resources of the country are only suffi-
cient to support a slow rate of increase, can the
most fertile imagination conceive: one at once so
natural, so just, so consonant to the laws of God
and to the best laws framed by the most enlight-
ened men, as that each individual should be re-
sponsible for the maintenance of his own children ;
that is, that he should be subjected to the natural
inconveniences and difficulties arising from the
indulgence of his inclinations, and to no other
whatever ?

That this natural check to early marriages
arising from a view of the difficulty attending the
support of a large family operates very widely
throughout all classes of society in every civilized
state, and may be expected to be still more effec-
tive, as the lower classes of people continue to
improve in knowledge and prudence, cannot ad-
mit of the slightest doubt. But the operation of
this natural check depends exclusively upon the
existence of the laws of property, and succession ;

48 Of Systems of Equality, continued. Bk. iu.

and ina state of equality and community of pro-
perty could only be replaced by some artificial
regulation of a very different stamp, and a much
more unnatural character. Of this Mr. Owen is
fully sensible, and has in consequence taxed his
ingenuity to the utmost to invent some mode, by
which the difficulties arising from the progress of
population could be got rid of, in the state of so-
ciety to which he looks forward. His absolute
inability to suggest any mode of accomplishing
this object that is not unnatural, immoral, or cruel
in a high degree, together with the same want of
success in every other person, ancient* or mo-
dern, who has made a similar attempt, seem to
shew that the argument against systems of equality
founded on the principle of population does not
admit of a plausible answer, even in theory. The
fact of the tendency of population to increase he-
yond the means of subsistence may be seen in
almost every register of a country parish in the
kingdom. The unavoidable effect of this tendency
to depress the whole body of the people in want
and misery, unless the progress of the population
be somehow or other retarded, is equally obvious;
and the impossibility of checking the rate of in-
crease in a state of equality, without resorting to
regulations that are unnatural, immoral or cruel,
forms an argument at once conclusive against
every such system.

* The reader has already scen in ch. xiii. bk. i. the detestable
means of checking population proposed by some ancient lawgivers
in order to support their systems of equality.

( 49)

CHAP. IV.

Of Emigration.

Atrnovucu the resource of emigration seems to
be excluded from such perfect societies as the
advocates of equality generally contemplate, yet
in that imperfect state of improvement, which alone
can rafionally be expected, it may fairly enter into
our consideration. And as it is not probable that
human industry should begin to receive its best
direction throughout all the nations of the earth
at the same time, it may be said that, in the case
of a redundant population in the more cultivated
parts of the world, the natural and obvious remedy
which presents itself is emigration to those parts
that are uncultivated. As these parts are of great
extent, and very thinly peopled, this resource
might appear, on a first view of the subject, an
adequate remedy, or at least of a nature calcu-
- lated to remove the evil to a distant period: but
when we advert to experience and the actual state
of the uncivilized parts of the globe, instead of
any thing like an adequate remedy, it will appear
but a slight palliative.

In the accounts which we have received of the
peopling of new countries, the dangers, difficulties
and hardships, with which the first settlers have
had to struggle, appear to be even greater than we

VOL. IT. E

50 Of Emigration. Bk. iii.

can well imagine they could be exposed to in their
‘parent state. The endeavour to avoid that degree
of unhappiness which arises from the difficulty of
supporting a family might long have left the new
world of America unpeopled by Europeans, if
those more powerful passions, the thirst of gain,
the spirit of adventure, and religious enthusiasm,
had not directed and animated the enterprise.
These passions enabled the first adventurers to
triumph over every obstacle; but in many in-
stances, in a way to make humanity shudder, and
to defeat the true end of emigration. Whatever
may be the character of the Spanish mhabitants
of Mexico and Peru at the present moment, we
cannot read the accounts of the first conquests
of these countries, without feeling strongly, that
the race destroyed was, in moral worth as well as
numbers, superior to the race of their destroyers.

The parts of America settled by the English,
from being thinly peopled, were better adapted
to the establishment of new colonies; yet even
here, the most formidable difficulties presented
themselves. In the settlement of Virginia, begun
by Sir Walter Raleigh and established by Lord
Delaware, three attempts completely failed.
Nearly half of the first colony was destroyed by
the savages, and the rest, consumed and worn
down by fatigue and famine, deserted the country,
and returned home in despair. The second colony
was cut off to a man in a manner unknown; but
they were supposed to be destroyed by the In-

Ch. iv. Of Emigration. 51

dians. The third experienced the same dismal
fate; and the remains of the fourth, after it had
been reduced by famine and disease in the course
of six months from 500 to 60 persons, were re-
turning in a famishing and desperate condition to
England, when they were met in the mouth of the
Chesapeak bay by Lord Delaware, with asquadron
loaded with provisions, and every thing for their
relief and defence.*

The first puritan settlers in New England were
few in number. They landed in a bad season,
and were only supported by their private funds.
The winter was premature and terribly cold; the
country was covered with wood, and afforded very
little for the refreshment of persons sickly with
such a voyage, or for the sustenance of an infant
people. Nearly half of them perished by the
scurvy, by want, and the severity of the climate ;
yet those who survived were not dispirited by
their hardships, but, supported by their energy of
character, and the satisfaction of finding them-
selves out of the reach of the spiritual arm, re-
duced this savage country by degrees to yield a
comfortable subsistence.}

Even the plantation of Barbadoes, which in-
creased afterwards with such extraordinary rapi-
dity, had at first to contend with a country utterly
desolate, an extreme want of provisions, a difficulty
in clearing the ground unusually great from the

* Burke’s America, vol. ii. p. 219. Robertson, b. ix. p. 83, 86.
+ Burke’s America, vol. ii. p. 144.

BE

52 Of Emigration. Bk. iii.

uncommon size and hardness of the trees, a most
“disheartening scantiness and poverty in their first
crops, and a slow and precarious supply of pro-
visions from England.*

The attempt of the French in 1663, to form at
once a powerful colony in Guiana, was attended
with the most disastrous consequences. Twelve
thousand men were landed in the rainy season,
and placed under tents and miserable sheds, In
this situation, inactive, weary of existence, and in
want of all necessaries; exposed to contagious
distempers, which are always occasioned by bad
provisions, and to all the irregularities which idle-
ness produces among the lower classes of society,
almost the whole of them ended their lives in all
the horrors of despair. The attempt was com-
pletely abortive. Two thousand men, whose robust
constitutions had enabled them to resist the incle-
mency of the climate, and the miseries to which
they had been exposed, were brought back to
France; and the 26,000,000 of livres, which had
been expended in the expedition, were totally
lost.

In the late settlements at Port Jackson in New
Holland, a melancholy and affecting picture is
drawn by Collins of the extreme hardships, with
which, for some years, the infant colony had to
struggle, before the produce was equal to its sup-

* Burke's America, vol. ii. p. 85.
+ Raynal, Hist. des Indes, tom. vii. liv. xiii. p. 43. 10 vols
8vo. 1795. ;

Ch. iv. Of Emigration, 53

port. These distresses were undoubtedly aggra-
vated by the character of the settlers; but those
which were caused by the unhealthiness of a
newly cleared country, the failure of first crops,
and the uncertainty of supplies from so distant
a mother-country, were of themselves sufficiently
disheartening, to place in a strong point of view
the necessity of great resources, as well as uncon-
querable perseverance, in the colonization of savage
countries.

The establishment of colonies in the more thinly
peopled regions of Europe and Asia would evi-
dently require still greater resources. From the
power and warlike character of the inhabitants of
these countries, aconsiderable military force would
be necessary, to prevent their utter and immediate
destruction. Even the frontier provinces of the
most powerful states are defended with consider-
able difficulty from such restless neighbours; and
the peaceful labours of the cultivator are continu-
ally interrupted by their predatory incursions.
The late Empress Catherine of Russia found it
necessary to protect by regular fortresses the co-
lonies which she had established in the districts
near the Wolga; and the calamities which her
subjects suffered by the incursions of the Crim
Tartars furnished a pretext, and perhaps a just one,
for taking possession of the whole of the Crimea,
and expelling the greatest part of these turbulent
neighbours, and reducing the rest to a more tran-
quil mode of life.

The difficulties attending a first establishment

54 Of Emigration. Bk. iu.

from soil, climate and the want of proper conve-
‘niences, are of course nearly the same in these
regions as in America. Mr. Eton, in his Account
of the Turkish Empire, says that 75,000 Christians
were obliged by Russia to emigrate from the
Crimea, and sent to inhabit the country abandoned
by the Nogai Tartars; but the winter coming on
before the houses built for them were ready, a
great part of them had no other shelter from the
cold than what was afforded them by holes dug in
the ground, covered with what they could procure,
and the greatest part of them perished. Only
seven thousand remained a few years afterwards.
Another colony from Italy to the banks of the
Borysthenes had, he says, no better fate, owing
to the bad management of those, who were com-
missioned to provide for them.

It is needless to add to these instances, as the
accounts given of the difficulties experienced in
new settlements are all nearly similar. It has
been justly observed by a correspondent of Dr.
Franklin, that one of the reasons why we have seen
so many fruitless attempts to settle colonies at an
immense public and private expense by several of
the powers of Europe is, that the moral and me-
chanical habits adapted to the mother-country are
frequently not so to the new-settled one, and to
external events, many of which are unforeseen;
and that it is to be remarked that none of the
English colonies became any way considerable,
till the necessary manners were born and grew
up in the country. Pallas particularly notices

Ch. iv. Of Emigration. 55

the want of proper habits in the colonies esta-
blished by Russia, as one of the causes why they
did not increase so fast as might have been ex-
pected.

In addition to this it may be observed, that the
first establishment of a new colony generally pre-
sents an instance of a country peopled considerably
beyond its actual produce; and the natural con-
sequence seems to be, that this population, if not
amply supplied by the mother-country, should at
the commencement be diminished to the level of
the first scanty productions, and not begin per-
manently to increase, till the remaining numbers
had so far cultivated the soil, as to make it yield
a quantity of food more than sufficient for their
own support; and which consequently they could
divide with afamily. The frequent failures in the
establishment of new colonies tend strongly to
shew the order of precedence between food and
population.

It must be acknowledged then, that the class of
people, on whom the distress arising from a too
rapidly increasing population would principally
fall, could not possibly begin a new colony in a
distant country. From the nature of their situa-
tion, they must necessarily be deficient in those
resources, which alone could ensure success; and
unless they could find leaders among the higher
classes urged by the spirit of avarice or enterprise,
or of religious or political discontent; or were
furnished with means and support by government;
whatever degree of misery they might suffer in

56 Of Emigration. Bk. iii.

their own country from the scarcity of subsistence,
they would be absolutely unable to take posses-
sion of any of those uncultivated regions, of which
there is such an extent on the earth.

When new colonies have been once securely
established, the difficulty of emigration is indeed
very considerably diminished; yet, even then,
some resources are necessary to provide vessels
for the voyage, and support and assistance till the
emigrants can settle themselves, and find employ-
ment in their adopted country. How far it is
incumbent upon a government to furnish these
resources may be a question; but whatever be its
duty in this particular, perhaps it is too much to
expect that, except where any particular colonial
advantages are proposed, emigration should be
actively assisted. |

The necessary resources for transport and
maintenance are however frequently furnished
by individuals or private companies. For many
years before the American war, and for some few
since, the facilities of emigration to this new
world, and the probable advantages in view, were
unusually great; and it must be considered un-
doubtedly as a very happy circumstance for any
country, to have so comfortable an asylum for its
redundant population. But I would ask, whether,
even during these periods, the distress among the
common people in this country was little or no-
thing ; and whether every man felt secure before
he ventured on marriage, that, however large his
family might be, he should find no difficulty in

Ch. iv. Of Emigration. 57

supporting it without parish assistance. The
answer, I fear, could not be in the affirmative.

It will be said that, when an opportunity of
advantageous emigration is offered, it is the fault
of the people themselves, if, instead of accepting
it, they prefer a life of celibacy or extreme poverty
in their own country. Is it then a fault for a man
to feel an attachment to his native soil, to love
the parents that nurtured him, his kindred, his
friends, and the companions of his early years?
Or is it no evil that he suffers, because he con-
sents to bear it rather than snap these cords
which nature has wound in close and intricate
folds round the human heart? The great plan of
Providence seems to require, indeed, that these
ties should sometimes be broken; but the sepa-
ration does not, on that account, give less pain;
and though the general good may be promoted
by it, it does not cease to be an individual evil.
Besides, doubts and uncertainty must ever at-
tend all distant emigrations, particularly in the
apprehensions of the lower classes of people.
They cannot feel quite secure, that the represen-
tations made to them of the high price of labour
or the cheapness of land, areaccurately true. They
are placing themselves in the power of the persons
who are to furnish them with the means of trans-
port and maintenance, who may perhaps have an
interest in deceiving them; and the sea which
they are to pass, appears to them like the separa-
tion of death from all their former connections,
and in a manner to preclude the possibility of

58 Of Emigration. Bk. iii.

return in case of failure, as they cannot expect
‘the offer of the same means to bring them back.
We cannot be surprised then, that, except where
a spirit of enterprise is added to the uneasiness of
poverty, the consideration of these circumstances
should frequently

‘© Make them rather bear the ills they suffer,

“Than fly to others which they know not of.”

If a tract of rich land as large as this island
were suddenly annexed to it, and sold in small
lots, or let out in small farms, the case would be
very different, and the melioration of the state
of the common people would be sudden and
striking; though the rich would be continually
complaining of the high price of labour, the pride
of the lower classes, and the difficulty of getting
work done. These, I understand, are not unfre-
quent complaints among the men of property in
America.

Every resource however from emigration, if
used effectually, as this would be, must be of
short duration. There is scarcely a state in Eu-
rope, except perhaps Russia, the inhabitants of
which do not often endeavour to better their con-
dition by removing to other countries. As these
states therefore have nearly all rather a redun-
dant than deficient population in proportion to
their produce, they cannot be supposed to afford
any effectual resources of emigration to each
other. Let us suppose for a moment, that in this
more enlightened part of the globe, the internal
economy of each state were so admirably regu-

Ch. iv. Of Emigration. 59

lated, that no checks existed to population, and
that the different governments provided every
facility for emigration. Taking the population of
Europe, excluding Russia, at a hundred millions,
and allowing a greater increase of produce than is
probable, or even possible, in the mother-coun-
tries, the redundancy of parent stock in a single
century would be eleven hundred millions, which,
added to the natural increase of the colonies
during the same time, would more than double
what has been supposed to be the present popu-
lation of the whole earth.

Can we imagine, that in the uncultivated parts
of Asia, Africa, or America, the greatest exertions
and the best-directed endeavours could, in so
short a period, prepare a quantity of land suffi-
cient for the support of such a population? If
any sanguine person should feel a doubt upon the
subject, let him only add 25 or 50 years more, and
every doubt must be crushed in overwhelming
conviction.

It is evident, therefore, that the reason why the
resource of emigration has so long continued to be
held out as a remedy to redundant population is,
because, from the natural unwillingness of people
to desert their native country, and the difficulty
of clearing and cultivating fresh soil, it never is or
can be adequately adopted. If this remedy were
indeed really effectual, and had power so far to
relieve the disorders of vice and misery in old
states, as to place them in the condition of the
most prosperous new colonies, we should soon see

60 Of Emigration. BK. iii.

the phial exhausted ; and when the disorders re-
‘turned with increased virulence, every hope from
this quarter would be for ever closed.

It is clear, therefore, that with any view of
making room for an unrestricted increase of po-
pulation, emigration is perfectly inadequate; but
as a partial and temporary expedient, and with a
view to the more general cultivation of the earth,
and the wider extension of civilization, it seems
to be both useful and proper; and if it cannot be
proved that governments are bound actively to
encourage it, it is not only strikingly unjust, but in
the highest degree impolitic in them to prevent it.
There are no fears so totally ill-grounded as the
fears of depopulation from emigration. The vis
imertié of the great body of the people, and their
attachment to their homes, are qualities so strong
and general, that we may rest assured they
will not emigrate unless, from political discon-
tents or extreme poverty, they are in such a state
as will make it as much for the advantage of their
country as cf themselves that they should go out
of it. The complaints of high wages in conse-
quence of emigrations are of all others the most
unreasonable, and ought the least to be attended
to. If the wages of labour in any country be
such as to enable the lower classes of people to
live with tolerable comfort, we may be quite cer-
tain that they will not emigrate; and if they be
not such, it is cruelty and injustice to detain
them.

In all countries the progress of wealth must

Ch. iv. Of Emigration. 61

depend mainly upon the industry, skill, and suc-
cess of individuals, and upon the state and de-
mands of other countries. Consequently, in all
countries great variations may take place at dif-
ferent times in the rate at which wealth increases,
and in the demand for labour. But though the
progress of population is mainly regulated by the
effective demand for labour, it is obvious that the
number of people cannot conform itself immedi-
ately to the state of this demand. Some time is
required to bring more labour into the market
when it is wanted; and some time to check the
supply when it is flowing in with too great rapi-
dity. If these variations amount to no more than
that natural sort of oscillation noticed in an early
part of this work, which seems almost always to
accompany the progress of population and food,
they should be submitted to as a part of the usual
course of things. But circumstances may occa-
sionally give them great force, and then, during
the period that the supply of labour is increasing
faster than the demand, the labouring classes are
subject to the most severe distress. If, for in-
stance, from a combination of external and inter-
nal causes, a very great stimulus should be given
to the population of a country for ten or twelve
years together, and it should then comparatively
cease, it is clear that labour will continue flowing
into the market with almost undiminished rapi-
dity, while the means of employing and paying it
have been essentially contracted. It is precisely
under these circumstances that emigration is most

62 Of Emigration. Bk. i.

useful as a temporary relief; and itis in these cir-
‘cumstances that Great Britain finds herself placed
at present.* Though no emigration should take
place, the population will by degrees conform itself
to the state of the demand for labour; but the inter-
val must be marked by the most severe distress, the
amount of which can scarcely be reduced by any hu-
man efforts; because, though it may be mitigated
at particular periods, and as it affects particular
classes, it will be proportionably extended over
a larger space of time, and a greater number of
people. The only real relief in such a case is
emigration; and the subject at the present mo-
ment is well worthy the attention of the govern-
ment, both as a matter of humanity and policy.

* 1816 and 1817.

( 63)

CHAP. V.
Of Poor-Laws.

To remedy the frequent distresses of the poor,
laws to enforce their relief have been instituted ;
and in the establishment of a general system of
this kind England has particularly distinguished
herself. But it is to be feared, that, though it may
have alleviated a little the intensity of individual
misfortune, it has spread the evil over a much
larger surface.

It is a subject often started in conversation, and
mentioned always as a matter of great surprise,
that, notwithstanding the immense sum which is
annually collected for the poor in this country,
there is still so much distress among them. Some
think that the money must be embezzled for
private use ; others, that the churchwardens and
overseers consume the greatest part of it in feast-
ing. All agree that somehow or other it must be
very ill managed. In short, the fact, that even
before the late scarcities three millions were col-
lected annually for the poor, and yet that their
distresses were not removed, is the subject of
continual astonishment. Buta man who looksa
little below the surface of things would be much
more astonished, if the fact were otherwise than
it is observed to be; or even if a collection uni-

64 Of Poor- Laws. Bk. iii.

versally of eighteen shillings in the pound, instead
of four, were materially to alter it.

Suppose, that by a subscription of the rich the
eighteen pence or two shillings, which men earn
now, were made up five shillings: it might be
imagined, perhaps, that they would then be able
to live comfortably, and have a piece of meat
every day for their dinner. But this would be a
very false conclusion. The transfer of three ad-
ditional shillings a day to each labourer would not
increase the quantity of meat in the country.
There is not at present enough for all to have a
moderate share. What would then be the con-
sequence? the competition among the buyers in
the market of meat would rapidly raise the price
from eight pence or nine pence to two or three
shillings in the pound, and the commodity would
not be divided among many more than it is at
present. When an article is scarce, and cannot
be distributed to all, he that can shew the most
valid patent, that is, he that offers the most money,
becomes the possessor. If we can suppose the
competition among the buyers of meat to continue
long enough for a greater number of cattle to be
reared annually, this could only be done at the
expense of the corn, which would be a very dis-
advantageous exchange ; for it is well known, that
the country could not then support the same
population; and when subsistence is scarce in
proportion to the number of people, it is of little
consequence, whether the lowest members of the
society possess two shillings or five. They must,

Ch. v. | Of Poor-Laws. 65

at all events, be reduced to live upon the hardest
fare, and in the smallest quantity.

It might be said, perhaps, that the increased
number of purchasers in every article would give
a spur to productive industry, and that the whole
produce of the island would be increased. But
the spur that these fancied riches would give to
population would more than counterbalance it ;
and the increased produce would be to be divided
among a more than proportionably increased num-
ber of people.

A collection from the rich of eighteen shillings
in the pound, even if distributed in the most judi-
cious manner, would have an effect similar to that
resulting from the supposition which I have just
made; and no possible sacrifices of the rich, par-
ticularly in money, could for any time prevent the
recurrence of distress among the lower members
of society, whoever they were. Great changes
might indeed be made. The rich might become
poor, and some of the poor rich: but while the
present proportion between population and food
continues, a part of the society must necessarily
find it difficult to support a family, and this diffi-
culty will naturally fall on the least fortunate
members.

It may at first appear strange, but I believe it
is true, that I cannot by means of money raise the
condition of a poor man, and enable him to live
much better than he did before, without propor-
tionably depressing others in the same class. If
Tretrench the quantity of food consumed in my

VOL. TI. F

66 Of Poor-Laws. Bk. iit.

house, and give him what I have cut off, I then
benefit him without depressing any but myself
and family, who perhaps may be well able to
bear it. If I turn up a piece of uncultivated land,
and give him the produce, I then benefit both him
and all the members of society, because what he
before consumed is thrown into the common stock,
and probably some of the new produce with it.
But if I only give him money, supposing the pro-
duce of the country to remain the same, I give him
a title to a larger share of that produce than for-
merly, which share he cannot receive without
diminishing the shares of others. It is evident
that this effect in individual instances must be so
small as to be totally imperceptible; but still it
must exist, as many other effects do, which, like
some of the insects that people the air, elude our
srosser perceptions.

Supposing the quantity of food in any country
to remain the same for many years together, it is
evident that this food must be divided according
to the value of each man’s patent, or the sum of
money which he can afford'to spend in this com-
modity so universally in request. It is a demon-
strative truth, therefore, that the patents of one
set of men could not be increased in value without
diminishing the value of the patents of some other
set of men. If the rich were to subscribe and
give five shillings a day to five hundred thousand
men, without retrenching their own tables, no
doubt can exist, that as these men would live more
at their ease, and consume a greater quantity of

Ch. v. Of Poor- Laws. 67

provisions, there would be less food remaining to
divide among the rest; and consequently each
man’s patent would be diminished in value, or the
same number of pieces of silver would purchase a
smaller quantity of subsistence, and the price of
provisions would universally rise.

These general reasonings have been strikingly
confirmed during the late scarcities.* The sup-
position which I have made of a collection from
the rich of eighteen shillings in the pound has been
nearly realized; and the effect has been such as
might have been expected. — If the same distribu-
tion had been made when no scarcity existed, a
considerable advance in the price of provisions
would have been a necessary consequence; but
following as it did a scarcity, its effect must have
been doubly powerful. | No person, I believe, will
venture to doubt, that if we were’ to give three
additional shillings a day to every labouring man
in the kingdom, as I before supposed, in order
that he might have meat for his dinner, the price
of meat would rise in the most rapid and unex-
ampled manner. But surely, in a deficiency of
corn, which renders it impossible for every man
to have his usual share, if we still’continue to fur-
nish each person with the means of purchasing
the same quantity as before, the effect must be
in every respect similar.

It seems in great measure to have escaped ob-

* The scarcities referred to in this chapter were those of 1800
and 1801.
F 2

68 Of Poor-Laws. Bk. iil.

servation, that the price of corn in a scarcity will
depend much more upon the obstinacy with which
the same degree of consumption is persevered in,
than on the degree of the actual deficiency. A
deficiency of one half of a crop, if the people could
immediately consent to consume only one half of
what they did before, would produce little or no
effect on the price of corn. A deficiency of one-
twelfth, if exactly the same consumption were to
continue for ten or eleven months, might raise the
price of corn to almost any height. The more is
given in parish assistance, the more power is fur-
nished of persevering in the same consumption ;
and, of course, the higher will the price rise be-
fore the necessary diminution of consumption is
effected.

It has been asserted by some people, that high
prices do not diminish consumption. If this were
really true, we should see the price of a bushel
of corn at a hundred pounds or more, in every
deficiency, which could not be fully and com-
pletely remedied by importation. But the fact
is, that high prices do ultimately diminish con-
sumption; but, on account of the riches of the
country, the unwillingness of the people to resort
to substitutes, and the immense sums which are
distributed by parishes, this object cannot be at-
tained till the prices become excessive, and force
even the middle classes of society, or, at least,
those immediately above the poor, to save in the
article of bread from the actual inability of pur-
chasing it in the usual quantity. The poor who

Ch. v. Of Poor-Laws. 69

were assisted by their parishes, had no reason
whatever to complain of the high price of grain;
because it was the excessiveness of this price,
and this alone, which by enforcing such a saving
left a greater quantity of corn for the consumption
of the lowest classes, which corn the parish al-
lowances enabled them to command. The greatest
sufferers in the scarcity were, undoubtedly, the
classes immediately above the poor; and these
were in the most marked manner depressed by
the excessive bounties given to those below them.
Almost all poverty is relative ; and I much doubt
whether these people would have been rendered
so poor, if a sum equal to half of these bounties
had been taken directly out of their pockets, as
they were, by the new distribution of the money
of the society which actually took place.* This
distribution, by giving to the poorer classes a
command of food so much greater than that to

* Supposing the lower classes to earn on an ayerage ten shil-
lings a week, and the classes just above them twenty, it is not
to be doubted, that in a scarcity these latter would be more
straightened in their power of commanding the necessaries of life,
by a donation of ten shillings a week to those below them, than
by the subtraction of five shillings a week from their own earnings.
In the one case, they would be all reduced to a level; the price
of provisions would rise in an extraordinary manner from the
greatness of the competition; and all would be straightened for
subsistence. In the other case, the classes above the poor would
still maintain a considerable part of their relative superiority; the
price of provisions would by no means rise in the same degree ;
and their remaining fifteen shillings would purchase much more
than their twenty shillings in the former case.

70 Of Poor-Laws. Bk. iii.

which their degree of skill and industry entitle
them, in the actual circumstances of the country,
diminished exactly in the same proportion that
command over the necessaries of life, which the
classes above them, by their superior skill and
industry, would naturally possess; and it may be
a question, whether the degree of assistance
which the poor received, and which prevented
them from resorting to the use of those substitutes
which, in every other country on such occasions
the great law of necessity teaches, was not more
than overbalanced by the severity of the pressure
on so large a body of the people from the extreme
high prices, and the permanent evil which must
result from forcing so many persons on the parish,
who before thought themselves almost out of the
reach of. want.

If we were to double the fortunes of all those
who possess above a hundred a year, the effect
on the price of grain would be slow and inconsi-
derable; but if we were to double the price of
labour throughout the kingdom, the effect in
raising the price of grain would be rapid and
great. The general principles on this subject
will not admit of dispute ; and that, in the parti-
cular case which we have been considering, the
bounties to the poor were of a magnitude to ope-
rate very powerfully in this manner will sufficient-
ly appear, if we recollect that before the late
scarcities the sum collected for the poor was es-
timated at three millions, and that during the year

Ch. v. Of Poor-Laws. 71

1801 it was said to be ten millions. An additional
seven millions acting at the bottom of the scale,*
and employed exclusively in the purchase of pro-
visions, joined toa considerable advance in the
price of wages in many parts of the kingdom,
and increased by a prodigious sum expended in
voluntary charity, must have had a most powerful
effect in raising the price of the necessaries of
life, if any reliance can be placed on the clearest
general principles confirmed as much as possible
by appearances. A man with a family has re-
ceived, to my knoWedge, fourteen shillings a
week from the parish. His common earnings
were ten shillings a week, and his weekly revenue,
therefore, twenty-four. Before the scarcity he
had been in the habit of purchasing a bushel of
flour a week with eight shillings perhaps, and, —
consequently, had two shillings out of his ten, to
spare for other necessaries. During the scarcity
he was enabled to purchase the same quantity at
nearly three times the price. He paid twenty-
two shillings for his bushel of flour, and had, as
before, two shillings remaining for other wants.

* See a small pamphlet published in November, 1800, entitled,
An Investigation of the Cause of the present high Price of Provi-
sions, This pamphlet was mistaken by some for an inquiry into
the cause of the scarcity, and as such it would naturally appear
to be incomplete, adverting, as it does, principally to a single
cause. But the sole object of the pamphlet was to give the princi-
pal reason for the extreme high price of provisions, in proportion
to the degree of the scarcity, admitting the deficiency of one-
fourth, as stated in the Duke of Portland’s letter; which, 1 am
much inclined to think, was very near the truth.

72 Of Poor- Laws. Bk. iii-

Such instances could not possibly have been uni-
versal, without raising the price of wheat very
much higher than it really was during any part of
the dearth. But similar instances were by no
means unfrequent; and the system itself of mea-
suring the relief given by the price of grain was
general.

If the circulation of the country had consisted
entirely of specie, which could not have been im-
mediately increased, it would have been impossi-
ble to have given such an additional sum as seven
millions to the poor witho@ embarrassing, to a
great degree, the operations of commerce. On
the commencement, therefore, of this extensive
relief, which would necessarily occasion a pro-
portionate expenditure in provisions throughout
all the ranks of society, a great demand would
be felt for an increased circulating medium. The
nature of the medium then principally in use was
such, that it could be created immediately on de-
mand. From the accounts of the Bank of Eng-
land, as laid before Parliament, it appeared, that
no very great additional issues of paper took place
from this quarter. The three millions and a half
added to its former average issues were not
probably much above what was sufficient to
supply the quantity of specie that had been
withdrawn from the circulation. If this supposi-
tion be true, (and the small quantity of gold which
made its appearance at that time furnishes the
strongest reason for believing that nearly as much
as this must have been withdrawn,) it would fol-
low that the part of the circulation originating in

Ch. v. Of Poor-Laws. 73

=

the Bank of England, though changed im its na-
ture, had not been much increased in its quantity;
and with regard to the effect of the circulating
medium on the prices of all commodities, it cannot
be doubted that it would be precisely the same,
whether this medium were made up principally
of guineas, or of pound-notes and shillings which
would pass current for guineas.

The demand, therefore, for an increased circu-
lating medium was left to be supplied principally
by the country banks, and it could not be ex-
pected that they should hesitate in taking advan-
tage of so profitable an opportunity. The paper
issues of a country bank are, as I conceive, mea-
sured by the quantity of its notes which will
remain in circulation; and this quantity is again
measured, supposing a confidence to be establish-
ed, by the sum of what is wanted to carry on all
the money transactions of the neighbourhood.
From the high price of provisions, all these trans-
actions became more expensive. In the single
article of the weekly payment of labourers’ wages,
including the parish allowances, it is evident that
a very great addition to the circulating medium
of the neighbourhood would be wanted. Had the
country banks attempted to issue the same quanti-
ty of paper without such a particular demand for it,
they would quickly have been admonished of their
error by its rapid and pressing return upon them;
but at this time it was wanted for immediate and
daily use, and was, therefore, eagerly absorhed
into the circulation.

74 Of Poor-Laws. Bk. i.

_- It may even admit of a question, whether, under

similar circumstances, the country banks would
not have issued nearly the same quantity of paper,
if the Bank of England had not been restricted
from payment in specie. Before this event the
issues of the country banks in paper were regu-
lated by the quantity which the circulation would
take up; and after, as well as before, they were
obliged to pay the notes which returned upon
them in Bank of England circulation. The differ-
ence in the two cases would arise principally from
the pernicious custom, adopted since the restric-
tion of the bank, of issuing one and two pound
notes, and from the little preference that many
people might feel, if they could not get gold, be-
tween country bank paper and Bank of England
paper.

This, very great. issue. of country bank paper
during the years 1800 and 1801 was evidently,
therefore, in its origin, rather a consequence than
a cause of the high price of provisions; but being
once absorbed into the circulation, it must necessa-
rily affect the price of all commodities, and throw
very great obstacles in the way of returning cheap-
ness. ‘This is the great mischief of the system.
During the scarcity, it is not to be doubted that the
increased circulation, by preventing the embar-
rassments which commerce and speculation must
otherwise have felt, enabled the country to conti-
nue all the branches of its trade with less inter-
ruption, and to import a much greater quantity
of grain, than it could have done otherwise; but

Ch. v. Of Poor-Laws. 75

to overbalance these temporary advantages, a
lasting evil might be entailed upon the community,
and the prices of a time of scarcity might become
permanent, from the difficulty of TeeDSeSBINE this
increased circulation.

In this respect, however, it is much better that
the great issue of paper should have come from
the country banks than from the Bank of England.
During the restriction of payment in specie, there
is no possibility of forcing the bank to retake its
notes when too abundant; but with regard to the
country banks, as soon as their notes are not
wanted in the circulation, they will be returned ;
and if the Bank of England notes be not increased,
the whole circulating medium will thus be dimi-
nished.

We may consider ourselves as peculiarly for-
tunate, that the two years of scarcity were suc-
ceeded by two events the best calculated to restore
plenty and cheapness—an abundant harvest, and
a peace; which together produced a general con-
viction of plenty, in the minds both of buyers and
sellers; and by rendering the first slow to pur-
chase, and the others eager to sell, occasioned a
glut in the market, and a consequent rapid fall of
price, which has enabled parishes to take off their
allowances to the poor, and thus to prevent a
return of high prices, when the alarm among the
sellers was over.

If the two years of scarcity had been succeeded
merely by years of average crops, I am strongly
disposed to believe, that, as no glut would have

76 Of Poor-Laws. Bk. ii.

taken place in the market, the price of grain
would have fallen only in a comparatively incon-
siderable degree, the parish allowances could not
have been resumed, the increased quantity of
paper would still have been wanted, and the price
of all commodities might by degrees have been
regulated permanently according to the increased
circulating medium.

If instead of giving the temporary assistance of
parish allowances, which might be withdrawn on
the first fall of price, we had raised universally the
wages of labour, it is evident, that the obstacles
toa diminution of the circulation and to returning
cheapness would have been still farther increased ;
and the high price of labour would have become
permanent, without any advantage whatever to
the labourer.

There is no one that more ardently desires to
see a real advance in the price of labour than my-
self; but the attempt to effect this object by
forcibly raising the nominal price, which was prac-
tised to a certain degree, and recommended almost
universally during the late scarcities, every think-
ing man must reprobate as puerile and ineffec-
tual.

The price of labour, when left to find its natural
level, is a most important political barometer, ex-
pressing the relation between the supply of pro-
visions, and the demand for them; between the
quantity to be consumed and the number of con-
sumers; and taken on the average, independently
of accidental circumstances, it further expresses

Ch. v. Of Poor-Laws. 77

clearly the wants of the society respecting popu-
lation ; that is, whatever may be the number of
children to a marriage necessary to maintain ex-
actly the present population, the price of labour
will be just sufficient to support this number, or
be above it, or below it, according to the state of
the real funds for the maintenance of labour, whe-
ther stationary, progressive or retrograde. In-
stead, however, of considering it in this light, we
consider it as something which we may raise or
depress at pleasure, something which depends
principally upon his Majesty’s justices of the
peace. When an advance in the price of pro-
visions already expresses that the demand is too
great for the supply, in order to put the labourer
in the same condition as before, we raise the price
of labour, that is, we increase the demand, and
are then much surprised that the price of pro-
visions continues rising. In this we act much in
the same manner as if, when the quicksilver in the
common weather-glass stood at stormy, we were
to raise it by some mechanical pressure to settled
fair, and then be greatly astonished that it con-
tinued raining.

Dr. Smith has clearly shewn, that the natural
tendency of a year of scarcity is either to throw
a number of labourers out of employment, or to
oblige them to work for less than they did before,
from the inability of masters to employ the same
number at the same price. The raising of the
price of wages tends necessarily to throw more
out of employment, and completely to prevent the

78 Of Poor-Laws. Bk. iu.

good effects, which, he says, sometimes arise
from a year of moderate scarcity, that of making
the lower classes of people do more work, and
become more careful. and industrious. The num-
ber of servants out of place, and of manufacturers
wanting employment during the late scarcities,
were melancholy proofs of the truth of these rea-
sonings. Ifa general rise’in the wages of labour
had taken place proportioned to the price of pro-
visions, none but farmers and a few gentlemen
could have afforded to employ the same number
of workmen as before. Additional crowds of
servants and manufacturers would have. been
turned off; and those who were thus thrown out
of employment would of course have no other
refuge than the parish: In the natural order of
things a'scarcity must tend to lower, instead of to
raise, the price of labour.

After the publication and general circulation of
such a work as Adam Smith’s, I confess it appears
to me strange, that so many men, who would yet
aspire to be thought political economists, should
still think that it is in the power of the justices of
the peace or even of the omnipotence of parliament
to alter by a fiat the whole circumstances of the
country; and when the demand for provisions is
greater than the supply, by publishing a particular
edict, to make the supply at once equal to or
greater than the demand. Many men who would
shrink at the proposal of a maximum, would pro-
pose themselves, that the price of labour should
be proportioned to the price of provisions, and do

Ch. v. Of Poor-Laws. 79

not seem to be aware that the two proposals are
very nearly of the same nature, and that both tend
directly to famine. It matters not whether we
enable the labourer to purchase the same quantity
of provisions which he did before, by fixing their
price, or by raising in proportion the price of la-
bour. The only advantage on the side of raising
the price of labour is, that the rise in the price of
provisions, which necessarily followsit, encourages
importation: but putting importation out of the
question, which might possibly be prevented by
war, or other circumstances, a universal rise of
wages in proportion to the price of provisions,
aided by adequate parish allowances to those who
were thrown out of work, would, by preventing
any kind of saving, in the same manner as a max-
imum, cause the whole crop to be consumed in
nine months, which ought to have lasted twelve,
and thus produce a famine. At the same time
we must not forget, that both humanity and
true policy imperiously require, that we should
give every assistance to the poor on these
occasions, that the nature of the case will admit.
If provisions were to continue at the price of
scarcity, the wages of labour must necessarily
rise, or sickness and famine would quickly di-
minish the number of labourers; and the supply
of labour being unequal to the demand, its price
would soon rise in a still greater proportion than
the price of provisions. But even one or two
years of scarcity, if the poor were left entirely to
shift for themselves, might produce some effect of

80 Of Poor-Laws. Bk. in.

this kind, and consequently it is our interest, as
‘well as our duty, to give them temporary aid in
such seasons of distress. It is on such occasions
that every cheap substitute for bread, and every
mode of economizing food should be resorted to.
Nor should we be too ready to complain of that
high price of corn, which by encouraging im-
portation increases the supply.

As the inefficacy of poor-laws, and of attempts
forcibly to raise the price of labour, is most con-
spicuous in a scarcity, I have thought myself jus-
tified in considering them under this view; and
as these causes of increased price received great
additional force during the late scarcity from the
increase of the circulating medium, I trust, that
the few observations which I have made on this
subject will be considered as an allowable digres-
sion.

¢ 8b)

CHAP. VI.
Of Poor-Laws, continued.

IypEvenpDeEnTLy of any considerations respect-
ing a year of deficient crops, it is evident, that
an increase of population, without a propor-
tional increase of food, must lower the value of
each man’s earnings. The food must necessarily
be distributed in smaller quantities, and conse-
quently a day’s labour will purchase a smaller
quantity of provisions. . An increase in the price
of provisions will arise either from an increase
of population faster than the means of subsistence,
or from a different distribution of the money of
the society. The food of a country which has
been long peopled, if it be increasing, increases’
slowly and regularly, and cannot be made to:
answer any sudden demands; but variations in
the distribution of the money of the society are
not unfrequently occurring, and are undoubtedly
among the causes which occasion the continual
variations in the prices of provisions.

The poor-laws of England tend to depress the
general condition of the poor in these two ways.
Their first obvious tendency is to increase popu-
lation without increasing the food for its support.
A poor man may marry with little or no prospect
of being able to support a family without parish
assistance. They may be said, therefore, to

VOL. Il. G

82 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. ili.

create the poor which they maintain; and as the
provisions of the country must, in consequence of
the increased population, be distributed to every
man in smaller proportions, it is evident that the
labour of those who are not supported by parish
assistance, will purchase a smaller quantity of
provisions than before, and consequently more of
them must be driven to apply for assistance.

Secondly, the quantity of provisions consumed
in workhouses, upon a part of the society that
cannot in general be considered as the most valu-
able part, diminishes the shares that would other-
wise belong to more industrious and more worthy
members, and thus, in the same manner, forces
more to become dependent. If the poor in the
workhouses were to live better than they do now,
this new. distribution of the money of the society
would tend more conspicuously to depress the
condition of those out of the workhouses by ocea-
sioning an advance in the price of provisions.

Fortunately for England, a spirit of indepen-
dence: still. remains among the peasantry. .'The
poor-laws are strongly calculated to eradicate this
spirit. .. They have succeeded in part; but had
they succeeded as completely as might have
been expected, their pernicious tendency would
not have been so long concealed,

Hard. as..it may appear in individual instances,
dependent poverty ought to be held disgraceful.
Such a stimulus seems to be absolutely necessary
to promote'the happiness of the great mass’ of
mankind; and every general attempt to weaken

Ch. vi. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 83

this stimulus, however benevolent its intention,
will always defeat its own purpose. If men be
induced to. marry from the mere prospect of
parish provision, they are not only unjustly
tempted to bring unhappiness and dependence
upon themselves and ‘children, but they are
tempted, without knowing it, to injure all in the
same class with themselves.

The poor-laws of England appear to have con-
tributed to raise the price of provisions, and to
lower the real price of labour. .They have there-
fore contributed to impoverish that class of people
whose only possession is their labour. It is also
difficult to suppose that they have not powerfully
contributed to generate that carelessness and
want of frugality observable among the poor, so
contrary to the disposition generally to be re-
marked among petty tradesmen and small farmers.
The labouring poor,.-to-use a vulgar expression,
seem always to live from hand to mouth. Their
present wants employ their whole attention; and
they seldom think of the future. Even when they
have an opportunity of saving, they seldom exer-
cise it; but all that they earn beyond their pre-
sent necessities goes, generally speaking, to the
ale-house. The poor-laws may therefore be said
to diminish both the power and the will to save,
among the common people; and thus to weaken
one eh the strongest incentives to sobriety and
industry, and consequently to happiness.

It is a general complaint among master manu-
facturers, that high wages ruin all their workmen ;

G2

84 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. .iii

but it is difficult to conceive that these men would:
net save a part of their high wages for the future
support of their families, instead of spending it in
drunkenness and dissipation, ifthey did not rely on
parish assistance for support in case of accidents.
And that the poor employed in manufactures con-
sider this assistance asa reason why they may spend
all the wages which they earn, and enjoy them-
selves while they can, appears to be evident, from
the number of families that, upon the failure of
any great manufactory, immediately fall upon the
parish; when perhaps the wages earned in this
manufactory while it flourished, were sufficiently
above the price of common country labour, to
have allowed them to save enough for their sup-
port till they could find some other channel for
their industry.

_A man who might not be deterred from going
to the ale-house from the consideration that on his
death or sickness he should leave his wife and
family upon the parish, might yet hesitate in thus
dissipating his earnings, if he were assured, that
in either of these cases his family must starve, or
be left to the support of casual bounty.

The mass of happiness among the common.
people cannot but be diminished, when one of the
strongest checks to idleness and dissipation is
thus removed; and positive institutions, which
render dependent poverty so general, weaken
that disgrace which, for the best and most hu-
mane reasons, ought to be attached to it.

The poor-laws of England were undoubtedly.

Ch. vi. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 85.

instituted for the most benevolent purpose ; but
it is evident they have failed in attaiming it. They.
certainly mitigate some cases of severe distress;
which might otherwise occur; though the state
of the poor who are supported by parishes, con-
sidered in all its circumstances, is very miserable.
But one of the principal objections to the system
is, that for the assistance which some of the poor
receive, in itself almost a doubtful blessing, the
whole class of the common people of England is
subjected to aset of grating, inconvenient, and
tyrannical laws, totally inconsistent with the genu-
ine spirit of the constitution. The whole business
of settlements, even in its present amended state,
4s contradictory to all ideas of freedom. The
parish persecution of men whose families are
likely to become chargeable, and of poor women
who are near lying-in, is a most disgraceful and
disgusting tyranny. And the obstructions con-
tinually occasioned in the market of labour by
these laws, have a constant tendency to add to
the difficulties of those who are struggling to sup-
port themselves without assistance.

These evils attendant on the poor-laws seem
to be irremediable. If assistance be to be distri-
buted to a certain class of people, a power must
be lodged somewhere of discriminating the proper
-objects, and of managing the concerns of the insti-
‘tutions that are necessary; but any great inter-
‘ference with the affairs of other people isa species
of tyranny, and in the common course of things,
the exercise of this power may be expected to

8&6 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iil.

become grating to those who are driven to ask for
support. The tyranny of churchwardens and
overseers is a common complaint among the poor;
but the fault does not Jie so much in these per-
sons, who probably befare they were in power
were not worse than other people, but in the na-
ture of all such institutions.

I feel persuaded that if the poor-laws had never
existed in this country, though there might have
been a few more instances of very severe distress,
the aggregate mass of happiness among the com-
mon people would have been much greater than it
is at present.

The radical defect of all systems of the kind is
that of tending to depress the condition of those
that are not relieved by parishes, and to create
more poor. If, indeed, we examine some of our
statutes strictly with reference to the principle of
population, we shall find that they attempt an ab-
solute impossibility; and we cannot be surprised,
therefore, that they should constantly fail in the
attainment of their object.

The famous 43d of Elizabeth, which has been
so often referred to and admired, enacts, that the
overseers of the poor “ shall take order from time
‘‘ to time, by and with the consent of two or more
‘« justices, for setting to work the children of all
«« such, whose parents shall not by the said per-
«< sons be thought able to keep and maintain their
‘‘ children; and also such persons married or
“ unmarried, as, having no means to maintain
“them, use no ordinary and daily trade of life
‘‘ to get their living by; and also to raise, weekly

Ch. vi. Of Poor- Laws, continued. 87

‘‘ or otherwise, by taxation of every inhabitant,
‘and every occupier of lands in the said parish,
«(in such competent sums as they shall think fit, )
‘<a convenient stock of flax, hemp, wool, thread,
‘‘ iron, and other necessary ware and stuff, to set
*« the poor to work.”

What is this but saying, that the funds for
the maintenance of labour in this country may
be increased at will, and without limit, by a fiat
of government, or an assessment of the overseers?
Strictly speaking, this clause is as arrogant and
as absurd, as if it had enacted that two ears of
wheat should in future grow where one only had
erown before. Canute, when he commanded the
waves not to wet his princely foot, did not in
reality assume a greater power over the laws of
nature. No directions are given to the overseers
how to increase the funds for the maintenance of
labour; the necessity of industry, economy and
enlightened exertion, in the management of agri-
cultural and commercial capital, is not insisted on
for this purpose; but it is expected that a mira-
culous increase of these funds should immediately
follow an edict of the government used at the
discretion of some ignorant parish officers.

If this clause were really and bond fide put in
execution, and the shame attending the receiving
of parish assistance worn off, every labouring man
might marry as early as he pleased, under the
certain prospect of having all his children pro-
perly provided for; and as, according to the sup-
position, there would be no check to population

88 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iii.

from the consequences of poverty after marriage,
the increase of people would be rapid beyond
example in old states. After what has been said
in the former parts of this work, it is submitted
to the reader, whether the utmost exertions of the
most enlightened government could, in this case,
make the food keep pace with the population ;
much less a mere arbitrary edict, the tendency of
which is certainly rather to diminish than to in-
crease the funds for the maintenance of productive
labour.

In the actual circumstances of every country;
the prolific power of nature seems to be always
ready to exert nearly its full force; but within the
limit of possibility, there is nothing perhaps more
improbable, or more out of the reach of any
government to effect, than the direction of the
industry of its subjects in such a manner, as to
produce the greatest quantity of human suste-
nance that the earth could bear. It evidently
could not be done without the most complete
violation of the law of property, from which every
thing that is valuable to man has hitherto arisen:
Such is the disposition to marry, particularly in
very young people, that, if the difficulties of pro-
viding for a family were entirely removed, very
few would remain single at twenty-two. But
what statesman or rational government could
propose that all animal food should be prohibited,
that no horses should be used for business or
pleasure, that all the people should live upon
potatoes, and that the whole industry of the

Ch. vi. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 89

nation should be exerted in the production of
them, except what was required for the mere
necessaries of clothing and houses? Could such
a revolution be effected, would it be desirable?
particularly as in a few years, notwithstanding all
these exertions, want, with less resource than
ever, would inevitably recur.

After a country has once ceased to be in the
peculiar situation of a new colony, we shall always
find that in the actual state of its cultivation, or
in that state which may rationally be expected
from the most enlightened government, the in-
crease of its food can never allow for any length
of time an unrestricted increase of population ;
and therefore the due execution of the clause in
the 43d of Elizabeth, as a permanent law, is a
physical impossibility.

It will be said, perhaps, that the fact contra-
dicts the theory ; and that the clause in question
has remained in force, and has been executed,
during the last two hundred years. In answer to
this, I should say without hesitation, that it has
not really been executed ; and that it is merely
owing to its incomplete execution, that it remains
on our statute-book at present.

The scanty relief granted to persons in distress;
the capricious and insulting manner in which it
is sometimes distributed by the overseers, and
the natural and becoming pride, not yet quite
extinct among the peasantry of England, have
deterred the more thinking and virtuous part of
them from venturing on marriage, without some

90 Of Poor- Laws, continued. Bk. iil.

‘better prospect of maintaining their families than
mere parish assistance. The desire of ‘bettering
our condition, and the fear of making it worse,
like the vis medicatriv nature in physics, is the
vis medicatriv reipublice in politics, and is continu-
ally counteracting the disorders arising from nar-
row human institutions. In spite of the prejudices

an favour of population, and the direct encourage-

ments to marriage from the poor-laws, it operates
as a preventive check to increase ; and happy for
this country is it, that it does so. But besides
that spirit of independence and prudence, which
checks the frequency of marriage, notwithstand-
ing the encouragements of the poor-laws, these
laws ‘themselves occasion a check of no inconsi-
derable magnitude, and thus counteract with one
hand what they encourage with the other. As
each parish is obliged to maintain its own poor,
it ismaturally fearful of increasing their number;
and every landholder is in consequence more in-
clined to pull down than to build cottages, except
when the demand for labourers is really urgent.
This deficiency of cottages operates necessarily as
a strong check to marriage; and this check is
probably the principal reason why we have been
able to continue the system of the poor-laws so
long.

Those who are not prevented for a time from
marrying by these causes, are either relieved very
scantily at their own homes, where they suffer all
the consequences arising from squalid poverty; or
they are crowded together in close and unwhole-

ee

Ch. vi. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 91

some workhouses, where a great mortality almost
universally takes place, particularly among the
young children. The dreadful account given by
Jonas Hanway of the treatment of parish children
in London is well known; and it appears from
Mr. Howlett and other writers, that in some parts
of the country their situation is not very much
better. A great part of the redundant population
occasioned by the poor-laws is thus taken off by
the operation of the laws themselves, or at least
by their ill execution. The remaining part which
survives, by causing the funds for the maintenance
of labour to be divided among a greater number
than can be properly maintained by them, and
by turning a considerable share from the support
of the diligent and careful workman to the support
of.the idle and negligent, depresses the condition
of all ‘those-who are out of the workhouses, forces
more into them every year, and has ultimately
produced the enormous evil, which we all so justly
deplore; that of the great and unnatural propor-
tion of the people which is now become dependent
upon charity.

If this be a just representation of the manner
in which the clause in question has been executed,
and of the effects which it has produced, it must
be allowed that we have practised an unpardon-
‘able deceit upon the poor, and have promised what
we have been very far from performing.

The attempts to employ the poor on any great
scale in manufactures have almost invariably

e

92 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iii.

failed, and the stock and materials have been
wasted. In those few parishes which, by better
management or larger funds, have been enabled
to persevere in this system, the effect of these
new manufactures in the market must have been
to throw out of employment many independent
workmen, who were before engaged in fabrica-
tions of a similar nature. This effect has been
placed in a strong point of view by Daniel de Foe,
in an address to parliament, entitled, Giving Alms
no Charity. Speaking of the employment of pa-
rish children in manufactures, he says, “ For
every skein of worsted these poor children spin,
there must be a skein the less spun by some poor
family that spun it before; and for every piece of
baize so made in London, there must be a piece
the less made at Colchester, or somewhere else.”*
Sir F. M. Eden, on the same subject, observes,
that ‘<‘ whether mops and brooms are made by
parish children or by private workmen, no more
can be sold than the public is in want of."t

* See Extracts from Daniel de Foe, in Sir F. M. Eden’s valu-
able Work on the poor, vol. i. p. 261.
_ ++ Sir F. M. Eden, speaking of the supposed right of the poor
to be supplied with employment while able to work, and with a
Maintenance when incapacited from labour, very justly remarks,
*© Tt may however be doubted, whether any right, the gratification
“ of which seems to be impracticable, can be said to exist,” vol. i.
p: 447. No man has collected so many materials for forming aj udg-
ment on the effects of the poor-laws as Sir F. M. Eden, and the
‘result he thus expresses: ‘‘ Upon the whole therefore there seems
‘“‘ to be just grounds for concluding, that the sum of good to be

Ch. vi. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 93

It will be said, perhaps, that the same reason-
ing might be applied to any new capital brought
into competition in a particular trade or manufac-
ture, which can rarely be done without injuring, in
some degree, those that were engaged in it before.
But there is a material difference in the two cases.
In this the competition is perfectly fair, and what
every man on entering into business must lay his
account to. He may rest secure that he will not
be supplanted, unless his competitor possess su-
perior skill and industry. In the other case the:
competition is supported by a great bounty; by
which means, notwithstanding very inferior skill
and industry on the part of his competitors, the
independent workman may be undersold, and
unjustly excluded from the market. He himself
perhaps is made to contribute to this competition
against his own earnings; and the funds for the
maintenance of labour are thus turned from the
support of a trade which yields a proper profit, to
one which cannot maintain itself without a bounty.
It should be observed in general, that when a fund
for the maintenance of labour is raised by assess-
ment, the greatest part of it is not a new capital
brought into trade, but an old one, which before
was much more profitably employed, turned into
a new channel. The farmer pays to the poor’s
rates, for the encouragement of a bad and unpro-

“* expected from a compulsory maintenance of the poor will be far
** outbalanced by the sum of evil which it will inevitably create,”
vol. i. p. 467.—I am happy to have the sanction of so practical an
inquirer to my opinion of the poor-laws.

94 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iu.

fitable manufacture, what he would have employed
on his land with infinitely more advantage to his
country. In the one case, the funds for the main-
tenance of labour are daily diminished; in the
other, daily increased. And this obvious tendency
of assessments for the employment of the poor,
to decrease the real funds for the maintenance of
labour in any country, aggravates the absurdity
of supposing that it is in the power of a govern-
ment to find employment for all its subjects, how-
ever fast they may increase.

It is not intended that these reasonings should
be applied against every mode of employing the
poor on a limited scale, and with such restrictions
as may not encourage at the same time their in-
crease. I would never wish to push general prin-
ciples too far; though I think that they ought
always to be kept in view. In particular cases
the individual’ good to*be obtained may be so
great, and the general evil so slight, that the former
may clearly overbalance the latter.

My intention is merely to shew that the poor-
laws as a general system.are founded on a gross
error: and that the common declamation on the
subject of the poor, which we see so often in print,
and hear continually in conversation, namely, that
the market price of labour ought always to be
sufficient decently to support a family, and that
employment ought to be found for all those who
are willing to work, is in effect to say, that the
funds for the maintenance of labour in this country.
are not only infinite, but not subject to variation 5.

Ch. vi. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 95

and that, whether the resources of a country be
rapidly progressive, slowly progressive, stationary
or declining, the power of giving full employment
and good wages to the labouring classes must
always remain exactly the same,—a conclusion
which contradicts the plainest and most obvious
principles of supply and demand, and involves the
absurd position that a definite quantity of territory
can maintain an infinite population.

iG aGu0) Bk. iii.

CHAP. VII.

Of Poor-Laws, continued.

Tue remarks made in the last chapter on the na-
ture and effects of the poor-laws have-been in the
most striking manner confirmed by the experience’
of the years 1815, 1816 and 1817.* During these
years, two points of the very highest importance
have been established, so as no longer to admit of
a doubt in the mind of any rational man.

The first is, that the country does not in point
of fact fulfil the promise which it makes to the
poor in the poor-laws, to maintain and find in
employment, by means of parish assessments,
those who are unable to support themselves or
their families, either from want of work or any
other cause.

And secondly, that with a very great increase
of legal parish assessments, aided by the most
liberal and praiseworthy contributions of voluntary
charity, the country has been wholly unable to
find adequate employment for the numerous la-
bourers and artificers who were able as well as
willing to work.

It can no longer surely be contended that the
poor-laws really perform what they promise, when
it is known that many almost starving families

* This chapter was written in 1817.

Ch. vii. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 97

have been found in London and other great towns,
who are deterred from going on the parish by the ~
crowded, unhealthy and horrible state of the work-
houses into which they would be received, if
indeed they could be received at all; when it is
known that many parishes have been absolutely
unable to raise the necessary assessments, the
increase of which, according to the existing laws,
have tended only to bring more and more persons
upon the parish, and to make what was collected
less and less effectual; and when it is known that
there has been an almost universal cry from one
end of the kingdom to the other for voluntary
charity to come in aid of the parochial assess-
ments.

These strong indications of the inefficiency of
the poor-laws may be considered not only as
incontrovertible proofs of the fact that they do not
perform what they promise, but as affording the
strongest presumption that they cannot do it. The
best of all reasons for the breach of a promise, is,
the absolute impossibility of executing it ; indeed
it is the only plea that can ever be considered as
valid. But though it may be fairly pardonable
not to execute an impossibility, itis unpardonable
knowingly to promise one. And if it be still
thought advisable to act upon these statutes as far
as is practicable, it would surely be wise so to alter
the terms in which they are expressed, and the
general interpretation given to them, as not to
convey to the poor a false notion of what really is
within the range of practicability.

YOL.| Ij. H

98 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iii.

It has appeared further as a matter of fact, that
very large voluntary contributions, combined with
" greatly increased parochial assessments, and aided
by the most able and incessant exertions of indi-
viduals, have failed to give the necessary employ-
ment to those who have been thrown out of work
by the sudden falling off of demand which has
occurred during the last two or three years.

It might perhaps have been foreseen that, as the
great movements of society, the great causes which
render a nation progressive, stationary or declin-
ing, for longer or shorter periods, cannot be sup-
posed to depend much upon parochial assessments
or the contributions of charity, it could not be ex-
pected that any efforts of this kind should have
power to create, in a stationary or declining state
of things, that effective demand for labour which
only belongs to a progressive state. But to those
who did not see this truth before, the melancholy
experience of the last two years* must have brought
it home with an overpowering conviction.

It does not however by any means follow that
the exertions which have been made to relieve the
present distresses have been ill directed.. On the
contrary, they have not only been prompted by the
most praiseworthy motives; they have not only
fulfilled the great moral duty of assisting our fellow-
creatures in distress; but they have in point of
fact done great good, or at least prevented great
evil. Their partial falure does not necessarily in-
dicate either a want of energy or a want of skillin

* The years 1816 and 1817.

Ch. vii. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 99

those who have taken the lead in these efforts, but
merely that a part only of what has been attempted
is practicable.

It is practicable to mitigate the violence and
relieve the severe pressure of the present distress,
so as to carry the sufferers through to better times,
though even this can only be done at the expense
of some sacrifices, not merely of the rich, but of
other classes of the poor. But it is impracticable
by any exertions, either individual or national, to
restore at once that brisk demand for commodities
and labour which has been lost by events, that,
however they may have originated, are now beyond
the power of control.

The whole subject is surrounded on all sides by.
the most formidable difficulties, and in no state of
things is it so necessary to recollect the saying of
Daniel de Foe quoted in the last chapter. The
manufacturers all over the country, and the Spi-
talfields weavers in particular, are in a state of
the deepest distress, occasioned immediately and
directly by the want of demand for the produce
of their industry, and the consequent necessity
felt by the masters of turning off many of their
workmen, in order to proportion the supply to the
contracted demand. It is proposed, however, by
some well-meaning people, to raise by subscrip-
tion a fund for the express purpose of setting to
work again those who have been turned off by their
masters, the effect of whichcan only be to continue
glutting a market, already much too fully supplied.
This is most naturally and justly objected: to by

H 2

100 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iii.

the masters, as it prevents them from withdrawing
the supply, and taking the only course which can
prevent the total destruction of their capitals, and
the necessity of turning off all their men instead
of a part.

On the other hand, some classes of merchants
and manufacturers clamour very loudly for the
prohibition of all foreign commodities which may
enter into competition with domestic products,
and interfere, as they intimate, with the employ-
ment of British industry. But this is most natu-
rally and most justly deprecated by other classes
of British subjects, who are employed to a very
great extent in preparing and manufacturing those
commodities which are to purchase our imports
from foreign countries. And it must be allowed
to be perfectly true that a court-ball, at which
only British stuffs are admitted, may be the means
of throwing out of employment in one quarter of
the country just as many persons as it furnishes
with employment in another.

Still, it would be desirable if possible to employ
those that were out of work, if it were merely to
avoid the bad moral effects of idleness, and of the
evil habits which might be generated by depending
for a considerable time on mere alms. But the
difficulties just stated will shew, that we ought to
proceed in this part of the attempt with great
caution, and that the kinds of employment which
ought to be chosen are those, the results of which
will not interfere with existing capitals. Such are
public works of all descriptions, the making and
repairing of roads, bridges, railways, canals, &c.;

Ch. vii. Of Poor- Laws, continued. 101.

and now perhaps, since the great loss of agricul-
tural capital, almost every sort of labour upon the
land, which could be carried on by public sub-
scription.

Yet even in this way of employing labour, the
benefit to some must bring with it disadvantages
to-others. That portion of each person’s revenue
which might go in subscriptions of this kind, must
of course be lost to the various sorts of labour
which its expenditure in the usual channels would
have supported; and the want of demand thus
occasioned in these channels must cause the pres-
sure of distress to be felt in quarters which might
otherwise have escaped it. But this is an effect
which, in such cases, it is impossible to avoid;
and, as a temporary measure, it is not only cha-
ritable but just, to spread the evil over a larger
surface, in order that its violence on particular
parts may be so mitigated as to be made bearable
by all.

The great object to be kept in view, is to sup-
port the people through their present distresses,
in the hope (and I trust a just one) of better times.
The difficulty is without doubt considerably aggra-
vated by the prodigious stimulus which has been
given to the population of the country of late years,
the effects of which cannot suddenly subside.
But it will be seen probably, when the next re-
turns of the population are made, that the mar-
riages and births have diminished, and the deaths
increased in a still greater degree than in 1800
and 1801; and the continuance of this effect to a
certain degree for a few years will retard the pro-

102 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iii

gress of the population, and combined with the
increasing wants of Europe and America from
their increasing riches, ‘and the adaptation of the
supply of commodities at home to the new dis-
tribution of wealth occasioned by the alteration
of the circulating medium, will again give life and
energy to all our mercantile and agricultural
transactions, and restore the labouring classes to
full employment and good wages.” _

On the subject of the distresses of the poor,
and particularly the increase of pauperism of late
years, the most erroneous opinions have been cir-
culated. During the progress of the war, the in-
crease in the proportion of persons requiring
parish assistance was attributed chiefly to the
high price of the necessaries of life. We have
seen these necessaries of life experience a great
and sudden fall, and yet at the same time a still
larger proportion of the population requiring parish
assistance.

It is now said that taxation is the sole cause of
their distresses, and of the extraordinary stagna-
tion in the demand for labour; yet I feel the firmest

* 1825. This has, in a considerable degree, taken place; but
it has been owing rather to the latter causes noticed than to the
former. It appeared, by the returns of 1821, that the scarce years
of 1817 and 1818 had but a slight effect in diminishing the num-
ber of marriages and births, compared with the effect of the great
proportion of plentiful years in increasing them ; so that the po-
pulation proceeded with great rapidity during the ten years ending
with 1820. But this great increase of the population has pre-
vented the labouring classes from being so fully employed as might
have been expected from the prosperity of commerce and agricul-
ture during the last two or three years.

Ch. vii. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 103

conviction, that if the whole of the taxes were
removed to-morrow, this stagnation, instead of
being at an end, would be considerably aggra-
vated. Such an event would cause another great
and general rise in the value of the circulating
medium, and bring with it that discouragement to
industry with which such a convulsion in society
must ever be attended. If, as has been repre-
sented, the labouring classes now pay more than
half of what they receive in taxes, he must know
very little indeed of the principles on which the
wages of labour are regulated, who can for a mo-
ment suppose that, when the commodities on
. which they are expended have fallen one half by
the removal of taxes, these wages themselves
would still continue of the same nominal value.
Were they to remain but for a short time the
same, while all commodities had fallen, and the
circulating medium had been reduced in propor-
tion, it would be quickly seen that multitudes of
them would beat once thrown out of employment.

The effects of taxation are no doubt in many
cases pernicious in a very high degree; but it may
be laid down as a rule which has few exceptions,
that the relief obtained by taking off a tax, is in
no respect equal to the injury inflicted in laying it
on; and generally it may be said that the specific
evil of taxation consists in the check which it
gives to production, rather than the diminution
which it occasions indemand. With regard to all
commodities indeed of home production and home
demand, it is quite certain that the conversion of
capital into revenue, which is the effect of loans,

104 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iii.

must necessarily increase the proportion of de-
mand to the supply; and the conversion of the
revenue of individuals into the revenue of the
government, which is the effect of taxes properly
imposed, however hard upon the individuals so
taxed, can have no tendency to diminish the
general amount of demand. It will of course
diminish the demands of the persons taxed by
diminishing their powers of purchasing; but tothe
exact amount that the powers of these persons are
diminished, will the powers of the government
and of those employed by it be increased. If an
estate of five thousand a year has a mortgage
upon it of two thousand, two families, both in
very good circumstances, may be living upon the
rents of it, and both have considerable demands
for houses, furniture, carriages, broad cloth, silks,
cottons, &c. The man who owns the estate is
certainly much worse off than if the mortgage-
deed was burnt, but the manufacturers and la-
bourers who supply the silks, broad-cloth, cottons;
&e., are so far from being likely to be benefited
by such burning, that it would be a considerable
time before the new wants and tastes of the en-
riched owner had restored the former demand ;
and if he were to take a fancy to spend his addi-
tional income in horses, hounds and menial ser-
vants, which is probable, not only would. the
manufacturers and labourers who had before sup-
plied their silks, cloths and cottons, be thrown
out of employment, but the substituted. demand
would be very much less favourable to the increase
of the capital and general resources of the country.

“Ch. vii. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 105

The foregoingillustration represents more nearly
than may generally be imagined the effects of a
national debt on the labouring classes of society,
and the very great mistake of supposing that, be-
cause the demands of a considerable portion of
the community would be increased by the ex-
tinction of the debt, these increased demands:
would not be balanced, and often more than ba-
lanced, by the loss of the demand from the fund-
holders and government.

It is by no means intended by these observa-.
tions to intimate that a national debt may not be:
so heavy as to be extremely prejudicial to a state.
The-division and distribution of property, which
is so beneficial when carried only to a certain ex-
tent, is fatal to production when pushed to extre-
mity. The division of an estate of five thousand
a year will generally tend to increase demand,
stimulate production, and improve the structure
of society ; but the division of an estate of eighty
pounds a year will generally be attended with
effects directly the reverse.

But, besides the probability that the division
of property occasioned by a national debt may in
many cases be pushed too far, the process of the
division is effected by means which sometimes
greatly embarrass production. This embarrass-
ment must necessarily take place to a certain ex-
tent in almost every species of taxation; but
under favourable circumstances it is overcome by
the stimulus given to demand compared with sup-
ply. During the late war, from the prodigious in-
crease of produce and population, it may fairly be

106 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iii. *

presumed that the power of production was not
essentially impeded, notwithstanding the enor-
mous amount of taxation; but in the state of things
which has occurred since the peace, and under a
most extraordinary fall of the exchangeable value
of the raw produce of the land, and a great conse-
quent diminution of the circulating medium, the
very sudden increase of the weight and pressure of
taxation must greatly aggravate the other causes
which discourage production. This effect has been
felt to a considerable extent on the land; but the
distress in this quarter is already much mitigated ;*
and among the mercantile and manufacturing
classes, where the greatest: numbers are without
employment, the evil obviously arises, not so
much from the want of capital and the means of
production, as the want of a market for the com-
modity when produced—a want, for which the
removal of taxes, however proper, and indeed ab-
solutely necessary as a permanent measure, is
certainly not the immediate and specific remedy.
The principal causes of the increase of ‘pau-
perism, independently of the present crisis, are,
first, the general increase of the manufacturing
system and the unavoidable variations of manu-
facturing labour; and secondly, and more parti-
cularly, the practice which has been adopted in
some counties, and is now spreading pretty gene-
rally all over the kingdom, of paying a consider-
able portion of what ought to be the wages of

* Written in 1817. It increased again afterwards from another
great fall in the price of corn, subsequent to 1818,

Ch. vii. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 107

labour out of the parish rates. During the war,
when the demand for labour was great and in-
creasing, it is quite certain that nothing but a
practice of this kind could for any time have pre-
vented the wages of labour from rising fully in
proportion to the necessaries of life, in whatever
degree these necessaries might have been raised
by taxation. It was seen, consequently, that in
those parts of Great Britain where this practice
prevailed the least, the wages of labour rose the
most. This was the case in Scotland, and some
parts of the North of England, where. the im-
provement in the condition of the labouring classes,
and their increased command over the necessaries
and conveniences of life, were particularly remark-
able. And if, in some other parts of the country,
- where the practice did not greatly prevail, and
especially in the towns, wages did not rise in the
same degree, it was owing to the influx and com-
petition of the cheaply raised population of the
surrounding counties.

It is a just remark of Adam Smith, that the at-
tempts of the legislature to raise the pay of curates
had always been ineffectual, on account of the
cheap and abundant supply of them, occasioned
by the bounties given to young persons educated
for the church at the universities. And it is
equally true that no human efforts can keep up
the price of day-labour so as to enable a man to
support on his earnings a family of a moderate
size, so long as those who have more than two
children are considered as haying a valid claim to
parish assistance.

108 Of Poor-Laws, continued. - Bk. iii.

If this system were to become universal, and I
own it appears to me that the poor-laws naturally
lead to it, there is no reason whatever why parish
assistance should not by degrees begin earlier and.
earlier; and I do not hesitate to assert that, if
the government and constitution of the country
were inall other respects as perfect as the wildest
visionary thinks he could make them; if parlia-
ments were annual, suffrage universal, wars, taxes
and pensions unknown, and the civil list fifteen
hundred.a year, the great body of the hia
might still be a collection of paupers.

I have been accused of proposing a law to pro-
hibit the poor from marrying. This is not true.
So far from proposing such a law, I have distinctly
said that, if any person chooses to marry without
having a prospect of being able to maintain a
family, he ought to have the most perfect liberty
so to do; and whenever any prohibitory propo-
sitions have been suggested to me as advisable
by persons who have drawn wrong inferences
from what I have said, I have steadily and uni-
formly reprobated them. I am indeed most de-
cidedly of opinion that any positive law to limit —
the age of marriage would be both unjust and im-
moral; and my greatest objection to a system of
equality and the system of the poor-laws (two
systems which, however different in their outset,
are of a nature calculated to produce the same
results) is, that the society in which they are ef-
fectively carried into execution, will ultimately
be reduced to the miserable alternative of choosing

Ch. vii. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 109

between universal want and the enactment of
direct laws against marriage.

What I have really proposed is a very different
measure. Itis the gradual and very gradual abo-
lition of the poor-laws.* And the reason why I
have ventured to suggest a proposition of this
kind for consideration is my firm conviction, that
they have lowered very decidedly the wages of
the labouring classes, and made their general
condition essentially worse than it would have
been if these laws had never existed. Their ope-
ration is every where depressing; but it falls pe-
culiarly hard upon the labouring classes in great
towns. Incountry parishes the poor do really
receive some compensation for their low wages ;
their children, beyond a certain number, are really
supported by the parish; and though it must be
a most grating reflection to a labouring man, that
it is scarcely possible for him to marry without
becoming the father of paupers; yet if he can
reconcile himself to this prospect, the compensa-
tion, such as itis, is, no doubt, made to him.
But in London and all the great towns of the
kingdom, the evil is suffered without the compen-
sation. The population raised by bounties in
the country naturally and necessarily flows into
the towns, and as naturally and necessarily tends
to lower wages in them ; while, in point of fact,
those who marry in towns, and have large fami-
lies, receive no assistance from their parishes,

_ * So gradual as not to affect any individuals at present alive,
or who will be born within the next two years.

110 _— Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iii.

unless they are actually starving ; and altogether
the assistance which the manufacturing classes |
obtain for the support of their families, in aid of
their lowered wages, is perfectly inconsiderable.

To remedy the effects of this competition from
the country, the artificers and manufacturers in
towns have been apt to combine, with a view to
keep up the price of labour, and to prevent per-
sons from working below a certain rate. But
such combinations are not only illegal,* but irra-
tional and ineffectual; and if the supply of work-
men in any particular branch of trade be such as
would naturally lower wages, the keeping them
up forcibly must have the effect of throwing so
many out of employment, as to make the expense
of their support fully equal to the gain acquired
by the higher wages, and thus render these higher
wages in reference to the whole body perfectly
futile.

It may be distinctly stated to be an absolute im-
‘possibility that all the different classes of society
should be both well paid and fully employed, if
the supply of labour on the whole exceed the de-
mand; and as the poor-laws tend in the most
marked manner to make the supply of labour ex-
ceed the demand for it, their effect must be, either
to lower universally all wages, or, if some are

* This has since been altered; but the subsequent part of the
passage is particularly applicable to the present time—the end of
the year 1825. The workmen are beginning to find that, if they could
raise their wages above what the state of the demand and the
prices of goods will warrant, it is absolutely impossible that all,
or nearly all, should be employed. The masters could not employ
the same number as before, without inevitable ruin.

Ch. vii. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 111

kept up artificially, to throw great numbers of
workmen out of employment, and thus constantly
to increase the poverty and distress of the labour-
ing classes of society.

If these things be so (and I am firmly convinced
that they are) it cannot but bea subject of the
deepest regret to those who are anxious for the
happiness of the great mass of the community,
that the writers which are now most extensively
read among the common people should have se-
lected for the subject of reprobation exactly that
line of conduct which can alone generally improve
their condition, and for the subject of approbation
that system which must inevitably eb them
in poverty and wretchedness.

They are taught that there is no occasion what-
ever for them to put any sort of restraint upon
their inclinations, or exercise any degree of pru-
dence in the affair of marriage; because the pa-
rish is bound to provide for all that are born.
They are taught that there is as little occasion to
cultivate habits of economy, and make use of
the means afforded them by saving banks, to lay
by their earnings while they are single, in order
to furnish a cottage when they marry, and enable
them to set out in life with decency and comfort ;
because, I suppose, the parish is bound to cover
their nakedness, and to find them a bed anda
chair in a workhouse.

They are taught that any endeavour on the part
of the higher classes of society to inculcate the du-
ties of prudence and economy can only arise from

112 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iii.

a desire to save the money which they pay in
poor-rates ; although it is absolutely certain that
the only mode, consistent with the laws of mora-
lity, and religion, of giving to the poor the largest
share of the property of the rich, without sinking
the whole community in misery, is the exercise on
the part of the poor of prudence in marriage, and
of economy both before and after it.

They are taught that the command of the Crea-
tor to increase and multiply is meant to contra-
dict those laws which he has himself appointed
for the increase and multiplication of the human
race; and that it is equally the duty of a person
to marry early, when, from the impossibility of
adding to the food of the country in which he
lives, the greater part of his offspring must die
prematurely, and consequently no multiplication
follow from it, as when the children of such mar-
riages can all be well maintained, and there is
room and food for a great and rapid increase of
population.

They are taught that, in relation to the condi-
tion of the labouring classes, there is no other
difference between such a country as England,
which has been long well peopled, and where the
land, which is not yet taken into cultivation, is
comparatively barren, and such a country as
America, where millions and millions of acres of
fine land are yet to be had for a trifle, except
what arises from taxation.

And they are taught, O monstrous absurdity!
that the only reason why the American labourer

Ch. vii. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 113

earns a dollar a day, and the English labourer
earns two shillings, is that the English labourer
pays a great part of these two shillings in taxes.

Some of these doctrines are so grossly absurd
that I have no doubt they are rejected at once
by the common sense of many of the labouring
classes. It cannot but strike them that, if their
main dependence for the support of their children
is to be on the parish, they can only expect
parish fare, parish clothing, parish furniture, a
parish house, and parish government, and they
must know that persons living in this way cannot
possibly be in a happy and prosperous state. _

It can scarcely escape the notice of the com-
mon mechanic, that the scarcer workmen are
‘upon any occasion the greater share do they re-
tain of the value of what they produce for their
masters ; and it is a most natural inference, that
‘prudence in marriage, which is the only moral
means of preventing an excess of workmen above
the demand, can: be the only mode of giving to
the poor permanently a large share of all that is
produced in the country.

A common man, who has read his Bible, must
be convinced that a command given toa rational
being by a merciful God cannot be intended so to
be interpreted as to produce only disease and
death instead of multiplication; and a plain
‘sound understanding would make him see that,
if, ina country in which little or no increase of
food is to be obtained, every man were to marry
at eighteen or twenty, when he generally feels

WOE. LU. I

114 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iii.

most inclined to it, the consequence must be in-
creased poverty, increased disease, and increased
mortality, and not increased numbers, as long, at
least, as it continues to be true (which he will
hardly be disposed to doubt) that additional num-
bers cannot live without additional food.

A moderately shrewd judgment would prompt
any labourer acquainted with the nature of land
to suspect that there must be some great diffe-
rence, quite independent of taxation, between a
country such as America, which might easily be
made to support fifty times as many inhabitants
as it contains at present, and a country such as
England, which could not, without extraordinary
exertions, be made to support two or three times
as many. He would, at least, see that there
would be a prodigious difference in the power of
maintaining an additional number of cattle, be-
tween asmall farm already well stocked, and a very
large one which had not the fiftieth part of what
it might be made to maintain; and as he would
know that both rich and poor must live upon the
produce of the earth as well as all other animals,
he would be disposed to conclude that what was
so obviously true in one case, could not be false
in the other. These considerations might make
him think it natural and probable that in those
countries where there was a great want of people,
the wages of labour would be such as to encou-
rage early marriages and large families, for the
best of all possible reasons, because all that are
born may be very easily and comfortably sup-

Ch. vii. Of Poor-Laws, continued. 115

ported ; but that in those countries which were
already nearly full, the wages of labour cannot
be such as to give the same encouragement to
early marriages, for a reason surely not much
worse, because the persons so brought into the
world cannot be properly supported.

There are few of our mechanics and labourers
who have not heard of the high prices of bread,
meat and labour in this country compared with
the nations of the continent, and they have ge-
nerally heard at the same time that these high
prices were chiefly occasioned by taxation, which,
though it had raised among other things the money
wages of labour, had done harm rather than good
to the labourer, because it had before raised the
price of the bread and beer and other articles in
which he spent his earnings. With this amount
of information, the meanest understanding would
revolt at the idea that the very same cause which
had kept the money price of labour in all the na-
tions of Europe much lower than in. England,
namely, the absence of taxation, had been the
means of raising it to more than double in Ame-
rica. He would feel quite convinced that, what-
ever might be the cause of the high money wages
of labour in America, which he might not perhaps
readily understand, it must be something very
different indeed from the mere absence of taxation,
which could only have an effect exactly opposite.

With regard to the improved condition of the
lower classes of people in France since the revo-
lution, which has also been much insisted upon ;

12

116 Of Poor-Laws, continued. Bk. iii.

if the circumstances accompanying it were told at
the same time, it would afford the strongest pre-
sumption against the doctrines which have been
lately promulgated. The improved condition of
the labouring classes in France since the revolu-
tion has been accompanied by a greatly diminished
proportion of births, which has had its natural and
necessary effect in giving to these classes a greater
share of the produce of the country, and has kept
up the advantage arising from the sale of the
church lands and other national domains, which
would otherwise have been lost in a short time:
The effect of the revolution in France has been, to
make every person depend more upon himself and
less upon others. The labouring classes are there-
fore become more industrious, more saving and
more prudent in marriage than formerly; and itis
quite certain that without these effects the revolu-
tion would have done nothing for them. An im-
‘proved government has, no doubt, a natural ten-
dency to produce these effects, and thus to improve
the condition of the poor. But if an extensive
system of parochial relief, and such doctrines as
have lately been inculcated, counteract them, and
prevent the labouring classes from depending upon
their own prudence and industry, then any change
for the better in other respects becomes compa-
Tatively a matter of very little importance; and,
under the best form of government imaginable,
there may be thousands on thousands out of em-
ployment and half starved.

If it be taught that all who are born have a right

4

Ch. vu. Of Pcoor-Laws, continued. 117

to support on the land, whatever be their number, -
and that there is no occasion to exercise any pru-
dence in the affair of marriage so as to check this
number, the temptations, according to all the
known principles of human nature, will inevitably
be yielded to, and more and more will gradually
become dependent on parish assistance. There
cannot therefore be a greater inconsistency and
contradiction than that those who maintain these
doctrines respecting the poor, should still com-
plain of the number of paupers. Such doctrines
and a crowd of paupers are unavoidably united ;
and it is utterly beyond the power of any revolu-
tion or change of government to separate them.

( 118 ) Bk. iii.

CHAP. VIII.

Of the Agricultural System.

As it is the nature of agriculture to produce sub-
sistence for a greater number of families than can
be employed in the business of cultivation, it might
perhaps be supposed that a nation which strictly
pursued an agricultural system would always have
more food than was necessary for its inhabitants,
and that its population could never be checked
from the want of the means of subsistence.

It is indeed obviously true that the increase of
such a country is not immediately checked, either
by the want of power to produce, or even by the
deficiency of the actual produce of the soil com-
pared with the population. Yet if we examine
the condition of its labouring classes, we shall find
that the real wages of their labour are such as
essentially to check and regulate their increase,
by checking and regulating their command over
the means of subsistence.

A country under certain circumstances of soil
and situation, and with a deficient capital, may
find it advantageous to purchase foreign commo-
dities with its raw produce rather than manufac-
ture them at home: and in this case it will neces-
sarily grow more raw produce than it consumes.
But this state of things is very little connected

Ch. viii. Of the Agricultural System. 119

either with the permanent condition of the labour-
ing classes of the society or the rate of their in-
crease; and in a country where the agricultural
system entirely predominates, and the great mass
of its industry is directed towards the land, the
condition of the people is subject to almost every
degree of variation.

_ Under the agricultural system perhaps are to
be found the two extremes in the condition of the
poor; instances where they are in the best state,
and instances where they are in the worst state of
any of which we have accounts.

In a country where there is an abundance of
good land, where there are no difficulties in the
way of its purchase and distribution, and where
there is an easy foreign vent for raw produce, both
the profits of stock and the wages of labour will
be high. These high profits and high wages, if
habits of economy pretty generally prevail, will
furnish the means of a rapid accumulation of
capital and a great and continued demand for
labour, while the rapid increase of population
which will ensue will maintain undiminished the
demand for produce, and check the fall of profits.
If the extent of territory be considerable, and the
population comparatively inconsiderable, the land
may remain understocked both with capital and
people for some length of time, notwithstanding a
rapid increase of both; and it is under these cir-
cumstances of the agricultural system that labour
is able to command the greatest portion of the

120 Of the Agricultural System. Bk. i.

necessaries of life, and that the condition of the
labouring classes of society is the best.

The only drawback to the wealth of the labour-
ing classes under these circumstances is the re-
latively low value of the raw produce.

If a considerable part of the manufactured com-
modities used in such a country be purchased by
the export of its raw produce, it follows as a ne-
cessary consequence that the relative value of its
raw produce will be lower, and of its manufactured
produce higher, than in the countries with which
such a trade is carried on. But where a given
portion of raw produce will not command so much
of manufactured and foreign commodities as in
other countries, the condition of the labourer can-
not be exactly measured by the quantity of raw
produce which falls to his share. If, for instance,
in one country the yearly earnings of a labourer
amount in money value to fifteen quarters of wheat
and in another to nine, it would be incorrect to
infer that their relative condition, and the com-
forts which they enjoy, were in the same propor-
tion, because the whole of a labourer’s earnings
are not spent in food; and if that part which is
not so spent will, in the country where the value
of fifteen quarters is earned, not go near so far in
the purchase of clothes and other conveniences as
in the countries where the value of nine quarters
is earned, it is clear that altogether the situation
of the labourer in the latter country may approach
nearer to that.of the labourer in the former than
might at first be supposed.

Ch. viii. Of the Agricultural System. 12]

At the same time it should be recollected that
quantity always tends powerfully to counterbalance
any deficiency of value; and the labourer who earns
the greatest number of quarters may still com-
mand the greatest quantity of necessaries and
conveniences combined, though not to the extent
implied by the proportions of the raw produce.

America affords a practical instance of the agri-
cultural system in a state the most favourable to
the condition of the labouring classes. The nature
of the country is such as to make it answer to
employ a very large proportion of its capital in
agriculture; and the consequence has been a very
rapid increase of it. This rapid increase both of
the quantity and value of capital has kept upa
steady and continued demand for labour. The
labouring classes have in consequence been pe-
culiarly well paid. They have been able to com-
mand an unusual quantity of the necessaries of
life, and the progress of population has been un-
usually rapid.

Yet even here, some little drawback has been
felt from the relative cheapness of corn. As Ame-
‘rica till the late war imported the greatest. part of
its manufactures from England, and as. England
imported flour and wheat from America, the value
of food in America compared with manufactures
must have been decidedly less than in England.
Nor would this effect take place merely with re-
lation to the foreign commodities imported mto
‘America, but also to those of its home manufac-
tures, in which it has no particular advantage.

122 Of the Agricultural System. _ Bk. iii.

_ In agriculture, the abundance of good land would
counterbalance the high wages of labour and high
profits of stock, and keep the price of corn mo-
derate, notwithstanding the great expense of these
two elements of price. But in the production of
manufactured commodities they must necessarily
tell, without any particular advantage to counter-
balance them, and must in general occasion in
home goods, as well as foreign, a high price com-
pared with food.

Under these circumstances, the condition of the
labouring classes of society cannot in point of con-
veniences and comforts be so much better than
that of the labourers of other countries as the re-
lative quantity of food which they earn might
seem to indicate; and this conclusion is suffi-
ciently confirmed by experience. In some very
intelligent Travels through a great part of Eng-
land, written in 1810 and 1811 by Mr. Simond,
a French gentleman, who had resided above
twenty years in America, the author seems to
have been evidently much struck with the air of
convenience and comfort in the houses of our pea-
santry, and the neatness and cleanliness of their
dress. In some parts of his tour he saw so many
neat cottages, so much good clothing, and so little
appearance of poverty and distress, that he could
not help wondering where the poor of England
and their dwellings were concealed. These ob-
servations, coming from an able, accurate and ap-
parently most impartial observer, just landed from

Ch. viii. Of the Agricultural System. 123

America and visiting England for the first time,
are curious and instructive; and the facts which
they notice, though they may arise in part from
the different habits and modes of life prevailing in
the two countries, must be occasioned in a consi-
derable degree by the causes above mentioned.
A very striking instance of the disadvantage-
ous effect of a low relative price of food on the
condition of the poor may be observed in Ireland.
The food of Ireland has increased so rapidly during
the last century, and so large a portion of that which
forms the principal support of the lower classes of
society has been obtained by them, that the in-
crease of population has been more rapid than in
almost any known country, except America. The
Irish labourer paid in potatoes has earned perhaps
the means of subsistence for double the number of
persons that could be supported by the earnings
of an English labourer paid in wheat; and the
increase of population in the two countries during
the last century has been nearly in proportion to
the relative quantity of the customary food awarded
to the labourers in each. But their general con-
dition with respect to conveniences and comforts
is very far indeed from being in a similar propor-
tion. The great quantity of food which land will
bear when planted with potatoes, and the conse-
quent cheapness of the labour supported by them ;
tends rather to raise than to lower the rents of
land, and as far as rent goes, to keep up the price
of the materials of manufactures and all other sorts
of raw produce, except potatoes. The indolence

124 Of the Agricultural System. Bk. iii.

-and want of skill which usually accompany such
a state of things tend further to render all wrought
commodities comparatively dear. In home manu-
factures, therefore, a great relative disadvantage
will be suffered, and a still greater both in the raw
and manufactured produce of foreign countries.
The value of the food which the Irish labourer
earns above what he and his family consume will
go buta very little way in the purchase of clothing,
lodging and other conveniences; and the conse-
quence is that his condition in these respects is
extremely miserable, at the same time that his
means of subsistence, such as they are, may be
comparatively abundant.

In Ireland the money price of labour is not
much more than the half of what itis in England.
The quantity of food earned by no means makes
up for its very low price. A certain portion
therefore of the Irish labourer’s wages (a fourth
or a fifth for instance) will go but a very little
way in the purchase of manufactures and foreign
produce. In the United States, on the other hand,
even the money wages of labour are nearly double
those of England. Though the American labourer
therefore cannot purchase manufactures and fo-
reign produce with the food that he earns so
cheap as the English labourer, yet the greater
quantity of this food more than makes up for its
lower price. His condition, compared with the
labouring classes of England, though it may not
be so much superior as their relative means of
subsistence might indicate, must still on the whole

Ch. viii. Of the Agricultural System. 125

have decidedly the advantage; and altogether,
perhaps, the United States may be produced as
an instance of the agricultural system in which
the condition of the labouring classes is the best
of any that we know.

The instances where, under the agricultural
system, the condition of the lower classes of so-
ciety is very wretched, are more frequent. When
the accumulation of capital stops, whatever may
be the cause, the population, before it comes to a
stand, will always be pressed on as near to the
limits of the actual means .of subsistence, as the
habits of the lower classes of the society will
allow; that is, the real wages of labour will sink,
till they are only just sufficient to maintain a sta-
tionary population. Should this happen, as it
frequently does, while land is still in abundance
and capital scarce, the profits of stock will natu-
rally be high; but corn will be very cheap, owing
to the goodness and plenty of the land, and the
stationary demand for it, notwithstanding the high
profits of stock ; while these high profits, together
with the want of skill and proper division of labour,
which usually attend a scanty capital, will render
all domestic manufactured commodities compa-
ratively very dear. This state of things will na-
turally be unfavourable to the generation of those
habits of prudential restraint which most fre-
quently arise from the custom of enjoying conve-

“niences and comforts, and it is to be expected
that the population will not stop till the wages of
labour, estimated even in food, are very low. But

126 Of the Agricultural System. Bk. iii.

in a country where the wages of labour estimated
in food are low, and that food is relatively of a
very low value, both with regard to domestic and
foreign manufactures, the condition of the labour-
ing classes of society must be the worst possible.

Poland, and some parts of Russia, Siberia and
European Turkey, afford instances of this kind.
In Poland the population seems to be almost
stationary or very slowly progressive; and as
both the population and produce are scanty,
compared with the extent of territory, we may:
infer with certainty that its capital is scanty, and
yet slowly progressive. It follows, therefore,
that the demand for labour increases very slowly,
and that the real wages of labour, or the command
of the labouring classes over the necessaries and
conveniences of life, are such as to keep the popu-
lation down to the level of the slowly increasing
quantity that is awarded to them. And as from
the state of the country the peasantry cannot have
been much accustomed to conveniences and com-
forts, the checks to its population are more likely
to be of the positive than of the preventive kind. '

Yet here corn is in abundance, and great
quantities of it are yearly exported. Hence it
appears that it is not either the power of the
country to produce food, or even what it actually
produces, that limits and regulates the progress
of population, but the quantity and value of the
food which in the actual state of things is awarded
to the labourer, and the rate at which these funds
appropriated increase.

Ch. viii. Of the Agricultural System. 127

In the present case the demand for labour is
very small, and though the population is incon-
siderable, it is greater than the scanty capital of
the country can fully employ; the condition of
the lalfourer therefore is depressed by his being
able to command only such a quantity of food as
will maintain a stationary or very slowly increas-
ing population. It is further depressed by the
low relative value of the food that he earns,
which gives to.any surplus he may possess a very
small power in the purchase of manufactured
commodities or foreign produce.

Under these circumstances, we cannot be sur-
prised that all accounts of Poland should repre-
sent the condition of the lower classes of society
as extremely miserable; and the other parts of
Europe which resemble Poland in the state of
their land and capital, resemble it in the condition
of their people.

In justice, however, to the agricultural system,
it should be observed that the premature check
to the capital and the demand for labour, which
occurs in some of the countries of Europe, while
land continues in considerable plenty, is not occa-
sioned by the particular direction of their in-
dustry, but by the vices of the government and
the structure of the society, which prevent its
full and fair developement in that direction.

Poland is continually brought forward as an
example of the miserable effects of the agricul-
tural system. But nothing surely can be less
fair. The misery of Poland does not arise from

128 Of the Agricultural System. Bk. iii.

its directing its industry chiefly to agriculture,
“but from the little encouragement given to in-
dustry of any kind, owing to the state of property
and the servile condition of the people. While
the land is cultivated by boors, the produce >of
whose exertions belongs entirely to their masters,
and the whole society consists mainly of these
degraded beings and the lords and owners of
great tracts of territory, there will evidently be
no class of persons possessed of the means either
of furnishing an adequate demand at home for
the surplus produce of the soil, or of accumulating
fresh capital and increasing the demand for la-
bour. In this miserable state of things, the best
remedy would unquestionably be the introduction
‘of manufactures and commerce; because the in-
troduction of manufactures and commerce could
alone liberate the mass of the people from slavery
and give the necessary stimulus to industry and
accumulation. But were the people already free
and industrious, and landed property easily divi-
sible and alienable, it might still answer to such a
country as Poland to purchase its finer manufac-
tures from foreign countries by means of its raw
products, and thus to continue essentially agri-
cultural for many years. Under these new cir-
cumstances, however, it would present a totally
different picture from that which it exhibits at
present; and the condition of the people would
more resemble that of the inhabitants of the
United States of America, than of the inhabitants
of the unimproved countries of Europe. Indeed

Ch. viii. Of the Agricultural System. 129

America is perhaps the only modern instance of the
fair operation of the agricultural system. Inevery
country of Europe, and in most of its colonies in
other parts of the world, formidable obstacles still
exist to the employment of capital upon the land,
arising from the remains of the feudal system. But
these obstacles which have essentially impeded
cultivation have been very far indeed from pro-
portionably encouraging other branches of in-
dustry. Commerce and manufactures are neces-
sary to agriculture; but agriculture is still more
necessary to commerce and manufactures. It
must ever be true that the surplus produce of the
cultivators, taken in its most enlarged sense,
measures and limits the growth of that part of
the society which is not employed upon the land.
Throughout the whole world the number of manu-
facturers, of merchants, of proprietors, and of per-
sons engaged in the various civil and military pro-
fessions, must be exactly proportioned to this sur-
plus produce, and cannot in the nature of things
increase beyond it. If the earth had been so

niggardly of her produce as to oblige all her inha-
bitants to labour for it, no manufactures or idle
persons could ever have existed. But her first
intercourse with man was a voluntary present,
not very large indeed, but sufficient as a fund for
his subsistence till he could procure a greater.
And the power to procure a greater was given to
him in that quality of the earth by which it may
be made to yield a much larger quantity of food,
and-of the materials of clothing and lodging, than

VOL. II. K

130 Of the Agricultural System. Bk. iii.

is necessary to feed, clothe and lodge the persons
employed in the cultivation of the soil. This
quality is the foundation of that surplus produce
which peculiarly distinguishes the industry em-
ployed upon the land In proportion as the
- labour and ingenuity of man exercised upon the
land have increased this surplus produce, leisure
has been given to a greater number of persons to
employ themselves in all the inventions which
embellish civilized life; while the desire to profit
by these inventions has continued to stimulate the
cultivators to increase their surplus produce. This
desire indeed may be considered as almost abso-
lutely necessary to give it its proper value, and to
encourage its further extension ; but still the order
of precedence is, strictly speaking, the surplus
produce; because the funds for the subsistence
of the manufacturer must be advanced to him be-
fore he can complete his work; and no step can
be taken in any other sort of industry unless the
cultivators obtain from the soil more than they
themselves consume. ;
If in asserting the peculiar productiveness of
the labour employed upon the land, we look only
to the clear monied rent yielded to a certain num-
ber of proprietors, we undoubtedly consider the
subject in a very contracted point of view. In
the advanced stages of society, this rent forms
indeed the most prominent portion of the surplus
produce here meant; but it may exist equally in
the shape of high wages and profits during the
earlier periods of cultivation, when there is little

Ch. viii. Of the Agricultural System. 131

orno rent. The labourer who earns a value equal
to fifteen or twenty quarters of corn in the year
may have only a family of three or four children,
and not consume in kind above five or six quarters;
and the owner of the farming stock, which yields
high profits, may consume but a very moderate pro-
portion of them in feod and raw materials. All
the rest, whether in the shape of wages and pro-
fits, or of rents, may be considered as a surplus
produce from the soil, which affords the means of
subsistence and ihe materials of clothing and
lodging to a certain number of people according
to its extent, some of whom may live without
manual exertions, and others employ themselves
in modifying the raw materials obtained from the
earth into the forms best suited to the gratification
of man.

It will depend of course entirely upon its
answering to a country to exchange a part of the
surplus produce for foreign commodities, instead
of consuming it at home, whether it is to be con-
sidered as mainly agricultural or otherwise. And
such an exchange of raw produce for manufac-
tures, or peculiar foreign products, may for a
period of some extent suit a state, which might
resemble Poland in scarcely any other feature
but that of exporting corn. ;

It appears then, that countries in which the
industry of the inhabitants is principally directed
towards the land, and in which corn continues to
be exported, may enjoy great abundance or ex-
perience great want, according to the particular

K 2

132 Of the Agricultural System. _. Bk...

circumstances in which they are placed. They:
will in general not be much exposed to the tem-
porary evils of scarcity arising from the variations
of the seasons; but the quantity of food perma-
nently awarded to the labourer may be such as
not to allow of an increase of population; and
their state, in respect to their being progressive,
stationary or declining, will depend upon other
causes than that of directing their attention prin-
cipally to agriculture.

ied BBow)

CHAP. IX.

Of the Commercial System.

A ‘country which excels in commerce and ma-
nufactures, may purchase corn from a great variety
of others; and it may be supposed, perhaps, that,
proceeding upon this system, it may continue to
purchase an increasing quantity, and to maintain
a rapidly increasing population, till the lands of
all the nations with which it trades are fully culti-
vated. As this is an event necessarily at a great
distance, it may appear that the population of such
a country will not be checked from the difficulty
of procuring subsistence till after the lapse of a
great number of ages.

There are, however, causes constantly in ope-
ration, which will occasion the pressure of this
difficulty, long before the event here contemplated
has taken place, and while the means of raising
food in the surrounding countries may still be
‘comparatively abundant.

In the first place, advantages which depend
exclusively upon capital and skill, and the present
possession of particular channels of commerce,
cannot in their nature be permanent. We know
how difficult it is to confine improvements in ma-
chinery to a single spot; we know that it is the

134 Of the Commercial System. Bk. iil.

eonstant object, both of individuals and countries,
to increase their capital ; and’ we know, from the
past history of commercial states, that the chan-
nels of trade are not unfrequently taking a diffe-
rent direction. It is unreasonable therefore to
expect that any one country, merely by the force
of skill and capital, should remain in possession of
markets uninterrupted by foreign competition.
But, when a powerful foreign competition takes
place, the exportable commodities of the country
. In question must soon fall to prices which will es-
sentially reduce profits; and the fall of profits will
diminish both the power and the will to save:
Under these circumstances the accumulation of
capital will be slow, and the demand for labour
proportionably slow, till it comes nearly to a
stand; while, perhaps, the new competitors either
by raising their own raw materials or by some
other advantages, ‘may still be increasing their
capitals and population with some degree of rapi-
dity.

But, secondly, even if it were possible for a
considerable time to exclude any formidable fo-
- reign competition, it is found that domestic com-
petition produces almost unavoidably the same
effects. If a machine be invented in a particular
country, by the aid of which one; man can do the
work of ten, the possessors of it will of course at
first make very unusual profits; but, as soon as
the invention is generally known, so much capital
and industry will be brought into this new and
profitable employment, as to make its products

Ch. ix. Of the Commercial System. 135

greatly exceed both the foreign and domestic de-
mand at the old prices. These prices, therefore,
will continue to fall, till the stock and labour em-
ployed in this direction cease. to yield unusual
profits. In this case it is evident that, though in
an early period of such a manufacture, the product
of the industry of one man for a day might have
been exchanged for such a portion of food as would
support forty or fifty persons; yet, at a subsequent
period, the product of the same industry might
not purchase the support of ten. !

In the cotton trade of this country, which has
extended itself so wonderfully durmg the last
twenty-five years, very little effect has hitherto
been produced by foreign competition.* Thevery
great fall which has taken place in the prices of
cotton goods has been almost exclusively owing
to domestic competition; and this competition has
so glutted both the home and foreign markets, that
the present capitals employed in the trade, not-
withstanding the very peculiar advantages which
they possess from the saving of labour, have ceased
to possess any advantage whatever in the general
rate of their profits. Although, by means of the
admirable machinery used in the spinning of cot-
ton, one boy or girl can now do as much as many
grown persons could do formerly; yet neither the
wages of the labourer, nor the profits of his master,
are higher than in those employments where no
machinery is used, and no saving of labour accom-
plished.

* 1816.

136 ‘Of the Commercial System. Bk ii.

The country has, however, in the mean time,
been very greatly benefited. Not only have all
its inhabitants been enabled to obtain a superior
fabric for clothing, at a less expense of labour and
property, which must be considered as a great
and permanent advantage; but the high tempo-
rary profits of the trade have occasioned a great
accumulation of capital, and consequently a great
demand for labour; while the extending markets
abroad and the new values thrown into the mar-
ket at home, have created such a demand for the
products of every species of industry, agricultural
and colonial, as well as commercial and manufac-
turing, as to prevent a fall of profits.

This country, from the extent of its lands, and
its rich colonial possessions, has a large arena for
‘the employment of an increasing capital; and the
general rate of its profits are not, as it appears,
very easily and rapidly reduced by accumulation.
But a country, such as we are considering, engaged
principally in manufactures, and unable to direct
its industry to the same variety of pursuits, would
sooner find its rate’of profits diminished by an in-
crease of capital, and no ingenuity in machinery
which was not continually progressive could’ save
it, after a certain period, from low profits and low
wages, and their natural consequences, a check to
population. )

Thirdly. A country which is obliged to purchase
both the raw materials of its manufactures and
the means of subsistence for its population from
foreign countries, is almost entirely dependent for

Ch. ix. Of the Commercial System. 137

the increase of its wealth and population on the
increasing wealth and demands of the countries
with which it trades.

It has been sometimes said, that a manufac-
‘turing country is no more dependent upon the
country which supplies it with food and raw ma-
‘terials, than the agricultural country is on that
which manufactures for it; but this is really an
abuse of terms. A country with great resources
in land may find it decidedly for its advantage to
employ the main part of its capital in cultivation,
and to import its manufactures. In so doing, it
“will often employ the whole of its industry most
‘productively, and most rapidly increase its stock.
But, if the slackness of its neighbours in manufac-
turing, or any other cause, should either consider-
‘ably check or altogether prevent the importation
of manufactures, a country with food and raw
materials provided at home cannot be long ata
‘loss. For a time it would not certainly be. so
‘well supplied; but manufacturers and artizans
would soon be found, and would soon acquire .
tolerable skil] ;* and though the capital and po-
pulation of the country might not, under the new
circumstances in which it was placed, increase so
‘rapidly as before, it would still have the power
of increasing in both to a great extent.

On the other hand, if food and raw materials
~were denied to a nation merely manufacturing, it

* This has been fully exemplified in America (1816).

138 Of the Commercial System. Bk. iii.

‘is obvious that it could not longer exist. But not

only does the absolute existence of such a nation,
on an extreme supposition, depend upon its foreign
commerce, but its progress in wealth must be
almost entirely measured by the progress and de-
-mand of the countries which deal with it. How-
vever skilful, industrious and saving such a nation
might be, if its customers, from indolence and
want of accumulation, would not or could not take
off a yearly increasing value of its commodities,
the effects of its skill and machinery would be
but of very short duration.

That the cheapness of manufactured commodi-
ties, occasioned by skill and machinery -in one
-country, is calculated to encourage an increase of
raw produce in others, no person can doubt; but
we know at the same time that high profits may
continue for a considerable period in an indolent
and ill-governed state, without producing an in-
crease of wealth; yet, unless such an increase of
-wealth and demand were produced in the sur-
‘rounding countries, the increasing ingenuity and
exertions of the manufacturing and commercial
state would be lost in continually falling prices.
It would not only be obliged, as its skill and
capital increased, to give a larger quantity of ma-
nufactured produce for the raw produce which it
received in return; but it might be unable, even
with the temptation of reduced prices, to stimu-
late its customers to such purchases as would
allow of an increasing importation of food and raw

Ch. ix. Of the Commercial System. 139

materials ; and without such an increasing im-
portation, it is quite obvious that the population
must become stationary.

It would come to the same thing, whether this
inability to obtain an increasing quantity of food
were occasioned by the advancing money price of
corn, or the falling money price of manufactures.
In either case the effect would be the same; and
itis certain that this effect might take place in
either way, from increasing competition and ac-
cumulation in the manufacturing nation, and the
want of them in the agricultural, long before any
essential increase of difficulty had occurred in the
production of corn.

Fourthly. A nation which is obliged to pur-
chase from others nearly the whole of its raw ma-
terials, and the means of its subsistence, is not
only dependent entirely upon the demands of its
customers, as they may be variously affected by
indolence, industry or caprice, but it is subjected
tg a necessary and unavoidable diminution of de-
mand in the natural progress of these countries
towards that proportion of skill and capital which
they may reasonably be expected after a certain
time to possess. It is generally an accidental and
temporary, not a natural and permanent division
of labour, which constitutes one state the manu-
facturer and the carrier of others. While, in these
landed nations, agricultural profits continue very
high, it may fully answer to them to pay others
as their manufacturers and carriers; but when
the profits on land fall, or the tenures on which it

140 Of the Commercial System. Bk. iii.

“can be held are not such as to encourage the in-
vestment of an accumulating capital, the owner of
this capital will naturally look towards commerce
and manufactures for its employment; and, ac-
cording to the just reasoning of Adam Smith and
the Economists, finding at home both the materials
of manufactures, the means of subsistence, and
the power of carrying on their own trade with
foreign countries, they will probably be able to
conduct the business of manufacturing and carry-
ing for themselves at a cheaper rate than if they
allowed it to continue in the hands of others. As
long as the agricultural nations continued to ap-
ply their increasing capital principally to the
land, this increase of capital would be of the
greatest possible advantage to the manufacturing
and commercial nation. It would be indeed the
main cause and great regulator of its progress in
wealth and population. But after they had turned
their attention to manufactures and commerce,
their further increase of capital would be the
signal of decay and destruction to the manufac-
tures and commerce, which they had before sup-
ported. And thus, in the natural progress of

national improvement, and without the competi-

tion of superior skill and capital, a purely com-
mercial state must be undersold and driven out
of the markets by those who possess the advantage
of Jand.

-In the distribution of wealth during the pro-
gress of improvement, the interests of an inde-
pendent state in relation to others are essentially

Cn, 5x. Of the Commercial System. 141

different from those of a particular province, in
relation to the kingdom to which it belongs, a
point which has not been sufficiently attended
to. If agricultural capital increases, and agricul-
tural profits diminish in Sussex, the overflowing
stock will go to London, Manchester, Liverpool,
or some other place where it can probably be
engaged in manufactures or commerce more ad-
vantageously than at home. But if Sussex were
an independent kingdom, this could not take
place; and the corn which is now sent to London
must be withdrawn to support manufacturers and
traders living within its confines. If England,
therefore, had continued to be separated into the
seven kingdoms of the Heptarchy, London could
not possibly have been what it is; and that dis-
tribution of wealth and population which takes
place at present, and which we may fairly presume
is the most beneficial to the whole of the realm,
would have been essentially changed, if the ob-
ject had been to accumulate the greatest quantity
of wealth and population in particular districts,
instead of the whole island. But at all times the in-
terest of each independent state is to accumulate
the greatest quantity of wealth within its limits.
Consequently, the interest of an independent
state, with regard to the countries with which it
trades, can rarely be the same as the interest of a
province with regard to the empire to which it
belongs ; and the accumulation of capital which
would occasion the withdrawing of the exports
of corn in the one case, would leave them per-
fectly undisturbed in the other.

142 Of the Commercial System. Bk. iii.

If, from the operation of one or more of the
causes above enumerated, the importation of corn
into a manufacturing and commercial country
should be essentially checked, and should either
actually decrease, or be prevented from increas-
ing, it is quite evident that its population must be
checked nearly in the same proportion.

Venice presents a striking instance of a com-
mercial state, at once stopped in its progress to
wealth and population by foreign competition.
The discovery made by the Portuguese of a pas-
sage to India by the Cape of Good Hope com-
pletely turned the channel of the Indian trade.
The high profits of the Venetians, which had been
the foundation of their rapidly increasing wealth,
and of their extraordinary preponderance as a
naval and commercial power, were not only sud-
denly reduced; but the trade itself, on which
these high profits had been made, was almost
annihilated, and their power and wealth were
shortly contracted to those more confined limits
which suited their natural resources.

In the middle of the 15th century, Bruges in
Flanders was the great entrepdét of the trade be-
tween the north and the south of Europe. Early
in the 16th century its commerce began to decline
under the competition of Antwerp. Many Eng-
lish and foreign merchants in consequence left the
declining city, to settle in that which was rapidly
increasing in commerce and wealth. About the
middle of the 16th century Antwerp was at the
zenith of its power. It.contained above a hun-
‘dred thousand inhabitants, and was universally

ee

Ch. ix. Of the Commercial System. 143

allowed to be the most illustrious mercantile city,
and to carry on the most extensive and richest
commerce of any in the north of Europe..

The rising greatness of Amsterdam was favoured
by the unfortunate siege and capture of Antwerp
by the duke of Parma; and the competition of
the extraordinary industry and persevering exer-
tions of the Hollanders not only prevented An-
twerp from recovering her commerce, but gave a
severe blow to the foreign trade of almost all the
other Hanse Towns.

The subsequent decline of the trade of Am-
sterdam itself was caused partly by the low pro-
fits arising from home competition and abundance
of capital; partly by excessive taxation, which
raised the price of the necessaries of life; but
more than either, perhaps, by the progress of
other nations possessing greater natural advan-
tages, and being able, even with inferior skill, in-
dustry and capital, beneficially to carry on much
of that trade which had before fallen almost ex-
clusively into the hands of the Dutch.

As early as 1669 and 1670, when Sir William
Temple was in Holland, the effects of abundance
of capital and domestic competition were such,
that most of the foreign trades were losing ones,
except the Indian, and that none of them gave a
profit of more than two or three per cent.* In
such a state of things both the power and the will
to save must be greatly diminished. The capital
must have been either stationary or declining, or

* Temple’s Works, vol. i. p. 69, fol.

»

144 Of the Commercial System. Bk. ii.

- at the best very slowly progressive. In fact, Sir
William Temple gives it as his opinion that the
trade of Holland had for some years passed its
meridian, and begun sensibly to decay.* Subse-
quently, when the progress of other natiors was
still more marked, it appeared from undoubted
documents that most of the trades of Holland,
as well as its fisheries, had decidedly fallen off,
and that no branch of its commerce had retained
its former vigour, except the American and Afri-
can trades, and that of the Rhine and Maese,
which are independent of foreign power and com-
petition.

In 1669, the whole population of Holland and
West Friezeland was estimated by John de Witt
at. 2,400,000.f In 1778, the population of the
seven provinces was estimated only at 2,000,000;{
and thus, in the course of above a hundred years,
the population, instead of increasing, as is usual,
had greatly diminished.

In all these cases of commercial states, the
progress of wealth and population seems to have
been checked by one or more of the causes above
mentioned, which must necessarily affect more or
Jess the power of commanding the means of sub-
sistence.

Universally it may be observed, that if, from
any cause or causes whatever, the funds for the
maintenance of jabour in any country cease to be
progressive, the effective demand for labour will

* Temple's Works, vol. i. p. 67. m
t Interest of Holland, vol. i. p. 9.
{ Richesse de la Hollande, vol. ii. p. 49.

Ch. ix. Of the Commercial System. 145

also cease to be progressive; and wages will be
reduced to that sum, which, under the existing
prices of provisions, and the existing habits of
the people, will just keep up, and no more than
keep up, a stationary population. A state so
circumstanced is under a moral impossibility of
increasing, whatever may be the plenty of corn,
or however high may be the profits of stock in
other countries.* It may indeed at a subsequent
period, and under new circumstances, begin to
increase again. If by some happy invention in
mechanics, the discovery of some new channel of
trade, or an unusual increase of agricultural wealth
and population in the surrounding countries, its
exports, of whatever kind, were to become un-
usually in demand, it might again import an
increasing quantity of corn, and might again in-
crease its population. But as long as it is unable
to make yearly additions to its imports of food,
it will evidently be unable to furnish the means
of support to an increasing population; and it
will necessarily experience this inability, when,
from the state of its commercial transactions, the
funds for the maintenance of its labour become
- stationary, or begin to decline.

* It is a curious fact, that among the causes of the decline of
the Dutch trade, Sir William Temple reckons the cheapness of
corn, which, he says, “‘ has been for these dozen years, or more,
general in these parts of Europe.” (Vol. i. p. 69.) This cheapness,
he says, impeded the vent of spices and other Indian commodities
among the Baltic nations, by diminishing their power of pur-
chasing.

VOL. II. L

( 146 ) Bk. il.

CHAP. X.

Of Systems of Agriculture and Commerce combined.

Iy a country the most exclusively confined to
agriculture, some of its raw materials will always
be worked up for domestic use. In the most
commercial state, not absolutely confined to the
walls of a town, some part of the food of its inha~
bitants, or of its cattle, will be drawn from the
small territory in its neighbourhood. But, in
speaking of systems of agriculture and commerce
combined, something much further than this kind
of combination is intended; and it is meant to
refer to countries, where the resources in land,
and the capitals employed in commerce and ma-
nufactures, are both considerable, and neither
preponderating greatly over the other.

A country so circumstanced possesses the ad-
vantages of both systems, while at the same time
it is free from the peculiar evils which belong to
each, taken separately.

The prosperity of manufactures and commerce
in any state implies at once that it has freed itself
from the worst parts of the feudal system. It
shews that the great body of the people are not
in a state of servitude; that they have both the
power and the will to save; that when capital
accumulates it can find the means of secure em-

Ch. x. Of Systems of Agriculture, &c. 147

ployment, and consequently that the government
is such as to afford the necessary protection to
property. Under these circumstances, it is scarce-
ly possible that it should ever experience that
premature stagnation in the demand for labour,
and the produce of the soil, which at times has
marked the history of most of the nations of Eu-
rope. In a country in which manufactures and
commerce flourish, the produce of the soil will
always find a ready market at home; and sucha
market is peculiarly favourable to the progressive
increase of capital. But the progressive increase
of capital, and particularly of the quantity and
value of the funds for the maintenance of labour,
is the great cause of a demand for labour, and of
good corn wages, while the high relative price of
corn, occasioned by the improved machinery and
extended capital employed in manufactures, toge-
ther with the prosperity of foreign commerce, en-
ables the labourer to exchange any given portion
of his earnings in corn for a large proportion both
of domestic and foreign conveniences and luxuries.
Even when the effective demand for labour begins
to slacken, and the corn wages to be reduced,
still the high relative value of corn keeps up com-
paratively the condition of the labouring classes ;
and though their increase is checked, yet a very
considerable body of them may still be well lodged
and well clothed, and able to indulge themselves
in the conveniences and luxuries of foreign pro-
duce. Nor can they ever be reduced to the mi-
serable condition of the people in those countries,
L2

148 Of Systems of Agriculture Bk. i.

where, at the same time that the demand for
labour is stationary, the value of corn, compared
with manufactures and foreign commodities, is
extremely low.

All the peculiar disadvantages therefore of a
purely agricultural country are avoided by the
growth and prosperity of manufactures and com-
merce.

In the same manner it will be found that the
peculiar disadvantages attending states merely
manufacturing and commercial will be avoided
by the possession of resources in land.

A country which raises its own food cannot
by any sort of foreign competition be reduced at
once to a necessarily declining population. If the
exports of a merely commercial country be essen-
tially diminished by foreign competition, it may
lose, in a very short time, its power of supporting
the same number of people; but if the exports of
a country which has resources in land be dimi-
nished, it will merely lose some of its foreign
conveniencies and luxuries; and the great and
most important of all trades, the domestic trade
carried on between the towns and the country,
will remain comparatively undisturbed. It may
indeed be checked in the rate of its progress for
a time by the want of the same stimulus; but
there is no reason for its becoming retrograde ;
and there is no doubt that the capital thrown out
of employment by the loss of foreign trade will
not lie idle. It will find some channel in which
it can be employed with advantage, though not

Ch.x. | and Commerce combined. 149

with the same advantage as before; and will be
able to maintain an increasing population, though
not increasing at the same rate as under the sti-
mulus of a prosperous foreign trade.

The effects of home competition will in like
manner be very different in the two states we are
comparing.

In a state merely manufacturing and commer-
cial, home competition and abundance of capital
may so reduce the price of manufactured com-
pared with raw produce, that the increased capital
employed in manufactures may not procure in
exchange an increased quantity of food. In a
country where there are resources in land this
cannot happen; and though from improvements
in machinery and the decreasing fertility of the
new land taken into cultivation, a greater quan-
tity of manufactures will be given for raw pro-
duce, yet the mass of manufactures can never fall
in value, owing to a competition of capital in this
species of industry, unaccompanied by a corre-
spondent competition of capital on land.

It should also be observed that ina state, the
revenue of which consists solely in profits and
wages, the diminution of profits and wages may
greatly impair its disposable income. The in-
crease in the amount of capital and in the number
of labourers may in many cases not be sufficient
to make up for the diminished rate of profits and
wages. But where the revenue of the country
consists of rents as well as profits and wages, a
great part of what is lost in profits and wages is

150 Of Systems of Agriculture “Bk. iii.

gained in rents, and the disposable income re-
mains comparatively unimpaired.

Another eminent advantage possessed by a na-
tion which is rich in land, as well as in commerce
and manufactures, is, that the progress of its
wealth and population is in a comparatively slight
degree dependent upon the state and progress of
other countries. A nation, whose wealth depends
exclusively on manufactures and commerce, can-
not increase without an increase’ in the raw pro-
ducts of the countries with which it trades; or
taking away a share of what they have been in
the habit of actually consuming, which will rarely
be parted with; and thus the ignorance and indo-
lence of others may not only be prejudicial, but
fatal to its progress.

A’ country with resources in land can never
be exposed to these inconveniences; and if its
industry, ingenuity, and economy increase, its
wealth and population will increase, whatever
may be the situation and conduct of the nations
with which it trades. When its manufacturing
capital becomes redundant, and manufactured
commodities are too cheap, it will have no occa-
sion to wait for the increasing raw products of its
neighbours. The transfer of its own redundant
capital to its own land will raise fresh products,
against which its manufactures may be exchanged,
and by the double operation of diminishing com-
paratively the supply, and increasing the demand,
enhance their price. A similar operation, when
raw produce is too abundant, will restore the

Ch. x. and Commerce combined. 151

level between the profits of agriculture and manu-
factures. And upon the same principle the stock
of the country will be distributed through its va-
rious and distant provinces, according to the ad-
vantages presented by each situation for the em-
ployment, either of agricultural or manufacturing
capital.

A country, in which in this manner agriculture,
manufactures, and commerce, and all the diffe-
rent parts of a large territory, act and re-act upon
each other in turn, might evidently go on increas-
ing in riches and strength, although surrounded
by Bishop Berkely’s wall of brass. Sucha coun-
try would naturally make the most of its foreign
commerce, whatever might be the actual state of
it; and its increase or decrease would be the ad-
dition or removal of a powerful stimulus to its
own produce; but still the increase of this pro-
duce, to a very considerable extent, would be in-
dependent of foreign countries; and though it
might be retarded by a failure of foreign com-
merce, it could not either be. stopped, or be made
retrograde.

A fourth advantage derived from the union of
agriculture and manufactures, particularly when
they are nearly balanced, is, that the capital and
population of such a country can never be forced
to make a retrograde movement, merely by the
natural progress of other countries to that state
of improvement to which they are all constantly
tending.

According to all general principles, it will finally

152 Of Systems of Agriculture BK. iii.

answer to most landed nations, both to manufac-
ture for themselves, and to conduct their own
commerce. That raw cottons should be shipped
in America, carried some ‘thousands of miles to
another country, unshipped there, to be manufac-
tured and shipped again for the American market,
is a state of things which cannot be permanent.
That it may last for some time, there can be no
doubt; and I am very far from meaning to insi-
nuate that an advantage, while it lasts, should not
be used, merely because it will not continue for
ever. Butif the advantage be in its nature tem-
porary, itis surely prudent to have this in view,
and to use it in such a way, that when it ceases,
it may not have been productive, on the whole,
of more evil than good.

If a country, owing to temporary advantages
of this kind, should have its commerce and ma-
nufactures so greatly preponderate as to make it
necessary to support a large portion of its people
on foreign corn, it is certain that the progressive
improvement of foreign countries in manufactures
and commerce might, after a time, subject it to
a period of poverty and of retrograde movements
im capital and population, which might more than
counterbalance the temporary benefits before en-
joyed; while a nation in which the commercial
and manufacturing population continued to be
supported by its agriculture, might receive a very
considerable stimulus to both, from such tempo-
rary advantages, without being exposed to any
essential evil on their ceasing.

Ch. x. and Commerce combined. 153

The countries which thus unite great landed
resources with a prosperous state of commerce
and manufactures, and in which the commercial
part of the population never essentially exceeds
the agricultural part, are eminently secure from
sudden reverses. Their increasing wealth seems
to be out of the reach of all common accidents ;
and there is no reason to say that they might not
go on increasing in riches and population for hun-
dreds, nay almost thousands of years.

We must not, however, imagine that there is
no limit to this progress though it is distant, and
has certainly not been attained by any large
landed nation yet known.

We have already seen that the limit to the po-
pulation of commercial nations is the period when,
from the actual state of foreign markets, they are
unable regularly to import an increasing quantity
of food. And the limit to the population of a
nation which raises the whole of its food on its
own territory is, when the land has been so fully
occupied and worked, that the employment of
another labourer on it will not, on an average,
raise an additional quantity of food sufficient to
support a family of such a size as will admit of
an increase of population.

This is evidently the extreme practical limit to
the progress of population, which no nation has
ever yet reached, nor, indeed, ever will; since no
allowance has been here made either for other
necessaries besides food, or for the profits of
stock, both of which, however low, must always
be something not inconsiderable.

154 Of Systems of Agriculture Bk. iii.

Yet, even this limit is very far short of what the
earth is capable of producing, if all were em-
ployed upon it who were not employed in the pro-
duction of other necessaries ; that is, if soldiers,
sailors, menial servants, and all the artificers of
luxuries, were made to labour upon the land.
They would not, indeed, produce the support of a
family, and ultimately not even of themselves; but,
till the earth absolutely refused to yield any more,
they would continue to add something to the com-
mon stock; and, by increasing the means of sub-
sistence, would afford the means of supporting an
increasing population. The whole people of acoun-
try might thus be employed during their whole
time in the production of mere necessaries, and
no leisure be left for other pursuits of any kind.
But this state of things could only be effected by
the forced direction of the national industry into
one channel by public authority. Upon the prin-
cipal of private property, which it may be fairly
presumed will always prevail in society, it could
never happen. With a view to the individual in-
terest, either of a landlord or farmer, no labourer
can ever be employed on the soil, who does not
produce more than the value of his wages; and if
these wages be not on an average sufficient to
maintain a wife, and rear two children to the age
of marriage, it is evident that both the population
and produce must come to a stand. Consequent-
ly, at the most extreme practical limit of popula-
tion, the state of the land must be such as to ena-
ble the last employed labourers to produce the
maintenance of as many, probably, as four persons.

Ch. x. and Commerce combined. 155

And it is happy for mankind that such are the
laws of nature. If the competition for the neces-
saries of life, in the progress of population, could
reduce the whole human race to the necessity of
incessant labour for’: them, man would, be conti-
nually tending toa state of degradation ; and all
the improvements which had: marked the middle
stages of his career would be completely lost at
the end of it; but, in reality, and according. to
the universal principle of private property, at the
period when it will cease to answer to employ
more labour upon the: land, the excess of raw
produce, not actually consumed: by the cultiva-
tors, will, in the shape of rents, profits, and wages,
particularly the first, bear nearly as great.a.pro-
portion to the whole as at any previous period,
and, at all events, sufficient to support a large
part of the society living, either without manual
labour, or employing themselves in modifying the
raw materials of the land into the forms. best
suited to the gratification of man.

When we refer, therefore, to the practical limits
of population, it is of great importance to recol-
lect that they must be always very far short of
the utmost power of the earth to produce food.

It is also of great importance to recollect. that,
long before this practical limit is: attained in any
country, the rate of the increase of population
will gradually diminish. When the capital of a
country becomes stationary from bad government,
indolence, extravagance, or a sudden shock to
commerce, it is just possible that the check to

156 Of Systems of Agriculture Bk. iii.

- population may, in some degree, be sudden,
though, in that case, it cannot take place without
a considerable convulsion. But when the capital
of a country comes to astop from the continued
progress of accumulation and the exhaustion of
the cultivable land, both the profits of stock and
the wages of labour must have been gradually
diminishing for a long period, till they are both
ultimately so low as to afford no further encou-
ragement to an increase of stock, and no further
means for the support of an increasing population.
If we could suppose that the capital employed
upon the land was, at all times, as great as could
possibly be applied with the same profit, and
there were no agricultural improvements to save
labour, it is obvious that, as accumulation pro-
ceeded, profits and wages would regularly fall,
and the diminished rate in the progress of popu-
lation would be quite regular. But practically
this can never happen; and various causes, both
natural and artificial, will concur to prevent this
regularity, and occasion great variations at diffe-
rent times in the rate at which the population pro-.
ceeds towards its final limit.

In the first place, land is practically almost
always understocked with capital. This arises
partly from the usual tenures on which farms
are held, which, by discouraging the transfer
of capital from commerce and manufactures,
leaves it principally to be generated on the land ;
and partly from the very nature of much of the
soil of almost all large countries, which is such

Ch. x. and Commerce combined. 157

that the employment of a small capital upon it

may be little productive, while the employment
of a large capital in draining, or in changing the
character of the soil by a sufficient quantity of
natural and artificial manures, may be productive
in a high degree; and partly also, from the cir-
cumstance that after every fall of profits and
wages there will often be room for the employ-
ment of a much greater capital upon the land than
is at the command of those, who, by being in
the actual occupation of farms, can alone so em-
ploy it.

Secondly; improvements in agriculture. If
new and superior modes of cultivation be in-
vented, by which not only the land is better ma-
naged, but is worked with less labour, it is ob-
vious that inferior land may be cultivated at higher
profits than could be obtained from richer land
before ; and an improved system of culture, with
the use of better instruments, may, for a long
period, more than counterbalance the tendency of
an extended cultivation and a great increase of
capital to yield smaller proportionate returns.

Thirdly; improvements in manufactures. When
by increased skill and the invention of improved
machinery in manufactures one man becomes ca-
pable of doing as much as eight or ten could be-
fore, it is well known that, from the principle of
home competition and the consequent great increase
of quantity, the prices of such manufactures will
greatly fall; and, as far as they include the ne-
cessaries and accustomed conveniences of labour-

158 Of Systems of Agriculture Bk. iii.

_ers and farmers, they must tend to diminish that

portion of the value of the whole produce which
is consumed necessarily on the land, and leave a
larger remainder. From this larger remainder
may be drawn a higher rate of profits, notwith-
standing the increase of capital and extension of
cultivation.

Fourthly ; the prosperity of foreign commerce.
If from a prosperous foreign commerce our labour
and domestic commodities rise considerably in
price, while foreign commodities are advanced
comparatively very little, an event which is very
common, it is evident that the farmer or labourer
will be: able to obtain the tea, sugar, cottons,
linens, leather, tallow, timber, &c. which he
stands in need of, for a smaller quantity of corn
or labour than before; and this increased power
of purchasing foreign commodities will have pre-
cisely the same effect, in allowing the means of
an extended cultivation without a fall of profits,
as the improvements in manufactures just referred
to.

Fifthly ; a temporary increase in the relative
price of raw produce from increased demand.
Allowing, what is certainly not true, that a rise in
the price of raw produce, will, after a certain
number of years, occasion a proportionate rise in
labour* and other commodities ; yet, during the

* Arise, which is occasioned exclusively by the increased quan-
tity of labour which may be required in the progress of society to
raise a given quantity of corn on the last land taken into cultiva-
tion, must, of course, be peculiar to raw produce, and will not be

Ch. x. and Commerce combined. 159

time that the price of raw produce takes the lead,
it is obvious that the profits of cultivation may
increase under an extended agriculture, and a
continued accumulation of capital. And these
intervals, it should be observed, must be of infi-
nite importance in the progress of the wealth of
a landed nation, particularly with reference to the
causes of deficient capital upon the land before
mentioned. If the land, for the most part, gene-
rates the new capital which is employed in ex-
tending its cultivation; and if the employment of
a considerable capital for a certain period will
often put land in such a state, that it can be culti-
vated afterwards at comparatively little expense;
a period of high agricultural profits, though it may
last only eight or ten years, may often be the
means of giving to a country what is equivalent
to a fresh quantity of land.

Though it is unquestionably and necessarily
true, therefore, that the ¢endency of a continually
increasing capital and extending cultivation is to
occasion a progressive fall both of profits and
wages; yet the causes above enumerated are eyi-
dently sufficient to account for great and long ir-
regularities in this progress.

We see, in consequence, in all the states of Eu-
rope, great variations at different periods in the
progress of their capital and population. After
slumbering for years in a state almost stationary,
some countries have made a sudden start, and

communicated to those commodities, in the production of which
there is no increase of labour.

160 Of Systems of Agriculture Bk. iii.

- have begun increasing at a rate almost approaching
to that of new colonies. Russia and parts of Prus-
sia have afforded instances of this kind, and have
continued this rate of progress after the accumu-
lation of capital and the extension of cultivation
had been proceeding with great rapidity for many
years.

From the operation of the same causes we have
seen similar variations in our own country. About
the middle of last century the interest of money
was at 3 per cent.; and we may conclude that
the profits of stock were nearly in proportion.
At that time, as far as can be collected from the
births and marriages, the population was increas-
ing but slowly. From 1720 to 1750, a period of
30 years, the increase is calculated to have been
only about 900,000 on a population of 5,565,000.*
Since this period it cannot be doubted that the
capital of the country has been prodigiously en-
larged, and its cultivation very greatly extended;
yet, during the last twenty years, we have seen
the interest of money at above 5 per cent., with
profits in proportion ; and, from 1800 to 1811], an
increase of population equal to 1,200,000 on
9,287,000, a rate of increase about two and a half
times as great as at the former period.

But, notwithstanding these causes of irregu-
larity in the progress of capital and population,
it is quite certain that they cannot reach their ne-
cessary practical limit but by a very gradual pro-

* Population Abstracts, Preliminary Observations, table, p. xxv.

Ch. x. and Commerce combined. 161

cess. Before the accumulation of capital comes
to a stop from necessity, the profits of stock must,
for a long time, have been so low as to afford
scarcely any encouragement to an excess of saving
above expenditure; and before the progress of
population is finally stopped, the real wages of
labour must have been gradually diminishing, till,
under the existing habits of the people, they
could only support such families as would just
keep up, and no more than keep up, the actual
population.

It appears then, that it is the union of the agri-
cultural and commercial systems, and not either
of them taken separately, that is calculated to
produce the greatest national prosperity ; that a
country with an extensive and rich territory, the
cultivation of which is stimulated by improve-
ments in agriculture, manufactures, and foreign
commerce, has such various and abundant re-
sources, that itis extremely difficult to say when
they will reach their limits. That there is, how-
ever, a limit, which, if the capital and population
of a country continue increasing, they must ulti-
mately reach, and cannot pass; and that this li-
mit, upon the principle of private property, must
be far short of the utmost power of the earth to
produce food.

VOL. Il. M

( 162 ) Bk. iii.

CHAP. XI.
Of Corn-Laws. Bounties upon Exportation.

Ir has been observed that some countries, with
great resources in land, and an evident power of
supporting a greatly increased population from
their own soil, have yet been in the habit of im-
porting large quantities of foreign corn, and have
become dependent upon other states for a great
part of their supplies.

The causes which may lead to this state of
things seem to be chiefly the following :

First ; any obstacles which the laws, constitu-
tion and customs of a country present to the
accumulation of capital on the land, which do not
apply with equal force to the increasing employ-
ment of capital in commerce and manufactures.

In every state in which the feudal system has
prevailed, there are laws and customs of this kind,
which prevent the free division and alienation of
land like other property, and render the prepara-
tions for an extension of cultivation often both
very difficult and very expensive. Improvements
in such countries are chiefly carried on by tenants,
a large part of whom have not leases, or at least
leases of any length; and though their wealth and
respectability have of late years very greatly in-
creased, yet it is not possible to put them on a

Ch..xi. Of Corn Laws, 8c. 163

footing with enterprising owners, and to give them
the same independence, and the same encourage-
ment to employ their capitals with spirit, as mer-
chants and manufacturers.

Secondly ; a system of direct or indirect taxa-
tion, of such a nature as to throw a weight upon
the agriculture of a country, which is either un-
equal, or, from peculiar circumstances, can be
better borne by commerce and manufactures.

It is universally allowed that a direct tax on
corn grown at home, if not counterbalanced by a
corresponding tax on the importation of it, might
be such as to destroy at once the cultivation of
grain, and make a country import the whole of its
consumption; and a partial effect of the same
kind would follow, if, by a system of indirect
taxation, the general price of labour were raised
and yet by means of drawbacks on home and fo-
reign commodities, by an abundance of colonial
produce, and by those peculiar articles,* the de-
mand for which abroad would not be much affected
by the increase of price, the value of the whole of
the exports, though not the quantity, might admit
of increase.

Thirdly ; improved machinery, combined with
extensive capital and a very advantageous division
of labour.

If in any country, by means of capital and ma--
chinery, one man be enabled to do the work of

* A rise in the price of labour in China would certainly increase
the returns which it receives for its teas.
mM 2

164 — Of Corn Laws. Bk. iii.

ten, it is quite obvious that before the same ad-
vantages are extended to other countries, a rise
in the price of labour will but very little interfere
with the power of selling those sorts of commodi-
ties, in the production of which the capital and
machinery are so effectively applied. It is quite
true that an advance in the necessary wages of
labour, which increases the expense of raising
corn, may have the same effect upon many com-
modities besides corn ; and if there were no others,
no encouragement would be given-to the importa-
tion of foreign grain, as there might be no means
by which it could be purchased cheaper abroad.
But a large class of the exportable commodities
of a commercial country are of a different descrip-
tion. They are either articles in a considerable
degree peculiar to the country and its depen-
dencies, or such as have been produced by su-
perior capital and machinery, the prices of which
are determined rather by domestic than foreign
competition. All commodities of this kind will
evidently be able to support without essential in-
jury an advance in the price of labour, some per-
manently, and others for a considerable time.
The rise in the price of the commodity so occa-
sioned, or rather the prevention of that fall which
would otherwise have taken place, may always
indeed have the effect of decreasing in some de-
gree the guantity of the commodity exported ; but
it by no means follows that it will diminish the
whole of its bullion value in the foreign country,
which is precisely what determines the bullion
value, and generally the quantity of the returns.

Ch. xi. Bounties upon Exportation. 165

If cottons in this country were now to fall to half
their present price, we should undoubtedly export
a greater quantity than we do at present; but I
very much doubt whether we should export double
the quantity, at least for many years, and yet we
must do this to enable us to command as much
foreign produce as before. In this case, as in
numerous others of the same kind, quantity and
value go together to a certain point, though not
at an equal pace; but, beyond this point, a further
increase of quantity only diminishes the whole
value produced, and the amount of the returns
that can be obtained for it.

It is obvious then that a country, notwithstand-
ing a high comparative price of labour and of ma-
terials, may easily stand a competition with fo-
reigners in those commodities to which it can apply
a superior capital and machinery with great ef-
fect; although such a price of labour and materials
might give an undisputed advantage to foreigners
in agriculture and some other sorts of produce,
where the same saving of labour cannot take
place. Consequently such a country may find it
cheaper to purchase a considerable part of its
supplies of grain from abroad with its manufac-
tures and peculiar products, than to grow the
whole at home. |

If, from all or any of these causes, a nation be-
comes habitually dependent on foreign countries
for the support of a considerable portion of its
population, it must evidently be subjected, while
such dependence lasts, to-some of those evils
which belong to a nation purely manufacturing

166 Of Corn Laws. Bk. ui.

and commercial. In one respect, indeed, it will
still continue to have a great superiority. It will
possess resources in land, which may be resorted
to when its manufactures and commerce, either
from foreign competition, or any other causes,
begin to fail. But, to balance this advantage, it
will be subjected, during the time that large im-
portations are necessary, to much greater fluctua-
tions in its supplies of corn, than countries wholly
manufacturing and commercial. The demands of
Holland and Hamburgh may be known with con-
siderable accuracy by the merchants who supply
them. If they increase, they increase gradually ;
and, not being subject from year to year to any
great and sudden variations, it might be safe and
practicable to make regular contracts for the
average quantity wanted. But it is otherwise
with such countries as England and Spain. Their
wants are necessarily very variable, from the va-
riableness of the seasons; and if the merchants
were to contract with exporting countries for the
quantity required in average years, two or three
abundant seasons might ruin them. They must
necessarily wait to see the state of the crops in
each year, in order safely to regulate their pro-
ceedings ; and though it is certainly true that it
is only the deficiency from the average crop, and
not the whole deficiency, which may be consi-
dered altogether in the light of a new demand
in Europe; yet the largeness and previous un-
certainty of this whole deficiency, the danger of
making contracts for a stated quantity annually,
and the greater chance of hostile combinations

Ch. xi. Bounties upon Exportation. 167

against large and warlike states, must greatly
ageravate the difficulties of procuring a steady
supply ; and if it be true that unfavourable sea-
sons are not unfrequently general, it is impossible
to conceive that they should not occasionally be
subject to great variations of price. ,

It has been sometimes stated that scarcities are
partial, not general, and that a deficiency in one
country is always compensated by a plentiful
supply in others. But this seems to be quite an
unfounded supposition. In the evidence brought
before the Committee of the House of Commons
in 1814, relating to the corn-laws, one of the corn
merchants being asked whether it frequently hap-
pened that crops in the country bordering upon
the Baltic failed, when they failed here, replied,
“‘ When crops are unfavourable in one part of
«« Europe, it generally happens that they are more
“‘ or less so in another.”* If any person will take
the trouble to examine the contemporaneous prices
of corn in the different countries of Europe for
some length of time, he will be convinced that the
answer here given is perfectly just. In the last
hundred and fifty years, above twenty will be
found in which the rise of prices is common to
France and England, although there was seldom
much intercourse between them in the trade of
corn: and Spain and the Baltic nations, as far as
their prices have been collected, appear frequently
to have shared in the same general deficiency.

* Report, p. 93.

168 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. iii.

Even within the last five years, two have occurred,
the years 1811-12, and 1816-1817, in which, with
extraordinary high prices in this country, the im-
ports have been comparatively inconsiderable ;
which can only have arisen from those scarcities
having been general over the greatest part of Eu-
rope.

Under these circumstances let us suppose that
two million quarters of foreign grain were the
average quantity annually wanted in this country,
and suppose, at the same time, that a million
quarters were deficient from a bad season; the
whole deficiency to be supplied would then be
three millions.

If the scarcity were general in Europe, it may
fairly be concluded, that some states would pro-
hibit the export of their corn entirely, and others
tax it very highly; and if we could obtain a million
or fifteen hundred thousand quarters, it is proba-
bly as much as we could reasonably expect. We
should then, however, be two millions or fifteen
hundred thousand quarters deficient. On the
other hand, if we had habitually grown our own
consumption, and were deficient a million of
quarters from a bad season, it is scarcely proba-
ble that, notwithstanding a general scarcity, we
should not be able to obtain three or four hundred
thousand quarters in consequence of our advanced
prices; particularly if the usual prices of our corn
and labour were higher than in the rest of Eu-
rope. And in this case the sum of our whole
deficiency would only be six or seven hundred

Ch. xi. Bounties upon Exportation. 169

thousand quarters, instead of fifteen hundred
thousand or two millions of quarters. If the pre-
sent year (1816-17) had found us in.a state in
which our growth of corn had been habitually far
short of our consumption, the distresses of the
country would have been dreadfully aggravated.

To provide against accidents of this kind, and
to secure a more abundant and, at the time, a
more steady supply of grain, a system of corn-
laws has been recommended, the object of which
is to discourage by duties or prohibitions the
importation of foreign corn, and encourage by
bounties the exportion of corn of home growth.

A system of this kind was completed in our
own country in 1688,* the policy of which has
been treated of at some length by Adam Smith.

In whatever way the general question may be
finally decided, it must be allowed by all those
who acknowledge the efficacy of the great prin-
ciple of supply and demand that the line of argu-
ment taken by the auther of the Wealth of Nations
against the system is essentially erroneous.

He first states that, whatever extension of the
foreign market can be occasioned by the bounty,
must in every particular year be altogether at the
expense of the home market, as every bushel of
corn which is exported by means of the bounty,
and which would not have been exported without

* Though the object here stated may not have been the specific
object of the law of 1688, it is certainly the object for which the
system has been subsequently recommended.

170 Of Corn-Lauws. Bk. iil.

the bounty, would have remained in the home
market to increase the consumption, and to lower
the price of that commodity.*

In this observation he evidently misapplies the
term market. Because, by selling a commodity
lower, it is easy to get rid of a greater quantity
of it, in any particular market, than would have
gone off otherwise, it cannot justly be said that
by this process such a market is proportionally
extended. Though the removal of the two taxes
mentioned by Adam Smith as paid on account of
the bounty would certainly increase the power of
the lower classes to purchase, yet in each parti-
cular year the consumption must ultimately be
limited by the population, and the increase of
consumption from the removal of these taxes
would by no means be sufficient to give the same
encouragement to cultivation as the addition of
the foreign demand. If the price of British corn
in the home market rise in consequence of the
bounty, before the price of production is in-
creased, (and an immediate rise is distinctly ac-
knowledged by Adam Smith,) it is an unanswer-
able proof that the effectual demand for British
corn is extended by it; and that the diminution
of demand at home, whatever it may be, is more
than counterbalanced by the extension of demand
abroad.

Adam Smith goes on to say that the two taxes
paid by the people on account of the bounty,

* Vol. ii. b. iv. c. 5.

Ch. xi. Bounties upon Exportation. 171

namely, the one to the government to pay this
bounty, and the other paid in the advanced price
of the commodity, must either reduce the sub-
sistence of the labouring poor, or occasion an
augmentation in their pecuniary wages propor-
tioned to that in the pecuniary price of their
subsistence. So far as it operates in the one
way it must reduce the ability of the labouring
poor to educate and bring up their children, and
nust so far tend to restrain the population of the
country. So far as it operates in the other, it
must reduce the ability of the employers of the
poor to employ so great a number as they other-
wise might do, and must so far tend to restrain
the industry of the country.

It will be readily allowed that the tax occa-
sioned by the bounty will have the one or the
other of the effects here contemplated; but it
cannot be allowed that it will have both. Yet it
is observed, that though the tax, which that in-
stitution imposes upon the whole body of the
people, be very burdensome to those who pay it,
it is of very little advantage to those who receive
it. This is surely a contradiction. If the price
of labour rise in proportion to the price of wheat,
as is subsequently asserted, how is the labourer
rendered less competent to support a family?
If the price of labour do not rise in proportion to
the price of wheat, how is it possible to maintain
that the landlords and farmers are not able to
employ more labourers on their land? Yet in this
contradiction the author of the Wealth of Nations

172 Of Corn-Laws. Bk ii.

- has had respectable followers; and some of those
who have agreed with him in his opinion that
corn regulates the prices of labour, and of all
other commodities, still insist on the injury done
to the labouring classes of society by a rise in the
price of corn, and the benefit they would derive
from a fall.

The main argument however which Adam Smith
adduces against the bounty is, that as the money
price of corn regulates that of all other home-
made commodities, the advantage to the pro-
prietor from the increase of money price is merely
apparent, and not real; since what he gains in his
sales he must lose in his purchases.

This position, though true to a certain extent,
is by no means true to the extent of preventing
the movement of capital to or from the land,
which is the precise point in question. The
money price of corn in a particular country is
undoubtedly by far the most powerful ingredient
in regulating the price of labour, and of all other
commodities; but it is not enough for Adam
Smith's position that it should be the most pow-
erful ingredient; it must be shewn that, other
causes remaining the same, the price of every
article will rise and fall exactly in proportion to
the price of corn, and this is very far from being
the case. Adam Smith himself excepts all foreign
commodities ; but when we reflect upon the vast
amount of our imports, and the quantity of foreign
articles used in our manufactures, this exception
alone is of the greatest importance. Wool and

Ch. xi. Bounties upon Exportation. 173

raw hides, two most important materials of home
growth, do not, according to Adam Smith’s own
reasonings, (Book I. c. xi. p. 863, et seq.) depend
much upon the price of corn and the rent of land ;
and the prices of flax, tallow, and leather, are of
course greatly influenced by the quantity we im-
port. But woollen cloths, cotton and linen goods,
leather, soap, candles, tea, sugar, &c. which are
comprehended in the above-named articles, form
almost the whole of the clothing and luxuries of
the industrious classes of society.

It should be further observed that in all coun-
tries, the industry of which is greatly assisted by
fixed capital, the part of the price of the wrought
commodity which pays the profits of such capital ©
will not necessarily rise in consequence of an
advance in the price of corn, except as it requires
gradual renovation; and the advantage derived
from machinery which has been constructed be-
fore the advance in the price of labour will natu-
rally last for some years.

In the case also of great and numerous taxes
on consumption, a rise or fall in the price of corn,
though it would increase or decrease that part of
the wages of labour which resolves itself into:
food, evidently would not increase or decrease
that part which is destined for the payment of
taxes.

It cannot then be admitted as a general position
that the money price of corn in any country is a
just measure of the real value of silver in that
country. But all these considerations, though of

174 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. iii.

great weight to the owners of land, will not influ-
ence the farmers beyond the present leases. At
the expiration of a lease, any particular advantage
which a farmer had received from a favourable
proportion between the price of corn and of la-
bour would be taken, from him, and any disad-
vantage from an unfavourable proportion be made
up to him. The sole cause which would deter-
mine the proportion of capital employed in agri-
culture, would be the extent of the effectual
demand for corn; and if the bounty had really
enlarged this demand, which it certainly would
have done, it is impossible to suppose that more
capital would not be employed upon the land.
When Adam Smith says that the nature of
things has stamped upon corn a real value, which
cannot be altered by merely altering the money
price, and that no bounty upon exportation, no
monopoly of the home market, can raise that
value, nor the freest competition lower it, it is
obvious that he changes the question from the
profits of the growers of corn, or of the pro-
prietors of the land, to the physical value of
corn itself. I certainly do not mean to say that
the bounty alters the physical value of corn, and
makes a bushel of it support equally well a
greater number of labourers than it did before ;
but I certainly do mean to say that the bounty
to the British cultivator does, in the actual state
of things, really increase the demand for British
corn, and thus encourage him to sow more than
he otherwise would do, and enables him in con-

Ch. xi. Bounties upon Exportation. 175

sequence to employ more bushels of corn in the
maintenance of a greater number of labourers.

If Adam Smith's theory were true, and what he
calls the real price of corn were unchangeable, or
not capable of experiencing a relative increase or
decrease of value compared with labour and other
commodities, agriculture would indeed be in an un-
fortunate situation. It would be at once excluded
from the operation of that principle so beautifully
explained in the Wealth of Nations, by which capital
flows from one employment to another, according to
the various and necessarily fluctuating wants of so-
ciety. But surely we cannot doubt that the real
price of corn varies, though it may not vary so
much as the real price of other commodities; and
that there are periods when all wrought commo-
dities are cheaper, and periods when they are
dearer, in proportion to the price of corn; and in
the one case capital flows from manufactures to
agriculture, and in the other from agriculture to
manufactures. To overlook these periods or con-
sider them of slight importance, is not allowable ;
because in every branch of trade these periods
form the grand encouragement to an increase of
supply. Undoubtedly the profits of trade in any
particular branch of industry can never long remain
higher than in others; but how are they lowered
except by the influx of capital occasioned by these
high profits? It never can be a national. object
permanently to increase the profits of any parti-
cular set of dealers. The national object is the
increase of supply; but this object cannot be

176 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. iii.

attained except by previously increasing the pro-
fits of these dealers, and thus determining a greater
quantity of capital to this particular employment.
The ship-owners and sailors of Great Britain
do not make greater profits now than they did
before the Navigation Act; but the object of the
nation was not to increase the profits of ship-
owners and sailors, but the quantity of shipping
and seamen; and this could not be done but bya
law, which, by increasing the demand for them,
raised the profits of the capital before employed
in this way, and determined a greater quantity to
flow into the same channel. The object ofa na-
tion in the establishment of a bounty is, not to
increase the profits of the farmers or the rents of
the landlords, but to determine a greater quantity
of the national capital to the land, and conse-
quently to increase supply; and though, in the
case of an advance in the price of corn from an
increased demand, the rise of wages, the rise of
rents, and the fall of silver tend, in some degree,
to obscure our view of the subject; yet we cannot
refuse to acknowledge that the real price of corn
varies during periods sufficiently long to affect
the determination of capital, or we shall be re-
duced to the dilemma of owning that no possible
degree of demand can encourage the growth of
corn.

It must be allowed then that the peculiar argu-
ment relating to the nature of corn brought for-
ward by Adam Smith upon this occasion cannot
be maintained, and that a bounty upon the expor-

Ch. xi. Bounties upon Exportation. 177

tation of corn must enlarge the demand for it and
encourage its production in the same manner, if
not in the same degree, as a bounty upon the ex-
portation of any other commodity.

But it has been urged further, that this in-
creased production of corn must necessarily occa-
sion permanent cheapness; and a period of con-
siderable length, during the first 64 years of the
last century, while a bounty was in full operation
in this country, has been advanced as a proof of it.
In this conclusion, however, it may be reasonably
suspected, that an effect, in its nature temporary,
though it may be of some duration, has been
mistaken for one which is permanent.

According to the theory of demand and supply,
the bounty might be expected to operate in the
following manner: |

It is frequently stated in the Wealth of Nations
that a great demand is followed by a great supply ;
a great scarcity by a great plenty; an unusual
dearness by an unusual cheapness. A great and
indefinite demand is indeed generally found to
produce a supply more than proportioned to it.
This supply as naturally occasions unusual cheap-
ness; but this cheapness, when it comes, must in
its turn check the production of the commodity ;
and this check, upon the same principle, is apt to
continue longer than necessary, and again to oc-
casion a return to high prices.

This appears to be the manner in which a

bounty upon the exportation of corn, if granted
VOL. II. N

178 Of Corn-Lavws. . Bk. iii.

under circumstances favourable to its efficiency,
~ might be expected to operate, and this seems to
have been the manner in which it really did operate
in the only instance where it has been fairly tried.

Without meaning to deny the concurrence of
other causes, or attempting to estimate the relative
efficiency of the bounty, it is impossible not to
acknowledge that, when the growing price of corn
was, according to Adam Smith, only 28 shillings
a quarter, and the corn-markets of England were
as low as those of the continent, a premium of
five shillmgs a quarter upon exportation must
have occasioned an increase of real price, and
given encouragement to the cultivation of grain.
But the changes produced in the direction of
capital to or from the land will always be slow.
Those who have been in the habit of employing
their stock in mercantile concerns do not readily
turn it into the channel of agriculture; and it isa
still more difficult and slower operation to with-
draw capital from the soil, to employ it in com-
merce. For the first 25 years after the establish-
ment of the bounty in this country the price of
corn rose 2 or 3 shillings in the quarter; but
owing probably to the wars of William and Anne,
to bad seasons, and a scarcity of money, capital
seems to have accumulated slowly on the land,
and no great surplus growth was effected. It was
not till after the peace of Utrecht that the capital
of the country began in a marked manner to in-
crease; and it isimpossible that the bounty should
not gradually have directed a larger portion of

Ch. xi. Bounties upon Exportation. 179

this accumulation to the land than would other-
wise have gone to it. A surplus growth, and a
fall of price for thirty or forty years, followed.

It will be said that this period of low prices
was too long to be occasioned by a bounty, even
according to the theory just laid down. This is
perhaps true, and in all probability the period
would have been shorter if the bounty alone had
operated ; but in this case other causes power-
fully combined with it.

The fall in the price of British corn was accom-
panied by a fail of prices on the continent. What-
ever were the general causes which produced this
effect in foreign countries, it is probable that they
were not wholly inoperative in England. At all
events nothing could be so powerfully calculated
to produce cheapness, and to occasion a slow
return to high prices, as a considerable surplus
growth, which was unwillingly received, and
only at low prices, by other nations. When such
a surplus growth had been obtained, some time
would necessarily be required to destroy it by
cheapness, particularly as the moral stimulus of
the bounty would probably continue to act long
after the fall of prices had commenced. If to
these causes we add that a marked fall in the rate
-of interest, about the same time, evinced an abun-
dance of capital, and a consequent difficulty of
finding a profitable employment for it; and con-
sider further the natural obstacles to the moving
of capital from the land; we shall see sufficient
reason why even a long period might elapse with-

x 2

180 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. iii.

out any essential alteration in the comparative
’ abundance and cheapness of corn.

Adam Smith attributes this cheapness to a rise
in the value of silver. The fall in the price of
corn which took place in France and some other
countries about the same time might give some
countenance to the conjecture. But the accounts
we have lately had of the produce of the mines
during the period in question does not sufficiently
support it; and it is much more probable that
it arose from the comparative state of peace in
which Europe was placed after the termination of
the wars of Louis XIV., which facilitated the ac-
cumulation of capital on the land, and encouraged
agricultural improvements.

With regard to this country, indeed, it is ob-
served by Adam Smith himself, that labour* and
other articles were rising; a fact very unfavour-
able to the supposition of an increased value of
the precious metals. Not only the money price
of corn fell, but its value relative to other articles
was lowered, and this fall of relative value, toge-
ther with great exportations, clearly pointed to a
relative abundance of corn, in whatever way it
might be occasioned, as the main cause of the facts
observed, rather than a scarcity of silver. This
great fall in the British corn-market, particularly

* It is certainly a very remarkable fact, that although Adam
Smith repeatedly states, in the most distinct manner, that labour
alone is the true measure of the value of silver and of all other
commodities, he should suppose that silver was rising at the very

time when he says the money price of labour was rising. There
cannot be a more decided contradiction.

Ch. xi. Bounties upon Evportation. 181

during the ten years from 1740 to 1750, accom-
panied by a great fall in the continental markets,
owing in some degree perhaps to the great ex-
portations of British corn, especially during the
years 1748, 1749, and 1750, must necessarily
have given some check to its cultivation, while
the increase of the real price of labour must at the
same time have given a stimulus to the increase
of population. The united operation of these two
causes is exactly calculated first to diminish, and
ultimately to destroy a surplus of corn; and as,
after 1764, the wealth and manufacturing popu-
lation of Great Britain increased more rapidly than
those of her neighbours, the returning stimulus to
agriculture, considerable as it was, arising almost
exclusively from a home demand, was incapable
of producing a surplus; and not being confined,
as before, to British cultivation, owing to the
alteration in the corn-laws, was inadequate even
to effect an independent supply. Had the old
corn-laws remained in full force, we should still
probably have lost our surplus growth, owing to
the causes above mentioned, although, from their
restrictive clauses, we should certainly have been
nearer the growth of an independent supply im-
mediately previous to the scarcity of 1800.

It is not therefore necessary, in order to object
to the bounty, to say with Adam Smith that the
fall in the price of corn which took place during
the first half of the last century must have hap-
pened in spite of the bounty, and could not possibly
have happened in consequence of it. We may

182 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. ii.

allow, on the contrary, what I think we ought to
allow according to all general principles, that the
bounty, when granted under favourable circum-
stances, is really calculated, after going througha
period of dearness, to produce the surplus and the
cheapness which its advocates promise;* but
according to the same general principles we must
allow that this surplus and cheapness, from their
operating at once as a check to produce, and an
encouragement to population, cannot be for any
great length of time maintained.

The objection then to a bounty on corn, inde-
pendently of the objections to bounties in general,
is, that when imposed under the most favourable
circumstances it cannot produce permanent cheap-
ness: and if it be imposed under unfavourable
circumstances; that is, if an attempt be made to
force exportation by an adequate bounty at a time
when the country does not fully grow its own
consumption; it is obvious not only that the tax
necessary for the purpose must be a very heavy
one, but that the effect will be absolutely preju-
dicial to the population, and the surplus growth
will be purchased by a sacrifice very far beyond
its worth.

But notwithstanding the strong objections to

* As far as the bounty might tend to force the cultivation of
poorer land, so far no doubt it would have a tendency to raise the
price of corn ; but we know from experience that the rise of price
naturally occasioned in this way is continually counteracted by
improvements in agriculture. As a matter of fact it must be al-
lowed, that, during the period of the last century when corn was
falling, more land must have been taken into cultivation.

Ch. xi. Bounties upon Exvportation. 183

bounties on general grounds, and their inapplica-
bility in cases which are not unfrequent, it must
be acknowledged that, while they are operative,
that is, while they produce an exportation which
would not otherwise have taken place, they un-
questionably encourage an increased growth of
corn in the countries in which they are established,
or maintain it at a point to which it would not
otherwise have attained.

Under peculiar and favourable circumstances a
country might maintain a considerable surplus
growth for a great length of time, with an incon-
siderable increase of the growing price of corn;
and perhaps little or no increase of the average
price, including years of scarcity.* If from any
period during the last century, when an average
excess of growth for exportation had been ob-
tained by the stimulus of a bounty, the foreign
demand for our corn had increased at the same
rate as the domestic demand, our surplus growth
might have become permanent. After the bounty
had ceased to stimulate to fresh exertions, its in-
fluence would by no means be lost. For some
years it would have given the British grower an
absolute advantage over the foreign grower. This
advantage would of course gradually diminish ;
because it is the nature of all effectual demand to

* The average price is different from the growing price. Years
of scarcity, which must occasionally occur, essentially affect the
average price; and the growth of a surplus quantity of corn,
which tends to prevent scarcity, will tend to lower this average,
and make it approach nearer to the growing price.

184 Of Corn-Laws, &c. Bk. ii.

be ultimately supplied, and oblige the producers
- to sell at the lowest price they can afford con-
sistently with the general rate of profits. But,
after having experienced a period of decided en-
couragement, the British grower would find him-
self in the habit of supplying a larger market than
his own upon equal terms with his competitors.
And if the foreign and British markets continued
to extend themselves equally, he would continue
to proportion his supplies to both; because, un-
less a particular increase of demand were to take
place at home, he could never withdraw his foreign
supply without lowering the price of his whole
crop; and the nation would thus be in possession
of a constant store for years of scarcity.

But even supposing that, by a bounty, com-
bined with the most favourable state of prices in
other countries, a particular state could maintain
permanently an average excess of growth for ex-
portation, it must not of course be imagined that
its population would not still be checked by the
difficulty of procuring subsistence. It would in-
deed be less exposed to the particular pressure
arising from years of scarcity ; but in other re-
spects it would be subject to the same checks as
those already described in the preceding chap-
ters; and whether there was an habitual expor-
tation or not, the population would be regulated
by the real wages of labour, and would come to
a stand when the necessaries which these wages
could command were not sufficient, under the
actual habits of the people, to encourage an in-
crease of numbers.

(186!)

CHAP. XII.

Of Corn-Laws. Restrictions upon Importation.

Tue laws which prohibit the importation of fo-
reign grain, though by no means unobjectionable,
are not open to the same objections as bounties,
and must be allowed to be adequate to the object
they have in view,—the maintenance of an inde-
pendent supply. A country, with landed re-
sources, which determines never to import corn
but when the price indicates an approach towards
a scarcity, will necessarily, in average years,
supplyitsown wants. Thoughwe may reasonably
therefore object to restrictions upon the importa-
tion of foreign corn, on the grounds of their tending
to prevent the most profitable employment of the
national capital and industry, to check population,
and to discourage the export of our manufactures;
yet we cannot deny their tendency to encourage
the growth of corn at home, and to procure and
maintain an independent supply. A bounty, it
has appeared, sufficient to make it answer its pur-
pose in forcing a surplus growth, would, in many
cases, require so very heavy a direct tax, and
would bear so large a proportion to the whole
price of the corn, as to make it in some countries
next to impracticable. Restrictions upon impor-

186 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. iii.

tation impose no direct tax upon the people. On
‘the contrary, they might be made, if it were
thought advisable, sources of revenue to the go-
vernment, and they can always, without difficulty,
be put in execution, and be made infallibly to an-
swer their express purpose of securing, in average
years, a sufficient growth of corn for the actual
population.

We have considered, in the preceding chapters,
the peculiar disadvantages which attend a system
either almost exclusively agricultural orexclusively
commercial, and the peculiar advantages which
attend a system in which they are united, and
flourish together. It has further appeared that,
in a country with great landed resources, the com-
mercial population may, from particular causes,
so far predominate, as to subject it to some of the
evils which belong to a state purely commercial
and manufacturing, and to a degree of fluctuation
in the price of corn greater than is found to take
place in such a state. It is obviously possible,
by restrictions upon the importation of foreign
corn, to maintain a balance between the agricul-
tural and commercial classes. The question is
not a question of the efficiency or inefficiency of
the measure proposed, but of its policy or impolicy.
The object can certainly be accomplished, but it
may be purchased too dear; and to those who do
not at once reject all inquiries on points of this
kind, as impeaching a principle which they hold
sacred, the question, whether a balance between
the agricultural and commercial classes of society,

Ch. xii. Restrictions upon Importation. 187

which would not take place naturally, ought,
under certain circumstances, to be maintained
artificially, must appear to be a most important
practical question.

One of the objections to the admission of the
doctrine that restrictions upon importation are
advantageous is, that it cannot possibly be laid
down as a general rule that every state ought to
raise itsown corn. There are some states so cir-
cumstanced that the rule is clearly and obyiously
inapplicable to them.

In the first place, there are many states which
have made some figure in history, the territories
of which have been perfectly inconsiderable com-
pared with their main town or towns, and utterly
incompetent to supply the actual population with
food. In such communities, what is called the
principal internal trade of a large state, the trade
which is carried on between the towns and the
country, must necessarily be a foreign trade, and
the importation of foreign corn is absolutely ne-
cessary to their existence. They may be said to
be born without the advantage of land, and, to
whatever risks and disadvantages a system merely
commercial and manufacturing may be exposed,
they have no power of choosing any other. All
that they can do is to make the most of their own
situation, compared with the situation of their neigh-
bours, and to endeavour by superior industry, skill,
and capital, to make up for so important a defi-
ciency. In these efforts, some states of which we

188 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. iii.

_have accounts have been wonderfully successful ;
but the reverses to which they have been subject
have been almost as conspicuous as the degree of
their prosperity.compared with the scantiness of
their natural resources.

Secondly, restrictions upon the importation of fo-
reign corn are evidently not applicable to a country
which, from its soiland climate, is subject to very
great and sudden variations in its home supplies,
from the variations of the seasons. Acountryso cir-
cumstanced will unquestionably increase its chance
of a steady supply of grain by opening as many
markets for importation and exportation as pos-
sible, and this will probably be true, even though
other countries occasionally prohibit or tax the
exports of their grain. The peculiar evil to which
such a country is subject can only be mitigated
by encouraging the freest possible foreign trade
in corn.

Thirdly, restrictions upon importation are not
applicable to a country which has a very barren
territory, although it may be of some extent. An
attempt fully to cultivate and improve such a ter-
ritory by forcibly directing capital to it would
probably, under any circumstances, fail; and the
actual produce obtained in this way might be pur-
chased by sacrifices which the capital and indus-
try of the nation could not possibly continue to
support. Whatever advantages those countries
may enjoy, which possess the means of supporting
a considerable population from their own soil,
such advantages are not within the reach of a state

i i

Ch. xii. Restrictions upon Importation. 189

so circumstanced. It must either consent to be
a poor and inconsiderable community, or it must
place its chief dependence on other resources than
those of land. It resembles in many respects those
states which have a very small territory; and its
policy, with regard to the importation of corn,
must of course be nearly the same.

In all these cases there can be no doubt of the
impolicy of attempting to maintain a balance be-
tween the agricultural and commercial classes of
society which would not take place naturally.

Under other and opposite circumstances, how-
ever, this impolicy is by no means so clear.

If anation possesses a large territory consisting
of land of an average quality, it may without dif-
ficulty support from its own soil a population fully
sufficient to maintain its rank in wealth and power
among the countries with which it has relations
either of commerce or of war. Territories of a
certain extent must ultimately in the main sup-
port their own population. As each exporting
country approaches towards that complement of
wealth and population to which it is naturally
tending, it will gradually withdraw the corn which
for a time it had spared to its more manufacturing
and commercial neighbours, and leave them to
subsist on their own resources. The peculiar pro-
ducts of each soil and climate are objects of fo-
reign trade, which can never, under any circum-
stances, fail. But food is not a peculiar product ;
and the country which produces it in the greatest
abundance may, according to the laws which

190 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. i.

govern the progress of population, have nothing
to spare for others. An extensive foreign trade
in corn beyond what arises from the variableness
of the seasons in different countries is rather a
temporary and incidental trade, depending chiefly
upon the different stages of improvement which
different countries may have reached, and on other
accidental circumstances, than a trade which is
in its nature permanent, and the stimulus to which
will remain in the progress of society unabated.
In the wildness of speculation it has been sug-
gested (of course more in jest than in earnest),
that Europe ought to grow its corn in America,
and devote itself solely to manufactures and com-
merce, as the best sort of division of the labour
of the globe. But even on the extravagant sup-
position that the natural course of things might
lead to such a division of labour for a time, and
that by such means Europe could raise a popula-
tion greater than its lands could possibly support,
the consequences ought justly to be dreaded. It
is an unquestionable truth that it must answer to
every territorial state, in its natural progress to
wealth, to manufacture for itself, unless the coun-
tries from which it had purchased its manufactures
possess some advantages peculiar to them besides
capital and skill. But when upon this principle
America began to withdraw its corn from Europe,
and the agricultural exertions of Europe were
inadequate to make up for the deficiency, it would
certainly be felt that the temporary advantages of
a greater degree of wealth and population (sup-

Ch. xii. Restrictions upon Importation. 19]

posing them to have been really attained) had
been very dearly purchased by a long period of
retrograde movements and misery.

If then a country be of such a size that it may
fairly be expected finally to supply its own popu-
lation with food; if the population which it can
thus support from its own resources in land be
such as to enable it to maintain its rank and power
among other nations; and further, if there be
reason to fear not only the final withdrawing of
foreign corn used for a certain time, which might
be a distant event, but the immediate effects that
attend a great predominance of a manufacturing
population, such as increased unhealthiness, in-
creased turbulence, increased fluctuations in the
price of corn, and increased variableness in the
wages of labour; it may not appear impolitic arti-
ficially to maintain a more equal balance between
the agricultural and commercial classes by restrict-
ing the importation of foreign corn, and making
agriculture keep pace with manufactures.

Thirdly, if a country be possessed of such a soil
and climate, that the variations in its annual growth
of corn are less than in most other countries, this
may be an additional reason for admitting the
policy of restricting the importation of foreign
corn. Countries are very different in the degree
of variableness to which their annual supplies are
subject ; and though it is unquestionably true that
if all were nearly equal in this respect, and the
trade in corn really free, the steadiness of price in
a particular state would increase with an increase

192 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. iii.

in the number of the nations connected with it by
the commerce of grain ; yet it by no means follows
that the same conclusion will hold good when the
premises are essentially different; that is, when
some of the countries taken into the circle of trade
are subject to very great comparative variations
in their supplies of grain, and when this defect is
aggravated by the acknowledged want of real
freedom in the foreign trade of corn.

Suppose, for instance, that the extreme varia-
tions above and below the average quantity of corn
grown, were in England + and in France +, a free
intercourse between the two countries would
probably increase the variableness of the English
markets. And if, in addition to England and
France, sucha country as Bengal could be brought
near, and admitted into the circle—a country in
which, according to Sir George Colebrook, rice is
sometimes sold four times as cheap in one year as
in the succeeding without famine or scarcity ;*
and where, notwithstanding the frequency of
abundant harvests, deficiencies sometimes occur
of such extent as necessarily to destroy a consi-
derable portion of the population ; it is quite cer-
tain that the supplies both of England and France
would become very much more variable than be-
fore the accession.

In point of fact, there is reason to believe that

* Husbandry of Bengal, p. 108, Note. He observes in the
text of the same page that the price of corn fluctuates much more
than in Europe.

Ch. xii. Restrictions upon Importation. 193

the British isles, owing to the nature of their soil
and climate, are peculiarly free from great varia-
tions in their annual produce of grain. If we com-
pare the prices of corn in England and France
from the period of the commencement of the Eton
tables to the beginning of the revolutionary war,
we shall find that in England the highest price of
the quarter of wheat of 8 bushels during the whole
of that time was 3/. 15s. 63d. (in 1648), and the
lowest price 1/. 2s. 1d. (in 1743), while in France
the highest price of the septier was 62 francs 78
centimes (in 1662), and the lowest price 8 francs
89 centimes (in 1718).* In the one case the dif-
ference is a little above 31 times, and in the other
very nearly 7 times. In the English tables, during
periods of ten or twelve years, only two instances
occur of a variation amounting to as much as 3
times ; in the French tables, during periods of the
same length, one instance occurs of a variation of
4 times orabove. These variations may, perhaps,
have been aggravated by a want of freedom in the
internal trade of corn, but they are strongly con-
firmed by the calculations of Turgot, which relate
solely to variations of produce, without reference
to any difficulties or obstructions in its free trans-
port from one part of the country to another.

On land of an average quality he estimates the
produceat seven septiers the arpent in years of great
abundance ; and three septiers the arpent in years

* Garnier’s edition of the Wealth of Nations, vol. ii. table,
p. 188.
VOL. II. O

194 ; Of Corn-Laws. Bk. iii.

of great scarcity; while the medium produce he es-
timates at five septiers the arpent.* These caleu-
lations he conceives are not far removed from the
truth; and proceeding on these grounds he ob-
serves that, in a very abundant year, the produce
will be five months above its ordinary consumption,
and in a very scarce year as muchbelow. These
variations are, I should think, much greater than
those which take place in this country, at least if
we may judge from prices, particularly as in a
given degree of scarcity in the two countries there
is little doubt that, from the superior riches of
England, and the extensive parish relief which it
affords to the poorer classes in times of dearth, its
prices would rise more above the usual average
than those of France.

If we look to the prices of wheat in Spain
during the same period, we shall find, in like
manner, much greater variations than in England.
In a table of the prices of the fanega of wheat in
the market of Seville from 1675 to 1764 inclusive,
published in the Appendix to the Bullion Report,f
the highest price is 48 reals vellon (in 1677), and
the lowest price 7 reals vellon (in 1720), a differ-
ence of nearly seven times; and in periods of ten
or twelve years the difference is, in two or three
instances, as much as four times. In another table,
from 1788 to 1792 inclusive, relating to the towns
of Old Castille, the highest price in 1790 was 109

* CEuvres de Turgot, tom. vi. p. 143. Edit. 1808.
+ Appendix, p. 182.

Ch. xii. Restrictions upon Importation, 195

reals vellon the fanega, and in 1792 the lowest
was only 16 reals vellon the fanega. In the market
of Medina del Rio Seco, a town of the kingdom of
Leon, surrounded by a very fine corn country, the
price of the load of four fanegas of wheat was, in
May, 1800, 100 reals vellon, and in May, 1804,
600 reals vellon, and these were both what are
called /ow prices, as compared with the highest
prices of the year. The difference would be
greater if the high prices were compared with the
low prices. Thus, in 1799, the low price of the
four fanegas was 88 reals vellon, and in 1804 the
high price of the four fanegas was 640 reals vel-
lon,—a difference of above seven times in so short
a period as six years.*

In Spain, foreign corn is freely admitted; yet
the variation of price, in the towns of Andalusia,
a province adjoining the sea, and penetrated by
the river Guadalquiver, though not so great as
those just mentioned, seem to shew that the
coasts of the Mediterranean by no means furnish
very steady supplies. It is known, indeed, that
Spain is the principal competitor of England in
the purchase of grain in the Baltic; and as it is
quite certain that what may be called the growing
or usual price of corn in Spain is much lower than
in England, it follows, that the difference between
the prices of plentiful and scarce years must be
very considerable.

I have not the means of ascertaining the varia-

* Bullion Report. Appendix, p. 185.
02

196 Of Corn- Laws. Bk. iii.

tions in the supplies and prices of the northern
“nations. They are, however, occasionally great,
as it is well known that some of these countries
are at times subject to very severe scarcities.
But the instances already produced are sufficient
to shew, that a country which is advantageously
circumstanced with regard to the steadiness of its
home supplies may rather diminish than increase
this steadiness by uniting its interests with a
country less favourably circumstanced in this
respect; and this steadiness will unquestionably
be still further diminished, if the country which is
the most variable in its supplies is allowed to
inundate the other with its crops when they are
abundant, while it reserves to itself the privilege
of retaining them in a period of slight scarcity,
when its commercial neighbour happens to be in
the greatest want.*

3dly, if a nation be possessed of a territory, not
only of sufficient extent to maintain under its
actual cultivation a population adequate to a state
of the first rank, but of sufficient unexhausted fer-
tility to allow of a very great increase of popula-
tion, such a circumstance would of course make
the measure of restricting the importation of
foreign corn more applicable to it.

A country which, though fertile and populous,
had been cultivated nearly to the utmost, would
have no other means of increasing its population

* These two circumstances essentially change the premises on
which the question of a free importation, as applicable to a parti-
cular state, must rest.

Ch. xii. — Restrictions upon Importation. 197

than by the admission of foreign corn. But the
British isles shew at present no symptoms what-
ever of this species of exhaustion. The necessary
accompaniments of a territory worked to the ut-
most are very low profits and interest, a very slack
demand for labour, low wages, and a stationary
population. Some ofthese symptoms may indeed
take place without an exhausted territory; but
an exhausted territory cannot take place without
all these symptoms. Instead, however, of such
symptoms, we have seen in this country, during
the twenty years previous to 1814,-a high rate of
profits and interest, a very great demand for
labour, good wages, and an increase of population
more rapid, perhaps, than during any period of our
previous history. The capitals which were laid
out in bringing new land into cultivation, or im-
proving the old, must necessarily have yielded
good returns, or, under the actual rate of general
profits, they would not have been so employed:
and although it is strictly true that, as capital accu-
mulates upon the land, its profits must ultimately
diminish; yet owing to the increase of agricultural
skill, and other causes noticed in a former chapter,
these two events do not by any means always keep
pace with each other. Though they must finally
unite and terminate the career of their progress to-
gether, they are often, during the course of their
progress, separated for a considerable time, and at
a considerable distance. In some countries, and
some soils, the quantity of capital which can be ab-
sorbed before any essential diminution of profits
necessarily takes place is so great, that its limit

198 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. 11.

is not easily calculated; and certainly, when we
consider what has been actually done in some
districts of England and Scotland, and compare
it with what remains to be done in other districts,
we must allow that no near approach to this limit
has yet been made. On account of the high mo-
ney price of labour, and of the materials of agri-
cultural capital, occasioned partly by direct and
indirect taxation, and partly, or perhaps chiefly
by the great prosperity of our foreign commerce,*
new lands cannot be brought into cultivation, nor
great improvements made on the old, without a
high money price of grain; but these lands, when
they have been so brought into cultivation, or im-
proved, have by no means turned out unproduc-
tive. The quantity and value of their produce
have borne a full and fair proportion to the quan-
tity of capital and labour employed upon them;
and they were cultivated with great advantage
both to individuals and the state, as long as the
same, or nearly the same, relations between the
value of produce and the cost of production, which
prompted this cultivation, continued to exist.

In such a state of the soil, the British empire

* No restrictions upon the importation of grain, however ab-
surdly severe, could permanently maintain our corn and labour at
a much higher price than in the rest of Europe, if such restric-
tions were essentially to interfere with the prosperity of our foreign
commerce. When the money price of labour is high in any coun-
try, or, what is the same thing, when the value of money is low,
nothing can prevent it from going out to find its level, but some
comparative advantages, either natural or acquired, which enable
such country to maintain the abundance of its exports, notwith-
standing the high money price of its labour.

——_—

Ch. xii. Restrictions upon Importation. 199

might unquestionably be able not only to support
from its own agricultural resources its present
population, but double, and in time, perhaps, even
treble the number; and consequently a restric-
tion upon the importation of foreign corn, which
might be thought greatly objectionablein a country
which had reached nearly the end of its resources,
might appear in a very different light in a country
capable of supporting from its own lands a very
great increase of population.

But it will be said, that although a country
may be allowed to be capable of maintaining from
its own soil not only a great, but an increasing
population, yet, if it be acknowledged that, by
opening its ports for the free admission of foreign
corn, it may be made to support a greater and
more rapidly increasing population, it is unjusti-
fiable to go out of our way to check this tendency,
and to prevent that degree of wealth and popula-
tion which would naturally take place.

This is unquestionably a powerful argument ; and
granting fully the premises, it cannot be answered
upon the principles of political economy solely.
I should say, however, that if it could be clearly
ascertained that the addition of wealth and popu-
lation so acquired would subject the society to a
greater degree of uncertainty in its suppliesof corn,
greater fluctuations in the wages of labour, greater
unhealthiness and immorality owing to a larger
proportion of the population being employed in
manufactories, and a greater chance of long and
depressing retrograde movements occasioned by
the natural progress of those countries from which

200 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. iii.

corn had been imported; I should have no hesi-
tation in considering such wealth and population
as much too dearly purchased. The happiness of
a society is, after all, the legitimate end even of
its wealth, power, and population. Itis certainly
true that with a view to the structure of society
most favourable to this happiness, and an ade-
quate stimulus to the production of wealth from
the soil, a very considerable admixture of com-
mercial and manufacturing population with the
agricultural is absolutely necessary; but there is
no argument so frequently and obviously fallacious
as that which infers that what is good to a certain
extent is good to any extent; and though it will
be most readily admitted that, in a large landed
nation, the evils which belong to the manufacturing -
and commercial system are much more than
counterbalanced by its advantages, as long as it is
supported by agriculture; yet, in reference to the
effect of the excess which is not so supported, it
may fairly be doubted whether the evils do not
decidedly predominate.

It is observed by Adam Smith, that the “ ca-
pital which is acquired to any country by com-
merce and manufactures is all a very uncertain
and precarious possession, till some part of it has
_ been secured and realized in the cultivation and
improvement of its lands.*

It is remarked in another place, that the mono-
poly of the colony trade, by raising the rate of
mercantile profit, discourages the improvement of

* Vol. ii. b. iii. c. 4. p- 137.

Ch. xii. Restrictions upon Importation. 201

the soil, and retards the natural increase of that
great original source of revenue—the rent of
land.*

Now it is certain that, at no period, have the
manufactures, commerce and colony trade of the
country been in a state to absorb so much capital
as during the twenty years ending with 1814.
From the year 1764 to the peace of Amiens, it is
generally allowed that the commerce and manu-
factures of the country increased faster than its
agriculture, and that it became gradually more
and more dependent on foreign corn for its sup-
port: Since the peace of Amiens the state of its
colonial monopoly and its manufactures has been
such as to demand an unusual quantity of capital ;
and if the peculiar circumstances of the subse-
quent war, the high freights and insurance, and
the decrees of Buonaparte, had not rendered the
importation of foreign corn extremely difficult
and expensive, we should at this moment, ac-
cording to all general principles, have been in
the habit of supporting a much larger portion of
our population upon it, than at any former period
of our history. The cultivation of the country
would be in a very different state from what it is
at present. Very few or none of those great im-
provements would have taken place which may
be said to have purchased fresh land for the state
that no fall of price candestroy. And the peace,
or accidents of different kinds, might have cur-
tailed essentially both our colonial and manufac-

* Voi. ii. b. iv. c. 8. p. 495.

202 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. iii.

turing advantages, and destroyed or driven away
our capital before it had spread itself on the soil,
and become national property.

As it is, the practical restrictions thrown in
the way of importing foreign corn during the war
have forced our steam-engines and our colonial
monopoly to cultivate our lands; and those very
causes which, according to Adam Smith, tend to
draw capital from agriculture, and would cer-
tainly have so drawn it if we could have conti-
nued to. purchase foreign corn at the market
prices of France and Holland, have been the
means of giving such a spur to our agriculture,
that it has not only kept pace with a very rapid
increase of commerce and manufactures, but has
recovered the distance at which it had for many
years been left behind, and now marches with
them abreast.

But restrictions upon the importation of foreign
corn in a country which has great landed re-
sources, not only tend to spread every commer-
cial and manufacturing advantage possessed,
whether permanent or temporary, on the soil, and
thus, in the language of Adam Smith, secure and
realize it; but also tend to prevent those great
oscillations in the progress of agriculture and com-
merce, which are seldom unattended with evil.

It is to be recollected, and it is a point of
great importance to keep constantly in our minds,
that the distress which has been experienced
among almost all classes of society from the sud-
den fall of prices, except as far as it has been

Ch. xii. Restrictions upon Importation. 203

ageravated by the state of the currency, has been
occasioned by xatural, not artificial causes.
There is a tendency to an alternation in the rate
of the progress of agriculture and manufactures
in the same manner as there is a tendency to an
alternation in the rate of the progress of food and
population. In periods of peace and uninter-
rupted trade, these alternations, though not fa-
vourable to the happiness and quiet of society,
may take place without producing material evil ;
but the intervention of war is always liable to
give them a force and rapidity that must unavoid-
ably produce a convulsion in the state of property.
The war that succeeded to the peace of Amiens
found us dependent upon foreign countries for a
very considerable portion of our supplies of corn;
and we now grow our own consumption, notwith-
standing an unusual increase of population in the
interval. This great and sudden change in the
state of our agriculture could only have been
effected by very high prices occasioned by an
inadequate home supply and the great expense
and difficulty of importing foreign corn. But the
rapidity with which this change has been effected
must necessarily create a glut in the market as
soon as the home growth of corn became fully
equal or a little in excess above the home con-
sumption ; and, aided only by a small foreign
importation, must inevitably occasion a very sud-
den fall of prices. If the ports had continued
open for the free importation of foreign corn, there
can be little doubt that the price of corn in 1815

204 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. i.

would have been still considerably lower. This
low price of corn, even if by means of lowered
rents our present state of cultivation could be in
a great degree preserved, must give such a check
to future improvement, that if the ports were to
continue open, we should certainly not grow a
sufficiency at home to keep pace with our in-
creasing population; and at the end of ten or
twelve years we might be found by a new war in
the same state that we were at the commencement
of the present. We should then have the same
career of high prices to pass through, the same
excessive stimulus to agriculture* followed by the
same sudden and depressing check to it, and the
same enormous loans borrowed with the price of
wheat at 90 or 100 shillings a quarter, and the
monied incomes of the landholders and industri-
ous classes of society nearly in proportion, to be
paid when wheat is at 50 or 60 shillings a quarter,
and the incomes of the landlords and industrious
classes of society greatly reduced—a state of
things which cannot take place without an exces-
sive aggravation of the difficulty of paying taxes,
and particularly that invariable monied amount
which pays the interest of the national debt.

On the other hand a country which so restricts
the importations of foreign corn as on an average

* According to the evidence before the House of Lords (Re-
ports, p. 49), the freight and insurance alone on a quarter of corn
were greater by 48 shillings in 1811 than in 1814. Without any
artificial interference then, it appears that war alone may occasion
unavoidably a prodigious increase of price.

Ch. xii. —- Restrictions upon Importation. 205

to grow its own supplies, and to import merely
in periods of scarcity, is not only certain of
spreading every invention in manufactures and
every peculiar advantage it may possess from its
colonies or general commerce on the land, and
thus of fixing them to the spot and rescuing them
from accidents; but is necessarily exempt from
those violent and distressing convulsions of pro-
perty which almost unavoidably arise from the
coincidence of a general war and an insufficient
home supply of corn.

If the late war had found us independent of
foreigners for our average consumption, not even
our paper currency could have made the prices of
our corn approach to the prices which were at
one time experienced.* And if we had conti-
nued, during the course of the contest, indepen-
dent of foreign supplies, except in an occasional
scarcity, it is impossible that the growth of our
own consumption, or a little above it, should
have produced at the end of the war so universal
a feeling of distress.

The chief practical objection to which restric-
tions on the importation of corn are exposed is a
glut from an abundant harvest, which cannot be

* According to Mr. Tooke (High and Low Prices, p. 215), if
the last war had found us with a growth beyond our consumption,
we should have witnessed a totally different set of phenomena con-
nected with prices. It will be found upon examination, that the
prices of our corn led the way to the excess and diminution of our
paper currency, rather than followed, although the prices of corn
could never have been either so high or so low if this excess and
diminution had not taken place.

206 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. iii.

relieved by exportation. And in the consideration
of that part of the question which relates to the
fluctuations of prices this objection ought to have
its full and fair weight. But the fluctuation of
prices arising from this cause has sometimes been
very greatly exaggerated. A glut which might
essentially distress the farmers of a poor country,
might be comparatively little felt by the farmers
of a rich one; and it is difficult to conceive that a
nation with an ample capital, and not under the
influence of a great shock to commercial confi-
dence, as this country was in 1815, would find
much difficulty in reserving the surplus of one
year to supply the wants of the next or some
future year. It may fairly indeed be doubted
whether, in such a country as our own, the fall of
price arising from this cause would be so great as
that which would be occasioned by the sudden
pouring in of the supplies from an abundant crop
in Europe, particularly from those states which
do not regularly export corn. If our ports were
always open, the existing laws of France would
still prevent such a supply as would equalize
prices; and French corn would only come in to
us in considerable quantities in years of great
abundance, when we were the least likely to
want it, and when it was most likely to occasion
a glut.*

But if the fall of price occasioned in these two

* Almost all the corn merchants who gave their evidence before
the committees of the two houses in 1814 seemed fully aware of
the low prices likely to be occasioned by an abundant crop in Eu-
rope, if our ports were open to receive it.

Ch. xu. = Restrictions upon Importation. 207

ways would not be essentially different, as it is
quite certain that the rise of price in years of
general scarcity would be less in those countries
which habitually grow their own supplies; it must
be allowed that the range of variation will be the
least under such a system of restrictions as, with-
out preventing importation when prices are high,
will secure in ordinary years a growth equal to
the consumption.*

* [1825.] Inthesixth number of the Westminster Review, in
which prodigious stress is laid upon the necessary effect of the corn
laws in occasioning great fluctuations in the prices of corn, a table,
said to be from the very highest mercantile authority, is given of the
average prices of wheat at Rotterdam for each of the ten years end-
ing with 1824. The purpose for which the table is produced, is to
shew the average price of wheat in Holland during these ten years ;
but it incidentally shews that, even in Holland, which in many
respects must be peculiarly favourable to steady prices, a free trade
in corn can by no means secure them.

In the year 1817, the price per last of 86 Winchester bushels
was 574 guilders ; and in 1824, it was only 147 guilders ; a dif-
ference of nearly four times. During the same period of ten years
the greatest variation in the average price of each year in England,
was between 94s. 9d. which was the price in 1817, and 43s. 9d. which
was the price in 1822, (Appendix to Mr. Tooke’s work on High
and Low Prices. Table xii. p. 31.)—a difference short of 24! ! _

It is repeated over and over again, apparently without the slightest
reference to facts, that the freedom of the trade in corn would in-
fallibly secure us from the possibility of a scarcity. ‘The writer of
the article Corn Laws in the supplement to the Encyclopedia Bri-
tannica, goes so far as to say, “ it is constantly found that when
““ the crops of one country fail, plenty reigns in some other quar-
“ter * * * * There is always abundance of food in the world.
*“ To enjoy a constant plenty, we have only to lay aside our prohi-
** bitions and restrictions, and cease to counteract the benevolent
“ wisdom of Providence.” ‘The same kind of language is repeated

208 Of Corn-Laws. Bk. iii.

One objection however to systems of restriction
must always remain. They are essentially unso-

in the Review above adverted to : “‘ If there be a bad harvest,”’ it is
said, “ in one country, there is a good one in another, and the sur-
** plus produce of the latter supplies the deficiency of the former,
«* &c. &c.” Now there are the best reasons for believing that
these statements are decidedly contradicted by the most enlarged
experience, In the first place, if they were true, and if the general
plenty alluded to were only prevented by the want of a free trade in
corn, we should necessarily see a great rise of prices in one country,
contemporaneous with a great fall in others ; but a slight glance at
the prices of corn in the countries of the commercial world for the
last one or two centuries will be sufficient to convince any impartial
person that, on the contrary, there is a very remarkable sympathy
of prices at the same periods, which is absolutely inconsistent with
the truth of the above statements. Secondly, all travellers who
have paid any attention to the seasons, agree in stating that the same
sort of weather often prevails in different countries at the same time.
The peculiar and excessive heats of the very last summer not only
prevailed generally over the greatest part of Europe, but extended
even to America. Mr. Tooke, On High and Low Prices, (p. 247.
2d Edit.) quotes a passage from Mr. Lowe’s work on the Present
State of England, in which he observes, that “‘ The public, particu-
“ Jarly the untravelled part of the public, are hardly aware of the
** similarity of temperature prevailing throughout what may be
“* called the corn-country of Europe, we mean Great Britain, Ire-
<* land, the North of France, the Netherlands, Denmark, the north-
“* west of Germany, and in some measure Poland and the north-
“* east of Germany.” He then goes on to state instances of scar-
city in different countries of Europe at the same time. And in the
justness of these remarks, on the prevalence of a general similarity
of seasons in Europe within certain latitudes, Mr. Tooke says he
perfectly concurs. Many of the corn-merchants examined before
the Committees of the two Houses, both in 1814 and 1821], ex-
pressed similar opinions ; and I do not recollect a single instance of
the opinion, that good and bad harvests generally balance each
other in different countries, being stated by any person who had
been in a situation to observe the facts. Such statements, there-

Ch, xii. Restrictions upon Importation. 209

cial. I certainly think that, in reference to the
interests of a particular state, a restriction upon
the importation of foreign corn may sometimes be
advantageous; but I feel still more certain that
in reference to the interests of Europe in general
the most perfect freedom of trade in corn, as well

fore, must be considered as mere assertions quite unsupported by
the least shadow of proof.

lam very far however from meaning to say that the circumstance
of different countries having often an abundance or deficiency of
corn at the same time, though it must prevent the possibility of
steady prices, is a decisive reason against the abolition or alteration
of the corn-laws. The most powerful of all the arguments against
restrictions is their unsocial tendency, and the acknowledged injury
which they must do to the interests of the commercial world .in
general. The weight of this argument is increased rather than di-
minished by the numbers which may suffer from scarcity at the same
time. And at a period when our ministers are most laudably setting
an example of amore liberal system of commercial policy, it would
be greatly desirable that foreign nations should not have so marked
an exception as our present corn-laws to cast in our teeth. A duty
on importation not too high, and a bounty nearly such as was re-
commended by Mr. Ricardo, would probably be best suited to our
present situation, and best secure steady prices. A duty on foreign
corn would resemble the duties laid by other countries on our
manufactures as objects of taxation, and would not in the same
manner impeach the principles of free trade.

But whatever system we may adopt, it is essential toa sound
determination, and highly useful in preventing disappointments,
that all the arguments both for and against corn-laws should be
thoroughly and impartially considered ; and it is because ona calm,
and, as far as I can judge, an impartial review of the arguments of
this chapter, they still appear to me of weight sufficient to deserve
such consideration, and not as a kind of protest against the abolition
or change of the corn-laws, that I republish them in another
edition,

VOL. II. P

210 Of Corn-Laws. BK. iii.

as in every other commodity, would be the most
‘advantageous. Such a perfect freedom, however,
could hardly fail to be followed by a more free
and equal distribution of capital, which, though it
would greatly advance the riches and happiness
of Europe, would unquestionably render some
parts of it poorer and less populous than they are
at present; and there is little reason to expect
that individual states will ever consent to sacrifice
the wealth within their own confines to the wealth
of the world.

It is further to be observed, that, independently
of more direct regulations, taxation alone produces
a system of discouragements and encouragements
which essentially interferes with the natural rela-
tions of commodities to each other; and as there
is no hope of abolishing taxation, it may sometimes
be only by a further interference that these natural
relations can be restored.

A perfect freedom of trade therefore is a vision
which it is to be feared can never be realized. But
still it should be our object to make as near ap-
proaches to it as we can. It should always be
considered as the great general rule. And when
any deviations from it are proposed, those who
propose them are bound clearly to make out the
exception.

eee a tems

CHAP. XIII.

Of increasing Wealth, as it affects the Condition of the
Poor.

‘Tue professed object of Adam Smith’s Inquiry is
the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations.
There is another, however, still more interesting,
which he occasionally mixes with it—the causes
which affect the happiness and comfort of the
lower orders of society, which in every nation
form the most numerous class. These two sub-
jects are, no doubt, nearly connected; but the
nature and extent of this connexion, and the mode
in which increasing wealth operates on the condi-
tion of the poor, have not been stated with suffi-
cient correctness and precision.

Adam Smith, in his chapter on the wages of la-
bour, considers every increase in the stock or re-
venue of the society as an increase in the funds
for the maintenance of labour; and having before
laid down the position that the demand for those
who live by wages can only increase in proportion
to the increase of the funds for the payment of
wages, the conclusion naturally follows, that every
increase of wealth tends to increase the demand
for labour and to improve the condition of the lower
classes of society.*

* Vol. i. book i. c. 8.
Pp 2

242 Of increasing Wealth, as it Bk. iii.

Upon a nearer examination, however, it will be
‘found that the funds for the maintenance of labour
do not necessarily increase with the increase of
wealth, and very rarely increase in proportion to
it; and that the condition of the lower classes of
society does not depend exclusively upon the in-
crease of the funds for the maintenance of labour,
or the power of supporting a greater number of
Jabourers.

Adam Smith defines the wealth of a state to be
the annual produce of its land and labour. This
definition evidently includes manufactured produce
as well as the produce of the land. Now, upon
the supposition that a nation, from peculiar situa-
tion and circumstances, was unable to procure an
additional quantity of food, it is obvious that the
produce of its labour would not necessarily come
to a stand, although the produce of its land or its
power of importing corn were incapable of further
increase. If the materials of manufactures could
be obtained either at home or from abroad, im-
proved skill and machinery might work them up
to a greatly increased amount with the same
number of hands, and even the number of hands
might be considerably increased by an increased
taste for manufactures, compared with war and
menial service, and by the employment conse-
quently of a greater proportion of the whole po-
pulation in manufacturing and commercial labour.

That such a case does not frequently occur will
be most readily allowed. It is not only however
possible, but forms the specific limit to the in-

Ch. xiii. affects the Condition of the Poor. 213

crease of population in the natural progress of cul-
tivation, with which limit, the limit to the further
progress of wealth is obviously not contemporary.
But though cases of this kind do not often occur,
because these limits are seldom reached; yet ap-
proximations to them are constantly taking place,
and in the usual progress of improvement the in-
crease of wealth and capital is rarely accompanied
with a proportionately increased power of sup-
porting an additional number of labourers.

Some ancient nations, which, according to the
accounts we have received of them, possessed but
an inconsiderable quantity of manufacturing and
commercial capital, appear to have cultivated
their Jands highly by means of an agrarian division
of property, and were unquestionably very popu-
lous. In such countries, though full of people al-
ready, there would evidently be room for a very
great increase of capital and riches; but, allowing
all the weight that is in any degree probable to the
increased production or importation of food occa-
sioned by the stimulus of additional capital, there
would evidently not be room for a proportionate
increase of the means of subsistence.

If we compare the early state of our most flou-
rishing European kingdoms with their present
state, we shall find this conclusion confirmed al-
most universally by experience.

Adam Smith, in treating of the different pro-
gress of opulence in different nations, says, that
England, since the time of Elizabeth, has been
continually advancing in commerce and manufac-

214 Of increasing TVealth, as it Bk. ii.

tures. He then adds, ‘ The cultivation and im-
“ provement of the country has no doubt been
‘‘ oradually advancing. But it seems to have
‘* followed slowly and at a distance the more rapid
“‘ progress of commerce and manufactures. The
‘‘ sreater part of the country must probably have
‘‘ been cultivated before the reign of Elizabeth,
“and a very great part of it still remains unculti-
«« vated, and the cultivation of the far greater part
‘‘is much inferior to what it might be.”* The
same observation is applicable to most of the
other countries of Europe. The best land would
naturally be the first occupied. This land, even
with that sort of indolent cultivation and great
waste of labour which particularly marked the
feudal times, would be capable of supporting a
considerable population; and on the increase of
capital, the increasing taste for conveniences and
luxuries, combined with the decreasing power of
production in the new land to be taken into culti-
vation, would naturally and necessarily direct the
greatest part of this new capital to commerce and
manufactures, and occasion a more rapid increase
of wealth than of population.

The population of England accordingly in the
reign of Elizabeth appears to have been nearly
five millions, which would not be very far short of
the half of what it is at present (1811); but when
we consider the very great proportion which the
products of commercial and manufacturing in-

* Vol, ii. book iv. c. 4. p. 133.

Ch. xiii. affects the Condition of the Poor. 215

dustry now bear to the quantity of food raised
for human consumption, it is probably a very
low estimate to say that the mass of wealth or
the stock and revenue of the country must,
independently of any change in the value of
the circulating medium, have increased above
four times. | Few of the other countries in Europe
have increased to the same extent in commercial
and manufacturing wealth as England; but as far
as they have proceeded in this career, all appear-
ances clearly indicate that the progress of their
general wealth has been greater than the progress
of their means of supporting an additional popu-
lation.

That every increase of the stock or revenue of
a nation cannot be considered as an increase of
the real funds for the maintenance of labour will
appear in a striking light in the case of China.

Adam Smith observes, that China has probably
long been as rich as the nature of her laws and
institutions will admit; but intimates that, with
other laws. and institutions, and if foreign com-
merce were held in honour, she might still be
much richer.

If trade and foreign commerce were held in
great honour in China, it is evident that, from the
great number of her labourers and the cheapness
of her labour, she might work up manufactures
for foreign sale to a great amount. It is equally
evident that, from the great bulk of provisions
and the prodigious extent of her inland territory,

216. Of increasing Wealth, as it Bk. ii.

she could not in return import such a quantity as
would be any sensible addition to her means of
subsistence. Her immense amount of manufac-
tures, therefore, she would either consume at
home, or exchange for luxuries collected from all
parts of the world. At present the country ap-
pears to be over-peopled compared with what its
stock can employ, and no labour is spared in the
production of food. An immense capital could
not be employed in China in preparing manufac-
tures for foreign trade, without altering this state
of things, and taking off some labourers from
agriculture, which might have a tendency to di-
minish the produce of the country. Allowing,
however, that this would be made up, and, indeed,
more than made up, by the beneficial effects of
improved skill and economy of labour in the cul-
tivation of the poorest lands, yet, as the quantity of
subsistence could be but little increased, the de-
mand for manufactures which would raise the price
of labour, would necessarily be followed by a pro-
portionate rise in the price of provisions, and the
labourer would be-able to command but little more
food than before. The country would, however,
obviously be advancing in wealth; the exchange-
able value of the annual produce of its land and
labour would be annually augmented; yet the
real funds for the maintenance of labour would be
nearly stationary. The argument perhaps ap-
pears clearer when applied to China, because it
is generally allowed that its.-wealth has been long

Ch. xiii. affects the Condition of the Poor. 217

stationary, and its soil cultivated nearly to the
utmost.*

In all these cases, it is not on account of any
undue preference given to commerce and manu-
factures, compared with agriculture, that the
effect just described takes place, but merely be-
cause the powers of the earth in the production
of food have narrower limits than the skill and
tastes of mankind in giving value to raw materials,
and consequently in the approach towards the li-
mits of subsistence there is naturally more room,
and consequently more encouragement, for the
increase of the one species of wealth than of the
other.

It must be allowed then, that the funds for the
maintenance of labour do not mecessarily increase
with the increase of wealth, and very rarely in-
crease in proportion to it.

But the condition of the lower classes of society
certainly does not depend exclusively upon the
increase of the funds for the maintenance of labour,
or the means of supporting more labourers. That
these means form always a very powerful ingre-
dient in the condition of the labouring classes, and
the main ingredient in the increase of population, is
unquestionable. But, inthe first place, the com-

* How far this latter opinion is to be depended upon it is not
very easy to say. Improved skill anda saving of labour would,
certainly enable the Chinese to cultivate some lands with advan-
tage which they cannot cultivate now, but the more general use
of horses, instead of men, might prevent this extended eultivation
from giving auy encouragement to an increase of people.

218 Of increasing Wealth, as it Bk. iu.

forts of the lower classes of society do not depend
‘solely upon food, nor even upon strict necessaries;
and they cannot be considered as in a good state

unless they have the command of some conveni-

ences and even Juxuries. Secondly, the tendency
in population fully to keep pace with the means
of subsistence must in general prevent the increase
of these means from having a great and perma-
nent effect in improving the condition of the poor.
And, thirdly, the cause which has the most lasting
effect in improving the situation of the lower
classes of society depends chiefly upon the con-
duct and prudence of the individuals themselves,
and is, therefore, not immediately and necessarily
connected with an increase in the means of sub-
sistence.

With a view, therefore, to the other causes
which affect the condition of the labouring classes,
as well as the increase of the means of subsistence,
it may be desirable to trace more particularly the
mode in which increasing wealth operates, and to
state both the disadvantages as well as the advan-
tages with which it is accompanied.

In the natural and regular progress of a country
to a state of great wealth and population, there
are two disadvantages to which the lower classes
of society seem necessarily to be subjected. The
first is, a diminished power of supporting children
under the existing habits of the society with re-
spect to the necessaries of life. And the second,
the employment of a larger proportion of the po-
pulation in occupations less favourable to health,

a

Ch. xiii. affects the Condition of the Poor. 219

and more exposed to fluctuations of demand and
unsteadiness of wages.

A diminished power of supporting children is
an absolutely unavoidable consequence of the
progress of a country towards the utmost limits
of its population. If we allow that the power of
a given quantity of territory to produce food has
some limit, we must allow that as this limit is ap-
proached, and the increase of population becomes
slower and slower, the power of supporting chil-
dren will be less and less, till finally, when the
increase of produce stops, it becomes only suffi-
cient to maintain, on an average, families of such
a size as will not allow of a further addition of
numbers. This state of things is generally ac-
companied by a fall in the corn price of labour;
but should this effect be prevented by the preva-
lence of prudential habits among the lower classes
of society, still the result just described must
take place; and though, from the powerful ope-
ration of the preventive check to increase, the
wages of labour estimated even in corn might not
be low, yet it is obvious that, in this case, the
power of supporting children would rather be
nominal than real; and the moment this power
began to be exercised to its apparent extent, it
would cease to exist.

The second disadvantage to which the lower
classes of society are subjected in the progressive
increase of wealth is, that a larger portion of them
is engaged in unhealthy occupations, and in em-
ployments in which the wages of labour are ex-

220 Of increasing Wealth, as it Bk. iil.

posed to much greater fluctuations than in agricul-
ture, and the simpler kinds of domestic trade.

On the state of the poor employed in manufac-
tories with respect to health, and the fluctuations
of wages, I will beg leave to quote a passage from
Dr. Aikin’s Description of the Country round
Manchester :—

«« The invention and improvements of machines
* to shorten Jabour have had a surprising influence
“© to extend our trade, and also to call in hands
‘from all parts, particularly children for the cot-
“‘ton-mills. It is the wise plan of Providence,
‘that in this life there shall be no good without
“its attendant inconvenience. There are many
** which are too obvious in these cotton-mills, and
*‘ similar factories, which counteract that increase
‘‘of population usually consequent on the im-
‘* proved facility of labour. In these, children of
“a very tender age are employed, many of them
*« collected from the workhouses in London and
‘“« Westminster, and transported in crowds as ap-
*“‘ prentices to masters resident many hundred
‘miles distant, where they serve unknown, un-
‘* protected and forgotten by those to whose care
‘nature or the laws had consigned them. These
‘« children are usually too long confined to work
“im close rooms, often during the whole night.
‘¢ The air they breathe from the oil, &c. employed
«in the machinery, and other circumstances, is in-
“«jurious; little attention is paid to their cleanli+
“ness; and frequent changes from a warm and
“dense to a cold and thin atmosphere are pre-

Ch. xiii. affects the Condition of the Poor. 221

‘‘ disposing causes to sickness and debility, and
*‘ particularly to the epidemic fever which is so
*< venerally to be met with in these factories. It
“is also much to be questioned if society does
“‘ not receive detriment from the manner in which
*« children are thus employed during their early
“years. They are not generally strong to labour,
** or capable of pursuing any other branch of bu-
*‘ siness when the term of their apprenticeship
*‘expires. The females are wholly uninstructed
“in sewing, knitting, and other domestic affairs
** requisite to make them notable and frugal wives
“and mothers. This is a very great misfortune
“to them and to the public, as is sadly proved
‘“‘ by a comparison of the families of labourers in
‘« husbandry and those of manufacturers in gene-
“ral. In the former we meet with neatness,
“‘ cleanliness, and comfort; in the latter with filth,
“‘ rags, and poverty, although their wages may be
“nearly double to those of the husbandman. It
«© must be added, that the want of early religious
*« instruction and example, and the numerous and
indiscriminate association in these buildings,
“are very unfavourable to their future conducé
‘in, life,.’*

n

n
”n

* P, 219. Dr. Aikin says that endeavours have been made to
remedy these evils, which in some factories have been attended
with success. And it is ,very satisfactory to be able to add, that,
since this account was written, the situation of the children em-
ployed in the cotton-mills has been further very essentially im-
proved, partly by the interference of the legislature, and partly by
the humane and liberal exerticns of individuals,

222 Of increasing Wealth, as it Bk. ii.

In the same work it appears that the register

for the collegiate church of Manchester, from
Christmas, 1793, to Christmas 1794, shewed a
decrease of 168 marriages, 538 christenings, and
250 burials. In the parish of Rochdale, in the
neighbourhood, a still more melancholy reduction
in proportion to the number of people took place.
In 1792 the births were 746, the burials 646, and
the marriages 339. In 1794 the births were 373,
the burials 671, and the marriages 199. The
cause of this sudden check to population was the
failure of demand and of commercial credit which
occurred at the commencement of the war, and
such a check could not have taken place in so
sudden a manner without the most severe distress,
occasioned by the sudden reduction of wages.
- In addition to the fluctuations arising from the
changes from peace to war and from war to peace,
it is well known how subject particular manufac-
tures are to fail from the caprices of taste. The
weavers of Spitalfields were plunged into the
most severe distress by the fashion of muslins in-
stead of silks; and great numbers of workmen in
Sheffield and Birmingham were for a time thrown
out of employment owing to the adoption of shoe
strings and covered buttons, instead of buckles
and metal buttons. Our manufactures, taken in
the mass, have increased with prodigious rapidity,
but in particular places they have failed; and the
parishes where this has happened are invariably
loaded with a crowd of poor in the most distressed
and miserable condition.

Ch. xiii, affects the Condition of the Poor. 223

In the evidence brought before the House of
Lords during the inquiries which preceded the
Corn-Bill of 1815, various accounts are produced
from different manufactories, intended to shew
that the high price of corn has rather the effect of
lowering than of raising the price of manufac-
turing labour.* Adam Smith has clearly and
correctly stated that the money price of labour
depends upon the money price of provisions, and
the state of the demand and the supply of labour.
And he shews how much he thinks it is occasion-
ally affected by the latter cause, by explaining in
what manner it may vary in an opposite direction
from the price of provisions during the pressure of
a scarcity. The accounts brought before the
House of Lords are a striking illustration of this
part of his proposition; but they certainly do not
prove the incorrectness of the other part of it, as
it is quite obvious that, whatever may take place
for a few years, the supply of manufacturing la-
bour cannot possibly be continued in the market
unless the natural or necessary price, that is, the
price necessary to continue it in the market, be
paid, and this of course is not done unless the
money price be so proportioned to the price of
provisions that labourers are enabled to bring up
families of such a size as will supply the number
of hands required.

But though these accounts do not in any
degree invalidate the usual doctrines respecting
labour, or the statements of Adam Smith, they

* Reports, p. 51

224 ‘Of increasing Wealth, asit Bk. i.

shew very clearly the great fluctuations to which
the condition of the manufacturing labourer is
subjected.

In looking over these accounts it will be found
that in some cases the price of weaving has fallen
a third, or nearly one-half, at the same time that
the price of wheat has risen a third, or nearly one
half; and yet these proportions do not always
express the full amount of the fluctuations, as it
sometimes happens that when the price is low,
the state of the demand will not allow of the usual
number of hours of working; and when the price
is high, it will admit of extra hours.

That from the same causes there are sometimes
variations of a similar kind in the price of task-
work in agriculture will be readily admitted; but,
in the first place, they do not appear to be nearly
so considerable; and secondly, the great mass of
agricultural labourers is employed by the day,
and a sudden and general fall in the money price
of agricultural day-labour is an event of extremely
rare occurrence.*

It must be allowed then, that in the natural and
usual progress of wealth, the means of marrying
early and supporting a family are diminished, and
a greater proportion of the population is engaged
in employments less favourable to health and

* Almost the only instance on record in this country is that
which has lately taken place (1815 and 1816), occasioned by an
unparalleled fall in the exchangeable value of the raw produce,
which has necessarily disabled the holders of it from employing
the same quantity of labour at the same price.

y

Ch. xii. affects the Condition of the Poor. 225

morals, and more subject to fluctuations in the
price of labour, than the population employed in
agriculture.

These are no doubt considerable disadvantages,
and they would be sufficient to render the pro-
gress of riches decidedly unfavourable to the con-
dition of the poor, if they were not counteracted
by advantages which nearly, if not fully, counter-
balance them.

And, first, it is obvious that the profits of stock
are that source of revenue from which the middle
classes are chiefly maintained; and the increase
of capital, which is both the cause and effect of
increasing riches, may be said to be the efficient
cause of the emancipation of the great body of
society from a dependence on the landlords. In
a country of limited extent, consisting of fertile
‘ land divided into large properties, as long as the
capital remains inconsiderable, the structure of
society is most unfavourable to liberty and good
government. This was exactly the state of Europe
in the feudal times. The landlords could in no
other way spend their incomes than by maintain-
ing a great number of idle followers; and it was
by the growth of capital in all the employments
to which it is directed, that the pernicious power
of the landlords was destroyed, and their depen-
dent followers were turned into merchants, manu-
facturers, tradesmen, farmers, and independent
labourers ;—a change of prodigious advantage to
the great body of society, including the labouring
classes. |

VOL. II. Q

226 Of increasing Wealth, as it Bk. ii.

_ Secondly; in the natural progress of cultiva-
tion and wealth, the production of an additional
quantity of corn will require more labour, while,
at the same time, from the accumulation and
better distribution of capital, the continual im-
provements made in machinery, and the facilities
opened to foreign commerce, manufactures and
foreign commodities will be produced or pur-
chased with less labour; and consequently a
given quantity of corn will command a much
greater quantity of manufactures and foreign com-
modities than while the country was poor. Al-
though, therefore, the labourer may earn less
corn than before, the superior value which every
portion which he does not consume in kind will
have in the purchase of conveniences, may more
than counterbalance this diminution. He will not
indeed have the same power of maintaining a
large family; but with a small family he may be
better lodged and clothed, and better able to
command the decencies and comforts of life.
Thirdly ; it seems to be proved by experience,
that the labouring classes of society seldom acquire
a decided taste for conveniences and comforts
till they become plentiful compared with food,
which they never do till food has become in some
degree scarce. If the labourer can obtain the
full support of himself and family by two or three
days’ labour ; and if, to furnish himself with con-
veniences and comforts, he must work three or
four days more, he will generally think the sacri-
fice too great compared with the objects to be

—

Ch. xiii. affects the Condition of the Poor. 227

obtained, which are not strictly necessary to him,
and will therefore often prefer the luxury of idle-
ness to the luxury of improved lodging and
clothing. This is said by Humboldt to be parti-
cularly the case in some parts of South America,
and to a certain extent prevails in Ireland, India,
and al] countries where food is plentiful compared
with capital and manufactured commodities. On
the other hand, if the main part of the labourer’s
time be occupied in procuring food, habits of indus-
try are necessarily generated, and the remaining
time, which is but inconsiderable compared with
the commodities it will purchase, isseldom grudged.
It is under these circumstances, particularly when
combined with a good government, that the labour-
ing classes of society are most likely to acquire a
decided taste for the conveniences and comforts
of life; and this taste may be such as even to
prevent, after a certain period, a further fall in
the corn price of labour. Butif the corn price of
labour continues tolerably high while the relative
value of commodities compared with corn falls
very considerably, the labourer is placed in a
most favourable situation. Owing to his decided
taste for conveniences and comforts, the good
corn wages of labour will not generally lead to
early marriages; yet in individual cases, where
large families occur, there will be the means of
supporting them independently, by the sacrifice
of the accustomed conveniences and comforts;
and thus the poorest of the lower classes will
rarely be stinted in food, while the great mass of
Q2

228 Of increasing Wealth, &c. Bk. iii.

_them will not only have sufficient means of subsist-
ence, but be able to command no inconsiderable
quantity of those conveniences and comforts,
which, at the same time that they gratify a natural
or acquired want, tend unquestionably to improve
the mind and elevate the character.

On an attentive review, then, of the effects of
increasing wealth on the condition of the poor, it
appears that, although such an increase does not
imply a proportionate increase of the funds for
the maintenance of labour, yet it brings with it
advantages to the lower classes of society which
may fully counterbalance the disadvantages with
which it is attended; and, strictly speaking, the
good or bad condition of the poor is not necessarily
connected with any particular stage in the pro-
gress of society to its full complement of wealth.
A rapid increase of wealth indeed, whether it
consists principally in additions to the means of
subsistence or to the stock of conveniences and
comforts, will always, ceteris paribus, have a
favourable effect on the poor; but the influence
even of this cause is greatly modified and altered
by other circumstances, and nothing but the union
of individual prudence with the skill and industry
which produce wealth can permanently secure
to the lower classes of society that share of it
which it is, on every account, so desirable that
they should possess.

ey

re
Re A

(132296)

CHAP. XIV.
General Observations.

Ir has been observed, that many countries at the
period of their greatest degree of populousness
have lived in the greatest plenty, and have been
able to export corn; but at other periods, when
their population was very low, have lived in con-
tinual poverty and want, and have been obliged to
import corn. Lgypt, Palestine, Rome, Sicily and
Spain are cited as particular exemplifications of
this fact; and it has been inferred that an increase
of population in any state, not cultivated to the
utmost, will tend rather to augment than diminish
the relative plenty of the whole society : and that,
as Lord Kaimes observes, a country cannot easily
become too populous for agriculture; because
agriculture has the signal property of producing
food in proportion to the number of consumers.*

The general facts, from which these inferences
are drawn, there is no reason to doubt; but the
inferences by no means follow from the premises.
It is the nature of agriculture, (as it has before been
observed,) particularly when well conducted, to

* Sketches of the History of Man, b. i. sketch i. p. 106, 107.
8vo. 1788.

230 General Observations. Bk. in.

produce support for a considerable number above
that which it employs; and consequently if these
members of the society, or, as Sir James Steuart
calls them, the free hands, do not increase so as
to reach the limit of the number which can be
supported by the surplus produce, the whole po-
pulation of the country may continue for ages in-
creasing with the improving state of agriculture,
and yet always be able to export corn. But this
increase, after a certain period, will be very dif-
ferent from the natural and unrestricted increase
of population; it will merely follow the slow
augmentation of produce from the gradual im-
provement of agriculture; and population will
still be checked by the difficulty of procuring sub-
sistence. The precise measure of the population
in a country thus circumstanced will not indeed
be the quantity of food, because part of it is ex-
ported, but the quantity of employment. The
state of this employment however will necessarily
regulate the wages of labour, on which the power
of the lower classes of people to procure food de-
pends ; and according as the employment of the
country is increasing, whether slowly or rapidly,
these wages will be such, as either to check or
encourage early marriages; such, as to enable a
labourer to support only two or three, or as many
as five or six children.

In stating that in this, and all the other cases
and systems which have been considered, the
progress of population will be mainly regulated

Ch. xiv. General Observations. 231

and limited by the real wages of labour, it is ne-
cessary to remark that, practically, the current
wages of day-labour estimated in the necessaries of
life do not always correctly represent the quantity
of these necessaries which it is in the power of
the lower classes to consume; and that some-
times the error is in excess and sometimes in
defect.

In a state of things when the prices of corn
and of all sorts of commodities are rising, the
money wages of labour do not always rise in pro-
portion; but this apparent disadvantage to the
labouring classes is sometimes more than counter-
balanced by the plenty of employment, the quan-
tity of task-work that can be obtained, and the
opportunity given to women and children to add
considerably to the earnings of the family. In this
case, the power of the labouring classes to com-
mand the necessaries of life is much greater than
is implied by the current rate of their wages, and
will of course have a proportionably greater effect
on the population.

On the other hand, when prices are generally
falling, it often happens that the current rate of
wages does not fall in proportion; but this appa-
rent advantage is in the same manner often more
than counterbalanced by the scarcity of work, and
the impossibility of finding employment for all
the members of a labourer’s family who are able
and willing to be industrious. In this case, the
powers of the labouring classes to command the

232 General Observations. Bk. i.

necessaries of life will evidently be less than is
‘umplied by the current rate of their wages.

In the same manner parish allowances distri-
buted to families, the habitual practice of task-
work, and the frequent employment of women and
children, will affect population like a rise in the
real wages of labour. And, on the other hand,
the paying of every sort of labour by the day, the
absence of employment for women and children,
and the practice among labourers of not working
more than three or four days in the week, either
from inveterate indolence, or any other cause, will
affect population like a low price of labour.

In all these cases the real earnings of the Jabour-
ing classes throughout the year, estimated in food,
are different from the apparent wages; but it will
evidently be the average earnings of the families
of the labouring classes throughout the year on
which the encouragement to marriage, and the
power of supporting children, will depend, and
not merely the wages of day-labour estimated in
food.

An attention to this very essential point will
explain the reason why, in many instances, the
progress of population does not appear to be re-
gulated by what are usually called the real wages
of labour; and why this progress may occasionally
be greater, when the price of a day’s labour will
purchase rather less than the medium quantity
of corn, than when it will purchase rather more.

In our own country, for instance, about the

Ch. xiv. General Observations. - 233

-

middle of the last century, the price of corn was
very low; and, for twenty years together, from
1735 to 1755 a day’s labour would, on an average,
purchase a peck of wheat. During this period,
population increased at a moderate rate; but not
by any means with the same rapidity as from
1790 to 181], when the average wages of day-
labour would not in general purchase so much
as a peck of wheat. In the latter case, however,
there was a more rapid accumulation of capital,
and a greater demand for labour; and though the
continued rise of provisions still kept them rather
ahead of wages, yet the fuller employment for
every body that would work, the greater quantity
of task-work done, the higher relative value of
corn compared with manufactures, the increased
use of potatoes, and the greater sums distributed
in parish allowances, unquestionably gave to the
lower classes of society the power of commanding
a greater quantity of food, and will account for
the more rapid increase of population in the latter
period, in perfect consistency with the general
principle.

On similar grounds, if, in some warm climates
and rich soils, where corn is cheap, the quantity
of food earned by a day’s labour be such as to
promise a more rapid progress in population than
is really known to take place, the fact will be fully
accounted for, if it be found that inveterate habits
of indolence fostered by a vicious government,
and a slack demand for labour, prevent any thing

234 General Observations. Bk. 111.

like constant employment.* [i would of course
~ require high corn wages of day-labour even to keep
up the supply of a stationary population, where
the days of working would only amount to half of
the year.

In the case also of the prevalence of prudential
habits, and a decided taste for the conveniences
and comforts of life, as, according to the supposi-
tion, these habits and tastes do not operate as an
encouragement to early marriages, and are not in
fact spent almost entirely in the purchase of corn,
it is quite consistent with the general principles
laid down, that the population should not proceed
at the same rate as is usual, ceteris paribus, in
other countries, where the corn wages of labour are
equally high. .

The quantity of employment in any country will
not of course vary from year to year, in the same
manner as the quantity of produce must necessa-
rily do, from the variation of the seasons; and con-
sequently the check from want of employment will
be much more steady in its operation, and much
more favourable to the lower classes of people,
than the check from the immediate want of food.
The first will be the preventive check; the second
the positive check. When the demand for labour
is either stationary, or increasing very slowly,
people not seeing any employment open by which

* This observation is exemplified in the slow progress of popu-
lation in some parts of the Spanish dominions in America, com-
pared with its progress in the United States.

oo

Ch. xiv. General Observations. 235

they can support a family, or the wages of com-
mon labour being inadequate to this purpose, will
of course be deterred from marrying. Butif a
demand for labour continue increasing with some
rapidity, although the supply of food be uncertain,
on account of variable seasons and a dependence
on other countries, the population will evidently
go on, tillit is positively checked by famine or
the diseases arising from severe want.

Scarcity and extreme poverty, therefore, may or
may not accompany an increasing population, ac-
cording to circumstances: but they must neces-
sarily accompany a permanently declining popu-
lation; because there never has been, nor probably.
ever will be, any other cause than want of food,
which makes the population of a country perma-
nently decline. In the numerous instances of de-
population which occur in history, the causes may
always be traced to the want of industry or the ill
direction of that industry, arising from violence,
bad government, ignorance, &c. which first oc-
casion a want of food, and of course depopulation
follows. When Rome adopted the custom of im-
porting all her corn, and laying all Italy into pas-
ture, she soon declined in population. The causes
of the depopulation of Egypt and Turkey have
already been adverted to; and in the case of Spain,
it was certainly not the numerical loss of people
occasioned by the expulsion of the Moors, but
the industry and capital thus expelled, which per-
manently injured her population. Whena country
has been depopulated by violent causes, if a bad

236 General Observations. Bk. 11.

government with its usual concomitant insecurity
‘of property ensue, (which has generally been the
case in all those countries which are now less peo-
pled than formerly,) neither the food nor the po-
pulation can recover itself; and the inhabitants
will probably live in severe want. But when
an accidental depopulation takes place in a country
which was before populous and industrious, and
in the habit of exporting corn, if the remaining in-
habitants be left at liberty to exert, and do exert,
their industry in the same direction as before, it is
a strange idea to entertain, that they would then
be unable to supply themselves with corn in the
same plenty ; particularly as the diminished num-
bers would of course cultivate principally the more
fertile parts of their territory, and not be obliged,
as in their more populous state, to apply to un-
grateful soils. Countries in this situation would
evidently have the'same chance of recovering their
former number, as they had originally of reaching
this number; and indeed if absolute populousness
were necessary to relative plenty, as some agri-
culturists have supposed,* it would be impossible

* Among others, I allude more particularly to Mr. Anderson,
who, in a Calm Investigation into the Circumstances which have led
to the present Scarcity of Grain in Britain (published in 1801,)
has laboured with extraordinary earnestness, and I believe with
the best intentions, to impress this curious truth on the minds of
his countrymen. The particular position which he attempts to
prove is, that an increase of population in any state, whose fields have
not been made to attain their highest possible degree of productive-
ness (a thing that probably has never yet been scen on this globe), will

eee ee

ce le eee ee a

Ch. xiv. General Observations. 2937

for new colonies to increase with the same rapidity
as old states.

The prejudices on the subject of population bear
a very striking resemblance to the old prejudices
about specie; and we know how slowly and with
what difficulty these last have yielded to juster
conceptions. Politicians, observing that states
which were powerful and prosperous were almost
invariably populous, have mistaken an effect for
a.cause, and have concluded, that their population
was the cause of their prosperity, instead of their
prosperity being the cause of their population ;
as the old political economists concluded that the
abundance of specie was the cause of national
wealth, instead of being the effect of it. The

necessarily have its means of subsistence rather augmented than di-
minished by that augmentation of its population; and the reverse.
The proposition is, to be sure, expressed rather obscurely ; but
from the context his meaning evidently is, that every increase of
population tends to increase relative plenty, and vice versd. He
concludes his proofs by observing that, if the facts which he has
thus brought forward and connected do not serve to remove the
fears of those, who doubt the possibility of this country producing
abundance to sustain its increasing population, (were it to augment
in a ratio greatly more progressive than it has yet done,) he should
doubt whether they could be convinced of it, were one even to
rise from the dead to tell them so. I agree with Mr. A. entirely,
respecting the importance of directing a greater part of the national
industry to agriculture ; but frem the circumstance of its being
possible for a country, with a certain direction of its industry,
always to grow corn sufficient for its own supplies, although it may
be very populous, he has been led into the strange error of sup-
posing, that an agricultural country could support an unchecked
population.

238 General Observations. Bk. 1.

. annual produce of the land and labour, in both
these instances, became in consequence a se-
condary consideration ; and its increase, it was
conceived, would naturally foliow the increase of
specie in the one case, or of population in the
other. The folly of endeavouring by forcible
means to increase the quantity of specie in any
country, and the absolute impossibility of accu-
mulating it beyond a certain level by any human
laws that cam be devised, are now fully established,
and have been completely exemplified in the in-
stances of Spain and Portugal. But the illusion
still remains respecting population; and under
this impression almost every political treatise has
abounded in proposals to encourage population,
with little or no comparative reference to the
means of its support. Yet surely the folly of en-
deavouring to increase the quantity of specie in
any country, without an increase of the commo-
dities which it is to circulate, is not greater than
that of endeavouring to increase the number of
people, without an increase of the food which is
to maintain them; and it will be found that the
level, above which no human laws can raise the
population of a country, is a limit more fixed and
impassable than the limit to the accumulation of
specie. However improbable in fact, it is possi-
ble to conceive that means might be invented of
retaining a quantity of specie in a state, greatly
beyond what was demanded by the produce of its
land and labour, and the relative state of other
countries. But when by great encouragements

Ch. xiv. Gencral Observations. 239

population has been raised to such a height, that
this produce is meted out to each individual in
the smallest portions that can support life, no
stretch of ingenuity can even conceive the possi-
bility of going farther.

It has appeared, I think, clearly, in the review
of different societies given in the former part of
this work, that those countries, the inhabitants of
which were sunk in the most barbarous ignorance,
or oppressed by the most cruel tyranny, however
low they might be in actual population, were very
populous in proportion to their means of subsis-
tence; and upon the slightest failure of the sea-
sons generally suffered the severities of want.
Ignorance and despotism seem to have no ten-
dency to destroy the passion which prompts to
merease; but they effectually destroy the checks
to it from reason and foresight. The improvident
barbarian who thinks only of his present wants,
or the miserable peasant who, from his political
situation, feels little security of reaping what he
has sown, will seldom be deterred from gratifying
his passions by the prospect of inconveniences,
which cannot be expected to press on him under
three or four years. But though this want of
foresight, which is fostered by ignorance and
despotism, tends thus rather to encourage the
procreation of children, it is absolutely fatal to the
industry which is to support them. Industry
cannot exist without foresight and security. The
indolence of the savage is well known; and the
poor Egyptian or Abyssinian farmer without

240 - General Observations. Bk. i.

capital, who rents land which is let out yearly to
the highest bidder, and who is constantly subject
to the demands of his tyrannical masters, to the
casual plunder of an enemy, and not unfrequently
to the violation of his miserable contract, can have
no heart to be industrious, and, if he had, could
not exercise that industry with success. -Even
poverty itself, which appears to be the great spur
to industry, when it has once passed certain limits,
almost ceases to operate. The indigence which
is hopeless destroys all vigorous exertion, and
confines the efforts to what is sufficient for bare
existence. It is the hope of bettering our condi-
tion, and the fear of want, rather than want itself,
that is the best stimulus to industry; and its most
constant and best directed efforts will almost in-
variably be found among a class of people above
the class of the wretchedly poor.

The effect of ignorance and oppression will
therefore always be to destroy the springs of in-
dustry, and consequently to diminish the annual
produce of the land and labour in any country;
and this diminution will inevitably be followed by
a decrease of the population, in spite of the birth
of any number of children whatever annually.
The desire of immediate gratification, and the re-
moval of the restraints to it from prudence, may
perhaps, in such countries, prompt universally to
early marriages; but when these habits have once
reduced the people to the lowest possible state of
poverty, they can evidently have no further effect
upon the population. Their only effect must. be

Ch. xiv. General Observations. 241

on the degree of mortality; and there is no doubt,
that, if we could obtain accurate bills of mortality
in those southern countries, where very few women
remain unmarried, and all marry young, the pro-
portion of the annual deaths would be 1 in 17, 18,
or 20, instead of 1 in 34, 36, or 40, as in European
states where the preventive check operates.

That an increase of population, when it follows
in its natural order, is both a great positive good
in itself, and absolutely necessary to a further in-
crease in the annual produce of the land and labour
of any country, I should be the last todeny. The
only question is, what is the order of its progress?
In this point Sir James Steuart, who has in general
explained this subject so well, appears to me to
have fallen into an error. He determines, that
multiplication is the efficient cause of agriculture,
and not agriculture of multiplication.* But though
it may be allowed, that the increase of people,
beyond what could easily subsist on the natural
fruits of the earth, first prompted man to till the
ground; and that the view of maintaining a family,
or of obtaining some valuable consideration in ex-
change for the products of agriculture, still ope-
rates as the principal stimulus to cultivation; yet
it is clear that these products, in their actual state,
must be beyond the lowest wants of the existing
population, before any permanent increase can
possibly be supported. We know, that a multi-
plication of births has in numberless instances

* Polit. Econ. vol. i. b. i. c, xviii. p. 114.
VOL. II. R

242 General Observations. Bk. iii. -

taken place, which has produced no effect upon
~ agriculture, and has merely been followed by an
increase of diseases; but perhaps there is no in-
stance, where a permanent increase of agriculture
has not effected a permanent increase of popula-
tion somewhere or other. Consequently, agri-
culture may with more propriety be termed the
efficient cause of population, than population of
agriculture ;* though they certainly re-act upon
each other, and are mutually necessary to each
other's support. This indeed seems to be the
hinge on which the subject turns; and all the pre-
judices respecting population have, perhaps, arisen
from a mistake about the order of precedence.
The author of L’Ami des Hommes, in a chapter
on the effects of a decay of agriculture upon po-
pulation, acknowledges that he had fallen into a
fundamental error in considering population as the
source of revenue; and that he was afterwards
fully convinced that revenue was the source of
population.t| From a want of attention to this
most important distinction, statesmen, in pursuit
of the desirable object of population, have been
led to encourage early marriages, to reward the
fathers of families, and to disgrace celibacy ; but

* Sir James Steuart explains himself afterwards by saying, that
he means principally the multiplication of those persons, who have
some valuable consideration to give for the products of agriculture :
but this is evidently not mere increase of population, and such an
explanation seems to admit the incorrectness of the general propo-
sition.

t+ Tom. viii. p. 84, 12mo. 9 vols. 1762.

Ch. xiv. General Observations: 243

this, as the same author justly observes, is to dress
and water a piece of land without sowing it, and
yet to expect a crop.

What is here said of the order. of precedence
with respect to agriculture and population, does
not invalidate what was said in:an earlier part of
this work on the tendency: to. an oscillation or al-
ternation in the increase of population and food in
the natural course of their progress. In this pro-
gress nothing is more usual than for the population
to increase at certain periods faster than food ;
indeed it is a part of the general principle that
it should do so; and when the money wages of
labour are prevented from falling by the employ-
ment of the increasing population in.manufactures,
the rise in the price of corn which the increased
competition for it occasions is practically the most
natural and frequent stimulus toagriculture. But
then it must be recollected that the greater relative
increase of population absolutely implies a previ-
ous increase of food at some time or other greater
than the.lowest wants of the people. _ Without
this, the population could not possibly hase gone
forward.*

* According to the principle of population, the human race has
a tendency to increase faster than food. It has therefore a constant
tendency to people a country fully up to the limits of subsistence,
but by the laws of nature it can never go beyond them, meaning,
of course, by these limits, the lowest quantity of food which will
maintain a stationary population. Population, therefore, can never,
strictly speaking, precede food.

R2

244 General Observations. Bk. iii.

Universally, when the population of a country
is for a longer or shorter time stationary, owing
to the low corn wages of labour, a case which is
not unfrequent, it is obvious that nothing but a
previous increase of food, or at least an increase
of the portion awarded to the labourer, can enable
the population again to proceed forwards.

And, in the same manner, with a view to any
essential improvement in the condition of the la-
bourer, which is to give him a greater command
over the means of comfortable subsistence, it is
absolutely necessary that, setting out from the
lowest point, the increase of food must precede
and be greater than the increase of population.

Strictly speaking then, as man cannot live with-
out food, there can be no doubt that in the order
of precedence food must take the lead; although
when, from the state of cultivation and other
causes, the average quantity of food awarded to
the labourer is considerably more than sufficient
to maintain a stationary population, it is quite na-
tural that the diminution of this quantity, from the
tendency of population to increase, should be one
of the most powerful and constant stimulants to
agriculture.

It is worthy also of remark that on this account
a stimulus to the increase of agriculture is much
more easy when, from the prevalence of prudential
restraint, or any other cause, the labourer is well
paid; as in this case a rise in the price of corn,
occasioned either by the increase of population or
a foreign demand, will increase for a time the

Ch. xiv. General Observations. 245

profits of the farmer, and often enable him to make
permanent improvements ; whereas, when the
labourer is paid so scantily that his wages will
not allow even of any temporary diminution with-
out a diminution of population, the increase of
cultivation and population must from the first be
accompanied with a fall of profits. The preva-
lence of the preventive check to population and
the good average wages of the labourer will
rather promote than prevent that occasional in-
crease and decrease of them, which as a stimulus
seems to be favourable to the increase both of”
food and population.
Among the other prejudices which have pre-
vailed on the subject of population, it has been
generally thought that, while there is either waste
among the rich, or land remaining uncultivated in
any country, the complaints for want of food can-"
not be justly founded ; or at least that the pressure
of distress upon the poor is to be attributed to the
ill conduct of the higher classes of society and the
bad management of the land. The real effect
however of these two circumstances is merely to
narrow the limit of the actual population; but
they have little or no influence on what may be
called the average pressure of distress on the
poorer members of society. If our ancestors had
been so frugal and industrious, and had transmitted
such habits to their posterity, that nothing super-
fluous was now consumed by the higher classes,
no horses were used for pleasure, and no land was
left uncultivated, a striking difference would

246 General Observations. Bk. ii.

appear in the state of the actual population ; but
‘probably none whatever in the state of the lower
classes of people, with respect to the price of
labour, and the facility of supporting a family.
The waste among the rich, and the horses kept
for pleasure, have indeed a little the effect of the
consumption of grain in distilleries, noticed. before
with regard to China. On the supposition, that
the food consumed in this manner may be.with-
drawn on the occasion of a scarcity, and be applied
to the relief of the poor, they operate certainly, as
far as they go, like granaries, which are only
opened at the time that they are most wanted,
and must therefore tend rather to benefit than to
injure the lower classes of society.

With regard to uncultivated land, it is enidan
that its effect upon the poor is neither to injure
nor to benefit them. The sudden cultivation of it
will indeed tend to improve their condition for.a
time, and the neglect of lands before cultivated
will certainly make their situation worse for a cer-
tain period ; .but when no changes of this kind are
going forward, the effect of uncultivated. land on
the lower classes operates merely like the posses-
sion of a smaller territory. It may indeed bea
point of some importance to the poor, whether.a
country be in the habit of exporting or importing.
corn; but this point is not necessarily connected
with the complete or incomplete-cultivation of the
whole territory, but depends upon the proportion
of the surplus produce to those who are supported
by it; and in fact this proportion is generally the

Ch. xiv. General Observations. 247

greatest, in countries which have not yet completed
the cultivation of all their territory. If every inch
of land in this country were well cultivated, there
would be no reason to expect, merely from this
circumstance, that we should be able to export
corn. Our power in this respect would depend
entirely on the proportion of the surplus produce
to the commercial population; and this of course
would in its turn depend on the direction of capital
to agriculture or commerce.

It is not probable that any country with a large
territory should ever be completely cultivated:
and I am inclined to think that we often draw very
inconsiderate conclusions against.the industry and
government of states from the appearance of un-
cultivated lands in them. It seems to be the clear
and express duty of every government to remove
all obstacles and give every facility to the inclo-
sure and cultivation of land; but when this has
been done, the rest must be left to the operation
of individual interest ; and upon this principle it
cannot be expected that any new land should be
brought into cultivation, the manure and the
labour necessary for which might be employed to
greater advantage on the improvement of land
already in cultivation; and this is a case which
will very frequently occur. In countries possessed
of a large territory, there will always be a great
quantity of land of a middling quality, which re-
quires constant dressing to prevent it from grow-
ing worse, but which would admit of very great
improvement, if a greater quantity of manure and

248 General Observations. Bk. iii.

labour could be employed upon it. The great
- obstacle to the melioration of land is the difficulty,
the expense, and sometimes the impossibility, of
procuring a sufficient quantity of dressing. As.
this instrument of improvement, therefore, is in
practice limited, whatever it may be in theory, the
question will always be, how it may be most pro-
fitably employed? And in any instance, where a
certain quantity of dressing and labour, employed
to bring new land into cultivation, would have
yielded a permanently greater produce, if em-
ployed upon old land, both the individual and the
nation are losers. Upon this principle, it is not
uncommon for farmers in some situations never to
dress their poorest land, but to get from it merely
a scanty crop every three or four years, and to
employ the whole of their manure, which they
practically feel is limited, on those ‘parts of their
farms where it will produce a greater proportional
effect.

The case will be different, of course, in a small
territory with a great population, supported on
funds not derived from their own soil. In this
case there will be a little or no choice of land, and
a comparative superabundance of manure; and
under such circumstances the poorest soils may
be brought under cultivation. But for this pur-
pose, it is not mere population that is wanted, but
a population which can obtain the produce of
other countries, while it is gradually improving its
own; otherwise it would be immediately reduced
in proportion to the limited produce of this small

Ch. xiv. General Observations. 249

and barren territory; and the melioration of the
land might perhaps never take place ; or, if it did,
it would take place very slowly indeed, and the
population would always be exactly measured by
this tardy rate, and could not possibly increase
beyond it. .

This subject is illustrated in the cultivation of
the Campine in Brabant, which, according to the
Abbé Mann,* consisted originally of the most
barren and arid sand. Many attempts were made
by private individuals to bring it under cultivation,
but without success; which proves, that, as a
farming project, and considered as a sole depend-
ence, the cultivation of it would not answer.
Some religious houses, however, at last settled
there; and being supported by other funds, and
improving the land merely as a secondary object,
they by degrees, in the course of some centuries,
brought nearly the whole under cultivation, let-
ting it out to farmers as soon as it was sufficiently
improved.

There is no spot, however barren, which might
not be made rich this way; or by the concentrated
population of a manufacturing town; but this is
no proof whatever that, with respect to population
and food, population has the precedence; because
this concentrated population could not possibly
exist without the preceding existence of an ade-

* Memoir on the Agriculture of the Netherlands, published in
vol. i. of Communications to the Board of Agriculture, .p. 225.

250 General Observations. Bk. iii.

quate quantity of food in the surplus produce of
some other district.

In a country like Brabant or Holland, where
territory is the principal want, and not manure,
such a district as the Campine is described to be
may perhaps be cultivated with advantage. But
in countries possessed of a large territory, and
with a considerable quantity of land of a middling
quality, the attempt to cultivate such a spot would
be a palpable misdirection and waste both of indi-
vidual and national resources.

The French have already found their error in
bringing under cultivation too great a quantity of
poor land. They are now sensible, that they
have employed in this way a portion of labour
and dressing, which would have produced a per-
manently better effect, if it had been applied to
the further improvement of better land. Even in
China, which is so fully cultivated and so fully
peopled, barren heaths have been noticed in some
districts, which proves that, distressed as the
people appear to be for subsistence, it does not
answer to them to employ any of their manure on
such spots. These remarks will be still further
confirmed, if we recollect that, in the cultivation
of a large surface of bad land, there must neces-
sarily be a great waste of seed corn.

We should not therefore be too ready to make
inferences against the internal economy of a
country from the appearance of uncultivated
heaths, without other evidence. But the fact is,

Ch. xiv. General Observations. 251

that, as no country has ever reached, or probably
ever will reach, its highest possible acme of pro-
duce, it appears always as if the want of industry,
or the ill direction of that industry, was the actual
limit to a further increase of produce and popula-
tion, and not the absolute refusal of nature to
yield any_more: but a man who is locked up ina
room may be fairly said to be confined by the
walls of it, though he may never touch them ; and
with regard to the principle of population, it is
never the question whether a country will pro-
duce any more, but whether it may be made to
produce a sufficiency to keep pace with a nearly
unchecked increase of people. In China, the
question is not, whether a certain additional quan-
tity of rice might be raised by improved culture;
but whether such an addition could be expected
during the next twenty-five years, as would be
sufficient to support an additional three hundred
millions of people. And in this country, it is not
the question whether, by cultivating all our com-
mons, we could raise considerably more corn than
at present; but whether we could raise sufficient
for a population of twenty millions in the next
twenty-five years, and forty millions in the next
fifty years.*

* It may be thought that the effects here referred to as result-
ing from greatly increased resources, could not take place in a
country where there were towns and manufactories; and that
they are not consistent with what was said in a former part of
this work, namely, that the ultimate check to population (the

252 General Observations. Bk. iii.

The allowing of the produce of the earth to be
absolutely unlimited, scarcely removes the weight

want of food) is never the immediate check, except in’ cases of
actual famine.

If the expressions are unguardedly strong, they will certainly
allow of considerable mitigation, without any sensible diminution
in the practical force and application of the argument. But I am
inclined to think that, though they are unquestionably strong, they
are not very far from the truth. The great cause which fills
towns and manufactories is an insufficiency of employment, and
consequently the means of support in the country; and if each
labourer, in the parish where he was bora, could command food,
clothing, and lodging for ten children, the population of the towns
would soon bear but a small proportion to the population of the
country. And if to this consideration we add that, in the case
supposed, the proportion of births and marriages in towns would
be greatly increased, and all the mortality arising from poverty
almost entirely removed, I should by no means be surprised (after
a short interval for the change of habits) at an increase of popu-
lation, even in’ China, equal to that which is referred to in
the text.

With regard to this country, as it is positively known that the
rate of increase has changed from that which would double the
population in 120 years, or more, to that which would double it in
55 years, under a great increase of towns and manufactures, I
feel very little doubt that, if the resources of the country were so
augmented and distributed, as that every man could marry at
18 or 20, with the certainty of being able to support the largest
family, the population of the British Isles would go on increasing
at a rate which would double the population in 25 years. It ap-
pears, from our registers, that England is a healthier country than
America. At the time that America was increasing with extra-
ordinary rapidity, in some of the towns the deaths exceeded the
births. In the English towns, with their present improvements, I
do not think this would ever be the case, if’ all the lower classes
could marry as soon as they pleased, and there was little or no
premature mortality from the consequences of poverty.

Ch. xiv. General Observations. 253

of a hair from the argument, which depends en-
tirely upon the differently increasing ratios of
population and food: and all that the most en-
lightened governments and the most persevering
and best guided efforts of industry can do is to
make the necessary checks to population operate
more equably, and in a direction to produce the
least evil; but to remove them is a task absolutely
hopeless.

But whether the habits and customs of an old state could be
so changed by an abundance of food, as to make it increase nearly
like a new colony, is a question of mere curiosity. The argument
only requires that a change from scanty to abundant means of
supporting a family should occasion, in old states, a marked in-
crease of population; and this, it is conceived, cannot possibly be
denied.

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BOOK IV.

OF OUR FUTURE PROSPECTS RESPECTING THE RE-
MOVAL OR MITIGATION OF THE EVILS ARISING
FROM THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION.

CHAP. I.

Of moral Restraint, and our Obligation to practise this
Virtue.

As it appears that, in the actual state of every
society which has come within our review, the
natural progress of population has been constantly
and powerfully checked; and as it seems evident
that: no improved form of government, no plans
of emigration, no benevolent institutions, and no
degree or direction of national industry, can pre-
vent the continued action of a great check to po-
pulation in some form or other; it follows that we
must submit to it as an inevitable law of nature;
and the only inquiry that remains is, how it may
take place with the least possible prejudice tothe
virtue and happiness of humaii society.

256 Of moral Restraint. Bk. iv.

All the immediate checks to population, which
have been observed to prevail in the same and dif-
ferent countries, seem to be resolvable into moral
restraint, vice and misery; and if our choice be
confined to these three, we cannot long hesitate
in our decision respecting which it would be most
eligible to encourage.

In the first edition of this essay I observed,
that as from the laws of nature it appeared, that
some check to population must exist, it was better
that this check should arise from a foresight of the
difficulties attending a family and the fear of de-
pendent poverty, than from the actual presence of
want and sickness. This idea will admit of being
pursued farther; and I am inclined to think that,
from the prevailing opinions respecting population,
which undoubtedly originated in barbarous ages,
and have been continued and circulated by that
part of every community which may be supposed
to be interested in their support, we have been
prevented from attending to the clear dictates of
reason and nature on this subject.

Natural and moral evil seem to be the instru-
ments employed by the Deity in admonishing us
to avoid any mode of conduct which is not suited
to our being, and will consequently injure our
happiness. If we are intemperate in eating and
drinking, our health is disordered; if we indulge
the transports of anger, we seldom fail to commit
acts of which we afterwards repent; if we multiply
too fast, we die miserably of poverty and conta-
gious diseases. The laws of nature in all these

Ch. i. Of moral Restraint. 257

cases are similar and uniform. They indicate
to us that we have followed these impulses too
far, so as to trench upon some other law, which
equally demands attention. The uneasiness we feel
from repletion, the injuries that we inflict on our-
selves or others in anger, and the inconveniencies
we suffer on the approach of poverty, are all ad-
monitions to us to regulate these impulses better;
and if we heed not this admonition, we justly incur
the penalty of our disobedience, and our sufferings
operate as a warning to others.

From the inattention of mankind hitherto to
the consequences of increasing too fast, it must
be presumed, that these consequences are not so
immediately and powerfully connected with the
conduct which leads to them, as in the other in-
stances; but the delayed knowledge of particular
effects does not alter their nature, or our obliga-
tion to regulate our conduct accordingly, as soon
as we are satisfied of what this conduct ought to
be. In many other instances it has not been till
after long and painful experience, that the conduct
most favourable to the happiness of man has been
forced upon his attention. The kind of food, and
the mode of preparing it, best suited to the pur-
poses of nutrition and the gratification of the pa-
late; the treatment and remedies of different dis-
orders; the bad effects on the human frame of low
and marshy situations; the invention of the most
convenient and comfortable clothing; the con-
struction of good houses; and all the advantages
and extended enjoyments, which distinguish ci-

VOL. Il. S

258 Of moral Restraint. Bk. iv,

vilized life, were not pointed out to the attention
of man at once; but were the slow and late result
of experience, and of the admonitions received
by repeated failures.

Diseases have been generally considered as the
inevitable inflictions of Providence ; but, perhaps,
a great part of them may more justly be consi-
dered as indications that we have offended against
some of the laws of nature. The plague at Con-
stantinople, and in other towns of the East, is
a constant admonition of this kind to the inhabi-
tants. The human constitution cannot support
such a state of filth and torpor; and as dirt,
squalid poverty, and indolence are, in the highest
degree, unfavourable to happiness and virtue, it
seems a benevolent dispensation, that such a state
should, by the laws of nature, produce disease
and death, as a beacon to others to avoid splitting
on the same rock.

The prevalence of the plague in London till the
year 1666 operated in a proper manner on the
conduct of our ancestors; and the removal of
nuisances, the construction of drains, the widen-
ing of the streets, and the giving more room and
air to the houses, had the effect of eradicating
completely this dreadful disorder, and of adding
greatly to the health and happiness of the inha-
bitants.

In the history of every epidemic it has almost
invariably been observed that the lower classes
of people, whose food was poor and insufficient,
and who lived crowded together in small and dirty

Ch. i. Of moral Restraint. 259°

houses, were the principal victims. In what other
manner can Nature point out to us that, if we
increase too fast for the means of subsistence, so
as to render it necessary for a considerable part
of the society to live in this miserable manner,
we have offended against one of herlaws? This
law she has declared exactly in the same manner
as she declares that intemperance in eating and
drinking will be followed by ill health; and that,
however grateful it may be to us at the moment to
indulge this propensity to excess, such indulgence
will ultimately produce unhappiness. It is as
much a law of nature that repletion is bad for the
human frame, as that eating and drinking, unat-
tended with this consequence, are good for it.

An implicit obedience to the impulses of our ~
natural passions would lead us into the wildest
and most fatal extravagancies; and yet we have
the strongest reasons for believing that all these
passions are so necessary to our being, that they
could not be generally weakened or diminished,
without injuring our happiness. The most power-
ful and universal of all our desires is the desire
of food, and of those things, such as clothing,
houses, &c. which are immediately necessary to
relieve us from the pains of hunger and cold. It
is acknowledged by all, that these desires put in
motion the greatest part of that activity, from
which the multiplied improvements and advan-
tages of civilized life are derived; and that the
pursuit of these objects, and the gratification of
these desires, form the principal happiness of the

s 2

260 Of moral Restraint. Bk. iv.

‘larger half of mankind, civilized or uncivilized,
and are indispensably necessary to the more re-
fined enjoyments of the other half. We are all
conscious of the inestimable benefits that we de-
rive from these desires, when directed in a certain
manner; but we are equally conscious of the
evils resulting from them, when not directed in
this manner; so much so, that society has taken
upon itself to punish most severely what it consi-
ders as an irregular gratification of them. And
yet the desires in both cases are equally natural,
and, abstractedly considered, equally virtuous.
The act of the hungry man who satisfies his ap-
petite by taking a loaf- from the shelf of another,
is in no respect to be distinguished from the act
of him who does the same thing with a loaf of his
own, but by its consequences. From the consi-
deration of these consequences, we feel the most
perfect conviction, that, if people were not pre-
vented from gratifying their natural desires with
the loaves in the possession of others, the number
of loaves would universally diminish. This expe-
rience is the foundation of the laws relating to
property, and of the distinctions of virtue and
vice, in the gratification of desires otherwise per-
fectly the same.

If the pleasure arising from the gratification of
these propensities were universally diminished in
vividness, violations of property would become
less frequent; but this advantage would be great-
ly overbalanced by the narrowing of the sources
of enjoyment. The diminution in the quantity

Ch..i. Of moral Restraint. 261

of all those productions, which contribute to hu-
man gratification, would be much greater in pro-
portion than the diminution of thefts; and the
loss of general happiness on the one side would
be beyond comparison greater than the gain of
happiness on the other. When we contemplate
the constant and severe toils of the greatest part
of mankind, it is impossible not to be forcibly im-
pressed with the reflection, that the sources of
human happiness would be most cruelly diminish-
ed, if the prospect of a good meal, a warm house,
and a comfortable fireside in the evening, were
not incitements sufficiently vivid, to give interest
and cheerfulness to the labours and privations of
the day.

After the desire of food, the most powerful and
general of our desires is the passion between the
sexes, taken in an enlarged sense. Of the hap-
piness spread over human life by this passion very
few are unconscious. Virtuous love, exalted by
friendship, seems to be that sort of mixture of
sensual and intellectual enjoyment, particularly
suited to the nature of man, and most power-
fully calculated to awaken the sympathies of the
soul, and produce the most exquisite gratifica-
tions. Perhaps there is scarcely a man, who has
once experienced the genuine delight of virtuous
love, however great his intellectual pleasures may
have been, who does not look back to that period
as the sunny spot in his whole life, where his
imagination loves most to bask, which he recollects

262: Of moral Restraint. Bk. iv.

-and contemplates with the fondest regret, and
which he would wish to live over again.

It has been said by Mr. Godwin, in order to
shew the evident inferiority of the pleasures of
sense, ‘‘ Strip the commerce of the sexes of all
“its attendant circumstances, and it would be
“* generally despised.” He might as well say to
a man who admires trees, strip them of their
spreading branches and lovely foliage, and what
beauty can you see ina bare pole? But it was
the tree with the branches and foliage, and not
without them, that excited admiration. It is ‘the
““ symmetry of person, the vivacity, the voluptu-
““ ous softness of temper, the affectionate kindness
“of feeling, the imagination, and the wit” of a
woman, which excites the passion of love, and
not the mere distinction of her being a female.
It is a very great mistake to suppose that the
passion between the sexes only operates and in-
fluences human conduct, when the immediate
gratification of itis in contemplation. The forma-
tion and steady pursuit of some particular plan
of life has been justly considered as one of the
most permanent sources of happiness; but I am
mclined to believe, that there are not many of
these plans formed, which are not connected in a
considerable degree with the prospect of the gra-
tification of this passion, and with the support of
children arising from it. The evening meal, the

* Political Justice, vol. i. b. i. c. v. p. 72. 8vo.

Ch. i. Of moral Restraint. 263

warm house, and the comfortable fireside, would
lose half their interest, if we were to exclude the
idea of some object of affection, with whom they
were to be shared.

We have also great reason to believe that the
passion between the sexes has the most powerful
tendency to soften and meliorate the human cha-
racter, and keep it more alive to all the kindlier
emotions of benevolence and pity. Observations
on savage life have generally tended to prove that
nations, in which this passion appeared to be less
vivid, were distinguished by a ferocious and ma-
lignant spirit, and particularly by tyranny and
cruelty to the sex. If, indeed, this bond of con-
jugal affection were considerably weakened, it
seems probable, either that the man would make
use of his superior physical strength, and turn
his wife into a slave, as among the generality of
savages ; or, at best, that every little inequality of
temper, which must necessarily occur between
two persons, would produce a total alienation of
affection ; and this could hardly take place, with-
out a diminution of parental fondness and care,
which would have the most fatal effect on the
happiness of society.

It may be further remarked, and observations
on the human character in different countries
warrant us in the conclusion, that the passion is
stronger, and its general effects in producing gen-
tleness, kindness, and suavity of manners, much
more powerful, where obstacles are thrown in the
way of very early and universal gratification. In,

264 Of moral Restraint. Bk. iv.

some of the southern countries, where every im-
pulse may be almost immediately indulged, the
passion sinks into mere animal desire, is soon
weakened and almost extinguished by excess, and
its influence on ‘the character is extremely con-
fined. But, in European countries, where, though
the women are not secluded, yet manners have
imposed considerable restraints on this gratifica-
tion, the passion not only rises in force, but in the
universality and beneficial tendency of its effects;
and has often the greatest influence in the forma-
tion and improvement of the character, where it
is the least gratified.

Considering then the passion between the sexes
in all its bearings and relations, and including the
endearing engagement of parent and child result-
ing from it, few will be disposed to deny that it is
one of the principal ingredients of human happi-
ness. Yet experience teaches us that much evil
flows from the irregular gratification of it; and
though the evil be of little weight in the scale,
when compared with the good, yet its absolute
quantity cannot be inconsiderable, on account of
the strength and universality of the passion. It
is evident, however, from the general conduct of
all governments in their distribution of punish-
ments, that the evil resulting from this cause is
not so great and so immediately dangerous to so-
ciety, as the irregular gratification of the desire
of property; but placing this evil in the most
formidable point of view, we should evidently
purchase a diminution of it at a very high price,

Ch. i. Of moral Restraint. 265

by the extinction or diminution of the passion
which causes it; a change, which would probably
convert human life either into a cold and cheer-
less blank, or a scene of savage and merciless
ferocity.

A careful attention to the remote as well as
immediate effect of all the human passions, and
all the general laws of nature, leads us strongly
to the conclusion, that, under the present consti-
tution of things, few or none of them will admit
of being greatly diminished, without narrowing
the sources of good, more powerfully than the
sources of evil. And the reason seems to be
obvious. They are, in fact, the materials of all
our pleasures, as well as of all our pains; of all
our happiness, as well as of all our misery ; of all
our virtues, as well as of all our vices. It must
therefore be regulation and direction that are
wanted, not diminution or extinction.

It is justly observed by Paley, that ‘«‘ Human
«« passions are either necessary to human welfare,
“‘ or capable of being made, and in a great ma-
‘< jority of instances are in fact made, conducive
‘to its happiness. These passions are strong and
‘general; and perhaps would not answer their
‘purpose, unless they were so. But strength
“and generality, when it is expedient that par-
“ ticular circumstances should be respected, be-
“come, if left to themselves, excess and misdi-
“rection. From which excess and misdirection
“the vices of mankind (the causes no doubt of
“ much misery) appear to spring. This account,

266 Of moral Restraint. Bk. iv.

“‘ while it shews us the principle of vice, shews
“us at the same time the province of reason and
“« self-covernment.’*

Our virtue, therefore, as reasonable beings,
evidently consists in educing from the general
materials, which the Creator has placed under
our guidance, the greatest sum of human happi-
ness; and as natural impulses are abstractedly
considered good, and only to be distinguished by
their consequences, a strict attention to these
consequences, and the regulation of our conduct
conformably to them, must be considered as our
principal duty.

The fecundity of the human species is, in some
respects, a distinct consideration from the passion
between the sexes, as it evidently depends more
upon the power of women in bearing children,
than upon the strength and weakness of this pas-
sion. It is a law however exactly similar in its
great features to all the other laws of nature. It
is strong and general, and apparently would not
admit of any very considerable diminution, with-
out being inadequate to its object; the evils
arising from it are incidental to those necessary
qualities of strength and generality; and these
evils are capable of being very greatly mitigated
and rendered comparatively light by human
energy and virtue. We cannot but conceive that
it is an object of the Creator, that the earth should
be replenished; and it appears to me clear, that

* Natural Theology, c. xxvi. p. 547-

a a

Ch. 1. Of moral Restraint. 267

this could not be effected without a tendency in
population to increase faster than food; and as,
with the present law of increase, the peopling of
the earth does not proceed very rapidly, we have
undoubtedly some reason to believe, that this law
is not too powerful for its apparent object. The
desire of the means of subsistence would be com-
paratively confined in its effects, and would fail
of producing that general activity so necessary
to the improvement of the human faculties, were
it not for the strong and universal effort of popu-
lation to increase with greater rapidity than its
supplies. If these two tendencies were exactly
balanced, I do not see what motive there would
be sufficiently strong to overcome the acknow-
ledged indolence of man, and make him proceed
in the cultivation of the soil. The population of
any large territory, however fertile, would be as
likely to stop at five hundred, or five thousand,
as at five millions, or fifty millions. Such a ba-
lance therefore would clearly defeat one great
purpose of creation; and if the question be merely
a question of degree, a question of a little more
or a little less strength, we may fairly distrust
our competence to judge of the precise quantity
necessary to answer the object with the smallest
sum of incidental evil. In the present state of
things we appear to have under our guidance a
ereat power, capable of peopling a desert region
in a small number of years; and yet, under other
circumstances, capable of being confined by
human energy and virtue to any limits however

268 Of morat sescraint. DK. lv.

narrow, at the expense of a small comparative:
quantity of evil. The analogy of all the other

laws of nature would be completely violated, if,
in this instance alone there were no provision for
accidental failures, no resources against the vices
of mankind, or the partial mischiefs resulting from
other general laws. To effect the apparent object
without any attendant evil, it is evident that a
perpetual change in the law of increase would be
necessary, varying with the varying circumstances
of each country. But instead of this, it is not
only more consonant to the analogy of the other

parts of nature, but we have reason to think that.

it is more conducive to the formation and im-
provement of the human mind, that the law should
be uniform, and the evils incidental to it, under
certain circumstances, left to be mitigated or re-
moved by man himself. His duties in this case
vary with his situation; he is thus kept more
alive to the consequences of his actions; and his
faculties have evidently greater play and opportu-
nity of improvement, than if the evil were removed
by a perpetual change of the law wpb rt to
circumstances.

Even if from passions too easily subdued, or the
facility of illicit intercourse, a state of celibacy
were a matter of indifference, and not a state of
some privation, the end of nature in the peopling
of the earth would be apparently liable to be de-
feated. It is of the very utmost importance to
the happiness of mankind, that population should.
not increase too fast; but it does not appear, that

ee ee ee a

Ch. 1. Of moral Restraint. 269

the object to be accomplished would admit of any
considerable diminution in the desire of marriage.
It is clearly the duty of each individual not to
marry till he has a prospect of supporting his
children; but it is at the same time to be wished
that he should retain undiminished his desire of
marriage, in order that he may exert himself to
realize this prospect, and be stimulated to make
provision for the support of greater numbers.

It is evidently therefore regulation and direction
which are required with regard to the principle
of population, not diminution or alteration. And
if moral restraint be the only virtuous mode of
avoiding the incidental evils arising from. this
principle, our obligation to practise it will evi-
dently rest exactly upon the same foundation as
our obligation to practise any of the other virtues.

Whatever indulgence we may be disposed to
allow to occasional failures in the discharge of a
duty of acknowledged difficulty, yet of the strict
line of duty we cannot doubt. Our obligation
not to marry till we have a fair prospect of being
able to support our children will appear to deserve
the attention of the moralist, if it can be proved
that an attention to this obligation is of most
powerful effect in the prevention of misery; and
that, if it were the general custom to follow the
first.impulse of nature, and marry at the age of
puberty, the universal prevalence of every known
virtue in the greatest conceivable degree, would
fail of rescuing society from the most wretched
and desperate state of want, and all the diseases
and famines which usually accompany it.

( 270 ) Bk. iv.

CHAP. II.

Of the Effects which would result to Society from the
Prevalence of moral Restraint.

Ons of the principal reasons which have prevented.
an assent to the doctrine of the constant tendency
of population to increase beyond the means of
subsistence, is a great unwillingness to believe
that the Deity would by the laws of nature bring
beings into existence, which by the laws of nature
could not be supported in that existence. But if,
in addition to that general activity and direction
of our industry put in motion by these laws, we
further consider that the incidental evils arising
from them are constantly directing our attention
to the proper check to population, moral restraint;
and if it appear that, by a strict obedience to the
duties pointed out to us by the light of nature and
reason, and confirmed and sanctioned by reve-
lation, these evils may be avoided, the objection
will, I trust, be removed, and all apparent impu-
tation on the goodness of the Deity be done away.
The heathen moralists never represented hap-
piness as attainable on earth, but through the
medium of virtue; and among their virtues pru-
dence ranked in the first class, and by some was
even considered as including every other. The
Christian religion places our present as well as

Ch. ii. Of the Effects on Society, &c. 271

future happiness in the exercise of those virtues
which tend to fit us for a state of superior enjoy-
ment; and the subjection of the passions to the
guidance of reason, which, if not the whole, isa
principal branch of prudence, is in. consequence
most particularly inculcated.

If, for the sake of illustration, we might be per-
mitted to draw a picture of society, in which each
individual endeavoured to attain happiness by the
strict fulfilment of those duties, which the most
enlightened of the ancient philosophers deduced
from the laws of nature, and which have been di-
rectly taught, and received such powerful sanc-
tions in the moral code of Christianity, it would
present a very different scene from that which we
now contemplate. Every act, which was prompt-
ed by the desire of immediate gratification, but
which threatened an ultimate overbalance of pain,
would be considered as a breach of duty; and
consequently no man, whose earnings were only
sufficient to maintain two children, would put him- .
self in a situation in which he might have to main-
tain four or five, however he might be prompted
to it by the passion of love. This prudential re-
straint, if it were generally adopted, by narrow-
ing the supply of labour in the market, would, in
the natural course of things, soon raise its price.
The period of delayed gratification would be
passed in saving the earnings which were above
the wants of a single man, and in acquiring habits
of sobriety, industry and economy, which would
enable him in a few years to enter into the ma-

272 Of the Effects on Society Bk. iv.

trimonial contract without fear of its consequences.

‘The operation of the preventive check in this way,
by constantly keeping the population within the
limits of the food, though constantly following its
increase, would give a real value to the rise of
wages and the sums saved by labourers before
marriage, very different from those forced advances
in the price of labour or arbitrary parochial dona-
tions, which, in proportion to their magnitude and
extensiveness, must of necessity be followed by
a proportional advance in the price of provisions.
As the wages of labour would thus be sufficient
to maintain with decency a large family, and as
every married couple would set out with a sum
for contingencies, all abject poverty would be re-
moved from society; or would at least be con-
fed to a very few, who had fallen into misfor-
tunes, against which no prudence or foresight
could provide.

The interval between the age of puberty and
the period at which each individual might venture
on marriage must, according to the supposition,
be passed in strict chastity ; because the law of
chastity cannot be violated without producing
evil. The effect of any thing like a promiscuous
intercourse, which prevents the birth of children,
is evidently to weaken the best affections of the
heart, and in a very marked manner to degrade
the female character. And any other intercourse
would, without improper arts, bring as many chil-
dren into the society as marriage, with a much
greater probability of their becoming a burden toit.

QV ees ee ere

—_—

tae Mite. ee

Ch. ii. of moral Restraint. 273

These considerations shew that the virtue of
chastity is not, as some have supposed, a forced
produce of artificial society; but that it has the
most real and solid foundation in nature and rea-
son; being apparently the only virtuous means of
avoiding the vice and misery which result so often
from the principle of population.

In such a society as we have been supposing,
it might be necessary for some of both sexes to
pass many of the early years of life in the single
state ; and if this were general, there would cer-
tainly be room for a much greater number to
marry afterwards, so that fewer, upon the whole,
would be condemned to pass their lives in celi-
bacy. Ifthe custom of not marrying early pre-
vailed generally, and if violations of chastity
were equally dishonourable in both sexes, a more
familiar and friendly intercourse between them
might take place without danger. Two young
people might converse together intimately with-
out its being immediately supposed that they
either intended marriage or intrigue ; anda much
better opportunity would thus be given to both
sexes of finding out kindred dispositions, and of.
forming those strong and lasting attachments,
without which the married state is generally more
productive of misery than of happiness. The
earlier years of life would not be spent without
love, though without the full gratification of it.
The passion, instead of being extinguished, as it
now too frequently is, by early sensuality, would
only be repressed for a time, that it might after-

VOL. Il. .

274 Of the Effects on Society Bk. iv.

wards burn with a brighter, purer, and steadier

- flame; and the happiness of the married state,
instead of only affording the means of immediate
indulgence, would be looked forward to as the
prize of industry and virtue, and the reward of a
genuine and constant attachment.*

The passion of love is a powerful stimulus in the
formation of character, and often prompts to the
most noble and generous exertions; but this is
only when the affections are centred in one ob-
ject, and generally when full gratification is de-
layed by difficulties.t The heart is perhaps never

* Dr. Currie, in his interesting observations on the character
and condition of the Scotch peasantry, prefixed to his Life of Burns,
remarks, with a just knowledge of human nature, that, “in ap-
“ preciating the happiness and virtue of a community, there is
‘* perhaps no single criterion on which so much dependence may
“be placed as the state of the intercourse between the sexes.
“* Where this displays ardour of attachment, accompanied by pu-
“ rity of conduct, the character and the influence of women rise,
“ our imperfect nature mounts in the scale of moral excellence ;
“‘ and from the source of this single affection, a stream of felicity
“* descends, which branches into a thousand rivulets that enrich
“* and adorn the field of life. Where the attachment between the
. “ sexes sinks into an appetite, the heritage of our species is com-
“ paratively poor, and man approaches to the condition of the
“« brutes that perish.” Vol. i. p. 18.

+ Dr. Currie observes, that the Scottish peasant in the course
** of his passion often exerts a spirit of adventure, of which a Spa-
‘* nish cavalier need not be ashamed.” Burns’ Works, vol. i. p. 16.
It is not to be doubted that this kind of romantic passion, which,
Dr. C. says, characterizes the attachment of the humblest people
of Scotland, and which has been greatly fostered by the elevation
of mind given to them by a superior education, has had a most
powerful and most beneficial influence on the national character.

Ch. ii. of moral Restraint. 275

so much disposed to virtuous conduct, and cer-
tainly at no time is the virtue of chastity so little
difficult to men, as when under the influence of
such a passion. Late marriages taking place in
this way would be very different from those of
the same name at present, where the union is too
frequently prompted solely by interested views,
and the parties meet, not unfrequently, with ex-
hausted constitutions, and generally with ex-
hausted affections. The late marriages at pre-
sent are indeed principally confined to the men;
of whom there are few, however advanced in life,
who, if they determine to marry, do not fix their
choice on a young wife. A young woman without
fortune, when she has passed her twenty-fifth
year, begins to fear, and with reason, that. she
may lead a life of celibacy; and with a heart ca-
pable of forming a strong attachment, feels, as
each year creeps on, her hopes of finding an ob-
ject on which to rest her affections gradually di-
minishing, and the uneasiness of her situation
aggravated by the silly and unjust prejudices of
the world. If the general age of marriage among
women were later, the period of youth and hope
would be prolonged, and fewer would be ulti-
mately disappointed.

That a change of this kmd would be a most de-
cided advantage to the more virtuous half of so-
ciety, we cannot for a moment doubt. However
impatiently the privation might be borne by the
men, it would be supported by the women readily
and cheerfully; and if they could look forward

T2

276 Of the Effects on Society Bk. iv.

with just confidence to marriage at twenty-seven _
or twenty-eight, I fully believe, that, if the matter
were left to their free choice, they would clearly
prefer waiting till this period, to the being in-
volved in all the cares of a large family at twenty-
five. The most eligible age of marriage however
could not be fixed; but must depend entirely on
circumstances and situation. There is no period
of human life, at which nature more strongly
prompts to an union of the sexes, than from seven-
teen or eighteen to twenty. In every society
above that state of depression, which almost ex-
cludes reason and foresight, these early tendencies
must necessarily be restrained; and if, in the
actual state of things, such a restraint on the im-
pulses of nature be found unavoidable, at what
time can we be consistently released from it, but
at that period, whatever it may be, when, in the
existing circumstances of the society, a fair pros-
pect presents itself of maintaining a family?

. The difficulty of moral restraint will perhaps be
objected to this doctrine. To him who does not
acknowledge the authority of the Christian reli-
gion, I have only to say that, after the most careful
investigation, this virtue appears to be absolutely
necessary, in order-to avoid certain evils which
would otherwise result from the general laws of
nature. According to his own principles, it is his
duty to pursue the greatest good consistent with
these laws; and not to fail in this important end,
and produce an overbalance of misery by a partial
obedience to some of the dictates of nature, while
he neglects others. The path of virtue, though

Ch. ii. of moral Restraint. 277

it be the only path which leads to permanent hap-
piness, has always beenrepresented by the heathen
moralists as of difficult ascent.

To the Christian I would say that the Scriptures
most clearly and precisely point it out to us as our
duty, to restrain our passions within the bounds
of reason; and it is a palpable disobedience of this
law to indulge our desires in such a manner as
reason tells us will unavoidably end in misery.
The Christian cannot consider the difficulty of
moral restraint as any argument against its being
his duty ; since, in almost every page of the sacred
writings, man is described as encompassed on all
sides by temptations which it is extremely diffi-
cult to resist; and though no duties are enjoined,
which do not contribute to his happiness on earth
as well as in a future state, yet an undeviating
obedience is never represented as an easy task.

There is in general so strong a tendency to love
in early youth, that it is extremely difficult at this
period to distinguish a genuine from a transient
passion. If the earlier years of life were passed
by both sexes in moral restraint, from the greater
facility that this would give to the meeting of kin-
dred dispositions, it might even admit of a doubt,
whether more happy marriages would not take
place, and consequently more pleasure from the
passion of love, than in a state such as that of
America, the circumstances of which allow of a
very early union of the sexes. But if we compare
the intercourse of the sexes in such a society as I
have been supposing, with that which now exists

278 Of the Effects on Society Bk. iv.

_in Europe, taken under all its circumstances, it
may safely be asserted, that, independently of the
load of misery which would be removed, the sum
of pleasurable sensations from the passion of love
would be increased in a very great degree.

If we could suppose such a system general, the
accession of happiness to society in its internal
economy would scarcely be greater than in its
external relations. It might fairly be expected
that war, that great pest of the human race, would,
under such circumstances, soon cease to extend
its ravages so widely and so frequently as it does
at present.

One of its first causes and most powerful im-
pulses was undoubtedly an insufficiency of room
and food; and greatly as the circumstances of
mankind have changed since it first began, the
same cause still continues to operate and to pro-
duce, though in a smaller degree, the same effects.
The ambition of princes would want instruments
of destruction, if the distresses of the lower classes
of people did not drive them under their standards.
A recruiting serjeant.always prays for a bad har-
vest and a want of employment, or, in other words,
a redundant population. 3

In the earlier ages of the world, when war was
the great business of mankind, and the drains of
population from this cause were, beyond compari-
son, greater than in modern times, the legislators
and statesmen of each country, adverting princi-
pally to the means of offence and defence, encou-
raged an increase of people in every possible way,

Ch. ii. of moral Restraint. 279

fixed a stigma on barrenness and celibacy, and
honoured marriage. The popular religions fol-
lowed these prevailing opinions. In many coun-
tries the prolific power of nature was the object
of solemn worship. In the religion of Mahomet,
which was established by the sword, and the pro-
mulgation of which in consequence could not be
unaccompanied by an extraordinary destruction of
its followers, the procreation of children to glorify
the Creator was laid down as one of the principal
duties of man; and he, who had the most nu-
merous offspring, was considered as having best
answered the end of his creation. The prevalence
of such moral sentiments had naturally a great
effect in encouraging marriage; and the rapid pro-
creation, which followed, was partly the effect and
partly the cause of incessant war. The vacancies
occasioned by former desolations made room for
the rearing of fresh supplies; and the overflowing
rapidity, with which these supplies followed,
constantly furnished fresh incitements and fresh
instruments for renewed hostilities. Under the
influence of such moral sentiments, it is difficult
to conceive how the fury of incessant war should
ever abate.

It is a pleasing confirmation of the truth and
divinity of the Christian religion, and of its being
adapted to a more improved state of human so-
ciety, that it places our duties respecting marriage
and the procreation of children in a different light
from that in which they were before beheld.

Without entering minutely into the subject,

280 Of the Effects on Society Bk. iv.

_which would evidently lead too far, I think it will
be admitted, that, if we apply the spirit of St.
Paul’s declarations respecting marriage to the pre-
sent state of society and the known constitution
of our nature, the natural inference seems to be,
that, when marriage does not interfere with higher
duties, it is right; when it does, it is wrong. Ac-
cording to the genuine principles of moral science,
“The method of coming at the will of God from
‘*‘ the light of nature is, to inquire into the ten-
“« dency of the action to promote or diminish the
*‘ general happiness.” * ‘There are perhaps few
actions that tend. so directly to diminish the ge-
neral happiness, as to marry without the means of
supporung children. He who commits this act,
therefore, clearly offends against the will of God ;
and having become a burden on the society in
which he lives, and plunged himself and family
into a situation, in which virtuous habits are pre-
served with more difficulty than in any other, he
appears to have violated his duty to his neighbours
and to himself, and thus to have listened to the
voice of passion in sabi to his higher obli-
gations.

In a society, such as I have supposed, all the
members of which endeavour to attain happiness
by obedience to the moral code derived from the
light of nature, and enforced by strong sanctions
in revealed religion, it is evident that no such
marriages could take place; and the prevention of

* Paley’s Moral Philosophy, vol. i. b-ii. c. iv. p. 65. -

Ch. ii. of moral Restraint. 281

a redundant population, in this way, would remove
one of the principal encouragements to offensive
war; and at the same time tend powerfully to
eradicate those two fatal political disorders, in-
ternal tyranny and internal tumult, which mutually
produce each other.

Indisposed to a war of offence, in a war of de-
fence, such a society would be strong as a rock of
adamant. Where every family possessed the ne-
eessaries of live in plenty, and a decent portion of
its comforts and conveniences, there could not ex-
ist that hope of change, or at best that melancholy
and disheartening indifference to it, which some-
times prompts the lower classes of people to say,
«* Let what will come, we cannot be worse off than
we are now.” Every heart and hand will be united
to repel an invader, when each individual felt the
value of the solid advantages which he enjoyed,
and a prospect of change presented only a pros-
pect of being deprived of them.

As it appears therefore, that it is in the power
of each individual toavoid all the evil consequences
to himself and society resulting from the principle
of population, by the practice of a virtue clearly
dictated to him by the light of nature, and ex-
pressly enjoined in revealed religion; and as we
have reason to think, that the exercise of this vir-
tue to a certain degree would tend rather to in-
crease than diminish individual happiness; we can
have no reason to impeach the justice of the Deity,
because his general laws make this virtue neces-
sary, and punish our offences against it by the

282 Of the Effects on Society, &c. Bk. iv.

evils attendant upon vice, and the pains that ac-
company the various forms of premature death.
Areally virtuous society, such as I have supposed,
would avoid these evils: It is the apparent object
of the Creator to deter us from vice by the pains
which accompany it, and to lead us to virtue by
the happiness that it produces. This object ap-
pears to our conceptions to be worthy of a bene-
volent Creator. The laws of nature respecting
population tend to promote this object. No im-
putation, therefore, on the benevolence of the Deity,
can be founded on these Jaws, which is not equally
applicable to any of the evils necessarily incidental
to an imperfect state of existence.

( 283 )

CHAP. IL.

Of the only effectual Mode of improving the Condition of
the Poor. z

He who publishes a moral code, or system of
duties, however firmly he may be convinced of the
strong obligation on each individual strictly to
conform to it, has never the folly to imagine that
it will be universally or even generally practised.
But this is no valid objection against the publica-
tion of the code. If it were, the same objection
would always have applied ; we should be totally
without general rules; and to the vices of man-
kind arising from temptation would be added a
much longer list, than we have at present, of vices
from ignorance.

Judging merely from the light of nature, if we
feel convinced of the misery arising from a redun-
dant population on the one hand, and of the evils
and unhappiness, particularly to the female sex,
arising from promiscuous intercourse, on the other,
I do not see how it is possible for any person who
acknowledges the principle of utility, as the great
criterion of moral rules, to escape the conclusion,
that moral restraint, or the abstaining from mar-
riage till we are in a condition to support a family,
with a perfectly moral conduct during that period,
is the strict lme of duty ; and when revelation is
taken into the question, this duty undoubtedly

284 Of the only effectual Mode of — Bk. iv

receives very powerful confirmation. At the same
time I believe that few of my readers can be less
sanguine than I am in their expectations of any
sudden and great change in the general conduct
of men on this subject: and the chief reason why
in the last chapter I allowed myself to suppose the
universal prevalence of this virtue was, that I might
endeavour to remove any imputation on the good-
ness of the Deity, by shewing, that the evils arising
from the principle of population were exactly of
the same nature as the generality of other evils
which excite fewer complaints; that they were
increased by human ignorance and indolence, and ~
diminished by human knowledge and virtue; and —
on the supposition that each individual strictly
fulfilled his duty, would be almost totally removed;
and this without any general diminution of those
sources of pleasure, arising from the regulated in-
dulgence of the passions, which have been justly
considered as the principal ingredients of human
happiness.

If it will answer any purpose of illustration, I
see no harm in drawing the picture of a society,
in which each individual is supposed strictly to
fulfil his duties; nor does a writer appear to be
justly liable to the imputation of being visionary,
unless he make such universal or general obedience
necessary to the practical utility of his system,
and to that degree of moderate and partial im-
provement, which is all that can rationally be ex-
pected from the most complete knowledge of our
duties.

Ch. in. improving the Condition of the Poor. 285

But in this respect there is an essential differ-
ence between that improved state of society, which
Il have supposed in the last chapter, and most of
the other speculations on this subject. The im-
provement there supposed, if we ever should make
approaches towards it, is to be effected in the
way in which we have been in the habit of seeing
all the greatest improvements effected, by a direct
application to the interest and happiness of each
individual. It is not required of us to act from
motives to which-we are unaccustomed ; to pursue
a general good, which we may not distinctly com-
prehend, or the effect of which may be weakened
by distance and diffusion. The happiness of the
whole is to be the result of the happiness of indi-
viduals, and to begin first with them. No co-
operation is required. Every step tells. He who
performs his duty faithfully will reap the full fruits
of it, whatever may be the number of others who
fail. This duty is intelligible to the humblest
capacity. It is merely, that he is not to bring
beings into the world, for whom he cannot find the
means of support. When once this subject is
cleared from the obscurity thrown over it by pa-
rochial laws and private benevolence, every man
must feel the strongest conviction of such an ob-
ligation. If he cannot support his children, they
must starve ; and if he marry in the face of a fair
probability that he shall not be able to support his
children, he is guilty of all the evils, which he thus
brings upon himself, his wife and his offspring. It
is clearly his interest, and will tend greatly to

286 Of the only effectual Mode of Bk. iv.

promote his happiness, to defer marrying, till by
industry and economy he is in a capacity to sup-
port the children that he may reasonably expect
from his marriage ; and as he cannot in the mean
time gratify his passions without violating an ex-
press command of God, and running a great risk
of injuring himself, or some of his fellow-creatures,
considerations of his own interest and happiness
will dictate to him the strong obligation to a moral
conduct while he remains unmarried.

However powerful may be the impulses of pas-
sion, they are generally in some degree modified
by reason. And it does not seem entirely visionary
to suppose that, if the true and. permanent cause
of poverty were clearly explained and forcibly
brought home to each man’s bosom, it would have
some, and perhaps not an inconsiderable influence
on his conduct; at least the experiment has never
yet been fairly tried. Almost every thing, that
has been hitherto done for the poor, has tended,
as if with solicitous care, to throw a veil of ob-
scurity over this subject, and to hide from them
the true cause of their poverty. When the wages
of labour are hardly sufficient to maintain two
children, a man marries, and has five or six; he
of course finds himself miserably distressed. He
accuses the insufficiency of the price of labour to
maintain a family. He accuses his parish for
their tardy and sparing fulfilment of their obliga-
tion to assist him. He accuses the avarice of the
rich, who suffer him to want what they can so well
spare. He accuses the partial and unjust institu-

Ch. ili. improving the Condition of the Poor. 287

tions of society, which have awarded him an inade-
quate share of the produce of the earth. He accuses
perhaps the dispensations of Providence, which
have assigned to him a place in society so beset
with unavoidable distress and dependence. In
searching for objects of accusation, he never ad-
verts to the quarter from which his misfortunes
originate. The last person that he would think
of accusing is himself, on whom in fact the prin-
cipal blame lies, except so far as he has been
deceived by the higher classes of society. He may
perhaps wish that he had not married, because he
now feels the inconveniences of it; but it never
enters into his head that he can have done any
thing wrong. He has always been told, that to
raise up subjects for his king and country is a
very meritorious act. He has done this, and yet
is suffering for it; and it cannot but strike him as
most extremely unjust and cruel in his king and
country, to allow him thus to suffer, in return for
giving them what they are continually declaring
that they particularly want.

Till these erroneous ideas have been corrected,
and the language of nature and reason has been
generally heard on the subject of population, in-
stead of the language of error and prejudice, it
cannot be said, that any fair experiment has been
made with the understandings of the common
people; and we cannot justly accuse them of im-
providence and want of industry, till they act as
they do now, after it has been brought home to
their comprehensions, that they are themselves

288 Of the only effectual Mode of —_—-Bk. iv.

. the cause of their own poverty; that the means of
redress are in their own hands, and in the hands
of no other persons whatever; that the society in
which they live and the government which pre-
sides over it, are without any direct power in this
respect; and that however ardently they may
desire to relieve them, and whatever attempts they
may make to do so, they are really and truly
unable to execute what they benevolently wish,
but unjustly promise; that, when the wages of
labour will not maintain a family, it is an incon-
trovertible sign that their king and country do not
want more subjects, or at least that they cannot
support them ; that, if they marry in this case, so
far from fulfilling a duty to society, they are
throwing an useless burden on it, at the same
time that they are plunging themselves into dis-
tress; and that they are acting directly contrary
to the will of God, and bringing down upon them-
selves various diseases, which might all, or the
greater part, have been avoided, if they had
attended to the repeated admonitions which he
gives by the general laws of nature to every Meus
capable of reason.

Paley, in his Moral Philosophy, observes, that
‘in countries in which subsistence is become
** scarce, it behoves the state to watch over the
“public morals with increased solicitude; for
“ nothing but the instinct of nature, under the
‘restraint of chastity, will induce men to under-
‘‘ take the labour, or consent to the sacrifice of
** personal liberty and indulgence, which the sup-

Ch. iii. improving the Condition of the Poor, 289

“port of a family in such circumstances re-
“« quires.”* That itis always the duty of a state
‘to use every exertion likely to be effectual in dis-
couraging vice and promoting virtue, and that no
temporary circumstances ought to cause any re-
laxation in these exertions, is certainly true. The
means therefore proposed are always good; but
the particular end in view in this case appears to
be absolutely criminal. We wish to force people
into marriage, when from the acknowledged scar-
city of subsistence they will have little chance of
being able to support their children. We might
as well force people into the water who are unable
to swim. In both cases we rashly tempt Provi-
dence. Nor have we more reason to believe that
a miracle will be worked to save us from the
misery and mortality resulting from our conduct
in the one case than in the other.

The object of those who really wish to better
the condition of the lower classes of society, must
be to raise the relative proportion between the
price of labour and the price of provisions, so as
to enable the labourer to command a larger share
of the necessaries and comforts of life. We have
hitherto principally attempted to attain this end
by encouraging the married poor, and conse-
quently increasing the number of labourers, and
overstocking the market with a commodity which
we still say that we wish to be dear. It would
seem to have required no great spirit of divination

*) Vol. iis coxiop. 352.
¥OUs Dk: U

290 | Of the only effectual Mode of Bk. iv.

to foretel the certain failure of such a plan of
‘proceeding. There is nothing however like ex-
perience. It has been tried in many different
countries, and for many hundred years, and the
success has always been answerable to the nature
of the scheme. It is really time now to try some-
thing else. .

When it was found that oxygen, or pure vital
air, would not cure consumptions as was expected,
but rather aggravated their symptoms, trial was
made of an air of the most opposite kind. I wish
we had acted with the same philosophical spirit
in our attempts to cure the disease of poverty;
and having found that the pouring in of fresh
supplies of labour only tended to aggravate the
symptoms, had tried what would be the effect of
withholding a little these supplies.

In all old and fully-peopled states it is from
this method, and this alone, that we can rationally
expect any essential and permanent melioration in
the condition of the labouring classes of the people.

In an endeavour to raise the proportion of the
quantity of provisions to the number of consumers
in any country, our attention would naturally be
first directed to the increasing of the absolute
quantity of provisions; but finding that, as fast as
we did this, the number of consumers more than
kept pace with it, and that with all our exer-
tions we were still as far as ever behind, we should
be convinced, that our efforts directed only in this
way would never succeed. It would appear to be
setting the tortoise to catch the hare. Finding,
therefore, that from the laws of nature we could

Ch. iii. improving the Condition of the Poor. 291

not proportion the food to the population, our next
attempt should naturally be, to proportion the
population to the food. If we can persuade the
hare to go to sleep, the tortoise may have some
chance of overtaking her.

We are not however to relax our efforts in
increasing the quantity of provisions, but to com-
bine another effort with it; that of keeping the
population, when once it has been overtaken, at
such a distance behind, as to effect the relative
proportion which we desire; and thus unite the
two grand desiderata, a great actual population,
and a state of society, in which abject poverty and
dependence are comparatively but little known;
two objects which are far from being incom-
patible.

If we be really serious in what appears to be
the object of such general research, the mode of
essentially and permanently bettering the condi-
tion of the poor, we must explain to them the true
nature of their situation, and shew them, that the
withholding of the supplies of labour is the only
possible way of really raising its price, and that
they themselves, being the possessors of this com-
modity, have alone the power to do this.

I cannot but consider this mode of diminishing
poverty as so perfectly clear in theory, and so in-
variably confirmed by the analogy of every other
commodity which is brought to market, that
nothing but its being shewn to be calculated to
produce greater evils than it proposes to remedy,
can justify us in not making the attempt to put
it into execution. u 2

( 292 ) Bk. iv.

CHAP. IV.

Objections to this Mode considered.

Ove objection which perhaps will be made to
this plan is, that from which alone it derives its
value—a market rather understocked with labour.
This must undoubtedly take place in a certain
degree; but by no means in such a degree as to
affect the wealth and prosperity of the country.
But putting this subject of a market understocked
with labour in the most unfavourable point of
view, if the rich will not submit to a slight incon-
venience necessarily attendant on the attainment
of what they profess to desire, they cannot really
be in earnest in their professions. Their bene-
volence to the poor must be either childish play
or hypocrisy; it must be either to amuse them-
selves or to pacify the minds of the common
people with a mere show of attention to their
wants. To-wish to better the condition of the
poor by enabling them to command a greater
quantity of the necessaries and comforts of life,
and then to complain of high wages, is the act of
a silly boy who gives away his cake and then cries
for it. A market overstocked with labour, and
an ample remuneration to each labourer, are ob-
jects perfectly incompatible with each other. In
the annals of the world they never existed toge-

Ch. iv. Objections to this Mode considered. 2938

ther; and to couple them even in imagination
betrays a gross ignorance of the simplest princi-
ples of political economy.

A second objection that may be made to this
plan is, the diminution of population that it would
cause. It is to be considered, however, that this
diminution is merely relative; and when once
this relative diminution has been effected, by
keeping the population stationary, while the sup-
ply of food has increased, it might then start
afresh, and continue increasing for ages, with the
increase of food, maintaining always nearly the
same relative proportion to it. I can easily con-
ceive that this country, with a proper direction
of the national industry, might, in the course of
some centuries, contain two or three times its
present population, and yet every man in the
kingdom be much better fed and clothed than he
is at present. While the springs of industry con-
tinue in vigour, and a sufficient part of that in-
dustry is directed to agriculture, we need be under
no apprehensions of a deficient population; and
nothing perhaps would tend so strongly to excite
a spirit of industry and economy among the poor,
as a thorough knowledge that their happiness
must “always depend principally upon themselves;
and that, if they obey their passions in opposition
to their reason, or be not industrious and frugal
while they are single, to save a sum for the
common contingencies of the married state, they
must expect to suffer the natural evils which
Providence has prepared for those who disobey
its repeated admonitions.

294 Objections to this Mode considered. Bk. iv.

A third objection which may be started to this
plan, and the only one which appears to me to
have any kind of plausibility, is that, by endea-
vouring to urge the duty of moral restraint on the
poor, we may increase the quantity of vice relating
to the sex.

I should be extremely sorry to say any thing
which could either directly or remotely be con-
strued unfavourably to the cause of virtue; but I
certainly cannot think that the vices which relate to
the sex are the only vices which are to be con-
sidered ina moral question; or that they are even
the greatest and most degrading to the human cha-
racter. They can rarely or never be committed
without producing unhappiness somewhere or
other, and therefore ought always to be strongly
reprobated: but there are other vices, the effects
of which are still more pernicious; and there are
other situations which lead more certainly to
moral offences than the refraining from marriage.
Powerful as may be the temptations to a breach
of chastity, I am inclined to think that they are
impotent, in comparison of the temptations arising
from continued distress. A large class of women,
and many men, | have no doubt, pass a consider-
able part of their lives consistently with the laws
of chastity ; but I believe there will be found very
few who pass through the ordeal of squalid and
hopeless poverty, or even of long continued em-
barrassed circumstances, without a great moral
degradation of character.

In the higher and middle classes of society, it

Ch. iv. Objections to this Mode considered. 295

is a melancholy and distressing sight to observe,
not unfrequently, a man of a noble and ingenuous
disposition, once feelingly alive to a sense of
honour and integrity, gradually sinking under the
pressure of circumstances, making his excuses at
first with a blush of conscious shame, afraid of
seeing the faces of his friends from whom he may
have borrowed money, reduced to the meanest
tricks and subterfuges to delay or avoid the pay-
ment of his just debts; till ultimately grown fami-
liar with falsehood and at enmity with the world
he loses all the grace and dignity of man.

To the general prevalence of indigence, and the
extraordinary encouragements which we afford
in this country to a total want of foresight and
prudence among the common people,* is to be
attributed a considerable part of those continual
depredations on property, and other more atro-
cious crimes which drive us to the painful resource

* Mr. Colquhoun, speaking of the poor-laws, observes, that
“ In spite of all the ingenious arguments which have been used in
“ favour of a system, admitted to be wisely conceived in its origin,
«« the effects it has produced incontestably prove that, with respect
« to the mass of the poor, there is something radically wrong in the
“* execution. If it were not so, it is impossible that there could exist
«* in the metropolis such an inconceivable portion of human mnisery,
« amidst examples of munificence and benevolence unparalleled in
“ any age or country.” Police of Metropolis, c. xiii. p. 359.

In the effects of the poor-laws I fully agree with Mr. Colquhoun ;
but I cannot agree with him in admitting that the system was well
conceived in its origin. I attribute still more evil to the original
ill conception, than to the subsequent ill execution.

296 Objections to this Mode considered. Bk. iv.

-of such a number of executions.* According to
Mr. Colquhoun, above twenty thousand miserable
individuals of various classes rise up every morn-
ing without knowing how or by what means they
are to be supported during the passing day, or
where, in many instances, they are to lodge on
the succeeding night. It is by these unhappy
persons that the principal depredations on the
public are committed: and supposing but few of
them to be married, and driven to these acts from
the necessity of supporting their children; yet
still it is probably true, that the too great fre-
quency of marriage amongst the poorest classes
of society is one of the principal causes of the
temptations to these crimes. A considerable part
of these unhappy wretches will probably be found
to be the offspring of such marriages, educated in
workhouses where every vice is propagated, or
bred up at home in filth and rags, with an utter
ignorance of every moral obligation.[ A still
greater part perhaps consists of persons, who, being
unable for some time to get employment owing
tothe full supply of labour, have been urged to
these extremities by their temporary wants; and,
having thus lost their characters, are rejected even

* Mr. Colquhoun observes, that “ Indigence in the present
« state of society may be considered as a principal cause of the
“« inerease of crimes.’ Police of Metropolis, c. xiii. p. 352.

+ Police of Metropolis, c. xi. p, 313.

+ Id. c. xi. xii. p. 355. 370.

\e

Ch. iv. Odjections to this Mode considered. 297

when their Jabour may be wanted, by the well-
founded caution of civil society.*

* Police of the Metropolis, c. xiii. p. 353, et seq. In so large
a town as London, which must necessarily encourage a prodigious
influx of strangers from the country, there must be always a great
many persons out of work ; and it is probable, that some public
institutiou for the relief of the casual poor, upon a plan similar to
that proposed by Mr. Colquhoun (ce. xiii. p. 371) would, under
very judicious management, produce more good than evil. But
for this purpose it would be absolutely necessary that, if work were
provided by the institution, the sum that a man could earn by it
should be less than the worst paid common labour ; otherwise the
claimants would rapidly increase, and the funds would soon be
inadequate to their object. In the institution at Hamburgh,

which appears to have been the most successful of any yet esta-

blisbed, the nature of the work was such, that, though paid above
the usual price, a person could not easily earn by it more than
eighteen pence a week. It was the determined principle of the
managers of the institution, to reduce the support which they gave
lower than what any industrious man or woman in such circum-
stances could earn. (Account of the Management of the Poor in
Hamburgh, by C. Voght, p. 18.) And it is to this principle that
they attribute their success. It should be observed however, that
neither the institution at Hamburgh, nor that planned by Count
Rumford in Bavaria, has subsisted long enough for us to be able
to pronounce on their permanent good effects. It will not admit of
a doubt, that institutions for the relief of the poor, on their first
establishment, remove a great quantity of distress. The only
question is, whether, as succeeding generations arise, the increasing
funds necessary for their support, and the increasing numbers
that become dependent, are not greater evils than that which
was to be remedied ; and whether the country will not ultimately
be left with as much mendicity as before, besides all the poverty
and dependence accumulated in the public institutions. This
seems to be nearly the case in England at present. It may be
doubted whether we should have more beggars if we had no poor-
laws.

298 Objections to this Mode considered. Bk. iv.

When indigence does not produce overt acts of
vice, it palsies every virtue. Under the continued
temptations to a breach of chastity, occasional
failures may take place, and the moral sensibility
in other respects not be very strikingly impaired ;
but the continued temptations which beset hope-
less poverty, and the strong sense of injustice
that generally accompanies it from an ignorance
of its true cause, tend so powerfully to sour the
disposition, to harden the heart, and deaden the
moral sense, that, generally speaking, virtue takes
her flight clear away from the tainted spot, and
does not often return.

Even with respect to the vices which relate to
the sex, marriage has been found to be by no
means a complete remedy. Among the higher
classes, our Doctors’ Commons, and the lives that
many married men are known to lead, sufficiently
prove this; and the same kind of vice, though not
so much heard of among the lower classes of
people, is probably in all our great towns not
much less frequent.

Add to this, that abject poverty, particularly
when joined with idleness, is a state the most
unfavourable to chastity that can well be con-
ceived. The passion is as strong, or nearly so, as
in other situations ; and every restraint on it from
personal respect, or a sense of morality, is gene-
rally removed. There is a degree of squalid po-
verty, in which, if a girl was brought up, I should
say, that her being really modest at twenty was
an absolute miracle. Those persons must have

Ch. iv. Objections to this Mode considered. 299

extraordinary minds indeed, and such as are not
usually formed under similar circumstances, who
can continue to respect themselves when no other
person whatever respects them. If the children
thus brought up were even to marry at twenty,
it is probable, that they would have passed some
years in vicious habits before that period.

If after all, however, these arguments should
appear insufficient ; if we reprobate the idea of
endeavouring to encourage the virtue of moral
restraint among the poor, from a fear of producing
vice; and if we think, that to facilitate marriage
by all possible means is a point of the first conse-
quence to the morality and happiness of the
people; let us act consistently, and before we
proceed, endeavour to make ourselves acquainted
with the mode by which alone we can effect our
object.

( 300 ) Bk. iv.

CHAP. V.

Of the Consequences of pursuing the opposite Mode.

Ir is an evident truth that, whatever may be the
rate of increase in the means of subsistence, the
increase of population must be limited by it, at
least after the food has once been divided into
the smallest shares that will support life. All the
children born, beyond what would be required to
keep up the population to this level, must neces-
sarily perish, unless room be made for them by
the deaths of grown persons. It has appeared
indeed clearly in the course of this work, that in
all old states the marriages and births depend
principally upon the deaths, and that there is no
encouragement to early unions so powerful as a
great mortality. To act consistently therefore,
we should facilitate, instead of foolishly and vainly
endeavouring to impede, the operations of nature
in producing this mortality ; and if we dread the
too frequent visitation of the horrid form of famine,
we should sedulously encourage the other forms
of destruction, which we compel nature to use.
Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor,
we should encourage contrary habits. In our
towns we should make the streets narrower, crowd
more people into the houses, and court the return

Ch. v. Of the Consequences, Sc. 30]

of the plague. In the country, we should build
our villages near stagnant pools, and particularly
encourage settlements in all marshy and unwhole-
some situations.* But above all, we should re-
probate specific remedies for ravaging diseases ;
and those benevolent, but much mistaken men,
who have thought they were doing a service to
mankind by projecting schemes for the total ex-
tirpation of particular disorders. If by these and
similar means the annual mortality were increased
from 1 in 36 or 40, to 1 in 18 or 20, we might
probably every one of us marry at the age of pu-
berty, and yet few be absolutely starved.

If, however, we all marry at this age, and yet
still continue our exertions to impede the opera-
tions of nature, we may rest assured that all our
efforts will be vain. Nature will not, nor cannot,
be defeated in her purposes. The necessary mor-
tality must come, in some form or other ; and the
extirpation of one disease will only be the signal

* Necker, speaking of the proportion of the births in France,
makes use of a new and instructive expression on this subject,
though he hardly seems to be sufficiently aware of it himself. He
says, “ Le nombre des naissances est 4 celui des habitans de un 4
« vingt-trois et vingt-quatre dans les lieux contrariés par la nature,
“ ou par des circonstances morales ; ce méme rapport, dans la plus
“ grande partie de la France, est de un & 25, 253, & 26.” Ad-
minist. des Finances, tom. i. ch. ix. p. 254. 12mo. It appears,
therefore, that we have nothing more to do, than to settle people
in marshy situations, and oppress them by a bad government, in
order to attain what politicians have hitherto considered as so de-
sirable—a great proportion of marriages and a great proportion of
births,

302 Of the Consequences Bk. iv.

for the birth of another perhaps more fatal. We
“cannot lower the waters of misery by pressing
them down in different places, which must neces-
sarily make them rise somewhere else; the only
way in which we can hope to effect our purpose,
is by drawing them off. To this course nature
is constantly directing our attention by the chas-
tisements which await a contrary conduct. These
chastisements are more or less severe, in propor-
tion to the degree in which her admonitions pro-
duce their intended effect. In this country at
present these admonitions are by no means en-
tirely neglected. The preventive check to popu-
lation prevails to a considerable degree, and her
chastisements are in consequence moderate: but
if we were all to marry at the age of puberty, they
would be severe indeed. Political evils would
probably be added to physical. A people goaded
by constant distress, and visited by frequent re-
turns of famine, could not be kept down but by
a cruel despotism. We should approach to the
state of the people in Egypt or Abyssinia; and I
would ask, whether in that case it is probable,
that we should be more virtuous?

Physicians have long remarked the great changes
which take place in diseases; and that, while
some appear to yield to the efforts of human care
and skill, others seem to become in proportion
more malignant and fatal. Dr. William Heberden
published, not long since, some valuable obser-
vations on this subject deduced from the London
bills of mortality. In his preface, speaking of

Ch. v. of pursuing the opposite Mode. 303

these bills, he says, ‘‘ the gradual changes they
*« exhibit in particular diseases correspond to the
<‘ alterations, which in time are known to take
“‘ place in the channels through which the great
“« stream of mortality is constantly flowing.”* In
the body of his work, afterwards, speaking of some
particular diseases, he observes with that candour
which always distinguishes true science; ‘ It is
“not easy to give a satisfactory reason for all the
«« changes which may be observed to take place
“in the history of diseases. Nor is it any disgrace
“ to physicians, if their causes are often so gradual
‘‘in their operation, or so subtle, as to elude in-
“« vestigation.”

I hope I shall not be accused of presumption,
in venturing to suggest that, under certain circum-
stances, such changes must take place; and per-
haps without any alteration in those proximate
causes, which are usually looked to on these oc-
easions. If this should appear to be true, it will
not seem extraordinary that the most skilful and
scientific physicians, whose business it is princi-
pally to investigate proximate causes, should some-
times search for these causes in vain.

In the country which keeps its population at a
certain standard, if the average number of mar-
riages and births be given, it is evident that the
average number of deaths will also be given; and,

* Observations on the Increase and Decrease of different Dis-
eases. Preface, p.5. 4to. 1801.
+ Id. p. 43, 4to. 1801.

304 Of the Consequences Bk. iv.

to use Dr. Heberden’s metaphor, the channels,
through which the great stream of mortality is
constantly flowing, will always convey off a given
quantity. Now if we stop up any of these chan-
nels, it is perfectly clear, that the stream of mor-
tality must run with greater force through some
of the other channels; that is, if we eradicate
some diseases, others will become proportionally
more fatal. In this case the only distinguishable
cause is the damming up a necessary outlet of
mortality.* Nature, in the attainment of her great
purposes, seems always to seize upon the weakest
part. If this part be made strong by human skill,
she seizes upon the next weakest part, and so on
in succession; not like a capricious deity, with
an intention to sport with our sufferings, and con-
stantly to defeat our labours; but, like a kind,
though sometimes severe instructor, with the in-
tention of teaching us to make all parts strong,
and to chase vice and misery from the earth. In
avoiding one fault we are too apt to run into some
other; but we always find Nature faithful to her
great object, at every false step-we commit, ready
to admonish vs of our errors, by the infliction of
some physical or moral evil. If the prevalence of
the preventive check to population in a sufficient
degree were to remove many of those diseases,
which now afflict us, yet be accompanied by a

* The way in which it operates is probably by increasing
poverty, in consequence of a supply of labour too rapid for the
demand,

Ch.v. of pursuing the opposite Mode, 305

considerable increase of the vice of promiscuous
intercourse, it is probable that the disorders and
unhappiness, the physical and moral evils arising
from this vice, would increase in strength and de-
gree; and, admonishing us severely of our error,
would point to the only line of conduct approved
by nature, reason and religion, abstinence from
marriage till we can support our children, and
chastity till that period arrives.

In the case just stated, in which the population
and the number of marriages are supposed to be
fixed, the necessity of achange in the mortality of
some diseases, from the diminution or extinction
of others, is capable of mathematical demonstra-
tion. The only obscurity which can possibly in-
volve this subject, arises from taking into consi-
deration the effect that might be produced by a
diminution of mortality in increasing the popula-
tion, or in decreasing the number of marriages.
That the removal of any of the particular causes
of mortality can have no further effect upon popu-
lation than the means of subsistence will allow,
and that it has no certain and necessary influence
on these means of subsistence, are facts of which
the reader must be already convinced. Of its
operation in tending to prevent marriage, by
diminishing the demand for fresh supplies of chil-
dren, I have no doubt; and there is reason to
think, that it had this effect in no inconsiderable
degree on the extinction of the plague, which had
so long and so dreadfully ravaged this country.
Dr. Heberden draws a striking picture of the

VOL. II. x

306 Of the Consequences Bk. iv.

favourable change observed in the health of the
" people of England since this period; and justly
attributes it to the improvements which have gra-
dually taken place, not only in London but in all
great towns; and in the manner of living through-
out the kingdom, particularly with respect to
cleanliness and ventilation.* But these causes
would not have produced the effect observed, if
they had not been accompanied by an increase of
the preventive check; and probably the spirit of
cleanliness, and better mode of living, which then
began to prevail, by spreading more generally a
decent and useful pride, principally contributed
to this increase. The diminution in the number
of marriages, however, was not sufficient to make
up for the great decrease of mortality, from the
extinction of the plague, and the striking reduction
of the deaths in the dysentery.t While these and
some other disorders became almost evanescent,
consumption, palsy, apoplexy, gout, lunacy, and
the small-pox, became more mortal.{ The widen-
ing of these drains was necessary to carry off the
population which still remained redundant, not-
withstanding the increased operation of the pre-
ventive check, and the part which was annually
disposed of and enabled to subsist by the increase
of agriculture.

Dr. Haygarth, in the Sketch of his benevolent

* Observations on Increase and Decrease of Diseases, p. 35.
T Id. p. 34.
t Id. p. 36, et seq.

Ch. v. of pursuing the opposite Mode. 307

plan for the extermination of the casual small-pox,
draws a frightful picture of the mortality which
has been occasioned by this distemper, attributes
to it the slow progress of population, and makes
some curious calculations on the favourable effects
which would be produced in this respect by its
extermination.* His conclusions, however, I fear.
would not follow from his premises. I am far
from doubting that millions and millions of human
beings have been destroyed by the small-pox. But
were its devastations, as Dr. Haygarth supposes,
many thousand degrees greater than the plague,f
I should still doubt whether the average popula-
tion of the earth had been diminished by them.
The small-pox is certainly one of the channels, and
a very broad one, which nature has opened for the
last thousand years, to keep down the population
to the level of the means of subsistence; but had
this been closed, others would have become wider,
or new ones would have been formed. In ancient
times the mortality from war and the plague was
incomparably greater than in modern. On the
gradual diminution of this stream of mortality, the
generation and almost universal prevalence of the
small-pox is a great and striking instance of one
of those changes in the channels of mortality,
which ought to awaken our attention and animate
us to patient and persevering investigation. For
my own part | feel not the slightest doubt, that,

* Vol. i. part ii. sect. v. and vi.
t Id. s. viii. p. 164.
x 2

308 Of the Consequences Bk. iv.

-if the introduction of the cow-pox should extirpate
the small-pox, and yet the number of marriages
continue the same, we shall find a very perceptible
difference in the increased mortality of some other
diseases. Nothing could prevent this effect but a
sudden start in our agriculture; and if this should
take place, it will not be so much owing to the
number of children saved from death by the cow-
pox inoculation, as to the alarms occasioned
among the people of property by the late scarci-
ties,* and to the increased gains of farmers, which
have been so absurdly reprobated. Iam strongly
however inclined to believe that the number of
marriages will not, in this case, remain the same;
but that the gradual light, which may be expected
to be thrown on this interesting topic of human in-
quiry, will teach us how to make the extinction
of a mortal disorder a real blessing to us, a real
improvement in the general health and happiness
of the society.

If, on contemplating the increase of vice which
might contingently follow an attempt to inculcate
the duty of moral restraint, and the increase of
misery that must necessarily follow the attempts
to encourage ‘marriage and population, we come
to the conclusion, not to interfere in any respect,
but to leave every man to his own free choice, and
responsible only to God for the evil which he does

* The scarce harvests of 1799 and 1800. The start here
alluded to, certainly took place from 1801 to 1814, and provision
was really made for the diminished mortality.

Ch.v. of pursuing the opposite Mode. 309

in either way; this is all I contend for; I would
on no account do more; but I contend, that at
present we are very far from doing this.

Among the lower classes of society, where the
point is of the greatest importance, the poor-laws
afford a direct, constant and systematical encou-
ragement to marriage, by removing from each in-
dividual that heavy responsibility, which he would
incur by the laws of nature, for bringing beings
into the world which he could not support. Our
private benevolence has the same direction as the
poor-laws, and almost invariably tends to en-
courage marriage, and to equalize as much as
possible the circumstances of married and single
men.

Among the higher classes of people, the superior
distinctions which married women receive, and
the marked inattentions to which single women of
advanced age are exposed, enable many men,
who are agreeable neither in mind nor person, and
are besides in the wane of life, to choose a partner
among the young and fair, instead of being con-
fined, as nature seems to dictate, to persons of
nearly their own age and accomplishments. Itis
scarcely to be doubted, that the fear of being an
old maid, and of that silly and unjust ridicule,
which folly sometimes attaches to this name, drives
many women into the marriage union with men
whom they dislike, or at best to whom they are
perfectly indifferent. Such marriages must to
every delicate mind appear little better than legal
prostitutions; and they often burden the earth

310 Of the Consequences, &c. Bk. iv.

with unnecessary children, without compensating
for it by an accession of happiness and virtue to
the parties themselves.

Throughout all the ranks of society the prevail-
ing opinions respecting the duty and obligation of
marriage cannot but have avery powerful influence.
The man who thinks that, in going out of the world
without leaving representatives behind him, he
shall have failed in an important duty to society,
will be disposed to force rather than to repress his
inclinations on this subject; and when his reason
represents to him the difficulties attending a family,
he will endeavour not to attend to these sugges-
tions, will still determine to venture, and will hope
that, in the discharge of what he conceives to be
his duty, he shall not be deserted by Providence.

In a civilized country, such as England, where a
taste for the decencies and comforts of life prevails
among a very large class of people, it is not pos-
sible that the encouragements to marriage. from
positive institutions and prevailing opinions should
entirely obscure the light of nature and reason on
this subject ; but still they contribute to make it
comparatively weak and indistinct. And till this
obscurity is removed, and the poor are undeceived
with respect to the principal cause of their poverty,
and taught to know, that their happiness or misery
must depend chiefly upon themselves, it cannot
be said that, with regard to the great question of
marriage, we leave every man to his own free and
fair choice.

Bly")

CHAP. VI.

Effects of the Knowledge of the principal Cause of
Poverty on Civil Liberty.

Ir may appear, perhaps, that a doctrine, which
attributes the greatest part of the sufferings of
the lower classes of society exclusively to them-
selves, is unfavourable to the cause of liberty, as
affording a tempting opportunity to governments
of oppressing their subjects at pleasure, and lay-
ing the whole blame on the laws of nature and
the imprudence of the poor. We are not, how-
ever, to trust to first appearances; and I am
strongly disposed to believe that those who will
be at the pains to consider this subject deeply
will be convinced, that nothing would so power-
fully contribute to the advancement of rational
freedom, as a thorough knowledge generally cir-
culated of the principal cause of poverty; and
that the ignorance of this cause, and the natural
consequences of this ignorance, form, at present,
one of the chief obstacles to its progress.

The pressure of distress on the lower classes
of people, together with the habit of attributing
this distress to their rulers, appears to me to be
the rock of defence, the castle, the guardian spirit
of despotism. It affords to the tyrant the fatal
and unanswerable plea of necessity. It is the

312 Effects of the Knowledge of Bk. iv.

_reason why every free government tends constant-
ly to destruction; and that its appointed guar-
dians become daily less jealous of the encroach-
ments of power. Itis the reason why so many
noble efforts in the cause of freedom have failed;
and why almost every revolution, after long and
painful sacrifices, has terminated in a military
despotism. While any dissatisfied man of talents
has power to persuade the lower classes of people
that all their poverty and distress arise solely from
the iniquity of the government, though, perhaps,
the greatest part of what they suffer is uncon-
nected with this cause, itis evident that the seeds
of fresh discontents and fresh revolutions are con-
tinually sewing. When an established government
has been destroyed, finding that their poverty
is not removed, their resentment naturally falls
upon the successors to power; and when these
have been immolated without producing the de-
sired effect, other sacrifices are called for, and so
on without end. Are we to be surprised that,
under such circumstances, the majority of well-
disposed people, finding that a government with
proper restrictions is unable to support itself
against the revolutionary spirit, and weary and
exhausted with perpetual change to which they
can see no end, should give up the struggle in
despair, and throw themselves into the arms of
the first power which can afford them protection
against the horrors of anarchy ?

A mob, which is generally the growth of a re-
dundant population goaded by resentment for real

Ch. vi. the principal Cause of Poverty, Sc. 313

sufferings, but totally ignorant of the quarter from
which they originate, is of all monsters the most
fatal to freedom. It fosters a prevailing tyranny,
and engenders one where it was not; and though,
in its dreadful fits of resentment, it appears oc-
casionally to devour its unsightly offspring; yet
no sooner is the horrid deed committed, than,
however unwilling it may be to propagate such a
breed, it immediately groans with a new birth.
Of the tendency of mobs to produce tyranny
we may not, perhaps, be long without an example
in this country. Asa friend to freedom, and na-
turally an enemy to large standing armies, it is
with extreme reluctance that I am compelled to
acknowledge that, had it not been for the great
organized force in the country, the distresses of
the people during the late scarcities,* encouraged
by the extreme ignorance and folly of many
among the higher classes, might have driven them
to commit the most dreadful outrages, and ulti-
mately to involve the country in all the horrors
of famine. Should such periods often recur, (a
recurrence which we have too much reason to ap-
prehend from the present state of the country,)
the prospect which opens to our view is melan-
choly in the extreme. The English constitution
will be seen hastening with rapid strides to the
Euthanasia foretold by Hume, unless its progress
be interrupted by some popular commotion ; and
this alternative presents a picture still more ap-

* 1800 and 1801.

314 Effects of the Knowledge of Bk. iv.

_ palling to the imagination. If political discon-
tents were blended with the cries of hunger, and
a revolution were to take place by the instrumen-
tality of a mob clamouring for want of food,
the consequences would be unceasing change and
unceasing carnage, the bloody career of which
nothing but the establishment of some complete
despotism could arrest.

We can scarcely believe that the appointed
guardians of British liberty should quietly have
acquiesced in those gradual encroachments of
power which have taken place of late years, but
from the apprehension of these still more dread-
ful evils. Great as has been the influence of cor-
ruption, I cannot yet think so meanly of the coun-
try gentlemen of England, as to believe that they
would thus have given up a part of their birth-
right of liberty, if they had not been actuated by
a real and genuine fear that it was then in greater
danger from the people than from the crown. They
appeared to surrender themselves to government,
on condition of being protected from the mob; but
they never would have made this melancholy and
disheartening surrender, if such a mob had not
existed either in reality or in imagination. That
the fears on this subject were artfully exaggerated
and increased beyond the limits of just apprehen-
sion, is undeniable ; but I think it is also undeni-
able that the frequent declamations which were
heard against the unjust institutions of society,
and the delusive arguments on equality which
were circulated among the lower classes, gave us

Ch. vi. the principal Cause of Poverty, &c. 315

just reason to suppose that, if the vor populi had
been allowed to speak, it would have appeared to
be the voice of error and absurdity, instead of the
vor Dei.

To say that our conduct is not to be regulated
by circumstances, is to betray an ignorance of
the most solid and incontrovertible principles of
morality. Though the admission of this principle
may sometimes afford a cloak to changes of opi-
nion that do not result from the purest motives ;
yet the admission of a contrary principle would
be productive of infinitely worse consequences.
The phrase of “ existing circumstances” has, I
believe, not unfrequently created a smile in the
English House of Commons; but the smile should
have been reserved for the application of the
phrase, and not have been excited by the phrase
itself. A very frequent repetition of it has indeed,
of itself, rather a suspicious air; and its application
should always be watched with the most jealous
and anxious attention; but no man ought to be
judged in limine for saying, that existing circum-
stances had obliged him to alter his opinions and
conduct. The country gentlemen were, perhaps,
too easily convinced that existing circumstances
called upon them to give up some of the most
valuable privileges of Englishmen; but as far as
they were really convinced of this obligation, they
acted consistently with the clearest rule of mo-
rality.

The degree of power to be given to the civil
government, and the measure of our submission

316 Effect of the Knowledge of Bk. iv.

to it, must be determined by general expediency ;
and in judging of this expediency every circum-
stance is to be taken into consideration; particu-
larly the state of public opinion, and the degree
of ignorance and delusion prevailing among the
common people. The patriot who might be called
upon by the love of his country to join with heart
and hand in a rising of the people for some spe-
cific attainable object of reform, if he knew that
they were enlightened respecting their own situa-
tion, and would stop short when they had attain-
ed their demand, would be called upon by the
same motive to submit to very great oppression
rather than give the slightest countenance toa
popular tumult, the members of which, at least
the greater number of them, were persuaded that
the destruction of the Parliament, the Lord
Mayor, and the monopolizers, would make bread
cheap, and that a revolution would enable them
all to support their families. In this case it is
more the ignorance and delusion of the lower
classes of the people that occasions the oppres-
sion, than the actual disposition of the government
to tyranny.

That there is, however, in all power a constant
tendency to encroach is an incontrovertible truth,
and cannot be too strongly inculcated. The
checks, which are necessary to secure the liberty
of the subject, will always in some degree em-
barrass and delay the operations of the executive
government. ‘The members of this government
feeling these inconveniences, while they are ex-

Ch. vi. the principal Cause of Poverty, &c. 317

erting themselves, as they conceive, in the service
of their country, and conscious, perhaps, of no ,
ill intention towards the people, will naturally be
disposed, on every occasion, to demand the sus-
pension or abolition of these checks; but if once
the convenience of ministers be put in competi-
tion with the liberties of the people, and we get
into a habit of relying on fair assurances and per-
sonal character, instead of examining, with the
most scrupulous and jealous care, the merits of
each particular case, there is an end of British
freedom. If we once admit the principle, that
the government must know better with regard to
the quantity of power which it wants, than we
can possibly do with our limited means of infor-
mation, and that, therefore, it is our duty to sur-
render up our private judgments, we may just as
well at the same time surrender up the whole of
our constitution. Government is a quarter in
which liberty is not, nor cannot be, very faithfully
preserved. If we are wanting to ourselves, and
inattentive to our great interests in this respect,
it is the height of folly and unreasonableness to
expect that government will attend to them for
us. Should the British constitution ultimately
lapse into a despotism, as has been prophesied, I
shall think that the country gentlemen of England
will have much more to answer for than the mi-
nisters.

To do the country gentlemen justice, however,
I should readily acknowledge that in the partial
desertion of their posts as guardians of British

318 Effects of the Knowledge of Bk. iy.

freedom, which has already taken place, they
have been actuated more by fear than corruption.
And the principal reason of this fear was, I con-
ceive, the ignorance and delusions of the common
people, and the prospective horrors which were
contemplated, if in such a state of mind they
should by any revolutionary movement obtain an
ascendant.

The circulation of Paine’s Rights of Man, it is
supposed, has done great mischief among the
lower and middling classes of people in this coun-
try. Thisis probably true; but not because man
is without rights, or that these rights ought not to
be known; but because Mr. Paine has fallen into
some fundamental errors respecting the principles
of government, and in many important points has
shewn himself totally uriacquanted with the struc-
ture of society, and the different moral effects to
be expected from the physical difference between
this country and America. Mobs of the same
description as those collections of people known
by this name in Europe could not exist in Ame-
rica. The number of people without property is
there, from the physical state of the country,
comparatively small; and therefore the civil
power, which is to protect property, cannot re-
quire the same degree of strength. Mr. Paine
very justly observes, that whatever the apparent
cause of any riots may be, the real one is always
want of happiness; but when he goes on to say,
it shews that something is wrong in the system
of government, that injures the felicity by which

Ch. vi. the principal Cause of Poverty, &¢. 319

society is to be preserved, he falls into the com-

mon error of attributing all want of happiness to

government. It is evident that this want of hap-

piness might have existed, and from ignorance

might have been the principal cause of the riots,

and yet be almost wholly unconnected with any

of the proceedings of government. The redundant

population of an old state furnishes materials of
unhappiness, unknown to such a state as that of
America; and if an attempt were to be made to

remedy this unhappiness by distributing the pro-

duce of the taxes to the poorer classes of society,

according to the plan proposed by Mr. Paine, the

evil would be aggravated a hundred fold, and in a

very short time no sum that the society could

possibly raise would be adequate to the proposed
object.

Nothing would so effectually counteract the
mischiefs occasioned by Mr. Paine’s Rights of
Man, as a general knowledge of the real rights of
man. What these rights are it is not my business
at present to explain; but there is one right which
man has generally been thought to possess, which
I am confident he neither does nor can possess—
a right to subsistence when his labour will not
fairly purchase it. Our laws indeed say that he has
this right, and bind the society to furnish employ-
ment and food to those who cannot get them in
the regular market ; but in so doing they attempt
to reverse the laws of nature; and it is in conse-
quence to be expected, not only that they should
fail in their object, but that the poor, who were

320 Effects of the Knowledge of Bk, iv.

intended to be benefited, should suffer most
cruelly from the inhuman deceit thus practised
upon them.

The Abbé Raynal has said, that ‘‘ Avant toutes
«les loix sociales 'homme avoit le droit de sub-
‘« sister.”* He might with just as much propriety
have said that, before the institution of social
laws, every man had a right to live a hundred
years. Undoubtedly he had then, and has still,
a good right to live a hundred years, nay a thou-
sand if he can, without interfering with the right
of others to live; but the affair in both cases is
principally an affair of power not of right. Social
laws very greatly increase this power, by enabling
a much greater number to subsist than could sub-
sist without them, and so far very greatly enlarge
le droit de subsister; but, neither before nor after
the institution of social laws, could -an unlimited
number subsist; and before as well as since, he
who ceased to have the power ceased to have the
right.

If the great truths on these subjects were more
generally circulated, and the lower classes of
people could be convinced that by the laws of
nature, independently of any particular institu-
tions, except the great one of property, which is
absolutely necessary in order to attain any con-
siderable produce, no person has any claim of
right on society for subsistence, if his labour will
not purchase it, the greatest part of the mischievous
declamation on the unjust institutions of society

* Raynal Hist. des ‘ndes, vol. x. s, x. p. 522, 8vo.

Ch. vi. the principal Cause of Poverty, Sc. 321

would fall powerless to the ground. The poor
are by no means inclined to be visionary. Their
distresses are always real, though they are not
attributed to the real causes. If these causes
were properly explained to them, and they were
taught to know what part of their present distress
was attributable to government, and what part to
causes totally unconnected with it, discontent and
irritation among the lower classes of people would
shew themselves much less frequently than at
present; and when they did shew themselves,
would be much less to be dreaded. The efforts
of turbulent and discontented men in the middle
classes of society might safely be disregarded, if
the poor were so far enlightened respecting the
real nature of their situation, as to be aware that
by aiding them in their schemes of renovation,
they would probably be promoting the ambitious
views of others, without in any respect benefiting
themselves. The country gentlemen and men
of property in England might securely return to
a wholesome jealousy of the encroachments of
power ; and instead of daily sacrificing the liber-
ties of the subject on the altar of public safety,
might, without any just apprehension from the
people, not only tread back their late steps, but
firmly insist upon those gradual reforms, which the
lapse of time and the storms of the political world
have rendered necessary, to prevent the gradual
destruction of the British constitution.

All improvements in governments must neces-
sarily originate with persons of some education ;

VOL. I. Y

322 Effects of the Knowledge of Bk. iv.

and these will of course be found among the people
of property. Whatever may be said of a few, it
is impossible to suppose that the great mass of
the people of property should be really interested
in the abuses of government. They merely submit
to them from the fear that an endeavour to remove
them might be productive of greater evils. Could
we but take away this fear, reform and improve-
ment would proceed with as much facility as the
removal of nuisances, or the paving and lighting
of the streets. In human life we are continually
called upon to submit to a lesser evil in order to
avoid a greater; and it is the part of a wise man
to do this readily and cheerfully; but no wise
man will submit to any evil, if he can get rid of it
without danger. Remove all apprehension from
the tyranny or folly of the people, and the tyranny
of government could not stand a moment. It
would then appear in its proper deformity, with-
out palliation, without pretext, without protector.
Naturally feeble in itself, when it was once stripped
naked, and deprived of the support of public opi-
nion and of the great plea of necessity, it would
fall without a struggle. Its few interested de-
fenders would hide their heads abashed, and
would be ashamed any longer to support a cause,
for which no human ingenuity could invent a
plausible argument.

The most successful supporters of tyranny are
without doubt those general declaimers, who at-
tribute the distresses of the poor, and almost all
the evils to which society is subject, to human in-
stitutions and the iniquity of governments. The

Ch. vi. the principal Cause of Poverty, &c. 328

falsity of these accusations, and the dreadful con-
sequences that would result from their being ge-
nerally admitted and acted upon, make it abso-
lutely necessary that they should at all events be
resisted ; not only on account of the immediate
revolutionary horrors to be expected from a move-
ment of the people acting under such impressions,
(a consideration which must at all times have very
great weight) ; but also on account of the extreme
probability that such a revolution would terminate
in a much worse despotism than that which it had
destroyed. On these grounds a genuine friend of
freedom, a zealous advocate for the real rights of
man, might be found among the defenders of-a
considerable degree of tyranny. A cause bad in
itself might be supported by the good and the
virtuous, merely because that which was opposed
to it was much worse; and because it was abso-
lutely necessary at the moment to make a choice
between the two. Whatever therefore may be
the intention of those indiscriminate accusations
against governments, their real effect undoubtedly
is, to add a weight of talents and principles to the
prevailing power, which it never would have re-
ceived otherwise.

[t is a truth, which I trust has been sufficiently
proved in the course of this work, that under a
government constructed upon the best and purest
principles, and executed by men of the highest
talents and integrity, the most squalid poverty and
wretchedness might universally prevail from an
inattention to the prudential check to population.

¥ 2

324 Effects of the Knowledge of Bk. iv.

And as this cause of unhappiness has hitherto
been so little understood, that the efforts of so-
ciety have always tended rather to aggravate than
to lessen it, we have the strongest reasons for
supposing that, in all the governments with which
we are acquainted, a great part of the misery to
be observed among the lower classes of the people
arises from this cause.

The inference therefore which Mr. Paine and
others have drawn against governments from the
unhappiness of the people, is palpably unfair; and
before we give a sanction to such accusations, it
is a debt we owe to truth and justice, to ascertain
how much of this unhappiness arises from the
principle of population, and how much is fairly to
be attributed to government. When this distinc-
tion has been properly made, and all the vague,
indefinite and false accusations removed, govern-
ment would remain, as it ought to be, clearly
responsible for the rest; and the amount of this
would still be such as to make the responsibility
very considerable. Though government has but
little power in the direct and immediate relief of
poverty, yet its indirect influence on the pro-
sperity of its subjects is striking and incontestable.
And the reason is, that though it is comparatively
impotent in its efforts to make the food of a country
keep pace with an unrestricted increase of popu-
lation, yet its influence is great in giving the best
direction to those checks, which in some form or
other must necessarily take place. It has clearly
appeared in the former part of this work, that the

Ch. vi. the Principal Cause of Poverty, Sc. 325

most despotic and worst-governed countries, how-
ever low they might be in actual population, were
uniformly the most populous in proportion to
their means of subsistence; and the necessary
effect of this state of things must of course be very
low wages. In such countries the checks to po-
pulation arise more from the sickness and mor-
tality consequent on poverty, than from the pru-
dence and foresight which restrain the frequency
and universality of early marriages. The checks
are more of the positive and less of the preventive
kind.

The first grand requisite to the growth of pru-
dential habits is the perfect security of property ;
and the next perhaps is that respectability and
importance, which are given to the lower classes
by equal laws, and the possession of some influ-
ence in the framing of them. The more excellent
therefore is the government, the more does it tend
to generate that prudence and elevation of senti-
ment, by which alone in the present state of our
being poverty can be avoided.

It has been sometimes asserted that the only
reason why it is advantageous that the people
should have some share in the government, is that
a representation of the people tends best to secure
the framing of good and equal laws; but that, if
the same object could be attained under a despo-
tism, the same advantage would accrue to the
community. If however the representative sys-
tem, by securing to the lower classes of society a
more equal and liberal mode of treatment from

326 Effects of the Knowledge of Bk. iv.

their superiors, gives to each individual a greater
personal respectability, and a greater fear of per-
sonal degradation ; it is evident that it will power-
fully co-operate with the security of property in
animating the exertions of industry, and in gene-
rating habits of prudence; and thus more power-
fully tend to increase the riches and prosperity of
the lower classes of the community, than if the
same laws had existed under a despotism.

But though the tendency of a free constitution
and a good government to diminish poverty be
certain; yet their effect in this way must neces-
sarily be indirect and slow, and very different from
the direct and immediate relief, which the lower
classes of people are too frequently in the habit of
looking forward to as the consequence of a revo-
lution. This habit of expecting too much, and
the irritation occasioned by disappointment, con-
tinually give a wrong direction to their efforts in
favour of liberty, and constantly tend to defeat the
accomplishment of those gradual reforms in go-
vernment, and that slow melioration of the con-
dition of the lower classes of society, which are
really attaiable. It is of the very highest im-
portance therefore, to know distinctly what govern-
ment cannot do, as well as what it can. If l were
called upon to name the cause, which, in my con-
ception, had more than any other contributed to
the very slow progress of freedom, so dishearten-
ing to every liberal mind, I should say that it was
the confusion that had existed respecting the
causes of the unhappiness and discontents which

Ch. vi. the Principal Cause of Poverty, &c. 327

prevail in society; and the advantage which
governments had been able to take, and indeed
had been compelled to take, of this confusion, to
confirm and strengthen their power. I cannot
help thinking therefore, that a knowledge gene-
rally circulated, that the principal cause of want
and unhappiness is only indirectly connected with
government, and totally beyond its power di-
rectly to remove, and that it depends upon the
conduct of the poor themselves, would, instead
of giving any advantage to governments, give a
great additional weight to the popular side of the
question, by removing the dangers with which
from ignorance it is at present accompanied, and
thus tend, in a very powerful manner, to promote
the cause of rational freedom.

C'S26" 4) Bk. iv.

CHAP. VII.
Continuation of the same Subject.*

Tue reasonings of the foregoing chapter have been
strikingly confirmed by the events of the last two
or three years. Perhaps there never wasa period -
when more erroneous views were formed by the
lower classes of society of the effects to be ex-
pected from reforms in the government, when
these erroneous views were more immediately
founded on a total misapprehension of the princi-
pal cause of poverty, and when they more directly
led to results unfavourable to liberty.

One of the main causes of complaint against
the government has been, that a considerable
number of labourers, who are both able and
willing to work, are wholly out of employment,
and unable consequently to command the neces-
saries of life. That this state of things is one of
the most afflicting events that can occur in civi-
lized life, that it is a natural and pardonable
cause of discontent among the lower classes of
society, and that every effort should be made by
the higher classes to mitigate it, consistently with
a proper care not to render it permanent, no man

* Written in 1817.

Ch. vii. Continuation of the same Subject. 329

of humanity can doubt. But that such a state of
things may occur in the best-conducted and most
economical government that ever existed is as
certain, as that governments have not the power
of commanding with effect the resources of a
country to be progressive, when they are naturally
stationary or declining.

It will be allowed that periods of prosperity
may occur in any well-governed state, during
which an extraordinary stimulus may be given to
its wealth and population, which cannot in its na-
ture be permanent. If, for instance, new channels
of trade are opened, new colonies are possessed,
new inventions take place in machinery, and new
and great improvements are made in agriculture,
it is quite obvious that while the markets at home
and abroad will readily take off at advantageous
prices the increasing produce, there must be a
rapid increase of capital, and an unusual stimulus
given to the population. On the other hand, if
subsequently these channels of trade are either
closed by accident, or contracted by foreign com-
petition ; if colonies are lost, or the same produce
is supplied from other quarters ; if the markets,
either from glut or competition, cease to extend
with the extension of the new machinery; and if
the improvements in agriculture from any cause
whatever cease to be progressive, it is as obvious
that, just at the time when the stimulus to popu-
lation has produced its greatest effect, the means
of employing and supporting this population may,
in the natural course of things, and without any

330 Continuation of the same Subject. Bk. iv.

fault whatever in the government, become deficient.
This failure must unavoidably produce great dis-
tress among the labouring classes of society; but
it is quite clear that no inference can be drawn
- from this distress, that a radical change is required
in the government; and the attempt to accomplish
such a change might only aggravate the evil.

It has been supposed in this case, that the go-
vernment has in no respect by its conduct contri-
buted to the pressure in question, a supposition
which in practice perhaps will rarely be borne out
by the fact. It is unquestionably in the power of
a government to produce great distress by war
and taxation, and it requires some skill to distin-
guish the distress which is the natural result of
these causes, from that which is occasioned in the
way just described. In our own case unquestion-
ably both descriptions of causes have combined,
but the former ina greater degree than the latter.
War and taxation, as far as they operate directly
and simply, tend to destroy or retard the progress
of capital, produce, and population; but during
the late war these checks to prosperity have been
much more than overbalanced by a combination
of circumstances which has given an extraordi-
nary stimulus to production. That for this over-
balance of advantages the country cannot be
considered as much indebted to the government,
is most certain. The government during the last
twenty-five years has shewn no very great love
either of peace or liberty ; and no particular eco-
nomy in the use of the national resources. It has

Ch. vii. Continuation of the same Subject. 331

proceeded in a very straight-forward manner to
spend great sums in war, and to raise them by
very heavy taxes. It has no doubt done its part
towards the dilapidation of the national resources.
But still the broad fact must stare every impartial
observer in the face, that at the end of the war
in 1814 the national resources were not dilapi-
dated; and that not only were the wealth and
population of the country considerably greater
than they were at the commencement of the war,
but that they had increased in the interval at a
more rapid rate than was ever experienced before.

Perhaps this may justly be considered as one
of the most extraordinary facts in history; and it
certainly follows from it, that the sufferings of the
country since the peace have not been occasioned
so much by the usual and most natural effects to
be expected from war and taxation, as by the
sudden ceasing of an extraordinary stimulus to
production, the distresses consequent upon which,
though increased no doubt by the weight of tax-
ation, do not essentially arise from it, and are
not directly, therefore, and immediately, to be re-
lieved by its removal.

That the labouring classes of society should not
be fully aware that the main causes of their dis-
tress are, to a certain extent and for a certain
time, irremediable, is natural enough; and that
they should listen much more readily and willingly
to those who confidently promise immediate re-
lief, rather than to those who can only tell them
unpalatable truths, is by no means surprising,

332 Continuation of the same Subject. Bk. iv.

- But it must be allowed that full advantage has
been taken by the popular orators and writers of
a crisis which has given them so much power.
Partly from ignorance, and partly from design,
every thing that could tend to enlighten the la-
bouring classes as to the real nature of their situ-
ation, and encourage them to bear an unavoidable
pressure with patience, has been either sedulously
kept out of their view, or clamorously reprobated ;
and every thing that could tend to deceive them,
to aggravate and encourage their discontents, and
to raise unreasonable and extravagant expecta-
tions as to the relief to be expected from reform,
has been as sedulously brought forward. If under
these circumstances the reforms proposed had
been accomplished, it is impossible that the people
should not have been most cruelly disappointed ;
and under a system of universal suffrage and
annual parliaments, a general. disappointment of
the people would probably lead to every sort of
experiment in government, till the career of change
was stopped by a military despotism. The warm-
est friends of genuine liberty might justly feel
alarmed at such a prospect. Toa cause conducted
upon such principles, and likely to be attended
with such results, they could not of course, con-
sistently with their duty, lend any assistance.
And if with great difficulty, and against the sense
of the great mass of petitioners, they were to
effect a more moderate and more really useful re-
form, they could not but feel certain that the un-
avoidable disappointment of the people would be

Ch. vii. Continuation of the same Subject.” 333

attributed to the half-measures which had been
pursued; and that they would be either forced to
proceed to more radical changes, or submit to a
total loss of their influence and popularity by
stopping short while the distresses of the people
were unrelieved, their discontents unallayed, and
the great panacea on which they had built their
sanguine expectations untried.

These considerations have naturally paralyzed
the exertions of the best friends of liberty; and
those salutary reforms which are acknowedged to
be necessary in order to repair the breaches of
time, and improve the fabric of our constitution,
are thus rendered much more difficult, and con-
sequently much less probable.

But not only have the false expectations and
extravagant demands suggested by the leaders of
the people given an easy victory to government
over every proposition for reform, whether violent
or moderate, but they have furnished the most
fatal instruments of offensive attack against the
constitution itself. They are naturally calculated
to excite some alarm, and to check moderate re-
form; but alarm, when once excited, seldom
knows where to stop, and the causes of it are par-
ticularly liable to be exaggerated. There is reason
to believe that it has been under the influence of
exaggerated statements, and of inferences drawn
by exaggerated fears from these statements, that
acts unfavourable to liberty have been passed
without an adequate necessity. But the power

334 Continuation of the same Subject. Bk. iv.

. of creating these exaggerated fears, and of passing
these acts, has been unquestionably furnished by
the extravagant expectations of the people. And
it must be sallowed that the present times furnish
a very striking illustration of the doctrine, that an
ignorance of the principal cause of poverty is
peculiarly unfavourable, and that a knowledge of
it must be peculiarly favourable, to the cause of
civil liberty.

( 835 )

CHAP. VIII.

Plan of the gradual Abolition of the’ Poor Laws
proposed.

Ir the principles in the preceding chapters should
stand the test of examination, and we should ever
feel the obligation of endeavouring to act upon
them, the next inquiry would be, in what way we
ought practically to proceed. The first grand
obstacle which presents itself in this country is
the system of the poor-laws, which has been justly
stated to be an evil, in comparison of which the
national debt, with all its magnitude of terror, is
of little moment.* The rapidity with which the
poor’s rates have increased of late years presents
us indeed with the prospect of such an extraordi-
nary proportion of paupers in the society, as would
seem to be incredible in a nation flourishing in
arts, agriculture and commerce, and witha govern-
ment which has generally been allowed to be the
best that has hitherto stood the test of experi-
ence. tT

* Reports of the Society for bettering the Condition of the Poor,
vol. iii. p. 21.

+ If the poor’s rates continue increasing as rapidly as they have
done on the average of the last ten years, how melancholy are our
future prospects! The system of the poor-laws has been justly
stated by the French to be /a plate politique de l Angleterre la plus
devorante. (Comité de Mendicité.)

336 Plan of the gradual Abolition Bk. iv.

Greatly as we may be shocked at such a pro-
spect, and ardently as we may wish to remove ut,
the evil is now so deeply seated, and the relief
given by the poor-laws so widely extended, that
no man of humanity could venture to propose
their immediate abolition. To mitigate their ef-
fects however and stop their future increase, to
which, if left to continue upon their present plan,
we can see no probable termination, it has been
proposed to fix the whole sum to be raised at its
present rate, or any other that might be determined
upon; and to make a law, that on no account this
sum should be exceeded. The objection to this
plan is, that a very large sum would be still to be
raised, and a great number of people to be sup-
ported; the consequence of which would be, that
the poor would not be easily able to distinguish
the alteration that had been made. Each indi-
vidual would think that he had as good a right to
be supported when he was in want as any other
person; and those who unfortunately chanced to
be in distress, when the fixed sum had been col-
lected, would think themselves particularly ill used
on being excluded from all assistance, while so
many others were enjoying this advantage. If
the sum collected were divided among all that
were in want, however their numbers might in-
crease, though such a plan would not be so unfair
with regard to those who became dependent after
the sum had been fixed, it would undoubtedly be
very hard upon those who had been in the habit
of receiving a more liberal supply, and had done

Ch. vii. Of the Poor-Laws proposed. 337

nothing to justify its being taken from them: and
in both cases it would certainly be unjust in the
society to undertake the support of the poor, and
yet, if their numbers increased, to feed them so
sparingly, that they must necessarily die of hunger
and disease.

I have reflected much on the subject of the poor-
laws, and hope therefore that I shall be excused
in venturing to suggest a mode of their gradual
abolition, to which I confess that at present I can
see no material objection. Of this indeed I feel
nearly convinced, that, should we ever become
so fully sensible of the wide-spreading tyranny,
dependence, indolence and unhappiness which
they create, as seriously to make an effort to
abolish them, we shall be compelled by a sense of
justice to adopt the principle, if not the plan, which
I shall mention. Itseems impossible to get rid of
so extensive a system of support, consistently
with humanity, without applying ourselves directly
to its vital principle, and endeavouring to coun-
teract that deeply-seated cause which occasions
the rapid growth of all such establishments, and
invariably renders them inadequate to their object.

As a previous step even to any considerable al-
teration in the present system, which would con-
tract or stop the increase of the relief to be given,
it appears to me that we are bound in justice and
honour formally to disclaim the right of the poor
to support.

To this end, I should propose a regulation to
be made, declaring, that no child born from any

VOL. If. zZ

338 Plan of the gradual Abolition Bk. iv.

_marriage, taking place after the expiration of a
year from the date of the law, and no illegitimate
child born two years from the same date, should
ever be entitled to parish assistance. And to give
a more general knowledge of this law, and to en-
force it more strongly on the minds of the lower
. classes of people, the clergyman of each parish
should, after the publication of banns, read a short
address, stating the strong obligation on every
man to support his own children; the impropriety,
and even immorality, of marrying without a pro-
spect of being able to do this; the evils which had
resulted to the poor themselves from the attempt
which had been made to assist by public institu-
tions in a duty which ought to be exclusively ap-
propriated to parents; and the absolute necessity
which had at length appeared of abandoning all
such institutions, on account of their producing
effects totally opposite to those which were in-
tended.

This would operate as a fair, distinct and pre-
cise notice, which no man could well mistake ;
and, without pressing hard on any particular in-
dividuals, would at once throw off the rising ge-
neration from that miserable and helpless depen-
dence upon the government and the rich, the
moral as well as physical consequences of which
are almost incalculable.

After the public notice which I have proposed
had been given, and the system of poor-laws had
ceased with regard to the rising generation, if any
man chose to marry, without a prospect of being

Ch. viii. of the Poor-Laws proposed. 339

able to support a family, he should have the most
perfect liberty so to do. Though to marry, in this
case, is, iN my opinion, clearly an immoral act,
yet it is not one which society can justly take
upon itself to prevent or punish; because the pu-
nishment provided for it by’the laws of nature
falls directly and most severely upon the indivi-
dual who commits the act, and through him, only
more remotely and feebly, on the society. When
nature will govern and punish for us, it is a very
miserable ambition to wish to snatch the rod from
her hands, and draw upon ourselves the odium of
executioner. To the punishment therefore of na-
ture he shoud be left, the punishment of want.
He has erred in the face of a most clear and pre-
cise warning, and can have no just reason to com-
plain of any person but himself when he feels the
consequences of his error. All parish assistance
should be denied him ; and he should be left to the
uncertain support of private charity. He should
be taught to know, that the laws of nature, which
are the laws of God, had doomed him and his fa-
mily to suffer for disobeying their repeated admo-
nitions ; that he had no claim of right on society
for the smallest portion of food, beyond that which
his labour would fairly purchase; and that if he
and his family were saved from feeling the natural
consequences of his imprudence, he would owe
it to the pity of some kind benefactor, to whom,
therefore, he ought to be bound by the strongest
ties of gratitude.

If this system were pursued, we need be under

z2

340 Plan of the gradual Abolition Bk. iv.

no apprehensions that the number of persons in
extreme want would be beyond the power and
the will of the benevolent to supply. The sphere
for the exercise of private charity would, proba-
bly, not be greater than it is at present; and the
principal difficulty would be, to restrain the hand
of benevolence from assisting those in distress in
so indiscriminate a manner as to encourage indo-
lence and want of foresight in others.

With regard to illegitimate children, after the
proper notice had been given, they should not be
allowed to have any claim to parish assistance, but
be left entirely to the support of private charity.
If the parents desert their child, they ought to
be made answerable for the crime. The infant
is, comparatively speaking, of little value to the
society, as others will immediately supply its
place. Its principal value is on account of its
being the object of one of the most delightful
passions in human nature—-parental affection.
But if this value be disregarded by those who are
alone in a capacity to feel it, the society cannot
be called upon to put itself in their place; and
has no further business in its protection than to
punish the crime of desertion or intentional ill
treatment in the persons whose duty it is to pro-
vide for it.

At present the child is taken under the protec-
' tion of the parish,* and generally dies, at least in

* J fully agree with Sir F. M. Eden, in thinking that the con-
stant public support which deserted children receive is the cause
of their very great numbers in the two most opulent countries of
Europe, France and England. State of the Poor, vol. i. p. 339.

Ch. viii. of the Poor-Laws proposed. 341

London, within the first year. The loss to the
society is the same; but the crime is diluted by
the number of people concerned, and the death
passes as a visitation of Providence, instead of .
being considered as the necessary consequence of
the conduct of its parents, for which they ought
to be held responsible to God and to society.

The desertion of both parents, however, is not
so common as the desertion of one. When a ser-
vant or labouring man has an illegitimate child,
his running away is perfectly a matter of course;
and it is by no means uncommon for a man who
has a wife and large family to withdraw into a
distant county, and leave them to the parish; in-
deed I once heard a hard-working good sort of
man propose to do this, as the best mode of pro-
viding for a wife and six children.* If the simple
fact of these frequent desertions were related in
some countries, a strange inference would be drawn
against the English character; but the wonder
would cease when our public institutions were
explained.

By the laws of nature, a child is confided di-
rectly and exclusively to the protection of its pa-
rents. By the laws of nature, the mother of a
child is confided almost as strongly and exclusively
to the man who is the father of it. If these ties

* “That many of the poorer classes of the community avail
“ themselves of the liberality of the law, and leave their wives and
* children on the parish, the reader will find abundant proof in
“ the subsequent part of this work.” Sir ‘F.M. Eden on the State
of the Poor, vol. i. p. 339.

342 Plan of the gradual Abolition Bk. iv.

- were suffered to remain in the state in which na-
ture has left them, and the man were convinced
that the woman and the child depended solely
upon him for support, I scarcely believe that there
are ten men breathing so atrocious as to desert
them. But our laws, in opposition to the laws of
nature, say, that if the parents forsake their child,
other persons will undertake to support it; or, if
the man forsake the woman, that she shall still
meet with protection elsewhere; that is, we take
all possible pains to weaken and render null the
ties of nature, and then say that men are unna-
tural. But the fact is, that the society itself, in
its body politic, is the unnatural character, for
framing laws that thus counteract the laws of na-
ture, and give premiums to the violation of the
best and most honourable feelings of the human
heart.

It is a common thing in most parishes, when
the father of an illegitimate child can be seized,
to endeavour to frighten him into marriage by
the terrors of a jail; but such a proceeding cannot
surely be too strongly reprobated. In the first
place, it is a most shallow policy in the parish
officers; for, if they succeed, the effect upon the
present system will generally be, that of having
three or four children to provide for, instead of one.
And in the next place it is difficult to conceive a
more gross and scandalous profanation of a reli-
gious ceremony. Those who believe that the
character of a woman is restored by such a forced
engagement, or that the moral worth of the man

Ch. viii. of the Poor-Laws proposed. 343

is enhanced by affirming a lie before God, have,
I confess, very different ideas of delicacy and
morality from those which I have been taught to
consider as just. If a man deceive a woman into
a connexion with him under a promise of marriage,
he has undoubtedly been guilty of a most atroci-
ous act, and there are few crimes which merit a
more severe punishment; but the last that I should
choose is that which will oblige him to affirm
another falsehood, which will probably render the
woman that he is to be joined to miserable, and
will burden the society with a family of paupers.

The obligation on every man to support his
children, whether legitimate or illegitimate, is so
clear and strong, that it would be just to arm so-
ciety with any power to enforce it, which would
be likely to answer the purpose. But I am in-
clined to believe that no exercise of the civil power,
however rigorous, would be half so effectual as a
knowledge generally circulated, that children were
in future to depend solely for support upon their
parents, and would be left only to casual charity
if they were deserted.

it may appear to be hard that a mother and
her children, who have been guilty of no parti-
cular crime themselves, should suffer for the ill
conduct of the father; but this is one of the inva-
riable laws of nature; and, knowing this, we should
think twice upon the subject, and be very sure of
the ground on which we go, before we presume
systematically to counteract it.

I have often heard the goodness of the Deity

344 Plan of the gradual Abolition Bk. iv.

_Impeached on account of that part of the Deca-
logue in which he declares that he will visit the
sins of the father upon the children; but the objec-
tion has not perhaps been sufficiently considered.
Without a most complete and fundamental change
in the whole constitution of human nature; with-
out making man an angel, or at least something
totally different from what he is at present; it
seems absolutely necessary that such a law
should prevail. Would it not require a perpetual
miracle, which is perhaps a contradiction in terms,
to prevent children from being affected in their
moral and civil condition by the conduct of their
parents? What man is there, that has been
brought up by his parents, who is not at the pre-
sent moment enjoying something from their vir-
tues, or suffering something from their vices;
who, in his moral character, has not been elevated
in some degree by their prudence, their justice,
their benevolence, their temperance, or depressed
by the contraries ; who, in his civil condition, has
not been raised by their reputation, their foresight,
their industry, their good fortune, or lowered by
their want of character, their imprudence, their
indolence, and their adversity? And how much
does a knowledge of this transmission of blessings
contribute to excite and invigorate virtuous exer-
tion ? Proceeding upon this certainty, how ardent
and incessant are the efforts of parents to give their
children a good education, and to provide for their
future situation in the world! If a man could
neglect or desert his wife and children without

Ch. vi. of the Poor-Laws proposed. 345

their suffering any injury, how many individuals
there are, who, not being very fond of their wives,
or being tired of the shackles of matrimony, would
withdraw from household cares and difficulties,
and resume their liberty and independence as sin-
gle men! But the consideration that children
may suffer for the faults of their parents has a
strong hold even upon vice; and many who are in
such a state of mind, as to disregard the conse-
quence of their habitual course of life, as far as
relates to themselves, are yet greatly anxious that
their children should not suffer from their vices
and follies. Inthe moral government of the world,
it seems evidently necessary, that the sins of the
~ fathers should be visited upon the children; and
if in our overweening vanity we imagine, that we
can govern a private society better by endeavour-
ing systematically to counteract this law, I am in-
clined to believe, that we shall find ourselves very
ereatly mistaken.

If the plan which I have proposed were adopted,
the poor’s rates in a few years would begin very
rapidly to decrease, and in no great leneth of
time would be completely extinguished; and yet,
as far as it appears to me at present, no individual
would be either deceived or injured, and conse-
quently no person could have a just right to com-
plain.

The abolition of the poor-laws however is not of
itself sufficient; and the obvious answer to those
who lay too much stress on this system is, to
desire them to look at the state of the poor in

346 Plan of the gradual Abolition. Bk. iv.

some other countries where such laws do not pre-
vail, and to compare it with their condition in
England. But this comparison, it must be
acknowledged, is in many respects unfair; and
would by no means decide the question of the
utility or inutility of such a system. England
possesses very great natural and political advan-
tages, in which perhaps the countries, that we
should in this case compare with her, would be
found to be palpably deficient. The nature of her
soil and climate is such, that those almost univer-
sal failures in the crops of grain, which are known
in some countries, never occur in England. Her
insular situation and extended commerce are pecu-
liarly favourable for importation. Her numerous
manufactures employ nearly all the hands that are
not engaged in agriculture, and afford the means
of a regular distribution of the annual produce of
the land and labour to the whole of her inhabi-
tants. But, above all, throughout a very large class
of people, a decided taste for the conveniences
and comforts of life, a strong desire of bettering
their condition (that master-spring of public pro-
sperity, )and, in consequence, a most laudable spirit
of industry and foresight, are observed to prevail.
These dispositions, so contrary to the hopeless
indolence remarked in despotic countries, are
generated by the constitution of the English go-
vernment, and the excellence of its laws, which
secure to every individual the produce of his in-
dustry. When, therefore, on a comparison with
other countries, England appears to have the ad-

Ch. vii. of the Poor-Laws proposed. 347

vantage in the state of her poor, the superiority is
entirely to be attributed to these favourable cir-
cumstances, and not to the poor-laws. A woman
with one bad feature, may greatly excel in beauty
some other, who may have this individual feature
tolerably good ; but it would be rather strange to
assert, in consequence, that the superior beauty
of the former was occasioned by this particular
deformity. The poor-laws have constantly tended
to counteract the natural and acquired advantages
of this country. Fortunately these disadvantages
have been so considerable, that though weakened
they could not be overcome ; and to these advan-
tages, together with the checks to marriage, which
the laws themselves create, it is owing that Eng-
land has been able to bear up so long against this
pernicious system. Probably there is not any
other country in the world, except perhaps Hol-
land before the revolution, which could have acted
upon it so completely for the same period of time,
without utter ruin.

It has been proposed by some to establish poor-
laws in Ireland; but from the depressed state of
the common people, there is little reason to doubt,
that, on the establishment of such laws, the whole
of the landed property would very soon be ab-
sorbed, or the system be given up in despair.

In Sweden, from the dearths which are not un-
frequent, owing to the general failure of crops in
an unpropitious climate and the impossibility of
great importations in a poor country, an attempt
to establish a system of parochial relief such as

348 Plan of the gradual Abolition Bk. iv.

that in England (if it were not speedily abandoned
from the physical impossibility of executing it)
would level the property of the kingdom from one
end to the other, and convulse the social system
in such a manner, as absolutely to prevent it from
recovering its former state on the return of plenty.

Even in France, with all her advantages of
situation and climate, the tendency to population
is so great, and the want of foresight among the
lower classes of the people so remarkable, that if
poor-laws were established, the landed property
would soon sink under the burden, and the wretch-
edness of the people at the same time be in-
creased. On these considerations the committee
de Mendicité, at the beginning of the revolution,
very properly and judiciously rejected the esta-
blishment of such a system, which had been pro-
posed.

The exception of Holland, if it were an excep-
tion, would arise from very particular circum-
stances—her extensive foreign trade and her nu-
merous colonial emigrations, compared with the
smallness of her territory, together with the ex-
treme unhealthiness of a great part of the country,
which occcasions a much greater average mortality
than is common in other states. These, I con-
ceive, were the unobserved causes which princi-
pally contributed to render Holland so famous for
the management of her poor, and able to employ
and support all who applied for relief.

No part of Germany is sufficiently rich to sup-
port an extensive system of parochial relief; but
I am inclined to think, that from the absence of it

Ch. viii. of the Poor-Laws proposed. 349

the lower classes of the people, in some parts of
Germany, are in a better situation than those of
the same class in England. In Switzerland, for
the same reason, their condition, before the late
troubles, was perhaps universally superior: and
in a journey through the duchies of Holstein and
Sleswick belonging to Denmark, the houses of the
lower classes of people appeared to me to be
neater and better, and in general there were fewer
indications of poverty and wretchedness among
them than among the same ranks in this country.

Even in Norway, notwithstanding the disad-
vantage of a severe and uncertain climate, from
the little that I saw in a few weeks’ residence in
the country, and the information that I could col-
lect from others, I am inclined to think that the
poor are, on the average, better off than in Eng-
land. Their houses and clothing are often supe-
rior; and though they have no white bread, they
have much more meat, fish and milk than our
labourers; and I particularly remarked, that the
farmers’ boys were much stouter and healthier
looking lads than those of the same description in
England. This degree of happiness, superior to
what could be expected from the soil and climate,
arises almost exclusively from the degree in which
the preventive check to population operates. The
establishment of a system of poor-laws, which
would destroy this check, would at once sink the
lower classes of the people into a state of the most
miserable poverty and wretchedness; would di-
minish their industry, and consequently the pro-

350 Plan of the gradual Abolition, &c. | Bk. iv.

duce of the land and labour of the country ; would
weaken the resources of ingenuity in times_of
scarcity ; and ultimately involve the country inall
the horrors of continual famines.

If, as in Ireland, Spain, and many countries of
the more southern climates, the people are in so
degraded a state, as to propagate their species
without regard to consequences, it matters little
whether they have poor-laws or not. Misery in all
its various forms must be the predominant check
to their increase. Poor-laws, indeed, will always
tend to aggravate the evil, by diminishing the ge-
neral resources of the country ; and in sucha state
of things can exist only for a very short time; but
with or without them, no stretch of human in-
genuity and exertion can rescue the people from
the most extreme poverty and wretchedness.

(BRT)

CHAP. IX.

Of the Modes of correcting the prevailing Opinions on
Population.

Ir is not enough to abolish all the positive insti-
tutions which encourage population ; but we must
endeavour, at the same time, to correct the pre-
vailing opinions which have the same, or perhaps
even a more powerful effect. This must neces-
sarily be a work of time; and can only be done
by circulating juster notions on these subjects in
writings and conversation; and by endeavouring
to impress as strongly as possible on the public
mind, that it is not the duty of man simply to pro-
pagate his species, but to propagate virtue and
happiness; and that, if he has not a tolerably fair
prospect of doing this, he is by no means called
upon to leave descendants.

Among the higher ranks of society, we have not
much reason to apprehend the too great frequency
of marriage. Though the circulation of juster no-
tions on this subject might, even in this part of the
community, do much good, and prevent many un-
happy marriages ; yet whether we make particular
exertions for this purpose or not, we may rest as-
sured that the degree of proper pride and spirit of
independence almost invariably connected with
education and a certain rank in life will secure the

352 Of the Modes of correcting the — Bk. iv.

operation of the prudential check to marriage toa
considerable extent. All that the society can rea-
sonably require of its members is, that they should
not have families without being able to support
them. This may be fairly enjoined as a positive
duty. Every restraint beyond this must be con-
sidered as a matter of choice and taste ; but from
what we already know of the habits which pre-
vail among the higher ranks of life, we have rea-
son to think that little more is wanted to attain
the object required, than to award a greater de-
gree of respect and of personal liberty to single
women, and to place them nearer upon a level
with married women ;—a change, which, inde-
pendently of any particular purpose in view, the
plainest principles of equity seem to demand.

If, among the higher classes of society, the ob-
ject of securing the operation of the prudential
check to marriage to a sufficient degree appear to
be attainable without much difficulty, the obvious
mode of proceeding with the lower classes of so-
ciety, where the point is of the principal import-
ance, is to endeavour to infuse into them a portion
of that knowledge and foresight, which so much
facilitates the attainment of this object in the
educated part of the community.

The fairest chance of accomplishing this end
would probably be by the establishment of a
system of parochial education upon a plan similar
to that proposed by Adam Smith.* In addition

* Wealth of Nations, vol. iii. b. v. c. i. p. 187.

Ch. ix. prevailing Opinions on Population. 353

to the usual subjects of instruction, and those
which he has mentioned, I should be disposed to
lay considerable stress on the frequent explanation
of the real state of the lower classes of society, as
affected by the principle of population, and their
consequent dependence on themselves for the
chief part of their happiness or misery. It would
be by no means necessary or proper in these ex-
planations to underrate, in the smallest degree,
the desirableness of marriage. It should always
be represented as, what it really is, a state pecu-
liarly suited to the nature of man, and calculated
greatly to advance his happiness and remove the
temptations to vice; but, like property or any
other desirable object, its advantages should be
shewn to be unattainable, except under certain
conditions. Anda strong conviction in a young
man of the great desirableness of marriage, with
a conviction at the same time that the power of
supporting a family was the only condition which
would enable him really to enjoy its blessings,
would be the most effectual motive imaginable to
industry and sobriety before marriage, and would
powerfully urge him to save that superfluity of
income which single labourers necessarily possess,
for the accomplishment of a rational and desirable
object, instead of dissipating it, as is now usually
done, in idleness and vice.
If in the course of time a few of the simplest
principles of political economy could be added to
the instructions given in these schools, the benefit
VOL. II. AA

354 Of the Modes of correcting the Bk. iv.

to society would be almost incalculable.* In
some conversations with labouring men, during

* Adam Smith proposes, that the elementary parts of geometry
and mechanics should be taught in these parish schools; and I
cannot help thinking, that the common principles by which markets
are regulated might be made sufficiently clear, to be of consider-
able use. It is certainly a subject that, as it interests the lower
classes of people very nearly, would be likely to attract their atten-
tion, At the same time it must be confessed, that it is impossible
to be in any degree sanguine on this point, recollecting how very
ignorant in general the educated part of the community is of these
principles. If, however, political economy cannot be taught to the
common. people, I really think that it ought to form a branch of
university education. Scotland has set us an example in this re-
spect, which we ought not to be so slow to imitate. It is of the
utmost importance, that the gentlemen of the country, and parti-
eularly the clergy, should not from ignorance aggravate the evils
of scarcity, every time that it unfortunately occurs. During the
late dearths, half of the gentlemen and clergymen in the kingdom
richly deserved to have been prosecuted for sedition. After in-
flaming the minds of the common people against the farmers and
corn dealers, by the manner in which they talked of them or
preached: about them, it was but a feeble antidote to the poison
which they had infused, coldly to observe that, however the poor
might be oppressed or cheated, it was their duty to keep the peace.
It was little better than Antony's repeated declaration, that the
conspirators were all honourable men; which did not save either
their houses or their persons from the attacks of the mob. Politi-
cal economy is perhaps the only science, of which it may be said
that the ignorance of it is not merely a deprivation of good, but
produces great positive evil.

[1825.] This note was written in 1803; and it is particularly
gratifying to me, at the end of the year 1825, to see that what I
stated as so desirable twenty-two years ago, seems to be now on
the eve of its accomplishment. The increasing attention which
in the interval has been paid generally to the science of political
economy; the lectures which have been given at Cambridge, Lon-
don, and Liverpool ; the chair which has lately been established

Ch. ix. prevailing Opinions on Population. 355

the late scarcities,* I confess that I was to the last
degree disheartened, at observing their inveterate
prejudices on the subject of grain; and I felt very
strongly the almost absolute incompatibility of a
government really free with such a degree of igno-
rance. The delusions are of such a nature, that,
if acted upon, they must at all events be repressed
by force; and it is extremely difficult to give such
a power to the government as will be sufficient at
all times for this purpose, without the risk of its
being employed improperly, and endangering the
liberty of the subject.

We have lavished immense sums on the poor,
which we haye every reason to think have con-
stantly tended to aggravate their misery. But
in their education and in the cireulation of those
important political truths that most nearly con-
cern them, which are perhaps the only means in
our power of really raising their condition, and of
making them happier men and more peaceable
subjects, we have been miserably deficient. Itis
surely a great national disgrace, that the educa-
tion of the lower classes of people in England
should be left merely to a few Sunday schools,
supported by a subscription from individuals, who

at Oxford; the projected University in the Metropolis; and, above
all, the Mechanics Institution, open the fairest prospect that, within
a moderate period of time, the fundamental principles of political
economy will, to a very useful extent, be known to the higher,
middle, and a most important’ portion of the working classes of
society in England.
* 1800 and 1801.
AA 2

356 Of the Modes of correcting the Bk. iv.

can give to the course of instruction in them any
' kind of bias which they please. And even the
improvement of Sunday schools (for, objectionable
as they are in some points of view, and imperfect
in all, I cannot but consider them as an improve-
ment) is of very late date.*

The arguments which have been urged against
instructing the people appear to me to be not only
illiberal, but to the last degree feeble; and they
ought, on the contrary, to be extremely forcible,
and to be supported by the most obvious and
striking necessity, to warrant us in withholding
the means of raising the condition of the lower
classes of people, when they are in our power.
Those. who will not listen to any answer to these
arguments drawn from theory, cannot, I think,
refuse the testimony of experience; and I would
ask, whether the advantage of superior instruction
which the lower classes of people in Scotland are
known to possess, has appeared to have any ten-
dency. towards creating a spirit of tumult and dis-
content amongst them. And yet, from the natural
inferiority of its soil and climate, the pressure of
want is more constant, and the dearths are not
only more frequent, but more dreadful than in
England. In the case of Scotland, the knowledge
circulated among the common people, though not
‘sufficient essentially to better their condition by
increasing, in an adequate degree, their habits of
prudence and foresight, has yet the effect of

* Written in 1803.

Ch. ix. prevailing Opinions on Population. — 357

making them bear with patience the evils which
they suffer, from being aware of the folly and in-
efficacy of turbulence. The quiet and peaceable
habits of the instructed Scotch peasant, compared
with the turbulent disposition of the ignorant
Trishman, ought not to be without effect upon
every impartial reasoner.

The principal argument which I bays heard ad-
vanced against a system of national education in
England is, that the common people would be
put in a capacity to read such works as those of
Paine, and that the consequences would probably
be fatal to government. But on this subject I
agree most cordially with Adam Smith* in think-
ing, that an instructed and well-informed people
would be much less likely to be led away by in-
flammatory writings, and much better able to de-
tect the false declamation of interested and ambi-
tious demagogues, than an ignorant people. One
or two readers in a parish are sufficient to circu-
late any quantity of sedition; and if these be
gained to the democratic side, they will probably
have the power of doing much more mischief, by
selecting the passages best suited to their hearers,
and choosing the moments when their oratory is
likely to have the most effect, than if each indivi-
dual in the parish had been in a capacity to read
and judge of the whole work himself; and at the
same time to read and judge of the opposing ar-

* Wealth of Nations, vol, iii. b. v. c..i. p. 1938.

358 Of the Modes of correcting the Bk. 1v.

guments, which we may suppose would also
reach him.

But in addition to this, a double weight would
undoubtedly be added to the observation of Adam
Smith, if these schools were made the means of
instructing the people in the real nature of their
situation; if they were taught, what is really
true, that without an increase of their own in-
dustry and prudence no change of government
could essentially better their condition ; that,
though they might get rid of some particular
grievance, yet in the great point of supporting
their families they would be but little, or perhaps
not at all benefited ; that a revolution would not
alter in their favour the proportion of the supply
of labour to the demand, or the quantity of food
to the number of the consumers; and that if the
supply of labour were greater than the demand,
and the demand for food greater than the supply,
they might suffer the utmost severity of want,
under the freest, the most perfect, and best exe-
cuted government, that the human imagination
could conceive.

A knowledge of these truths so obviously tends
to promote peace and quietness, to weaken the
effect of inflammatory writings and to prevent all
unreasonable and ill-directed opposition to the
constituted authorities, that those who would still
object to the instruction of the people may fairly
be suspected of a wish to encourage their igno-
rance, aS a pretext for tyranny, and an opportu-

Ch. ix. prevailing Opinions on Population. 359

nity of increasing the power and the influence of
the executive government.

Besides explaining the real situation of the
lower classes of society, as depending principally
upon themselves for their happiness or misery, the
parochial schools would, by early instruction and
the judicious distribution of rewards, have the.
fairest chance of training up the rising generation
in habits of sobriety, industry, independence and
prudence, and in a proper discharge of their reli-
gious duties ; which would raise them from their
present degraded state, and approximate them,
in some degree, to the middle classes of society,
whose habits, generally speaking, are certainly
superior.

In most countries, among the lower classes of
people, there appears to be something like a
standard of wretchedness, a point below which
they will not continue to marry and propagate
their species. This standard is different in diffe-
rent countries, and is formed by various concur-
ring circumstances of soil, climate, government,
degree of knowledge, and civilization, &c. The
principal circumstances which contribute to raise
it are liberty, security of property, the diffusion
of knowledge, and a taste for the conveniences
and the comforts of life. Those which contribute
principally to lower it are despotism and igno-
rance.

In an attempt to better the condition of the la-
bouring classes of society, our object should be to
raise this standard as high as possible, by culti-

360 Of the Modes of correcting, &c. Bk. iv.

vating a spirit of independence, a decent pride,
and a taste for cleanliness and comfort. The
effect of a good government in increasing the
prudential habits and personal respectability of
the lower classes of society has already been
insisted on; but certainly this effect will always
be incomplete without a good system of educa-
tion; and, indeed, it may be said that no govern-
ment can approach to perfection, that does not
provide for the instruction of the people. The
benefits derived from education are among those,
which may be enjoyed without restriction of
numbers; and, as itis in the power of govern-
ments to confer these benefits, it is undoubtedly
their duty to do it.

(ABER 7

CHAP. X.

Of the Direction of our Charity.

Avy important and interesting inquiry yet remains,
relating to the mode of directing our private
charity, so as not to interfere with the great ob-
ject in view, of meliorating the condition of the
labouring classes of people, by preventing the po-
pulation from pressing too hard against the limits
of the means of subsistence.

The emotion which prompts us to relieve our
fellow-creatures in distress is, like all our other na-
tural passions, general, and, in some degree, indis-
criminate and blind. Our feelings of compassion
may be worked up toa higher pitch by a well-
wrought scene ina play, or a fictitious tale ina
novel, than by almost any: events in real life: and
if among ten petitioners we were to listen only
to the first impulses of our feelings without
making further inquiries, we should undoubtedly
give our assistance to the best actor of the party.
It is evident, therefore, that the impulse of bene-
volence, like the impulses of love, of anger, of
ambition, the desire of eating and drinking, or
any other of our natural propensities, must be
regulated by experience, and frequently brought
to the test of utility, or it will defeat its tended
purpose.

362 Of the Direction of our Charity. Bk. iv.

The apparent object of the passion between
~ the sexes is the continuation of the species, and
the formation of such an intimate union of views
and interests between two persons as will best
promote their happiness, and, at the same time,
secure the proper degree of attention to the help-
lessness of infancy and the education of the rising
generation; but if every man were to obey at all
times the impulses of nature in the gratification
of this passion, without regard to consequences,
the principal part of these important objects
would not be attained, and even the continuation
of the species might be defeated by a promiscu-
ous intercourse.

The apparent end of the impulse of benevo-
lence is, to draw the whole human race together,
but more particularly that part of it which is of
our own nation and kindred, in the bonds of bro-
therly love; and by giving men an interest in the
happiness and misery of their fellow-creatures,
to prompt them, as they have power, to mitigate
the partial evils arising from general laws, and
thus to increase the sum of human happiness ;
but if our benevolence be indiscriminate, and the
degree of apparent distress be made the sole
measure of our liberality, it is evident that it will
be exercised almost exclusively upon common
beggars, while modest unobtrusive merit, strug-
gling with unavoidable difficulties, yet still main-
taining some slight appearances of decency and
cleanliness, will be totally neglected. We shall
raise the worthless above the worthy; we shall

Ch. x. Of the Direction of our Charity. 363

encourage indolence and check industry; and in
the most marked manner subtract from the sum
of human happiness.

Our experience has, indeed, informed us that
the impulse of benevolence is not so strong as
the passion between the sexes, and that, generally
speaking, there is much less danger to be appre-
hended from the indulgence of the former than of
the latter; but independently of this experience
and of the moral codes founded upon it, we should
be as much justified ina general indulgence of
the former passion as in following indiscrimi-
nately every impulse of our benevolence. They
are both natural passions, excited by their appro-
priate objects, and to the gratification of which we
are prompted by the pleasurable sensations which
accompany them. As animals, or till we know
their consequences, our only business is to follow
these dictates of nature; but, as reasonable beings,
we are under the strongest obligations to attend
to their consequences ; and if they be evil to our-
selves or others, we may justly consider it as an
indication, that such a mode of indulging these
passions is not suited to our state or conformable
to the will of God. As moral agents, therefore,
it is clearly our duty to restrain their indulgence
in these particular directions ; and by thus care-
fully examining the consequences of our natural
passions, and frequently bringing them to the test
of utility, gradually to acquire a habit of gratify-
ing them only in that way, which, being unat-
tended with evil, will clearly add to the sum of

364 Of the Direction of our Charity. Bk. iv.

human happiness, and fulfil the apparent purpose
~ of the Creator.

Though utility, therefore, can never be the im-
mediate excitement to the gratification of any
passion, it is the test by which alone we can
know, independently of the revealed will of God,
whether it ought or ought not to be indulged;
and is therefore the surest criterion of moral rules
which can be collected from the light of nature.
Ali the moral codes, which have inculcated the
subjection of the passions to reason, have been,
as I conceive, really built upon this foundation,
whether the promulgators of them were aware of
it or not.

I remind the reader of these truths, in order to
apply them to the habitual direction of our cha-
rity ; and if we keep the criterion of utility con-
stantly in view, we may find ample room for the
exercise of our benevolence, without interfering
with the great purpose which we have to accom-
plish.

One of the most valuable parts of charity is its
effect upon the giver. It is more blessed to give
than to receive. Supposing it to be allowed that
the exercise of our benevolence in acts of charity
is not, upon the whole, really beneficial to the
poor; yet we could never sanction any endeavour
to extinguish an impulse, the proper gratification
of which has so evident a tendency to purify and
exalt the human mind. But it is particularly
satisfactory and pleasing to find that the mode of
exercising our charity, which, when brought to

~

ee a —- oe

Ch. x. Of the Direction of our Charity. 365

the test of utility, will appear to be most bene-
ficial to the poor, is precisely that, which will
have the best and most improving effect on the
mind of the donor.

The quality of charity, like that of mercy,

“ is not strained ;
‘Tt droppeth as the gentle rain from Heav'n
* Upon the earth beneath.”

The immense sums distributed to the poor in this
country by the parochial laws are improperly
called charity. They want its most distinguishing
attribute; and, as might be expected from an at-
tempt to force that which loses its essence the
moment it ceases to be voluntary, their effects
upon those from whom they are collected are as
prejudicial as on those to whom they are distri-
buted. On the side of the receivers of this mis-
called charity, instead of real relief, we find accu-
mulated distress and more extended poverty ; on
the side of the givers, instead of pleasurable sen-
sations, unceasing discontent and irritation.

In the great charitable institutions supported
by voluntary contributions, some of which are
certainly of a prejudicial tendency, the subscrip-
tions, I am inclined to fear, are sometimes given
grudgingly, and rather because they are expected
by the world from certain ‘stations and certain
fortunes, than because they are prompted by mo-
tives of genuine benevolence; and as the greater
part of the subscribers do not interest themselves
in the management of the funds or in the fate of

366 Of the Direction of our Charity. Bk. iv.

the particular objects relieved, it is not to be ex-
pected that this kind of charity should have any
strikingly beneficial influence on the minds of the
majority who exercise it.

Even in the relief of common beggars, we shall
find that we are often as much influenced by the
desire of getting rid of the importunities of a dis-
gusting object, as by the pleasure of relieving it.
We wish that it had not fallen in our way, rather
than rejoice in the opportunity given us of assist-
ing a fellow-creature. We feel a painful emotion at
the sight of so much apparent misery; but the pit-
tance we give does not relieve it. We know that
it is totally inadequate to produce any essential
effect. We know besides, that we shall be ad-
dressed in the same manner at the corner of the
next street; and we know that we are liable to the
grossest impositions. We hurry therefore some-
times by such objects, and shut our ears to their
importunate demands. We give no more than we
can help giving without doing actual violence to
our feelings. Our charity is in some degree forced ;
and, like forced charity, it leaves no satisfactory
impression on the mind, and cannot therefore have
any very beneficial and improving effect on the
heart and affections.

But it is far otherwise with that voluntary and
active charity, which makes itself acquainted
with the objects which it relieves; which seems
to feel, and to be proud of the bond that unites
the rich with the poor; which enters into their
houses, informs itself not only of their wants, but

Ch. x. Of the Direction of our Charity. 367

of their habits and dispositions; checks the hopes
of clamorous and obtrusive poverty, with no other
recommendation but rags; and encourages, with
adequate relief, the silent and retiring sufferer,
labouring under unmerited difficulties. This mode
of exercising our charity presents a very different
picture from that of any other; and its contrast
with the common mode of parish relief cannot be
better described than in the words of Mr. Towns-
end, in the conclusion of his admirable disserta-
tion on the Poor-Laws. ‘‘ Nothing in nature can
** be more disgusting than a parish pay-table, at-
‘‘tendant upon which, in the same objects of
‘‘ misery, are too often found combined, snuff,
“‘ gin, rags, vermin, insolence, and abusive lan-
“‘ouage ; nor in nature can any thing be more
“ beautiful than the mild complacency of bene-
“ volence hastening to the humble cottage to re-
‘‘ lieve the wants of industry and virtue, to feed
“the hungry, to clothe the naked, and to soothe
‘« the sorrows of the widow with her tender or-
‘“« phans ; nothing can be more pleasing, unless it
‘“be their sparkling eyes, their bursting tears,
‘« and their uplifted hands, the artless expressions
‘‘ of unfeigned gratitude for unexpected favours.
«Such scenes will frequently occur, whenever
‘« men shail have power to dispose of their own
‘* property.”

I conceive it to be almost impossible that any
person could be much engaged in such scenes
without daily making advances in virtue. No
exercise of our affections can have a more evident

368 Of the Direction of our Charity. Bk. iv.

tendency to purify and exalt the human mind.
~ It is almost exclusively this species of charity
that blesseth him that gives; and, in a general
view, it is almost exclusively this species of cha-
rity which blesseth him that takes; at least it
may be asserted that there are but few other
modes of exercising our charity, in which large
sums can be distributed, without a greater chance
of producing evil than good.

The discretionary power of giving or withhold-
ing relief, which is, to a certain extent, vested in
parish officers and justices, is of a very different
nature, and will have a very different effect, from
the discrimination which may be exercised by
voluntary charity. Every man in this country,
under certain circumstances, is entitled by law
to parish assistance ; and unless his disqualifica-
tion is clearly proved, has a right to complain if
it be withheld. The inquiries necessary to settle
this point, and the extent of the relief to be
granted, too often produce evasion and lying on
the part of the petitioner, and afford an opening
to partiality and oppression in the overseer. If
the proposed relief be given, it 1s of course re-
ceived with unthankfulness ; and, if it be denied,
the party generally thinks himself severely ag-
grieved, and feels resentment and indignation at
his treatment.

In the distribution of voluntary charity nothing
of this kind can take place. The person who re-
ceives it is made. the proper subject of the plea-
surable sensation of gratitude; and those who do

Ch. x. Of the Direction of our Charity. 369

not receive it cannot possibly conceive themselves
in the slightest degree injured. Every man has
a right to do what he will with his own, and can-
not, in justice, be called upon to render a reason
why he gives in the one case, and abstains from
it in the other. This kind of despotic power, es-
sential to voluntary charity, gives the greatest
facility to the selection of worthy objects of re-
lief, without being accompanied by any ill conse-
quences; and has further a most beneficial effect
from the degree of uncertainty which must ne-
cessarily be attached to it. It is in the highest
degree important to the general happiness of the
poor, that no man should look to charity as a fund
on which he may confidently depend. He should
-be taught that his own exertions, his own industry
and foresight, are his only just ground of depen-
dence; that if these fail, assistance in his distresses
can only be the subject of rational hope; and that
even the foundation of this hope will depend in
a considerable degree on his own good conduct,
and the consciousness that he has not involved
himself in these difficulties by his indolence or
imprudence. ’

That in the distribution of our charity we are
under a strong moral obligation to inculcate this
lesson on the poor by a proper discrimination, is
a truth of which I cannot feel a doubt. If all
could be completely relieved, and poverty ba-
nished from the country, even at the expense of
three-fourths of the fortunes of the rich, I would
be the last person to say a single syllable against

VOL. If. BB

370 Of the Direction of our Charity. Bk.iv..

relieving all, and making the degree of distress
alone the measure of our bounty. But as expe-
rience has. proved, I believe, without a single ex-
ception, that poverty and misery have always:
increased in proportion to-the quantity of indis-
criminate charity, are we not bound to infer, rea-
soning as we usually do from the laws of nature,
that it is an intimation that such a mode of dis-
tribution is not the proper office of benevolence ?

The laws of nature say, with St. Paul, “If a
‘¢ man will not work, neither shall he eat.” They.
also say that he is not rashly to trust to Providence.
They appear indeed to be constant and uniform
_ for the express purpose of telling him what he is:
to trust to, and that, if he marry without ‘a rea-
sonable prospect of supporting a family, he must
expect to suffer want. These intimations appear
from the constitution of human nature to be ab-
solutely necessary, and to have a strikingly bene-
ficial tendency. If in the direction either of our
public or our private charity we say that though.
a man will not work, yet he shall eat; and though
he marry without being able to support a family,
yet his family shall be supported; it is evident
that we do not merely endeavour to mitigate the
partial evils arising from general laws, but regu-
larly and systematically to counteract the obviously
beneficial effects of these general laws themselves.
And we cannot easily conceive, that the Deity
should implant any passion in the human breast
for such a purpose.

In the great course of human events, the best-

Ch. x. Of the Direction of our Charity. 371

founded expectations will sometimes be disap-
pointed; and industry, prudence, and virtue not
only fail of their just reward, but be involved in
unmerited calamities. Those who are thus suffer-
ing in spite of the best-directed endeavours to
avoid it, and from causes which they could not
be expected to foresee, are the genuine objects
of charity. In relieving these, we exercise the
appropriate office of benevolence, that of miti-
gating the partial evils arising from general laws;
and in this direction of our charity therefore we
need not apprehend any ill consequences. Such
objects ought to be relieved, according to our
means, liberally and adequately, even though
the worthless were in much more severe dis-
tress.

When indeed this first claim on our benevolence
was satisfied, we might then turn our attention to
the idle and improvident; but the interests of
human happiness most clearly require, that the
relief which we afford them should not be abun-
dant. We may perhaps take upon ourselves,
with great caution, to mitigate the punishments
which they are suffering from the laws of nature,
but on no account to remove them entirely. They
are deservedly at the bottom in the scale of so-
ciety; and if we raise them from this situation,
we not only palpably defeat the end of benevo-
lence, but commit a most glaring injustice to those
who are above them. They should on no account
be enabled to command so much of the neces-

BB2

372 Of the Direction of our Charity. Bk. iv.

saries of life as can be obtained by the wages of
common labour.

It is evident that these reasonings do not apply
to those cases of urgent distress arising from dis-
astrous accidents, unconnected with habits of in-
dolence and improvidence. Ifa man break a leg
or an arm, we are not to stop to inquire into his
moral character before we lend him our assistance;
but in this case we are perfectly consistent, and
the touchstone of utility completely justifies our
conduct. By affording the most indiscriminate
assistance in this way, we are in little danger of
encouraging people to break their arms and legs.
According to the touchstone of utility, the high
approbation which Christ gave to the conduct of
the good Samaritan, who followed the immediate
impulse of his benevolence in relieving a stranger
in the urgent distress of an accident, does not, in
the smallest degree, contradict the expression of
St. Paul, *‘Ifa man will not work, neither shall
“he eat.”

We are not, however, in any case, to lose
a present opportunity of doing good, from the
mere supposition that we may meet possibly with
a worthier object. In all doubtful cases it may
safely be laid down as our duty to follow the
natural impulse of our benevolence; but when, in
fulfillmg our obligations as reasonable beings to
attend to the consequences of our actions, we
have, from our own experience and that of others,
drawn the conclusion that the exercise of our be-

Ch. x. Of the Direction of our Charity. 373

nevolence in one mode is prejudicial, and in ano-
ther is beneficial in its effects; we are certainly
bound, as moral agents, to check our natural pro-
pensities in the one direction, and to encourage
them and acquire the habits of exercising them in
the other.

3° B74) Bk. iv.

CHAP, XI.

Different Plans of improving the Condition of the Poor
considered.

In the distribution of our charity, or in any
efforts which we may make to better the condition
of the lower classes of society, there is another
point relating to the main argument of this work,
to which we must be particularly attentive. We
must on no account do any thing which tends
directly to encourage marriage, or to remove, in
any regular and systematic manner, that in-
equality of circumstances which ought always to
exist between the single man and the man witha
family. The writers who have best understood the
principle of population appear to me all to have
fallen into very important errors on this point.

Sir James Steuart, who was fully aware of what
he calls vicious procreation, and of the misery that
attends a redundant population, recommends,
notwithstanding, the general establishment of
foundling hospitals ; the taking of children under
certain circumstances from their parents, and sup-
porting them at the expense of the state; and
particularly laments the inequality of condition
between the married and single man, so ill pro;

Ch. xi. Different Plans of improving, &c. 375

portioned to their respective wants.* He forgets,
‘in these instances, that if, without the encourage-
ment to multiplication of foundling hospitals, or of
public support for the children of some married
‘persons, and under the discouragement of great
pecuniary disadvantages on the side of the married
man, population be still redundant, which is
evinced by the inability of the poor to maintain all
their children; it isa clear proof that the funds
destined for the maintenance of Jabour cannot
properly support a greater population; and that,
aif further encouragements to multiplication be
given, and discouragements removed, the result
must be, an increase somewhere or other of that
wicious procreation, which he so justly reprobates.

Mr. Townsend, who in his Dissertation on the
Poor Laws has treated this subject with great
skill and perspicuity, appears to me to conclude
with a proposal, which violates the principles on
-which he had reasoned so well. He wishes to
make the benefit clubs, or friendly societies, which
care now voluntarily established in many parishes,
compulsory and universal; and proposes as a re-
gulation that an unmarried man should -pay a
fourth part of his wages, and a married man with
-four children not more than a thirtieth part.

I must first remark that the moment these sub-
scriptions are made compulsory, they will neces-
‘sarily operate exactly lke a direct tax upon

* Political Economy, vol. i. b. i. ec. xiii.

+ Dissertation on the Poor-Laws, p. 89, 2d edit. 1787.

376 Different Plans of improving the Bk. iv.

labour, which, as Adam Smith justly states, will
always be paid, and ina more expensive manner,
by the consumer. The landed interest therefore
would receive little relief from this plan, but would
pay the same sum as at present, only in the ad-
vanced price of labour and of commodities, instead
of in the parish rates. A compulsory subscrip-
tion of this kind would have almost all the bad
effects of the present system of relief, and, though
altered in name, would still possess the essential
spirit of the poor-laws.

Dean Tucker, in some remarks on a plan of the
same kind, proposed by Mr. Pew, observed that,
after much talk and reflection on the subject, he
had come to the conclusion, that they must be
voluntary associations, and not compulsory as-
semblies. A voluntary subscription is like a tax
upon a luxury, and does not necessarily raise the
price of labour.

It should be recollected, also, that in a volun-
tary association of a small extent, over which each
individual member can exercise a superintendence;
it is highly probable that the original agreements
will all be strictly fulfilled, or, if they be not;
’ every man may at least have the redress of with-
drawing himself from the club. But in an uni-
versal compulsory subscription, which must neces-
sarily become a national concern, there would be
no security whatever for the fulfilment of the ori-
ginal agreements; and when the funds failed,
which they certainly would do, when all the idle
and dissolute were included, instead of some of

Ch. xi. Condition of the Poor consedered. 377

the most industrious and provident, as at present,
a larger subscription would probably be demand-
ed, and no man would have the right to refuse it.
The evil would thus go on increasing as the poor-
rates do now. If indeed the assistance given
were always specific, and on no account to be in-
creased, as in the present voluntary associations,
this would certainly be a striking advantage ; but
the same advantage might be completely attained
by a similar distribution of the sums collected by
the parish rates. On the whole, therefore, it ap-
pears to me that, if the friendly societies were
made universal and compulsory, it would be
merely a different mode of collecting parish rates;
and any particular mode of distribution might be
as well adopted upon one system as upon the
other.

With regard to the proposal of making single
men pay a fourth part of their earnings weekly,
and married men with families only a thirtieth
part, it would evidently operate as a heavy fine
upon bachelors, and a high bounty upon children ;
and is therefore directly adverse to the general
spirit in which Mr. Townsend's excellent disser-
tation is written. Before he introduces this pro-
posal, he lays it down as a general principle, that
no system for the relief of the poor can be good,
which does not regulate population by the de-
mand for labour ;* but this proposal clearly tends
to encourage population without any reference to

* Pp, 84,

378 Different Plans of improving the Bk. iv.

_ the demand for labour, and punishes a young man
for his prudence in refraining from marriage, at
atime, perhaps, when this demand may be so
small, that the wages of labour are totally inade-
quate to the support of a family: I should be
‘averse to any compulsory system whatever for
the poor; but certainly if single men were com-
pelled to pay a contribution for the future con-
dingencies of the married state, they ought in jus-
tice to receive a benefit proportioned tothe period
of their privation ; and the man who had contri-
buted,a fourth of his earnings for merely one year,
ought not to be put upon a level with him who had
contributed this proportion fer ten years.

Mr. Arthur Young, in most of his works, ap-
pears clearly to understand the principle of popu-
lation, and is fully aware of the evils which must
necessarily result from an increase of people be-
yond the demand for labour, and the means of
comfortable subsistence. In his Tour through
France he has particularly laboured this point,
and shewn most forcibly the misery which results
in that country from the excess of population oc-
casioned by the too great division of property.
Such an increase he justly calls merely a multi-
plication of wretchedness. ‘‘ Couples marry and
“‘ procreate on the idea, not the reality, of a
“« maintenance ; they increase beyond the demand
“‘ of towns and manufactures; and the conse-
“‘ quence is, distress, and numbers dying of
“* diseases arising from insufficient nourishment.”*

* Trayels in France, vol. i. c. xii. p. 408.

Ch. xi. Condition of the Poor considered. 379

In another place he quotes a very sensible
passage from the Report of the Committee of Men-
dicity, which, alluding to the evils of over-popu-
lation, concludes thus, ‘‘ I] faudroit enfin néces-
‘“‘ sairement que le prix de travail baissat par la
‘plus grande concurrence de travailleurs, d’ot
‘‘ résulteroit une indigence complette pour ceux
‘* qui ne trouveroient pas de travail, et une sub-
“« sistence incomplette pour ceux mémes auxquels
“il ne seroit pas réfusé.” And in remarking upon
this passage, he observes, ‘‘ France itself affords
‘* an irrefragable proof of the truth of these senti-
‘ments; forl am clearly of opinion, from the ob-
‘servations I made in every province of the
‘«« kingdom, that her population is so much beyond
‘« the proportion of her industry and labour, that
«* she would be much more powerful and infinitely
“more flourishing, if she had five or six millions
‘less of inhabitants.’ From her too great popu-
“lation she presents in every quarter such spec-
‘* tacles of wretchedness, as are absolutely incon-
‘sistent with that degree of national felicity
‘* which she was capable of attaining, even under
‘«the old government. A traveller much less
‘‘ attentive than I was to objects of this kind must
‘“‘ see at every turn most unequivocal signs of dis-
‘tress. That these should exist, no one can
« wonder, who considers the price of labour and
** of provisions, and the misery into which a small
“rise in the price of wheat throws the lower
** classes.’*

* Travels in France, vol. i, c. xvii. p. 469.

380 Different Plans of improving the Bk. iv.

«If you would see,” he says, ‘‘a district with
«as little distress in it as is consistent with the
“« political system of the old government of France,
‘you must assuredly go where there are no little
“‘ proprietors at all. You must visit the great
«farms in Beauce, Picardy, part of Normandy
«and Artois, and there you will find no more po-
‘< pulation than what is regularly employed, and
“recularly paid; and if in such districts you
_ should, contrary to this rule, meet with much
«« distress, it is twenty to one but that it is in a
“‘ parish, which has some commons which tempt
‘“‘ the poor to have cattle—to have property—and
“in consequence misery. When you are en-
‘‘ caged in this political tour, finish it by seeing
‘«¢ England, and I will shew you a set of peasants
«* well clothed, well nourished, tolerably drunken
‘« from superfluity, well lodged, and at their ease ;
‘‘and yet amongst them, not one in a thousand
<< has either land ‘or cattle.”* A little farther on,
alluding to encouragements to marriage, he
says of France, ‘“‘ The predominant evil of the
“kingdom is the having so great a population,
“that she can neither employ nor feed it; why
“then encourage marriage? Would you breed
“more people, because you have more already
‘* than you know what to do with? You have so
“‘ sreat a competition for food, that your people
‘are starving or in misery; and you would en-
“* courage the production of more, to increase that

* Travels in France, vol. i. c. xvii. p. 471.

Ch. xi. Condition of the Poor considered. 381

“competition. It may almost be questioned,
‘“¢ whether the contrary policy ought not to be em-
“braced; whether difficulties should not be laid
“on the marriage of those who cannot make it
“appear that they have the prospect of main-
«« taining the children that shall be the fruit of it?
«« But why encourage marriages, which are sure
“to take place in all situations in which they
“‘ ought to take place? There is no instance to be
“ found of plenty of regular employment being
‘< first established, where marriages have not fol-
“lowed in a proportionate degree. The policy
‘“‘ therefore, at best, is useless, and may be per-
“* nicious.”

After having once so clearly understood the
principle of population, as to express these and
many other sentiments on the subject, equally
just and important, it is not a little surprising to
find Mr. Young, in a pamphlet, entitled The
Question of Scarcity plainly stated, and Remedies
considered (published in 1800, ) observing, that “ the
«* means which would of all others perhaps tend
“< most surely to prevent future scarcities so op-
«« pressive to the poor as the present, would be to
“secure to every country labourer in the king-
«« dom, that has three children and upwards, half
«an acre of land for potatoes; and grass enough
“to feed one or two cows.* * * * If each had
«his ample potatoe-ground and a cow, the price
‘* of wheat would be of little more consequence to
** them than it is to their brethren in Ireland.”

ie ii).

382 Different Plans of improving the Bk. iv.

«« Every one admits the system to be good, but
«« the question is how to enforce it.’

I was by no means aware that the excellence of
the system had been so generally admitted. For
myself I strongly protest against being included
in the general term of every one, as I should con-
sider the adoption of this system as the most cruel
and fatal blow to the happiness of the lower classes
of people in this country that they had ever re-
ceived.

Mr. Young, however, goes on to say, that “ The
** magnitude of the object should make us disre-
** gard any difficulties, but such as are insupera-
** ble: none such would probably occur, if some-
* thing like the following means were resorted to.

«J. Where there are common pastures, to give
** to a labouring man having children, a right
*‘to demand an allotment proportioned to the
“‘ family, to be set out by the parish officers, &c.,
«* * * and a cow bought. Such labourer to
*«« have both for life, paying 40s. a year till the
** price of the cow, &c. was reimbursed: at his
** death to go to the labourer having the most nu-
*‘merous family, for life, paying shillings a
“‘ week to the widow of his predecessor.”

“IJ. Labourers thus demanding allotments by
** reason of their families to have land assigned
*« and cows bought, till the proportion so allotted
‘amounts toone _ of the extent of the common.

“‘ III. In parishes where there are no commons,
“and the quality of the land adequate, every
“* cottager having children, to whose cottage

Ch. xi. Condition of the Poor considered. 383

*« there is not within a given time land sufficient
“ for a cow, and half an acre of potatoes, assigned
“ata fair average rent, subject to appeal to the
“« sessions, to have a right to demand shillings
“ per week of the parish for every child, till such
“land be assigned; leaving to landlords. and
“tenants the means of doing it. Cows to be
“ found by the parish under an annual reimburse-
‘ment, *

«The great object is, by means of milk and
“ potatoes, to take the mass of the country poor
“from the consumption of wheat, and to give
“ them substitutes equally wholesome and nou-
“rishing, and as independent of scarcities, na+
** tural and artificial, as the providence of the Al-
“ mighty will admit.’ +

Would not this plan operate, in.the most direct
manner, as an encouragement to marriage and a
bounty on children, which Mr. Young has with so:
much justice reprobated in his travels in France?
and does he seriously: think that it would be an
eligible thing to feed. the mass of. the people in
this country on milk. and potatoes, and make them
as independent of the price of corn and demand
for labour as their brethren in Ireland ?

The specific cause of the poverty and misery
of the lower classes of people in France and
Ireland is, that from the extreme subdivision of
property in the one country, and the facility of
obtaining a cabin and potatoes in the other, a po-

* P. 78, + P. 79.

384 Different Plans of improving the Bk. iv.

pulation is brought into existence, which is not
demanded by the quantity of capital and employ-
ment in the country ; and the consequence of which
must therefore necessarily be, as is very justly
expressed in the Report of the Committee of
Mendicity before mentioned, to lower in general
the price of labour by too great competition; from
which must result complete indigence to those
who cannot find employment, and an comet
subsistence even to those who can.

The obvious tendency of Mr. Young’s plan is,
by encouraging marriage and furnishing a cheap
food, independent of the price of corn, and of
course of the demand for labour, to place the
lower classes of people exactly in this situation.

It may perhaps be said, that our poor-laws at
present regularly encourage marriage and chil-
dren, by distributing relief in proportion to the
size of families; and that this plan, which is pro-
posed as a substitute, would merely do the same
thing in a less objectionable manner. But surely,
in endeavouring to get rid of the evil of the poor-
laws, we ought not to retain their most pernicious
quality ; and Mr. Young must know as well as I
do, that the principal reason why poor-laws have
invariably been found ineffectual in the relief of
the poor is, that they tend to encourage a popula-
tion, which is not regulated by the demand for la-
bour. Mr Young himself, indeed, expressly takes
notice of this effect in England, and observes that,
notwithstanding the unrivalled prosperity of her
manufactures, “‘ population is sometimes too ac-

Ch. xi. Condition of the Poor considered. 385

“< tive, as we see clearly by the dangerous increase
“‘ of poor’s rates in country villages.” *

But the fact is, that Mr. Young’s plan would be
incomparably more powerful. in encouraging a
population beyond the demand for labour, than
our present poor-laws. A laudable repugnance to
the receiving of parish relief, arising partly from
a spirit of independence not yet extinct, and partly
from the disagreeable mode in which the relief is
given, undoubtedly deters many from marrying
with a certainty of falling on the parish; and the
proportion of births and marriages to the whole
population, which has before been noticed, clearly
proves that the poor-laws do not encourage mar-
riage so much as might be expected from theory.
But the case would be very different, if, when a
labourer had an early marriage in contemplation,
the terrific forms of workhouses and parish offi-
cers, which might disturb his resolution, were to
be exchanged for the fascinating visions of land
and cows. Ifthe love of property, as Mr. Young
has repeatedly said, will make a man do much, it
would be rather strange if it would not make him
marry ; an action to which, it appears from expe-
rience, that he is by no means disinclined.

The population, which would be thus called into
being, would be supported by the extended cul-
tivation of potatoes, and would of course-go on
without any reference to the demand for labour.
In the present state of things, notwithstanding the

. * Travels in France, vol. i. ¢. xvii. p. 470.

VOL. Il. CC®

386 Different Plans of improving the Bk. iv.

flourishing condition of our manufactures and the
numerous checks to our population, there is no
practical problem so difficult, as to find employ-
ment for the poor; but this difficulty would evi-
dently be aggravated a hundred fold, under the
circumstances here supposed.

In Ireland, or in any other country, where the
common food is potatoes, and every man who
wishes to marry may obtain a piece of ground suf-
ficient, when planted with this root, to support a
family, prizes may be given till the treasury is ex-
hausted for essays on the best means of employing
the poor; but till some stop to the progress of po-
pulation naturally arising from this state of things
takes place, the object in view is really a physical
impossibility.*

Mr. Young has intimated, that, if the people
were fed upon milk and potatoes, they would be
more independent of scarcities than at present;
but why this should be the case I really cannot
comprehend. Undoubtedly people who live upon
potatoes will not be much affected by a scarcity
of wheat; but is there any contradiction in the
supposition of a failure in the crops of potatoes ?

* Dr. Crumpe’s Prize Essay on the best means of finding em-
ployment for the people is an excellent treatise, and contains most
valuable information ; but till the capital of the country is better
proportioned to its population, it is perfectly chimerical to expect
success in any project of the kind. I am also strongly disposed to
believe that the indolent and turbulent habits of the lower Irish
can never be corrected, while the potatoe system enables them to
increase so much beyond the regular demand for labour.

Ch. xi. Condition of the Poor considered. 387

I believe it is generally understood that they are
more liable to suffer damage during the winter
than grain. From the much greater quantity of
food yielded by a given piece of land when planted
with potatoes, than under any other kind of culti-
vation, it would naturally happen that, for some
time after the introduction of this root as the gene-
ralfood of the labouring classes of people, a greater
quantity would be grown than was demanded,
and they would live in plenty. Mr. Young, in his
Travels through France, observes, that, ‘‘ In dis-
“* tricts which contain immense quantities of waste
“Jand of a certain degree of fertility, as in the
“roots of the Pyrenees, belonging to commu-
“« nities ready to sell them, economy and industry,
** animated with the views of settling and marry-
“ing, flourish greatly; in such neighbourhoods
“* something like an American increase takes place,
“« and if the land be cheap little distress is found.
«‘ But as procreation goes on rapidly under such
“« circumstances, the least check to subsistence is
“ attended with great misery; as wastes becoming
«« dearer, or the best portions being sold, or diffi-
‘< culties arising in the acquisition ; all which cir-
“*cumstances I met with in those mountains.
« The moment that any impediment happens, the
** distress of such a people will be proportioned
'** to the activity and vigour, which had animated
“* population.” *

This description will apply exactly to what

* Travels in France, vol. i, c. xvii. p. 409.
«
ces

388 Different Plans of improving the Bk. iv.

_ would take place in this country, on the distri-
bution of small portions of land to the common
people, and the introduction of potatoes as their
general food. For a time the change might ap-
pear beneficial, and of course the idea of property
would make it, at first, highly acceptable to the
poor; but, as Mr. Young in another place says,
« You presently arrive at the limit, beyond which
<< the earth, cultivate it as you please, will feed
“no more mouths; yet those simple manners,
«« which instigate to marriage, still continue; what
“then is the consequence, but the most dreadful
‘“‘ misery imaginable ?” *

When the commons were all divided, and dif-
ficulties began to occur in procuring potatoe-
srounds, the habit of early marriages, which had
been introduced, would occasion the most com-
plicated distress ; and when, from the increasing
population, and diminishing sources of subsistence,
the average growth of potatoes was not more than
the average consumption, a scarcity of potatoes
would be, in every respect, as probable as a scar-
city of wheat at present; and, when it did arrive,
it would be beyond all comparison more dread ful.

When the common people of a country live
principally upon the dearest grain, as they do in
England on wheat, they have great resources in a
scarcity ; and barley, oats, rice, cheap soups and
potatoes, all present themselves as less expensive,
yet at the same time wholesome means of nourish-

* Trayels in France, vol. i. c. xvii. p. 409.
”

Ch. xi. Condition of the Poor considered. 389

ment; but when their habitual food is the lowest
in this scale, they appear to be absolutely without
resource, except in the bark of trees, like the poor
Swedes; and a great portion of them must neces-
sarily be starved.

The wages of labour will always be regulated
mainly by the proportion of the supply of labour to
the demand. And as, upon the potatoe system, a
supply more than adequate to the demand would
very soon take place, and this supply might be con-
tinued at a very cheap rate, on account of the
cheapness of the food which would furnish it, the
common price of labour would soon be regulated
principally by the price of potatoes instead of the
price of wheat, as at present; and the rags and
wretched cabins of Ireland would follow of course.

When the demand for labour occasionally ex-
ceeds the supply, and wages are regulated by the
price of the dearest grain, they will generally be
such as to yield something besides mere food, and
the common people may be able to obtain decent
houses and decent clothing. If the contrast
between the state of the French and English
labourers, which Mr. Young has drawn, be in any
degree near the truth, the advantage on the side
of England has been occasioned precisely and ex-
clusively by these two circumstances ; and if, by
the adoption of milk and potatoes as the general
food of the common people, these circumstances
were totally altered, so as to make the supply of
Jabour constantly in a great excess above the de-

390 Different Plans of improving the Bk. iv.

- mand for it, and regulate wages by the price of
the cheapest food, the advantage would be imme-
diately lost, and no efforts of benevolence could
prevent the most general and abject poverty.

Upon the same principle it would by no means
be eligible that the cheap soups of Count Rumford
should be adopted as the general food of the
common people. They are excellent inventions
for the public institutions, and as occasional re-
sources; butif they were once universally adopted
by the poor, it would be impossible to prevent
the price of labour from being regulated by them ;
and the labourer, though at first he might have
more to spare for other expenses, besides food,
would ultimately have much less to spare than
before.

The desirable thing, with a view to the hap-
piness of the common people, seems to be, that
their habitual food should be dear, and their
wages regulated by it ; but that, in a scarcity, or
other occasional distress, the cheaper food should
be readily and cheerfully adopted.* With a view
of rendering this transition easier, and at the same
time of making an useful distinction between those
who are dependent on parish relief and those who
are not, I should think that one plan, which Mr.
Young proposes, would be extremely eligible.

* It is certainly to be wished that every cottage in England
should have a garden to it well stocked with vegetables. A little
variety of food is in every point of view highly useful. Potatoes are
undoubtedly a most valuable assistance, though I should be very
sorry ever to see them the principal dependence of our labourers.

Ch. xi. Condition of the Poor considered. 391

This is, ‘‘ to pass an act prohibiting relief, so far
“‘ as subsistence is concerned, in any other manner
“ than by potatoes, rice and soup; not merely as
“a measure of the moment, but permanently.”*
Ido not think that this plan would necessarily
introduce these articles as the common food of the
lower classes; and if it merely made the transi-
tion to them in periods of distress easier, and at
the same time drew a more marked line than at
present between dependence and independence,
it would have a very beneficial effect.

As it is acknowledged that the introduction of
milk and potatoes, or of cheap soups, as the ge-
neral food of the lower classes of people, would
lower the price of labour, perhaps some cold po-
litician might propose to adopt the system, witha
view of underselling foreigners in the markets of
Europe. I should not envy the feelings which
could suggest such a proposal. I really cannot
conceive any thing much more detestable than
the idea of knowingly condemning the labourers
of this country to the rags and wretched cabins
of Ireland, for the purpose of selling a few more
broad cloths and calicoes:t The wealth and power

* Question of Scarcity, &c. p. 80. This might be done, at
least with regard to workhouses. In assisting the poor at their
own homes, it might be subject to some practical difficulties.

+ In this observation I have not the least idea of alluding to Mr.
Young, who, I firmly believe, ardently wishes to improve the con-
dition of the lower classes of people; though I do not think that
his plan would effect the object in view. He either did not see
those consequences which I apprehend from it ; or he has a better

392 Different Plans of improving the Bk. iv.

.of nations are, after all, only desirable as they
contribute to happiness. In this point of view, [
should be very farfrom undervaluing them, consi-
dering them, in general, as absolutely necessary
means to attain the end; but if any particular
case should occur, where they appear to be in
direct opposition to each other, we cannot ra-
tionally doubt which ought to be preferred.

opinion of the happiness of the common people in Ireland than I
have. In his Irish ‘Tour he seemed much struck with the plenty of
potatoes which they possessed, and the absence of all apprehension
of want. Had he travelled in 1800 and 1801, his impressions would
by all accounts have been very different. From the facility which has
hitherto prevailed in Ireland of procuring potatoe-grounds, scarci-
ties have certainly been rare, and all the effects of the system have
not yet been felt, though certainly enough to make it appear very
far from desirable.

Mr. Young has since pursued his idea more in detail, in a
pamphlet entitled, 4n Inquiry into the Propriety of applying Wastes
to the better Maintenance and Support of the Poor. But the im-
pression on my mind is still the same ; and it appears to be calcu-
lated to assimilate the condition of the labourers of this country to
that of the lower classes of the Irish. Mr. Young seems, in a most
unaccountable manner, to have forgotten all his general principles
on this subject. He has treated the question of a provision for the
poor, as if it was merely, How to provide in the cheapest and best
manner for a given number of people. If this had been the sole
question, it would never have taken so many hundred years to re-
solve. But the real question is, How to provide for those who are
in want, in such a manner as to prevent a continual accumulation
of their numbers ? and it will readily occur to the reader, that a
plan of giving them land and cows cannot promise much success
in this respect. If, after all the commons had been divided, the
poor-laws were still to continue in force, no good reason can be
assigned why the rates should not in a few years be as high as they
are at present, independently of all that had been expended in the
purchase of land and stock.

Ch. xi. Condition of the Poor considered. 393

Fortunately, however, even on the narrowest
political principles, the adoption of such a system
would not answer. It has always been observed
that those, who work chiefly on their own pro-
perty, work very indolently and unwillingly when
employed for others; and it must necessarily
happen, when, from the general adoption of a very
cheap food, the population of a country increases
considerably beyond the demand for labour, that
habits of idleness and turbulence will be generated,
most peculiarly unfavourable to a flourishing state
of manufactures. In spite of the cheapness of la-
bour in Ireland, there are few manufactures which
can be prepared in that country for foreign sale so
cheap as in England: and this is in a great mea-
sure owing to the want of those industrious habits
which can only be produced by regular employ-
ment.

( 394 .) Bk. iv.

_ CHAP. XIL*

Continuation of the same Subject.

Tue increasing portion of the society which has
of late years become either wholly or partially
dependent upon parish assistance, together with
the increasing burden of the poor’s rates on the
landed property, has for some time been working
a gradual change in the public opinion respecting
the benefits resulting to the labouring classes of
society, and to society in general, from a legal
provision for the poor. But the distress which
has followed the peace of 1814, and the great and
sudden pressure which it has occasioned on the
parish rates, have accelerated this change in a very
marked manner. More just and enlightened
views on the subject are daily gaining ground ;
the difficulties attending a legal provision for the
poor are better understood, and more generally
acknowledged; and opinions are now seen in
print, and heard in conversation, which twenty
years ago would almost have been considered as
treason to the interests of the state.

This change of public opinion, stimulated by the
severe pressure of the moment, has directed an
unusual portion of attention to the subject of the

* Written in 1817.

Ch. xii. Continuation of the same Subject. 395

poor-laws; and as it is acknowledged that the
present system has essentially failed, various plans
have been proposed either as substitutes or im-
provements. It may be useful to inquire shortly
how far the plans which have already been pub-
lished are calculated to accomplish the ends which
they propose. It is generally thought that some
measure of importance will be the result of the
present state of public opinion. To the perma-
nent success of any such measure, it is absolutely
necessary that it should apply itself in some de-
gree to the real source of the difficulty. Yet there
is reason to fear, that, notwithstanding the present
improved knowledge on the subject, this point
may be too much overlooked.

Among the plans which appear to have excited
a considerable degree of the public attention, is
one of Mr. Owen. I have already adverted to
some views of Mr. Owen in a chapter on Systems
of Equality, and spoken of his experience with
the respect which is justly due to it. If the ques-
tion were merely how to accommodate, support
and train, in the best: manner, societies of 1200
people, there are perhaps few persons more en-
titled to attention than Mr. Owen: but in the
plan which he has proposed, he seems totally to
have overlooked the nature of the problem to be
solved. This problem is, How to provide for those
who are in want, in such a. manner as to prevent a
continual increase of their numbers, and of the pro-
portion which they bear to the whole society. And it
must be allowed that Mr. Owen's plan not only

396 Continuation of the same Subject. Bk. iv.

-does not make the slightest approach towards ac-
complishing this object, but seems to be peculiarly
calculated to effect an object exactly the reverse
of it, that is, to increase and multiply the number
of paupers.

If the establishments which he recommends
could really be conducted according to his appa-
rent intentions, the order of nature and the lessons
of providence would indeed be in the most marked
manner reversed; and the idle and profligate
would be placed in a situation which might justly
be the envy of the industrious and virtuous. The
labourer or manufacturer who is now ill lodged
and ill clothed, and obliged to work twelve hours
a day to maintain his family, could have no motive
to continue his exertions, if the reward for slack-
ening them, and seeking parish assistance, was good
lodging, good clothing, the maintenance and edu-
cation of all his children, and the exchange of
twelve hours hard work in an unwholesome manu-
factory for four or five hours of easy agricultural
labour ona pleasant farm. Under these tempta-
tions, the numbers yearly falling into the new
establishments from the labouring and manufac-
turing classes, together with the rapid increase
by procreation of the societies themselves, would
very soon render the first purchases of land utterly
incompetent to their support. More land must
then be purchased and fresh settlements made ;
and if the higher classes of society were bound to
proceed in the system according to its apparent
spirit and intention, there cannot be a doubt that

Ch. xii. Continuation of the same Subject. 397

the whole nation would shortly become a nation
of paupers with a community of goods.

Such a result might not perhaps be alarming to
Mr. Owen. It is just possible indeed that he
may have had this result in contemplation when
he proposed this plan, and have thought that it
was the best mode of quietly introducing that
community of goods which he believes is neces-
sary to complete the virtue and happiness of
society. But to those who totally dissent from
him as to the effects to be expected from a com-
munity of goods; to those who are convinced that
even his favourite doctrine, that a man can be
trained to produce more than he consumes, which
is no doubt true at present, may easily cease to
be true, when cultivation is pushed beyond the
bounds prescribed to it by private property ;* the
approaches towards a system of this kind will be
considered as approaches towards a system of
universal indolence, poverty, and wretchedness.

Upon the supposition, then, that Mr. Owen's
plan could be effectively executed, and that the
various pauper societies scattered over the coun-
try could at first be made to realize his most san-
guine wishes, such might be expected to be their
termination in a moderately short time, from the
natural and necessary action of the principle of
population.

But itis probable that the other grand objection
to allsystems of common propriety would even at

* See vol. ji.c. x. b, iii. p. 154.

398 Continuation of the same Subject. Bk. iv.

_ the very outset confound the experience of Mr.
Owen, and destroy the happiness to which he
looks forward. In the society at the Lanerk
Mills, two powerful stimulants to industry and
good conduct are in action, which would be
totally wanting in the societies proposed. At
Lanerk, the whole of every man’s earnings is
his own; and his power of maintaining himself,
his wife and children, in decency and comfort,
will be in exact proportion to his industry, so-
briety, and economy. At Lanerk, also, if any
workman be perseveringly indolent and negligent,
if he get drunk and spoil his work, or if in any way
he conduct himself essentially ill, he not only
naturally suffers by the diminution of his earnings,
but he may at any time be turned off, and the so-
ciety be relieved from the influence and example of
a profligate and dangerous member. On the other
hand, in the pauper establishments proposed in
the present plan, the industry, sobriety, and good
conduct of each individual, would be very feebly
indeed connected with his power of maintaining
himself and family comfortably; and in the case
of persevering idleness and misconduct, instead of
the simple and effective remedy of dismission,
recourse must be had to a system of direct pu-
nishment of some kind or other, determined and
enforced by authority, which is always painful
and distressing, and generally inefficient.

I confess it appears to me that the most suc-
cessful experience in such an establishment as
that of Lanerk, furnishes no ground whatever to

Ch. xii. Continuation of the same Subject. 399

say what could be done towards the improvement
of society in an establishment where the produce
of all the labour employed would go to a common
stock, and dismissal, from the very nature and
object of the institution, would be impossible. If
under such disadvantages the proper management
of these establishments were within the limits of
possibility, what judgment, what firmness, what
patience, would be required for the purpose!
But where are such qualities to be found in suffi-
cient abundance to manage one or two millions of
people ? .

On the whole, then, it may be concluded, that
Mr. Owen’s plan would have to encounter ob-
stacles that really appear to be insuperable, even
at its first outset; and that if these could by any
possible means be overcome, and the most com-
plete success attained, the system would, without
some most unnatural and unjust laws to prevent
the progress of population, lead to a state of
universal poverty and distress, in which, though
all the rich might be made poor, none of the poor
could be made rich,—not even so rich as a com-
mon labourer at present.

The plan for bettering the condition of the
labouring classes of the community, published
by Mr. Curwen, is professedly a slight sketch:
but principles, not details, are what it is our present
object to consider; and the principles on which
he would proceed are declared with sufficient
distinctness, when he states the great objects of
his design to be,

400 Continuation of the same Subject. Bk. iv.

1. Meliorating the present wretched condition
of the lower orders of the people.

2. Equalizing by a new tax the present poor’s
rates, which must be raised for their relief.

3. And giving to all those who may think pro-
per to place themselves under its protection, a
voice in the local management and distribution of
the fund destined for their support.

The first proposition is, of course, or ought to
be, the object of every plan proposed... And the
two last may be considered as the modes by
which it is intended to accomplish it.

But it is obvious that these two propositions,
though they may be both desirable on other
accounts, not only do not really touch, but do not
even propose to touch, the great problem. We
wish to check the increase and diminish the pro-
portion of paupers, in order to give greater wealth,
happiness, and independence to the mass of the
labouring classes. But the equalization of the
poor’s rates, simply considered, would have a
very strong tendency to increase rather than to
diminish the number of the dependent poor. At
present the parochial rates fall so very heavily
upon one particular species of property, that the
persons, whose business it is to allow them, have
in general a very strong interest indeed to keep
them low; but if they fell equally on all sorts of
property, and particularly if they were collected
from large districts, or from counties, the local
distributors would have comparatively but very
feeble motives to reduce them, and they might be
expected to increase with great rapidity.

Ch. xii. Continuation of the same Subject. 401

It may be readily allowed, however, that the
peculiar weight with which the poor's rates press
upon land is essentially unfair. It is particularly
hard upon some country parishes, where the births
greatly exceed the deaths, owing to the constant
emigrations which are taking ‘alene to towns
and manufactories, that, under any circumstances,
a great portion of these emigrants should be re-
turned upon them when old, disabled, or out of
work. Such parishes may be totally without the
power of furnishing either work or support for all
the persons born within their precincts. In fact,
the same number would not have been born in
them unless these emigrations had taken place.
And it is certainly hard, therefore, that parishes
so circumstanced should be obliged to receive
and maintain all who may return to them in dis-
tress. Yet, in the present state of the country,
the most pressing evil is not the weight upon the
land, but the increasing proportion of paupers.
And, as the equalization of the rates would cer-
tainly have a tendency to increase this proportion,
I should be sorry to see such a measure intro-
duced, even if it were easily practicable, unless
accompanied by some very strong and decisive
limitations to the continued increase of the rates
so equalized.

The other proposition of Mr. Curwen will, in
like manner, be found to afford no security against
the increase of pauperism. We know perfectly
well that the funds of the friendly societies, as

VOL. If. DD

402 Continuation of the same Subject. Bk. iv.

they are at present constituted, though managed
by the contributors themselves, are seldom dis-
tributed with the economy necessary to their per-
manent efficiency; and in the national societies
proposed, asa considerable part of the fund would
be derived from the poor’s rates, there is certainly
reason to expect that every question which could
be influenced by the contributors would be deter-
mined on principles still more indulgent, and less
economical.

On this account it may well be doubted, whe-
ther it would ever be advisable to mix any public
money, derived from assessments, with the sub-
seriptions of the labouring classes. The probable
result would be, that in the case of any failure in
the funds of such societies, arising from erroneous
calculations and too liberal allowances, it would
be expected that the whole of the deficiency should
be made up by‘the assessments. And any rules
which might have been made to limit the amount
applied in this way would probably be but a feeble
barrier against claims founded on a plan brought
forward by the higher classes of society.

Another strong objection to this sort of union of
parochial and private contributions is, that from
the first the members of such societies could not
justly feel themselves independent. If one half
or one third of the fund were to be subscribed from
the parish, they would stand upon a very different
footing from the members of the present benefit-
clubs. While so considerable a part of the al-
lowances to which they might be entitled in sick-

Ch. xii. Continuation of the same Subject. ' 403

ness or in age would really come from the poor’s
rates, they would be apt to consider the plan as
what, in many respects, it really would be,—only
a different mode of raising the rates. If the sys-
tem were to become general, the contributions of
the labouring classes would have nearly the effects
of a tax on labour, and such a tax has been gene-
rally considered as more unfavourable to industry
and production than most other taxes. :

The best part of Mr. Curwen’s plan is that which
proposes to give a credit to each contributor in
proportion to the amount of his contributions, and
to make his allowance in sickness, and his annuity
in old age, dependent upon this amount; but this
object could easily be accomplished without the
objectionable accompaniments. It is also very
properly observed, that “want of employment
“must furnish no claims on the society; for, if
* this excuse were to be admitted, it would most
* probably be attended with the most pernicious
“consequences.” Yetitisat the same time rather
rashly intimated, that employment must be found
for all who are able to work ; and in another place
it is observed, that timely assistance would be af-
forded by these societies, without degradation, on
all temporary occasions of suspended labour.

On the whole,when it is considered that a large
and probably increasing amount of poor’s rates
would be subscribed to these societies ; that on
this account their members could hardly be con-
sidered as independent of parish assistance; and
that the usual poor’s rates would still remain to be

DD2

404 Continuation of the same Subject. Bk. iv.

applied as they are now, without any proposed
limitations, there is little hope that Mr. Curwen’s
plan would be successful in diminishing the whole
amount of the rates, and the proportion of de-
' pendent poor.

'. There are two errors respecting the management
of the poor, into which the public seem inclined
to fall at the present moment. The first is a dis-
position to attach too much importance to the
effects of subscriptions from the poor themselves,
without sufficient attention to the mode in which
they are distributed. But the mode of distribu-
tion is much the more important point of the two;
and if this be radically bad, it is of little conse-
quence in what manner the subscriptions are
raised, whether from the poor themselves, or from
any other quarter. Ifthe labouring classes were
universally to contribute what might at first ap-
pear a‘very ample proportion of their earnings, for
their own support in sickness and in old age, when
out of -work, and when the family consisted of
‘more than two children; it is quite certain that
the funds would-become deficient. Such a-mode
of distribution implies a power of supporting a
rapidly increasing and unlimited population ona
limited territory,-and must therefore terminate in
ageravated poverty. Our present friendly -so-
-cieties or benefit-clubs aim at only limited objects,
which are susceptible of calculation; yet many
have failed,-and many more it is: understood are
likely-to fail from the insufficiency of their funds.
If any-society were to attempt to.give much more

Ch. xii. Continuation of the saime Subject. AOS

éxtensive assistance to its members; if it were to
endeavour to imitate what is partially effected by
the poor-laws, or to accomplish those objects
which Condorcet thought were within the power
of proper calculations; the failure of its funds,
however large at first, and from whatever sources
derived, would be absolutely inevitable. In short,
it cannot be too often or too strongly impressed
upon the public, especially when any question for
the improvement of the condition of.the poor is in
agitation, that no application of knowledge and
ingenuity to this subject, ‘no efforts either-of .the
poor or of the rich, or both, -in the form of contri-
butions, or in any other way, can possibly place .
the labouring classes of society in such a state as
to enable them to marry generally at the same age
in-an old’and fully peopled country as they may
do with perfect safety and advantage in a new
one. , :

The other error towards which the public seems
to incline at present is that of laying too;much
stress upon the employment of the poor. It seems
to be thought that.one of the principal causes of
the failure of.our present system is the not having
properly executed that part of the 43d of Eliza-
beth which enjoins the purchase of materials to
set the poor to work. It is certainly desirable,
on many accounts, to employ the poor, when. it is
practicable, though it will always.be extremely
difficult to make people work actively who .are
without. the usual and most. natural motives to
such exertions ;, and a system of coercion involves

406 Continuation of the same Subject. Bk. iv.

the necessity of placing great power in the hands
of persons very likely to abuse it. Still however
it is probable that the poor might be employed
more than they have hitherto been, in a way to
be advantageous to their habits and morals, with-
out being prejudicial in other respects. But we
should fall into the grossest error if we were to
imagine that any essential part of the evils of the
poor-laws, or of the difficulties under which we
ate at present labouring, has arisen from not em-
ploying the poor; or if we were to suppose that
any possible scheme for giving work to all who
are out of employment can ever in any degree
apply to the source of these evils and difficulties,
so as to prevent their recurrence. In no con-
ceivable case can the forced employment of the
poor, though managed in the most judicious man-
ner, have any direct tendency to proportion more
accurately the supply of labour to the natural de-
mand for it. And without great care and caution
it is obvious that it may have a pernicious effect
of an opposite kind. When, for instance, from
deficient demand or deficient capital, labour hasa
strong tendency to fall, if we keep it up to its
usual price by creating an artificial demand by
public subscriptions or advances from the govern-
ment, we evidently prevent the population of the
country from adjusting itself gradually to its di-
minished resources, and act much in the same
manner as those who would prevent the price of
corn from rising in a scarcity, which must neces-
sarily terminate in increased distress.

Ch. xii. Continuation of the same Subject. 407

Without then meaning to object to all plans for
employing the poor, some of which, at certain
times and with proper restrictions; may be useful
as temporary measures, it is of great importance,
in order to prevent ineffectual efforts and con+
tinued disappointments, to be fully aware that the
permanent remedy which we are seeking cannot
possibly come from this quarter.

It may indeed be affirmed with the most per-
fect confidence that there is only one class of
causes from which any approaches towards a re-
medy can be rationally expected; and that com-
sists of whatever has a tendency to increase the
prudence and foresight of the labouring classes.
This is the touchstone to which every plan pro-
posed for the improvement of the condition of the
poor should be applied. If the plan be such as
to co-operate with the lessons of Nature and Pro-
vidence, and to encourage and promote habits of
prudence and foresight, essential and permanent
benefit may be expected from it; if it has no ten-
dency of this kind, it may possibly still be good
as a temporary measure, and on other accounts,
but we may be quite certain that it does not ap-
ply to the source of the specific evil for which we
are seeking a remedy.

Of all the plans which have yet been proposed
for the assistance of the labouring classes, the
saving-banks, as far as they go, appear to me
much the best, and the most likely, if they should
become general, to effect a permanent improve~-
ment in the condition of the lower classes of so-

408 Continuation of the same Subject. Bk. iv.

. ciety. By giving to each individual the full and
entire benefit of his own industry and prudence,
they are calcu‘ated greatly to strengthen the les-
sons of Nature and Providence; and a young
man, who had been saving from fourteen or fifteen
with a view to marriage at four or five and twenty,
or perhaps much earlier, would probably be in-
duced to wait two or three years longer if the
times were unfavourable; if corn were high; if
wages were low; or if the sum he had saved had
been found by experience not to be sufficient to
fyrnish a tolerable security against want. A habit
of saving a portion of present earnings for future
contingencies can scarcely be supposed to exist
without general habits of prudence and foresight;
and if the opportunity furnished by provident
banks to individuals, of reaping the full benefit of
saving, should render the practice general, it might
rationally be expected that, under the varying re-
sources of the country, the population would be
adjusted to the actual demand for labour, at the
expense of less pain and less poverty; and the re-
medy thus appears, so far as it goes, to apply to
the very root of the evil.

The great object of saving-banks, however, i is
to prevent want and dependence by enabling the
poor to provide against contingencies themselves.
And in a natural state of society, such institutions,
with the aid of. private charity_well directed,
would probably be all the means necessary to
produce the best practicable effects. In the pre-

Ch. xii. Continuation of the same Subject. 409

sent state of things in this country the case is es-
sentially different. With so very large a body of
poor habitually dependent upon public funds, the
institution of saving-banks cannot be considered
in the light of substitutes for the poor’s rates.
The problem how to support those who are in
want in such a manner as not continually to in-
crease the proportion which they bear to the whole
society will still remain to be solved. But if any
plan should be adopted either of gradually abo-
lishing or gradually reducing and fixing the amount
of the poor's rates, saving-banks would essentially
assist it; at the same time that they would receive
a most powerful aid in return.

In the actual state of things, they have been
established at a period likely to be particularly un-
favourable to them—a period of very general dis-
tress, and of the most extensive parochial assist-
ance; and the success which has attended them,
even under these disadvantages, seems clearly to
shew, thatina period of prosperity and good wages,
combined with a prospect of diminished parochial
assistance, they might spread very extensively,
and have a considerable effect on the general habits
ofa people.

With aview to give them greater encouragement
at the present moment, an act has been passed
allowing persons to receive parish assistance at the
discretion of the justices, although they may have
funds of their own under a certain amount in a
saying-bank. But this is probably a shortsighted
policy. It is sacrificing the principle for which

410 Continuation of the same Subject. Bk. iv.

saving-banks are established, to obtain an advan-
tage’ which, on this very account, will be compa-
ratively of little value. We wish to teach the la-
bouring classes to rely more upon their own ex-
ertions and resources, as the only way of really
improving their condition; yet we reward their
saving by making them still dependent upon that
very species of assistance which it is our object
that they should avoid. The progress of saving-
banks under such a regulation will be but an
equivocal and uncertainsymptom of good; whereas
without such a regulation every step would tell,
every fresh deposit would prove the growth of

a desire to become independent of parish assist-
- ance; and both the great extension of the friendly
societies and the success of the saving-banks in
proportion to the time they have been established,
clearly shew that much progress might be ex-
pected in these institutions under favourable cir-
cumstances, without resorting to a measure which
is evidently calculated to sacrifice the end to the
means.

With regard to the plans which have been talked
of for reducing and limiting the poor’s rates, they
are certainly of a kind to apply to the root of the
evil; but they would be obviously unjust without
a formal retraction of the r7ght of the poor to sup-
port; and for many years they would unques-
tionably be much more harsh in their operation
than the plan of abolition which I have ven-
tured to propose in a preceding chapter. At the
same time, if it be thought that this country can-

Ch. xii. Continuation of the same Subject. 411

not entirely get rid of a system which has been so
long interwoven in its frame, a limitation of the
amount of the poor’s rates, or rather of their pro-
portion to the wealth and population of the coun-
try which would be more rational and just, ac-
companied with a very full and fair notice of the
nature of the change to be made, might be pro-
ductive of essential benefit, and do much towards
improving the habits and happiness of the poor.

|

E wid Os Woe’ ‘Bk.iv.

CHAP. XIII.

Of the Necessity of general Principles on this Subject.

Ir has been observed by Hume, that of all sci-
ences there is none where first appearances are
more deceitful than in politics.* The remark is
undoubtedly very just, and is most peculiarly ap-
plicable to that department of the science, which
relates to the modes of improving the condition of
the lower classes of society.

Weare continually hearing declamations against
theory and theorists, by men who pride themselves
upon the distinction of being practical. It must
be acknowledged that bad theories are very bad
things, and the authors of them useless and some-
times pernicious members of society. But these
advocates of practice do not seem to be aware that
they themselves very often come under this de-
scription, and that a great part of them may be
classed among the most mischievous theorists of
their time. When a man faithfully relates any
facts, which have come within the scope of his
own observation, however confined it may have
been, he undoubtedly adds to the sum of general
knowledge, and confers a benefit on society. But
when from this confined experience, from the ma-

* Essay xi. vol. i. p. 431. 8vo.

Ch. xiii. Of the Necessity of general Principles. 413

nagement of his own little farm, or the details of
the workhouse in his neighbourhood, he draws a
general inference, as is frequently the case, he
then at once erects himself into a theorist; and is
the more dangerous, because, experience being
the only just foundation for theory, people are
often caught merely by the sound of the word,
and do not stop to make the distinction between
that partial experience which, on such subjects, is
no foundation whatever for a just theory, and that
general experience, on which alone a just theory
can be founded.

There are perhaps few subjects on which hu-
man ingenuity has been more exerted than the
endeavour to meliorate the condition of the poor;
and there is certainly no: subject in which it has
so completely failed. The question between the
theorist who calls himself practical, and the ge-
nuine theorist, is, whether this should prompt us
to.look into all the holes and corners of work-
houses, and content ourselves with mulcting the
parish officers for their waste of cheese-parings
and candle-ends, and.with distributing more soups
and-potatoes; or to recur to general principles,
which shew us at once the cause of the failure,
and ‘prove that the system has been from the be-
ginning radically erroneous. There is no subject
to which general principles have been so seldom
applied; and yet, in the whole compass of human
knowledge, I doubt if there be one in which it is
so dangerous to lose sight of them; because the
partial and immediate effects of a particular mode

414. Of the Necessity of general Bk. iv.

of giving assistance are so often directly opposite
. to the general and permanent effects.

It has been observed in particular districts,
where cottagers are possessed of small pieces of
land, and are in the habit of keeping cows, that
during the late scarcities some of them were able
to support themselves without parish assistance,
and others with comparatively little.*

According to the partial view in which this
subject has been always contemplated, a general
inference has been drawn from such instances,
that, if we could place all our labourers in a similar
situation, they would all be equally comfortable,
and equally independent of the parish. This is
an inference, however, that by no means follows.
The advantage, which cottagers who at present
keep cows enjoy, arises in a great measure from
its being peculiar, and would be considerably di-
minished if it were made general.

A farmer or gentleman has, we will suppose, a
certain number of cottages on his farm. Being a
liberal man, and liking to see all the people about
him comfortable, he may join a piece of land to
each cottage sufficient to keep one or two cows,
and give besides high wages. His labourers will
of course live in plenty, and be able to rear up
large families; but his farm may not require many
hands; and though he may choose to pay those

* See an Inquiry into the State of Cottagers in the Counties of
Lincoln and Rutland, by Robert Gourlay. Annals of Agriculture,
vol. xxxvii, p, 514,

Ch. xiii. Principles on this Subject. 415

which he employs well, he will not probably wish
to have more labourers on his land than his work
requires. He does not therefore build more
houses; and the children of the labourers whom
he employs must evidently emigrate, and settle in
other countries. While such a system continues
peculiar to certain families or certain districts,
the emigrants would easily be able to find work
in other places ; and it cannot be doubted that the
individual labourers employed on these farms are
in an enviable situation, and such as we might na-
turally wish was the lot of all our labourers. But
it is perfectly clear that such a system could not,
in the nature of things, possess the same advan-
tages, if it were made general; because there
would then be no countries to which the children
could emigrate with the same prospect of finding
work. Population would evidently increase be-
yond the demand of towns and manufactories,
and the price of labour would universally fall.

It should be observed also, that one of the rea-
sons why the labourers who at present keep cows
are so comfortable, is, that they are able to make
considerable profit of the milk which they do not
use themselves ; an advantage which would evi-
dently be very much diminished, if the system
were universal. And though they were certainly
able to struggle through the late scarcities with
less assistance than their neighbours, as might
naturally be expected, from their having other
resources besides the article which in those indi-
vidual years was scarce; yet if the system were

416 Of the Necessity of general Bk. iv.

universal, there can be no reason assigned why
they would not be subject to suffer as ance from
a scarcity of grass and a mortality among cows,*
as our common labourers do now from a scarcity
of wheat. Weshould be extremely cautious there-
fore of trusting to such appearances, and of draw-
ing a general inference from this kind of partial
experience.

The main principle, on which the society for
increasing the comforts and bettering the condi-
tion of the poor professes to proceed, is excellent.
To give effect to that master-spring of industry,
the desire of bettering our condition{ is the true
mode of improving the state of the lower classes;
and we may safely agree with Sir Thomas Ber-
nard, in one of his able prefaces, that whatever’
encourages and promotes habits of industry, pru-
dence, foresight, virtue and cleanliness, among the
poor, is beneficial to them and to the country; and
whatever removes or diminishes the incitements
to any of these qualities is detrimental to the state,
and pernicious to the individual.{ |

Sir Thomas Bernard indeed himself seems in
general to be fully aware of the difficulties, which

* At present the loss of a cow, which must now and then hap-
pen, is generally remedied by a petition and subscription ; and as
the event is considered as a most serious misfortune to a labourer,
these petitions are for the most part attended to; but if the cow
system were universal, losses would occur so freeads, that they
could not possibly be repaired in the same way, and families would
be continually dropping from comparative plenty into want.

+ Preface to vol. ii. of the Reports.

+ Preface to-vol. iii, of the Reports.

Ch. xiii. Principles on this Subject. 417

the society has to contend with in the accomplish-
ment of its object. But still it appears to be in
some danger of falling into the error before alluded
to, of drawing general inferences from insufficient
experience. Without adverting to the plans re-
specting cheaper foods and parish shops, recom-
mended by individuals, the beneficial effects of
which depend entirely upon their being peculiar
to certain families or certain parishes, and would
be lost if they were general, by lowering the wages
of labour; I shall only notice one observation of a
more comprehensive nature, which occurs in the
preface to the second volume of the Reports. It
is there remarked that the experience of the so-
ciety seemed to warrant the conclusion, that the
best mode of relieving the poor was, by assisting
them at their own homes, and placing out their
children as soon as possible in different employ-
ments, apprenticeships, &c. I really believe that
this is the best, and it is certainly the most agree-
able, mode in which occasional and discriminate
assistance can be given. But it is evident that
it must be done with caution, and cannot be
adopted as a general principle, and made the
foundation of universal practice. It is open ex-
‘actly to the same objection as the cow system,
which has just been noticed, and that part of the
act of the 43d of Elizabeth, which directs the
overseers to employ and provide for the children
of the poor. A particular parish, where all the
children, as soon as they were of a proper age,
were taken from their parents and placed out in
VOL. If. EE

Al8 Of the Necessity of general Bk. iv.

proper situations, might be very comfortable;
but if the system were general, and the poor saw
that all their children would be thus provided
for, every employment would presently be over-
stocked with hands, and the consequences need
not be again repeated.

Nothing can be more clear than that it is within
the power of money, and of the exertions of the
rich, adequately to relieve a particular family, a
particular parish, and even a particular district.
But it will be equally clear, if we reflect a mo-
ment on the subject, that it is totally out of their
power to relieve the whole country in the same
way; at least without providing a regular vent
for the overflowing numbers in emigration, or
without the prevalence of a particular virtue among
the poor, which the distribution of this assistance
tends obviously to discourage.

Even industry itself is, in this respect, not very
different from money. A man who possesses a
certain portion of it, above what is usually pos-
sessed by his neighbours, will, in the actual state
of things, be almost sure of a competent liveli-
hood; but if all his neighbours were to become at
ence as industrious as himself, the absolute por-
tion of industry which he before possessed would
no longer be a security against want. Hume
fell into a great error, when he asserted that
** almost all the moral as well as natural evils of
“ human life arise from idleness;” and for the
cure of these ills required only that the whole
species should possess naturally an equal dili-

Ch. xiii. Principles on this Subject. 419

gence with that, which many individuals are able
to attain by habit and reflection.* It is evident
that this given degree of industry possessed by
the whole species, if not combined with another
virtue of which he takes no notice, would totally
fail of rescuing society from want and misery, and
would scarcely remove a single moral or physical
evil of all those to which he alludes.

I am aware of an objection, which will, with
great appearance of justice, be urged against
the general scope of these reasonings. It will be
said that to argue thus is at once to object to
every mode of assisting the poor, as it is impos-
sible, in the nature of things, to assist people in-
dividually, without altering their relative situation
in society, and proportionally depressing others;
and that as those who have families are the persons
naturally most subject to distress, and as we are
certainly not called upon to assist those who do
not want our aid, we must necessarily, if we act
at all, relieve those who have children, and thus
encourage marriage and population.

I have already observed, however, and I here
repeat it again, that the general principles on
these subjects ought not to be pushed too far,
though they should always be kept in view; and
that many cases may occur, in which the good
resulting from the relief of the present distress
may more than overbalance the evil to be appre-
hended from the remote consequence.

* Dialogues ou Natural Religion, part xi. p. 212.
EE 2

420 Of the Necessity of general BK. iv.

All relief in instances of distress, not arising
from idle and improvident habits, clearly comes
under this description; and in general it may be
observed, that it is only that kind of systematic and
certain relief, on which the poor can confidently
depend, whatever may be their conduct, that
violates general principles in such a manner as to
make it clear that the general consequence is
worse than the particular evil.

Independently of this discriminate and occasi-
onal assistance, the beneficial effects of which I
have fully allowed in a preceding chapter, I have
before endeavoured to shew, that much might be
expected from a better and more general system
of education. Every thing that can be done in
this way has indeed a very peculiar value; be-
cause education is one of those advantages, which
not only all may share without interfering with
each other, but the raising of one person may
actually contribute to the raising of others. If,
for instance, a man by education acquires that
decent kind of pride and those juster habits of
thinking, which will prevent him from burdening
society with a family of children which he cannot
support, his conduct, as far as an individual in-
stance can go, tends evidently to improve the
condition of his fellow-labourers ; and a contrary
conduct from ignorance would tend as evidently
to depress it.

I cannot help thinking also, that something
might be done towards bettering the situation of
the poor by a general improvement of their cot-

Ch. xiii. Principles on this Subject. 421

tages, if care were taken, at the same time, not
to make them so large as to allow of two families
settling in them; and not to increase their num-
ber faster than the demand for labour required:
One of the most salutary and least pernicious
checks to the frequency of early marriages in
this country is the difficulty of procuring a
cottage, and the laudable habits which prompt a
labourer rather to defer his marriage some years
in the expectation of a vacancy, than to content
himself with a wretched mud cabin, like those in
Ireland.*

Even the cow system, upon a more confined
plan, might not to be open to objection. With
any view of making it a substitute for the poor-
laws, and of giving labourers a right to demand
land and cows in proportion to their families; or
of taking the common people from the consump-
tion of wheat, and feeding them on milk and
potatoes; it appears to me, I confess, truly pre-
posterous: but if it were so ordered as merely to
provide a comfortable situation for the better and
more industrious labourers, and to supply at the

* Perhaps, however, this is not often left to his choice, on ac-
count of the fear which every parish has of inereasing its poor.
There are many ways by which our poor-laws operate in counter-
acting their first obvious tendency to increase population, and this
is one of them. I have little doubt that it is almost exclusively
owing to these counteracting causes, that we have been able to
persevere in this system so long, and that the condition of the
poor has not been so much injured by it as might have been ex~
pected.

422 Of the Necessity of general Bk. iv.

same time a very important want among the poor
in general, that of milk for their children; I think
that it would be extremely beneficial, and might
be made a very powerful incitement to habits of
industry, economy and prudence. With this view,
however, it is evident that only a certain portion
of labourers in each parish could be included in
the plan; that good conduct, and not mere dis-
tress, should have the most valid claim to prefer-
ence; that too much attention should not be paid
to the number of children; and that universally,
those who had saved: money enough for the pur-
chase of a cow, should be preferred to those who
required to be furnished with one by the parish.*

One should undoubtedly be extremely unwilling
not to make as much use as possible of that known
stimulus to industry and economy,*the desire of,
and attachment to, property: but it should be
recollected that the good effects of this stimulus
shew themselves principally when this property
is to be procured or preserved by personal ex-
ertions; and that they are by no means so general
under other circumstances. If any idle man with
a family could demand and obtain a cow and

* The act of Elizabeth, which prohibited the building of cot-
tages, unless four acres of land were annexed to them, is probably
impracticable in a manufacturing country like England; but,
upon this principle, certainly the greatest part of the poor might
possess land; because the difficulty of procuring such cottages
would always operate as a powerful check to their increase. The
effect of such a plan would be very different from that of Mr,
Young.

Ch. xiii. Principles on this Subject. 423

some land, I should expect to see both very often
neglected.

It has been observed that those cottagers, who
keep cows, are more industrious and more regular
in their conduct, than those who do not. This is
probably true, and what might naturally be ex-
pected; but the inference that the way to make
all people industrious is to give them cows, may
by no means be quite so certain. Most of those
who keep cows at present have purchased them
with the fruits of their own industry. Itis there-
fore more just to say that their industry has given
them a cow, than that a cow has given them
their industry; though I would by no means be
understood to imply that the sudden possé€ssion
of property never generates industrious habits.

The practical good effects, which have been al-
ready experienced from cottagers keeping cows,*
arise in fact from the system being nearly such as
the confined plan which I have mentioned. Inthe
districts where cottagers of this description most
abound, they do not bear a very large proportion
to the population of the whole parish; they con-
sist in general of the better sort of labourers, who
have been able to purchase their own cows; and
the peculiar comforts of their situation arise as
much from the relative as the positive advantages
which they possess.

From observing therefore their industry and

* Inquiry into the State of Cottagers in Counties of Lincoln

and Rutland, by Robert Gourlay. Annals of Agriculture, vol.
xxxvil, p. 514,

424 Of the Necessity of general Bk. iv.

- comforts, we should be very cautious of inferring
- that we could give the same industry and comforts
to all the lower classes of people, by giving them
the same possessions. There is nothing, that has
given rise to such a cloud of errors, as a confusion
between relative and positive, and between cause
and effect,

It may be said, however, that any plan of ge-
nerally improving the cottages of the poor, or of
enabling more of them to keep cows; would evi-
dently give them the power of rearing a greater
number of children, and, by thus encouraging po-
pulation, violate the principles which I have en-
deavoured to establish. But if I have been suc-
cessful in making the reader comprehend the
principal bent of this work, he will be aware
that the precise reason why I think that more
children ought not to be born than the country
can support is, that the greatest possible number
of those that are born may be supported. We
cannot, in the nature of things, assist the poor in
any way, without enabling them to rear up to
manhood a greater number of their children. But
this is, of all other things, the most desirable, both
with regard to individuals and the public. Every
loss of a child from the consequences of poverty
must evidently be preceded and accompanied by ©
great misery to individuals; and in a public view,
every child that dies under ten years of age is a
loss to the nation of all that had been expended
in its subsistence till that period. Consequently,
in every point of view, a decrease of mortality at

Ch. xiii. Principles on this Subject. 425

all ages is what we ought to aim at. We cannot
however effect this object, without first crowding
the population in some degree by making more
children grow up to manhood; but we shall do
no harm in this respect, if, at the same time, we
can impress these children with the idea, that, to
possess the same advantages as their parents, they
must defer marriage till they have a fair prospect
of being able to maintain a family. And it must
be candidly confessed that, if we cannot do this,
all our former efforts will have been thrown away.
It is not in the nature of things that any permanent
and general improvement in the condition of the
poor can be effected without an increase in the
preventive check; and unless this take place,
either with or without our efforts, every thing
that is done for the poor must be temporary and
partial: a diminution of mortality at present will
be balanced by an increased mortality in future ;
and the improvement of their condition in one
place will proportionally depress it in another.
This is a truth so important, and so little under-
stood, that it can scarcely be too often insisted on.

Paley, in a chapter on population, provision,
&ce., in his Moral Philosophy, observes, that the
condition most favourable to the population of a
country, and at the same time to its general hap-
piness, is, ‘‘ that of a laborious frugal people mi-
‘* nistering to the demands of an opulent luxurious
“nation, * Such a form of society has not, it

* Vol. ii. c. xi. p. 359. From a passage in Paley’s Natural
Theology, I am inclined to think that subsequent reflection induced

426 Of the Necessity of general Bk. iv.

must be confessed, an inviting aspect. Nothing
but the conviction of its being absolutely neces-
sary could reconcile us to the idea of ten millions
of people condemned to incessant toil, and to the
privation of every thing but absolute necessaries,
in order to minister to the excessive luxuries of
the other million. But the fact is, that such a
form of society is by no means necessary. It is
by no means necessary that the rich should be
excessively luxurious, in order to support the
manufactures of a country; or that the poor should
be deprived of all luxuries, in order to make them
sufficiently numerous. The best, and in every
point of view the most advantageous manufactures
in this country, are those which are consumed by
the great body of the people. The manufactures
which are confined exclusively to the rich are not
only trivial, on account of the comparative small-
ness of their quantity, but are further lable to the
great disadvantage of producing much occasional
misery among those employed in them, from
changes of fashion. It is the diffusion of luxury
therefore among the mass of the people, and not
an excess of it in a few, that seems to be most
advantageous, both with regard to national wealth

him to modify some of his former ideas on the subject. of popula-
tion. He states most justly (ch. xxv. p. 539.) that mankind will.
in every country breed up to a certain point of distress. If this be
allowed, that country will evidently be the happiest, where the de-
gree of distress at this point is the least ; and consequently, if the
diffusion of luxury, by producing the check sooner, tend to dimi-
nish this degree of distress, it is certainly desirable.

Ch. xiii. Principles on this Subject. 427

and national happiness ; and what Paley considers
as the true evil and proper danger of luxury, I
should be disposed to consider as its true good
and peculiar advantage. If, indeed, it be al-
lowed that in every society, not in the state of a
new colony, some powerful check to population
must prevail; and if it be observed that a taste
for the comforts and conveniences of life will pre-
vent people from marrying, under the certainty
of being deprived of these advantages; it must
be allowed that we can hardly expect to find any
check to marriage so little prejudicial to the hap-
piness and virtue of society as the general preva-
lence of such a taste; and consequently, that the
extension of luxury in this sense of the term is
particularly desirable, and one of the best means
of raising that standard of wretchedness alluded
to in a former chapter.

It has been generally found that the middle parts
of society are most favourable to virtuous and in-
dustrious habits, and to the growth of all kinds of
talents. But it is evident that all cannot be in
the middle. Superior and inferior parts are in the
nature of things absolutely necessary; and not
only necessary, but strikingly beneficial. If no
man could hope to rise, or fear to fall in society ;
if industry did not bring with it its reward, and
indolence its punishment; we could not expect to
see that animated activity in bettering our condi-
tion, which now forms the master-spring of public
prosperity. But in contemplating the different
states of Europe, we observe a very considerable

428 Of the Necessity of general Bk. iv.

difference in the relative proportions of the supe-
rior, the middle and the inferior parts; and from
the effect of these differences it seems probable,
that our best-grounded expectations of an increase
in the happiness of the mass of human society are
founded in the prospect of an increase in the re-
lative proportions of the middle parts. And if
the lower classes of people had acquired the habit
of proportioning the supplies of labour to a sta-
tionary or even decreasing demand, without an
increase of misery and mortality, as at present,
we might even venture to indulge a hope that at
some future period the processes for abridging
human labour, the progress of which has of late
years been so rapid, might ultimately supply all
the wants of the most wealthy society with less
personal effort than at.~present; and if they did
not diminish the severity of individual exertion,
might, at least, diminish the number of those
employed in severe toil. If the Jowest classes of
society were thus diminished, and the middle
classes increased, each labourer might indulge a
more rational hope of rising by diligence and exer-
tion into a better station; the rewards of industry
and virtue would be increased in number; the lottery
of human society would appear to consist of fewer
blanks and more prizes; and the sum of social
happiness would be evidently augmented. :
To indulge, however, in any distant views of
this kind, unaccompanied by the evils usually
attendant on a stationary or decreasing demand
for labour, we must suppose the general preva-

Ch. xiii. Principles on this Subject. 429

lence of such prudential habits among the poor, as
would prevent them from marrying, when the
actual price of labour, joined to what they might
have saved in their single state, would not give
them the prospect of being able to support a wife —
and five or six children without assistance. And
undoubtedly such a degree of prudential restraint
would produce a very striking melioration in the
condition of the lower classes of people.

It may be said, perhaps, that even this degree
of prudence might not always avail, as when a
man marries he cannot tell what number of chil-
dren he shall have, and many have more than six.
This is certainly true; and in this case I do not
think that any evil would result from making a
certain allowance to every child above this num-
ber; not with a view of rewarding a man for his
large family, but merely of relieving him from a
species of distress which it would be unreasonable
in us to expect ‘that he should calculate upon.
And with this view, the relief should be merely such
as to place him exactly in the same situation as if
he had had six children. Montesquieu disap-
proves of an edict of Lewis the Fourteenth, which
gave certain pensions to those who had ten and
twelve children, as being of no use in encouraging
population.* For the very reason that he dis-
approves of it, I should think that some law of the
kind might be adopted without danger, and might
relieve particular individuals from a very pressing

* Esprit des Loix, liv. xxiii. ¢, xxvii.

430 Of the Necessity of general Principles. Bk. iv.

and unlooked for distress, without operating in
any respect as an encouragement to marriage.

If at some future period any approach should
be made towards the more general prevalence of
prudential habits with respect to marriage among
the poor, from which alone any permanent and
general improvement of their condition can arise ;
I do not think that the narrowest politician need
be alarmed at it, from the fear of its occasioning
such an advance in the price of labour, as will
enable our commercial competitors to undersell
us in foreign markets. There are four circum-
stances that might be expected to accompany it,
which would probably either prevent, or fully
counterbalance any effect of this kind. These
are, Ist, the more equable and lower price of
provisions, from the demand being less frequently
above the supply. 2dly, the removal of that heavy
burden on agriculture, and that great addition
to the present wages of labour, the poor’s rates.
3dly, the national saving of a great part of that
sum, which is expended without return in the
support of those children who die prematurely
from the consequences of poverty. And, lastly,
the more general prevalence of economical and
industrious habits, particularly among unmarried
men, which would prevent that indolence, drunk-
enness and waste of labour, which at present are
too frequently a consequence of high wages.

( 431.)

CHAP. XIV.

Of our rational Expectations respecting the future
Improvement of Society.

Iw taking a general and concluding view of our
rational expectations respecting the mitigation of
the evils arising from the principle of population,
it may be observed that though the increase of
population in a geometrical ratio be incontro-
vertible, and the period of doubling, when un-
checked, has been uniformly stated in this work
rather below than above the truth; yet there are
some natural consequences of the progress of
society and civilization, which necessarily repress
its full effects. These are, more particularly,
great towns and manufactures, in which we can
scarcely hope, and certainly not expect, to see
any very material change. It is undoubtedly our
duty, and in every point of view highly desirable,
to make towns and manufacturing employments
as little injurious as possible to the duration of
human life; but, after all our efforts, it is probable
that they will always remain less healthy than
country situations and country employments;
and consequently, operating as positive checks,
will diminish in some degree the necessity of the
preventive check.

In every old state, it is observed that a consi-
derable number of grown-up people remain for a

432 Of our rational Expectations Bk. iv.

time unmarried. The duty of practising the
common and acknowledged rules of morality
during this period has never been controverted
in theory, however it may have been opposed
in practice. This branch of the duty of moral
restraint has scarcely been touched by the rea-
sonings of this work. It rests on the same foun-
dation as before, neither stronger nor weaker.
And knowing how incompletely this duty has
hitherto been fulfilled, it would certainly be
visionary to expect that in future it would becom:
pletely fulfilled. ft

The part which has been affected by the reason-
ings of this work is not therefore that which
relates to our conduct during the period of celi-
bacy, but to the duty of extending this period
till we have a prospect of being able to maintain
our children. And it is by no means visionary to
indulge a hope of some favourable change in this
respect; because it is found by experience that
the prevalence of this kind of prudential restraint
is extremely different in different countries, and in
the same countries at different periods.

It cannot be doubted that throughout Europe
in general, and most particularly in the northern
states, a decided change has taken place in the ope-
ration of prudential restraint, since the prevalence
of those warlike and enterprising habits’ which
destroyed so many people. In later times the
gradual diminution and almost total extinction of
the plagues, which so frequently visited Europe
in the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth

h. xiv. respecting future Improvements. 433

centuries, produced a change of the same kind.
And in this country, it is not to be doubted that
the proportion of marriages has become smaller
since the improvement of our towns, the less
frequent returns of epidemics, and the adoption
of habits of greater cleanliness. During the late
scarcities it appears that the number of marriages
diminished ;* and the same motives which pre-
vented many people from marrying during such
a period, would operate precisely in the same
way, if, in future, the additional number of child-
ren reared to manhood from the introduction of
the cow-pox, were to be such as to crowd all
employments, lower the price of labour, and make
it more difficult to support a family.

Universally, the practice of mankind on the
subject of marriage has been much superior to
their theories; and however frequent may have
been the declamations on the duty of entering
into this state, and the advantage of early unions
to prevent vice, each individual has practically
found it necessary to consider of the means of
supporting a family, before he ventured to take
so important a step. That great ws medicatrix
reipublice, the desire of bettering our condition,
and the fear of making it worse, has been con-
stantly in action, and has been constantly direct-
ing people into the right road, in spite of all the
declamations which tended to lead them aside.
Owing to this powerful spring of health in every

a * 1800 and 1801.
VOL. It. FF

434 Of our rational Expectations Bk. iv.

_ state, which is nothing more than an inference
from the general course of the laws of nature,
irresistibly forced on each man’s attention, the
prudential check to marriage has increased in
Europe; and it cannot be unreasonable to con-
clude that it will still make further advances. If
this take place without any marked and decided
increase of a vicious intercourse with the sex, the
happiness of society will evidently be promoted
by it; and with regard to the danger of such
increase, it is consolatory to remark that those
countries in Europe, where marriages are the latest
or least frequent, are by no means particularly
distinguished by vices of this kind. It has ap-
peared, that Norway, Switzerland, England, and
Scotland, are above all the rest in the prevalence
of the preventive check; and though I do not
mean to insist particularly on the virtuous habits
of these countries, yet I think that no person
would select them as the countries most marked
for profligacy of manners. Indeed, from the littie
that I know of the continent, I should have been
inclined to select them as. most distinguished
for contrary habits, and as rather above than
below their neighbours in the chastity of their
women, and consequently in the virtuous habits of
their men. Experience therefore seems to teach
us that it is possible for moral and physical causes
to counteract the effects that might at first be
expected from an increase of the check to mar-
riage; but allowing all the weight to these effects
which is in any degree probable, it may be safely

Ch. xiv. respecting future Improvements. 435

asserted, that the diminution of the vices arising
from indigence would fully counterbalance them ;
and that all the advantages of diminished mortality
and superior comforts, which would certainly re-
sult from an increase of the preventive check, may
be placed entirely on the side of the gains to the
cause of happiness and virtue.

It is less the object of the present work to pro-
pose new plans of improving society, than to in-
culeate the necessity of resting contented with
that mode of improvement which already in has
part been acted upon as dictated by the course of
nature, and of not obstructing the advances which
would otherwise be made in this way.

It would be undoubtedly highly advantageous
that all our positive institutions, and the whole
tenour of our conduct to the poor, should be such
as actively to co-operate with that lesson of pru-
dence inculcated by the common course of human
events; and if we take upon ourselves sometimes
to mitigate the natural punishments of impru-
dence, that we could balance it by increasing the
rewards of an opposite conduct. But much
would be done, if merely the institutions which
directly tend to encourage marriage were gradu-
ally changed, and we ceased to circulate opinions
and inculcate doctrines, which positively counter-
act the lessons of nature.

The limited good, which it is sometimes in our
power to effect, is often lost by attempting too
much, and by making the adoption of some par-
ticular plan essentially necessary even to a partial

FF 2

436. Of our rational Expectations _ Bk. iv.

degree of success. In the practical application
of the reasonings of this work, I hope that I have
avoided this error. I wish to press on the re-
collection of the reader, that, though 1 may have
given some new views of old facts, and may have
indulged in the contemplation of a considerable
degree of possible improvement, that I might not
shut out that prime cheerer hope; yet in my ex-
pectations of probable improvement and in sug-
gesting the means of accomplishing it, I have been
very cautious.. The gradual abolition of the poor-
laws has already often been proposed, in conse-
quence of the practical evils which have been
found to flow from them, and the danger of their
becoming a weight absolutely intolerable on the
landed property of the kingdom. The establish-
ment of a more extensive system of national edu-
cation has neither the advantage of novelty with
some, nor its disadvantages with others, to re-
commend it. The practical good effects of edu-
cation have long been experienced in Scotland;
and almost every person who has been placed in
a situation to judge, has given his testimony that
education appears to have a considerable effect
in the prevention of crimes,* and the promotion

'* Mr. Howard found fewer prisoners in Switzerland and Scot-
land than in other countries, whieh he attributed to a more regular
education among the lower classes of the Swiss and the Scotch.
During the number of years which the late Mr. Fielding presided
at Bow-street, only six Scotchmen were brought before him. He
used to say, that of the persons committed the greater part were

as 4

Ch. xiv. respecting future Improvements. 437
(os)

of industry, morality and regular conduct. Yet
these are the only plans which have been offered;
and though the adoption of them in the modes
suggested would very powerfully contribute to
forward the object of this work and better the
condition of the poor; yet if nothing be done in
this way, I shall not absolutely despair of some
partial good resulting from the general effects of
the reasoning.

If the principles which I have endeavoured to
establish be false, I most sincerely hope to see
them completely refuted; but if they be true, the
subject is so important, and interests the question
of human happiness so nearly, that it is impossible
they should not in time be more fully known and
more generally circulated, whether any particular
efforts be made for the purpose or not.

Among the higher and middle classes of society,
the effect of this knowledge’ will, I hope, be to
direct without relaxing their efforts in bettering
the condition of the poor; to shew them what
they can and what they cannot do; and that,
although much may be done by advice and in-
struction, by encouraging habits of prudence and
cleanliness, by discriminate charity, and by any
mode of bettering the present condition of the
poor which is followed by an increase of the pre-
ventive check; yet that, without this last effect,
-all the former efforts would be futile; and that,

Irish. Preface to vol. iii. of the Reports of the Society for bet-
tering the Condition of the Poor, p. 32.

438 Of our rational Expectations Bk. iv.

. in any old and well-peopled state, to assist the
poor in such a manner as to enable them to marry
as early as they please, and rear up large families,
is a physical impossibility. This knowledge, by
tending to prevent the rich from destroying the
good effects of their own exertions, and wasting
their efforts in a direction where success is unat-
tainable, would confine their attention to the
proper objects, and thus enable them to do more
good. .

Among the poor themselves, its effects would
be still more important. That the principal and
most permanent cause of poverty has little or no
direct relation to forms of government, or the une-
qual division of property; and that, as the rich
do not in reality possess the power of finding em-
ployment and maintenance for the poor, the poor
cannot, in the nature of things, possess the right
to demand them; are important truths flowing
from the principle of population, which, when
properly explained, would by no means be above
the most ordinary comprehensions. And it is
evident that every man in the lower classes of
society, who became acquainted with these truths,
would be disposed to bear the distresses in which
he might be involved with more patience; would
feel less discontent and irritation at the govern-
ment and the higher classes of society, on account
of his poverty; would be on all occasions less
disposed to insubordination and turbulence; and
if-he received assistance, either from any public
institution or from the hand of private charity, he

Ch. xiv. respecting future Improvements. 439

would receive it with more thankfulness, and
more justly appreciate its value.

If these truths were by degrees more generally
known, (which in the course of time does not seem
to be improbable from the natural effects of the
mutual interchange of opinions, ) the lower classes
of people, as a body, would become more peace-
able and orderly, would be less inclined to tumul-
tuous proceedings in seasons of scarcity, and
would at all times be less influenced by inflam-
matory and seditious publications, from knowing
how little the price of labour and the means of
supporting a family depend upon a revolution.
The mere knowledge of these truths, even if they
did not operate sufficiently to produce any marked
change in the prudential habits of the poor with
regard to marriage, would still have a most bene-
ficial effect on their conduct in a political light;
and undoubtedly, one of the most valuable of
these effects would be the power, that would re-
sult to the higher and middle classes of society,
of gradually improving their governments,* with-
out the apprehension of those revolutionary ex-
cesses, the fear of which, at present, threatens to

* I cannot believe that the removal of all unjust grounds of
discontent against constituted authorities would render the people
torpid and indifferent to advantages, which are really attainable.
The blessings of civil liberty are so great that they surely cannot
need the aid of false colouring to make them desirable. I should
be sorry to think that the lower classes of people could never be
animated to assert their rights but by means-of such illusory pro-
mises, as will generally make the remedy of resistance much worse
than the disease which it was intended to cure.

440 Of our rational Expectations Bk. iv.

deprive Europe even of that degree of liberty,
which she had before experienced to be practicable,
and the salutary effects of which she had long
enjoyed.

From a review of the state of society in former
periods, compared with the present, I should cer-
tainly say that the evils resulting from the prin-
ciple of population have rather diminished than
increased, even under the disadvantage of an
almost total ignorance of the real cause. And if
we can indulge the hope that this ignorance will
be gradually dissipated, it does not seem unrea-
sonable to expect that they will be still further
diminished. The increase of absolute population,
which will of course take place, will evidently
tend but little to weaken this expectation, as
every thing depends upon the relative proportion
between population and food, and not on the ab-
solute number of people. In the former part of
this work it appeared that the countries, which
possessed the fewest people, often suffered the
most from the effects of the principle of popula-
tion; and it can scarcely be doubted that, taking
Europe throughout, fewer famines and fewer dis-
eases arising from want have prevailed in the
last century than in those which preceded it.

On the whole, therefore, though our future
prospects respecting the mitigation of the evils
arising from the principle of population may not
be so bright as we could wish, yet they are far
from being entirely disheartening, and by no
means preclude that gradual and progressive im-

Ch. xiv. respecting future Improvements. 44]

provement in human society, which, before the
late wild speculations on this subject, was the
object of rational expectation. To the laws of
property and marriage, and to the apparently
narrow principle of self-interest which prompts
each individual to exert himself in bettering his
condition, we are indebted for all the noblest exer-
tions of human genius, for every thing that dis-
tinguishes the civilized from the savage state.. A
strict inquiry into the principle of population
obliges us to conclude that we shall never be able
to throw down the ladder, by which we have
risen to this eminence; but it by no means proves,
that we may not rise higher by the same means.
The structure of society, in its great features,
will probably always remain unchanged. We
have every reason to believe that it will always
consist of a class of proprietors and a class of
labourers; but the condition of each, and the
proportion which they bear to each other, may
be so altered, as greatly to improve the harmony
and beauty of the whole. It would indeed be
a melancholy reflection that, while the views of
physical science are daily enlarging, so as scarcely
to be bounded by the most distant horizon, the
science of. moral and political philosophy should
be confined within such narrow limits, or at best
be so feeble in its influence, as to be unable to
counteract the obstacles to» human happiness
arising from a single cause. But however formi-
dable these obstacles may have appeared in some

442, Of our rational Expectations, Sc. Bk. iv.

parts of this work, it is hoped that the general
result of the inquiry is such, as not to make us
give up the improvement of human society in
despair. The partial good which seems to be
attainable is worthy of all our exertions; is suffi-
cient to direct our efforts, and animate our pros-
pects. And although we cannot expect that the
virtue and happiness of mankind will keep pace
with the brilliant career of physical discovery ;
yet, if we are not wanting to ourselves, we may
confidently indulge the hope that, to no unimpor-
tant extent, they will be influenced by its pro-
gress and will partake in its success.

APPENDIX.

Iw the preface to the second edition of this Essay, I ex-
pressed a hope that the detailed manner in which I had
treated the subject and pursued it to its consequences,
though it might open the door to many objections, and ex-
pose me to much severity of criticism, might be subservient
to the important end of bringing a subject so nearly con-
nected with the happiness of society into more general no-
tice. Conformably to the same views I should always have
felt willing to enter into the discussion of any serious ob-
jections that were made to my principles or conclusions, to
abandon those which appeared to be false, and to throw fur-
ther lights, if | could, on those which appeared to be true.
But though the work has excited a degree of public atten-
tion much greater than I should have presumed to expect,
yet very little has been written to controvert it; and of that
little, the greatest part is so full of illiberal declamation, and
so entirely destitute of argument, as to be evidently be-
neath notice. What I have to say therefore at present, will
be directed rather more to the objections which have been
urged in conversation, than to those which have appeared
in print. My object is to correct some of the misrepresen-
tations which have gone abroad respecting two or three of
the most important points of the Essay ; and I should feel
greatly obliged to those who have not had leisure to read
the whole work, if they would cast their eyes over the few
following pages, that they may not, from the partial and
incorrect statements which they have heard, mistake the
import of some of my opinions, and attribute to me others
which I have never held.

The first grand objection that has been made to my prin-
ciples is, that they contradict the original command of the
Creator, to increase and multiply and replenish the earth.

444 APPENDIX.

But those who have urged this objection have. certainly
either not read the work, or have directed their attention
solely to a few detached passages, and have been unable to
seize the bent and spirit of the whole. I am fully of opi-
nion, that it is the duty of man to obey this command of his
Creator ; nor is there, in my recollection, a single passage
in the work, which, taken with the context, can, to any
reader of intelligence, warrant the contrary inference.

Every express command given to mah by his Creator is
given in subordination to those great and uniform laws of
nature, which he had previously established; and we are
forbidden both by reason and religion to expect that these
laws will be changed in order to enable us to execute more
readily any particular precept. It is undoubtedly true that,
if man were enabled miraculously to live without food, the
earth would be very rapidly replenished : but as we have not
the slightest ground of hope that such a miracle will be
worked for this purpose, it becomes our positive duty as
reasonable creatures, and with a view of executing the com-
mands of our Creator, to inquire into the laws which he has
established for the multiplication of the species. And when
we find, not only from the speculative contemplation of
these laws, but from the far more powerful and imperious
suggestions of our senses, that man cannot live without food,
it 1s a foliy exactly of the same kind to attempt to obey the
will of our Creator by increasing population without re-
ference to the means of its support, as to attempt to obtain
an abundant crop of corn by sowing it on the way-side and
in hedges, where it cannot receive its proper nourishment.
Which is it, | would ask, that best seconds the benevolent
intentions of the Creator in covering the earth with esculent
vegetables, he who with care and foresight duly ploughs and
prepares a piece of ground, and sows no more seed than he
expects will grow up to maturity, or he who scatters a_pro-
fusion of seed indifferently over the land, without reference
to the soil on which it falls, or any previous preparation for
its reception ?

It is an utter misconception of my argument to infer that
I am an enemy to population. 1 am only an enemy to vice
and misery, and consequently to that unfavourable propor-
tion between population and food, which produces these
evils. But this unfavourable proportion has no necessary
connection with the quantity of absolute population which

APPENDIX. 445

a country may contain. On the contrary, it is more fre-
quently found in countries which are very thinly peopled,
than in those which are populous.

The bent of my argument on the subject of population
may be illustrated by the instance of a pasture farm, If a
young grazier were told to stock his land well, as on his
stock would depend his profits and the ultimate success of
his undertaking, he would certainly have been told nothing
but what was strictly true: and he would have to accuse
himself, not his advisers, if, im pursuance of these instruc-
tions, he were to push the breeding of his cattle till they
became Jean and half-starved. His instructor, when he
talked of the advantages of a large stock, meant undoubt-
edly stock in proper condition, and not such a stock as,
though it might be numerically greater, was in value much
less. The expression of stocking a farm well does not refer
to particular numbers, but merely to that proportion which
is best adapted to the farm, whether it be a poor or a rich
one, whether it will carry fifty head of cattle or five hundred,
It is undoubtedly extremely desirable that it should carry
the greater number, and every effort should be made to
effect this object: but surely that farmer could not be con-
sidered as an enemy to a large quantity of stock, who should
insist upon the folly and impropriety of attempting to breed
such a quantity, before the land was put into a condition to
bear it.
_. The arguments which I have used respecting the increase
of population are exactly of the same nature as these just
mentioned. I believe that it is the intention of the Creator
that the earth should be replenished ;* but certainly with a
healthy, virtuous and happy population, not an unhealthy,
vicious and miserable one. And if, in endeavouring to obey
the command to increase and multiply, we people it only
with beings of this latter description and suffer accordingly,
we have no right to impeach the justice of the command,
but our irrational mode of executing it.

In the desirableness of a great and efficient population, I
do not differ from the warmest advocates of increase. I am
perfectly ready to acknowledge with the writers of old that
itis not extent of territory, but extent of population that

* This opinion I have expressed, page 491 of the 4to. edit. and p. 266, vol.
ii. of this edit, (the 6th).

446 APPENDIX.

measures the power of states. It is only as to the mode of
obtaining a vigorous ‘and efficient population that I differ
from them; and in thus differmg I conceive myself entirely
borne out by experience, that creat test of all human specu-
lations.

It appears from the undoubted testimony of registers,
that a large proportion of marriages and births is by no
means necessarily connected with a rapid increase of popu-
lation, but is often found in countries where it is either sta-
tionary or mereasing very slowly. The population of such
countries is not only comparatively inefficient from the ge-
neral poverty and misery of the inhabitants, but invariably
contains a much larger proportion of persons in those stages
of life, im which they are unable to contribute their share to
the resources or the defence of the state.

‘This is most strikingly illustrated in an instance which [|
have quoted from M. Muret, ina chapter on Switzerland,
where it appeared, that in proportion to the same popula
tion, the Lyonais produced 16 births, the Faye de Vaud 11,
and a particular parish in the Alps only $; but that at the
age of 20 these three very different nimibeed were all re-
duced to the same.* In the Lyonais nearly half of the po-
pulation was under the age of puberty, im the Pays de Vaud
one-third, and in the parish of the Alps only one-fourth.
The sakerencs from such facts is unavoidable, and of the
highest importance tc society.

The power of a country to increase its resources or de-
fend its possessions must depend principally upon its effi-
cient population, upon that part of the population which is
of an age to be employed effectually in agriculture, com-
merce or war; but it appears with an evidence little short
of demonstration, that in a country, the resources of which
do not naturally call for a larger proportion of births, such
an increase, so far from tending to increase this efficient po-
pulation, would tend materially to diminish it. It would
undoubtedly, at first, increase the number of souls in pro-
portion to the means of subsistence, and therefore cruelly
increase the pressure of want ; but the numbers of persons
rising annually to the age of puber ty might not be so great
as before, a larger part of the produce would be distributed
without return to children who w ould never reach manhood,

* Page 271, 4to. edit. and p. 542. vol. i. of this edit. (the 6th.)

APPENDIX. 447

and the additional population, instead of giving additional
strength to the country, would essentially lessen this strength,
and operate as a constant obstacle to the creation of new
resources. - ; :

Weare a little dazzled at present by the population and
power of France, and it is known that she has always had a
large proportion of births : but if any reliance can be placed
on what are considered as the best authorities on this sub-
ject, it is quite certain that the advantages which she enjoys
do not arise from any thing peculiar in the structure of her
population; but solely from the great absolute quantity of
it, derived from her immense extent of fertile territory.

Necker, speaking of the population of France, says, that
it is so composed, that a million of individuals present
neither the same force in war, nor the same capacity for la-
bour, as an equal number in a country where the people are
less oppressed and fewer die in infancy.* And the view
which Arthur Young has given of the state of the lower
classes of the people at the time he travelled in France,
which was just at the commencement of the revolution,
leads directly to the same conclusion. According to the
Statistique Générale et Particuliére de la France, \ately
published, the proportion of the population under twenty
isalmost ;%; in England, if increasing uo faster than France,
it would probably not be much more than z5-+ Con-

* Necker sur les Finances, tom. i. ch. ix. p. 263, 12mo.

+ I do not mention these numbers here, as vouching in any degree for their
accuracy, but merely for the sake of illustrating the subject. I have reason to
think that the proportion given in the Statistique Générale was not taken from
actual enumerations; and that mentioned in the text, for England, is conjectural,
and probably too small. Of this, however, we may be quite sure, that when two
countries, from the proportion of their births to deaths, increase nearly at the
same rate, the one, in which the births and deaths bear the greatest proportion to
the whole population, will have the smallest comparative number of persons above
the age of puberty. That England and Scotland have, in every million of peo-
ple which they contain, more individuals fit for labour than France, the data
we have are sufficient to determine; but in what degree this difference exists
cannot be ascertained, without better information than we at present possess.
On account of the more rapid increase of population in England than in France
before the revolution, England ought, ceteris paribus, to have had the largest
eo of births; yetin France the proportion was 3, or 3., aud in England
only 3.

7 he proportion of persons capable of bearing arms las been sometimes cal-
culated at one-fourth, and sometimes at one-fifth, of the whole population of a
country. The reader will be aware of the prodigious difference between the
two estimates, supposing them to be applicable to two different countries. In
the one case, a population of twenty millions would yield five millions of effec-
tive men ; and in the other case, the same population would only yield four mil-

448 APPENDIX.

sequently out of a population of ten millions England would
have a million more of persons above twenty than France,
and would upon this supposition have at least three or four
hundred thousand more males of a military age. If our po-
pulation were of the same description as that of France, it
must be increased numerically by more than a million and
a half, in order to enable us to produce from England and
Wales the same number of persons above the age of twenty
as at present ; and if we had only an increase of a million,
our efficient strength in agriculture, commerce and war,
would be in the most decided manner diminished, while at
the same time the distresses of the lower classes would be
dreadfully increased. Can any rational man say that an ad-
ditional population of this description would be desirable,
either in a moral or political view? And yet this is the kind
of population which invariably results from direct encourage-
ments to marriage, or from the want of that personal re-
spectability which is occasioned by ignorance and des-
potism.

It may perhaps be true that France fills her armies with
greater facility and less interruption to the usual labours of
her inhabitants than England ; and it must be acknowledged
that poverty and want of employment are powerful aids to
a recruiting serjeant; but it would not be a very humane
project to keep our people always in want, for the sake of
enlisting them cheaper ; nor would it be a very politic pro-
ject to dimmish our wealth and strength with the same eco-
nomical view. We cannot attain incompatible objects. If
we possess the advantage of being able to keep nearly all
our people constantly employed, either im agriculture or com-
merce, we cannot expect to retain the opposite advantage of
their being always at leisure, and willing to enlist for a very
small sum.* But we may rest perfectly assured that while
we have the efficient population, we shall never want men
to fill our armies, if we propose to them adequate motives.

In many parts of the Essay I have dwelt much on the

lions. We cannot surely doubt which of the two kinds of population would be
of the most valuable description, both with regard to actual strength and the
creation of fresh resources. Probably, however, there are no two countries in
Europe in which the difference in this respect is so great as that between one-
fourth and one-fifth.

* This subject is strikingly illustrated in Lord Selkirk’s lucid and masterly
observations ‘“‘ On the present State of the Highlands, and on the Causes and
probable consequences of Emigration,” to which I can with confidence refer the
reader.

APPENDIX. 449.

advantage of rearing the requisite population of any country
from the smallest number of births. I have stated expressly,
that a decrease of mortality at all ages is what we ought
chiefly to aim at; and as the best criterion of happiness and
good government, instead of the largeness of the proportion
of births, which was the usual mode of judging, I have pro-
posed the smallness of the proportion dying under the age
of puberty. Conscious that | had never intentionally de-
viated from these principles, I might well be rather sur-
prised to hear that I had been considered by some as an
enemy to the introduction of the vaccine inoculation, which
is calculated to attain the very end which I have uniformly
considered as so desirable. I have indeed intimated what [
still continue most firmly to believe, that if the resources of
the country would not permanently admit of a greatly acce-
lerated rate of increase in the population (and whether they
would or not must certainly depend upon other causes be-
sides the number of lives saved by the vaccine inocula-
tion),* one of two things would happen, either an increased
mortality of some other diseases, or a diminution in the pro-
portion of births. But I have expressed my conviction that
the latter effect would take place ; and therefore consistently
with the opinions which [ have always maintained, I ought
to be, and am, one of the warmest friends to the introduc-
tion of the cow-pox. In making every exertion which I
think likely to be effectual, to increase the comforts and di-
minish the mortality among the poor, I act in the most
exact conformity to my principles. Whether those are
equally consistent who profess to have the same object in
view, and yet measure the happiness of nations by the large
proportion of marriages and births, is a point which they
would do well to cousider.

It has been said by some, that the natural checks to po-
pulation will always be suflicient to keep it within bounds,
without resorting to any other aids; and one ingenious
writer has remarked that [ have not deduced a single original
fact from real observation, to prove the inefficiency of the

* It should be remarked, however, that a young person saved from death is
more likely to contribute to the creation of fresh resources than another birth.
It is a great loss of labour and food to begin over again. And universally it is
true that, under similar circumstances, that article will come the cheapest to
market, which is acconipanied by fewest failures,

VOL. II. GG

450 APPENDIX.

checks which already prevail.* These remarks are cor-
rectly true, and are truisms exactly of the same kind as the
assertion that man cannot live without food. For, undoubt-
edly as long as this continues to be a law of his nature, what
are here called the natural checks cannot possibly fail of
being effectual. Besides the curious truism that these as-
sertions involve, they proceed upon the very strange sup-
position, that the u/timate object of my work is to check
population; as if any thing could be more desirable than
the most rapid increase of population, unaccompanied by
vice and misery. But of course my ultimate object is to
diminish vice and misery, and any checks to population,
which may have been suggested, are solely as means to ac-
complish this end. ‘To a rational being, the prudential
check to population ought to be considered as equally na-
tural with the check from poverty and premature mortality
which these gentlemen seem to think so entirely sufficient
and satisfactory ; and it will readily occur to the intelligent
reader, that one class of checks may be substituted for an-
other, not only without essentially diminishing the popula-
tion of a country, but even under a constantly progressive
increase of it.+ ;
On the possibility of increasing very considerably the ef-
fective population of this country, I have expressed myself
in some parts of my work more sanguinely, perhaps, than
experience would warrant. I have said, that in the course
of some centuries it might contain two or three times as
many inhabitants as at present, and yet every person be both
better fed and better clothed{ And in the comparison of
the increase of population and food at the beginning of the
Essay, that the argument might not seem to depend upon a
difference of opinion respecting facts, | have allowed the
produce of the earth to be unlimited, which is certamly
going too far. It is not a little curious therefore, that it

>
should still continue to be urged against me as an argument,

* T should like much to know what description of facts this gentleman had
in view, when he made this observation. If1 could have found one of the kind,
which seems here to be alluded to, it would indeed have been truly original.

+ Both Norway and Switzerland, where the preventive check prevails the
most, are increasing with some rapidity in their population ; and in proportion
to their means of subsistence, they can produce more males of a military age
than any other country of Europe.

t Page 512, 4to. edit. p. 293, vol. ii. of this edit.

.

APPENDIX. 451.

that this country might contain two or three times as many
inhabitants; and it is still more curious, that some persons,
who have allowed the different ratios of increase on which
all my principal conclusions are founded, have still asserted
that no difficulty or distress could arise from population,
tll the productions of the earth could not be further in-
creased. I doubt whether a stronger instance could readily
be produced of the total absence of the power of reasoning,
than this assertion, after such a concession, affords. It in-
volves a greater absurdity than the saying, that because a
farm can by proper management be made to carry an addi-
tional stock of four head of cattle every year, that therefore
no difficulty or inconvenience would arise if an additional
forty were placed in it yearly.

‘The power of the earth to produce subsistence is cer-
tainly not unlimited, but it is strictly speaking indefinite ;
that is, its limits are not defined, and the time will probably
never arrive when we shall be able to say, that no further
labour or ingenuity of man could make further additions to
it. But the power of obtaining an additional quantity of
food from the earth by proper management, and in a certain
time, has the most remote relation imaginable to the power
of keeping pace with an unrestricted increase of population.
‘The knowledge and industry, which would enable the na-
tives of New Holland to make the best use of the natural
resources of their country, must, without an absolute mi-
racle, come to them gradually and slowly; and even then, as
it has amply appeared, would be perfectly ineffectual. as to
the grand object; but the passions w hich prompt to the
increase of population are always in full vigour, and~are
ready to produce their full effect even in a state of the most

“helpless ignorance and barbarism. It will be readily allowed,

that the reason why New Holland, in proportion to its
natural powers, is not so populous as China, is the want of
those human institutions which protect property and en-
courage industry; but the misery and vice which prevail
almost equally in both countries, from the tendency of
population to increase faster than the means of subsistence,
form a distinct consideration, and arise from a distinct cause.
They arise from the incomplete discipline of the human
passions; and no person with the slightest knowledge of
mankind has ever had the hardihood to affirm that human
GG2

452 APPENDIX.

institutions could completely discipline all the human pas-

“sions. But I have already treated this subject so fully im
the course of the work, that | am ashamed to add any
thing further here.

‘The next erand objection which has been urged against
me, Is my denial of the right of the poor to support.

‘Those who would maintain this objection with any degree of
consistency, are bound to shew, that the different ratios of in-
crease with respect to population and food, which I attempted
to establish at the beginning of the Essay, are fundamentally
erroneous; since on the supposition of their being true, the
conclusion is inevitable. If 1t appear, as it must appear on
these ratios being allowed, that it is not possible for the in-
dustry of man to produce on a limited territory sufficient food
for all that would be born, if every person were to marry at
the time when he was first prompted to it by inclination, it
follows irresistibly, that all cannot have a right to support.
Let us for a moment suppose an equal division of property
in any country. If under these circumstances one half of
the society were by prudential habits so to regulate their
increase, that it exactly kept pace with their increasing cul-
tivation, it is evident that the individuals of this portion of
society would always remain as rich as at first. If the other
half during the same time married at the age of puberty,
when the es ; would probably feel most inclined to it, it is evi-
dent that they would soon become wretchedly poor. But
upon what plea of justice or equity could this second half
of the society claim a right, in virtue of their poverty, to
any of the possessions of the first half? ‘This poverty had
arisen entirely from their own ignorance or imprudence;
and it would be perfectly clear, from the manner in which
it had come upon them, that if their plea were admitted,
and they were not suffered to feel the particular evils result-
ing from their conduct the whole society would shortly be
involved in the same degree of wretchedness. Any.volun-
tary and temporary assistance, which might be given as a
measure of charity by the richer members of the society to
the others, while they were learning to make a better use of
the jesvoue of nature, would be quite a distinct considera-
tion, and without doubt most properly applied ; but nothing
like a claim of raght to support can possibly be maintained,
ull we deny the premises; till we affirm that the American

ee en

- APPENDIX. 453

increase of population is a miracle, and does not arise from
the greater facility of obtaining the means of subsistence.*
_ In fact, whatever we may say in our declamations on this
subject, almost the whole of our conduct is founded on the
non-existence of this right. If the poor had really a claim
of right to support, 1 do not think that any man could
justify his wearmg broad cloth, or eating as much meat as
he likes for dinner; and those who assert this right, and yet
are rolling in their carriages, living every day luxuriously,
and keeping even their horses on food of which their fellow-
creatures are in want, must be allowed to act with the
greatest inconsistency. ‘Taking an individual mstance with-
out reference to consequences, it appears to me that Mr.
Godwin’s argument is irresistible. Can it be pretended for
a moment that a part of the mutton which I expect to eat
to-day would not be much more beneficially employed on
some hard-working labourer, who has not perhaps tasted
animal food for the last week, or on some poor family, who
cannot command sufficient food of any kind fully to satisfy
the cravings of hunger? If these instances were not of a
nature to multiply m proportion as such wants were indis-
criminately gratified, the gratification of them, as it would
be practicable, would be highly beneficial; and in this case
_I should not have the smallest hesitation in most fully
allowing the right. But as it appears clearly, both from
theory and experience, that, if the claim were allowed, it
would soon increase beyond the posstbility of satisfying it;
and that the practical attempt to do so would involve the
human race in the most wretched and universal poverty; it
follows necessarily that our conduct, which denies the
right, is more suited to the present state of our being, than
our declamations which allow it.
The great Author of nature, indeed, with that wisdom

* It has been said, that I have written a quarto volume to prove, that popu-
Jation increases in a geometrical, and food in an arithmetical ratio; but this is
not quite true. The first of these propositions I considered as proved the mo-
ment the American increase was related, and the second proposition as soon as
it was enunciated. The chief object of my work was to inquire what effects
these laws, which I considered as established in the first six pages, had pro-
duced, and were likely to produce, on society; a subject not very readily
exhausted. ‘The principal fault of my details is, that they are not sufficiently
particular; but this was a fault which it was’ not in my power to remedy. It
would be a most curious, and, to every philosophical mind, a most interesting,
piece of information, to know the exact share of the full power of increase which
each existing check prevents ; but at present I see no mode of obtaining such
information.

454 APPENDIX.

-which is apparent ia all bis works, has not left this conclu-
sion to the cold and speculative consideration of general
“consequences. By making the passion of self-love beyond
comparison stronger than the passion of benevolence, he
has at once impelled us to that line of conduct, which is
essential to the preservation of the human race. [Ff all that
might be born could be adequately supplied, we cannot
doubt, that he would have made the desire of giving to
others as ardent as that of supplying ourselves. But since,
under the present constitution of things, this is not so, he
has enjoined every man to pursue, as his primary object,
his own safety and happmess, and the safety and happi-
ness of those immediately connected with him; and it is
highly instructive to observe that, m proportion as the
sphere contracts and the power of giving effectual assistance
increases, the desire increases at ‘the same time. In the
case of children, who have certainly a claim of right to the
support and protection of their parents, we generally find
parental affection nearly as strong as self-love: and except
in a few anomalous cases, the last morsel will be divided
into equal shares.

By this wise provision the most ignorant are led to
mote the general happiness, an end which they would Five
totally failed to attam, if the moving principle of their con-
duct had been benevolence.* Benevolence indeed, as the
great and constant source of action, would require the most
perfect knowledge of causes and effects, and therefore can
only be the attribute of the Deity. Ina being so short-
sighted as man, it would lead into the grossest errors, and
soon transform the fair and cultivated soil of civilized so-
ciety into a dreary scene of want and confusion.

But though benevolence cannot in the present state of our
being be the great moving principle of buman actions, yet, as
the kind corrector of the evils arising from the other stronger

“passion, it is essential to human happiness; it is the balm
and consolation and grace of human life, the source of our
noblest efforts in the cause of virtue, and of our purest and
most refined pleasures. Conformably to that system of general
laws, according to which the Supreme Being appears with
very few exceptions to act, 2 passion so strong rand general as

* Tn saying this let me not be supposed to give the slightest sanction to the
system of morals ineulcated in the Fable of the Bees, a system which I consider
as absolutely false, and directly contrary to the just definition of virtue. The
great art of Dr. Mandeville consisted in misnomers,

APPENDIX. 455

self-love could not prevail without producing much partial
evil: and to prevent this passion from degenerating into the
odious vice of selfishness,* to make us sympathize in the
pains and pleasures of our fellow-creatures, and feel the
same kind of interest in their happiness and misery as in
our own, though diminished in degree; to prompt us often
to put ourselves in their place, that we may understand
their wants, acknowledge their rights and do them good as
we have opportunity; and to remind us continually, that
even the passion which urges us to procure plenty for our-
selves was not implanted in us for our own exclusive ad-
vantage, but as the means of procuring the greatest plenty
for all; these appear to be the objects and offices of benevo-
lence. In every situation of life there is ample room for
the exercise of this virtue; and as each individual rises in
society, as he advances in knowledge and excellence, as his
power of doing good to others becomes greater, and the
necessary attention to his own wants less, it will naturally
come in for an increasing share among his constant motives
of action. In situations of high trust and influence it ought
to have a very large share, and in all public institutions it
should be the great moving principle. Though we have
often reason to fear that our benevolence may not take the
most beneficial direction, we need never apprehend that
there will be too much of it in society. ‘The foundations
of that passion on which our preservation depends, are fixed
so deeply in our nature, that no reasonings or addresses to
our feelings can essentially disturb it. It is just therefore
and proper that all the positive precepts should be on the
side of the weaker impulse; and we may safely endeavour
to increase and extend its influence as much as we are able,
if at the same time we are constantly on the watch, to pre-
vent the evil which may arise from its misapplication.

The law, which in this country entitles the poor to re-
lief, is undoubtedly different from a full acknowledgment of
the natural right; and from this difference, and the many
counteracting causes that arise from the mode of its execu-
tion, it will not of course be attended with the same conse-

* It seems proper to make a decided distinction between self-love and sel fish-
ness, between that passion, which under proper regulations is the source of all
honourable industry, and of all the necessaries and conveniences of life, and
the same passion pushed to excess, when it becomes useless and disgusting,
and consequently vicious.

456 APPENDIX.

quences. But still it is an approximation to a full acknow-

‘Yedgment, and as such appears to produce much evil, beth
with regard to the habits and the temper of the poor. 1
have in consequence ventured to suggest a plan of gradual
abolition, which, as might be expected, bas not met with
universal approbation. I can readily understand any ob-
jections that may be made to it on the plea, that, the right
having been once acknowledged im this country, the revoca-
tion of it might at first excite discontents; and | should
therefore most fully concur in the propriety of proceeding
with the greatest caution, and of using all possible means
of preventing any sudden shock to the opinions of the poor.
But I have never been able to comprehend the grounds of
the further assertion, which | have sometimes heard made,
that if the poor were really convinced that they had. no
claim of right to relief, they would in general be more in-
clined to be discontented and seditious. On these occa-
sions, the only way [ have of judging is to put myself im
imagination in the place of the poor man, and consider how
I should feel in his situation. If I were told that the nch,
by the laws of nature and the laws of the land, were bound
to support me, I could not, in the first place, feel much
obligation for such support; and, in the next place, if I
were given any food of an inferior kind, and could not see
the absolute necessity of the change, which would probably
be the case, I should think that I had good reason to com-
plain. I should feel, that the laws had been violated to
my injury, and that I had been unjustly deprived of my
right. Under these circumstances, though | might be de-
terred by the fear of an armed force from committing any
overt acts of resistance, yet I should consider myself as
perfectly justified im so doing, if this fear -were removed;
and the injury, which I believed that I had suffered, might
produce the most unfavourable effects on my general dispo-
sitions towards the higher classes of society. I cannot in-
deed conceive any thing more irritating to the human feel-
ings, than to experience that degree of distress, which, m
spite of all our poor-laws and benevolence, is not unfre-
quently felt in this country; and yet to believe that these suf-
ferings were not brought upon me either by my own faults, or
by the-operation of those general laws which, like the tem-
pest, the blight or the pestilence, are continually falling
lard on partieular individuals, while others entirely escape,

APPENDIX. 457

but were occasioned solely by the avarice and injustice of
the higher classes of society.

On the contrary, if 1 firmly believed that by the laws of
nature, which are the laws of God, I bad no claim of right
to support, I should, in the first place, feel myself more
strongly bound to a life of industry and frugality; but if
want, notwithstanding, came upon me, [ should consider it
in the light of sickness, as an evil incidental to my present
state of being, and which, if I could not avoid, it was my
duty to bear with fortitude and resignation. I should know
from past experience, that the best title | could have to the
assistance of the benevolent would be, the not having
brought myself into distress by my own idleness or extrava-
gance. What I received would have the best effect on my
feelings towards the higher classes. Even if it were much
inferior to what I had been accustomed to, it would still,
instead of an injury, be on obligation; and conscious that I
had no claim of right, nothing but the dread of absolute
famine, which might overcome all other considerations, could
palliate the guilt of resistance.

I cannot help believing that, if the poor in this country
were convinced that they had no claim of 77ght to support,
and yet in scarcities and all cases of urgent distress were
liberally relieved, which [think they would be; the bond,
which unites the rich with the poor, would be drawn much
closer than at present; and the lower classes of society, as
they would have less real reason for irritation and discon-
tent, would be much less subject to these uneasy sensations,

Among those who have objected to my declaration, that
the poor have no claim of right to support, is Mr. Young,
who, with a harshness not quite becoming a candid inquirer
after truth, has called my proposal for the gradual alfolition
of the poor-laws a horrible plan, and asserted that the exe-
cution of it would be a most iniquitous proceeding. Let
_this plan however be compared for a moment with that
which he himself and others have proposed, of fixing the

sum of the poor’s rates, which on no account is to be in-
‘creased. Under such a law, if the distresses of the poor
were to be aggravated tenfold, either by the increase of
numbers or the recurrence of a scarcity, the same sum
would invariably be appropriated to their relief. If the
statute which gives the poor a right to support were to
remain unexpunged, we should add to the cruelty of starving

458 APPENDIX.

s

them the injustice of still professing to relieve them. If this
statute were expunged or altered, we should virtually deny
the right of the poor to support, and only retain the ab-
surdity of saying, that they had a right to a certam sum; an
absurdity on which Mr. Young justly comments with much
severity in the case of France.* In both cases the hard-
ships which they would suffer would be much more severe,
and would come upon them in a much more unprepared
state, than upon the plan proposed in the Essay.

According to this plan, all that are already married, and
even all that are engaged to marry during the course of the
year, and all their children, would be relieved as usual; and
only those who marry subsequently, and who of course may
be supposed to have made better provision for contingen-
cies, would be out of the pale of relief.

Any plan for the abolition of the poor-laws must pre-
suppose a general acknowledgment that they are essentially
wrong, and that it is necessary to tread back our steps.
With this acknowledgment, whatever objections may be
made to my plan, in the too frequently short-sighted views
of policy, 1 have no fear of comparing it with any other that
has yet been advanced, in point of justice and humanity ;
and of course the terms iniquitous and horrible “ pass by
me like the idle wind, which I regard not.”

Mr. Young, it would appear, has now given up this plan.
He has pleaded for the privilege of being inconsistent, and
has given such reasons for it that [am disposed to acquiesce
in them, provided he confines the exercise of this privilege
to different publications, in the interval between which he

* The National Assembly of France, though they disapproved of the English
poor-laws, still adopted their principle, and declared, that the poor had a right
to pecuniary assistance ; that the Assembly ought to consider such a provision
as one of its first and most sacred duties; and that, with this view, an expense
ought to be incurred to the amount of 50 millions a year. Mr. Young justly
observes that he does not comprehend how it is possible to regard the expendi-
ture of 50 millions as a sacred duty, and not extend that 50 to 100 (if necessity
should demand it), the 100 to 200, the 200 to 300, and so on in the same mi-
serable progression which has taken place in England.—Travels in France,
c. xv. p. 439.

I should be the last man to quote Mr. Young against himself, if I thought he
had left the path of error for the path of trutb, as such kind of inconsistency I
hold to be highly praiseworthy. But thinking, on the contrary, that he has left
truth for error, it is surely justifiable to remind him of his former opinions,
We may recal to a vicious man his former virtuous conduct, though it would be
ea indelicate to remind a virtuous man of the vices which he had relin-
quished.

APPENDIX. 459

may have collected new facts. But I still think it not quite
allowable in the same publication: and yet it appears that
in the very paper, in which he has so severely condemned
my scheme, the same arguments, which he has used to re-
probate it, are applicable with equal force against his own
proposal, as there explained.

He allows that his plan can provide only for a certain
number of families, and has nothing to do with the increase
from them ;* but in allowing this, be allows that it does not
reach the grand difficulty attending a provision for the poor.
In this most essential point, after reprobating me for saying,
that the poor have no claim of right to support, he is com-
pelled to adopt the very same conclusion; and to own that
“it might be prudent to consider the misery to which the
“ progressive population might be subject, when there was
“ not a sufficient demand for them in. towns and manufac-
“ tures, as an evil which it was absolutely and physically
“ impossible to prevent.” Now the sole reason why I say
that the poor have no claim of right to support, is the phy-
sical impossibility of relieving this progressive population.
Mr. Young expressly acknowledges this physical impossi-
bility; yet with an inconsistency scarcely credible still de-
claims against my declaration.

The power, which the society may possess of relieving
a certain portion of the poor, is a consideration perfectly
distinct from the general question; and [am quite sure L
have never said that it is not our duty to do all the good that
is practicable. But this limited power of assisting indivi-
duals cannot possibly establish a general right. If the poor
have really a natural right to support, and if our present
laws be only a confirmation of this right, it ought certainly
to extend unimpaired to all who are in distress, to the in-
crease from the cottagers as well as to the cottagers them-
selves; and it would be a palpable injustice in the society,
to adopt Mr. Young’s plan, and purchase from the present
generation the disfranchisement of their posterity.

Mr. Young objects very strongly to that passage of the
Essay, in which I observe that a man, who plunges him-
self into poverty and dependence by marrying without any
prospect of being able to maintain his family, has more

* Annals of Agriculture, No. 259, p. 219.
+ Book iv. c. iii. p. 506, 4to. edit. vol. ii. pp. 286, 287 of this edition,

460 APPENDIX.

reason to accuse himself than the price of labour, the par ish,
the avarice of the rich, the institutions of society, and the
dispensations of Providence ; ; except as far as he has been
deceived by those who ought to have instructed him. In
answer to this, Mr. Young « says that the poor fellow is jus-
tified in every one of these complaints, that of Providence
alone excepted; and that, seeing other cottagers living com-
fortably with three or four acres of land, he has cause to
accuse institutions which deny him that which the ep
could well spare, and which would give him all he wants.”
I would beg Mr. Young for a moment to consider how a
matter would stand, if his own plan were completely ex-
ecuted. After all the commons had been divided as he has
proposed, if a labourer had more than one son, in what
respect would the second or third be in a different situation
from the man that I have supposed? Mr. Young cannot
-possibly mean to say that, if he had the very natural desire
of marrying at twenty, he would still have a right to com-
_plain that the society did not give him a house and three
or four acres of land. He has mdeed expressly denied this
absurd consequence, though in so doing he has directly con-
-tradicted the declaration “just quoted: + -The progressive
population, he says, would, according to his system, be cut
-off from the influence of the poor-laws, and the encourage-
ment to marry would remain exactly in that proportion less
than at present. Under these circumstances, without land,
without the prospect of parish relief, and with the price of
labour only sufficient to maintain two children, can Mr.
Young seriously think that the poor man, if he be really
aware of his situation, does not do wrong in marrying, and
ought not to accuse himself for following what Mr. Young
calls the dictates of God, of nature and of revelation? Mr.
-Young cannot be unaware of the wretchedness that must
inevitably follow a marriage under such circumstances. His
plan makes no provision whatever for altering these circum-
stances. He must therefore totally disregard all the misery
arising from excessive poverty; or, if he allows that these
supernumerary members must necessarily wait, either till
a cottage with land becomes vacant in the country, or that
by emigrating to towns they can find the means of providing

_ * Annals of Agriculture, No. 259, p. 226.
t Ib. No. 239, p. 214.

APPENDIX. 461

for a family, all the declamation, which he has urged with
such pomp against deferring marriage in my system, would
be equally applicable in his own. In fact, if Mr. Young’s
plan really attained the object, which it professes to have in
view, that of bettering the condition of the poor; and did
not defeat its intent by encouraging a too rapid multipli-
cation, and consequently lowering the price of labour; it
cannot be doubted that not only the supernumerary mem-
bers just mentioned, but all the labouring poor, must wait
longer before they could marry than they do at present.
The following proposition may be said to be capable of
mathematical demonstration. In a country, the resources
of which will not permanently admit of an increase of popu-
lation more rapid than the existing rate, no improvement in
the condition of the people, which would tend to diminish
mortality, could possibly take place without being accom-
panied by a smaller proportion of births, supposing of course
no particular increase of emigration.* ‘To a person who
has considered the subject, there is no proposition in Euclid,
which brings home to the mind a stronger conviction than
this ; and there is no truth so invariably confirmed by all the
registers of births, deaths and marriages, that have ever been
collected. In this country it has appeared that, accord-
ing to the returns of the Population Act in 1801, the propor-
tion of births to deaths was about 4 to 3. This proportion
with a mortality of 1 in 40 would double the population in
$3 years and a half; and as we cannot suppose that the
country could admit of more than a quadrupled population
in the next hundred and sixty-six years, we may safely say
that its resources will not allow of a permanent rate of in-
crease greater than that which was then taking place. But
if this be granted, it follows as a direct conclusion, that
if Mr. Young’s plan, or any other, really succeeded in bet-

* With regard to the resources of emigration, I refer the reader to the chap-
ter on that subject in the Essay, Nothing is more easy than to say that three-
fourths of the habitable globe are yet unpeopled ; but it is by no means so easy
to fill these parts with flourishing colonies. The peculiar circumstances which
have caused the spirit of emigration in the Highlands, so clearly explained in
the able work of Lord Selkirk before referred to, are not of constant recurrence ;
nor is it by any means to be wished that they should be so, And yet without
some such circumstances, people are by no means very ready to leave their
native soil, and will bear much distress at home, rather than venture on these
distant regions. Iam of opinion, that it is both the duty and interest of govern
ments to facilitate emigration ; but it would surely be unjust to oblige people
to leave their country and kindred against their inclinations.

t Table iii, p. 258, 4to. edit, ; and Table ii. p. 497, vol, i, of this edition,

462 APPENDIX.

tering the condition of the poor, and enabling them to rear
more of their children, the vacancies in cottages in propor-
tion to the number of expectants would happen slower than
at present, and the age of marriage must inevitably be later.

With regard to the. expression of later marriages, it should
always be recollected that it refers to no particular age, but
is entirely comparative. The marriages in England are
later than in France, the natural consequence of that pru-
dence and respectability generated by a better government;
and can we doubt that good has been the result? The
marriages in this country now are later than they were be-
fore the revolution; and I feel firmly persuaded, that the
increased healthiness observed of late years could not pos-
sibly have taken place without this accompanying circum-
stance.* ‘Two or three years in the average age of marriage,
by lengthening each generation, and tending, in a small de-
gree, both to dimimish the prolifickness of marriages, and
the number of born living to be married, may make a con-
siderable difference in he rate of increase, and be adequate
to allow for a considerably diminished mortality. But I
would on no account talk of any limits whatever. ‘The only
plam and intelligible measure with regard to marriage,
is the having a fair prospect of being able to maintain a
family. If the possession of one of Mr. Young’s cottages
would give the labourer this prospect, he would be quite
right to marry; but if it did not, or if he could only obtain
a rented house without land, and the ws ages of labour were
only sufficient to maintain two children, does Mr. Young,
who cuts him off from the influence of the poor-laws, pre-
sume to say, that he would still be right in marrying ?+

Mr. Young has asserted that [have made perfect chastity
In the single ‘state absolutely necessary to the success of my
plan; but. this surely is a misrepresentation. Perfect virtue
is, indeed, necessary to enable man to avoid a// the moral
and physical evils which gepend upon his own conduct ;
but who ever expected perfect virtue upon earth? I have
said, what I conceive to be strictly true, that it is our duty to
defer marriage till we can feed our children; and that it is

* (1825). It appears fronf the three returns of the Population Act, in 1801,
1811, and 1821, that the proportion of marriages has been diminishing with the
increasing health of the country, notwithstanding the augmented rate of in-
crease in the population.

t The lowest prospect, with which a man can be justified in marrying, seems
to be the power, when in health, of earning such wages as, at the average price
of corn, will maintain the average number “of living ‘children to a marriage.

APPENDIX. 463

also our duty not to indulge ourselves in vicious gratifica-
tions; but I have never said that I expected either, much
less both, of these duties to be completely fulfilled. In
this, and a number of other cases, it may happen that the
violation of one of two duties will enable a man to perform
the other with greater facility; but if they be really both
duties, and both practicable, no power on earth can absolve
a man from the guilt of violating either. ‘This can only be
done by that God, who can weigh the crime against the
temptation, and will temper justice with mercy. The mo-
ralist is still bound to inculcate the practice of both duties;
and each individual must be left to act under the tempta-
tions to which he is exposed, as his conscience shall dictate.
Whatever I may have said in drawing a picture professedly
visionary, for the sake of illustration ; ; In the practical ap-
plication of my principles I have taken man as he is, with
all his imperfections on his head. And thus viewing him,
and knowing that some checks to population must exist, L
have not the slightest hesitation im saying, that the prudential
check to marriage is better than premature mortality. And
in this decision | feel myself completely justified by expe-
rience.

In every instance that can be traced, in which an improved
goyernment has given to its subjects a greater degree of
foresight, industry, and personal dignity, these effects, un-
der similar circumstances of increase, have invariably been
accompanied by a diminished proportion of marriages.
This is a proof that an increase of moral worth in the gene-
ral character is not, at least, zxcomputible with an increase
of temptations with respect to one particular vice; and the
instances of Norway, Switzerland, England, and Scotland,
adduced in the last chapter of the Essay, shew that, in com-
paring different countries together, a smaller proportion of
marriages and births does not necessarily imply the greater
prevalence even of this particular vice. This is surely
quite enough for the legislator. He cannot estimate, with
tolerable accuracy, the degree i in which chastity in the single
state prevails. His general conclusions must be founded
on general results, and these are clearly in his favour.

Yo much of Mr. Young’s plan, as he has at present ex-
plained it, [ should by no means object. The peculiar evil
which [ apprehended from it, that of taking the poor from
the consumption of wheat, and feeding them on milk and

464 APPENDIX.

potatoes, might certainly be avoided by a limitation of the
number of cottages ; ; and [ entirely agree with him m think-
mg, that we should not be deterred “from making 500,000
families more comfortable, because we cannot extend the
same relief to all the rest. I have, mdeed, myself ventured
to recommend a general improvement of cottages, and even
the cow system on a limited scale; and, perhaps with pro-
per precautions, a certain portion of land might be given
to a considerable body of the labouring classes.

If the law which entitles the poor to support were to be
repealed, I should most highly approve of any plan which
would tend to render such repeal more palatable on its first
promulgation: and, in this view, some kind of compact
with the poor might be very desirable. A plan of letting
land to labourers, aundler certain conditions, has lately hben
tried in the parish of Long Newnton, in Gloucester shire ;
and the result, with a general proposal founded on it, has
been submitted to the public by Mr. Estcourt. “The
present success has been very striking; but, in this, and
every other case of the kind, we should always bear in mind,
that no experiment respecting a provision for the poor can
be said to be complete till succeeding generations have
arisen.* I doubt if ever there has been an instance of any
thing like a liberal institution for the poor, which did not
succeed on its first establishment, however it might have
failed afterwards. But this. consideration should by no
means deter us from making such experiments, when pre-
sent good is to be obtained by them, and a future overba-
lance of evil is not justly to be apprehended. It should
only make us less rash in drawing our inferences.

With regard to the general question of the advantages to
the lower classes of possessing land, it should be recollected
that such possessions are by no means a novelty. Formerly
this system prevailed in almost every country with which we
are acquainted, and prevails at present in many countries,
where the peasants are far from being remarkable for their

* Tn any plan, particularly of a distribution of land, as a compensation for
the relief given by the poor-laws, the succeeding generations would form the
grand difficulty. All others would be perfectly trivial in comparison. For a
time every thing might go on very smoothly, and the rates be much diminished ;
but, afterwards, they would either increase again as rapidly as before, or the
sclieme would be exposed to all the same objections which have been made to
mine, without the same justice and consistency to palliate them.

APPENDIX. 465

comforts, but are, on the contrary, very poor, and particu-
larly subject to scarcities. With respect to this latter evil,
indeed, it is quite obvious that a peasantry which depends
principally on its possessions in land, must be more exposed
to it than one which depends on the general wages of la-
bour. When a year of deficient crops occurs in a country
of any extent and diversity of soil, it is always partial, and
some districts are more affected than others. But when a
bad crop of grass, corn, or potatoes, or a mortality among
cattle, falls on a poor man, whose principal dependence is
on two or three acres of land, he is in the most deplorable
and helpless situation. He is comparatively without money
to purchase supplies, and is not for a moment to be com-
pared with the man who depends on the wages of labour,
and who will, of course, be able to purchase that portion of
the general crop, whatever it may be, to which his relative
situation in the society entitles him. In Sweden, where the
farmers’ labourers are paid principally in land, and often
keep two or three cows, it is not uncommon for the pea-
sants of one district to be almost starving, while their neigh-
bours at a little distance are living in comparative plenty.
It will be found indeed generally, that, in almost all the
countries which are particularly subject to scarcities and
famines, either the farms are very small, or the labourers are
paid principally in land. China, Indostan, and the former
‘state of the Highlands of Scotland, furnish some proofs
among many others of the truth of this observation; and
in reference to the small properties of France, Mr. Young
himself, in his Tour, particularly notices the distress arismg
from the least failure of the crops; and observes, that such
a deficiency, as in England passes almost without notice, in
France is attended with dreadful calamities.*

Should any plan, therefore, of assisting the poor by land
be adopted in this country, it would be absolutely essential
to its ultimate success, to prevent them from making it their
principal dependence. And this might probably be done
by attending strictly to the two following rules, Not to
let the division of land be so great as to interrupt the cot-
tager essentially in his usual labours; and always to stop in
the further distribution of land and cottages, when the price

* Travels in France, vol. i. c. xii, p. 409. That country will probably be
the least liable to scarcities, in which agriculture is carried on as the most flou-
rishing manufacture of the state.

VOL, IT. HH

466 APPENDIX.

of labour, independently of any assistance from land, would
not, at the average price of corn, maintain threés or, at
least, two children. Could the matter be so ordered, that
the labauter, 3 in working for others, should still continue to
earn the same real command over the necessaries of life that
he did before, a very great accession of comfort and happi-
ness might accrue to the poor from the possession of land,
without any evil that I can foresee at present. But if these
points were not attended to, [ should certainly fear an ap-
proximation to the state of the poor in France, Sweden,
and Ireland; nor do [ think that any of the partial experi-
ments that have yet taken place afford the slightest presump-
tion to the contrary. The result of these experiments 1s,
indeed, exactly such as one should have expected. Who
could ever have doubted that, if, without lowering the price
of labour, or taking the leboaner off from his usual occu-
pations, you could give him the produce of one or two
acres of land and the benefit of a cow, you would decidedly
raise his condition? But it by no means follows that he
would retain this advantage, if the system were so extended,
as to make the land his principal dependence, to lower the
price of labour, and, in the language of Mr. Young, to take
_the poor from the consumption. of wheat and feed them on
milk and potatoes. It does not appear to me so marvellous
as it does to Mr. Young, that the very same system, which
in Lincolnshire and Rutlandshire may produce now the
most comfortable peasantry in the British dominions, should
in the end, if extended without proper precautions, assimi-
late the condition of the labourers of this country to that
of the lower classes of the Irish.

It is generally dangerous and impolitic in a government
to take upon itself to “regulate the supply of any commodity
in request; and probably the supply of labourers forms
no exception to the general rule. I would on no account,
therefore, propose a positive law to regulate their i increase ;
but as any assistance which the society might give them
cannot, in the nature of things, be unlimited, the line may
fairly be drawn where we please; and with ‘regard to the
increase from this point, every thing would be left as before
to individual exertion and individual speculation.

If any plan of this kind were adopted by the government,
I cannot help thinking that it might be made the means of
giving the best kind of encouragement and reward to those
who. are employed in our defence. If the period of en-

APPENDIX. 467

listing were only for a limited time, and at the expiration of
that time every person who had conducted himself well
were entitled to a house and a small portion of land, if a
country labourer, and to a tenement in a town and a small
pension, if an artificer (all inalienable), a very strong motive
would be held out to young men, not only to enter into the
service of their country, but to behave well in that service;
and, in a short time, there would be such a martial popula-
tion at home as the unfortunate state of Europe seems in a
most peculiar manner to require. As it is only limited as-
sistance that the society can possibly give, it seems in every
respect fair and proper that, in regulating this limit, some
important end should be attained.

If the poor-laws be allowed to remain exactly in their
present state, we ought, at least, to be aware to what cause
it is owing, that their effects have not been more pernicious
than they are observed to be; that we may not complain of,
or alter those parts, without which we should really not
have the power of continuing them. The law which
obliges each parish to maintain its own poor is open to
many objections. It keeps the overseers and churchwar-
dens continually on the watch to prevent new comers, and
constantly in a state of dispute with other parishes. It thus
prevents the free circulation of labour from place to place,
and renders its price very unequal in different parts of the
kingdom. It disposes all landlords rather to pull down than
to build cottages on their estates ; and this scarcity of ha-
bitations in the country, by driving more to the towns
than would otherwise have gone, gives a relative discou-
ragement to agriculture, and a relative encouragement
to manufactures. These, it must be allowed, are no
inconsiderable evils; but if the cause which occasions them
were removed, evils of much greater magnitude would fol-
low. Lagree with Mr. Young in thinking that there is
scarcely a parish in the kingdom, where, if more cottages
were built, and let at any tolerably moderate rents, they
would not be immediately filied with new couples. I even
agree with him in thinking that, in some places, this want
of habitations operates too strongly in preventing marriage.
But I have not the least doubt that, considered generally,
its operation in the present state of things is most benefi-
cial; and that it is almost exclusively owing to this cause
that we have been able so long to continue the poor-laws.

HH 2

468 APPENDIX.

If any man could build a hovel by the road-side, or on the -
neighbouring waste, without molestation; and yet were
secure that he and his family would always be supplied with
work and food ‘by the parish, if they were not readily to be ~
ebtained elsewhere; I do not believe that it would be long
before the physical impossibility of executing the letter of
the poor-laws would appear. It is of importance, there-
fore, to be aware that it is not ‘because this or any other
society has really the power of employing and supporting
all that might be born, that we have been able to continue
the present system; but because by the indirect operatiou
of this system, not adverted to at the time of its establish-
ment and frequently reprobated since, the number of births
is always very greatly limited, and thus reduced within the
pale of possible support.

The obvious tendency of the poor-laws is certainly to
encourage marriage; but a closer attention to all their in-
direct as well as direct effects may make it a matter of
doubt to what extent they really do this. They clearly
tend, in their general operation, to discourage sobriety and
economy, to encourage idleness and the desertion of chil-
dren, and to put virtue and vice more on a level than they
otherwise would be; but I willnot presume to say positively
that they greatly encourage population. It is certain that the
proportion of births in this country compared with others in
similar circumstances is very small; but this was to be ex-
pected from the superiority of the government, the more
respectable state of the people, and the more general diffu-
sion of a taste for cleanliness and conveniences. And it
will readily occur to the reader, that owing to these causes,
combined with the twofold operation of the poor-laws, it
must be extremely difficult to ascertain, with any degree of
precision, what has been their effect on population.*

The only argument of a general nature against the Essay,
which strikes me as having any considerable force, is the

* The most favourable light, in which the poor-laws cam possibly be placed,
is to say that under all the circumstances, with which they have been accom-
panied, they do not much encourage marriage; and undoubtedly the returns
of the Population Act seem to warrant the assorben) Should this be true,
some of the objections which have been urged in the Essay against the poor-
Jaws will be removed ; but I wish to press on the attention of - the reader, that
they will in that case be removed in strict confor mity to the general principles
of the work, and in a manner to confirm, not to invalidate, the main positions
which it has attempted to establish.

APPENDIX. 469

followimg. Itis against the application of its principles,
uot the principles themselves, and has not, that 1 know of,
been yet advanced in its present form. It may be said that,
according to my own reasonings and the facts stated in my
work, it appears that the diminished proportion of births,
which I consider as absolutely necessary to the permanent
improvement of the condition of the poor, invariably fol-
lows an improved government, and the greater degree of
personal respectability which it gives to the lower classes of
society. Consequently allowing the desirableness of the
end, it is not necessary, in order to obtain it, to risk the pro-
mulgation of aby new opinions which may alarm the pre-
judices of the poor, and the effect of which we cannot with
certainty foresee; but we have only to proceed in improving
our civil polity, conferring the benefits of education upon
all, and removing every obstacle to the general extension of
all those privileges and advantages which may be enjoyed
in common; and we may be quite sure that the effect, to
which [ look forward, and which can alone render these
advantages permanent, will follow.

I acknowledge the truth and force of this argument, and
have only to observe, in answer to it, that it is difficult to
conceive, that we should not proceed with more celerity
and certainty towards the end in view, if the principal
causes, which tend to promote or retard it, were generally
known. In particular, I cannot help looking forward to a
very decided improvement in the habits and temper of the
lower classes, when their real situation has been clearly ex-
plained to them; and if this were done gradually and ‘cau-
tiously, and accompanied with proper moral and religious
instructions, [ should not expect any danger from it.. I am
always unwilling to believe, that the general dissemination
of truth is prejudicial. Cases of this kind are undoubtedly
conceivable; but they should be admitted with very great
caution. If the general presumption in favour of the ad-
vantage of truth were ouce essentially shaken, all ardour in
‘its cause would share the same fate; and the interests of
knowledge and virtue most decidedly suffer. It is, besides,
a species of arrogance not lightly to be encouraged, for any
man to suppose that he has penetrated further into the laws
of nature than the great Author of them intended, further
than is consistent with the good of mankind.

Under these impressions | have freely given my opinions

470 APPENDIX.

to the public. In the truth of the general principles of the
Essay I confess that I feel such a confidence, that, till some-
thing has been advanced against them very different indeed
from any thing that has hitherto appeared, I cannot help
considering them as incontrovertible. With regard to the ap-
plication of these principles, the case is certainly different ;
and as dangers of opposite kinds are to be guarded against,
the subject will, ofcourse, admit of much latitude of opi-
nion. At all events, however, it must be allowed that,
whatever may be our determination respecting the advan-
tages or disadvantages of endeavouring to circulate the
truths on this subject among the poor, it must be highly
advantageous that they should be known to all those who.
have it in their power to influence the laws and institutions
of society. That the body of an army should not m all
cases know the particulars of their situation may possibly
be desirable ; but that the leaders should be in the same
state of ignorance will hardly, I think, be contended.

If it be really true, that without a diminished proportion
of births* we cannot attain any permanent improvement in
the health and happiness of the mass of the people, and
cannot secure that description of population, which, by con-
taining a larger share of adults, is best calculated to create
fresh resources, and consequently to encourage a continued
increase of efficient population; it is surely of the highest
importance that this should be known, that, if we take no
steps directly to promote this effect, we should not, under
the influence of the former prejudices on this subject, en-
deavour to counteract it.f And if it be thought unadvise-

* It should always be recollected that a diminished proportion of births may
take place under a constant annual increase of the absolute number. This is
in fact exactly what has happened in England and Scotland during the last
forty years.

T We should be aware that a scarcity of men, owing either to great losses,
or to some particular and unusual demand, is liable to happen in every country ;
and in no respect invalidates the general principle that has been advauced.
Whatever may be the tendency to increase, it is quite clear that an extraordi-
nary supply of men cannot be produced either in six months, or six years; but
even with a view to a more than usual supply, causes. which tend to diminish
mortality are not only more certain but more rapid in their effects, than direct
encouragements to marriage. An increase of births may, and often does, take
place, without the ultimate accomplishment of. our object ; but supposing the
births to remain the same, it is impossible for a diminished mortality not to be
accompanied by an increase of effective population. : .

We are very apt to be deceived on this subject by the almost constant de-
mand for labour, which prevails in every prosperous country ; but we should

APPENDIX. 471

able to abolish the poor-laws, it cannot be doubted, that a
knowledge of those general principles, which render them
inefficient in their humane intentions, might be applied so
far to modify them and regulate their execution, as to re-
move many of the evils with which they are accompanied,
and make them less objectionable.

Thereis only one subject more which I shall notice, and that
is rather a matter of feeling thanofargument. Many persons,
whose understandings are not so constituted that they can
regulate their belief or disbelief by their likes or dislikes,
have professed their perfect conviction of the truth of the
general principles contained in the Essay ; but, at the same
time, have lamented this conviction, as throwing a darker
shade over our views of human nature, and tending particu-
larly to narrow our prospects of future improvement. In
these feelings I cannot agree with them. If, from a review
of the past, [ could not only believe that a fundamental and
very extraordinary improvement in human society was pos-
sible, but feel a firm confidence that it would take place, I
should undoubtedly be grieved to find, that 1 bad overlook-
ed some cause, the operation of which would at once blast
‘my hopes. But if the contemplation of the past history of
mankind, from which alone we can judge of the future,
renders it almost impossible to feel such a confidence, |
confess that I had much rather believe that some real and
deeply-seated difficulty existed, the constant struggle with
which was calculated to rouse the natural mactivity of man,
to call forth his faculties, and invigorate and improve his
mind; a species of difficulty, which it must be allowed is

consider that in countries which can but just keep up their population, as the
price of labour must be sufficient to rear a family of a certain number, a single
man will have a superfluity, and labour would be in constant demand at the
price of the subsistence of an individual. It cannot be doubted that in this
country we could soon employ double the number of labourers, if we could
have them at our own price; because supply will produce demand, as well,as
demand supply. The present great extension of the cotton-trade did not ori-
ginate in an extraordinary increase of demand at the former prices, but in an
increased supply at a much cheaper rate, which of course immediately produced
an extended demand. As we cannot, however, obtain men at sixpence a day
by improvements in machinery, we must sabmit to the necessary conditions of
their rearing ; and there is no man, who has the slightest feeling for the happi-
ness of the most numerous class of society, or has even just views of policy on
the subject, who would not rather choose that the requisite population should
be obtained by such a price of labour, combined with such habits, as would
occasion a very small mortality, than from a great proportion of births of which
comparatively few would reach manhood.

472 APPENDIX.

most eminently and peculiarly suited: to a state of probation ;
than that nearly all the evils of life might with the most per-
fect facility be removed, but for the perverseness and
wickedness of those who influence human institutions.*

A person who held this latter opinion must necessarily
live in a constant state of irritation and disappoimtment.
The ardent expectations, with which he might begin life,
would soon receive the most cruel check. The regular pro-
gress of society, under the most favourable circumstances,
would to him appear slow and unsatisfactory; but mstead
even of this regular progress, his eye would be more fre-
quently presented with retrograde movements, and the most
disheartening reverses. The « changes, to which he had looked
forward with delight, would be found big with new and un-
looked-for evils; and the characters, on which he had reposed
the most confidence, would be seen frequently deserting his
favourite cause, either from the lessons of experience or the
temptations of wealth and power. In this state of constant
disappomtment, he would be but too apt to attribute every
thing to the worst motives; he would be inclined to give up
the cause of improvement in despair; and judging of the whole
from a part, nothing but a peculiar goodness of heart and
amiableness of disposition could preserve him from that
sickly and disgusting misanthropy, which is but too fre-
quently the end of such characters.

On the contrary, a person who held the other opinion, as
he would set out with more moderate expectations, would
of course be less liable to disappointment. A comparison
of the best with the worst states of society, and the obvious
inference from analogy, that the best were capable of further
improvement, would constantly present to his mind a pro-
spect sufficiently animating to warrant his most persevering
exertions. But aware of the difficulties with which the sub-
ject was surrounded, knowing how often in the attempt to

_attain one object some other had been lost, and that, though
society had made rapid advances in some ¢ directions, it had

* The misery and vice arising from the pressure of the population too hard
against the limits of subsistence, and the misery and vice arising from promis-
cuous intercourse, may be considered as the Scylla and Charybdis of human
life. That it is possible for each individual to steer clear of both these rocks is
certainly true, and a truth which I have endeavoured strongly to maintain; but
that these rocks do not form a difficulty independent of human institutions, no
person with any knowledge of the subject can venture to assert.

APPENDIX. 473

been comparatively stationary in others, he would be con-
stantly prepared for failures. These failures, instead of
creating despair, would only create knowledge; instead of
checking his ardour, would give it a wiser and more success-
ful direction; and, having founded his opinion of mankind
on broad and general grounds, the disappointment of any
particular views would not change this opinion; but even
in declining age he would probably be found believing as
firmly in the reality and general prevalence of virtue as in
the existence and frequency of vice; and to the last, looking
forward with a just confidence to those improvements in
society, which the history of the past, in spite of all the re-
verses with which it is accompanied, seems clearly to war-
rant.

It may be true that, if ignorance is bliss, ’tis folly to be
wise; but if ignorance be not bliss, as in the present instance ;
if all false views of society must not only impede decidedly
_ the progress of improvement, but necessarily terminate in
the most bitter disappomtments to the individuals who
formed them; I shall always think that’ the feelings and
prospects of those, who make the justest estimates of our
future expectations, are the most consolatory; and that the
characters of this description are happier themselves, at the
same time that they are beyond comparison more likely to
contribute to the improvement and happiness of society.*

* While the last sheet of this Appendix was printing (1807,)
I heard with some surprise, that an argument had been drawn
from the Principle of Population in favour of the slave-trade.
As the just conclusion from that principle appears to me to be
exactly the contrary, I cannot help saying a few words on the sub-
ject.

If the only argument against the slave-trade had been, that,
from the mortality it occasioned, it was likely to unpeople Africa,
or extinguish the human race, some comfort with regard to these
fears might, indeed, be drawn from the Principle of Population ;
but as the necessity of the abolition has never, that I know of, been
urged on the ground of these apprehensions, a reference to the
laws which regulate the increase of the human species was cer-
tainly most unwise in the friends of the slave-trade.

The abolition of the slave-trade is defended principally by the
two following arguments :—

Ist. That the trade to the coast of Africa for slaves, together
with their subsequent treatment in the West Indies, is productive

474 APPENDIX.

of so much human misery, that its continuance is disgraceful to us
as men and as Christians. ,

2d. That the culture of the West-India islands could go on
with equal advantage and much greater security, if no further im-
portation of slaves were to take place.

With regard to the first argument, it appears, in the Essay on
the Principle of Population, that so great is the tendency of man-'
kind to increase, that nothing but some physical or moral check,
operating in an excessive and unusual degree, can permanently keep
the population of a country below the average means of subsistence.
In the West-India islands a constant recruit of labouring negroes
is necessary; and consequently the immediate checks to population
must operate with excesszve and unusual force. All the checks to
population were found resolvable into moral restraint, vice and
misery. In a state of slavery moral restraint cannot have much
influence ; nor in any state will it ever continue permanently to
diminish the population. The whole effect, therefore, is to be at-
tributed to the excessive and unusual action of vice and misery; and -
a reference to the facts contained in the Essay incontrovertibly
proves that the condition of the slaves in the West Indies, taken
altogether, is most wretched, and that the representations of the
friends of the abolition cannot easily have been exaggerated.

It will be said that the principal reason, why the slaves in the
West Indies constantly diminish, is, that the sexes are not in equal
numbers, a considerable majority of males being always imported ;
but this very circumstance decides at once on the cruelty of their
situation, and must necessarily be one powerful cause of their de-
graded moral condition.

It may be said also, that many towns do not keep up their num-
bers, and yet that the same objection is not made to them on that
account. But the cases will admit of no comparison. If, for the
sake of better society or higher wages, people are willing to expose
themselves to a less pure air and greater temptations to vice, no
hardship is suffered that can reasonably be complained of. ‘The
superior mortality of towns falls principally upon children, and is
scarcely noticed by people of mature age. The sexes are in equal
numbers; and every man, after a few years of industry, may look
forward to the happiness of domestic life. If during the time
that he is thus waiting, he acquires vicious habits which indispose
him to marriage, he has nobody to blame except himself. But
with the negroes the case is totally different. The unequal num-
ber of the sexes shuts out at once the majority of them from all
chance of domestic happiness. They have no hope of this kind to
sweeten their toils and animate their exertions; but are necessarily
condemned either to unceasing privation or to the most vicious ex-
cesses; and thus shut out from every cheering prospect, we cannot
be surprised that they are in general ready to welcome that death,
which so many meet with in the prime of life.

~

. APPENDIX. 475

The second argument is no less powerfully supported by the
Principle of Population than the first. It appears, from a very
general survey of different countries, that, under every form of
government, however unjust and tyrannical, in every climate of
the known world, however apparently unfavourable to health, it
has been fouud that population, almost with the sole exception
above alluded to, has been able to keep itself up to the level of the
means of subsistence. Consequently, if by the abolition of the trade
to Africa the slaves in the West Indies were placed only in a toler-
able situation, if their civil condition and moral habits were only
made to approach to those which prevail among the mass of the
human race in the worst-governed countries of the world, it is
contrary to the general laws of nature to suppose that they would
not be able by procreation fully to supply the effective demand for
labour; and it is difficult to conceive that a population so raised
would not be in every point of view preferable to that which exists
at present. ;

It is perfectly clear therefore, that a consideration of the laws
which govern the increase and decrease of the human species, tends
to strengthen, in the most powerful manner, all the arguments in
favour of the abolition.

With regard to the state of society among the African nations,
it will readily occur to the reader that, in describing it, the ques-
tion of the slave-trade was foreign to my purpose; and I might
naturally fear that, if I entered upon it, I should be led into too
long a digression. But certainly all the facts which I have men-
tioned, and which are taken principally from Park, if they do not
alsolutely prove that the wars in Africa are excited and aggravated
by the traffic on the coast, tend powerfully to confirm the suppose-
tion. ‘The state of Africa, as I have described it, is exactly such
as we should expect in a country where the capture of men was
considered as a more advantageous employment than agriculture
or manufactures. Of the state of these nations some hundred
years ago, it must be confessed, we have little knowledge that we
can depend upon. But allowing that the regular plundering ex-
cursions, which Park describes, are of the most ancient date; yet
it is impossible to suppose that any circumstance which, like the
European traffic, must give additional value to the plunder thcs
acquired, would not powerfully aggravate them, and effectually
prevent all progress towards a happier order of things. As long
as the nations of Europe continue barbarous enough to purchase
slaves in Africa, we may be quite sure that Africa will continue
barbarous enough to supply them.

476 APPENDIX,

1817.

Since the publication of the last edition of this Essay in
1807, two Works have appeared, the avowed objects of
which are directly to oppose its principles and conclusions.
These are the Principles of Population and Production, by
Mr. Weyland; and an Inquiry into the Principle of Popu-
lation, by Mr. James Grahame.

I would willingly leave the question as it at present stands
to the judgment of the public, without any attempt on my
part to influence it further by a more particular reply; but
as I professed my readiness to enter into the discussion of
any serious objections to my principles and conclusions,
which were brought forward in a spirit of candour and truth;
and as one at least of the publications above mentioned may
be so characterised, and the other is by no means deficient
in personal respect; I am induced shortly to notice them.

I should not however have thought it necessary to advert
to Mr. Grahame’s publication, which isa slight work without
any very distinct object in view, if it did not afford some
strange specimens of misrepresentation, which it may be
useful to point out.

Mr. Grahame in his second chapter, speaking of the ten-
dency exhibited by the law of human increase to a redund-
ance of population, observes, that some philosophers have
considered this tendency as a mark of the foresight of nature,
which has thus provided a ready supply for the waste of life
occasioned by human vices and passions; while “ others,
“ of whom Mr. Malthus is the leader, regards the vices and
“follies of human nature, and their various products, fa-
a ‘snuine, disease and war, as benevolent remedies by which

‘ nature has enabled human beings to correct the disorders
“that would arise from that redundance of population
“which the unrestrained ‘operation of her laws would
“ create.”*

* P2400:

; APPENDIX. 477

These are the opinions imputed to me and the philoso-
phers with whom I am associated. If the imputation were
just, we have certainly on many accounts great reason to be
ashamed of ourselves. For what are we ‘made to say? In
the first place, we are stated to assert that famine is a bene-
volent remedy for want of food, as redundance of population
admits of no other interpretation than that of a people ill
supplied with the means of subsistence, and consequently
the benevolent remedy of famine here noticed can only apply
to the disorders arismg from scarcity of food.

Secondly; we are said to affirm that nature enables human
beings by means of diseases to correct the disorders that
would arise from a redundance of population;—that is,
that mankind willingly and purposely create diseases, with
a view to prevent those diseases which are the necessary
consequence of a redundant population, and are not worse
or more mortal than the means of prevention.

And thirdly, it is imputed to us generally, that we con-
sider the vices and follies of mankind as benevolent remedies
for the disorders arising from a redundant population; and
it follows as a matter of course that these vices ought to be
encouraged rather than reprobated.

It would not be easy to compress in so small a compass
a greater quantity of absurdity, inconsistency, and unfounded
assertion.

The two first imputations may perhaps be peculiar to Mr.
Grahame ; and protection from them may be found in their
gross absurdity and inconsistency. With regard to the third,
it must be allowed that it has not the merit of novelty. AL
though it is scarcely less absurd than the two others, and
has been shewn to be an opinion no where to be found in the
Essay, nor legitimately to be inferred from any part of it, it
has been continually repeated in various quarters for fourteen
years, and now appears in the pages of Mr. Grahame. For
the last time I will now notice it; and should it still continue
to be brought forward, I think i may be fairly excused from
paying the slightest further attention either to the imputa-
tion itself, or to those who advance it.

If I had merely stated that the tendency of the human race
to increase faster, than the means of subsistence was kept to
alevel with these means by some or other of the forms of
vice and misery, and that these evils were absolutely una-
voidable, and incapable of being diminished by any human

A78 APPENDIX.

efforts ; still { could not with any semblance of justice be
‘accused of considering vice and misery as the remedies of
these evils, instead of the very evils themselves. As well
nearly might I be open to Mr. Grahame’s imputations of
considering the famine and disease necessarily arising from a
scarcity of food as a benevolent remedy for the evils which
this scarcity occasions.

But I have not so stated the proposition. [ have not
considered the evils of vice and misery arising from a redun-
dant population as unavoidable, and incapable of being dimi-
nished. On the contrary, [ have pointed out a mode by
which these evils may be removed or mitigated by removing
or mitigating their cause. I have endeavoured to shew that
this may be done consistently with human virtue and hap-
piness. I ‘have never considered any possible increase of
population as an evil, except as far as it might increase the
proportion of vice and misery. Vice and misery, and these
alone, are the evils which it has been my great object to
contend against. I have expressly proposed moral restraint
as their rational and proper remedy ; and whether the remedy
be good or bad, adequate or inadequate, the proposal itself,
and the stress which I have laid upon it, is an incontrover-
tible proof that I never can have considered vice and misery
as themselves remedies.

But not only does the general tenour of my work, and the
specific object of the latter part of it, clearly shew that I do
not consider vice and misery as remedies; but. particular
passages in various parts of it are so distinct on the subject,
as not to admit of being misunderstood by the most perverse
blindness.

It is therefore quite inconceivable that any writer with the
slightest pretension to respectability should venture to bring
forward such imputations; and it must be allowed to shew
either such a degree of ignorance, or such a total want of
candour, as utterly to disqualify him for the discussion of
such subjects.

But Mr. Grahame’s misrepresentations are not confined
to the passage above referred to. In his introduction he
observes that, im order to check a redundant population, the
evils of which I consider as much nearer than Mr. Wallace,
I “ recommend immediate recourse to human efforts, to the
restraints prescribed by Condorcet, for the correction or

~

~

APPENDIX. 479

mitigation of the evil.”* This is an assertion entirely with-
out foundation. I have never adverted to the check sug-
gested by Condorcet without the most marked disapproba-
tion. Indeed I should always particularly reprobate any
artificial and unnatural modes of checking population, both
on account of their immorality and their tendency to remove
a necessary stimulus to industry. If it were possible for
each married couple to limit by a wish the number of their
children, there is certainly reason to fear that the indolence
of the human race would be. very greatly increased; and
that neither the population of individual countries, nor of
the whole earth, would ever reach its natural and proper
extent. But the restraints which I have recommended are
quite of a different character. ‘They are not only pointed
out by reason and sanctioned by religion, but tend in the
most marked manner to stimulate industry. It is not easy
to conceive a more powerful encouragement to exertion
aud good conduct than the looking forward to marriage as
‘a state peculiarly desirable : but only to be enjoyed in com-
fort, by the acquisition of habits of industry, economy, and
prudence. And it is in this light that I have always wished
to place it.t

In speaking of the poor-laws in this country, and of their
tendency (particularly as they have been lately administered)
to eradicate all remaining spirit of independence among our
peasantry, I observe that, “‘ hard as it may appear in indivi-
“‘ dual instances, dependent poverty ought to be held dis-
“ graceful ;” by which of course Lonly mean that such a pro-
per degree of pride as will induce a labouring man to make
great exertions as in Scotland, in order to prevent himself
or his nearest relations from falling upon the parish, is very
desirable, with a view to the happiness of the lower classes
of society. The interpretation which Mr. Grahame gives
to this passage is, that the rich ‘ are so to imbitter the
“pressure of indigence by the stings of contumely, that
“men may be driven by their pride to prefer even ‘the refuge
“ of despair to the condition of dependence! !”*—a curious
specimen of misrepresentation and exaggeration.

*P. 18.

+ See vol. ii. p. 244, of 4th edit.; p. 493 of the quarto edit. ; vol. iii. p. 82
of the 5th edit. and vol, ii. p. 262. of this edition.

+ Paso:

480 APPENDIX.

I have written a chapter expressly on the practical direc-

tion of our charity; and in detached passages elsewhere
have paid a just tribute to the exalted virtue of benevolence.
To those who have read these parts of my work, and have
attended to the general tone and spirit of the whole, I wil-
lingly appeal, if they are but tolerably candid, against
these charges of Mr. Grahame, which intimate that I
would root out the virtues of charity and benevolence
without regard to the exaltation which they bestow on the
moral dignity of our nature; and that in my view the “ rich
are required only to harden their hearts against calamity,
aud to prevent the charitable visitings of their nature from
keeping alive in them that virtue which is often the only
moral link between them and their fellow-mortals.”* It is
not indeed easy to suppose that Mr. Grahame can have
read the chapter to which I allude, as both the letter and
spirit of it contradict, in the most express and remarkable
manner, the imputations conveyed in the above passages.
- These are a few specimens of Mr. Grahame’s misrepre-
sentations, which might easily be multiplied; but on this
subject I will only further remark that it shews no inconsi-
derable want of candour to continue attacking and dwelling
upon passages which have ceased to form a part of the work
controverted. And this Mr. Grahame has done in more
instances than one, although he could hardly fail to know
that he was combating expressions and passages which [
have seen reason to alter or expunge.

I really should not have thought it worth while to notice
these misrepresentations of Mr. Grahame, if, in spite of
them, the style and tone of his publication had not appeared
to me to be entitled to more respect than most of my oppo-
nents.

With regard to the substance and aim of Mr. Grahame’s
work, it seems to be intended to shew that emigration is the
remedy provided by nature for a redundant population; and
that if this remedy cannot be adequately applied, there is no
other that can be proposed, which will not lead to conse-
quences worse than the evil itself. These are two points
which I have considered at length in the Essay; and it can-
not be necessary to repeat any of the arguments here. Emi-
gration, if it could be freely used, has been shewn to be a

* P. 236.

APPENDIX. 481

resource which could not be of long duration. It cannot
therefore under any circumstances be considered as an ade-
quate remedy. The latter position is a matter. of opinion,
and may rationally be held by any person who sees reason
to think it well founded. It appears to me, I confess, that
experience most decidedly contradicts it; but to those who
think otherwise, there is nothing more to be said than that
they are bound in consistency to acquiesce in the necessary
consequences of their opinion. These consequences are,
that the poverty and wretchedness arising from a reduudant
population, or, in other words, from very low wages and
want of employment, are absolutely irremediable, and must
be continually increasing as the population of the earth pro-
ceeds; and that all the efforts of legislative wisdom and
private charity, though they may afford a wholesome and
beneficial exercise of human virtue, and may occasionally
alter the distribution and vary the pressure of human misery,
can do absolutely nothing towards diminishing the general
amount or checking the increasing weight of this pressure.

Mr. Weyland’s work is of a much more elaborate de-
scription than that of Mr. Grahame. It hasialso a very
definite object in view: and although, when he enters into
the details of his. subject, he is compelled entirely to agree
with me respecting the checks which practically keep down
population to the level of the means of subsistence; and
has not in fact given a single reason for the slow progress of
population in the advanced stages of society, that does not
clearly and incontrovertibly come under the heads of moral
restraint, vice, or misery ; yet it must be allowed that he sets
out with a bold and distinct denial of my premises, and
finishes, as he ought to do from sucha beginning, by draw-
ing the most opposite conclusions.

After stating fairly my main propositions, and adverting
to the conclusion which I have drawn from them, Mr. Wey-
land says, ‘‘ Granting the premises, it is indeed obvious that
“ this conclusion is undeniable.”*

I desire no other concession than this; and if my pre-
mises can be shewn to rest on unsolid foundations, L will
most readily give up the inferences I have drawn from them.

To determine the point here at issue it cannot be neces-

* Principles of Population and Production, p. 15.

VOL. II. Seah

482. APPENDIX.

sary for me to repeat the proofs of these premises derived
- both from theory and. experience, which have already so
fully been brought forwards. It has been allowed that they
have been stated with tolerable clearness; and it is known
that many persons have considered them as unassailable,
who still refuse to admit the consequences to which they
appear to lead. All that can be required therefore on the
present occasion is to examine the validity of the objections
to these premises brought forward by Mr. Weyland.

Mr. Weyland observes, “ that the origin of what are con-
“ ceived to be the mistakes and false reasonings, with respect
‘to the principle of population, appears to be the assump-
“tion of a tendency to increase in the human species, the

“quickest that can be proved possible in any particular
“state of society,-as that which 1s natural and theoretically
“ possible in all; and the characterizing of every cause

“which tends to prevent such quickest possible rate as
“ checks to the natural and spontaneous tendency of popu-
“ Jation to increase; but as checks evidently insufficient to
“stem the progress of an overwhelming torrent. This
“ seems as eligible a mode of reasoning, as if one were’ to
‘* assume the height of the Lrish giant as the natural standard
“ of the stature of man, and to call every reason, which may
“be suggested as likely to prevent the generality of men
‘* from reaching it, checks to their growth.”*

Mr. Weyland has here most unhappily chosen his illus-
tration, as it isin no respect applicable to the case. In
order to illustrate the different rates at which population
increases in different countries, by the different heights of
men, the following. comparison and inference would be
much more to the purpose.

If ma particular country we observed that all the people
had weights of different sizes upon their heads, and that in-
variably each individual was tall or short in proportion to
the smallness or greatness of the pressure upon him; that
every person was observed to grow when. the weight he
carried was either removed or diminished, and that the few
among the whole people who were exempted from this bur-
den, were very decidedly taller than the rest ; would it not
be quite justifiable to infer, that the weights which the peo-
ple carried were the cause of their being m general so short ;
and that the height of those without weights might fairly be

RP 1

APPENDIX. 483

considered as the standard to which it-might be expected
that the great mass would arrive, if their growth were unre-
stricted ?

For what is it in fact, which we really observe with regard
to the different rates of increase in different countries? . Do
we not see that in almost every state to which we can direct
our attention, the natural tendency to increase is repressed
by the difficulty which the mass of the people find in pro-
curing an ample portion of the necessaries of life, which
shews itself more immediately in some or other of the forms
of moral restraint, vice, and misery? Do we not see that in-
variably the rates of increase are fast or slow, according as
the pressure of these checks is light or heavy; and that in
consequence Spain increases at one rate, France at another,
England at a third, Ireland at a fourth, parts of Russia at a
fifth, parts of Spanish America at a sixth, and the United
States of North America ata seventh? Do we not see
that, whenéver the resources of any: country increase so
as to create a great demand for labour and give the lower
classes of society a greater command over the necessaries of
life, the population of such country, though it might before
have been stationary or proceeding very. slowly, begins
immediately to make a start forwards? And do we not see
that in those few countries, or districts of countries, where
the pressure arising from. the difficulty of procuring the ne-
cessaries and conveniences of life is almost entirely removed,
and where in consequence the-checks to early marriages are
very few, and. large families are maintained with perfect
facility, the rate at which the population increases is always
the greatest ?

And when to these broad and glaring facts we add, that
neither theory nor experience will justify us in believing
either that the passion between the sexes, or the natural pro-
lifickness of women, diminishes in the progress of society ;
when we further consider that the climate of. the, United
States of America is not particularly healthy, and that the
‘qualities which mainly distinguish it from other countries,
aré its rapid production and distribution of the means of sub-
‘sistence ;—is not the induction as legitimate and correct as
‘possible, that the varying weight of the difficulties attending
the maintenance of families, and the moral restraint, vice,
and misery which these difficulties necessarily generate, are
the causes of the varying rates- of increase observable in

YF

484 - APPENDIX.

different countries ; and that, so far from having any reason |
to-consider: the American rate of increase as peculiar, un-
natural, and gigantic, we are bound by every law of induc-
tion and analogy to conclude that there is scarcely a state in
Europe where, if the marriages were as early, the means of
maintaining large families as ample, and the employments.
of the labouring classes as healthy, the rate of increase would,
not be as rapid, and in some cases, I have no doubt, even.
more rapid than in the United States of America.

Another of Mr. Weyland’s curious illustrations is the fol-
lowing:—He says that the physical tendency of a people in
a commercial and manufacturing state to double their num-
ber in twenty-five years is ‘‘ as absolutely gone as the ten-
“« dency of a bean to shoot up further into the air, after it
“ has arrived at its full growth;” and that to assume such a
tendency is to build a theory upon a mere shadow, “ which,
“ when brought to the test, is directly at variance with ex
* perience of the fact; and as unsafe to act upon, as woula
“be that of a general who should assume the force of a
“ musket-shot to be double its actual range, and then should
“calculate upon the death of all his enemies as soon as he
“had drawn up his own men for battle within this line of
“ assumed efficiency.”*

Now I am not in the least aware who. it is that has
assumed the actual range of the shot, or the actual progress
of population in different countries, as very different from
what it is observed to be; and therefore cannot see how
the illustration, as brought forward by Mr. Weyland, ap-
plies, or how I can be said to resemble his miscalculating
general. What I have really done is this (if he will allow
me the use of his own metaphor): having observed that the
range of musket-balls, projected from similar barrels and —
with the same quantity of powder of the same strength, was,
under different circumstances, very different, I applied my-
self to consider what these circumstances were; and, having
found that the range of each ball was greater or less. in pro-
portion to the smaller: or greater number of the obstacles
which it met with in its course, or the rarity or density of
the medium through which it passed, I was led to infer that
the variety of range observed was owing to these obstacles;
and I consequently thought:it a more correct and legitimate

* Pl t26.

APPENDIX, 485

conclusion, and one more consonant both to theory and
experience, to'say that the natural tendency to a range of
a certain extent, or the force impressed upon the ball, was
always the same, and the actual range, whether long or
short, only altered by external resistance; than to conclude
that the different distances to which the balls reached must
proceed from some mysterious change in the nalural ten-
dency of each bullet at different times, although no observ-
able difference could be noticed either in the barrel or the
charge.

_ I leave Mr. Weyland to determine which would be the
conclusion of the natural philosopher, who was observing
the different velocities and ranges of projectiles passing
through resisting media of different densities ; and I do uot
see why the moral and political philosopher should proceed
upon principles so totally opposite.

But the only arguments of Mr. Weyland against the na;
tural tendency of the human race to increase faster than the
means of subsistence, are a few of these illustrations which
he has so unhappily applied, together with the acknowledged
fact, that countries under different circumstances and in dif-
ferent stages of their progress, do really increase at very
different rates.

_. Without dwelling therefore longer on such illustrations,
it may be observed, with regard to the fact of the dillerent
rates of increase in different countries, that as long as it is
a law of our nature that man cannot live without food,
these different rates are as absolutely and strictly necessary
as the differences in the power of producing food in coun,
tries more or less exhausted: and that to infer from these
different rates of increase, as they are actually found to take
place, that “population has a natural tendency to keep
*¢ within the powers of the soil to afford it subsistence in
“ every gradation through which society passes,” is just as
rational as to infer thatevery man has a natural tendency to
remain in prison who is necessarily confined to it by four
strong walls; or that the pine of the crowded Norwegian
forest has no natural tendency to shoot out lateral branches,
because there is no room for their growth. And yet this is
Mr. Weyland’s first and grand proposition, on which the
whole of his work turns! '

But though Mr, Weyland has not, proved, or approached

towards proving, that the natural tendency of population to

486 APPENDIX.

increase is not unlimited; though he has not advanced
a single reason to make it appear probable that a thousand
millions would not be’ doubled in twenty-five years’ just as
easily as a thousand, if moral restraint, vice and misery, were
equally removed im both cases; yet there is one part of his
argument, which undoubtedly might, under certain circum-
stances, be true; and if true, though it would in no respect
impeach the premises of the Essay, it would essentially
affect some of its conclusions. Mh Hrs

The argument may be stated shortly thus;—that the
natural division of labour arising from a very advanced state
of society, particularly in countries where the land is “rich;
and great improvements have taken place in agriculture,
might throw so large a portion of the people: into towns,
and engage so many in unhealthy occupations, that the im-
mediate checks to population might be too powerful to be
overcome even by an abundance of food.

It is admitted that this is a possible case;. and, foreseeing
this possibility, I provided for it in the terms in which the
second proposition of the Essay was enunciated. all

The only practical question then worth attending to be-
tween me and Mr. Weyland is, whether cases of the kind
above stated are to be considered in the light in which I
have considered them in the Essay, as exceptions of very
rare occurrence, or in the light in which Mr. Weyland has
considered them, as a state of things naturally accompany-
ing every stage in the progress of improvement. * On either
supposition, population would still be repressed by some or
other of the forms of moral restraint, vice or misery; but
the moral and political conclusions, in the actual state of
almost all countries, would be essentially different. On the
one supposition moral restraint would, excépt in a few
cases of the rarest occurrence, be one of the most useful
and:necessary of virtues; and on the other, it would be one
of the most useless and unnecessary. :

This question can only be determined by an appeal to
experience. Mr. Weyland is always ready to refer to the
state of this country; and, in fact, may be said almost to
have built his system upon the peculiar policy of a single
state. But the reference in this case will entirely contra-
dict his theory. He has brought forward some elaborate
calculations to shew the extreme difficulty with which the
births of the. country supply the demands of the towns and

APPENDIX. 487

-manufactories. In ooking over them, the reader, without
other information, would be disposed to feel considerable
alarm at the prospect of depopulation impending over the
country; or at least he would be convinced that we were
within a-hair’s breadth of that formidable point of non-
-reproduction, at which, according to Mr. Weyland, the
.population naturally comes to a full stop before the means
.of subsistence cease to be progressive.

‘These calculations were certainly as applicable twenty
years ago as they are now; and indeed they are chiefly
founded on observations which were made at a greater dis-
tance of time than the period here noticed. . But what has
‘happened since? In spite of the enlargement of all our
‘towns; in spite of the most rapid increase of manufactories,
-and of the proportion of people employed in them; in spite
‘of the most extraordinary and unusual demands for the

‘army and navy; in short, in spite of a state of things which,

~according to Mr. Weyland’ s theory, ought to have brought
‘us long since to the point of non-reproduction, the popula-
tion of the country has advanced at a rate more rapid than
was ever known at any period of its history. During the
ten years from 1800 to 1811, as I have mentioned im a for-
mer part of this work, the population of this country: (even
after making an allowance for the presumed deficiency of
the returns in the first enumeration) increased at a rate
which would double its numbers in fifty-five years.

- This fact appears to me at once a full and complete refu-
tation of the doctrine, that, as society advances, the in-
creased indisposition to marriage and increased mortality in
_great towns and manufactories always overcome the prin-
ciple:of increase; and that, in the language of Mr. Weyland,

‘¢ population, so far from having an 1 inconvenient tendency
“uniformly to press against the means. of subsistence, be-
“ comes by degrees very slow in overtaking those means.’

With this acknowledged and glaring fact before him, and
with the most striking evidences staring him im the face, that
even,’ during this period of rapid increase, thousands both
in the country and in towns were prevented from marrying
so early as they would have done, if they had possessed: suf-
ficient means of supporting a family independently of parish
relief, it is quite inconceivable how a man of sense could
bewilder himself in such a maze of futile calculations, and

488 APPENDIX.

come to a conclusion so diametrically opposite to expe-
rience.

The fact already noticed, as it applies to the most ad-
vanced stage of society known in Europe, and proves incon-
-trovertibly that the actual checks to population, even in the
most improved countries, arise principally from an insuffi-
ciency of subsistence, and soon yield to increased resources,
notwithstanding the imcrease of towns and manufactories,
may I think fairly be considered as quite decisive of the
question at issue.

But in treating of so general and extensive a subject as the
Principle of Population, it would surely not be just to take
our examples and illustrations only froma single state. And
in looking at the other countries Mr. Weyland’s doctrine on
‘population is, if possible, still more completely contradicted.
Where, I would ask, are the great towns and manufactories
in Switzerland, Norway and Sweden, which are to act as the
graves of mankind, and to prevent the possibility of a re-
dundant population? In Sweden the proportion of the
people living in the country is to those who live in towns as
13 to 1; m England this proportion is about 2 to 1; and
-yet England increases much faster than Sweden. How is
this to be reconciled with the doctrine that the progress of
civilization and improvement is always accompanied by a
correspondent abatement in the natural tendency of popula-
tion to increase? Norway, Sweden and Switzerland have
not on the whole been ill governed; but where are the ‘ne-
cessary “‘ anticipating alterations,” which, according to Mr.
Weyland, arise in every society as the powers of the soil
diminish, and “render so many persons unwilling to marry,
“and so. many more, who do marry, incapable of repro-
“¢ ducing their own numbers, and of replacing the deficiency
“im the remainder.”* What is it that in these countries
indisposes people to marry, but the absolute hopelessness
of being able to support their families? What is it that
renders many more who do marry incapable of reproducing
their own numbers, but the diseases generated by excessive
poverty—by an insufficient supply of the necessaries of life?
Can any man of reflection look at these and many of the
other countries of Europe, and then venture to state that
there is no moral reason for repressing the inclination to

APPENDIX. 489

early marriages: when it cannot be denied that the alterna-
tive of not repressing it must necessarily and unavoidably be
premature mortality from excessive poverty? And is it
possible to know -that in few or none of the countries of
Europe the wages of labour, determined in the common way
by the supply and the demand, can support in health large
families; and yet assert that population does not press
against the means of subsistence, and that “the evils of
“a redundant population can never be necessanly felt by
“a country till it is actually peopled up to the full capacity
“ of its resources.”*

Mr. Weyland really appears to have dictated his book
with his eyes blindfolded, and his ears stopped. I havea
great respect for his character and intentions ; but I must
say that it has never been my fortune to meet with a theory —
so uniformly contradicted by experience. ‘The very slightest
glance at the different countries of Europe shews witha force
amounting to demonstration, that to all practical purposes
the natural tendency of population to inerease may be con-
sidered as a given quantity; and that the actual increase is
regulated by the varying resources of each country for the
employment and maintenance of labour, in whatever stage
of its progress it may be, whether it is agricultural or manu-—
facturing, whether it has few or many towns. Of course
this actual increase, or the actual limits of population, must
always be far short of the utmost powers of the earth to

roduce food; first, because we can never rationally sup-
pose that the human skill and industry actually exerted are
directed in the best possib/e manner towards the preduction
of food; and secondly, because, as I have stated more par-
ticularly in a former part of this work, the greatest produc-
tion of food which the powers of the earth would admit
cannot possibly take place under a system of private pro-
perty. But this acknowledged truth obviously affects only
the actual quantity of food, and the actual number of people,
and has not the most distant relation to the question re-
specting the natural tendency of population to increase be-
yond the powers of the earth to produce food for it.

The observations already made are sufficient to shew that
the four main propositions of Mr. Weyland, which depend
upon the first, are quite unsupported by any appearances in

© P1235.

490 APPENDIX.

the state of human society, as it is known to us in-the
countries with which we are acquainted. - The last of these
four propositions is the following :—* This tendency” (mean-
ing the natural tendency of population to keep within the
powers of the soil to afford it subsistence) ‘ will have its
“‘ complete operation so as constantly to maintain the peo-
“ ple in comfort and plenty in proportion as religion, mo-
“ rality, rational liberty and security of person and lg
“ approach the attainment of a perfect influence.”* —

In the morality here noticed, moral or prudential restraint
from marriage is not included: and so understood, I have
no hesitation i in saying that this proposition appears to me
nfore directly to contradict the observed laws of nature, than
to assert that Norway might easily grow food for a thousand
millions of habitants. I trust that I am disposed to at-
tach as much importance to the effects of morality and reli-
gion on the happiness of society, even as Mr. Weyland ;
but among the moral duties, I certamly include a restraint
‘upon the inclination to an early marriage when there is no
reasonable prospect of maintenance fora family ; and unless
this species of virtuous self-denial be included in morality,
I am quite at issue with Mr. Weyland; and so distinctly
‘deny his proposition as to say that no degree of religion and
morality, no degree of rational liberty and security of person
and property, can, under the existing laws of nature, place
‘the lower classes of society in a state of comfort and
‘plenty.

-With regard to Mr, Weyland’s fifth and last proposition,t+
I have already answered it in a note which I have added, in
‘the present edition, to the last chapter of the third book,{
-and will only observe here that an illustration to shew the
‘precedence of population to food, which I believe was first
-brought forward by an anonymous writer, and appears so to
have pleased Mr. Grahame as to induce him to repeat it
twice, is one which I would willmgly take to prove the very
‘opposite doctrine to that which it was meant to support.
“The apprehension that an increasing population would
starve§ unless a previous increase of food were procured for

*C. ili. p. 21

+ Id. 22. i

$ Vol. iii. p. 46, et seq.

§ This I have never said; I have only said that their condition would be de-
teriorated, which is strictly true, «

APPENDIX. 491

it, has been ridiculed by comparing it with the apprehension
that increasing numbers would be obliged to go naked unless
a previous increase of clothes should precede their births.
Now however well or ill-founded may be our apprehensions
in the former case, they are certainly quite justifiable in the
latter ; at least society has always acted as if it thought so.
In the course of the next twenty-four hours there will be
about 800 children born in England and Wales ; and I will
venture to say that there are not ten out of the whole num-
ber that come at the expected time, for whom clothes are
not prepared before their births. It is said to be dangerous
to meddle with edged tools which we do not know how to
handle; and it is equally dangerous to meddle with illustra-
tions which we do not know how to apply, and which may
tend to prove exactly the reverse of what we wish.

On Mr. Weyland’s theory it will not be necessary further
to enlarge. With regard to the practical conclusions which
he has drawn from it in our own country, they are such as
might be expected from the nature of the premises. If
population, instead of having a tendency to press against the
means of subsistence, becomes by degrees very slow in
overtaking them, Mr. Weyland’s inference that we ought to
encourage the increase of the labouring classes by abundant
parochial assistance to families, might perhaps be main-
tained. But if his premises be ‘entirely wrong, while his
‘conclusions are still acted upon, the consequence must be,
a constantly increasing amount of unnecessary pauperism and
dependence. Already above one-fourth of the population of
England and Wales have been dependent upon parish relief ;
and if the system which Mr. Weyland recommends, and
which has been so generally adopted in the midland counties,
should extend itself over the whole kingdom, there is really no
saying to what height the level of pauperism may rise. While
the practice of making an allowance from the parish for every
child above two is confined to the labourers in agriculture,
whom Mr. Weyland considers as the breeders of the
country, it is essentially unjust, as it lowers without com-
pensation the wages of the manufacturer and artificer : and
when it shall become just by including the whole of the
working classes, what a dreadful picture does it present!
-what a scene of equality, indolence, rags and dependence,
among one-half or three-fourths of the society ! Under such

492 APPENDIX.

a system to expect any essential benefit from saving banks
or any other institutions to promote industry and economy
is perfectly preposterous. When the wages of labour are
veduced to the level to which this system tends, there will
be neither power nor motive to save.

Mr. Weyland strangely attributes much of the wealth and
prosperity of England to the cheap population which it
raises by means of the poor-laws; and seems to think that,
if labour had ‘been allowed to settle at its natural rate, and
all workmen had been paid in proportion to their skill and
industry, whether with or without families, we should never
have attained that commercial and manufacturing ascendancy
by which we have been so eminently distinguished. .

A practical refutation of so ill founded an opinion may be
seen in the state of Scotland, which in proportion to its
natural resources has certainly increased in agriculture, ma-
nufactures and commerce, during the last fifty years, still
more rapidly than England, although it may fairly be said
to have been essentially without poor-laws.

It is not easy to determine what is the price of labour
most favourable to the progress of wealth. It is certainly
conceivable that it may be too high for the prosperity of
foreigncommerce. But I believe it is much more frequently
too low; and 1 doubt if there has ever been an instance in
any country of very great prosperity in. foreign commerce,
where the working classes have not had good | money wages.
It is impossible to sell very largely without being able to buy
very largely; and no country can buy very largely i in. which
the working classes are not in such a state as to be able to
purchase for elgn commodities.

But nothing t tends to place the lower classes of society i in
this'state so:mnch-ds.a demand for labour which is allowed
to take its natural course, and which therefore pays the un-
married man and the man with a family at the same rate;
.and consequently gives at once to a very large mass of the
working: classes the power of purchasing foreign articles of
consumption, and of paying taxes on luxuries ‘to no incon-
siderable extent. While, on the other hand, nothing would
tend so effectually to destroy the power of the working
classes of society to purchase either home manufactures or
foreign articles of consumption, or to pay taxes on luxuries,
as the practice of doling out to each member of a family an
allowance, in the shape of wages and parish relief combined,

APPENDIX. 493

just sufficient, or only a very little more than to furnish them
with the mere food necessary for their maintenance.

To shew that, im looking forward to such an increased
operation Of prudential restraint as would greatly improve
the condition of the poor, it is not necessary to suppose ex-
travagant and impossible wages, as Mr. Weyland seems to
think, 1 will refer to the proposition of a practical man ow
the subject of the price of labour; and certaimly much
would be done, if this proposition could be realized, though
it must be effected in a very different way from that which
he has proposed.

It has been recommended by Mr. Arthur Young so to
adjust the wages of day-labour as to make them at all times
equivalent to the purchase of a peck of wheat. This quan-
tity, he says, was earned by country labourers during a con-
siderable period of the last century, when the poor-rates
were low, and not granted to assist in the maintenance of
those who were able to work. And he goes on to observe
that, “as the labourer would (in this case) receive 70
bushels of wheat for 47 weeks’ labour, exclusive of five
weeks for harvest; and as a family of six persons consumes
in a year no more than 48 bushels; it 1s clear that such
wages of labour would cut off every pretence of parochial
assistance; and of necessity the conclusion would follow,
that all right to it in men thus paid should be annihilated
for ever.”*

An adjustment of this kind, either enforced by law, or
used as a guide in the distribution of parish assistance, as
suggested by Mr. Young, would be open to insuperable
objections. At particular times it might be the means of
converting a dearth into a famine. And im its general
operation, and supposing no change of habits among the
labouring classes, it would be tantamount to saying that,
under all circumstances, whether the affairs of the country
were prosperous or adverse; whether its resources im land
were still great, or nearly exhausted; the population ought
to increase exactly at the same rate,—a conclusion which
involves an impossibility.

If, however, this adjustment, instead of being enforced by
law, were produced by the increasing operation of the pru-
dential check to marriage, the effect would be totally different,

* Annals of Agriculture, No. 270, p. 91, note.

494 APPENDIX».

and in the highest degree beneficial to society. A gradual
change in the habits of the labouring classes would then
effect the necessary retardation in the rate of increase, and

would proportion the supply of labour to the effective de-

mand, as society continued to advance, not only without the

pressure of a diminishing quantity of food, but under the

enjoyment of an increased quantity of conveniences and

comforts ; and in the progress of cultivation and wealth, the

condition of the lower classes of society would be in a state

of constant improvement.

A peck of wheat a day cannot be considered in any light
as excessive wages. In the early periods of cultivation, in-
deed, when corn is low in exchangeable value, much more
is frequently earned ; but in such a country as° England,
where the price of corn, compared with manufactures and
foreign commodities, is high, it would do much towards
placing the great mass of the labouring classes in a state of
comparative comfort and independence ; and it would be
extremely desirable, with a view to the virtue and happiness
of human society, that no land should be taken into cultiva-
tion that could-not pay the labourers employed upon it to
this amount. ee

With these wages as the average minimum, all those who
were unmarried, or, being married, had small families, would
be extremely well off; while those who had large families,
though they would unquestionably be subjected sometimes
to a severe pressure, would in general ‘be able, by the sacri-
fice of conveniences and: comforts, to support themselves
without parish assistance. And not only would the amount
and distribution‘of the wages of labour greatly increase the
stimulus to industry and economy throughout all the work-
ing classes of the society, and place the great body of them
in a very superior situation, but it would furnish them with
the means of making an effectual demand for a great amount
of foreign commodities and domestic manufactures, and
thus, at the same time that it would promote individual and
general happiness, would advance the mercantile and manu-
facturing prosperity of the country.*

* Tbe merchants and manufacturers who so loudly clamour for cheap corn
and low money wages, think only of selling their commodities abroad, and often
forget that they have to find a market for their returns at home, which they can
never do to any great extent, when the money wages of the working classes,
and monied incomes in general are Jow.

APPENDIX. 495

Mr. Weyland, however, finds it utterly impossible to re-
concile the necessity of moral restraint either with the nature
of man, or the plain dictates of religion on the subject of
marriage. Whether the check to population, which he
would substitute for it, is more consistent with the nature
of a rational being, the precepts of revelation, and the bene-
volence of the Deity, must be left to the judgment of the
reader. This check, it is already known, is no other than
the unhealthiness and mortality of towns and manufactories.*
And though I have never felt any difficulty in reconciling to
the goodness of the Deity the necessity of practising the vir-
tue of moral restraint in a state allowed to be a state of dis-
cipline and trial; yet I confess that I could make no attempt
to reason on the subject, if I were obliged to believe, with
Mr. Weyland, that a large proportion of the human. race
was doomed by the inscrutable ordinations of Providence to
a premature death in large towns. : rand

If indeed such peculiar unhealthiness and mortality were
the proper and natural check to the progress of population
in, the advanced stages of society, we should justly have
reason to apprehend that, by improving the healthiness of
our towns and manufactories, as we have done in England
during the last twenty years, we might really defeat the de-
signs of Providence. And though lL have too much respect
for Mr. Weyland to suppose that he would deprecate all
attempts to diminish the mortality of towns, and render ma-
nufactories less destructive to the health of the children em-
ployed in them; yet certainly his principles. lead to this
conclusion, since his theory has been completely destroyed
by those laudable efforts which have made the mortality of
England—a country abounding in towns and manufactories,
less than the mortality of Sweden-—a country in a state almost
purely agricultural.

It was my object in the two chapters on Moral Restraint,
and its Effects on Society, to shew that the evils arising from
the principle of population were exactly of the same nature
as the evils arising from the excessive or irregular gratifica-
tion of the human passions in general; and that from the

* With regard to the indisposition to marriage in towns, I do not believe
that it is greater than in the country, except as far as it arises from the greater
expense of maintaining a family, and the greater facility of illicit intercourse, »

496 APPENDIX.

existence of these evils we had no more reason to conclude
that the principle of increase was too strong for the purpose
intended by the Creator, than to infer, from the existence of
the vices arising from the human passions, that these pas-
sions required diminution or extinction, instead of regulation
and direction.

If this view of the subject be allowed to be correct, it
will naturally follow that, notwithstanding the acknowledged
evils occasioned by the principle of population, the advan-
tages derived from it under the present constitution of things
may very greatly overbalance them.

A slight sketch of the nature of these advantages, as far
as the main object of the Essay would allow, was given in
the two chapters to which I have alluded; but the subject
has ‘lately been pursued with great ability in the Work
of Mr. Sumner on the Records of the Creation; and I am
happy to refer to it as containmg a masterly developement
and completion of views, of which oats an intimation could
be given in the Essay.

I fully agree with Mr. Sumner as to the beneficial effects
which result from the principle of population, and feel en-
tirely convinced that the natural tendency of the human race
to increase faster than the possible increase of the means of
subsistence could not be either destroyed or essentially di-
minished without diminishing that hope of rising and fear of
falling im society, so necessary to the improvement of the
human faculties and the advancement of human happiness.
But with this conviction on my mind, [ feel no wish to alter
the view which I have given of the evils arising from the
principle of population. ” These evils do not lose their name
or nature because they are overbalanced by good; and to
consider them in.a different light on this account, and cease
to call them evils, would be as irrational as the objecting to
call the irregular indulgences of passion vicious, and to
affirm that they lead to misery, because our passions are the
main sources of human virtue and happiness.

I have always considered the principle of population as a
law peculiarly suited to a state of discipline and trial. Indeed
I believe that, in the whole range of the laws of nature
with which we are acquainted, not one can be pointed out,
which in so remarkable a manner tends to strengthen and
confirm this scriptural view of the state of man on earth.

APPENDIX. 497

And as each individual has the power of avoiding the evil
consequences to himself and society resulting from the prin-
ciple of population by the practice of a virtue clearly dictated
to him by the light of nature, and sanctioned by revealed
religion, it must be allowed that the ways of God to man
with regard to this great law of nature are completely vindi-
cated.

I have, therefore, certainly felt surprise as well as regret
that no inconsiderable part of the objections which have
been made to the principles and conclusions of the Essay
on Population has come from persons for whose moral and
religious character I have so high a respect, that it would
have been particularly gratifying to me to obtain their appro-
bation and sanction. This effect has been attributed to
some expressions used in the course of the work which have
been thought too harsh, and not sufficiently indulgent to the
weaknesses of human nature, and the feelings of Christian
charity.

It is probable, that having found the bow bent too much
one way, | was induced to bend it too much the other, in
‘order to make it straight. But I shall always be quite ready
to blot out any part of the work which is considered by a
competent tribunal as having a tendency to prevent the bow
from becoming finally straight, and to impede the progress
of truth. In deference to this tribunal I have already ex-
punged the passages which have been most objected to,
and [ have made some few further corrections of the same
kind in the present edition. By these alterations I hope
and believe that the work has been improved without im-
pairing its principles. But I still trust that whether it is
read with or without these alterations, every reader of can-
dour must acknowledge that the practical design uppermost
in the mind of the writer, with whatever want of judgment
it may have been executed, is to improve the condition and
increase the happiness of the lower classes of society.

VOL, If. K K

498 APPENDIX.

1825.

Since the last edition of this Work was published, an
answer from Mr. Godwin has appeared ; but the character
of it, both as to matter and manner, is such, that I am quite
sure every candid and competent inquirer after truth will
agree with me in thinking that it does not require a reply.
To return abusive declamation in kind would be as un-
edifying to the reader as it would be disagreeable to me ; and
to argue seriously with one who denies the most glaring and
best attested facts respecting the progress of America, Ire-
land, England, and other states,* and brings forward Swe-
den, one of the most barren and worst-supplied countries of
Europe, as a specimen of what would be the natural in-
crease of population under the greatest abundance of food,
would evidently be quite vain with regard to the writer him-
self, and must be totally uncalled for by any of his readers
whose authority could avail in the establishment of truth.

* See article Population in the Supplement to the Encyclopedia Britannica.

INDEX.

*,* The Roman Numerals refer to the Volumes ; the Figures to the Pages.

A.

ABRAM and Lot; their separation,
an illustration of the cause which
overspread the whole earth with peo-
ple, i. 93.

Abyssinia; state of, with respect to the
checks to population, i. 154—exces-
sive depopulation of by war, 156—
158.

Africa, of the checks to population in
different parts of, i. 144—great na-
tural resources, ib.—counterbalanced
by the habits of the Negro nations.—
See the article Negro.

—— state of Abyssinia, i, 154—of
Egypt, 161.

Agows, an Abyssinian nation, dreadful
misery and penury of the, i. 155.
Agriculture, very great encouragements
given to in China, i. 209—powerful
effect of these, 211—is the sole spe-
cies of industry by which multitudes
can exist, 231—in France rather in-
creased than diminished during the
revolution, 369—statements respect-
ing the present condition of, in that

country, 380, note.

processes for abridging agricul-

tural labour sometimes tend rather to

diminish than increase the whole
produce, ii. 216—the supposition er-

be checked for want of food, 118
——where there is abundance of good
Jand, and no difficulties impede either
its purchase and distribution, or

roneous, that a nation which grows
more corn than it consumes, cannot

—————————

”

the foreign vent for raw produce,
the profits of stock and prices of
labour will be high, 119—America,
a practical instance of the agricul-
tural system in a state the most
favourable to the condition of ihe
labouring classes, 121. 125—in-
stances, where, under the agricul-
tural system, the condition of the
lower classes is very wretched, 125
—128—effects resulting from a com-
bination of the agricultural and
commercial systems, 146 —advan-
tages of such union, 148—152—it is
calculated to produce the highest na-
tional prosperity, 153—agriculture,
the efficient cause of population
rather than population of agriculture,
241, 242, 245—different effects of
the agricultural and commercial sys-
tems, 133. 137. 141—state of Eng-
land with respect to agriculture and
commerce in the middle of the last
century, 232, 233—price of labour
considered, in relation to this sub-
ject, 233.—See also the articles Boun-
ties and Plenty.

America ,period in which population has

doubled itself in the northern states
of, i. 5—-in the back settlements, ib.
—very rapid increase of the English
colonies in, 516—actual population
of the United States, and period
of doubling, 518—hardships expe-
rienced in the first settlement of
some of the English colonies, ii. 54
—famine almost impossible there,

2

500

i. 531—America a practical instance
of the agricultural system in a state
the most favourable to the condition
of the labouring classes, ii. 114. 121.
125—yet their general condition not
proportioned to the quantity of food
they earn, 122.—See also the article
Indians.

Ancient or modern nations, question of
the superior populousness of, i, 253
—257.

Andaman Islanders, state of with respect
to the checks to population ; scarcity
of food, i. 26.

Anderson Mr.; his erroneous proposi-
tion, that every increase of popula-
tion tends to increase relative plenty,
and vice versa, li. 236, 237, note.

Arabia Felix, practice and effect of
polygamy in, i. 153. ‘

Arabs. See the article Bedoweens.

Ardour, want of, in savages, generated
by the hardships and dangers of sa-
vage life, i. 37.

Aristotle saw clearly the strong tendency
of population to increase beyond the
means of subsistence ; methods pro-
posed by him to repress its redun-
dance, i. 237. 239, 240—limiting the
age of marriage, the number of
children born, and the period of pro-
creating, 237—his further observa-
tions on the necessity of regulating
the number of children, 938, 239—
points out an error in the measures
taken to increase the population of

_ Sparta, 240.

Arts and manufactures necessary in
countries where the properties in
land are large, i. 251.

Asia, checks to population among the

"modern pastoral tribes of (See the
article Tartars), i. 120—enumeration
of checks, 143.

Augsburgh, proportion of its annual
marriages to its population, at diffe-
rent periods, i. 325.

B.

Banks ; the increased circulating me-
dium wanted during the late scarcity,
supplied principally by the paper
of the country banks, ii, 73—this
increased issue of paper rather a
consequence than a cause of the high
price of provisions, 74—much better
that the issue should have come
from the country banks than the
Bank of England, 75—-great advan-
tage may be derived in improving

INDEX.

the condition of the poor, from the
establishment of saving-banks, in
which they might put their savings
out to interest, 407—410.

Baptisms, unentered, increased rate of,
i, 445.

Barbadoes, hardships experienced in
the first settlement of the English
colony there, ii. 51.

Barbarism, extreme, of the inhabitants
of Terra del Fuego and Van Die-
men’s Land, i. 25.

Bedoweens, state of with respect to the
checks to population among them, i.
123. 128.150.

Beggars, multitude of, in Tibet, i. 204
—the relief given to common beggars
often does not deserve the name of
charity, li. 366.

Benefit clubs; plan of improving the
condition of the poor by the com
pulsory and universal establishment
of, considered, ii. 375.

Berlin, proportion of its annual mar-
riages to its population, i. 327.

Berne, proofs of the powerful operation
of the preventive check to popula-
tion in the town and canton of, i.
355.

Births, proportion of, to deaths in Nor-
way, i. 274—in different parts of
Russia, 299, 300—in England and
Wales, 411. 495. 427. 528—in
France, 584. 386. 392—in a North
American state, 529—annual average
and proportion of, in Sweden, 296,
297—proportion of, to the population
of England and Wales, 415—causes
which affect the proportion of births
_to weddings, 488, 489, note—pro-
portion of to the whole population
in Russia, 3035, 304. 318—in France,
before and during the revolution,
371 et seq. and note—in some parts
of Scotland affected by years of scar-
city and plenty, 468—in England and
Wales, 411—in different places of
the middle parts of Europe, 330.
et seq.—births in the Greek church in
Russia for the year 1799, 317—from
1806 to 1820, 318—a greater mer-
tality naturally produces a greater
proportion of births, 341.—See also
the articles Fruitfulness and Registers.

(1825) of England, omissions in

the registers, i. 44.5—observations

on the diminished proportions of
births and marriages to the whole
population, 444—44.8— varying pro-

portion of births stated, 448.

INDEX.

Births, (1825) of France, statement of,
i, 392—proportion of, to the popula-
tion, 395—diminished number of
births, with an acceleration in the
increase of population, 395, 396—
proof of the error of estimating the
population of countries at different
periods by the increase of births,
396.

Boors, state of, in Russia, i. 314.

Bovtea, marriage an impediment to his
career in life, i. 202.

Bounties on the exportation of corn con-
sidered, ii. 162—examination of
the arguments of Dr. Smith in sup-
port of his assertion that the fall of
price happened in spite of the
bounty, and could not have hap-
pened in consequence of it, 169—
first, that the extension of the foreign
market so procured, is at the ex-
pense of the home market, 169, 170
—second, that the two taxes paid by
the people on account of the bounty,
must either return upon the farmer
by raising the price of labour, or
diminish the whole market of corn
by restraining the population of the
country, 171—third, that as the
money price of corn regulates that of
all other home-made commodities,
the advantage to the proprietor from
the increased price is not real, 172,
173—fourth, that the nature of
things has stamped upon corn a real
value, which no bounty upon expor-
tation, no monopoly of the home
market can raise, nor any competi-

tion can lower, 174—177—mode in
which a bounty upon exportation
operates, 177—182—objection toa
bounty,—under the most favourable
circumstances it cannot produce per-
manent cheapness, 182—184,

Brahmens, practice of marriage among,
i. 200.

Brandenburgh ; proportion of yearly
deaths and births to the population,
in the small towns and the villages
of, i, 331—variations in the propor-
tions of births to deaths and to mar-
riages, at different periods, 507—
churmark of ; proportion of its an-
nual marriages to its population, 326
—its general mortality, 351. 353—
variation in the proportion of births
to deaths and to marriages, in differ-
ent periods, 508, 509—neumark of ;
general mortality in, 333.

Brasil, Portuguese colony of ; quick

501

progress which it made in population,
notwithstanding its ill management,
i, 516.

British isles ravaged for two centuries
by the ancient northern invaders, i.
113—peculiarly free from great vari-
ations in their annual produce of
grain, ii. 192,

Brothers, younger, according to the
Hindoo customs, cannot marry with-
out disgrace before the eldest, 1,195
—in Tibet all the brothers of a fa-
mily associate with one female, 203.

Bruce (Mr.) polygamy defended by,
i. 151.

Burials. See Deaths.

C.

Campine, in Brabant, brought into cul-
tivation from the state of a barren
and arid sand, il. 249, 250.

Canada, occasional famines among the
nations of, i. 58.

Cannibalism, among the American In-
dians and others, i. 50, 51. 69, 70—
had its origin probably in extreme
want, 50.

Casatshia tribe of Tartars ; state of, with
respect to the checks to population
among them, i. 125.

Catherine (Empress), beneficial changes
effected by, in Siberia, 1.174.

Cattle, organic perfectibility of, ii. 11,
12.

Celibacy powerfully inculcated in Tibet,
i. 202.

Charity indiscriminate, wherever it ex-
ists will never want objects, i. 204.
of the Direction of our Charity,
ii. 361—benevolence, like other im-
pulses, must be frequently brought
to the test of utility, 361—364—its
pernicious effects if exercised indis-
criminately, 36%, 363—the effect of
charity upon the giver is to purify
and exalt the mind, 364, 365—con-
trary effect,—of the sums distributed
by the parochial laws, 365—of the
subscriptions given in some cases to
the great public institutions, ib.—of
the relief of comman beggars, 366—
opposite description of real charity :
voluntary and active, in the relief
of proper objects, 366, 367—pro-
duces daily advances in virtue in
those who practise it, 367 the power
of giving or withholding relief, vested
in parish officers and justices, very
different in its nature and effect from
voluntary charity, 368—beneficial

502

consequences to the general state of
the poor, of leaving charity to. be
voluntary, 368, 369—poverty and
misery always increase in proportion
to the quantity of indiscriminate
charity, 370—the poor must be left
to the natural consequences of their
conduct with respect to industry and
marriage, ib.—calamities unmerited,
or arising from the failure of well-
founded expectations are the ge-
nuine objects of charity, 571—re-
lief to the idle and improvident, in
distress, must be scanty, ib.—urgent
distress from accidents unconnected
with indolence and improvidence,
not within these reasonings, 372—
an opportunity of doing good, how-
ever, not to be lost from a mere sup-
posed possibility of meeting with a
worthier object, ib.

Chastity, reason why the disgrace
attending its breach in a woman
should be greater than in a man, ii.
32— effects of violating the law of
chastity, 272—the virtue of chastity
has a real and solid foundation in
nature and reason, 273—considera-
tion of the consequences arising to
society from want of chastity, com-
pared with those of other vices, 294
—298.

Cheapness of provisions, extraordinary,
in the southern parts of Siberia, i.
176.

Check, ultimate, to the increase of popu-
lation, is the deficiency of the means
of subsistence, i. 4. 12—the imme-
diate checks, 12—these latter may
be classed under the heads of pre-
ventive and positive checks (See those
articles and their references), 12, 13.
17—all resolvable into moral re-
straint, vice, and misery, 15—pro-
portion in which the preventive and
positive checks prevail according to
circumstances, 17—mode of opera-
tion of the general checks described,
18—oscillation, why concealed from
common yiew, 21—checks in the
lowest stage of human society con-
sidered, 25—among the inhabitants
of Terra del Fuego, ib,—among the
natives of Van Diemen’s Land, and
the Andaman Isles, ib. 26—among
the inhabitants of New Holland, 26
et seq.—among the American Indians,
35—in the islands of the South Sea,
66—among the ancient inhabitants
of the north of Europe, 92—among

INDEX.

modern pastoral nations, 120—in
different parts of Africa, 144—in Si-
beria, northern and southern, 165—
in the Turkish Dominions and Per-
sia, 180—in Indostan and Tibet, 190
—in China and Japan, 206—among
the Greeks, 231—among the Ro-
mans, 243—in Norway, 259—in
Sweden, 277—in Russia, 299—in
the middle parts of Europe, 320—in
in Switzerland, 337—in France, 362
—in England, 397—in Scotland and
Treland, 450—the want of food is
the most efficient cause of the imme-
diate checks, 519—in modern Eu-
rope the positive checks prevail less,
and the preventive checks more,
than in past times and in less civil-
ized parts of the world, 534, 535.
Children, sucking, buried alive with the
mother at her death in New Holland,
i. 31—difficulty of rearing children
in a savage life, 32—frequent aban-
donment and destruction of them
~ among the American Indians, 41—
in China bound to maintain their
parents, 214—number of, annually
exposed at Pekin, 224—where pro-
perty is equalized, the number of
children should be limited, according
to Aristotle, 239, 240.
every child tnat dies under ten
years of age is a loss to the nation
of all that had been expended in its
subsistence, ii. 424—-a specific relief
might, without any ill consequence,
be given for every child above the
number of six, 429.—See also the
article Infanticide ; and for various
particulars respecting the mortality
of children, the article Deaths.
China, extent of the empire of, i. 217—
the Moguls, after conquering its nor-
thern provinces, proposed in council
to exterminate all its inhabitants, 121.
its State with Respect to the
Checks to Population, 1. 206—esti-
mate of the number of its inhabitants,
207—small number of families in pro-
portion, ib,—causes of its immense
population; excellence of the soil,
208—very great encouragements
given to agriculture, 209—and to
marriage, 212—effects of these last ;
abject state of the poor, 214, 217—
inquiry into the immediate checks by
which this vast population is kept
down to the level of the means of
subsistence, 218—prudential _ re-
straints, ibh—vicious intercourse of

INDEX.

the sexes, 228—epidemic diseases,
220, 221—exposure of children, and
infanticide, 222, 223—frequent fa-
mine, 224 et seq.

China ; its state illustrative of the pro-
position, that an increase of the stock
or revenue of a nation cannot always
be considered as an increase of the
real funds for the maintenance of
labour, ii. 215—217.

Chiriguanes, their rapid increase on
settling in the mountains of Peru,
i, 53.

Christianity: the new light in which it
has placed our duty with respect to
marriage and population a pleasing
confirmation of its truth and divinity,
and of its adaptation to an improved

_state of society, ii, 279.
Cimbri, irruptions of, into the Roman
. Empire, i. 97. 102. 106.

Circulating medium, how affected by pa-
rish allowances to the poor, il. 72, 73.

Civil Liberty, Effects of the Knowledge
of the principal Cause of Poverty on,
ii. 311—this knowledge would power-

-fully contribute to the advancement
of rational freedom, ib,—the pressure
of distress on the lower classes, with
their habit of attributing it to their
rulers, the guardian spirit of despot-
ism, 311, 312—a mob the most fa-
tal of all monsters to freedom, 312,

_313—its tendency to produce ty-
ranny, 313—the degree of power to
be given to government, and the
measure of our submission to it,
must be determined by general ex-
pediency, 315, 316—constant ten-
dency in all power to encroach, 316
—the country gentlemen of Eng-
Jand, in diminishing their vigilance
as guardians of freedom, during the
late war, actuated less by corruption
than by fear, arising from the igno-
rance and delusions of the common
people, 317, 318—erroneous princi-
ples of Paine’s Rights of Man, 318,
319—a man cannot possess a right
to subsistence when his labour will
not purchase it, 319—absurd posi-

_ tion of the Abbé Raynal on this sub-
ject, 320—the general circulation of
true principles on this point would
counteract the mischievous decla-
mations on the unjust institutions of
society, 320,321—if the fear of the
tyranny or folly of the people were
removed, the tyranny of government

503

general declamations imputing all the
evils of society to human institu-
tions, 322, 323—under the best go-
vernment a great degree of misery
might prevail from inattention to
the prudential check to population,
323—the influence of a good go-
vernment is great in giving the best
direction to the checks which are
inevitable, 324—grand requisites to
the growth of prudential habits, 325
—powerful effects of a representa-
tive system of government in this
respect, 325, 326 —mischievous con-
sequences of the hopes entertained
by the lower classes of immediate
relief from a revolution, 326—a cor-
rect knowledge of the share attri-
butable respectively to government,
and to the poor themselves, of the
unhappiness of society, would power-
fully tend to promote the cause of
rational freedom, 326, 327—illus-
tration of this truth by the events of
the last two or three years, 328—
3354.

Civilized and savage life, comparative

advantages and disadvantages of, 1.
89—91.

Cleves, dukedom of; proportion of its

annual marriages to its population, i.
326.

Climbing trees ; vast labour in, to which

the natives of New Holland are com-
pelled for the means of subsistence,
1.27.

Colonies, new, settled in healthy coun-

tries where room and food were
abundant, have constantly made a
rapid progress in population, i. 514.
See also the article Emigration.

Commerce : of the agricultural and com-

mercial systems, combined. See

under the article Agriculture.

Commercial Policy, example of a more

liberal system set by ministers, ii.
209, note.

Commercial System ; effects of, on the

prices of corn, ii, 133—hable to be
affected by foreign competition, 135,
434—and by domestic competition,
134— illustration of this point from
the state of the cotton trade, 135—
Commerce, liable to be affected by
the indolence, industry, or caprice
of customers, and by the diminution
of demand occasioned by the pro-
gress of countries in skill and capi-
tal, 159.

could not stand, 322—ill effect of! Condorcet, M.; his system of equality

504

a singular instance of attachment
to principles contradicted by every
day’s experience, ii. 2, 3—observa-
tions on his statement of the difficul-
ties to be expected in the progress
‘of his system, and on his plans for
their removal; with respect to pre-
serving the same population, 3—to a
future excess of population, 6—to
the organic perfectibility of man, 8
—the attempt to controvert these
paradoxes not useless, 16.

Corn: money price of corn increased
by an increased number of labour-
ers receiving the same money wages,
i. 21, 22.

, the price of corm in a scarcity
will depend more upon the degree
of consumption than on the actual
deficiency, ii. 67, 68—the consump-
tion of corn diminished by high
prices, 68—the price of grain raised
by parish allowances, during the
late scarcities, 70, 71—causes which
render the importation of corn ne-
cessary, 162—166—whencorn-crops
are unfavourable in one part of Eu-
rope, it generally happens that they
are more or less so in another, 167—
objections to restrictions upon the
importation of corn, 185. 187, 188.
205, 208—in what cases such re-
strictions are applicable, 189 —192—
when a country is of such a size that
it may be expected finally to pro:
duce its own food, restrictions on the
importation of corn may be advanta-
geous, 191—so, where a country pos-
sesses sucha soil and climate that the
variations in its annual growthof corn
are less than in most other countries,
191—195—and also, where a state
possesses territory enough, not only
to maintain, under actual cultivation,
a population adequate to a state of
the first rank, but also of sufficient
unexhausted fertility to allowofavery
great increase of population, 196—
beneficial results of restrictions on the
importation of foreign corn in a coun-
try possessed of great landed re-
sources, 202—on the expediency or
propriety of granting bounties on
the importation of corn: see the ar-
ticle Bounties. See also the articles
Agriculture and Poor Laws (under
Poor ).

Corn Laws (1825) ; fluctuations in the
prices of corn, in Holland, compared
with the steadier prices in England,jii.

INDEX.

207, note—observations on the ques-
tion of a freedom of trade in corn,
207, 208, note—sympathy in the
prices of corn in the countries of the
commercial world, 208, note—power- ~
ful argument against restrictions on
importation, 209, note—plan best
adapted to secure steady prices, ib.

Cottages ; advantage to be derived in
bettering the condition of the poor,
from a general improvement of, ii.
420— 422, note.

Cow Por. See the article Small Pov.

Cows ; plan of improving the condi-
tion of the poor by means of, and of
potatoe-grounds, considered, ii. 381
—392—benefit derived by cottagers
from keeping cows, arises from its
being peculiar, and would be consi-
derably diminished if made general,
421—423—some advantage in bet-
tering the condition of the poor might
result from the adoption of this sys-
tem upon a more confined plan, 422,
423.

Curwen (Mr.), his plan for meliorating

the condition of the poor by equal-
izing the poor-rates, and giving the
poor a voice in the management of
the funds destined to their support,
considered, ii. 399, 400—405.

D

Dantzic, proportion of its annual mar-

riages to its population, i. 325.

Deaths, proportion of, to births, in

Norway, i. 274—in different parts
of Russia, 30i—in England and
Wales, 413—particularly between
the years 1800 and 1810, 425 et
seq.—proportion of, to the popula-
tion, in Norway, 260—in Sweden,
277, 278—in France, before and
during the revolution, 572, 373, and
note—in different places of the mid-
dle parts of Europe, 331—334—in
Russia, 494—in different parts of
that country, and average mortality,
501. 304— average mortality in
Scotland, 450, 451-—dependence of
the marriages upon the deaths, in
the middle parts of Europe, 520,
321—proportion of boys dying in
Russia within the first year, 304—
the registers of Petersburg give a
much greater mortality of femate
children than of male, 305—compa-
tive mortality at different periods of
life in that city, 305, 306—general
mortality there, 506—prodigious

INDEX.

mortality in the foundling-hospital
of that city, 306, 307—deaths in the
Greek church in Russia for the year
1799, 317—in countries which have
been long tolerably well peopled,
death is the most powerful encou-
ragement to marriage, 350—no ge-
neral measure of mortality for all
countries taken together, if obtain-
able, could be of use, 332—in single
states, the mortality will depend
greatly upon the proportion of the
inhabitants of towns to those of the
country, 332, 335—nearest average
measure, according to different wri-
ters, 333—average mortality of vil-
lages, 278—a greater mortality na-
turally produces a greater propor-
tion of births, 341.

Deaths ; in a redundant population,
every effort to repress a great mortali-
ty willbe vain, ii. 300 —310—theave-
rage number of deaths must always
depend on the average number of
marriages and births, 303. See also
the articles England (1825) France
(1825), and Registers.

Debauchery, very early and excessive,
among the negro nations of Africa,
i, 146.

Deformed children generally exposed
among the American Indians, 1, 44.
Degwessa and Dembea, Abyssinian
countries, desolated by war, i. 157.

Denmark, state of the poor in, ii. 349.

Depopulation of the American Indians
accounted for, i. 62, et seq.

Desolation, instance of a very extraor-
dinary one among the American In-
dians by some epidemic, i. 45.

Despotism destroys the preventive check
to population, ii. 239.

Diseases, may be often considered as
indications that we have offended
against some of the laws of nature, ii.
%958—a diminished malignancy and
fatality of some diseases have been
observed to be attended with an equal
increase of those qualities in others,
302, 303—such an effect must, under
certain circumstances, inevitably take
place from the laws of population,
305—case of the eventual extirpa-
tion of the small-pox by means of the
cow-pox, considered, 307, 308.

Distilleries ; the consumption of grain
in, cannot be a cause of famine, its
tendency is entirely in a contrary
direction, i. 228.

Distress among the poor, causes Of, ii.

505

63, 64—~its recurrence cannot be
prevented by any sacrifice of the
rich, 65, 66.

Drought, in Arabia and part of Tartary,
i. 141— effects of, in Abyssinia, 160.

Drowning of children, Chinese edict to
prevent, i, 223.

Duthil, Scotch parish of, affords an ex-
traordinary instance of a tendency to
rapid increase, i. 458—number of
children to a marriage, 461.

E.

Eureeoie societies in the South-Sea
Islands, i. 73, 75. 79. 81.

Easter Island ; state of, with respect to
the checks to population, i. 85.

Education, parochial ; beneficial effects
that would attend the establishment
of a system of, in promoting among
the lower ranks the prudential check
to population, ii. 352—among the
usual topics of instruction should be
impressed just principles on the sub-
jects of population and marriage, 353
—advantage of adding a few of the
simplest principles of political eco-
nomy, 353, 354——we have been mi-
serably deficient in the instruction of
the poor, perhaps the only means of
really raising their condition, 355—
the arguments against instructing
them are extremely illiberal and
feeble, 355, 356—it has no tendency
to create among them a spirit of
tumult and discontent, 356, 357—
would render them less likely to be
led away by inflammatory writings,
358—would produce great positive
good in inspiring them with just no-
tions of the causes and the nature of
their condition, ib.—such a plan
would contribute to train up the rising
generation in habits of sobriety, in-
dustry, independence, and prudence,
358, 359—would raise higher that
standard of wretchedness below which
mankind will not continue to marry
and propagate, 359—an attention to
the education of the lower classes is
the duty of government, 359, 360.—
See alsoii. 420, 435.

Egupt, the want of industry has occa-
sioned the present low state of its
population, i, 161. 163—immediate
causes which repress it to the level of
subsistence; oppression and wretch-
edness, 165—plague and famine, 164.

Emigration of the ancient northern na-
tions, accounted for, i, 115,—inhabi-

506

INDEX.

tants of poor, cold, and tbinly-peo-| Encyclopedia Britannica, error in, on

pled territories, why prompted to,
116—tends not to depopulate a
country, but merely to increase the
births, 458, 459—a certain degree of
it is favourable to the population of
the country quitted, 518, 519.
Emigration; by no means an adequate
remedy, but only a slight palliative,
toa redundant population in the more
cultivated parts of the world, ii. 49
—in the first peopling of new colo-
nies, the hardships invariably greater
than those suffered in the parent
country, 50—various instances, 50,
52—the establishment of colonies in
the more thinly peopled regions of
Europe and Asia would require great
resources ; examples, 53, 54—a rea-
son of frequent failures in coloniza-
tion, is the unsuitableness of the
moral and mechanical habits of the
mother country to the new-settled
one, 54—a new colony also at first
is in the condition of being peopled
beyond its actual produce, 55—the
class most affected by theredundance
of population ina state are the most
unable to begin a new colony ina
distant country, ib.—emigration not
likely to be actively assisted by go-
vernments, except where particular
colonial advantages are proposed,
56—even when made most easy, has
not produced all the beneficial effects
which might be expected, ib.—the
social affections and prudential
doubts will ever be a powerful check
upon emigration under the most
favourable circumstances, 57, 58—
every resource arising from emigra-
tion must be of short continuance,
58—as a partial and temporary ex-
pedient it is both useful and proper,
60—62.

Encouragements, direct, to population,
futile and absurd, i. 131. 149—the
customs of some nations, and the pre-
judices of almost all, operate in
this way, 150—the reverse, however,
seems to be a public object in Tibet,
201— effect of encouraging the birth
of children without properly provid-
ing for their support, 241—positive
laws for this purpose, enacted on the
urgency of the occasion, and not
mixed with religion, seldom calcu-
lated to succeed, 248—pernicious
effects of any direct encouragements
to marriage, 329.

the subject of fluctuations in the price
of corn, ii. 207, note.

England; Checks to Population in,

considered, i. 397—the preventive
check prevails in a great degree, ib.
—among the higher classes, ib.—
men of liberal education, 397, 398—
tradesmen and farmers, 398—la-
bourers, 399—servants, ib.—results
of the returns under the population
act; proportion of annual marriages ;
400, 40i1—proposal of taxes and
fines on those who live single, for the
support of the married poor, im-
proper, 402—annual mortality con-
sidered, 403—the void made by the
great mortality of London, filled by
theredundant birthsfrom the country,
407. 410, 411—annual proportion of
births to the population, 412—to the
deaths, 413—to the marriages, 416—
the registry of births and deaths more
deficient in the former than in the
latter part of the century, 417—cal-
culations of the population from the
births and deaths, not to be depended
upon, 419—average proportion of
births to deaths, 528—increase of
population in England, from 1800 to
1810, 424, 425. 440—tables of po-
pulation in England, from 1780 to
1810, 435—observations on the in-
crease of population in England, 436
—441.

(1825), amount of popula-
tion in Great Britain in 1801, 1811,
and 1821, i. 441—ratio of increase,
441—443, 444—number of years in
which the population would be
doubled, 442. 444. 447—extraordi-
nary rate of increase, compared with
the territory, and the number of its
great towns and manufactories, 444
—varying proportions in the births
and marriages, 445. 448, 449—effect
of migrations from Ireland and Scot-
land, 449, note.

Epidemic, dreadful, like the small-pox,

in New Holland, i. 33—instance of
a very extraordinary desolation by
a distemper of this kind, among the
American Indians, 45—epidemics
have their seldomer or frequenter
returns according to circumstances,
117, note—their periodical returns in
different countries, 52i—a redun-
dancy of population is among the
causes of them, 523—a severe mor-
tal epidemic is generally succeeded

INDEX.

by an uncommon healthiness, 525—
countries where subsistence is in-

- creasing sufficiently to encourage
population, but not to answer all its
demands, most subject to periodical
epidemics, 526—Europe less subject
to plagues and wasting epidemics now
than formerly, 527—they indicate
that we have increased too fast for
the means of subsistence, ii. 259—
effects of epidemics on registers of
births, deaths, and marriages. See
the article Registers.

Equality, systems of ; in all those pro-
posed by different writers, the prin-
ciple of population, and the difficul-
ties arising from it, very insufficiently
estimated, ii, 1.—See the articles
Condorcet, Godwin, Owen, Spencean
System, and Wallace.

Equalization of the poor-rates; Mr.
Curwen’s plan for, considered, ii. 400
—403.

Errors ; important, on the relief and em-

ployment of the poor, ii. 404—406.

Europe ; Checks to Population among
the ancient Inhabitants of the North
of, considered, i. 92—successive mi-
grations of the barbarians of, 95, 96
—their destructive irruptions into the
Roman empire, 97—into other na-
tions (see further the article Ger-
mans), 103—the North not more po-
pulous formerly than at present,
105—error of describing it as a con-
stant reservoir for the supply of other
nations, 107, 108—cause which
stopped the continuance of emigra-

- tions by land from the North, 112,
113—these barbarians then spread
themselves over other countries by
sea, 113—again confined to their
own by a similar cause, 114—objec-
tions to the supposition of these
emigrations being caused by a re-

- dundant population, answered, 115,
116—other motives which might
have prompted them, 117—striking
illustration which this period of his-
tory affords of the principle of popu-
lation, 118—war and famine the
principal checks in the countries
above noticed, 119.

Of the checks to population

in the middle parts of Europe (see

the names of the different countries),

i. 320.

In modern Europe the posi-

507

past times, and in the less civilized
parts of the world, i. 534, 535.

Evils, arising from the laws of nature,

always borne more contentedly than
those caused by the measures of a
government, i. 293, 294.

Exactions of the Turkish governors, a
check upon population, i. i80—183.

“« Existing circumstances ;” estimate of
this phrase, ii. 315.

Exposure of children ; frequent in Chi-
na, from the want of means to rear
them, i. 215, 216. 221—exposure in
what case most prevalent, 223—the
permission of the practice tends to
facilitate marriage, and encourage
population, 254—practice of, among
the Romans, 244.

F.

Famine, among the savages of Florida,

i, 49—sufferings of the Indians near

Hudson’s Bay, from, 57, 58—ra-

vages of, in South America, 60—a

principal check tospopulation among

the ancient nations of the north of

Europe, 119—dreadful, in some of

the negro nations of Africa, 148,

149—frightful picture of, in Egypt,

164—frequent in Otaheite, 78—in

China, 225. 227—dreadful famines

to which India has in all ages been

subject, 197—the consumption of

grain in making spirits cannot be a

cause of famine, but tends entirely

in a contrary direction, 227, 228—

in Scotland, 465—the traces of the

most destructive famines are soon
obliterated, 520—periodical returns
of famines and dearths, 521—the in-
crease of population can never ab-
solutely produce, but prepares the

way for, famine, 523—reason why a

famine seems almost impossible in

America, 531.—See also the article

Scarcity.

Fecundity of the human species would
not admit of any very considerabie
diminution, without being inade-
quate to its object, ii. 266—269.—
See also the article Firuitfulness.

Females, number of, in Great Britain,
and their ratio of increase, 1801,
1811, 1821, i. 442.

Fertility, extraordinary, of some of the
South Sea islands, i. 72—has pro-
bably been exaggerated, 88, 89—of
the southern parts of Siberia, 168.

tive checks less prevalent, and the | Fishing afforded a precarious supply of

preventive checks more’so, than in

food tothe American Indians, i. 35,36.

508

Flanders, though so often the seat of
the most destructive wars, has al-
ways, after the respite of a few years,
appeared as rich and as populous as
ever, i. 519.

Florida, famine among the savages of,
i. 49,

Fovd, want of, the most efficient of all
the checks to population, i. 519.

Formosa, island of; its state with re-
spect to the checks to population, i.
87.

Foundling-hospitals, in every view hurt-
ful to a state, i. 290—management
of, and mortality in, that at Peters-
burgh, 306, 307. 309—that at Mos-
cow, 310, 311—pernicious nature of
establishments of this kind, 312,
313—those in France, 375, note.

France overrun by the ancient Scandi-
navian nations, i. 113—State of, with
Respect to the Checks to Popula-
tion, 362—population of, undimi-
nished, notwithstanding the losses
sustained during the revolution, 2b.—
inquiry into the manner in which
such a circumstance might happen,
363—proportion of unmarried per-
sons to the population, 363, 364—
absolute population before the war,
564—proportion of annual mar-
riages, 364, 365—losses during the
war according to different estimates,
367—increase of agriculture, 369—
increased number of small farms,
370—the means of subsistence have
probably remained unimpaired, if
they have not advanced, 371—an-
nual births probably increased during
the revolution, and mortality of the
stationary inhabitants decreased, 371
—373—statements in the Statistique
Générale, &c. lately published, 373,
note—if the marriages have not in-
creased, this will be accounted for by
the extraordinary advance in the il-
legitimate births, 374, 375—error of
Sir Francis D’Ivernois in reasoning
on the effects of the losses sustained
by the revolutionary contest, 376—
the military strength, though not the
numerical population, impaired by
the revolution, 377, 378—statements
from the Analyse des Procés Verbaux
des Conseils Généraux de Départe-
mens, with respect to the popula-
tion, 379, notes—the state of agri-
culture, 380, note—pressure of the
land-tax, ib. note—the hospitals, and

Friendly societies.

INDEX.

note—genera] result of these state-
ments, 382, note—highest average
proportion of births to deaths, 384—
387.

France ; beneficial effects produced by

the revolution in France, ii. 116—de-
structive consequences which would
attend the establishment of poor-
laws in, 348, note—misery existing
in, from an excess of population,
378—380—source of the advan-
tages which it enjoys in respect to
population, 447, et seq.

(1825), births, deaths, and mar-
riages, for six years, ending with
1822, with the annual average, i. 392
—population in 1820, 2b.—propor-
tions of births, deaths, and marriages,
ib.—of illegitimate to legitimate,
and of male to female births, 392,
5935—rate of increase, 393, 394—
period inwhich the population would
be doubled, 394—“increased rate of
population, to what attributable,
395.—See Births (1825).—See also
the article Paris.

Friendly Islands ; state of, with respect

to the checks to population, i. 83—
occasional scarcity in, 88, 89.

See the article Be-
nefit Clubs.

Fruitfulness of marriages, method of

ascertaining it, i. 471—476—pro-
portion of the born which lives to
marry, 476, 477—consideration of
the earliness of marriages, compared
with the expectation of life, 485—
the proportion of births to mar-
riages forms no criterion by which to
judge of the rate of increase, 490—
the preventive check best measured
by the smallness of the proportion of
of yearly births to the population,
492—rate of increase, and period of
doubling, which would result from
any observed proportion of births to
deaths, and of these to the whole
population, 493—Fruitfulness of
marriages at Vevey in Switzerland,
349—estimate of, in different parts
of Russia, 300—among the women
of Scotland, 459, 460. See also the
article Fecundity.

G

Galla, an Abyssinian nation ; singular

custom respecting polygamy in, i.
150—their massacres in war, 152.

charitable establishments, &c. 381,|Garigana, a village of Africa ; its in-

INDEX.

habitants all destroyed by hunger, i.
158, 159.

Gelderland ; proportion of its annual
mortality to its population, and of
births to deaths, i. 334.

Geneva ; calculation respecting the pro-
bability of life, and the mean life at,
in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and
eighteenth centuries, i. 341.

Germans, ancient ; their destructive ir-
ruptions into the Roman empire, 1.97
—101-—theiremigrations regular and
concerted, 98. 103—105—their vast
repeated losses, recruited by the
power of population,101,102—errors
of Gibbon and Machiavel on this
point, 104, 105—their manners, as
described by Tacitus, highly favour-
able to the principle of increase, 109
—rapid succession of human beings
among them, 110, 111.

Germany, state of, with respect toa
system of poor-laws, considered, ii.
348, 349.

Godwin, Mr.; general character of his
Inquiry concerning Political Justice,
ii. 18—his system of equality im-
practicable, 18, 19-—his error in at-
tributing all the vices and misery of
society to human institutions, 20—
his estimate of the benefits attendant
upon his system of equality vision-
ary and false, 20, 21—unfavour-
able picture presented by a ra-
tional contemplation of the subject,
24—28—places the difficulties aris-
ing from an excess of population at
an immeasurable distance, 19—
these difficulties, on the contrary, of
immediate occurrence, 24. 27, 28—
in the state of equality supposed by
him, the principal laws which at
present govern civilized society,
would be successively dictated by
the most imperious necessity, 29,
30—administration of property, 50
—institution of marriage, 31, 32—
inequality of conditions, 34—thus
the whole system would inevitably
degenerate into a state of society
not essentially different from the
present, 36—his argument respect-
ing right to relief considered, 453.

Gondar, prevalence of putrid fevers at,
i. 154.

Goths, their irruptions into the Roman
empire, i. 97. 99, 100. 102, 103.
Government.—See the article Civil Li-

berty.

Grahame, Mr., examination and refu-

509

tation of his misfepresentations and
objections to the principles deve-
loped in this work, ii. 476.

Grange, parish of, in Scotland, causes
of the mortality in, i. 466, 467.

Great Britain, population of, 1825, i.
441.

Greeks, ancient state of, with respect
to the checks to population, i. 231—
their more equal distribution of pro-
perty, and the division of the people
into small states, tended greatly to
encourage their increase, 232—their
overflowing numbers found vent in
colonization, ib.—infanticide sanc-
tioned by their legislators, 233, 254
—measures proposed by Plato and
Aristotle to prevent a redundancy
of population (see their names) 235.
237, 238—the positivechecks among
them, disease and wars, 241, 242—
many of the colonies from ancient
Greece in the course of one or two
centuries rivalled, and even sur-
passed, their mother cities, 514.

Greek Church, of Russia, population
belonging to, i. 318.

Guiana ; disastrous failure of the at-
tempt of the French, in 1663, to form
at once a powerful colony in, ii. 52.

H.

Halberstadt, principality of; propor-
tion of its annual marriages to its po-
pulation, i. 325—of its annual mor-
tality to its population, and of births
to deaths, 334—variations in the
proportions of births to deaths and
to marriages at different periods,
510, 511.

Halle, town of; proportion of its an-
nual marriages to its population, i.
345.

Harvests, good and bad, unfounded
statements of their balancing each
other in different countries, ii. 208,
note.

Healthiness, increased, of a country ;
its effect in diminishing the propor-
tions of deaths, births, and mar-
riages, i. 449.

Heir male, considered as an ‘object of
the first importance in the ordinances
of Menu, i. 190.

Highlands of Scotland, probably more
redundant in population than any
other part of Great Britain, i, 106.
533.

History might be made more useful if
it embraced statistical subjects, i.
19—21.

510

Holland, proportion of annual mar-
riages and deaths in some villages of,
i. 321, 322. 324—of annual births
to the population, 331—the esta-
blishment of poor-laws in, consi-
dered, ii. 348.—See Corn Laws,
(1825).

Holstein, duchy of ; comparative state
of the poor in, ii. 549.

Horses, strong only in proportion to the
strength of their weakest part, i. 139,
140.

Hospitals and charitable establishments,
statements respecting the condition
of, in France, i. 381, note.—See the
articles Lying-in-Hospitalsand Found-
ling -hospitals.

Hudson’s Bay, famine among the In-
dians in the neighbourhood of, i. 57.

Hunters, tribes of, must be thinly scat-
tered over the earth, i. 36—their
support precarious, 59.

Husbands; several attached to one
woman in a certain tribe of Indostan,
and in Tibet, i. 200. 203.

I.

Illegitimate births; proportions of, in
France, before and during the revo-
lution, i. 368. 375—(1825) propor-
tion of, 392.

—- case of illegitimate children con-
sidered in a plan of a gradual abo-
lition of the poor-laws, ii. 340—345.

Improvement in plants, animals, and
man, Condorcet’s theory of, exa-
mined, ii. 8—15.

in the Condition of the Poor, dif-

ferent plans of, considered (see un-

der the article Poor ), ii. 374.

Of our rational expectations re-

specting the future improvement of

society, ii. 451—the unhealthiness
of great towns and manufactories will
always operate as a positive check
to population, ib.— some extension of
the prudential restraint from mar-

Tiage is probable, 432, 433—much

good would be done by merely

changing gradually the institutions
tending directly to encourage mar-
riage, and ceasing to circulate erro-

neous opinions on this subject, 435

—the beneficial effects that may re-

sult from the general reasonings of

this work, unconnected with the

adoption of any particular plan, 436

—inethods in which these reasonings

may operate advantageously among

the higher and middle classes of so-

INDEX.

ciety, 457—among the poor, 438—
the evils resulting from the principle
of population have rather diminished
than increased in modern times, and
may reasonably be expected still
further to decrease, 440—general
conclusion on this subject, 440, 441.
Increase of both plants and animals
bounded only by the means of sub-
sistence, i. 2, 3. i
Indians, American ; state of, with re-
spect to the checks to population
among them, i. 55—their country
very thinly peopled at the time of
its discovery, 36—means by which
their population was kept down to
this scanty supply of food, ib,—want
of ardour in the men not peculiar to
the American Indians, but generated
by the hardships and dangers of sa-
vage life, 37—unfruitfulness of the
women produced by their degraded
and wretched state, and other causes,
37. 59, 40—frequent abandonment
and destruction of children, 414—the
cause of the remarkable exemption
of these people from deformities, ib.
—polygamy allowed, but seldom
practised, 42—marriages not early,
ib.— dangers attending mature age ;
alternate gluttony and abstinence,
43—diseases, 44—dreadful epide-
mics and contagious distempers, 45—
instance of a very extraordinary deso-
lation by an epidemic, 45, 46—their
liability to pestilential diseases from
the dirt of their persons, and close-
ness and filth of their cabins, 446—
perpetual and ferocious hostilities of
the different nations and tribes , 48—
rapid increase of them under favour-
able circumstances, 55—the imme-
diate checks to their population re-
gulated by the means of subsistence,
54—in a general view of the Ameri-
can continent, the population of the
Indians seems to press hard against
the limit of subsistence, 56—famine
and scarcities among the savages of
Florida, and in various other parts,
56—61—some fortunate train of cir-
cumstances necessary to induce sa-
vages to adopt the pastoral or agri-
cultural state, 65—the causes of the
rapid diminution of their numbers
may all be resolved into the three
great checks to population (see the
article Checks ), 63—their insatiable
foodness for spirituous liquors, 64—
their connexion with Europeans has

INDEX,

tended to diminish their sources of
subsistence, 65—their average popu-
lation still nearly on a level with the
average quantity of food, ib.—tenor
of education among the ruder tribes,
90.

Indostan, state of, with respect to the
checks to population, i. 190—mar-
riage very greatly encouraged, and
a male heir considered as an object
of the first importance, in the ordi-
nances of Menu, ib.—chastity how-
ever inculcated as a religious duty ;
and, when strict and absolute, su-
persedes the obligation of having
descendants, 192—other circum-
stances which in some degree tend
to counteract the encouragement to
marriage ; division into classes,193—
difficulty in the choice of a wife, 194
—an elder brother remaining un-
married, confines all the other sons
to the same state, 195—manners
and disposition of the women, ib,—
expedients among different tribes to
prevent a numerous family, 199—
201.

Industry; the importation of, is of in-
finitely more consequence to the po-
pulation of a country, than the
importation of new inhabitants, i.
177.

——, the springs of industry are de-
stroyed by ignorance and oppres-
sion, ii. 240—industry cannot exist
without foresight and security, 239
—if general and equal, would fail to

ield the same advantages to indi-
viduals, 418, 419.

Inequality of conditions would inevita-
bly result from a state of perfect
equality, il. $4—36.

Infanticide, in New Holland, i. 3i—
permitted in Otaheite, 78—contri-
butes in general to increase the po-
pulation of a country, 75—-practised
on the females only, by a particular
tribe in India, 199—Chinese edict
to prevent the drowning of children,
223—practice of, probably originated
from the difficulty of rearing chil-
dren in savage life, 233—proposed
by Plato, 235. 237—practised in
Italy as well as in Greece, 244,—
See also the article Exposure of Chil-
dren.

Treland ; state of, with respect to the
checks of population, i. 469.

disadvantageous effect of a low

price of food in that country, ii.

123—rapid increase of population,

dit

ib.—the money price of labour there,
little more than half what it is in
England, 124—consequences which
would attend the establishment of
poor-laws in, 347.

Ireland,(1825), rapid increase of popu-
lation in, and period of doubling, i.
470—average mortality, and pro-
portions of births and marriages to
the population, unattainable, ib.

Troguois, dreadful instance ofa scarcity
of provisions among a party of, i,
DEP

Islands; the great barriers to a further
increase of population in, not pecu-
liar to them more than to continents,
though more obvious, i. 66, 67.

Israelites, on settling in a fertile district
of Egypt, doubled their numbers
every fifteen years, 1.514, 515.

J.

Japan; state of, with respect to the
checks to population, i, 228—causes
of its populousness, 229—various
checks to its population, 229, 230.

Jidda, prevalence of putrid fevers at,
i. 154.

Jura, Scotch island of ; overflows with
inhabitants, in spite of constant and
numerous emigrations, i. 457.

K.

Kalmucks, destructive wars of, i. 125
—those who inhabited the fertile
steppes of the Wolga; their state,
and inquiry into the checks to popu-
lation among them, 137—their rapid
increase, 137, note—this was limited
by want of pasture for their numer-
ous herds, 137—by scarcity of
subsistence for themselyes, 138—
by diseases, 159—was regulated
by seasons of scarcity, and not of
plenty, 139, 140—and in the same
manner by the recurrence of unfa-
vourable periods, 141—check from
their customs respecting marriage,
142-—promiscuous intercourse, ib.

Kirgisien Tartars ; state of and inquiry
into the checks to population among
them, i. 154—their destructive pre-
datory excursions, 134—national
wars and occasional famines, 135,
136.

L.

Labour, difference between the nominal
and real price of, i. 21, 2%. ii, 76—
comparative wages of, in England
and France, before the revolution, i.
589, 390.

512

Labour ; the real wages of labour re-
gulate the increase of the labouring

INDEX.

Leipsic, proportion of its annual mar-

riages to its population, i. 325.

classes, ii. 118—the payment of a|Leyzin, a village of the Alps, propor-

considerable part of what ought to
be the wages of Jabour, out of the
parish rates, a principal cause of the
existing distress among the poor,
106, 107.

, effects of high prices of corn and

other commodities on the prices of

labour, ii. 231—effects of producing

supernumerary labourers, i. 170, 171

—reward of labour in China as low

as possible, 214.

an increase in the nominal price
of labour may sometimes only con-
tribute to raise proportionally the
price of provisions withoutultimately
bettering the condition of the poor,
ii. 64, 71. 76—its price, when left to
find its natural level, is a most impor-
tant political barometer, expressing
the relation between the supply of
provisions and the demand for them,
76—a scarcity of provisions must
naturally tend to lower, instead of
to raise, the price of labour, 77.—
to proportion the price of labour in
a scarcity to the price of provisions,
is of the same nature as a maximum,
and tends directly to famine, 78, 79
—absurdity of the common decla-
mation,“ that the market price of
labour ought always to be sufficient
decently to support a family, and
that employment ought to be found
for all who are willing to work,” 94
—if a demand for labour increase
rapidly under an uncertain supply
of food, the population will advance
till positively checked by famine, or
by diseases arising from severe want,
235—estimate of the evil arising
from a market rather understocked
with labour, occasioned by the pre-
valence of a system of moral re-
straint among the poor, 292—the

wages of labour will always be regu-
lated by the proportion of the sup-
ply to the demand, 94—See also the
article Poor throughout.

Land, uncultivated ; the extent of has no
influence on the average state of dis-
tress among the poor, ii. 245—incon-
siderate conclusions often drawn
against the industry and government
of states, from the appearance of un-
cultivated lands in them, 247—251
—error of bringing under cultivation

Liberty.
Life ; calculation respecting the proba-

tion of births and extraordinarly
high probability of life in, i. 343,
344, 347.

See the article Civil Liberty.

bility of, and the mean life at Ge-
neva, in the sixteenth, seventeenth,
and eighteenth centuries, i, 341—
probability of, in several great cities
and some villages, 409—in Scotland,
451, 452.

extraordinarily high in a village of
the Alps, i. 344, 345—mean life, and
probability of life, in several parts of
Switzerland, 341, $43—increased
average duration of, in England and
Wales, 413.

System of M. Condorcet with re-
spect to the indefinite prolonga-
tion of human life, examined, ii. 8—
16.

longevity rare among the negro
nations of Africa, i. 145.

Literary bachelors; great number of in

China, i. 218.

Liverpool, proportion of its annual mor-

tality to its population, i, 406.

London, proportion of its annual mor-

tality to its population, i. 406—410
—the void made by the great num-
ber of deaths, filled by the redun-
dant births from the country, 410,
41i—the effects of the dreadful
plague in 1666 were not perceptible
fifteen or twenty years after, 520—
its effect in producing such improve-
ments as have completely eradicated
that disorder in, ii. 258. 305, 306—
error of Sir William Petty, in pre-
dicting that it would contain above
five million inhabitants in the year
1800, i. 527. ;

Love, virtuous; its peculiar delights,

and adaptation to the nature of man,
ii. 261—improved state in which
this passion would exist under a sys-
tem of moral restraint, 271, 272—
such a system would very greatly in-
crease the sum of pleasurable sensa-
tions from the passion of love, 273,
274,

Lying-in-hospitals, probably rather pre-
judicial than otherwise, 1. 289, 290.

M. .

tuo great a quantity of poor land,| Magdeburgh, dukedom of ; proportion

250.

of its annual marriages to its popu-

INDEX.

ation, i. 325—variations in the pro- |

portions of births to deaths aud to
marriages at different periods, 509.

Mahometan Tartars, manners of, i. 126.

Mamelukes, their oppressive and de-
structive government, i. 162.

Manchester, proportion of its annual
mortality to its population, i. 406.

Manufactures ; attempts to employ the
poor in, on any great scale, have
almost invariably failed, ii. 92—the
general increase of the manufacturing
system, and the unavoidable varia-
tions of manufacturing labour, a prin-
cipal cause of existing distress among
the poor, 106—unfavourable state of
the poor employed in manufactories,
with respect to health and cther cir-
cumstances, 219, 220—subject to
variations from the caprices of taste,
222—224,

Marianne Islands; state of, with respect
to the checks to population, i. 86, 87.

Marquesas Islands, occasional scarcity
at, i. 88,

Marriage ; practice of, in Otaheite, i.
76—the average age of marriage
almost always nearer to the average
age of death than marriage is to birth,
478—extensive operation of the na-
tural check to early marriages, arising
from the view of the difficulty attend-
ing the support of a large family, ii.
47—encouraged in the ordinances
of Menu, i. 190—and in China,

- 212, 215—apparent results in the
former instance, 215, 214—in the
latter, 214—218.

any positive law limiting the age of

marriage unjust and immoral, ii. 108

—pernicious effects of any direct

encouragements to marriage, i. 329,

330—the prevailing customs, man-

mers, and prejudices of society, ope-

rate injuriously in this respect, ii.

237—239—the practice of mankind

on the subject has universally been

much superior to their theories, 405

—origin of the prejudice in favour of

an indiscriminate encouragement to

marriage, 278, 279—inference from

St. Paul’s declaration respecting

marriage, 280—limitations to the age

of marriage, proposed by Plato and

Aristotle, i. 236, 237, 238—the in-

stitution of marriage, or something

nearly equivalent to it, would soon
result froma state of perfect equality,
and of unrestrained commerce of the

515

would not admit of any very consi-
derable diminution, 264—266— be-
neficial effects to be produced by
later marriages under a system of
moral restraint, considered, 275—
this restraint among the poor them-
selves, the only effectual means of
bettering their condition, 283—291
—consideration of the effect which
might be produced by a diminished
mortality, in decreasing the number
of marriages, 305—among the higher
ranks, little more is wanted with re-
gard to the prudential check to mar-
riage, than an increased degree of
respect and of personal liberty to
single women, 352—among the lower
classes, the same object would be
attained by the establishment of a
proper system of parochial educa-
tion (See the article Education ), ib.
—the prudential restraint from mar-
riage has increased throughout
Europe, 432.—See also the articles
Fruitfulness, Prudential and Moral
Restraint, and Polygamy.

Marriages ; proportion of, in Scotland,

i. 452.

—— in Norway, small; cause of this,

i, 267.

in the Pays de Vaud, very small,
i, 352.

proportion of, to the whole popu-
lation, in Russia, i. 304.

in England and Wales, i. 400.
later in Scotland than formerly, i.
454,

proportion of, to births, i. 476—
486.

in England and Wales, i. 416.
dependence of marriageson deaths,
1. 320, 321—327.° ;
number of marriages in the Greek
church in Russia for the year 1799,
i. 317—from 1806 to 1820, 118.

of annual marriages in France be-
fore the war, i, 364, 365—See also
the article Register, and England
(1825).

Maximum sometimes established in the

Turkish dominions, i. 185—to regu-
late the price of labour by the price
of provisions is of the same nature as
a maximum, and both measures tend
directly to famine, ii. 78, 79.

Meat; a large subscription for the

poor would only raise the price of,
without enabling them to procure an
increased quantity, ii. 64.

sexes, ii, 32—the desire of marriage | Mechanics Institutions, ii. 355. note.

VOL. Il. LL

514

Menu, extracts from the ordinances of,
i. 190—197.

Mexico, frequent scarcity of provisions
in, i, 60—quick progress which the
Spanish colony made in population,
notwithstanding its ill management,
515—cruelties of the first settlers, ii.
50.

Migrations of mankind, the early, con-
sidered, i. 92—95—of the ancient
Germans, regular and concerted,
101—105.

Miri, or general Jand-tax paid to the
sultan ; moderate in itself, but made
oppressive and ruinous by the agents
of government, i. 180—182.

Misery, checks to population which
come under this head, i. 16—the
general consequence of vice, ib. note.

Mob, the most fatal of all monsters to
freedom, ii. 312, 313—its tendency
to produce tyranny, 313—the dread
of it caused the late surrenders of the
privileges of the people to the govern-
ment, 314, 315.

Moguls, after conquering: the northern
provinces of China, proposed in
council to exterminate all its inha-
bitants, i. 121—their destructive
wars, 128.

Money cannot be made the means of
raising the condition of the poor with-
out proportionably depressing others,
ii. 65—may confer particular, but
not universal, assistance, 118—See
also the article Banks.

Moral Code; it is no valid objection
against the publication of one, that
it will never be universally practised,
ii. 283.

Moral restraint defined, i. 15. and note.

Of our Obligation to practise this

Virtue, ii. 255—it is certainly the

best of all the immediate checks to

population, 256—the opinions re-
specting population originating in
barbarous ages have prevented us
from attending to the dictates of rea-
son and nature on this subject, ib.—
the evils arising from the excessive
indulgence of the passions, an admo-
nition that they ought to be re-
strained, 256, 257 — the conse-
quences of increasing too fast are
admonitions of the same kind, 257—
diseases are indications that we have
offended against some of the laws
of nature, 258 — thus epidemics
point out that we haveincreased too
fast for the ‘means of subsistence,

INDEX.

ib.—evil effects of an irregular in-
dulgence of the passions, 259—yet
a diminution of the pleasure arising
from their gratification would pro-
duce a much greater loss than gain
to general happiness, 260 — pecu-
liar delights of virtuous love, 261
—the passion between the sexes
operates permanently upon human
conduct, 261, ¥62—has the most
powerful tendency to soften and me-
liorate the character, 263—is strong-
est, and has most beneficial effects,
where obstacles are thrown in the
way of very early and universal gra-
tification, 263, 264—the evil result-
ing from its irregular indulgence
must uot be diminished by the ex-
tinction or diminution of the passion
itself, 264, 265—in this and all the
other passions, it is only the regula-
tion cr direction of them that is
wanted, 265—the province of reason
is the government of the passions,
266—the fecundity of the species too
would not admit of any very consi-
derable diminution, 266—269—nor
would the desire of marriage, 268,
269—the duty of moral restraint rests
upon the same foundation as our
obligation to practise any of the
other virtues, i.

Moral restraint ; Of the Effects which
would result to Society from the Pre-
valence of this Virtue, ii. 270—re-
moval of any imputation on the good-
ness of the Deity, for calling beings
into existence by the laws of nature,
which cannot by those laws be sup-
ported in existence, 270, 271—the
subjection of the passions a principal
requisite to happiness, 271—bene-
ficial state of society exhibiting a
great prevalence of moral restraint,
271, 272—in such a state, the pe-
riod before marriage must be passed
in strict chastity, 272 — purity of
intercourse between young persons
in these circumstances, 273—later
marriages would prolong the pe-
riod of youth and hope, and lead
to fewer ultimate disappointments,
274, 275—the most eligible age
for them must depend entirely on
circumstances and situation, 276—
objection from the difficulty of
moral restraint answered, 276, 277
—this system would very greatly
increase the sum of pleasurable
sensations from the passion of Jove,

INDEX.

515

277—might be expected to repress| Newbury; proportion of its mortality

the frequency of war, 278—great
strength of such a state of society in
awar of defence, 281—conclusion :
the justice of the Deity unimpeach-
able, in making this virtue necessary
by his general laws, 281, 282.

Moral restraint ; this is the only effec-
tual mode of bettering the condition
of the poor, ii. 283—291—consider-
ation of the objection to this measure,
that by endeavouring to urge this
duty on the poor, we may increase
the quantity of vice relating to the
sex, 292299,

Vindication of the principles
maintained on the subject of moral
restraint, ii, 495—498—See also the
article Prudential Restraint.

Mortality ; order of, extremely variable,
i. 259, 260—division of the states of
Europe into classes in this respect,
352—335—has decreased in almost
every town in Europe within the last
200 years, 388—annual mortality in
England and Wales considered, 403
—414—different proportions of, in
towns and in villages, 405—410—
See also the articles Deaths, Englund
(1825), France (1825).

Moscow, management of the foundling-
hospital at, 1. 310, 511.

Mowing; perfection of the art of, in
Switzerland and Norway, i. 355.

N.

Nature; constancy of the laws of, the
foundation of all human knowledge,
ii. 10.

Nayrs, their practice with respect to
the commerce of the sexes, &c. i.
199, 200.

Nedad, or putrid fevers of the Tropics,
i. 154.

Negro nations of Africa; their habits,
powerful checks to population, i. 144
—constant wars, and want of indus-
try, 145—shortness of life among
them, 145, 146—practice of mar-
triage, 146, 147—-great and constant
exportation of slaves, 147— the popu-
lation, notwithstanding all these cir-
cumstances, continually pressing be-
yond the means of subsistence, 147,
148—practice of polygamy, and its
effects considered, 146—150—153
—diseases, 154—poverty, bad diet,
and want of cleanliness, 155—
dreadful instances of famine, 155—
160.

LL?

to its population, i. 406.

New Caledonia, occasional scarcity at,
i. 89.

New England, hardships experienced in
the first settlement of this colony, ii.
51.

New Holland ; State of the Natives of,
with Respect to the Checks to Popu-
lation, i. 26—scarcity of food, 27—
29—cruel treatment of their women,
and early union of the sexes, 29—31
—a great part of the women without
children, 31—sucking childrenburied
alive with the mother at her death,
20—difficulty of rearing children, 32
—wars between different tribes, and
perpetual private contests; manner
of living; and dreadful epidemic, 33
—still the population keeps up to a
level with the average supply of food,
34—hardships experienced in_the
first settlement of the colony of Port
Jackson, ii. 52,53.

New Jersey, average proportion of births
to deaths in, i. 529.

New Zealund; state of, with respect
to the checks to population, i. 68—
perpetual hostility of the different
tribes, and their cannibalism, 68—70
—the population, nevertheless, sel-
dom repressed below the average
means of subsistence, 71.

Nootka Sound, frequent scarcity of pro-
visions at, i. 61, 62.

North of Europe. See the articles
Europe and Germans.

Northampton, proportion of its annual
mortality to its population, i. 406.
Norway ; State of, with Respect to the
Checks to Population, i. 259—its
mortality small, yet its population
has not rapidly increased, 260—the
preventive checks proportionably
great, 260, 261—causes of the small
number of marriages, 261—unfa-
vourableness of the soil and climate,
263—267—the preventive check
contributes considerably to the small-
ness of the mortality, 268, 269—ob-
stacles to improved cultivation of the
Jand, 269—272—recent advances,
however, both in that respect and in
population, 275, 274— the woods are
sometimes cleared away too precipi-
tately, without consideration of the
probable value of the Iand when
cleared, 27 1—proportion of its yearly

births to the population, 274.

—-— state of the poor better in many

respects than in England, ii. 349.

516

Norwich; proportion of its annual
mortality to its population, i. 406.

oO.

Objections, general, to the principles
and reasonings of this Essay, an-
swered, ii. 445—first, that they con-
tradict the original command of the
Creator, to increase and multiply and
replenish the earth, 443, 444—that
the natural checks to population will
always be sufficient, without resorting
toany other aids, 449—respecting the
practicable increase of population,450
—respecting the abolition of the
poor laws, 452—that every practi-
cable benefit may be obtained by im-
proved measures of civil polity, with-
out risking the danger of promul-
gating new opinions which may
alarm the prejudices of the poor, 469
—rtespecting the feelings of despon-
dency in some, who lament a con-
viction of the truth of the principles
of this Essay, 471.

Oheitahoo, temporary scarcity at, i. 88.

Organic perfectibility of man; M.
Condorcet’s system respecting, un-
warranted, ii. 8—16.

Oscillations in population, in civilized
and in savage life, i. 18—23.

Ostiacks, their disgusting mode of living,
i. 167.

Otaheite, its luxuriance extremely fa-
vourable to population, i. 72—some
very powerful checks must be traced
in the habits of the people, 73—enu-
meration of these ; Eareeoie societies,
73, 74—infanticide permitted to all
classes, 75—extensive debauchery
and promiscuous intercourse, 75, 76
—customs with regard to marriage,
and changing of connections, 76—
frequent and destructive hostilities,
77—human sacrifices and disorders,
77, 78—even these checks have not
always kept down the population to
the level of the means of subsistence,
i. 78—mode of living of the different
ranks, 78—79—extraordinary depo-
pulation since Captain Cook’s last
visit, 80—the population at present
repressed considerably below the
average means of subsistence, 81—

. its fertility probably exaggerated, 88.

Outcasts, in Indostan, wretched state
of, 1. 198, 199.

Owen, Mr.; benevolence of his inten-

* tions, ii. 40—examination of the
principle of equality proposed by

* him, 44-—46 —observations on the

INDEX.

system of equality proposed by him,
44—his system for improving the
condition of the poor considered,
395—399.

P.

Pachas, their destructive extortion in
their provinces, i. 180—185.

Paine, Mr. ; erroneous principles of his
Rights of Man, ii. 318 —524.

Paraguay, occasional scarcity of provi-
sions in, i. 60.

Paris, proportion of its annual mar-
riages to its population, i. 32%7—of
annual births and deaths to the po-
pulation, in several villages around,
331.

Parish pay-table, disgusting picture of,
ii. 367—allowances, effects of, on
population, 232. ,

Passions, evil effects of an irregular in-
dulgence of, ii. 256, 257. 259—a di-
minution of the pleasure arising from
their gratification would produce a
much greater loss than gain to general
happiness, 260, 261—the passion be-
tween the sexes operates permanently
upon human conduct, 261—has the
most powerful tendency to soften
and meliorate the character, 262,
263—is strongest and has most bene-
cial effects, where obstacles are
thrown in the way of very early and
universal gratification, 265—the evil
resulting from its irregular indul-
gence, must not be diminished by
the extinction or diminution of the
passion itself, 264, 265 —in this and
all the other passions, it is only the
regulation or direction of them that
is wanted, 265, 266.

Pastoral nations, modern; state of,
with respect to the checks to popula-
tion (See the article Tartars), i. 120
—enumeration of checks, 145—
limits to the population of a country
strictly pastoral, 354, 355—natural
excitement which it supplies to emi-
gration, 356—See also the article
Shepherds.

Pauperism. See Poor.

Pays de Vaud, various statistical parti-
culars respecting, i. 342—348—351,
352—355, 356.

Peasant, Swiss; remarkable instance
of one possessing a clear comprehen-
sion of the subject of population, i.
358—360.

Peasantry, Russian ; state of, i. 314—
316—condition of in France, im-
proved since the revolution, i. 389.

INDEX.

Perfectibility of man ; M. Condoreet’s
system respecting, examined, ii. 8—
16.

Persia, late marriages among the lower
classes of people of, i. 188—state of,
with respect to the checks to popu-
lation: the dreadful convulsions in,
have been fatal to agriculture, 188,
189—small-pox, and other causes,
189.

Peru; quick progress which the Spa-
nish colony made in population, not-
withstanding its ill management, i
515—cruelties of the first settlers, ii.
50.

Plague, its ravages in the Turkish do-
minions, i. 186, 187.

a constant admonition to the peo-

ple against their filth and torpor, ii.

258.

does not much diminish the aver-
age population, i. 520.—See also the
article Epidemics.

Plato, measures proposed by him to
regulate population, i. 235—by en-
couraging, or checking it by means
of honours and of marks of disgrace,
ib.—by destroying the children ofthe
inferior citizens, and all born imper-
fect, 236—by limiting the age of
marriage and of bearing children,
236, 237—he thus evidently saw the
strong tendency of population to in-
crease beyond the means of subsis-
tence, i. 237—inconsistencies in, his
plan observed by Aristotle, 238,
239.

Plenty; On the prevailing Errors re-
specting this Subject as connected
with Population, ii. 229—error of
supposing that an increase of popu-
Jation in any state not cultivated to
the utmost, will tend to augment the
relative plenty of the whole society,
ib.—an increase of population arising
from the improving state of agricul-
ture, very different from its unre-
stricted increase, 230, 231—234—if
a demand for labour increases rapid-
ly, though the supply of food be un-
certain, the population will advance
till positively checked by famine,
or diseases arising from severe want,
235—scarcity and extreme poverty
may or may not. accompany an 1n-
creasing population, but must neces-
sarily accompany a permanently de-
clining population, ib.—the preju-
dices respecting population strikingly

resemble the old prejudices about

517

specie, 237—ignorance, despotism,
and oppression will constantly cause
a low state of population, in spite of
the birth of any number of children
annually, 239— 241 — agriculture
may more properly be termed the
efficient cause of population, than
population of agriculture, 242—re-
venue tlie source of population, and
not population of revenue, 242, 243,
244—waste among the rich, or land
remaining uncultivated, do not in-
fluence the average distress of the
poor, 245—inconsiderate conclusions
often drawn against the industry and
government of states, from the ap-
pearance of uncultivated lands in
them, 247—250—error of bringing
under cultivation too great a quanti-
ty of poor land, 250—the question
is not whether the produce of the
earth may be. absolutely increased,
but whether it may be increased so
as to keep pace with an unchecked
population, 231. — See Corn Laws
(1825), Harvests.

Plough in Syria, often only the branch

of a tree, i. 182, 183.

Poland, an instance where, under the

agricultural system, the condition of
the lower classes is very wretched,
ii. 126, 127—the reason of such
wretchedness stated, 127, 128.

Political economy, great importance of
the diffusion of its principles ; they
should at least form a branch of unt-
versity education, ii. 355, 554, and
note. .

(1825), increasing attention paid
to the science of, ii. 354, 555, note.

Political Justice, general character _of
Mr. Godwin’s work on, ii. 18.—See
the article Godwin.

Polygamy allowed, but seldom used,
among the American Indians, i. 42—
in some degree obligatory on the
Mahometans, 152—its effect on po-
pulation considered, 150—155—in
some negro nations of Africa, sought
by the wife and not the husband,
150—in the Turkish dominions, less
productive even in individual fami-
Jies than monogamy, 186—tends to
degrade the fewale character; and,
by being practised among the supe-
rior classes, renders it difficult for
the lower classes to obtain wives, 146,
147—196.—For the opposite cus-
tom, see the article Husbands,

Pomerania, general mortality in, i. 330

518

—proportion of second marriages,
477—-variations in the proportions of
births to deaths and to marriages at
different periods, 508.
Poor ; measures respecting their relief
in Switzerland, and effect of these,
i. 360, 361—support of, in Scotland,
461—remarks by Scotch writers, on
the state of the poor in England,
462, 463—principal causes of pau-
perism at the present crisis, ii. 106.
—— of Poor-Laws: those of England,
though they may have alleviated in-
dividual misfortune, have spread the
evil over a larger surface, ii. 63—
causes why, notwithstanding the im-
mense sum annually collected for the
poor, so much distress still exists
among them, ib.—a subscription for
the poor would only increase pro-
portionally the price of provisions,
64—even if the produce of the
country were augmented by that
means, a more than proportionate
increase of population would follow,
65—no possible sacrifices of the rich
could for any time prevent the re-
currence of distress among the lower
classes, ib.—the condition of some
of the poor cannot be raised by
means of money without proportion-
- ally depressing that of others, 65, 66
—confirmation of these reasonings,
from the late scarcities, 67 —the price
of corn in a scarcity will depend
more upon the degree of consump-
tion than of the actual deficiency,
68—high prices certainly diminish
consumption, 7b.—the bounties to the
poor during the late scarcities ope-
rated very powerfully in raising the
price of grain, 69—effect of these
also in increasing the circulating me-
. dium, 72—this increase principally
supplied by the country banks, 73—
very great obstacles thus thrown in
the way of returning cheapness, 74
—these less, however, than if the
increased circulation had come from
the Bank of England, 75—the scar-
city fortunately followed by an
abundant harvest and a peace; ara-
pid fall of prices thus occasioned, 75
—permanent bad consequences which
would have followed from raising the
wages of labour during the scarci-
ty, 76—the price of labour a most im-
portant political barometer, express-
ing the relation between the supply
of provisions and the demnd for

INDEX.

them, 7b.—a scarcity naturally tends
to lower, instead of to raise, the
price of labour, 77—to proportion
the price of labour to that of provi-
sions is of the nature of a maximum,
and tends directly to famine, 78, 79
—an increase of population without
a proportional increase of food,
must lower the amount of each man’s
earnings, 8i—ways in which the
poor-laws tend to depress the gene-
ral condition of the poor, ib.—they
weaken the disgrace which ought to
attend dependent poverty, 82—have
contributed to raise the price of pro-
visions, to lower the real price of la-
bour, and to generate a carelessness
and want of frugality among the
poor, 83, 84—subject the whole class
of the common people to a set of
tyrannical laws, 85 —if they had
never existed, the mass of happiness
among the common people would
have been greater than it is, 86—
all systems of the kind tend in effect
to create more poor, ib.—examina-
tion of the principle and operation
of the famous statute of the forty-
third of Elizabeth, 86, 87—its due
execution as a permanent law is a
physical impossibility, 89—checks
to the increase of the poor, from a
spirit of independence and pride
among the peasantry, and from the
contradictory operation of the poor-
laws themselves, 89, 90—attempts
to employ the poor on any great scale
in manufactures have almost invari-
ably failed, 91, 92—this reasoning
not to be applied against every mode
of employing them on a limited scale,
and with proper restrictions, 94—
absurdity of the common declama-
tion on the subject of the poor, 94,
95— the insnfficiency of the poor-
rates, even aided by large charitable
contributions, to afford adequate re-
lief, is a proof that they cannot ac-
complish the object for which they
were enacted, 96—99 — the great
object to be kept in view is, to
support the people through present
distress, in the hope of better times,
99—101 — erroneous opinions con-
cerning the distresses of the Poor
examined and refuted, 102—117—

‘effect of prudence in marriage, 113.

Of increasing Wealth as it affects
the Condition of the Poor.—See the
article Wealth, ii. 211—228.

INDEX.

Poor; of the only effectual Mode of im-
proving the Condition of the Poor,
ii. 83—almost all that has hitherto
been done for the poor, has tended
to throw a veil of obscurity over the
causes of their distress, 286—till
such erroneous ideas have been cor-
rected, it cannot be said that any
fair experiment has been made with
their understandings, 287—they are
themselves the principal authors of
their own poverty, and the means of
- yedress are in their hands alone, 288
—to urge people to marriage wher
they have little chance of being able
to support their children, is rashly
to tempt Providence, 289—to encou-
yage marriage, and increase the num-
ber of Jabourers, have, in the expe-
rience of many centuries, constantly
failed to improve their condition,
289, 290—it is time to try the con-
trary method, of withholding the
supply of labour, and thus propor-
tioning the population to the food,
290—the absolute quantity of food
to be still increased by every means,
291—the result of these reasonings
to be inculcated on the poor, and
theirtrue situation explained to them,
ib.

Objections to the above Mode
considered, ii. 292-—first, a market
rather understockedwith labour,7b.—
second, the diminution of population
that it would cause, 293—third, that
by endeavouring to urge the duty of
moral restraint, we may increase the
quantity of vice relating to the sex,
294.

—— Of the Consequences of pursuing
the opposite Mode, ii. 300—every
effort to repress a great mortality
would be vain, 301—305—conside-
ration of the effect which might be
produced by a diminished mortality,
in increasing the population, or in
decreasing the number of marriages,
305—of the consequences of a pos-
sible extirpation of the small-pox by
means of the cow-pox, 307, 308—it
is sufficient to leave every man to
his free choice respecting marriage,
which however is very far from being
the case at present, 308, 309—
among the lower classes, the poor-
laws and private benevolence ope-
rate as a direct encouragement, 309
—among the higher classes the ex-

519

prevailing prejudices, have the same
tendency, 309, 310—the want of
employment for the poor not charge-
able on the government, 328, 329—
330.

Poor; a gradual Abolition of the Poor-

Laws recommended, ii. 109—plan for
such gradual abolition, 335—extra-
ordinary proportion of paupers in
this country, th.—objection to a spe-
cific limitation of the rate to be raised
for their relief, as a mode of diminish-
ing their number, 336—in adopting
a system for the gradual abolition of
these laws, the right of the poor to
support must be previously and for-
mally disclaimed, 537, 338—objec-
tions to this disavowal, answered,
452, et seqg.—measure for that pur-
pose ; future children born beyond
a certain period, to be declared de-
barred from parish assistance, 337,
338—the liberty of marrying, at any
age, on no account to be infringed,
338, 339—the sphere for the exer-
cise of private benevolence would
not be greater after such a regulation
than now, 340—case of illegitimate
children under these circumstances,
338—340—frequency of their de-
sertion by their parents, 340, 341—
if no provision were made for them
by the laws in such a situation, the
ties of nature would be strong enough
to retain the parents in their duty,
341, 342—-pernicious custom of
frightening the father of an illegiti-
mate child into marriage by the ter-
rors of a jail, 342—the most power-
ful obligation on every man to sup-
port his children, would be the know-
ledge that they must depend solely
on this support, 343—objections that
a mother and her children should not
thus suffer from the misconduct of
the father, answered, 3485—345—
unoppressive extinction of the poor-
rates by this plan, 345—the supe-
riority in the state of the poor in
England exists in spite, and not in
consequence, of the poor-laws, 345
— 347 — destructive consequences.
which would attend the establish-
ment of a system of parochial relief
in many of the other countries of
Europe, 347—350—objections of
Mr. Young to the above plan, and
his own plan for the relief of the
poor, considered, 457 et seq.

isting manners, and in all ranks the| —— Different Plans of improving the

520

Condition of the Poor, considered,
ii. 374—none must tend directly to
encourage marriage, 2b.

Poor; Sir James Steuart’s plan, of a
general establishment of foundling-
hospitals, and of public support to
the children of some married per-
sons, ii. 574, 375.

Mr. Townsend’s of a compulsory

INDEX.

in that of the middle classes of so-
ciety, 426, 4¢7—this to be brought
about only by the prevalence of
prudential habits respecting marriage
among the poor, 498, 429—a specific
relief might be given for every child

_ above the number of six without any

bad effect, 429—See also the articles
Charity and Poverty.

and universal institution of benefit-| Population has a constant tendency to ~

clubs, ii. 375—378.
~~ Mr. Young’s by means of Potato-

groundsand cows, ii. 578.385—389,

390.
Count Rumford’s, by means of
soup-shops, ii. 390.
Mr. Owen’s plan of establish-
ments for the poor, ii. 395—399.
Mr. Curwen’s plan, by equalizing
the rates, and giving the poor a voice
in the management ofthe funds des-
tined to their support, ii. 399—407
—plan for assisting the labouring
classes, by saving-banks, 407—410.
of the Necessity of General Prin-
ciples on the above Subject, ii. 412
—distinction between mischievous
and genuine theory, 4143—advantage
derived by cottagers from keeping
cows arises from its being peculiar,
and would be considerably dimin-
ished if made general, 4144—4.16—
measure of relieving the poor at their
own homes, and placing out their
children’as soon as possible, cannot
be practised universally, 417—the
benefits conferred by money, and
even by industry, are relative, and
would fail if not confined to particu-
lar instances, 418—objection to
these reasonings answered ; in many
cases the good from the relief of
present distress may overbalance the
probable evil from the remote con-
sequence, 419—great advantages
might be expected from a better and
more general system of education
(See also the article Education), 420
—from a general improvement of
cottages, 420, 421—from the cow-
system (381. et seg.) upon a more con-
fined plan, 421. 423—objection that
the above measures would encourage
population, answered, 424—effects
of luxury on the state of society, and
on population, considered, 425—our
best-grounded hopes of improvement
in the general mass of happiness,
founded on a diminution in the
number of the lowest, and an increase

increase beyond the means of subsist-
ence, i. 2.4—this truth evidently seen
by Plato, Aristotle, aud other philoso -
phers, 237, 238. 240, 241—period in
which it doubles itself; in the nor-
thern states of America, 5, note—in
the back settlements, ib.—other pos-
sible periods, 6—increases thus in a
geometrical ratio, 6—11—tbe in-
crease of subsistence cannot perma-
nently exceed an arithmetical ratio,
7—11— effects of these two ratios of
increase when brought together, 10,
11 — population can only be kept
down to its level by the strong law
of necessity (See the article Checks),
12 — propositions intended to be
proved in the present Essay, 25, 24.
the argument in favour of the
slave-trade, deduced from the prin-
ciple of population, examined and
refuted, ii, 473—475.

distinction to be carefully made
between a redundant population and
a population actually great, 105,
106—the measure of, regulated by
subsistence, 152—can never increase
with great rapidity but when the real
price of labour is very high, 179.
General Deductions from a View
of Society in ancient and modern
States, i. 514—comparatively rapid
increase which has invariably taken
place whenever the checks to popu-
Jation have been in any considerable
degree removed, i.—instanced in
the case of new colonies, ib,—the
most destructive wars, plagues, and
famines, have had but a very tem-
porary influence on the average po-
pulation of countries, 520—effect
of a superabuudant population in
producing or aggravating the ra-
vages of epidemic disorders and fa-
mines, 522, 593--severe mortal epi-
demics generally succeeded by un-
common healthiness, 525—no esti-
mate of future increase or decrease
can be depended upon from any ex-
isting rate, 527—the only true crite~

INDEX.

rion of a real permanent increase in
any country, is the increase of the
means of subsistence, 530—coun-
tries are populous according to the
quantity of human food which they
produce or can acquire, and happy
according to the liberality with which
this food is divided, 5352—a country
left to its own natural progress. in
civilization, could never be said to
be free from distress for want of
food, 533—conclusion from the
whole : the three propositions proved
which were announced (i, 23, 24) in
the outset, 533, 534.

Population ; On the prevailing Errors
respecting Population and Plenty
(See the article Plenty), ii. 229—
Effects of Parish Allowances on Po-
pulation, 232—not regulated by the
real wages of labour, 232, 233—an
increasing population not always
accompanied by scarcity and ex-
treme poverty, 235—exposure of
some prevalent prejudices, concern-
ing population, 237 —253. F

Of the Modes of correcting the
prevailing Opinions on Population,
ii. 351—this can only be done by
circulating juster notions on the sub-
ject, ib.—in the higher ranks, little
more is wanted than an increased
degree of respect and of personal
liberty to single women, 351, 552—
among the lower classes, the same
object would be attained by the es-
tablishment of a proper system of
parochial education (See the article
Education), 352, 353—See also par-
ticularly the articles Encowragement,
Improvement, and Objections.

Populousness of ancient or modern na-
tions, question respecting the supe-
riority, i. 253—257.

Port Jackson; hardships experienced
in the first settlement of the colony
of, ii, 52, 53.

Positive checks to population enume-
rated, i. 15—17.

Potato-grounds; plan of improving the
condition of the poor by means of,
and of cows, considered, ii, 381
—385.

Poverty, miserable, among some of the
negro nations of Africa, i. 155—ab-
ject, in China,215—217—poverty in
a great degree relative, ii. 69—when
hopeless, ceases to operate as a spur
to industry, 240—its powerful infiu-
ence in producing vice of every sort,

52t

295—298—effect of the knowledge
of the principal cause of, on civil
liberty.—See the article Civil Liberty.

Preventive Check to population. de-
scribed, i. 12—if it do not produce
vice, is the least evil that can arise
from the principle of population, 14—
consequences when it does produce
vice, ib,—moral and vicious branches
of this check, 15, 16 — prevalent
in England, 397 — more prevalent
in the states of modern Europe
than in past times or among uncivil-
ized nations, and at present the most
powerful of all the checks, 534, 535
—effectually destroyed by ignorance
and despotism, 240, 241—those
countries where it most prevails are
at the same time most distinguished
for chastity, 454.

Productions of the earth, observations
on the periods of the increase of, i.
6, 7—particularly in Great Britain,
8—11.

Prolifickness.
fulness.

Property: an equal distribution of,
highly favourable to the increase of
population, i. 232—where it is equal-
ized, the number of children should
be limited, according to Aristotle,
238—something like the present ad-
ministration of preperty would natu-
rally result from a state of perfect
equality, ii. 29—-31.

Prudential restraint defined, i. 15,note—
inattention to it would cause a great
degree of misery to prevail under the
best government, ii. 323—founda-
tion of our expectations, respecting
the extension of this check to mar-
riage, 452—4355.—See also the ar-
ticle Moral Restraint.

Prussia ; general mortality in, accord-
ing to different writers, i. 331. 353,
334—proportion of second marriages
in Prussia and Silesia, 477.

—— (1825) number of inhabitants,
births, deaths, and marriages, i. 335

See the article Fruit-

—rate of deaths ofillegitimate and le-
gitimate children, 7b.—proportion of
births, deaths, and marriages, to the
population, 335—rapid increase of
the population, ib.—See also the ar-
ticle Silesia, and names of other parts.

Q.
Quito; rapid progress of the Spanish
colony there in population, notwith-
standing its ill management, i, 515.

522

R.

Raynal, Abbé; his inconsistent rea-
soning in his comparisons of savage
and civilized life, i. 58—his absurd
position on the right of man to sub-
Sistence, ii. 320.

Redundant population, very distinct
from a population actually great, i.
106.110.116—cause why poor, cold,
and thinly-peopled countries tend
generally to a superfluity of inhabit-
ants, 116.

Reform, erroneous views of, corrected,
li. 328—334.

Registers of births and deaths must al-
ways afford very uncertain data for
estimating the population, i. 421—
those in England and Wales more
deficient in the former than in the
latter part of the last century, 416
—419—imperfection of registers of
births, deaths, and marriages in Scot-
land, 450, 451—in most countries
the omission in the births and deaths
is greater than in the marriages, i.
471.

Effects of Epidemics on Registers

of Births, Deaths, and Marriages,

considered, i. 499—table on this
subject, 500—observations on the
above table; the number of mar-
rlages very nearly doubled in the
year after a plague, 501—fruitful-
ness of matriages after that period,
504—variations in the proportions
of births to deaths in the different
periods, 504, 505—mortality after
the plague, 505—several examples
of the continual variations in the
proportions of the births and mar-
riages, as well as of the deaths, to

the whole population, 507—512—

the least variable proportion is that

of the births to marriages ; and rea-
son of this, 311—effects of the com-

mon epidemical years, 312.

(1825), omissions in those of Eng-
land, i. 393. 444, 445.

Representative system of government,
its powerful effect in favouring the
prudential check to population, ii.
325.

Restraint. See the articles Moral and
Prudential Restraint.

Restrictions on the importation of corn,
in what cases applicable, ii. 187—
199—objections to such restrictions,
185. 199. 205—209—beneficial re-
sults of the restrictions on the impor-

tation of foreign corn in a country} -.

INDEX.

possessed of great landed resources,
202—204.

Retirement, religious; frequent and
strict, in Tibet, i. 202, 203.

Revenue the source of population, and
not population of revenue, ii. 242.
Revolution; mischievous effects of the
hopes entertained by the lower classes
of immediate relief from, ii. 312, et
seq.—the circulation of just principles
respecting population among them,
would destroy such expectations, 419.

Rickman, Mr.; observations on his
statement of the rates of increase in
the population, i. 443—448.

Right of the poor to support should be
formaily disclaimed, ii. 337, 338—
objections against this disavowal,
answered, 452. et seq.

“ Rights of Man,” erroneous principles
of that work, ii. 318 —324.

Roman empire, its fall occasioned by
tepeated inundations of barbarians
from the north of Europe, i.97—106.

Romans; State of, with Respect to the
Checks to Population, i. 243—de-
structive ravages of war during their
first struggles for power, repaired by
the principle of increase, 243, 244—
practice of infanticide in early times,
and its effect, 244—the abolition of
the comparative equality of property
produced a great decrease in the
number of citizens, 245—the jus
trium liberorum ineffectual in adding
to the population, 246—vicious habits
of every kind prevalent, 247, 248—
the Roman world not most populous
during the Jong peace under Trajan
and the Antonines, 248—question of
the superior populousness of ancient
or modern nations, 253—compara-
tive efficacy of the preventive and
the positive checks among the Ro-
mans, 256.

Rumford, Count ; his plan of improving
the condition of the poor considered,
ii. 390.

Russia ; State of, with Respect to the

Checks to Population, i. 299—extra-

ordinary results of the lists of births,

deaths, and marriages, 299, 300—

proportion of births to deaths in dif-

ferent districts, 300—of marriages to
births, ib.—of deaths to the popula-
lation, 301—303—of births to the
population, 303, 304—of boys dying
within the first year, 304—of yearly
marriages to the population, ib.—the
registers of Petersburgh give a much

INDEX.

greater mortality of female children
than of male, 304, 305—comparative
mortality at different periods of life
in Petersburgh, 305, 506—general
mortality there, 306—management
of its foundling-hospital, and mor-
tality in this institution, 306—3509—
of that at Moscow, 310—pernicious
effects of these establishments, 511
—313—principal obstacle toa rapid
increase of population, the vassalage
of the peasants, 314—a very con-
siderable advance both of cultivation
and of population made during the
reign of the late empress and since,
316—state of the population at dif-
ferent periods, 316, 317—births,
deaths, and marriages, in the Greek
church, for the year 1799, 317—
comparative proportion of the mar-
riages and the deaths, ib.

Russia, (1825), population in 1822, i.
318—table of marriages, births and
deaths, ib.—population belonging to
the Greek church, ib.—proportion of
births to the population, 318, 319—
period of doubling, 319—proportions
of marriages, births and deaths, ib.—
cause of the apparent increase of
mortality, ib.

Ss.

Sacrifices, human, at Otaheite, i. 77.

St. Cergue, parish of; proportion of its
marriages to births, and of the latter
to the population, i. 347—of its births
to deaths, 348—habit of emigration
there, 348, 349.

St. Domingo, Indians of;— neglected
purposely to cultivate their lands, in
order to starve out their oppressors,
i. 64.

St. Paul, inference from his declarations
respecting marriage, ii. 280.

Samoyedes, their mode of living, i. 168.

Sandwich Islands ; state of, with respect
to the checks to population, i. 84, 85
—occasional scarcities at, 88.

Savage life, mode in which the oscilla-
tions in population are produced in,
i. 19—2¥— difficulty of rearing
children in, 32—want of ardour in
the men, generated by the hardships
and dangers to which they are neces-
sarily subject, 37—the general cha-
racteristic of savages, to despise and
degrade the female sex, 39, 40—the
period of life shorter among savages
than in civilized countries, 41. 44—
savages are rendered liable to pesti-
lential diseases by the dirt of their

523

persons, and the closeness and filth
of their cabins, 46, 47—instances of
the pressure of want in, 56—62—
comparative advantages and disad-
vantages of savage and of civilized
life, 89—91.—See also the article
Barbarism.

Saving Banks; their general benefits, ii.
407, 408—their objects stated, 408—
the policy of giving persons parochial
assistance, though they may have
certain limited sums in saving banks,
considered, 409, 410.

Saxony, ancient ; want of cultivation in,
accounted for, i. 113, 116.

Scandinavians, ancient—(See the article
Goths)—spread themselves by sea
over various nations of Europe, 1. 112,
113—different prevalence of the pre-
ventive check to population in ancient
and in modern Scandinavia, 114.

Scarcity of food, the ultimate check to

population, i. 2—4, 10—12—illus-

trated, 18—horrid, in Terra del

Fuego and Van Diemen’s Land, 25

—in New Holland, 26—32.

various instances of, among the

American Indians, i. 49—62. 65—

among the New Zealanders, 68—70

—among the inhabitants of the Mar-

quesas aud Friendly Islands, 88—

among the Kalmucks who inhabited

the fertile steppes of the Wolga, 138

—among the negro nations of Africa,

148—frequent in northern Siberia,

165-—in Sweden, in 1799, 299—in-
stances of, in Scotland, 465—it may
or may not accompany an increasing,
but must necessarily a permanently
declining, population, ii. 235.—See
also the articles Famine, and Poor-

Laws (under Poor ).

Scotland ; State of, with Respect to the

Checks to Population, i. 450—im-

perfection of the registers of births,

deaths, and marriages, ib.—average
mortality, and probabilities of life,

451— proportion of marriages, 452—

marriages later in Scotland than for-

merly, 454—the condition of the
lower classes considerably improved
of late years, 453—this probably
owing in part to the increase of the
preventive check to population, ib.—
different state of those parts where
marriages are earlier, 455—rapid
tendency to increase*in various dis-
tricts, 457. 459—prolifickness of the

women, 459—state of the poor, 461

—endemic and epidemic diseases,

463—scurvy, rheumatisms, consump-

524

tions, fevers, and small-pox, 463, 465
—scarcitiesand famines, 465—effects
of these upon deaths, births, and
marriages, in some parishes, 465,
466—468—in general over-peopled,
469.

Scotland ; romantic passion of the pea-
sants, and its beneficial influence on
the national character, ii. 274, note t
—advantage of superior instruction
possessed by the lower classes, and
its beneficial effects, 356. 436.

(1825), ratio of increase in. its
population, i. 442, 443.—Sec. also
the article Highlands,

Scurvy, itsinveteracy in Scotland, i.465.

Seasons, general similarity of, in Kurope
in certain latitudes, ii. 208, note.

Self-love, the principal source of im-
provement in the state of mankind,
ii. 21. 26. 441—distinguished from
selfishness, 455, note.

Sensuality of all kinds strongly repro-
bated in the ordinances of Menu, i.
192.

Shangalla negroes, singular custom re-
specting polygamy among, i. 150—
shortness of life among, 158.

Shepherds, what renders nations of them
peculiarly formidable, i. 93, 94—
difficulty of the transition from the
pastoral to the agricultural state, 121
—a certain degree of security neces-
sary for this purpose, 130—See also
the article Pastoral.

Shetland Isles; increase of population
there prejudicial, i. 456.

Siberia, Northern; State of, with Re-
spect to the Checks to Population, i.
165—frequent scarcity of food, 165,
166—ravages of the small-pox, 166,
167— mode of living, 167—Southern:
extraordinary fertility of the soil;
population, nevertheless, does uot
increase in the proportion which
might be expected, 168—the great
obstacle in this case is, the want of
demand for labourers, and of a mar-
ket for the produce, 170—173—a
bounty upon children would not
effectually increase the population,
174—means to be taken to produce
that result, ib,—beneficial changes
effected by the late empress of Russia
in this respect, 174—176—the intro-
duction of habits of industry, still
necessary, 177—unhealthiness, occa-
sional droughts, and other circum-
stances unfavourable to increase, 177
—179.

Silesia; proportion of its annual mor-

INDEX.

tality to its population, and of births
to deaths, i.334.—See also the article
Prussia.

Sinclair, Sir John, notice of his Statis-

tical Account of Scotland, i. 19, 20,
note.

Siré, prevalence of putrid fevers in, i.
154.

Slavery, this condition unfavourable to
the propagation of the species in the
countries where it prevails, i. 250—
checks to population which are pe-
culiar to a state of slavery, 250, 251.

Slaves, great and constant exportation
of, from Africa, i. 147, 148—practice
of selling in China, 219—the argu-
ment in favour of the slave-trade,
deduced from the principle of popu-
lation, examined and refuted, ii. 473
—475.

Sleswick, duchy of ; comparative state
of the poor in, ii. 349.

Small-pox, its ravages among the Ame-
rican Indians, i. 45—among the Kal-
mucks who inhabited the fertile
steppes of the Wolga, 139—in Persia,
189—dreadful in the northern parts
of Siberia, 166, 167—in Scotland,
464—its effects much increased by a
superabundant population, 524, 525
—notwithstanding its destructive
ravages, the average population of
the earth probably not affected by it,
307—consequences of its possible
extirpation by means of the cow-pox,
considered, 307, 308.—See also ii.
433.

Society Islands. See the article Otaheite.

Solon sanctioned the exposing of chil-
dren, i. 234—his probable motives
for such permission, ib.

Son; to have one born confers on a man
spiritual benefits of the highest im-
portance, according to the ordinances
of Menu, i, 190.

Soups, cheap ; utility and value of such
inventions estimated, ii. $90.

South America, ravages of famine in, i.
56, 57.

South-sea Islands ; state of, with respect
to the checks to population, i. 66—
some of the more considerable, but
less known islands, 67, 68—New
Zealand, 68—72—Otaheite and the
Society Islands, 72 — 82— the
Friendly and Sandwich Islands, 83
—yvice, including war, the principal
check, 83—-85. 87—F aster Island,
Marianne Islands, Formosa, and
others, 85—87—the fertility of these
islands probably exaggerated; o¢ca-

Spirits.

INDEX.

sional scarcities in them, 88 — the

525

Sunday schools, ii. 355.

average population generally presses| Surplus produce; proportion of, regu-

hard against the limits of the average
food, 89.

Spain, wretched state of the poor in, ii.
350.

Spartan discipline considered, i. 91.
Specie ; old prejudices respecting, strik-
ingly resemble those on the subject
of population, ii. 237.

Speculation ; the late rage for wide and
unrestrained, a kind of mental intoxi-
cation, ii. 17.

Spencean System of equality, absurdity
of, exposed, ii. 45, 46, note.

See the article Distilleries.
Spring loaded with a variable weight,
the generative faculty compared to,
i, 25, note.

Statistics; many parts of, to which his-
tory might very usefully be made to
extend, 1. 19—21.

Sterility of women, among the Ameri-
can Indians, accounted for, i. 37—
40.

- Steuart, Sir James ; his plan of improv-

ing the condition of the poor, con-
sidered, il. 574.

Stock ; the profits of, will be high when
there is abundance of good land, and
no difficulties impede its purchase
and distribution; and there is an
easy foreign ventfor its raw produce,
ii, 119.

Submission ; the measure of, to govern-
ment, ought to be determined by ge-
neral expediency, ii. 315, 316.
Subscriptions in aid of the poor will not
prevent a recurrence of distress, ii.
65—67.

Subsistence; the means of, the ultimate
regulator and check to the increase
of plants and animals, i. 3, 4—can-
not be permanently increased faster
than in an arithmetical ratio, 6—10
—the want of, is the most efficient
cause of the immediate checks to
population, 519—the general amount
of population regulated in this re-
spect by scarce seasons, and the re-
currence of unfavourable periods,
and not by plentiful or favourable
ones, 159 — countries are populous
according to the quantity of human
food which they produce or can ac-
quire, and happy according to the
liberality with which this food is
divided, 532.

Suffolk, proportion of its annual births |——

to its population, i. 411.

lates the number of manufacturers,
merchants, proprietors, and persons
engaged in the various civil and
military professions, ii. 129.

Sweden ; state of, with respect to the

checks to population, i. 277—com-
parative efficacy of the preventive
and the positive checks, ib.—large
proportional mortality, 277, 278—
cause of this, 279—does not produce
food sufficient for its population,
280, 281—affected in a peculiar
manner by every variation of the
seasons, 282—-statement of average
mortality, 282, 283—proportion of
yearly marriages, 283—the popula-
tion of, is continually going beyond
the average increase of food, 284—
the government and the political
economists of, are nevertheless in-
cessantly labouring to increase it
more rapidly, ib.—a supply beyond
the effectual demand for labour
could only produce misery, 285—
accusations against the national in-
dustry probably not well founded,
286—the woods sometimes cleared
away too precipitately, without con-
sideration of the probable value of
the land when cleared, 287—this
country might possibly have been
better peopled formerly than at pre-
sent, but the supposition not proba-
ble, 288—political regulations im-
peding the progress of cultivation,
ib.—measures of the government for
the encouragement of population,
hospitals, &c. 289—rendering the
commerce of grain free throughout
the interior, 290—adoption of a law
limiting the number of persons to
each farm, 291—absolute population
of the country ; recent increase, and
periodical checks, 291, 292 — pa-
tience with which the lower classes
bear the pressure of scarcity, 293,
294—sickly seasons have in general
arisen from unwholesome nourish-
ment, occasioned by severe want,
295—the general healthiness has
lately increased, ib. — proportion of
yearly births to the population, 296.
impossibility, or certain destruc-
tive consequences, of establishing the
English system of poor-laws in this
country, ii. 347, 348.

(1825), increased healthiness
of, i. 296—298 — population, and

526

average annual deaths, ib,—average
annual births, 296, 297—expectation
of life, 297—yearly excess of births,
and period of doubling of the popu-
lation, 297, 298— population and
births for various periods, 297 —
gradual diminution of mortality, 298.
Switzerland ; state of, with respect to
the checks to population, i, 337—
alarm which prevailed there some
years ago concerning its depopula-
tion, ib.—statistical paper published
at that time, exhibiting a continued
decrease of the births, 337, 338—
this circumstance however not deci-
sive of a diminished population, 338
—the mortality in the last period
noticed extraordinarily smal], and
the proportion of children reared to
puberty extraordinarily great, 338,
339—prevalence of plagues in the
former periods, 339—an actual in-
crease of population had probably
taken place, <b.—the diminution of
births not owing to the unfruitfulness
of the women, but to the operation
of the preventive check, 349—544
—limits to the population of a coun-

INDEX.

—tribes living in a more favourable
soi] ; the Kirgisiens, 133, 134—the
Kalmucks who inhabited the fertile
steppes of the Wolga, 136.

Taxation, not the main cause of the

present distresses among the poor,
li. 102, 103 — difference, indepen-
dent of taxation, between such a
country as America and England,
114.

Theory, distinction between mischiev-

ous and genuine, ii. 412.

Tibet ; state of, with respect- to the

checks to population, i. 201—at-
tachment of several males to one fe-
male, ib.—to repress rather than to
encourage population, seems to be
an object of the government, 201,
202 — celibacy recommended by
powerful motives, 202—religious re-
tirement frequent and strict, 202,
203—all the brothers of a family
associate with one woman, 20S—
notwithstanding these excessive
checks the population is kept up to
the level of the means of subsistence,
i, 204—multitude of beggars, 204,
205.

try strictly pastoral, 354—effect of| Terra del Fuego: state of, with respect

the introduction of manufactures into
some of the smaller cantons, 356—
natural excitement to emigration,

to the checks to population ; scarcity
of food, and wart of every conveni-
ence and comfort, i. 25.

356, 357. 349—if the alleged de-| Tongataboo, occasional scarcity at, i. 88.
crease did really take place, it must] Towns. See the article England (1825),
have improved the condition of the] Villages.

lower classes of people, 357—effects| Townshend, Mr. ; his plan of improving

of a redundant population seen in a
clear point of view by some of the
inhabitants of a particular district,
357 —360—regulations for the relief
of the poor, 360—state of the poor
there, ii. 349—agricultural improve-
ments, i, 361—amount of the popu-
lation at different periods, ib.

Syria; state of, with respect to the
checks to population, i. 181—185.
See also the article Bedoweens.

T.

Turtars ; state of, with respect to the
checks to population ; their general
manners, i. 120 — distribution of
them according to the quantity of
food, 122—manners of the Maho-
metan Tartars, 123—of the Usbecks,
124—\ the Casatshia tribe,125—other
tribes, 126—general habits of the
Mahometan ‘Tartars, 126, 1297—
heathen Tartars ; the Kalmucks and
Moguls, 127, 128—-Bedoweens, 128

the condition of the poor, considered,
li. 375—S78.

Turkish dominions; state of, with re-

spect to the checks to population, i.
180—nature of the government, 180,
181—the miri, or general land-tax,
rendered oppressive and ruinous by
the pachas, 181, 182—consequent
misery of the peasants, and deplora-
ble state of agriculture, 182, 183—
destructive extortion of the pachas,
182—184 — a maximum in many
cases established, 185—effect of the
above measure in decreasing the
means of subsistence, ib. — direct
checks io population; polygamy,
186—unnatural vice; plague, and
the disorders which follow it; epi-
demics and endemics; famine, and
the sicknesses which follow it, 186,
187—late marriages among the lower
classes, 188—extinction of the Turk-
ish population in another century,
falsely_predicted, 527.

eS LS

INDEX. 527

U.

Unfruitfulness of women among the
American Indians, accounted for, i.
37—40.

Union of the sexes: early, in New
Holland, i. 30.

Unmarried persons; proportion of, in
the Pays deVaud, i. 352—in France,
3635— those who live single, or marry
late, do not diminish the absolute
population, but merely the propor-
tion of premature mortality, 403.—
See also the articlesCelibacy, Chastity,
Restraint and Marriage.

Uneultivated land, neither injures nor
benefits the poor, ii. 246.

Unnatural vice, its prevalence in the
Turkish dominions, i. 186.

Usbeck Tartars, manners of, i. 124—
state of, with respect to the checks to
population, 124, 125.

Utility, the surest criterion of morality
afforded by the light of nature, il.
563, 364.

V.

Vaccination, its effects in Sweden, i.
298.

Valley, beautiful, in Norway, 1. 279,
note.

Van Diemen’s Land; state of, with re-
spect to the cliecks to population ;
scarcity of food, i. 25.

Vassalage of the Russian peasants, the
principal obstacle to a rapid increase |
of population among them, i. 314.

Vice, checks (both preventive and po-
sitive) to population which come un-
der this head, i. 16.

Villages, average mortality of, i. 278—
agricultural; general proportion of
their annual marriages to their popu-
lation, 327—the rate of mortality
in single states will depend much
upon the proportion of the inhabi-
tants of towns to villagers, 352, 333
—different proportions of mortality
in towns and in villages, 407.

Virginia, failures and hardships experi-
enced in the first settlement of the
English colony there, ii. 50.

Virtuous love, peculiar delights of, ii.261,
262.

Vis medicatrix reipublice, the desire of
bettering our condition, and the fear
of making it worse, ii. 90. 435.

Ww.
Wages (See Labour).

has very insufficiently estimated the
principle of population, and the diffi-
culties arising from it, ii. 1.

War ; maxims of, among the American
Indians, i. 49, 50—among the New
Zealanders, 68, 69—excessive ra-
vages of, in Abyssinia, 152—the
wars among the Grecian states were
extremely bloody, 242—wars do not
depopulate much while industry con-
tinues in vigour, 249—this check to
population has abated in modern
Europe, 534—a system of moral re-
straint might be expected to repress
the frequency of war, ii. 278, 279—
281—great strength of such a state
of society in a war of defence, 281.

Waste among the rich, does not influ-
ence the average distress of the poor,
ii. 245—neither injures nor benefits
the poor, 245, 246.

Waste lands ; the existence of, without
other evideuce, no ground of infer-
ence against the internal economy of
a country, li. 250, 251.

Wealth ; Of increasing, as it affects the
Condition of the Poor, ii. 211—an in-
crease of the revenue or stock of a
society, is not always a proportional
increase of the funds destined for
the maintenance of labour, 211, 212
—case of this nature, when a nation
adds what it saves from its yearly re-
venue to its manufacturing capital
solely, 212—the increase of wealth
and capital rarely accompanied with
a proportionately increased power of
supporting an additional number of
labourers,213—illustration of that po-
sition from a comparison of the early
and present state of Europe, 213—
215—every increase of national
stock, not an increase of real funds
for the maintenance of labour, 215—
217, 218—illustration from the exam-
ple of China, 217, 218—state of the
poor employed in manufactories with
respect to health, and other circum-
stances, 219—-2¥92 — an increase of
wealth beneficial to the lower classes,
though it does not imply a propor-
tionate increase of the funds for the
maintenance of mere labour, 228—
of the definition of wealth; and of
the agricultural and commercial sys~
tems. See under the article Agricul-
ture.

Westminster Review, erroneous statement
in the, on the subject of the Corn

Wallace, Mr., in his system of equality, | Laws, ii. 207, 208, note.

Ary 4) « fart

528 INDEX.

Weyland, (Mr.), examination of his
objections to the premises developed
in this work, ii. 481.

Wheat, steadiness in the prices of, in
England, compared with those in
Holland, ii. 207, note.

Widowers, a much greater proportion
of, marry again, than of widows, i.
486, 487.

Wife, difficulty in the choice of one,
according to the ordinances of Menu,
i. 194, M

Woman, the dictate of nature and vir-
tue seems to be an early attachment
to one, i. 5—cruel treatment of wo-
men among the natives of New Hol-
land, 2932 — their degraded and
wretched state among the American
Indians, 37—-39—reason why tie
disgrace attending a breach of chas-
tity in a woman should be greater
thanin a man, ii. 32—34—character

drawn of the women of Indostap, in
the ordinances of Menu, i. 195—
in a certain tribe on the coast of
Malabar, several males attached to
one woman, 200—the same custom
practised in Tibet, 201.

Ls

Young, (Mr.,) his plan of improving the
condition of the poor, considered, ii.
378—381 — 384—389—his -objec-
tions to the plan proposed in this
Essay for the gradual abolition of
the poor-laws, and his own plan for
the relief of the poor, examined,
457.. et seq.

hi
Zoroaster teaches, that to plant a tree, —
to cultivate a field, to beget children,
are meritorious acts, 1. 187.

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