land, they often expend a great deal more labour in bringing it into a high state of cultivation, than would be expended under any other system of management. In the latter case especially, the property being their own, they grudge no labour or expense bestowed on its improvement; and thus the produce is often considerably more than it would be if the land were occupied in large farms. But though the produce of the soil is often very great from the minute and toilsome husbandry of such cultivators, it does not thence follow that the riches of a country on the whole should be augmented by this direction of industry. Though a whole territory might by such means be cultivated like a garden, yet its labour on the whole may be unproductive considering the quantity expended. The abundance of provisions thus procured may co-exist with a deficiency of everything else, and the people be poor. Nearly the whole produce of the soil may be consumed by those who raise it, and neither hands be found for other occupations, nor the means of purchasing their productions when procured; for in proportion as labour is disadvantageously applied, the country on the whole must be poorer. It would be rash to pronounce that system good which tends to establish a general mediocrity, not of fortune only, but of knowledge, and to prevent the growth of superiority in any department.

On the other hand, an excessively unequal division of landed property is of more mischievous consequences than an excessive inequality in the distribution of any other kind of property. Over almost all Europe such a division of landed property was established during the feudal times. In some states, the laws which protected and perpetuated this division have been greatly relaxed; but in others they still remain in force, and throw great obstacles in the way of improvement. In Spanish America this unequal division of land subsists to a great extent, absolutely preventing the settlement and cultivation of extensive tracts of highly fertile land. In a country where the population is thinly scattered over a great extent of country, and the means of communication are imperfectly formed and difficult, such a division of land enhances in a great degree the difficulties to the progress of opulence, by separating the people more widely

from each other, preventing the division of labour, and those other advantages which a concentrated population affords. Such a country, in spite of natural resources of the greatest magnitude, might remain for ages with an uncultivated soil and a scanty yet starving population.

CHAPTER XVIII

ON POPULATION.

A COMPLETE view of those circumstances that influence the supply of the objects which minister to human wants and wishes cannot be exhibited without mention of such as affect the reproduction of man himself, for whose use and gratification all these objects are acquired. This cannot be done, because the effectiveness of industry depends in part on its combination, i. e. on the number of co-operators, and on the relation of their number to the extent of fertile land whence their subsistence is to be raised. We should have no occasion to speak on the advantages derived from the distribution of employment, or descant on the benefits of commerce, if there were not sufficient workmen to form a division of labour into the several occupations, and to people and cultivate different countries. The extent of the division of employment, likewise, which can be made in any community, obviously depends chiefly on the number of its members. Again, the parental affection affords a motive to exertion of the strongest and most lasting, as well as of the purest kind, and, consequently, tends powerfully to the increase of public opulence, and the advancement of all the interests of the species.

The laws, then, which regulate the reproduction of man, and the consideration of them in relation to such as govern the production of food for his support, cannot yield in importance to any of those on which we have been treating; since they involve in the closest manner his interests and happiness. False views re

specting them must inevitably lead to pernicious consequences; while sound opinions on them must as certainly tend to the general good.

When we view the rapidly increasing movement of the population of our country, during the period in which its censuses have been taken, which movement is still going on with unslackened speed, the contemplation to a reflecting mind cannot but suggest the inquiry, in what way provision is to be made for its support. The question presses on general attention with the greater force, when we couple with it the theory prevalent amongst the greater number of political economists of the present day concerning the natural rate of the progress of population.

The following table exhibits a summary of the number of inhabitants of Great Britain, with the number of men employed in the army, navy, and commercial marine, at each of the four enumerations that have been made during the present century, showing the per centage increase in each decennary period.

The females constituting a class of a more stationary character than the males, their number is here given because it affords a more accurate view of the progressive increase of the population.

Ireland exhibits almost as great an increase; as is shown in the following table.

These two tables show that the population of Great Britain. and Ireland, which in 1821 amounted to 21,193,458, was in 1831, 24,304,799, exhibiting an addition of 3,111,341 souls in

ten years; the per centage rate of increase during that interval being 14.68, or very nearly 1 per cent. per annum.

Contrast this progress with that of the preceding century, as estimated from the registers of baptisms and burials.

Population of England and Wales, including the army, navy, and merchant service, in the middle of each of the years given.

The increase of,population in the first half of the last century appears to have been 905,368, or 17 per cent., while in the second half it amounted to 3,147,492, or 52 per cent. Comparing the increase during thirty years, from 1770 to 1800, with the like period between 1801 and 1831; in the former it amounted to 1,959,590, or 27 per cent., in the latter, the enumerations in England and Wales reached to 5,024,207 souls, or 56 per cent.*

This remarkable change in the progress of so influential an element in the condition of a nation as its population, cannot but constitute an era in the history of our country, the results of which, whether good or evil, must be of the greatest magnitude, and remain yet to be developed.

But this advance in the number of our people has not arisen from an increase of fecundity; on the contrary, this quality has materially fallen off. In the year 1680, the average proportion of births to a marriage in England was 4.65; but this proportion gradually decreased, as will be shown by and by, till, in the year 1805, we find it had fallen to 3.50. Again, for ten years preceding 1811, the proportion of births was one in 31 inhabitants; for the like period preceding 1821, one in 31; and for the same term preceding 1831, one in 34.

The continually diminishing mortality which has taken place through the introduction of vaccination, and other causes, is very Progress of the Nation, by Mr. Porter, p. 15.

*

astonishing. It applies more especially to the early period of life. The progressive decrease in the annual mortality in England and Wales, of persons under 20, has been as follows:

In 1780, the deaths under 20 years of age were 1 in 761.

being not much more than one-half of the proportion who died

*

under 20 half a century ago. The increase of our population, therefore, is to be ascribed, not to our people being more prolific, for they are less so now than at any former time, but chiefly to the greater number of persons who now arrive at mature age, and have children, than was the case at an earlier period. Consequently, its progress, so far as it is dependent on this cause, must be expected to continue unabated.

Two opinions are held on the nature and tendency of the reproductive faculty in man. The one, that it exists in excess, having a constant tendency to occasion misery, by multiplying human beings faster than provision can be made for their support. The other, that it is so regulated as naturally to conduce to human happiness. The modern exhibition of the former and distressing view of the question, with its complete development and application, has been given by the late Professor Malthus and his followers. The overthrow of that view, and the substitution in its place of the latter and cheering one, is due to the labours of Mr. Weyland and the late Mr. Sadler. These contrary views, whether individually or nationally entertained, point to maxims and conduct diametrically opposite to each other. The former leads to discourage, in a measure, the marriage union, or its postponement to a somewhat advanced period of life, especially amongst the poor, who are unable to make an adequate provision for their offspring; and this with the view of lessening their number, -assuming that the condition of the people is better in proportion as they are fewer in number, and worse as they multiply. The latter denies the position that their condition suffers as they increase, asserting, on the contrary, that it improves with every addition, and denounces such discouragement as repug* Progress of the Nation, p. 24.