class, is, a diminution of numbers through rest raint on their propagation.

The tendency of mankind to multiply, and to require constant exertion to procure subsistence for its enlarging family, increasing in every parent with the number of his children during their infancy and incapacity to provide for their own wants, is a provision implanted in the constitution of man by the great Architect of the universe, not for evil, but for good. It is one of the many motives that stimulate mankind to exertion, and is of the same tendency as the appetite for food, and the other wants and cravings of humanity; constituting that "necessity which is the great moral lever by which the condition of the species is continually elevated." But the stimulus of parental motives is more powerful and enduring in its character, calling forth higher exertions than before, and is prompted by purer and nobler motives. Without this tendency, the world had never become peopled in the insufficient measure in which we find it, nor ever could be filled to the extent which it is ultimately destined to arrive at. It is this tendency that has raised man from weakness to strength, from poverty to affluence, and has advanced all the objects in which his interests are involved. Population must in a measure precede production, and cause a greater demand for food, or food would never be raised in increasing quantities; while it quickly gives the power of raising such increased quantities, not merely by relieving each individual from the extra labour at first called forth, but by lessening the labour previously required.

Social institutions, though they have too often occasioned the want of a check on the increase of particular classes whose interests they have neglected or sacrificed to those of others, yet have no influence in creating a state of things which calls for a restraint on population at large; much less do they increase the need of such restraint. That civil institutions favour in the highest degree the multiplication of the species, is evident from the more dense population we find under their protection, the greater rapidity with which it increases, and the greater affluence the people enjoy. That an abstinence from marriage is so

prevalent in civilized life among classes considerably removed above want, must be owing chiefly to pride and luxury, which cannot permit the individual to descend from the station he has been accustomed to occupy, or give up for the sake of the marriage union, the gratifications which his circumstances afford. This is the weakness of human nature; not the result either of civilization, or of the errors and imperfections of civil institutions. Such abstinence may promote the opulence of the individual, but it is often carried to excess. While advancing private riches, it frequently curtails individual enjoyment-the only use of riches, and retards the increase of the public wealth and strength. When the number of the people is thus kept down, the quantity of labour they exert and its produce is less than they otherwise would be, and the whole revenue of the community, whence taxation is to draw the means of defraying the public services, is curtailed.

The power of propagation in the human species, while it cannot rapidly multiply mankind into unsustainable numbers, is yet sufficient to keep pace with the ordinary progress of the power to maintain additional numbers in comfort. Denouncing therefore, as we must, all public discouragements to marriage, yet public encouragements to that union do not seem, under ordinary circumstances, to be required; and the solicitude of governments to promote population, where it has not been mischievous, has been uncalled for. Let there be but the means of supporting a family with those necessaries and comforts to which the individuals have been accustomed, and marriages will be sure to take place. Experience shows that in a healthy state of society population keeps pace with the enlarging means of subsistence which are at its command; that the most desolating ravages of war, of pestilence, and of famine, are soon repaired by the prolific power of propagation. It would be overstepping the legitimate bounds of legislative interference, were the power of the state exercised, either to restrain the exuberance, or to supply the deficiency, of population. In whatever class it be, nothing but evil could be expected from such interference. During minority, the natural authority of the parent or guardian is exercised, but when mature age has thrown

off this authority, no other power can interpose. For the magistrate to interfere in this sacred right of human beings, would be an atrocious outrage on the rights of nature and the laws of God. The propagation of mankind under circumstances conducive to human happiness must be free from authoritative direction, guided alone by individual judgment and feeling, the result of education, working insensibly, but yet steadily and surely.

In the endeavour to place society in that position which is most favourable for a progressive increase of population under circumstances conducive to human happiness, the means to be sought after are sufficiently obvious to prevent mistake. They may be stated as of four kinds :-first, by habits of frugality, inculcating moderate desires, and holding out only moderate expectations to young persons; secondly, by the accumulation of property; thirdly, by promoting the advancement of discovery and invention in the sciences and arts, with their introduction into practice, for the purpose of heightening the effective powers of industry; and, lastly, by the enlargement of the field of our territorial occupation.

Property is to be accumulated for the purpose of assisting labour in the function of capital. But besides property of this kind, other kinds are required to afford comfort from their use, some of which are not only indispensable to the enjoyment, but necessary even to the existence of life. Of these descriptions are houses, furniture, clothing, and some other things. It is evident, that these need to be increased in at least an equal measure with the increase of population. The parent naturally provides these for the child, to save it the task of providing them for itself,-a task which it would, perhaps, be unable for a long time, if at all, to accomplish. Unless these be afforded by the parent, the child must obtain them from other persons, and most probably the rent or hire for their use must form a deduction from his earnings, and correspondingly depre- . ciate his circumstances in life. No man can expect to be out of the reach of poverty, much less to enjoy the comforts of life, unless he possess some property-some capital to aid his labour, some house in which to lodge, or from which to obtain a rent,

and this in addition to the produce of his mere unassisted personal labour. The quantity of property necessary to the comfortable establishment of a child in life, must depend chiefly on the habits of expense, associates, and prospects in life, to which it has been accustomed. If the property be not enough to enable him to keep up those habits and associates, and realize those prospects, he may be expected to acquire but little of that enjoyment of life which money commands. On the other hand, if more property than this be given, he will probably obtain a large share of such enjoyment. We ought not to be content with providing a child with that minimum of property and acquirements which procures necessaries only, or even that which custom and circumstances have rendered essential in common estimation, when more is within our power. If every parent were to leave his children in worse circumstances than himself, it would happen in the end, that none would be competent to fill the higher stations; the country would become impoverished, and the advantages which society derives from such stations would be lost. To bring up a child without any occupation, is doing injury to both him and the community. Consuming a great deal, he produces nothing, either for himself or others. Men without any useful or rational occupation, are not more happy than others who are busily employed. Judging from the number of suicides in the different classes, it is probable that they are less so than other men ; while they are more liable, from want of occupation, to fall into a vicious course, and become a curse to themselves and others. However large a man's property may be, that is no reason why he should not try to acquire more. If his own family be sufficiently affluent, there are others that are in want. If his affections be so narrow that they cannot extend beyond his own family, the wants even of this family at some distant period may call for exertion. Although now sufficiently rich, if its numbers multiply, its wealth will become divided, and be little enough for its numerous members. But what to the public is of most consequence is, that every accumulation of property, by whomever possessed, and though its whole revenue goes to its particular owners, is nevertheless of advantage to society. The greater

abundance of capital must increase the produce of industry, render goods cheap, and lower the rate of profit. There is, too, the advantage of the opportunity of employing capital, which the rich man must let to others to put to some profitable occupation, in order to procure without trouble to himself the revenue it may yield. In these ways, other persons, and the public at large, participate with the proprietor in the advantage rendered by capital. The same applies to other descriptions of property. With regard to replenishing and subduing the earth, this can never be done without the help of the sciences, which show us the course of nature, and the arts, which enable us to avail ourselves of such knowledge in order to render the operations of nature subservient to our purposes.

66

But the most important consequence resulting from a dense population is, that it contributes to the advancement and extension of science, the improvement of the arts, the progress of civilization, and of all the social, moral, and intellectual interests of man. The service which it renders to humanity in these ways is incomparably more valuable than that which it contributes to the growth of opulence. It is in populous countries, and especially in the cities and towns of such countries, that we find the seats of learning, and whence we have obtained those discoveries and inventions which tend so extensively to benefit mankind. To the thinly peopled countries we owe nothing of this kind. "The arts," says Sir Stamford Raffles, never fix their roots but in a crowded population. Egypt, from the fertility of its soil, and consequent density of its population, led the way in science and refinement amongst ancient nations, while the sterile tracts contiguous to that favoured land, have been inhabited from primeval times by dispersed tribes of unimproved barbarians." What would now have been the condition of the world, if its inhabitants had always remained, as in the early ages, few, with their families widely separated, dispersed over a great extent of country, without co-operation, holding little or no communication with each other, and consequently almost solely dependent for everything on their own exertions? They could never have made those improvements which have resulted from association, and from the division and combina