cultivators are the permanent interests of the landlords opposed to those of the community at large. We shall observe circumstances and ties gradually unfolding themselves, which in every stage and form of civilization, completely identify the real interests of the owners of the soil with those of society; and make the permanent and progressive growth of the revenues of the landed body, not only consistent with, but dependent on, the prosperous career of their tenantry, and of the community to which they belong. Next, that fall of the rate of profits which is so common a phenomenon as to be almost a constant attendant on increasing population and wealth, is, it will be scen, so far from indicating greater feebleness in any branch of industry, that it is usually accompanied by an increasing productive power in all, and by an ability to accumulate fresh resources, more abundantly and more rapidly'. So far, therefore, is this circumstance from being, as it has hastily been feared and described to be, an unerring symp

If the prepossessions of any reader should lead him at once to treat this statement as paradoxical, let me beg of him to turn his eye to the growing powers of production and accumulation displayed by England during the last century, and to compare them with those of the countries in Europe in which profits have continued the highest. The review must, I think, at least produce patience to wait for the demonstration which is promised, of the truth of the statement in the text.

tom of national decay, that it will be shewn to be one of the most constant accompaniments and indications of economical prosperity and vigor.

Turning, then, to that part of the animal constitution of mankind which makes an extremely rapid increase of their numbers possible under certain circumstances, (which has been the cause of yet more formidable apprehensions,) it will be seen that it is an error to suppose that the consequences of this power of increase present any real obstacle to the permanent ease and happiness of any class of society.

But before we proceed with the little we have to say on this subject now, there are a few preliminary observations to be made. The states of society from which the principles here developed are collected, are such as are found actually existing over the surface of the earth. Some portion of misery and vice therefore will meet our view at every step, and of these a part may doubtless be traced to the consequences of man's animal power of multiplying rapidly his kind. Nay more, while the world exists, considerable suffering arising from this cause will always probably be to be met with. So far therefore the sufferings which can be traced to this source, like those produced by the earthquake or the storm, belong to a

events which we may not flatter ourselves we shall

C

ever be able wholly to arrest. Both have their origin in the physical constitution of the creation. As a consequence of this view of the power of multiplication, it has been truly stated, that those persons who do not see in evils produced by purely material causes any thing inconsistent with the benevolence of the Creator, act very idly in being indignant with others, who assert the constant presence of a certain quantity of suffering and evil, which is produced by causes of a mixt character, partly moral and partly physical, such as those are which influence the growth of the numbers of mankind. But then we must not be led too far by this analogy. There are important distinctions between evils produced by the action of mere material causes, and those evils, in the production of which man is himself an agent. In the one case the amount of evil to be endured is certain and unavoidable, and the individual sufferers cannot escape their doom. In the latter case the average amount of evil may be indefinitely diminished by human efforts, and no individual sufferer is necessarily a victim.

The earthquake and the storm do their appointed work, and man can hardly produce a perceptible influence on the amount of their ravages, or the fate of the sufferers. Now it must be allowed that the passions which lead to wrong and

violence, are as much a part of the Creator's work, as the obscure causes which produce physical convulsions. But then the average amount of wrong or violence may be diminished indefinitely by the institution of good laws, and by the greater prevalence of sound morals: and no individual robber or murderer is recognized to be a fated victim, compelled to be such by providence itself. These two important reflexions go very far to remove both the gloomy and the depraved tendency which some have perversely persisted in affixing to all admissions of the constant presence of a certain quantity of moral evil. If we apply a similar distinction to the case of communities, and to the peculiar class of evils we are now considering, we shall find in the statistical history of nations, satisfactory indications of this truth, that although cases of national suffering caused by superabundant numbers, may be traced to the animal constitution of man, and so to the physical structure of the universe, and will probably always prevail to some extent; still that, first, the average amount of those sufferings may be repressed indefinitely by human effort, and by the re-action of moral causes; and then that no one community is necessarily doomed to endure any portion of such suffering at all. This view of the subject is evidently full of cheerful promise to all enlightened and well-governed

societies, as it is too of plain instruction to individuals, whom it very clearly warns, that their aim and wisdom must ever be to fulfil their own duties, and follow up their own chances of happiness steadily, without casting furtive glances towards the general mass of evil, as a source of either perplexity or excuse.

These considerations once understood, we may proceed; and it will be obvious, that since the subject of population as connected with wages must occupy an important portion of our enquiry, it will be our business to appeal to the experience of mankind as contained by the past story and present condition of its various branches, and to collect thence a knowledge of the circumstances which in different forms and stages of society, contribute to the prevalence of moral controul over the powers of increase. The results of such a survey will be found to be these. Viewing the subject first as it affects the human race generally, and with no reference to wages, we shall see that the disposition to exert the full animal power of increase yields readily in the upper classes, to the accumulating force of various motives for restraint, which necessarily multiply and gather more joint strength, with the growth of those artificial wants the fruit of wealth aud refinement. Limiting our observations then to the laborers, in the less advanced