1831.] Mr. Sadler and the Political Economists. 539 



Eighth* The analogy between the animal and vegetable kingdoms proves 

 that the physiological principle is the same in both. There exists 

 between them a striking conformity in the processes of reproduction. 

 Plants luxuriously nourished will not, to use the agricultural phrase, 

 "seed again." It is the same with man, and animals of the lower grade. 

 Animals remarkable for their symmetry and perfection, and that are fed 

 profusely to keep up the tone of beauty, are invariably infertile. These 

 singular coincidences, are sufficiently remarkable in character, and uni- 

 -form in their operation to establish on an imperishable basis, this great 

 fundamental law of nature. . :. 



Ninth. In order to invest the argument with a degree of individuality, 

 although it thereby confessedly loses some of its comprehensiveness, Mr. 

 Sadler takes a class of persons raised above sordid wants, in whom all the 

 advantages of blood, luxury, ease of mind, and station were combined, 

 in order to demonstrate yet more forcibly the fact that as the popula- 

 tion increases in numbers and reaches towards affluence, the tendency to 

 fecundity declines. He selects the British peerage, because the registers 

 of their families are at once accurate and attainable. The results are 

 that the peers are decidedly a marrying class ; that they marry early in 

 .life; and that although on the average they live to a greater age than 

 the members of any inferior and less favoured class,, their marriages are 

 less prolific ! 



These are the prominent features of Mr. Sadler's theory. We have 

 endeavoured to place before our readers a sketch of the series of proofs 

 .by which it is illustrated and established ; and although we could not 

 perform that justice to the details of the subject which they deserved, 

 we trust we have rendered the chief propositions embraced in the main 

 principle clear. On looking back upon what we have written, it oc- 

 ,curs to us that a short recapitulation of the truths that incidentally arise 

 through the examination may prevent that difficulty of retention 

 which sometimes attends a lengthened statement. The facts established 

 by Mr. Sadler, as flowing from the great law of population, may be thus 

 summed up. 



As population increases, fecundity declines. 



The thinnest population is the most prolific. 



In cold latitudes, where the earth is sterile and the population scanty, 

 the tendency to propagation is contracted; which forms an exception to 

 the general rule elsewhere prevailing, but proves the universal applica- 

 tion, adapted to varying circumstances, of the divine law, that man 

 shall not outgrow the means of sustentation. 



In towns, where the population is closely packed, the average fecun- 

 dity is lower than in the country, where the population is scattered. 



The higher ranks who enjoy the comforts of life are less prolific than 

 the lower, who labour and undergo privations. 



The increase of population is always accompanied by an increase of 

 prosperity ; and vice versa. 



Early marriages are less productive than those of more mature age. 



As the population of countries increases, the checks of War, Pesti- 

 lence, and Famine operate very languidly, less frequently, and less 

 fatally. This is proved, in the only way it can be proved, by collation 

 and comparison of historical facts ; and it completely refutes the Mal- 

 thusian doctrines that these calamities come in to keep down the ten- 

 dency of mankind to increase beyond the supply of food. 



Such are a few, of the side-lights that break in upon us as we traverse 



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