160 Professor Whewell on the 



The truth of such a proposition is repeatedly taken for granted 

 by 3Ir. Ricardo (3d ed. p. 88. 95. 118. 173, &c), and is employed 

 by him as a leading step in several of his reasonings. It would 

 seem however that the assumption of such a necessary and uni- 

 versal operation of wages upon population, is entirely gratuitous 

 and unfounded, and that we have not the slightest ground for 

 asserting this to be the law of such changes, any more than any 

 other law arbitrarily assumed. 



We might for instance assume that a rise of wages, by im- 

 proving the chance of the labourer to make some saving, will 

 increase his prudence and self-control, and thus diminish the 

 rate at which population increases. Without asserting this to be 

 more certainly true than the opposite postulate, that a rise of 

 wages accelerates the rate of increase, we may with reason main- 

 tain it to be as certainly true in some cases: and this is quite 

 enough to shew the baselessness of Mr. Ricardo's postulate as. a 

 general law. 



If the labourers of any country were placed at the bare limit 

 of possible subsistence, and under a complete privation of pru- 

 dential restraint; — so that nothing could be taken away from 

 their means without destroying them by want, nor any thing 

 added, without being speedily absorbed by an increase of their 

 numbers; — on such a supposition their condition might be con- 

 sidered as fixed ; and the postulate might be conceded. And 

 some such supposition, suggested by erroneous views of the laws 

 of population, appears to have led to the assumption before us. 



This supposition however does not, it is to be hoped, repre- 

 sent the condition of any country. It certainly bears no resem- 

 blance to that of our own. If we compare the English labourer 

 with the labourer of France, Ireland, or India, we readily per- 



