486 On Mr. Malthuss Pr 



class — tlic rabble — the mob — f lie swine — 

 are consistent in attributing tliu misery 

 of the people to themselves. Sinecurists, 

 and tax-eaters, and borouglimongers, 

 in advocating this theme, merely chant 

 tbe variations of the same son«;. But, 

 when reformers in church and slate thus 

 revile the people, they are as absurd as 

 Mr. Malthus in his harnionical theology ; 

 for, if they speak tmly, those who have 

 not discretion enough in their own do- 

 mestic affairs to reason when they 

 marry, are not fit for universal suffragt:; 

 no, nor to vote for Mr. S. Wordey's 

 20/. households; and I doubt if celi- 

 bacy and suffrage should not be as in- 

 dissoluhly united under this philosophy, 

 as marriage and ciiildren were necessary 

 in different republics to fliose who 

 sought to administer the state. 



In one particular, the Malthusians 

 are consistent ; for their remedy is, — Do 

 not breed. Our rents are doubled : 

 True, do not breed; iind then, instead of 

 a competition of tenants for farms, there 

 will be a competition of landlords for 

 tenants. Yet how many farms are now 

 untenanted because the lord will not 

 accept a reduced rent. Our wages are 

 reduced and reducing: True, do not 

 breed, and then yon may have high 

 wages ; and remaik, the fewer hands in 

 the market, the greater the wages must 

 be. Yet there are laws which deter- 

 mine wages, and which i)revent the 

 combinatiiin of labourers. Oh, wisest 

 teachers! will celibacy free man's indus- 

 try from exci>e and' customs? will it 

 make landlords repeal the corn-laws, 

 which have mightily increased in evil by 

 the return to cash-payments? for, by that 

 single event, the importation price of 

 80«. has been effectually advanced to 

 96*. on the quarter of wheat. Will 

 celibacy repeal the taxes on necessaries ? 

 Suppose a large portion of the working 

 people expunged, and that wages in- 

 cieased, will the reduced people, with 

 increased wages, be insured against iti- 

 venlions and machinery (which in per- 

 fect freedom I honour) being brought 

 into competition with them ? The great 

 capitalist can always generate equiva- 

 lents to human labour, and high wages 

 would necessarily excite such means ; 

 for, were the labourers ever so few, capi- 

 talists could not pay more for labour than 

 a certain sum, which is often regulated 

 by circumstances extrinsic to the many 

 or the few hands at home. Consider 

 this in another view ; suppose the la- 

 bourers few, and their wages high; must 

 not this call many labourers from other 

 countries to participate in the greater 



inciple of Population. [July I, 



remuneration ? Is it not so ? To give 

 the bachelors full advantage of their 

 paucity of numbers and high wages, 

 the legislature must, to their law against 

 the non-importation of corn, add a law 

 for the non-importation of workmen. 



This sorry, slanderous, doctrine, i.s 

 declining rapidly. It has received 

 various deadly assaults from diifi.-r- 

 ent writers. Its avowed advocates, 

 who have not recanted, now admit that 

 Mr. Malthus is no great author, that he 

 is Contradictory, and sometimes revolt- 

 ing. But their feeling of him, to whom 

 they had so long given their confidence, 

 is expressed unequivocally by tlieir 

 opinions on his last publication. To be 

 sure, in this work, he has from beginning 

 to end attacked Mr. Ricardo's " Princi- 

 ples of Political Economy ;" and, as 

 these two writers seemed hitherto to have 

 learned frori the same primer, and to 

 have been considered by many as two 

 heads on one pair of shoulders, this hos- 

 tility has left their followers in a hideous 

 dilemma. Both were supposed rigiit on 

 the population question, because both 

 agreed, or, rather, because Mr. Ricardo 

 followed Mr. Malthus; but now Mr. 

 Malthus turns short and questions most 

 of Mr. Ric:irdo's principles. What are 

 their disciples in London and Edinburgh 

 to do, " when Greek meets Greek?" 

 Utrum honim is the question with some; 

 yet, from the credulity and courage of 

 followers, I should not be surprised if 

 they did not continue to believe in both. 

 And this seems to be the status qua; for it 

 a]i|)ears that a society of political eco- 

 nomists has been established, with 

 Messrs. Malthus, Ricardo, and others, 

 equally hostile in their views, which 

 society is to instruct mankind in all the 

 great principles of political economy. 

 This is a new view of society, though not 

 original, for chaos was the principle of 

 all things. 



Glasgow. M. S. 



To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 



SIR. 



YOU have, at various times, com- 

 municated isolated facts relative to 

 the cultivation and transplantation of 

 Spices in various English colonies, and 

 of the introduction of the Tea Plant 

 info Brazil, and the southern States 

 of North America ; and perhaps, if 

 you give place to this enquiry, some 

 of your readers in those parts of tlie 

 world, would obligingly report on the 

 success of the attempts which have 

 been made oii these intt.'resting subjects? 

 Crito. 

 For 



