POWNALL’S MEMORIAL TO THE SOVEREIGNS OF EUROPE, &c. 
on the contrary, he proposes to relieve, 
them from their parish rates: he recom- 
mends nothing to them but that they 
‘should harden their hearts. They have 
found a place at the table of nature ; 
and why should they be disturbed at 
their feast? It is Mr. Malthus’s own 
metaphor ! 
«* A man who is born into a world already 
ossessed, if he cannot get subsistence from 
fis parents, on whom he has a just demand, 
and if the society do not want his labour, 
has no claim of right to the smallest portion 
‘of food, and, in fact, has no business to be 
where he is. At nature's mighty feast there 
is no vacant cover for him. She tells him 
to be gone, and will quickly execute her own 
orders, if he do not work upon the comipas- 
sion of some of her guests. If these guests 
Bet up and make room for him, other intru- 
ders immediately appear demanding the same 
favour. The report of a provision for all 
that come, fills the hall with numerous 
claimants. . The order and harmony of the 
feast is disturbed, the plenty that before 
reigned as changed into scarcity; and the 
happiness of the guests is destroyed by the 
spectacle of misery and dependence in every 
part of the hall, and by the clamorous im- 
portunity of those, who are justly enraged 
at not finding the provision which they had 
been taught toexpect. The guests leayn too 
Tate their error, in counteracting thase strict 
orders to all intruders, issued by the grea 
mistress of the feast, who, wishing that all 
her guests should have plenty, and knowing 
. that she could not’ provide for unlimited 
numbers, humanely refused to admit fresh 
comers when her table was already full.” 
x 
It is easy to see what, upon Mr. Mal. 
thus’s view of society, would become the 
perfect system of policy, when the Eng- 
lish constitution shali have expired bythat 
-awoxvaciz Which Hume foretold, or rather 
by that atrophy which daily wastes away 
its vital powers, that slow poison which 
has been year after year administered. 
‘The first step would be to commute the 
Miseries of poverty for the comforts of © 
servitude: for this, the frequent argn- 
ment that the negro-slaves are happier 
than the poor people of England, has 
prepared our legislators ;*and the poor 
might be brought to it, as they are to be 
brought to celibacy,—by starying. It 
having been found that slaves are more 
301 
manageable than servants, the next dis- 
covery would be the great fitness of con- 
sidering them as cattle, for which the 
whole system of our slave-laws has also 
prepared us. Having adopted the wis- 
dom of Oriental monarchies, we should 
then readily adopt the magnificence of 
Oriental manners ; and introduce into 
England the wise invention of Semiramis 
for counteracting the principle of popu- 
lation. The advantages are obvious : 
the people would be happier, because 
poverty would be annihilated; the fine 
arts would be improved, inasmuch as 
we should rear our own opera-sin- 
gers, and reform our church-music ac- 
cording to Italian taste; and the pro- 
ceedings of :zovernment would be wons. 
deriully facilitated, for John Bull has 
been at times a refractory animal, but 
Joha Ox would certainly be tractable. 
What then is the purport of this quarto 
volume? To teach us, first, that. great 
misery and great vice arise from poverty; 
and that there must be poverty in its 
worst shapes, wherever there are more 
mouths than loaves, and more heads 
than brains. Secondly, that the only 
remedy is, that the. poor should not be 
encouraged to breed. There is hot a 
man in England who was ignorant of 
the first fact, nor a mistress of a family 
who does not advise her servants not to 
marry. No wonder that Mr. Malthus 
should be a fashionable philosopher! He 
writes advice to the poor for the rich to 
read ; they of course will approve his 
opinions, and, understanding with perfect 
facility the whole of his profound rea- 
sonings, will of course admit them with 
perfect satisfaction. 
The folly and the wickedness of this 
book have provoked us into a tone of 
contemptuous indignation: in affixing 
these terms to the book, let it not be sup- 
posed that any general condemnation of 
the author is implied, grievously as he 
has erred in this particular instance.—~ 
Mr. Malthus is said to be a man of mild 
and unoffending manners, patient re- 
search, and exemplary conduct. This 
character he may still maintain; but as 
a political philosopher, the farthing can- 
die of his fame must stink and go out. 
Art. XVIII. Memorial addressed to the Sovereigns of Europe, and the Atlantic. By 
Governor PowNa.u. 
Svo. pp. 150. 
4 THE leading object of this memorial emancipation and independence of the 
¥s to recommend the interference ofthe Spanish settlements in North and South 
British government to bring about the America. 
