POPULATION-POOR-LAWS-LIFE-ASSURANCE. 



POPULATION. 



r*HE laws which govern the increase and 

 A. decrease of population form a compara- 

 tively recent branch of study, for although, in 

 ancient times, both Plato and Aristotle gave 

 some attention to the evils' arising from popu- 

 lation increasing more rapidly than the means 

 of subsistence, yet it was not until the close 

 of the last century, when the occurrence of the 

 French Revolution forced into prominence many 

 leading social questions, that any systematic 

 effort was made for the purpose of ascertaining 

 the natural rate at which population increases, 

 the proportion which this increase bears to the 

 means available for its subsistence, and the causes 

 operating to bring the increase of population and 

 the means of subsistence into uniformity. So 

 far as the law of population was at all thought of 

 in former times, the prevalent doctrine was, that 

 the greater the numbers of a nation, the stronger 

 was the state, and the more vigorous its agri- 

 cultural and commercial industry. So useful were 

 numbers considered for increasing the means of 

 defence and the means of subsistence, that in 

 many countries it was thought proper to make 

 laws for encouraging matrimony, and to put 

 bounties on families exceeding a certain number. 

 So lately as the time of Louis XIV. pensions 

 were awarded in France to those who had ten or 

 more children. 



Dr Adam Smith, in his Wealth of Nations, was 

 among the first to suggest anything like a law as 

 regulating the increase of population. He re- 

 marked that ' the demand for men, like that for 

 any other commodity, necessarily regulates the 

 production of men ; quickens it when it goes on 

 too slowly, and stops it when it advances too fast. 

 It is this demand,' says he, ' which regulates and 

 determines the state of population in all the dif- 

 ferent countries of the world in North America, 

 in Europe, and in China ; which renders it 

 rapidly progressive in the first, slow and gradual 

 in the second, and altogether stationary in the 

 last' 



THE MALTHUSIAN THEORY. 



The preceding passage in Dr Adam Smith's 

 well-known work, coupled with the perusal of an 

 article in Godwin's Inquirer, is said to have sug- 

 gested the celebrated Essay (by Mr Malthus) on 

 the Principle of Population, which appeared 

 anonymously in 1798 ; and afterwards in a par- 

 tially reconstructed form, and with the author's 

 name attached, in 1803. Mr Malthus's views at 

 once attracted general attention, and many of the 

 ablest thinkers of his time became converts to the 

 doctrine propounded by him. His work passed 

 through several editions, the fifth, containing 

 several additional chapters, appearing in 1817 ; 

 and the sixth and last in 1823. 

 84 



The Malthusian doctrine is based on certain 

 generally recognised facts. For instance, it is 

 known that the rate of increase in population is 

 different in different parts of the world, and that 

 the variations in the rate are universally preceded 

 and accompanied by variations in the means of 

 sustaining population. Where those means are 

 abundant, as in Australia, Canada, and the United 

 States, there is an increasing demand for labourers, 

 with ample means for maintaining them, and the 

 population of the country is observed to make 

 rapid advances. When these means increase 

 only at a moderate rate, as in many European 

 and Asiatic states, the general increase in the 

 demand for labour is slow ; the command of the 

 labourer over the means of subsistence becomes 

 partially checked ; and the increase of population 

 proceeds at a moderate pace, varying in each 

 country according to the means available for its 

 support. Where these means are stationary, as 

 in some parts of Southern Europe, the demand 

 for labour remains limited, the command of the 

 labourer over the means of subsistence, is com- 

 paratively scanty, and population makes little 

 or no progress, if it does not actually diminish. 



The actual increase of means for the main- 

 tenance of labour does not depend upon the 

 mere physical capacity of any particular country 

 to produce food and other necessaries, but upon 

 the degree of settled industry, intelligence, and 

 activity with which that capacity is at any par- 

 ticular time called forth. Countries possessing 

 every requisite for producing the necessaries and 

 conveniences of life in abundance, are sometimes 

 found sunk in a state of ignorance, indolence, and 

 apathy, from the vices of their governments, or 

 the unfortunate constitution of their society, and 

 slumbering on for ages with scarcely any in- 

 crease in the means of subsistence, till some 

 fortunate event introduces a better order of 

 things. When the industry of a nation is thus 

 roused, and when it is permitted to exert itself 

 with some measure of freedom, more abundant 

 funds for the maintenance of labour are pro- 

 vided, and population is observed to make a 

 sudden start forwards, at a rate altogether dif- 

 ferent from that at which it had previously pro- 

 ceeded ; as in Russia, where the present increase 

 of population is proceeding at a far more rapid rate 

 than at any previous known period of its history. 



It is also a fact that has often attracted observa- 

 tion in a review of the history of different nations, 

 that the waste of people occasioned by the great 

 plagues, famines, and other devastations to which 

 the human race is occasionally subject, has been 

 repaired in a much shorter time than it would 

 have been if the population, after these devasta- 

 tions, had multiplied at the same rate as before. 

 From this it is apparent, that after the void thus 

 occasioned, the population must have increased 

 much faster than usual ; and the greater abund- 

 ance of the means for the maintenance of labour, 



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