CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



which would be left to the survivors under such 

 circumstances, indicates, again, the conjunction 

 of a rapid increase of population with a rapid 

 increase of the means for its maintenance. In 

 England, just after the great pestilence in the time 

 of Edward III., a day's labour would purchase a 

 bushel of wheat ; while, immediately before, it 

 would hardly have purchased a peck. At the 

 close of the civil wars prevalent in France from 

 1610 to 1645, the annual increase of the popu- 

 lation rose from i in loco to i in 316. With 

 regard to the minor variations of population in 

 the different countries of Europe, it is an old and 

 familiar observation, that wherever new channels 

 of industry and new sources of wealth are opened, 

 so as to provide the means of supporting an addi- 

 tional number of labourers, there, almost immed- 

 iately, a stimulus is given to the population, which 

 increases for a time with a vigour and celerity 

 proportionate to the abundance and duration of 

 the funds thus supplied. 



From such premises as th se, Malthus laid it 

 down as a proved fact, that population tends to 

 increase at the rate of a doubling every twenty- 

 five years. He at the same time endeavoured 

 to shew that, as man begins to use the best 

 lands first, or, in other words, those of which 

 he can reap the fruits with least labour, and 

 then has to go to worse and worse, it becomes 

 always more and more difficult to obtain the 

 means of subsistence for increasing numbers. He 

 concluded that, at the utmost, the means of sub- 

 sistence would be found, at the end of each suc- 

 cessive quarter of a century, to have increased 

 only at toe rate of double for the first, triple for 

 the second, quadruple for the third, and so on. 

 Thus, said he, while population would go on in- 

 creasing in a geometrical ratio that is, as I, 2, 4, 8, 

 16, 32, 64, 128, &c. food would increase only in 

 an arithmetical ratio that is, as I, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 

 8, &c. and the consequence of an unchecked 

 increase of the one, with the utmost possible 

 increase of the other, would be, that when the 

 population of the globe had advanced to 500,000 

 million, there would be food for 10,000 million 

 only, or but a fiftieth part of the number ! 



Considering, then, that there is a power and a 

 tendency in human beings to increase so rapidly, 

 and that, in point of fact, it is only in a few ! 

 favoured spots that they do increase at such a ' 

 rate, Malthus concluded that there must be some 

 counteracting agencies, or checks, in constant 

 operation, in almost all communities, to restrain 

 population at a lower rate of increase, or keep it 

 stationary. In looking about to discover these ' 

 checks, he satisfied himself that they were of two [ 

 orders : first, there was the mortality produced by 

 the effects of deficient food and of wicked pas- 

 sions these he called positive checks ; then there 

 was the check produced by a prudent forethought I 

 in human beings, leading them to avoid too early ' 

 marriage, on account of the little prospect of being 

 able to rear a family in comfort this he called 

 the preventive check. 



Arriving at this point, Malthus and his followers 

 proceed to shew how their doctrines are applicable 

 for the benefit of communities. It is clearly pref- ' 

 erable that population should be restrained by 

 the preventive check, rather than by the positive ! 

 check An early number of the Edinburgh 

 Review ', in which the doctrines of Malthus are ' 



498 



comprehensively summarised, says : ' It is observed 

 in most countries, that in years of scarcity and 

 dearness the marriages are fewer than usual ; 

 and if, under all the great variations to which 

 the increase of the means of subsistence is 

 necessarily exposed from a variety of causes 

 from a plenty or scarcity of land, from a good or a 

 bad government, from the general prevalence of 

 intelligence and industry, or of ignorance and 

 indolence, from the opening of new channels of 

 commerce, or the closing of old ones, &c. the 

 population were proportioned to the actual means 

 of subsistence, more by the prudence of the labour- 

 ing-classes in delaying marriage, than by the misery 

 which produces premature mortality among their 

 children, it can hardly be doubted that the happi- 

 ness of the mass of mankind would be decidedly 

 improved. 



' It is further certain, that, under a given increase 

 of the funds for the maintenance of labour, it is 

 physically impossible to give to each labourer a 

 larger share of these funds, or materially to im- 

 prove his condition, without some increase of 

 the preventive check ; and, consequently, that all 

 efforts to improve the condition of the poor that 

 have no tendency to produce a more favourable 

 proportion between the means of subsistence and 

 the population which is to consume them, can only 

 be partial or temporary, and, however plausibly 

 humane, must ultimately defeat their own object 



' It follows, therefore, as a natural and necessary 

 conclusion, that in order to improve the condition 

 of the lower classes of society, to make them 

 suffer less under any diminution of the funds for 

 the maintenance of labour, and enjoy more under 

 any actual state of these funds, it should be the 

 great business to discourage helpless and improv- 

 ident habits, and to raise them as much as pos- 

 sible to the condition of beings who " look before 

 and after." The causes which principally tend to 

 foster helpless, indolent, and improvident habits 

 among the lower classes of society, seem to be 

 despotism and ignorance, and every plan of con- 

 duct towards them which increases their depend- 

 ence and weakens the motives to personal exertion. 

 The causes, again, which principally tend to pro- 

 mote habits of industry and prudence, seem to be 

 good government and good education, and every 

 circumstance which tends to increase their inde- 

 pendence and respectability. Wherever the regis- 

 ters of a country, under no particular disadvan- 

 tages of situation, indicate a great mortality, and 

 the general prevalence of the check arising from 

 disease and death over the check arising from 

 prudential habits, there we almost invariably find 

 the people debased by oppression ; ' or destitute 

 of knowledge, and of the habits implanted by a 

 good secular and moral education. 'Wherever, 

 on the contrary, in a country without peculiar 

 advantages of situation, or peculiar capability of 

 increase, the registers indicate a comparatively 

 small mortality, and the prevalence of the check 

 from prudential habits above that from premature 

 mortality, there we as constantly find security of 

 property established, and some degree of intelli- 

 gence and knowledge, with a taste for cleanli- 

 ness and domestic comforts, pretty generally 

 diffused. 



' Nor does experience seem to justify the fears 

 of those who think that one vice at least will 

 increase in proportion to the increase of the 



