POLITICAL ECONOMY. 



example, the favours granted by government suddenly 

 iy- give a great <le\ elopment to a species of manufacture 

 T"""' which, atVer its commencement, cannot be maintained, 

 the workuu-n, whose remuneration was double during 

 nne time, will all have married to profit by their 6pu- 

 Irnce ; and then at the moment >\ lien their trade de- 

 clines, families disproportionate to the actual de- 

 mand of labour will be plunged into the most dreadful 

 wretchfdiu-.-s. 



It is those variations in the demand for labour, this 

 ort of revolution so frequent in the livesof poor artisans, 

 that gives to the state a superabundant population. Al- 

 ready brought into the world, that population finds no 

 longer any room to exist there ; it is always ready to 

 be satisfied with the lowest terms on which it may be 

 permitted to live. There is no condition so hard that 

 men are not found ready to engage in it voluntarily. 

 In some trades, the workmen are obliged to live in 

 mud, exposed to continual nausea ; in others, the labour 

 engenders painful and inevitable maladies ; several 

 stupify the senses, degrade the body and the soul ; se- 

 veral employ none but children, and after introducing 

 into life, abandon to a horrible indigence the being 

 they have formed. There are callings, in .fine, which 

 public opinion brands with infamy : there are some 

 which deserve this condemnation. Yet the ranks are 

 always full ; and a miserable wage, a wage scarce suf- 

 ficient for existence, induces men to undergo so many 

 evils. The reason is, society does not leave them any 

 choice ; they are compelled to be contented with this 

 cruel lot, or not to live. The duty of governments to 

 succour so much wretchedness cannot be doubtful, for 

 they are almost always the cause of this wretched po- 

 pulation's being created ; but, at the same time, they 

 ought not to forget that it is their part to save from 

 indigence the miserable creatures already in existence, 

 though at the same time discouraging them from per- 

 petuating their race. Assistance given to the poor has 

 often done the contrary. 



Religious instruction has almost always strongly con- 

 tributed to destroy the equilibrium between the popu- 

 lation and the demand for labour, which is to give it 

 subsistence. When questions of moral polity are in- 

 troduced in a religious system, it almost constantly 

 happens that the cause of the precept is absolutely se- 

 parated from the precept itself; and a rule which 

 should be modified by circumstances, becomes an in- 

 variable law. Religions began with the origin of the 

 human race ; and therefore at a time when the rapid 

 progress of population was everywhere desirable : 

 their principles have not yet changed, now when the 

 unlimited increase of families has given birth only to 

 beings, of necessity condemned to physical suffering 

 or moral degradation. 



A Chinese knows no greater misfortune, no deeper 

 humiliation, than not to leave sons behind him to per- 

 form the funeral honours at his death. In almost all 

 other creeds the indefinite increase of families has ever 

 been represented as a blessing of heaven. On the 

 other hand, whilst religion repressed irregularity of 

 morals, it attached all morality of conduct to marriage ; 

 and washed away, by the nuptial benediction alone, 

 whatever was reprehensible in the imprudence of him 

 who inconsiderately contracted the bonds of paternity. 

 Yet how important soever purity of morals may be, 

 the duties of a father towards those whom he brings 

 into existence are of a still higher order. Children 

 born but for wretchedness, are also born but for vice. 

 The happiness and the virtue of innocent and defence- 



VOL. XVI. PART II. 



less beings are thu* sacrificed beforehand to satisfy the I' 

 passion* of a day. The ardour of caiuiU in preaching Economy, 

 up marriage to correct a fauk ; the imprudence with w*y^^ 

 which they recommend hutbands to shut their eyes 

 upon the future, to entrust the fate of their children to 

 Providence ; the ignorance of social order, which has 

 induced them to erase chastity from the number of 

 virtues proper in m image, are causes which have been 

 incessantly active in destroying the proportion which 

 naturally would have established itself between the po- 

 pulation and its means of existing. 



The Catholic faith has sometimes gained credit 

 for its religious vows, which, by forbidding marriage to 

 a certain number of individuals, seemed to offer some 

 opposition to an unlimited multiplication of the human 

 species. But those who consider it thus, certainly do 

 not understand another very important part of the le- 

 gislation of casuists, with regard to all that they have 

 named the duties of husbands. Considering marriage 

 as solely destined for multiplication, they have made a 

 sin of the very virtues which they enforce on single 

 persons. This morality is enforced by every confessor 

 on every father and mother of a family. The effects of 

 it are powerfully felt in the social organization of 

 Catholic countries. They are met with even in reformed 

 churches. 



When fatal prejudices are not honoured ; when a 

 system of morality contrary to our true duties towards 

 others, and above all towards those indebted to us for 

 life, is not taught in the name of the most sacred au- 

 thority, no wise man will marry till he is in a con- 

 dition that affords him sure means of living, no father 

 of a family will have more children than he can 

 conveniently maintain. The latter expects that his 

 children will be satisfied with the lot in which he has 

 lived ; hence he will wish the rising generation ex- 

 actly to represent that which is departing ; he will 

 wish that a son and a daughter, arrived at the age of 

 marriage, should fill the place of his father and his mo- 

 ther ; that his children's children should fill his place 

 and his wife's in their turn ; his daughter will find in 

 another house exactly the lot which he will give to 

 the daughter of another house in his own ; and the 

 income which satisfied the fathers will satisfy the chil- 

 dren. 



When once this family is formed, justice and hu- 

 manity require that they submit to the same constraints 

 which single people undergo. On considering how small 

 is the number of natural children in every country, it 

 ought to be admitted, that this constraint is sufficiently 

 effectual. In a country where population cannot in- 

 crease, where new places do not exist for new establish- 

 ments, the father who has eight children should reckon 

 either that six of his children will die young ; or that 

 three contemporary males and their contemporary fe- 

 males ; or in the following generation three of his sons 

 and three of his daughters, will not marry on his ac- 

 count. There is no less injustice in the second calcu- 

 lation than cruelty in the first. If marriage is sacred ; 

 if it is one great means of attaching men to virtue, 

 and recompensing the chagrins of declining years, by 

 the growing hopes of allowing an honourable old age 

 to succeed an active youth, it is not because this institu- 

 tion renders lawful the pleasures of sense, but because 

 it imposes new duties on the father of a family, and re- 

 turns him the sweetest recompense in the ties of hus- 

 band and father. Religious morality ought therefore 

 to teach men, that marriage is made for all citizens 

 equally ; that it is the object toward which they should 



