46 IHE LANDED INTEREST. 



Trade and the great resources it possesses in minerals of iron 



Colonies 



enable and coal, and the outlet it finds in extensive 



England 



to dispense colonies, has advantages which have hitherto 



with 



increase" 1 ena ^ e d ^ to disregard those prudential con- 

 siderations which, in some other countries, have 

 checked the rapid increase of population. Where 

 full employment and the means of subsistence 

 are abundant, population increases in geo- 

 metrical progression, and therefore in a far 

 more rapid proportion than the increased pro- 

 ductiveness of the soil, which, after a certain 

 point, is stationary. The population of England 

 increases more rapidly than that of France 

 because our enormous foreign trade, amounting 

 in value to 20 per head of our population, 

 enables us to add the food resources of other 

 countries to our own. Our surplus population, 

 not wedded to the soil by property, emigrate 

 to countries of the same language, at the rate 

 of 100,000 a year ; partly to the United States, 

 and partly to our own colonies. Our agricul- 

 ture is no longer influenced by considerations 

 of the means of finding employment for sur- 

 plus labour, but is now being developed on the 



