6*2 



POPULATION PORCUPINE. 



there population increases the most rapidly, if other 

 regulations of society do not prevent. And if the 

 greater number are employed in cultivating the 

 soil, and few idle and unproductive consumers are 

 to be found, then the population increases in an 

 extraordinary manner. In such countries, it doubles, 

 according to Euler, every twelve or thirteen years. 

 The greatest increase of population which is 

 known, on a large scale, is in the United States of 

 North America, where, hitherto, it has doubled 

 every twenty-five years. And even after all the 

 good land has been brought into cultivation, the 

 rapid increase will continue a long time; for the 

 division of labour will furnish subsistence to a great 

 number who do not wish to occupy themselves 

 with the cultivation of the land ; for experience 

 teaches us, that a family which has no other occu- 

 pation than the cultivation of the land is able, with 

 a capital and industry, to produce enough for four 

 or five families besides itself. Since these families 

 which are occupied in the cultivation of the land 

 are provided with manufactured articles, and are 

 able to dispose of their own produce, an opulent 

 population will arise, abundantly provided with the 

 comforts of life. We may add that, even in the 

 most cultivated part of the world (namely, in 

 Europe), there is no extensive country without a 

 quantity of uncultivated land (in England alone 

 seven million acres), and which want nothing but 

 hands, and the removal of political impediments, to 

 supply the means of subsistence to a much greater 

 number of inhabitants. It is impossible, moreover, 

 to determine how much the means of support can 

 be increased by a more perfect cultivation of the 

 soil, by the discovery and introduction of more 

 nutritious kinds of vegetables, &c., since experience 

 shows that land which formerly hardly yielded four 

 times the amount of the seed, now yields, under a 

 more perfect cultivation, ten or twenty times ; and 

 what cannot be done by machines and chemical arts, 

 if necessity and the desire of gain excite the genius 

 of men to new inventions ? 



Finally, the increase of population may find a 

 supply from the cultivation of countries not yet 

 sufficiently peopled to consume their own natural 

 productions. Such countries are always ready to 

 exchange their surplus produce for the manufactures 

 of those countries which are in want of it, since 

 they cannot manufacture so cheap and so well, but 

 can supply the produce of the soil much cheaper 

 than it can be raised in manufacturing countries. 

 This exchange is advantageous for both nations ; 

 and we find that even those nations which could 

 easily produce more (and there is no country where 

 this could not be done) leave a portion of the land 

 uncultivated, or do not cultivate it as much as they 

 might, because the produce thus obtained would be 

 much dearer to them than that which they receive 

 from other countries. As long as there are coun- 

 tries where food can be raised cheaper than in 

 others, and as long as it can be bought cheaper, 

 including the cost of transportation, than it can be 

 cultivated in a given country, the population of 

 this latter country will always be enabled to 

 increase, 'provided it can produce superfluous 

 manufactures which the former will receive for the 

 surplus produce of the soil. 



If we consider the many uncultivated spots which 

 are capable of affording subsistence to innumerable 

 millions of men, and which are still to be found in 

 the midst of cultivated countries, then the policy 

 which recommends checks to the increase of popu- 

 lation, from fear of an inadequate supply, must 

 appear very absurd. But, with regard to an excess 

 of population in particular parts of the earth, it 



appears the dictate of a sound policy, 1. not to 

 Favour nor tolerate any institution in the country 

 whereby useless, idle people are maintained. 

 Therefore beggars and other vagabonds should 

 never be protected in a state, and sinecures and 

 superfluous offices should not be allowed. Every 

 one ought to gain his subsistence by some employ- 

 ment useful to society. If all those produce who 

 are able, they will easily provide for those who are 

 employed in public offices, &c.; and with every 

 generation as many productive individuals will 

 jrise as will be necessary to furnish supplies for 

 those whose services they require. 2. To give a 

 Free scope to industry, and to useful labour of all 

 kinds, and to make them the chief principle of the 

 division of goods. It is contrary to this principle, 

 f money, and particularly land, is kept united in 

 jreat masses, in few hands, by means of associ- 

 ations, and if the access to them is rendered difficult, 

 or is denied to industry, so that it cannot obtain 

 what a free competition would have given it. Such 

 institutions operate directly against the production 

 of the country, and consequently against the popu- 

 lation, as well as the distribution of wealth. But 

 ivhere the property is distributed according to the 

 industry of each individual, the increase of the 

 national wealth and its general distribution are 

 best promoted, and the increase of population 

 always follows the increase of the means of subsis- 

 tence in a just proportion. 3. To give, no occasion 

 to capitalists or traders to transfer their capitals or 

 their business to another country, as long as their 

 own offers them equal advantages. 4. To give full 

 liberty to those who wish to emigrate. Where 

 such a policy is adopted, the natural instinct may 

 be permitted to act freely, without fear of an excess 

 of population. On the contrary, all artificial 

 measures, which governments have often employed 

 to increase the population, ought to be entirely 

 rejected, because they do not also supply the means 

 of preserving and educating the children. Since, 

 further, the institution of matrimony is a religious 

 and moral institution, which promotes, in the safest 

 way, the moral purpose of the sexual appetite, a 

 community ought to prevent, as much as possible, 

 the birth of illegitimate children. No one should 

 enter into matrimony without the prospect of being 

 able to educate his children in such a manner that 

 they shall also be able to provide for themselves, 

 and afterwards for their children. Hence it follows 

 that population, abstractly considered, is not an 

 important subject of public policy, and that we 

 ought not to fear, in the common course of affairs, 

 an excess of population in civilized countries. 



PORCELAIN. The Chinese porcelain excels 

 other kinds of ware in the delicacy of its texture, 

 and the partial transparency which it exhibits when 

 held against the light. It has been long known 

 and manufactured by the Chinese, but has never 

 been successfully imitated in Europe until within 

 the last century. See the article China-ware. 



PORCIA ; daughter of Cato of Utica, and wife 

 of Brutus, celebrated as a model of connubial love 

 and heroic patriotism. She preserved inviolate the 

 secret of the conspiracy against Csesar, with which 

 she had been intrusted by her husband, and put 

 herself to death when she saw the cause of the 

 republicans lost. The story of her swallowing live 

 coals is not true. 



PORCUPINE (hystrix); a genus of quadrupeds 

 belonging to the rodentia, or gnawers, characterized 

 by having the clavicles imperfect, two incisor teeth 

 in each jaw, and four molars both above and below, 

 on each side ; these have flat crowns, surrounded 

 by a line of enamel, which enters into both edges, 





