8 



FARMERS- REGISTER. 



[No. i 



to each oiher, and to him; that they aee formed to 

 subsist as he sutisists; and Itirit they are to be oe- 

 cnpied ill iheir various callincrs, iree and unshac- 

 kled, as he is occupied; to obtain their leifiliniate 

 subsistence as he obtains his: he will then proba- 

 bly come at soinethinir like the truth; but never 

 with the ijj^norance (of first principles) and the 

 political feeliuirs of iMalthus. Malthus has writ- 

 ten a jiflorious book for the selfish — (forced to be 

 by law) idle, rich, and titled; oC course thsij ciied 

 up his monstrous, outra2:eous, and really blasphe- 

 mous theory, as a master-piece oCphilosophv ! To 

 make the scorn a' d usurped superiorilv of the ad- 

 ventitious aristocrat a fixed and satisfied princi- 

 ple, is an act of fearful error and mischieil 



The besetlins; tdult, and the true cause of the 

 utter Ikllacy and consequent complete failure of the 

 operation of the laws and theories of statesmen, 

 political economists, philosophers, philanthropists, 

 &c. are itr their viewing, partial and local thirio-.?, 

 as the sole and main causes of great and universal 

 evils; and partial and local remedies, as the creat 

 and un:versal ones. Consequently, their reme- 

 dies are ever in direct variance with the greatest 

 and most important laws of nature; hence they 

 cannot succeed. Deficiency of food and excess of 

 population, affect the condition of all; they arise 

 tioni the ignorance and errors of all; thev must be 

 removed and remedied by the just observance of 

 the laws of nature by all. How then can partially 

 checkinir population in one class, remedy the exis- 

 tence of universal deficiency of fiiod and excess of 

 population, when all are placed m utter dispropor- 

 tion of the law of occupation, and the mass with 

 that of subsistencel — thus, all making the produc- 

 tion of food for the mass defective and deficient. 

 If the whole non, undue, disproportional and de- 

 fective observance of the law of occupation, makes 

 the production of food deficient, how then can any 

 partial and arbitrary check to population, even if 

 practicable^ possibly remedy the evil, leaving the 

 teal causes still in full operation as before? 



The production of population belongs to the 

 laws of nature; man has nothing to do with either 

 checking or resjulating its increase, or otherwise. 

 The more he does so, the more mischief he will 

 create. His: duties are to provide due and sufli- 

 cient occupation; the food will then duly follow 

 the consequent llill and legitimate demand, and 

 consequent just compensation (wages) for it. 

 The power to do so beinu then fully equal to the 

 force and eKtent of the demand, for as is the de- 

 mand for food, so are the povvers and means of 

 creating it. Who can doubt that the laws of na- 

 ture are in any degree inadequate to this pur- 

 pose ! 



It is well put by H. C. Carey in his 'Essay on 

 Wages,' that "the trade of population is the only 

 one that has heretofore been free; and it is to be 

 regretted, tl lat those who are in fiivor of loosing 

 the shackleis which have bound all others, advo^ 

 cate restrictions upon that which has heretofore 

 escaped." If the trade of population has always 

 been free — land God forbid it should ever be (mo- 

 rally and le(!;itimately) otherwise — well may there 

 be deficiency of food and excess of population, 

 whilst nations are restricted in all sorts of ways, 

 both as to their natural subsistence and occupa- 

 tion! Let ■^nopalatwn alone; duly and Justly em- 

 ploy it; and it will then be duly fed. If it is thus 

 duly fed, th e production of food will then be full ' 



and ample. D'^ficiency oi'tbod and excess of pop- 

 ulation^ .vv'ili then wholly cease and disai)pear. 

 Let rich and poor marry as they may. All this, 

 political economists and statesmen, and even far- 

 mers and manufacturers, have yet to learn and 

 understand. Il'they do not know these (when 

 known) very simple and very obviovs ^rsf prin- 

 ciples, what errors they must conmiit ! Not 

 knowinw them, they have done so. 



Malthus has clearly and most indisputably 

 proved (with some liicls innocently, because igno- 

 rantly, somewhat stretched as part of his theory.) 

 that deficiency of food and consequent excess of 

 population, poverty and misery have existed in all 

 ages and countries: thus opening the door to 

 the investigation of the greatest and most impor- 

 tant subject which ever did or can en!?a<re the 

 mind of man. But surely the cause cannot be 

 what he has conceived it to be, and still less the 

 remedy. He saj'S man has a tendency to increase 

 faster than his food; so have all living things, ani- 

 mal and vegetable, from the musquiio to the ele- 

 phant, from the thistle to ihe oak, the same ten- 

 dency. If animals have a tendency to increase 

 faster than plants, (if I may so express it in a sort 

 of Irish fishion for want of a better,) plants have 

 the same tendency to increase fisterthan animals. 

 The siiai k has a tendency to depopulate the ocean; 

 the hening has a tendency -to fill it. The lion and 

 tiger, the thistle and thousandsof other plants and 

 weeds, little things as well as great, have a tenden- 

 cy to drive man out of existcmce. Yet all these 

 things remain as duly proportioned as ever. We 

 know the sun and other forces are adequate to 

 sustain, lidht and heat the globe itself, and there- 

 fore we ??wj/ A:now that there are other laws, al- 

 though we may not yet have discovered and 

 brought them into action, equally and correspond- 

 ingly, adequate to duly and fully support human 

 life. Nature has equalized and adjusted all these 

 things so exactly and truly, that there is nothing 

 either to excite man's fears regarding them, or to 

 require any interference of his to regulate them, or 

 to make any new laics respecting them. 



I believe no one has yet inves'igated the ques- 

 tion and principles of how the occupations of a 

 nation govern the means and modes of subsistence, 

 and of how the powers and modes of subsistence 

 govern the production of food. 



The great essential means of the prosperity and 

 well-being of mankind, are the due observance of 

 the law of occupation. AH being duly occupied, 

 they will be duly paid, and consequently, duly 

 subsisted; the true principles and practice of ag- 

 riculture will then consequently follow. With 

 these, education must go hand m hand; and to es- 

 tablish these, there must be good government. If 

 these laws are not duly observed and established, 

 how nugatory must be all conipulsory laws of gov- 

 ernment, directing and controlling the people! 

 And how unnecessary, if they are observed and 

 established ! 



Every man is born with certain powers and 

 abilities to enable him, not only fully to support his 

 own existence, but likewise that of his children; 

 that is, provided all other men duly exercise their 

 povvers and abilities, and all duly and e()uitably 

 exchange the products of their labors with each 

 other. If the sexes, rates of increase, kinds and 

 quantities of food, animals, plants, fishes, birds, 

 land and water, hea'> and light, seasons, every thing 



