POPULATION. 



POPULATION. 



POPULATION. As very erroneous notions 

 with regard to over-population are often enter- 

 tained, and as many of the most philanthropic 

 men in England have, at considerable personal 

 trouble and cost, promoted emigration, to avert 

 the>evils of war, pestilence, and famine, from 

 what Mr. Malthas supposes to be the tendency 

 of mankind to excessive population, it may be 

 well for the public to peruse a paper (Quart. 

 Journ. Agr. vol. iii. p. 89), which, in detail, 

 ably examines and refutes many of Mr. Mal- 

 thus's data, calculations, and conclusions. 

 Mr. Malthus states, from data derived through 

 a variety of sources, that the average births 

 from each marriage are 



In Europe -------- 4-000 



EiiKlaiul 4-136 



France, during the six years ending in 1822 - 4-370 



Hussia 4-110 



America (in towns) according to Mr. Barton 4 - 500 



America (in town and country average) - 5'000 



But, from returns made to government, it 

 appears that the average births in England and 

 Wales, during the 30 years ending 1820, fell 

 considerably under 4 from each marriage; and 

 of these, from personal deformity, and a hun- 

 dred other causes, a considerable portion of 

 women must remain unmarried. 



But supposing every woman, married or sin- 

 gk, who lived to 18 years of age, should have 7 

 children, and the rate of mortality as favour- 

 able as at Carlisle, the population would re- 

 quire more than 26 years to double itself; and 

 25 years is the lowest rate of increase Mr. 

 Malthus has contemplated. But, supposing 

 one-tenth part of all the women who attain 20 

 to remain in a state of celibacy, and the rest 

 were to bear each 3-66 children, which is stated 

 by Mr. Sadler to be the average prolificness in 

 England, and the mortality continued as at 

 Carlisle, the-population would remain entirely 

 stationary. In the rich and fertile country of 

 France, the population is nearly stationary, 

 and in Ireland, population increases faster 

 than in England; which can only be account- 

 ed for by the institutions which encourage in- 

 creased forethought before entering on the 

 married state. Amongst barbarous nations, the 

 period of marriage is almost always early; but 

 as countries become civilized, a portion of early 

 life is devoted to labour of mind and body; and 

 the desire of distinction in some, and, amongst 

 all, the pursuit of gain, delays marriage ; and, 

 happily for mankind, nothing is less consist- 

 ent with universal experience than the terrible 

 succession of evils Mr. Mallhus fears from 

 over-population. Natural evils, and the more 

 dreadful effects of misrule, have, indeed, spread 

 death and desolation; but the consequences 

 have not been increased plenty to the surviv- 

 ors: on the contrary, the page of history shows 

 that, in the fairest portions of the habitable 

 world, poverty and want have followed de- 

 creasing numbers. 



Whereas the wiser the laws, and, consequent- 

 ly, the more secure person and property, the slower 

 men are to marry till they have secured for 

 themselves and families, in a habitation of their 

 own, the conveniences they were used to under 

 their paternal roofs; and, consequently, the 

 less tendency to the excessive multiplication 

 024 



of mankind ; and we refer to Scotland, France, 

 &c., as existing proofs. 



No society, well governed, we repeat, has 

 been known to outgrow, or tend to outgrow, its 

 means of subsistence. When, in our own coun- 

 try, one of the most populous in the world, we 

 see how far the earth is yet from producing all 

 that labour, well-directed, can bring forth, when 

 we look at the tracts lying waste or half-culti- 

 vated, we must see how little it is to be feared 

 as a possible evil, that our population will ever 

 increase beyond the means of supplying itself 

 with food. We have only to look to what mi- 

 nute care can effect in multiplying the produce 

 of the earth, to feel in what a prodigious ratio 

 it may be multiplied. A piece of heath land 

 the most worthless, converted into a cottager's 

 garden, yields a return of food exceeding that 

 of the richest land of the cultivated fields. And 

 nothing prevents the increase of this species of 

 culture but the want of hands to cultivate and 

 of mouths to consume. Every vegetable that 

 grows, and is consumed, affords new materials 

 for fertilizing the earth, and increasing its pro- 

 ductions ; and thus every increase of the num- 

 ber of consumers is a means of calling new 

 food into existence. 



The introduction of a single plant from 

 another hemisphere has more than doubled 

 the power of this and of every country in Eu- 

 rope to support their inhabitants. An acre of 

 potatoes will supply food sufficient for the sup- 

 port, in healthful existence, of a family of 6 hu- 

 man beings for one year; a square mile of land 

 producing potatoes, therefore, will support 3840 

 persons for the same time. But the produce 

 of the potato is as nothing to that of the banana 

 and other plants of the tropical regions. Nor 

 does the produce of the potato in our fields 

 show the full power of the earth to produce 

 food. By the minute cares of the gardener, 

 successive crops of vegetables may be pro- 

 duced from the same surface, and in the same 

 season. Our present knowledge of agriculture 

 shows us, that throughout the w r hole kingdom 

 the productions of the earth may be prodi- 

 giously multiplied ; but what our present know- 

 ledge of this art is in comparison with what it 

 may become, we know not. What other plants 

 are yet to be applied to the support of animal 

 life, what other means of fertilizing the earth 

 are yet to be discovered, what other application 

 of mechanical power may yet take place in aid 

 of human labour, we know not; nor need we, 

 with relation to our present subject, be too 

 curious in inquiring. It suffices that, with our 

 present means and knowledge, limited as they 

 are, we can multiply our means of subsistence 

 in a degree to furnish food for increasing num- 

 bers for more generations of men than the 

 cares of the living race need extend to. 



And if such be the case with a long-peopled 

 country, what must we think of the fear that 

 the entire world will be over-peopled ! The 

 richest regions of the globe have yet been 

 scarcely trodden by the foot of the hunter; a 

 great part of Europe is still a desert; and a 

 long desolation has overspread lands that once 

 were the seats of nations, and which only de- 

 mand security that they may be blessed with 

 abundance again. Such as Asia Minor, Syria, 



