POPULATION. 



the practice of which is most earnestly 

 to be encouraged. If no man were to mar- 

 ry, who had not a fair prospect of provid- 

 ing- for the presumptive issue of his mar- 

 riage, population would be kept within 

 proper bounds ; men and women would 

 marry later in life, but in the full hope of 

 their reward they would acquire habits of 

 industry and frugality, and inculcate the 

 same in the minds of their children. Mr. 

 Malthus does not actually propose that 

 any restraint upon marriage between two 

 persons of proper age should be enforc- 

 ed by law, but insists that the contract of 

 marriages, between persons who have no 

 other prospect of providing for their off- 

 spring than by throwing them on a pa- 

 rish, should not be, as "it is at present, 

 encouraged by law. With this view he 

 suggests a plan for the gradual abolition 

 of the poor laws ; but, until the poor are 

 more enlightened, and better instructed in 

 moral duties, it is much to be feared that 

 the total abolition of these laws would 

 produce much more vice and misery than 

 at present exists among them. 



Although a knowledge of the state of 

 the population has been deemed impor- 

 tant in most countries, few attempts had 

 been made to ascertain this circumstance 

 with precision, till within a very late period. 

 In the year 1757 a general enumeration 

 was taken in the kingdom of Sweden, 

 which has since been continued ; but 

 most of the other governments of Europe 

 were satisfied with the returns of the 

 number of houses, families, or persons 

 paying particular taxes. It remained for 

 the new government of the United 

 States of America to set the example of 



a complete enumeration throughout a ve- 

 ry extensive territory, and apparently 

 made with as much precision as the na- 

 ture of the subject admits. The act of 

 Congres, for the first census, passed the 

 first of March, 1790 ; it directed the mar- 

 shal of every district to superintend the 

 enumeration of the state where he exer- 

 cised his functions, and authorised him to 

 call in what aid and assistance he might 

 judge proper. He was ordered to make 

 a return within nine months to the Pre- 

 sident of the United States, distinguish- 

 ing in the return the number of free males 

 under and above the age of sixteen years, 

 the number of free females, and of slaves. 

 The Indians, who might live in the dis- 

 tricts, were not to be included in the list 

 of population. Every assistant in the enu- 

 meration was directed, before transmit- 

 ing his account to the marshal, to affix it 

 in two or three of the most frequented 

 places of assembly within his bounds, that 

 it might receive any corrections which 

 the inhabitants might suggest. In this 

 manner the census was completed, and 

 the result announced a population of 

 3,929,326 inhabitants, including 697,697 

 slaves. The inhabitants of the north-west 

 territory were not included in this num- 

 ber, but the population of that part was 

 then so inconsiderable, that it would have 

 made no important difference in the total 

 number. On the twenty-eighth of Fe- 

 bruary, 1800, an act was passed for tak- 

 ing the second census, pursuant to which 

 the returns were transmitted to the Pre- 

 sident in December, 1801. The particu- 

 lars of this enumeration, with the totals of 

 the former, are given in the following 

 statement : 



