Retrospective Criticism. 609 



by the spade can never compensate for the difference of expense ; but, cer- 

 tainly, much may be done with those in the hands of corporations, &c, and 

 kept as commons. Many of these do not yield a quarter of the rent of 

 what they might be made to do if properly cultivated. The expense of an 

 act of parliament deters the owners of many of the smaller ones. A general 

 inclosure act, reserving the power of settling disputes to the quarter sessions 

 or assizes, might materially expedite the object. 



I have thus, perhaps tediously enough, detailed some facts and opinions 

 which may assist you in your projected work. I have no wish to have any 

 of the observations upon the cottage details in the Quarterly published : I 

 only wished to show you that the new plan of building cottages may, in 

 some cases, increase the distress, and the poor's rate, and thus to prevent 

 you from being misled by the visions of Dr. Southey. I am, Sir, &c. — J. C. 

 Our enlightened and much esteemed correspondent, if he thinks that 

 we wish to force the cottage system, has mistaken our meaning ; quite the 

 contrary : what we say is, when there are to be cottages, let them be good 

 ones, and never without large gardens attached. We are most happy to 

 find such an able practical advocate for free trade hoping " to see the day 

 when, by the freedom of trade, and taking the taxes off the productive 

 labourer, the demand for labour may be so great, and wages so high, that 

 one half of the labourers in the kingdom may inhabit such houses as we 

 have designed for them." Free trade, parliamentary reform, and a national 

 system of education, may be said to comprise all that we wish for. We 

 wish we could say that we hoped to see any of them, for any one would 

 lead to the other two. — Cond. 



Education as a Check to Population. — My reflection on the point has 

 been but little, but that little induces me to think that this can scarcely be 

 the result. Labouring men are paid according to their absolute wants : if 

 their labour could be purchased at a lower rate, it would be done; for it is 

 commerce, not benevolence, that is the buyer. At present, the workman 

 labours but six days out of seven, and yet he receives as much as will support 

 him the seven days ; for this reason, and this reason only, that his absolute 

 wants require thai; it should be so; and, were the working days reduced to 

 five, he would still receive as much. Now, this is precisely the case sup- 

 posed by you ( Vol. V. p. 694.) : there is no commercial difference between the 

 same amount of wants supplied by a smaller amount of labour, and a larger 

 amount of wants supplied by the same amount of labour. Your creation 

 of wants, therefore, would not check population ; it would merely raise the 

 price of labour. This very principle regulates the salaried portion of middle 

 life : the appearances necessary to be kept up in given situations operate as 

 powerfully on the amount of wages as bread and potatoes on the wages of 

 the mechanic. Many men in middle life do not marry, it is true, because 

 they cannot support a family ; but population is not therefore checked, it 

 is only of a different kind — a population of bastards. Nature cannot be 

 bridled ; and such a result as the prevention of marriage would be dreadful : 

 either disease and death from promiscuous intercourse ; or the introduction 

 of sin and sorrow into the bosoms of innocent families, and the turning of 

 this lovely world into a universal hell. The dreams of overstocking the 

 world, when so large a portion of its surface is uncultivated, always put me 

 in mind of the worthy alderman who lamented so bitterly, because that in 

 800 years there would be no more coals at Newcastle. Why, even now, 

 steam is likely to supersede draft-cattle, and leave the land at present 

 employed in raising food for them, to the production of food for man. A 

 thousand ways will suggest themselves by which the Creator of man could 

 remedy his over-increase; sealing up the womb would leave all to be enacted 

 over again. Surely we might leave a little to God, and not suppose him 

 such a bungler, or such a ferocious parent, as to botch up a system under 

 which his children would be eventually driven to devour each other. Edu- 

 Vol. VI. — No. 28. R R 



