196 Of the Checks to Population in Bk. i. 



to a certain degree permitted. Add to this, that 

 the practice of polygamy* among the rich would 

 sometimes render it difficult for the lower classes 

 of people to obtain wives ; and this difficulty 

 would probably fall particularly hard on those, 

 who were reduced to the condition of slaves. 



From all these circumstances combined, it 

 seems probable that among the checks to popula- 

 tion in India the preventive check would have 

 its share ; but from the prevailing habits and 

 opinions of the people, there is reason to believe 

 that the tendency to early marriages was still 

 always predominant, and in general prompted 

 every person to enter into this state, who could 

 look forward to the slightest chance of being able 

 to maintain a family. The natural consequence 

 of this was, that the lower classes of people were 

 reduced to extreme poverty, and were com- 

 pelled to adopt the most frugal and scanty mode 

 of subsistence. This frugality was still further 

 increased, and extended in some degree to the 

 higher classes of society, by its being considered 

 as an eminent virtue.f The population would 

 thus be pressed hard against the limits of the 

 means of subsistence, and the food of the country 

 would be meted out to the major part of the 

 people in the smallest shares that could support 

 life. In such a state of things every failure in 

 the crops from unfavourable seasons would be 

 felt most severely; and India, as might be ex- 



* Sir William Jones's Works, vol. iii. c. ix. p. 346, 347- 

 f Id. c. iii. p. 133. 



