204 Of the Checks to Population in Bk i. 



pact. Nor is this sort of league confined to the 

 lower ranks of people alone ; it is found also fre- 

 quently in the most opulent families.* 



It is evident that this custom, combined with 

 the celibacy of such a numerous body of ecclesi- 

 astics, must operate in the most powerful manner 

 as a preventive check to population. Yet, not- 

 withstanding this excessive check, it would ap- 

 pear, from Mr. Turner's account of the natural 

 sterility of the soil, that the population is kept up 

 to the level of the means of subsistence ; and this 

 seems to be confirmed by the number of beggars 

 in Teshoo Loomboo. On these beggars, and the 

 charity which feeds them, Mr. Turner's remark, 

 though common, is yet so just and important that 

 it cannot be too often repeated. 



" Thus I unexpectedly discovered," he says, 

 " where I had constantly seen the round of life 

 " moving in a tranquil regular routine, a mass of 

 " indigence and idleness, of which I had no idea. 

 " But yet it by no means surprised me, when I 

 " considered that, wherever indiscriminate charity 

 '* exists, it will never want objects on which to 

 " exercise its bounty, but will always attract ex- 

 " pectants more numerous than it has the means 

 " to gratify. No human being can suffer want at 

 " Teshoo Loomboo. It is on this humane dispo-- 

 " sition, that a multitude even of Musselmen, of 

 w a frame probably the largest and most robust in 



* Turner's Embassy, part ii. c. x. p. 349. 



