Ch. ii. in Siveden. 285 



selves, or cause more of the Swedes to be starved ; 

 and if the yearly number of births were consi- 

 derably increased, it appears to me perfectly 

 clear, from the tables of M. Wargentin, that the 

 principal effect would be merely an increase of 

 mortality. The actual population might perhaps 

 even be diminished by it; as, when epidemics 

 have once been generated by bad nourishment 

 and crowded houses, they do not always stop 

 when they have taken off the redundant popula- 

 tion, but take off with it a part, and sometimes a 

 very considerable part, of that which the country 

 might be able properly to support. 



In all very northern climates, in which the 

 principal business of agriculture must necessarily 

 be compressed into the small space of a few 

 summer months, it will almost inevitably happen 

 that during this period a want of hands is felt; 

 but this temporary want should be carefully dis- 

 tinguished from a real and effectual demand for 

 labour, which includes the power of giving em- 

 ployment and support through the whole year, 

 and not merely for two or three months. The 

 population of Sweden in the natural course of its 

 increase will always be ready fully to answer this 

 effectual demand ; and a supply beyond it, whe- 

 ther from strangers or an additional number of 

 births, can only be productive of misery. 



It is asserted by Swedish authors that a given 

 number of men and of days produces in Sweden 

 only a third part of what is produced by the same 



