Ch. xiii. preceding View of Society. 519 



to the population of the mother country. It has 

 been particularly remarked that the two Spanish 

 provinces, from which the greatest number of 

 people emigrated to America, became in conse- 

 quence more populous. 



Whatever was the original number of British 

 emigrants which increased so fast in North Ame- 

 rica, let us ask, Why does not an equal number 

 produce an equal increase in the same time in 

 Great Britain ? The obvious reason to be assigned 

 is the want of food ; and that this want is the most 

 efficient cause of the three immediate checks to 

 population, which have been observed to prevail 

 in all societies, is evident from the rapidity with 

 which even old states recover the desolations of 

 war, pestilence, famine, and the convulsions of 

 nature. They are then for a short time placed a 

 little in the situation of new colonies ; and the ef- 

 fect is always answerable to what might be ex- 

 pected. If the industry of the inhabitants be not 

 destroyed, subsistence will soon increase beyond 

 the wants of the reduced numbers ; and the in- 

 variable consequence will be, that population, 

 which before perhaps was nearly stationary, will 

 begin immediately to increase, and will continue 

 its progress till the former population is reco- 

 vered. 



The fertile province of Flanders, which has 

 been so often the seat of the most destructive 

 wars, after a respite of a few years has always 

 appeared as rich and populous as ever. The un- 



