Ch. iii. Of Systems of Equality, continued. 45 



only would there be no means of emigration to 

 other parishes with any prospect of relief, but the 

 rate of increase at first would, of course, be much 

 greater than in the present state of society. 

 What then, I would ask, is to prevent the division 

 of the produce of the soil to each individual from 

 becoming every year less and less, till the whole 

 society and every individual member of it are 

 pressed down by want and misery ?* 



This is a very simple and intelligible question. 

 And surely no man ought to propose or support a 

 system of equality, who is not able to give a ra- 

 tional answer to it, at least in theory. But, even 

 in theory, I have never yet heard any thing ap- 

 proaching to a rational answer to it. 



It is a very superficial observation which has 

 sometimes been made, that it is a contradiction 

 to lay great stress upon the efficacy of moral 

 restraint in an improved and improving state of 



* In the Spencean system, as published by the secretary of the 

 Society of Spencean Philanthropists, it unfortunately happens, that 

 after the proposed allowances have been made for the expenses of 

 the government, and of the other bodies in the state which are 

 intended to be supported, there would be absolutely no remainder; 

 and the people would not derive a single sixpence from their es- 

 tate, even at first, and on the supposition of the national debt 

 being entirely abolished, without the slightest compensation to the 

 national creditors. 



The annual rent of the land, houses, mines, and fisheries, is 

 estimated at 150 millions, about three times its real amount; yet, 

 even upon this extravagant estimate, it is calculated that the divi- 

 sion would only come to about four pounds a head, not more than 

 is sometimes given to individuals from the poor's rates ; a misera- 

 ble ])rovision ! and yet constantly diminishing. 



