Ch. vi. Of P 007^ -Laws, continued. 89 



nation should be exerted in the production of 

 them, except what was required for the mere 

 necessaries of clothing and houses ? Could such 

 a revolution be effected, would it be desirable ? 

 particularly as in a few years, notwithstanding all 

 these exertions, want, with less resource than 

 ever, would inevitably recur. 



After a country has once ceased to be in the 

 peculiar situation of a new colony, we shall always 

 find that in the actual state of its cultivation, or 

 in that state which may rationally be expected 

 from the most enlightened government, the in- 

 crease of its food can never allow for any length 

 of time an unrestricted increase of population ; 

 and therefore the due execution of the clause in 

 the 43d of Elizabeth, as a permanent law, is a 

 physical impossibility. 



It will be said, perhaps, that the fact contra- 

 dicts the theory ; and that the clause in question 

 has remained in force, and has been executed, 

 during the last two hundred years. In answer to 

 this, I should say without hesitation, that it has 

 not really been executed ; and that it is merely 

 owing to its incomplete execution, that it remains 

 on our statute-book at present. 



The scanty relief granted to persons in distress, 

 the capricious and insulting manner in which it 

 is sometimes distributed by the overseers, and 

 the natural and becoming pride, not yet quite 

 extinct among the peasantry of England, have 

 deterred the more thinking and virtuous part of 

 them from venturing on marriage, without some 



