Ch. xiv. General Observations. 235 



they can support a family, or the wages of com- 

 mon labour being inadequate to this purpose, will 

 of course be deterred from marrying. But if a 

 demand for labour continue increasing with some 

 rapidity, although the supply of food be uncertain, 

 on account of variable seasons and a dependence 

 on other countries, the population will evidently 

 go on, till it is positively checked by famine or 

 the diseases arising from severe want. 



Scarcity and extreme poverty, therefore, mayor 

 may not accompany an increasing population, ac- 

 cording to circumstances : but they must neces- 

 sarily accompany a permanently declining popu- 

 lation ; because there never has been, nor probably 

 ever will be, any other cause than want of food, 

 which makes the population of a country perma- 

 nently decline. In the numerous instances of de- 

 population which occur in history, the causes may 

 always be traced to the want of industry or the ill 

 direction of that industry, arising from violence, 

 bad government, ignorance, &c. which first oc- 

 casion a want of food, and of course depopulation 

 follows. When Rome adopted the custom of im- 

 porting all her corn, and laying all Italy into pas- 

 ture, she soon declined in population. The causes 

 of the depopulation of Egypt and Turkey have 

 already been adverted to ; and in the case of Spain, 

 it was certainly not the numerical loss of people 

 occasioned by the expulsion of the Moors, but 

 the industry and capital thus expelled, which per- 

 manently injured her population. When a country 

 has been depopulated by violent causes, if a bad 



