236 Gtncral Observatiuiis. Bk. iii. 



government with its usual concomitant insecurity 

 of property ensue, (which has generally been the 

 case in all those countries which are now less])eo- 

 pled than formerly,) neither the food nor the po- 

 pulation can recover itself; and the inhabitants 

 will probably live in severe want. But when 

 an accidental depopulation takes place in a country 

 which was before populous and industrious, and 

 in the habit of exporting corn, if the remaining in- 

 habitants be left at liberty to exert, and do exert, 

 their industry in the same direction as before, it is 

 a strange idea to entertain, that they would then 

 be unable to supply themselves with corn in the 

 same plenty; particularly as the diminished num- 

 bers would of course cultivate principally the more 

 fertile parts of their territory, and not be obliged, 

 as in their more populous state, to apply to un- 

 grateful soils. Countries in this situation would 

 evidently have the same chance of recovering their 

 former number, as they had originally of reaching 

 this' number ; and indeed if absolute populousness 

 were necessary to relative plenty, as some agri- 

 culturists have supposed,* it would be impossible 



* Among others, I allude more particularly to Mr. Anderson, 

 who, in a Calm Invedigatiun into the Circumstances ivhich have led 

 to the present Scarcity of Grain in Britain (published in 1801,) 

 has laboured with extraordinary earnestness, and I believe with 

 the best intentions, to impress this curious truth on the minds of 

 his countrymen. The particular position which he attempts to 

 prove is, that an increase of population in any state, whose Jields have 

 not been made to attain their highest possible degree of productive- 

 ness {a thing that probably has never yet been seen on this globe) ^ xcil/ 



