240 ■ General Observations. Bk. iii. 



capital, who rents land which is let out yearly to 

 the highest bidder, and who is constantly subject 

 to the demands of his tyrannical masters, to the 

 casual plunder of an enemy, and not unfrequently 

 to the violation of his miserable contract, can have 

 no heart to be industrious, and, if he had, could 

 not exercise that industry with success. .Even 

 poverty itself, which appears to be the great spur 

 to industry, when it has once passed certain limits, 

 almost ceases to operate. The indigence which 

 is hopeless destroys all vigorous exertion, and 

 confines the efforts to what is sufficient for bare 

 existence. It is the hope of bettering our condi- 

 tion, and the fear of want, rather than want itself, 

 that is the best stimulus to industry; and its most 

 constant and best directed efforts will almost in- 

 variably be found among a class of people above 

 the class of the wretchedly poor. 



The effect of ignorance and oppression will 

 therefore always be to destroy the springs of in- 

 dustry, and consequently to diminish the annual 

 produce of the land and labour in any country ; 

 and this diminution will inevitably be followed by 

 a decrease of the population, in spite of the birth 

 of any number of children whatever annually. 

 The desire of immediate gratification, and the re- 

 moval of the restraints to it from prudence, may 

 perhaps, in such countries, prompt universally to 

 early marriages; but when these habits have once 

 reduced the people to the lowest possible state of 

 poverty, they can evidently have no further effect 

 upon the population. Their only effect must be 



