Ch. xiv. General Observations. 241 



on the degree of mortality; and there is no doubt, 

 that, if we could obtain accurate bills of mortality 

 in those southern countries, where very few women 

 remain unmarried, and all marry young, the pro- 

 portion of the annual deaths would be 1 in 17, 18, 

 or 20, instead of 1 in 34, 36, or 40, as in European 

 states where the preventive check operates. 



That an increase of population, when it follows 

 in its natural order, is both a great positive good 

 in itself, and absolutely necessary to a further in- 

 crease in the annual produce of the land and labour 

 of any country, I should be the last to deny. The 

 only question is, what is the order of its progress? 

 In this point Sir James Steuart, who has in general 

 explained this subject so well, appears to me to 

 have fallen into an error. He determines, that 

 multiplication is the efficient cause of agriculture, 

 and not agriculture of multiplication.* But though 

 it may be allowed, that the increase of people, 

 beyond what could easily subsist on the natural 

 fruits of the earth, first prompted man to till the 

 ground ; and that the view of maintaining a family, 

 or of obtaining some valuable consideration in ex- 

 change for the products of agriculture, still ope- 

 rates as the principal stimulus to cultivation ; yet 

 it is clear that these products, in their actual state, 

 must be beyond the lowest wants of the existing 

 population, before any permanent increase can 

 possibly be supported. We know, that a multi- 

 plication of births has in numberless instances 



* Polit. Econ. vol. i. b. i. c. xviii. p. i 14. 

 VOL. II. R 



