Ch. xiv. General Observations. 251 



that, as no country has ever reached, or probably 

 ever v^^ill reach, its highest possible acme of pro- 

 duce, it appears always as if the vi^ant of industry, 

 or the ill direction of that industry, was the actual 

 limit to a further increase of produce and popula- 

 tion, and not the absolute refusal of nature to 

 yield any more : but a man who is locked up in a 

 room may be fairly said to be confined by the 

 walls of it, though he may never touch them ; and 

 with regard to the principle of population, it is 

 never the question whether a country will pro- 

 duce any more, but whether it may be made to 

 produce a sufficiency to keep pace with a nearly 

 unchecked increase of people. In China, the 

 question is not, whether a certain additional quan- 

 tity of rice might be raised by improved culture; 

 but whether such an addition could be expected 

 during the next twenty -five years, as would be 

 sufficient to support an additional three hundred 

 millions of people. And in this country, it is not 

 the question whether, by cultivating all our com- 

 mons, we could raise considerably more corn than 

 at present; but whether we could raise sufficient 

 for a population of twenty millions in the next 

 twenty-five years, and forty millions in the next 

 fifty years.* 



* It may be thought that the effects here referred to as result- 

 ing from greatly increased resources, could not take place in a 

 country where there were towns and manufactories ; and that 

 they are not consistent with what was said in a former part of 

 this work, namely, that the ultimate check to population (the 



