324 Efftcts of the Knowledge of Bk. iv. 



And as this cause of unhappiness has hitherto 

 been so little understood, that the efforts of so- 

 ciety have always tended rather to aggravate than 

 to lessen it, we have the strongest reasons for 

 supposing that, in all the governments with which 

 we are acquainted, a great part of the misery to 

 be observed among the lower classes of the people 

 arises from this cause. 



The inference therefore which Mr. Paine and 

 others have drawn against governments from the 

 unhappiness of the people, is palpably unfair ; and 

 before we give a sanction to such accusations, it 

 is a debt we owe to truth and justice, to ascertain 

 how much of this unhappiness arises from the 

 principle of population, and how much is fairly to 

 be attributed to government. When this distinc- 

 tion has been properly made, and all the vague, 

 indefinite and lalse accusations removed, govern- 

 ment would remain, as it ought to be, clearly 

 responsible for the rest; and the amount of this 

 would still be such as to make the responsibility 

 very considerable. Though government has but 

 little power in the direct and immediate relief of 

 poverty, yet its indirect influence on the pro- 

 sperity of its subjects is striking and incontestable. 

 And the reason is, that though it is comparatively 

 impotent in its efforts to make the food of a country 

 keep pace with an unrestricted increase of popu- 

 lation, yet its influence is great in giving the best 

 direction to those checks, which in some form or 

 other must necessarily take place. It has clearly 

 appeared in the former part of this work, that the 



