Ch. vi. the Principal Cause of Povcrtif, S^c. 325 



most despotic and worst-governed countries, how- 

 ever low they might be in actual population, were 

 uniformly the most populous in proportion to 

 their means of subsistence ; and the necessary 

 effect of this state of things must of course be very 

 low wages. In such countries the checks to po- 

 pulation arise more from the sickness and mor- 

 tality consequent on poverty, than from the pru- 

 dence and foresight which restrain the frequency 

 and universality of early marriages. The checks 

 are more of the positive and less of the preventive 

 kind. 



The first grand requisite to the growth of pru- 

 dential habits is the perfect security of property; 

 and the next perhaps is that respectability and 

 importance, which are given to the lower classes 

 by equal laws, and the possession of some influ- 

 ence in the framing of them. The more excellent 

 therefore is the government, the more does it tend 

 to generate that prudence and elevation of senti- 

 ment, by which alone in the present state of our 

 being poverty can be avoided. 



It has been sometimes asserted that the only 

 reason why it is advantageous that the people 

 should have some share in the government, is that 

 a representation of the people tends best to secure 

 the framing of good and equal laws ; but that, if 

 the same object could be attained under a despo- 

 tism, the same advantage would accrue to the 

 community. If however the representative sys- 

 tem, by securing to the lower classes of society a 

 more equal and liberal mode of treatment from 



