Ch. ix. prevailing Opinions on Population. 859 



nity of increasing the power and the influence of 

 the executive government. 



Besides explaining the real situation of the 

 lower classes of society, as depending principally 

 upon themselves for their happiness or misery, the 

 parochial schools would, by early instruction and 

 the judicious distribution of rewards, have the . 

 fairest chance of training up the rising generation 

 in habits of sobriety, industry, independence and 

 prudence, and in a proper discharge of their reli- 

 gious duties ; which would raise them from their 

 present degraded state, and approximate them, 

 in some degree, to the middle classes of society, 

 whose habits, generally speaking, are certainly 

 superior. 



In most countries, among the lower classes of 

 people, there appears to be something like a 

 standard of wretchedness, a point below which 

 they will not continue to marry and propagate 

 their species. This standard is different in diffe- 

 rent countries, and is formed by various concur- 

 ring circumstances of soil, climate, government, 

 degree of knowledge, and civilization, &:c. The 

 principal circumstances which contribute to raise 

 it are liberty, security of property, the diffusion 

 of knowledge, and a taste for the conveniences 

 and the comforts of life. Those which contribute 

 principally to lower it are despotism and igno- 

 rance. 



In an attempt to better the condition of the la- 

 bouring classes of society, our object should be to 

 raise this standard as high as possible, by culti- 



