448 APPENDIX. 



sequently out of a population of ten millions England would 

 have a million more of persons above twenty tlian France, 

 and would upon this supposition have at least three or four 

 hundred thousand more males of a military age. If our po- 

 pulation were of the same description as that of France, it 

 must be increased numerically by more than a million and 

 a half, in order to enable us to produce from England and 

 Wales the same number of persons above the age of twenty 

 as at present ; and if we had only an increase of a million, 

 our efficient strength in agriculture, commerce and war, 

 would be in the most decided manner diminished, while at 

 the same time the distresses of the lower classes would be 

 dreadfully increased. Can any rational man say that an ad- 

 ditional population of this description would be desirable, 

 either in a moral or political view ? And yet this is the kind 

 of population which invariably results from direct encourage- 

 ments to marriage, or from the want of that personal re- 

 spectability which is occasioned by ignorance and des- 

 potism. 



It may perhaps be true that France fills her armies with 

 greater facility and less interruption to the usual labours of 

 her inhabitants than England ; and it must be acknowledged 

 that poverty and want of employment are powerful aids to 

 a recruiting serjeant; but it would not be a very humane 

 project to keep our people always in want, for the sake of 

 enlisting them cheaper ; nor would it be a very politic pro- 

 ject to diminish our wealth and strength with the same eco- 

 nomical view. We cannot attain incompatible objects. If 

 we possess the advantage of being able to keep nearly all 

 our people constantly employed, either in agriculture or com- 

 merce, we cannot expect to retain the opposite advantage of 

 their being always at leisure, and willing to enlist for a very 

 small sum.* But we may rest perfectly assured that while 

 we have the efficient population, we shall never want men 

 to fill our armies, if we propose to them adequate motives. 



In many parts of the Essay I have dwelt much on the 



lions. We cannot surely doubt which of the two kinds of population would be 

 of the raost valuable description, both with regard to actual strength and the 

 creation of fresh resources. Probably, however, there are no two countries in 

 Europe in which the difference in this respect is so great as that between one- 

 fourth and one-fifth. 



• This subject is strikingly illustrated in Lord Selkirk's lucid and masterly 

 observations " On the present State of the Higlilands, and on the Causes and 

 probable consequences of Emigration," to which I can with confidence refer the 

 reader. 



