APPENDIX. 451, 



that this country might contain two or three times as many 

 iiiliabitants; and it is still more curious, that some j)ersous, 

 w ho have allowed the different ratios of increase on which 

 all my principal conclusions are founded, have still asserted 

 that no difficulty or distress could arise from population, 

 till the productions of the earth could not be further in- 

 creased. I doubt whether a stronger instance could readily 

 be produced of the total absence of the power of reasoning, 

 than this assertion, after such a concession, affords. It in- 

 volves a greater absurdity than the saying, that because a 

 farm can by proper management be matle to carry an addi- 

 tional stock of four head of cattle every year, that therefore 

 no difficulty or inconvenience would arise if an additional 

 forty were placed in it yearly. 



The power of the earth to produce subsistence is cer- 

 tainly not unlimited, but it is strictly speaking indelinite ; 

 that is, its limits are not defined, and the time will probably 

 never arrive when we shall be able to saV; that no further 

 labour or ingenuity of man could make further additions to 

 it. But the power of obtaining an additional quantity of 

 food from the earth by proper management, and in a certain 

 time, has the most remote relation imaginable to the power 

 of keeping pace with an unrestricted increase of population. 

 The knowledge and industry, which would enable the na- 

 tives of New Holland to make the best use of the natural 

 resources of their country, must, without an absolute mi- 

 racle, come to them gradually and slowly; and even then, as 

 it has amply appeared, would be perfectly ineffectual as to 

 the grand object; but the passions which prompt to the 

 increase of population are always in full vigour, and are 

 ready to produce their full effect even in a state of the most 

 helpless ignorance and barbarism. It will be readily allowed, 

 that tlie reason why New Holland, in proporlion to its 

 natural powers, is not so populous as China, is the want of 

 those human institutions which protect property and en- 

 courage industry; but the misery and vice which prevail 

 almost equally in both countries, from the tendency of 

 population to increase faster than the means of subsistence, 

 forma distinct consideration, and arise from a distinct cause. 

 They arise from the incomplete discipline of the human 

 passions; and no person with the slightest knowledge of 

 mankind has ever had the hardihood to affirm that human 



O c. 2 



