APPENDIX. 471 



able to abolisli the poor-laws, it cannot be doubted, that a 

 knowledge of those general principles, which render them 

 inefficient in their humane intentions, might be applied so 

 far to modify them and regulate their execution, as to re- 

 move many of the evils with which they are accompanied, 

 and make them less objectionable. 



There is only one subject more which 1 shall notice, and that 

 israthera matter of feeling than of argument. Manypersons, 

 whose understandings are not so constituted that they can 

 regulate their belief or disbelief by their likes or dislikes, 

 have professed their perfect conviction of the truth of the 

 general principles contained in the Essay ; but, at the same 

 time, have lamented this conviction, as throwing a darker 

 shade over our views of human nature, and tending particu- 

 larly to narrow our prospects of future improvement. In 

 these feelings I cannot agree with them. If, from a review 

 of the past, I could not only believe that a fundamental and 

 very extraordinary improvement in human society was pos- 

 sible, but feel a firm confidence that it would take place, I 

 should undoubtedly be grieved to find, that 1 had overlook- 

 ed some cause, the operation of which would at once blast 

 my hopes. But if the contemplation of the past history of 

 mankind, from which alone we can judge of the future, 

 renders it almost impossible to feel such a confidence, I 

 confess that I had much rather believe that some real and 

 deeply-seated difficulty existed, the constant struggle vvilh 

 which was calculated to rouse the natural inactivity of man, 

 to call forth his faculties, and invigorate and improve his 

 mind ; a species of difficulty, which it must be allowed is 



consider tliat in countries which can but Just keep up their population, as file 

 price of labour must be sufficient to rear a fauiilv of a certain number, a sinelc 

 man will have a superfluity, and labour would be in constant demand at the 

 price of the subsistence of an individual. It cannot be doubted that in this 

 country wc could soon employ double the number of labourers, if we could 

 have them at our own price ; because supply will produce demand, as well as 

 demand supply. The present great extension of tlie cotton-trade did not ori- 

 ginate in an extraordinary increase of demand at the former prices, but in an 

 increased supply at a much cheaper rate, which of course immediately produced 

 an extended demand. As we cannot, however, obtain men at sixpence a day 

 by improvements in machinery, wc nmst submit lo the necessary conditions of 

 tiieir rearing; and there is no nuni, who has the slightest feeling for the happi- 

 ness of the most numerous class of society, or has even just views of policy on 

 the subject, who would not rather choose that the requisite popidation should 

 be obtained by such a price of labour, combined with such habits, as would 

 occasion a very small mortality, than from a great proportion of births ol which 

 comparatively few would reach manhood. 



