486 APPJiNDJX. 



increase is not unlimited; though he has not advanced 

 a single reason to make it appear probable that a thousand 

 millions would not be doubled in twenty-five years just as 

 easily as a thousand, if moral restraint, vice and misery, were 

 equally removed in both cases; yet there is one part of his 

 argument, which undoubtedly might, under certain circum- 

 stances, be true ; and if true, though it would in no respect 

 impeach the premises of the Essay, it would essentially 

 affect some of its conclusions. 



The argument may be stated shortly thus; — that the 

 natural division of labour arising from a very advanced state 

 of society, particularly in countries where the land is rich, 

 and great improvements have taken place in agriculture, 

 might throw so large a portion of the people into towns, 

 and engage so many in unhealthy occupations, that the im- 

 mediate checks to population might be too powerful to be 

 overcome even by an abundance of food. 



It is admitted that this is a possible case; and, foreseeing 

 this possibility, I provided for it in the terms in which the 

 second proposition of the Essay was enunciated. 



The only practical question then worth attending to be- 

 tween me and Mr. Weyland is, whether cases of the kind 

 above stated are to be considered in the light in which I 

 have considered them in the Essay, as exceptions of very 

 rare occurrence, or in the light in which Mr. Weyland has 

 considered them, as a state of things naturally accompany- 

 ing every stage in the progress of improvement. On either 

 supposition, population would still be repressed by some or 

 other of the forms of moral restraint, vice or misery; but 

 the moral and political conclusions, in the actual state of 

 almost all countries, would be essentially different. On the 

 one supposition moral restraint would, except in a few 

 cases of the rarest occurrence, be one of the most useful 

 and necessary of virtues; and on the other, it would be one 

 of the most useless and unnecessary. 



This question can only be determined by an appeal to 

 experience. Mr. Weyland is always ready to refer to the 

 state of this country; and, in fact, may be said almost to 

 have built his system upon the peculiar policy of a single 

 state. But the reference in this case will entirely contra- 

 dict his theory. He has brought forward some elaborate 

 calculations to shew the extreme difficulty with which the 

 births of the. couutiy su])ply the demands of the towns and 



