1 20 Literary and Philosophical Society. 



might have continued to exist for several years longer, but 

 are cut off by diseases produced by vitiated air, by infec- 

 tion, or by a change in their modes of living, yet, on the 

 whole, they are not, perhaps, so unfavourable to population 

 as they may, at first sight, appear. For in large towns, at 

 least in those where extensive manufactures are carried on, 

 the encouragements to matrimony are considerable ; and 

 therefore, if life be more speedily wasted, it is, probably, 

 produced in a far greater ratio.^ A sensible, industrious 

 manufacturer considers his children as his treasure, and 

 boasts that his quiver is full of them ; for where children 

 can be employed at an early age, the fear of a large family 

 is not only diminished, but every child that is born may 

 be regarded as an addition of fortune. 



' A large and populous town, also, is favourable to 

 population, by extending its influence to a very consider- 

 able distance beyond its own districts. Manchester 

 supplies employment to many thousand people resident 

 within the country, to the extent of several miles, who 

 gain a comfortable livelihood in different branches of the 

 manufactory, without suffering the inconveniences which 

 attend the town. The demand of this great body of 

 people, who raise but a very small part of the provisions 

 they consume, added to that of the town, has an effect 

 upon a still larger tract of country, the inhabitants of 

 which are occupied in agriculture ; and, being sure of find- 

 ing a ready and advantageous mart for their products, 

 they are encouraged to a better tillage of their lands, 

 already in cultivation, and to the improvement of waste 



* * That this is actually the case in Manchester and Salford appears from 

 the registers: although during a period of twenty-one years the marriages and 

 births have been more than doubled, yet the increase of burials is only as 29 

 to 16,' 



