of population in Europe and America. 147 
thus far described is such as political economists, almost without 
exception, approve, and that in great measure it is owing to the 
direct influence of their doctrines. 
In his well known Essay on Population, Mr. Malthus remarks, 
that “in the average state of a well peopled territory, there can- 
not well be a worse sign than a large proportion of births, nor a 
better sign than a small proportion.”* 
‘When persons are once married, the idea never seems to en- 
ter any one’s mind, that having or not having a family, or the 
number of which it shall consist, is at all amenable to their 
Own control. One would imagine that it was really, as the com- 
mon phrases have it, God’s will and not their own, which deci- 
ded the number of their offspring.”** 
“Tn a place where there is no room left for new establish- 
ments,” says Sismondi, entirely ignoring the escapes offered by 
emigration and the increased importation of food, “if a man 
eight children, he should believe that unless stx of them die in 
infancy, these and three of his own contemporaries, of each sex, 
will be compelled to abstain from marriage, in consequence of his 
Own imprudence.”+ 
Having now explained an important cause of the effects I 
have described, I return from the digression. 
* Loc. cit., p. 313. Loc. cit., ii, 253. t Ibid, i, 316 7 
8 Ibid., ii, 317. i Ibid, i, 451. @ Ibid. i, 452, footnote, 
** Ibid, i, 447. t+ Nouveaux Principes d'Economie Politique, liv, vii, eb. 5. 
Pee 
