Law of Population 73 



very true, but the increase is due much more to the fact 

 that the pax Britannica has given security to the gains 

 of agricultural and mechanical industry. The resources 

 of the country have been developed by railways and 

 canals and vast irrigation works. The latter fertilise 

 large districts which were formerly waste lands and 

 secure large and populous districts from seasons of 

 desolating drought. By this development of industry 

 the average condition of the native has been raised to 

 a much higher standard than ever before. This is the 

 testimony of all competent and intelligent observers 

 who have spent years in our great Dependency. The 

 greater ease of living is shown in the improved quality 

 of their clothing, of their domestic furnishings, and 

 every necessary article of daily use. So much is this 

 the case that we are warranted in saying that if, under 

 the shelter of the pax Britannica, the population has 

 grown twofold, its wealth has increased not less than 

 threefold. An increasing population is ever an indica- 

 tion that man is energising in an increasing degree, 

 with the general result that each generation surpasses 

 its predecessor in the relation of the means of sub- 

 sistence to the population. 



We must now consider the positive checks which 

 Malthus assumed to be nature's ordinance for the 

 prevention of the undue growth of population. It is 

 not necessary to discuss the preventive or prudential 

 check of moral restraint which consisted in a man's 

 abstention from marriage until he had attained a 

 reasonable prospect of maintaining a wife and family 

 in the future, for Malthus states that he saw little trace 

 of the action of such a check ; and whatever hopes we 

 may entertain of its action in the future, it has un- 

 doubtedly in past ages operated with inconsiderable 

 force. He says : " The immediate check may be 

 stated to consist in all those customs and all those 



