POPULATION, 
»trongly pressed out, suffered to settle, cla- 
rified with whites of eggs, and evaporated 
to a due consistence, yields an extract pos- 
sessing the virtues of opium, only in a 
much milder degree. This is called the 
syrup of the white poppy, and is adapted 
to the use of children. It may be observed 
that the seeds possess no narcotic powers : 
they consist of a simple farinaceous mat- 
ter, united with an oil, and in some coun- 
tries they are eaten as food. 
POPULATION, the proportion of in- 
habitants which a country or district con- 
tains. The increase or diminution of the 
members of a state has at all periods been 
thought an object deserving the attention 
of governments; but very different opini- 
ons have been entertained on the subject. 
Some ancient nations adopted regulations 
to prevent any augmentation of the num- 
ber of citizens ; but in modern times it has 
generally been thought proper to encou- 
rage population as essential to the strength 
and prosperity of a state. Positive regula- 
tions against the increase of population are 
superfluo\is and nugatory ; it is limited in 
every country by the means of subsistence, 
and if it ever actually passes tins barrier, it 
must, in a very short time, be restored to 
its former level. So long as there is a faci- 
lity of subsistence, men will be encouraged 
to early marriages, and to a careful rearing 
of their children. In the American states, 
the inhabitants, particularly such as are en- 
gaged in agriculture, congratulate them- 
selves upon the increase of their families, 
as upon a new accession of wealth, for the 
labour of their children, even in an early 
stage, soon redeerns, and even repays witii 
interest, the expence and trouble of rear- 
ing them. In such countries the wages of 
the labourer are high, for the number of 
labourers bears no proportion to the de- 
mand and to the general spirit of enter- 
prise. In many European countries, on 
the other hand, a large family has become 
a proverbial expression for an uncommon 
degree of poverty and wretchedness. 
The obvious principle, that population is 
necessarily limited by the means of sub- 
sistence, has been stated, and conclusions 
drawn from it, by many different writers ; 
but it has lately been discussed at great 
length in an “ Essay on the Principle of 
Population,” by Mr. T. R. Malthus, who 
has endeavoured to prove that popidation 
invariably increases where the means of 
subsistence increase, unless prevented by 
some very powerful and obvious checks; 
and that these checks, and tlie checks 
which repress the superior power of popu- 
lation, and keep its effects on a level with 
the means of subsistence, are all resolvable 
into moral restraint, vice, and misery. Un- 
der whatever denomination the causes 
which adjust population to the circum- 
stances of the country may be classed, it 
is certain that they exist in every civilized 
country, and while the nature of man re- 
mains the same they must continue to exist, 
although operating in a greater or less de- 
gree according to the progress the country 
has made in cultivation, commerce, and 
political power. In the northern states of 
America, where the means of subsistence 
are more ample, the manners of the peo- 
ple more pure, and the impediments to 
early marriages fewer than in any of the 
modern states of Europe, the population 
was found to double itself for some succes- 
sive periods every twenty-five years, while 
in Great Britain, where commerce and 
manufactures have created large towns, 
where an almost constant supply is wanting 
to recruit a formidable army and navy, and 
where many other causes exist which pre- 
vent any considerable increase, the popula- 
tion has not doubled itself in more than one 
hundred and fifty years. 
If a powerful check to increase must ex- 
ist in some form or etlier, Mr. Malthus ob- 
serves, that it is clearly better it should 
arise from a foresight of the difficulty of 
rearing a family, and the fear of dependant 
poverty, than from the actual presence of 
pain and sickness; moral restraint, or the 
determination to defer or decline matri- 
mony from a consideration of the inconve- 
niencies or deprivations to wliieh a large 
portion of the community w'ould subject 
themselves by pursuing the dictate of na- 
ture, is therefore a virtue, the practice of 
which is most earnestly to be encouraged. 
If no man were to marry, who had not a 
fair prospect of providing for the presump- 
tive issue of his marriage, population would 
be kept within proper bounds; men and 
women would marry later in life, but in 
the full hope of their reward they would 
acquire habits of industry and frugality, 
and inculcate the same in the minds of their 
children. Mr. Malthus does not actuallji, 
propose that any restraint upon marriage 
between two persons of proper age should 
be enforced by law, but insists that the 
contract of marriages between persons who 
have no other prospect of providing for 
their offspring than by throwing them on a 
