500 Remarks onthe Invefigation of the High Price of Provifious. (Jan. 5 - 
air ong fiveor fix millions, perhaps, inftead 
of two or three.” The author does not 
attempt to point out a remedy; the cafe 
in fact admits of no immediate one, ex- 
cept the inftant extirpation of what he 
cconczives to be the excefs in our popula- 
tion; heenly tells us that fuch and fuch 
are the effecis of an excefs of population, 
coinciding with a year of fearcity, while 
all are eith-r able of themfelves, or made 
fo by public donatives, to buy corn; he 
cautions us againft entertaining prejudices 
againft particular claffes of men, and re- 
cemm-nds us to’ bear with compoiure 
thofe ills front which we cannot fy. The 
writer of the Effay on Population natu- 
rally enoveh deduces arguments from the 
prefent ftace of things in favour of his 
own fyfiem; he imagimes that we are ar- 
aived at that increafe of populouinefs* 
which has outrun the increafed produc- 
tions of the foil: ftill, a perfon not per- 
feétly convinced of the truth of his theory 
might beat a lofs toaccount why this has 
not happened before; why it has happen- 
ed in the progrefs of a bloody and deftruc- 
tive war. From the termination of the 
French and-Spanifh war in 1763 till the 
commencement of that with America, 
nearly twelve yearselapfed: during which 
time, although our population mu have 
increafed, and our agricultural improve- 
ments by no means equalled thofe of the 
prefent day, yet no advance on the price 
of grain, equal to what we now experience, 
took place: not having at hand the means 
of information, I cannot here give a de- 
‘{cription of the various harveits in that 
courfe of years, but probably one year of 
») ? J y 
the twelve was not much lefs unproduc- 
tive than the year 1799: it is certain how- 
ever that the variation in the price of 
grain was far lefs than we have known 
during the laft four years. Hew far the 
population of the country has of late years 
been increafed, we have no fufficient dat 
to guide us. in deciding; probably an in- 
quiry may foon be inftituted under a par- 
liamentary fanétion: the author of the 
eflay, however, does not at all encourage 
the notion of a fudden incredie; he fhews 
(page 123) “ That vicious habits, war, 
luxury, the filent though certain depopu- 
lation of large towns, andthe clofe habita- 
tions and infufficient food for the poor, 
{uperfede the neceffity (as he ftronely ex- 
preiles it) of great and ravaging epide- 
mics:” and in another place, after giving 
an accurate fketch of the fate of focie- 
‘ty in England, he gees on, “ If this be 
near the truth, it will be allowed, that the 
prevent.ve check to population in this 

> Invettig. page 27. 
country operates, though with varied force, 
through all the claffes of the community.” 
1 own I am irrefiltibly drawn to agree 
with the ingenious writer of the Inveiti- 
gation, that our pocr-laws, acting in con- 
cert with other caufes. have occafioned 
the prefent uxiverfal diftreis, which other- . 
wife, in this fenfe, would have been only 
a partial one: it was the contemplation of 
this diftrefs which led him to condemn 
Mr. Pitt’s Poor-dill, as tending to increafe 
population, without increafing the pro- 
duce of the country*; but 1 own I am 
fill at a lefs to reconcile what is now 
taking place, with the events ef for- 
mer days; or whether to impute the 
prefent diftrefs to an increafed popula- 
tion, not provided by an adequate m- 
_creafe of fubfiftence, or to a {fcarcity, 
fome how or other produced, which -is 
incapable of affording fubfiftence even 
to a diminifhed population. In this 
fiate of darknefs and of doubt, I am 
pleafed to find this profound inquirer 
hinting, that he will ere long give us 
another edition of his Essay, and will 
apply the principle, “ of the truth of 
which, two years’ reflection have ferved 
ftrongly to convince him,’—“ dire&- 
ly and exclufively to the prefent ftate 
of fociety.” Certainly we fhould not 
look for an increafe of population after 
eight years’ continuance of war; but there 
may be circumftances belonging tothe pre- 
fent, not ufually attendant upon wars. It 
was preceded by an immenfe influx of 
foreigners, driven to take refuge amongit 
us: thefe were of both fexes; and though 
the priefts are forbidden to marry, yet 
fome of the firngle amongtt the laity found 
that, in the breaft of Britifh females, pity 
and love were nearly allied. Our uncom- 
mon fuccefles at fea contributed towards 
the confumption of our food, by the vaft 
number of prifoners with which they 
crowded our barracks. Fleets both of 
Hollanders and Ruflians have been fta- 
tioned on our coafts, and fed from our 
granaries and ftalls: and it may alfo be 
taken into the account, that none of our 
armies have remained long abroad, but. 
have occafionally returned to vilit their 
families. . 
To deny that the war has not occafioned 
an immenfe wafte of human feod, appears 
tome monitrous and contemptible: affum- 
ing it however for a truth, that our popula- 
tion has taken the lead of our increafe in 

.the means of fubfidtence, and that our 
poor laws, according to Hume, and other 
moit diftinguifhed writers upon political 
economy, will finally be the ruin of the 

* Effay, page 135. 
i kingdom ; 
