q 
930 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SER 3 
ERMIT me to point out a confidera- 
ble error in the Statement of the net 
Produce of the Duries of Excife and Malt, 
&c. given in your number for May, 
p- 37%, in the article of vinegar, which 
is there fet down at 783,305!. but which 
fum, I prefume, muft have been meant for 
wine in the following line; and as the 
preceding fum 26,861]. fet oppofite to 
Verjuice is very probably the amount of 
the duty on Fizegar during the period 
mentioned, I apprehend the fum of 56ool. 
fet oppofite to Wine muft have been in- 
tended. for the article Verjuice, and that 
the miftake as far as refpeéts thefe parti- 
cular items, may have been only a tranf- 
pofition of the fums; but on cafting 
up the total by the figures in the ftate- 
ment, you will find another error of up- 
wards of 79,000!.; as it appears there 
to be 14,590,525]. but in fact is only 
14,520,504l. As the value of thefe com- 
munications (of which it feems a conti- 
nuation is intended) mutt depend on their 
accuracy, and the reputation of your Ma- 
gazine may fuffer by a repetition of fimi- 
lar miftakes, you will no doubt readily 
excule the liberty taken in thefe remarks, 
by A VineGaR MAKER. 
London, May 15, 1804. 
~~ a 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
RE immenfe importance of the fub- 
H ject of Mr. Malthus’s Eflay on Po- 
pulation, induces me to hope for the 
admiffion of a few obfervations on the 
criticifm on that work, inferted in your 
Jaft Appendix. 
Your reviewer remarks (fee note to p. 
614) that Mr. Makthus’s reafoning (in 
aniwer to the objection thatthe urging the 
duty of moral refraint on the poor may 
ultimately tend to increafe the vicious in- 
tercourfe of the fexes) is not quite fatis-. 
faQoory. As, however, Mir. Malthus ap- 
peals to faéts, I fhou'd not have imagined, 
trom the candour with which the Mouthly 
Magazine has ufually been condu&ed, 
that fuch an argument would have been 
difmiffed with fo flight a notice. The 
*countries in which Mr. Malthus has 
proved the preventive check to popula- 
* England, Scotland, Norway, and Swit- 
zerland——perhaps, in fpeaking of this laft 
country, the paft tenfe may now with more 
propriety be ufed than the prefeat, 
Error correéied—Vindication of Mr. Malthus. 
[July ". 
tion to be mo prevalent, are (unlefs we 
muft adopt an univerfal fcepticifm on the 
fubject of national character) decidedly 
fuperior in their general morality, and 
particularly m what relates to the inter- 
courle of the fexes, to the reft of Europe ; 
nor are they at all inferior to their neigh- 
bours in thofe domeftic virtues that arife 
from a prudent gratification of the paffion 
which leads to a matrimonial union. In 
the country of the Grifons, I have been 
credibly informed that an inftance of an 
illegitimate child is fearcely known, and 
in {uch a cafe the father would fhare the 
fame difgrace with the mother. 
The refult of the Population A& tends 
ftrikingly to confirm the evidence afforded 
by the fa&s mentioned above: it appears 
that the preventive check to population 
(calculating from the proportion of annual 
marriages to the whole population) is 
greateft, not (as theory would Jead us to 
expect) in the metropolis, or the large 
manufacturing towns, where vicious ha- 
bits are moft prevalent, but in the moun- 
taincus diftriéts of Wales and the North of 
England, and in the more healthy parts of 
the country, where the inhabitants are 
chiefly employed in agriculture, and where 
wenaturally look for greater purity of man- 
ners. All this feems to confism the fup. 
pofition of Mr. Malthus, that the tempta- 
tions arifing from the reftraint of natural 
paffions in a tate of celibacy, are not fo dif- 
ficult to be withftood as thofe from extreme 
poverty. I believe it will beallowed that 
it is the latter caufe, together with the 
degradation of mind ufually attending it, 
that chiefiy contributes to fill our ftreets 
with proftitutes; and thus renders the 
virtue of moral reftraint fo unufval among 
the other fx. The example of America 
proves, that early and univerfal marriages, 
even where they do not produce poverty, 
are not fo compleat a remedy for the evils 
of an illicit intercourfe of the fexes, as 
from theory might have been fuppofed : 
their towns feem, from the accounts of 
travellers, to be not inferior in licentioul- 
nefs to thofe of the Old World ; and even 
in the country, the manners are by no 
means fo pure as in many parts of Europe, 
fince the birth of an illegitimate child is 
not at all uncommon, nor is it confidered 
as bringing any indelible difgrace on either 
of its parents. 
I fhal. conclude thefe defultory remarks 
with the mention of a circumftance which 
is of importance, as it fully refutes the 
vulgar notion of the phyfical bad confe- 
quences of pretracting the ulval term of 
ceubacy 5; and proves that late rare 
) 
