O4 
arrive at fuch an age that one half of them 
“will probably die in childbed, and the 
other half become incapable of making 
addition to the fucceeding generation. 
Thefe abfurd alarms, and the more abfurd 
remedies which are propofed for their 
cure, feem to have arifen from a partial 
and very imperfe& view cf the great ope- 
rations of nature. Had Mr. Malrhus ex- 
tended his enquiries beyond the narrow 
limits to which he appears to have confin- 
ed them, he would have known that every 
caufe is prevented from producing more 
than a due effect ; that every impediment 
to the general order and harmony is either 
removed by fome wile previfon, or coun- 
teracted by an agent equally powerful 
and effective; and that the millions of 
animals which are annually brought into 
exiftence, and the myriads of feeds that 
are thed from every tree and plant in the 
foreft, are but fufficient to reolenifh the 
wafe that is continually taking place, or 
to fuifl the other benevolent purpoles of 
natore. Initead of being terrified by the 
profuficn with which the feeds of animal 
an vegetable lite are fupplied, he weuld 
have admir-d the care with which each 
clafs is preferved from becoming extiné, 
and rather have endeavoured to act in 
unifon with nature, than attempt the 
rmeonftrous tafk of increafing tholfe very 
evils againft which fhe has fo kindly pro- 
vided. 
The prefent fate of mankind, which 
he has learned by ranfacking the accounts 
of all the circumnavigators that have 
traverfed either the barbarous or civiliz- 
ed parts of the globe, is in dire&t oppofi- 
tion to his whole hypothefis, and it might 
be imagined that the 300 quarto pages of 
his book, which have beea occupied in 
this detail, were intended to prove the 
depopulation of the earth, and the necef- 
fity of guarding againit the further ex- 
tenfion of it. But Mr. Malthus is de- 
nor the experience of the prefent, ftate of 
the world. . Like the tides of the ocean, 
mankind muft have been perpetually 
ebbing and flowing between the extremes 
of fuperabundance and defolation. The 
filence of ail hificrians in regard to thofe 
extraordinary changes, and the deficiency 
of all evidence in fupport of them, afford 
no arguments to the contrary, nor prove 
any thing further than the blind itupidity 
of thofe who have neglef&ted to notice a 
fa&t which muff have repeatedly taken 
place, becau’e Mr. Malthus’s whole hy- 
pothefis 1s founded upon it. 
During his travels, however, on the 
Continent of Eurcpe, our author was for- 
tunate enough to meet with two philofo- 
phers whofe teftimeny confirmed iis-own 
6pinion ; and who, from their obierva- 
a ee ne ae . 
Remarks on Mr. Malthus?s Principles of Population. | Sept. 1, 
tions on the little hamlet in which they 
lived, concurred with him in lamenting 
*« the effects of fome wel!-meaning per- 
fons who, by rendering the people more 
comfortable, had excited them to early 
marriages, and thus ruined their country — 
by an exceffive population.”” The firft of 
thefe philofophers was the miftrefs of a 
public-houfe in the Jura, where he lodg- 
ed; the fecond was the peafant who guid- 
ed him through that inhofpitable region, 
but whomis declared to have underftood 
the principle of population almo# as well 
as any man he ever met with. Whether - 
Mr, Maithus derived his firft ideas on 
the fubjeét from thefe mountaineers, or 
from fome other fource equally refpe&- 
able, I am not anxious to determine. It 
is fuficient to obferve, that they all ex- 
claim againft early matrimony with the 
fame vchemence; that they all with to 
prohibit it with the fame feverity; and 
that they have all trangrefied-their cwn 
laws, by marrying young themfeives, 
In addition to a comfortable life and - 
fuperabundant plenty of food, Mr. Mal- 
thus has given three other caufes equally 
powerful in depopulating the world.— 
Thefe are, moral reftraint, vice, and mi- 
fery ; or, in other words, virtue, vice, and 
providence; for the firft is defined to be 
a due fubordination of the paflions to the 
laws of reafon and religion; the fecond, 
a criminal and inordinate indulgence of 
thofe paffions ; and the third (which might 
perhaps as well have been called an effe } 
is faid to arife from the general laws and 
confitutions of nature. The operations 
of thefe caufes are exemplified in fo many ' 
quotations from travellers, hiftorians, po- 
litical writers, &e. that we might be led 
to fuppofe, from their occupying fo large 
a proportion cf his book, that the author’s 
delign was to alarm the public into fome 
meafures for preventing rather than for 
accelerating the depopulation of the 
worid. Having expended fo many pages 
in enumerating the checks to population, 
and never mentioned a country in which 
thufe checks do not exift in a greater or 
Jeis degree, is it not furprifing that no 
original fact fhould be deduced from real. 
obfervations, to prove the inefficiency of 
thofe checks, or to juftify the horrid 
auxiliaries which are propofed to co-ope- 
rate with them in defiroying the human 
race? f feel no inclination to enter fure 
ther into the examination of a fyftem fo 
difgufting, ror fhould I have ever noticed 
it, had Mr. Malthus, in his multifarious 
quotations, done juftice to an author from 
whom he has bor owed a great part of 
his information, apparently with as little 
profic to himfelf as to his readers. 
In his’ chapter on the fruitfulnefs of 
marriage, Mr. Malthus attempts to ex- 
nlaia 
