Author of the "Observations on the conflicting Theories of Malthus and Sadler "; although he strangely confounds the Malthusian theory itself with an exposition of the fact perfectly at variance with the abstract hypothesis.

'As the labour of a very few, comparatively speaking, is required to supply the wants of the many, competition for labour must increase more rapidly than population itself; and thus, the difficulty of procuring food must constantly be greater, notwithstanding the additional quantity of it which is produced. In this point of view, the means of subsistence are compounded with the quantity of food attainable and the difficulty of attaining it. Not that labour in itself becomes less efficient, but that it becomes too plentiful, and consequently too valueless to be taken in exchange for more than a bare subsistence. And further, the available supply is so great in proportion to the demand, that numbers are unable to find purchasers for it even at that low rate of remuneration.' p. 28.

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We do not now stop to inquire how far this deplorable state of things is an inevitable consequence of either the law of population, or the progress of national wealth;-how far it is certain that, as a nation advances in riches and refinement, an increasing proportion of the inhabitants becomes poor and destitute'. (p. 67.) We now speak simply of the fact, that the distress of the lower orders is occasioned, as this Writer admits, not so 'much by the deficiency of food, as by the deficiency of the means of earning it.' Were there any real deficiency of food, what could exceed the folly and wickedness of corn-laws to restrict its importation?

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We now proceed to proposition the third.

The ultimate checks by which population is kept down to the level of the means of subsistence, are vice and misery.'

We shall not spend many words in exposing the objectionable nature of this frightful position. Disguise it as you will, it comes to this; that unless the law of nature be counteracted, the redundance of the human species will necessarily lead to famine and crime, to misery and vice; -- that, although the effects of the ill-contrived laws of nature may be slightly palliated, they are in the main irremediable ;-that all attempts to keep up the means of subsistence to the numbers of the population must be unavailing;-hence, the pressure of the population on the food makes 'the problem of their secure and permanent comfort, baffling and 'hopeless." The only way to prevent the increase of vice, is, to discourage marriage. The only feasible plan in the whole round of expedients to obviate misery, is to prevent the formation of a redundancy. Or, as Miss Martineau phrases it, by bringing

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* Chalmers. See our Number for July, p. 51.

' no more children into the world than there is a subsistence pro'vided for, society may preserve itself from the miseries of 'want'!!

And pray, Miss Martineau, who is to know whether there is subsistence provided for his children? By what criterion is each labourer to know how many men and women in his parish ought to marry, and when his turn should take place? Will you have the goodness, in your next tale, to furnish the lower classes with some rules for the application of the mild preventive check', that may enable them to regulate the proper correspondence between the numbers of the next generation and the subsistence that shall be provided for them? As the will of Providence'

is not to be learned, in this matter, from that old-fashioned book the Bible, they will still stand in need of some further revelation to enlighten them, even after listening to the very philosophical colloquy between Ella and Katie.

"How slow we are ", said Ella, "to learn the will of Providence in this case, when it is the very same that we understand in other cases! Providence gave us strength of limbs and of passions; yet these we restrain for the sake of living in society. If a man used his hands to pull down his neighbour's house, or his passion of anger to disturb the society in which he lives, we should think it no excuse, that Providence had given him his natural powers or made him enjoy their exercise. How is it more excusable for a man to bring children into the world, when there are so many to be fed, that every one that is born, must help to starve one that is already living?”,

This is a comfortable announcement, assuredly. And we cannot but admire how ingeniously an argument hitherto used to shew the unreasonableness of a licentious indulgence of the passions, which marriage was instituted to restrain, is here turned against the expediency of marrying at all. Providence and patriotism forbid the lower classes to marry. This will be clear from what follows.

"Since Providence has not made food increase as men increase”, said Katie," it is plain that Providence wills restraint here, as in the case of other passions."

"And awful are the tokens of its pleasure, Katie. The tears of mothers over their dead children, that shrunk under poverty like blossoms withering before the frosts, the fading of the weak, the wasting of the strong, thefts in the streets, sickness in the houses, funerals by the wayside these are the tokens that unlimited increase is not God's will."

"These tell us where we are wrong, Ella. How shall we learn how we may be right?”

By doing as you have done through life, Katie: by using our judgement, and such power as we have. We have not the power of increasing food as fast as our numbers may increase; but we have the

power of limiting our numbers to agree with the supply of food. This is the gentle check which is put into our own hands; and if we will not use it, we must not repine if harsher checks follow. If the passionate man will not restrain his anger, he must expect punishment at the hands of him whom he has injured; and if he imprudently indulges his love, he must not complain when poverty, disease, and death lay waste his family.”

"Do not you think, Ella, that there are more parties to a marriage than is commonly supposed?"

"There is a party," replied Ella, smiling, "that, if it could be present, would often forbid the banns; and it is this party that Ronald has now consulted."

." You mean society?"

"Yes. In savage life, marriage may be a contract between a man and woman only, for their mutual pleasure; but, if they lay claim to the protection and advantages of society, they are responsible to society. They have no right to provide for a diminution of its resources; and therefore, when they marry, they form a tacit contract with society to bring no members into it who shall not be provided for, by their own labour or that of their parents. No man is a good citizen who runs the risk of throwing the maintenance of his children on others."

"Ah, Ella! did you consider this before your ten children were born?” "Indeed, Katie, there seemed no doubt to my husband and me, that our children would be well provided for. There were then few labourers in Garveloch, and a prospect of abundant provision; and even now we are not in poverty. We have money, clothes, and furniture; and that we have not food enough, is owing to those who, having saved nothing, are now far more distressed than we are. Let us hope that all will take warning. My husband and I shall be careful to teach those of our children who are spared to us how much easier it is to prevent want than to endure it.”

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"You and I will do what we can, Ella, to make our children prudent in marriage; and if all our neighbours would do the same, we might look forward cheerfully. But so few take warning! And it is so discouraging to the prudent to find themselves left almost alone!" Nay, Katie; it is not as if all must work together to do any good. Every prudent man, like Ronald, not only prevents a large increase of mischief, but, by increasing capital, does a positive good. Every such act of restraint tells; every such wise resolution stops one drain on the resources of society. Surely this knowledge affords grounds for a conscientious man to act upon, without doubt and discouragement."

"How differently is honour imputed in different times!" said Katie, smiling. "The times have been when they who had brought the most children into the world were thought the greatest benefactors of society; and now we are honouring those most who have none. Yet both may have been right in their time."

"A change of place serves the same purpose as a change of time," replied Ella. "If Ronald were in a new colony, where labour was

VOL. VIII.-N.S.

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more in request than any thing else, he would be honoured for having ten children, and doubly honoured for having twenty. And reasonably too; for, in such a case, children would be a gift, and not a burden, to society."

"It is a pity, Ella, that all should not go there, who are too poor to marry properly, and have no relish for the honour of a single life. Dan and his wife would be a treasure to a new colony."

"If they and their children would work, Katie; not otherwise. But the poor little things would have a better chance of life there. If Noreen stays here, she may be too like many a Highland mother; she may tell of her twenty children, and leave but one or two behind her." "One

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My heart aches for those poor infants," said Katie. would almost as soon hear that they were put out of the way at their birth, as see them dwindle away and drop into their little graves, one after another, before they are four years old. I have often heard that neither the very rich nor the very poor leave such large families behind them as the middling classes; and if the reason is known, it seems to me very like murder not to prevent it."

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The reasons are well known, Katie. Those who live in luxury and dissipation have fewer children born to them than any class; but those that are born are guarded from the wants and diseases which cut off the families of the very poor. The middling classes are more prudent than the lowest, and have therefore fewer children than they, though more than the luxurious; and they rear a much larger proportion than either."

❝ “One might look far, Ella, among the lords and ladies in London, or among the poor Paisley weavers, before one would find such a healthy, hearty tribe

"As yours," Katie would have said; but seeing Ella look upon her little Jamie with a deep sigh, she stopped short, but presently went

on

"It seems to me that a lady of fashion, who gives up her natural rest for feasting and playing cards all night long in a hot room, and lets herself be driven about in a close carriage instead of taking the air on her own limbs, can have no more wish to rear a large healthy family than Noreen, who lets her babe dangle as if she meant to break its back, and gives the poor thing nothing but potatoes, when it ought to be nourished with the best of milk and wholesome bread. Both are little better than the mothers in China. O Ella! did your husband ever tell you of the children in China?”

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you ?"

Yes, but I scarcely believed even his word for it. Who told

"I have read it in more books than one; and I know that the same thing is done in India; so I am afraid it is all too true. In India, it is a very common thing for female children to be destroyed as soon as born."

"The temptation is strong, Katie, where the people are so poor that many hundred thousand at a time die of famine. But childmurder is yet more common in China, where no punishment follows,

and nothing can exceed the distress for focd. In great cities, newborn babes are nightly laid in the streets to perish, and many more are thrown into the river, and carried away before their parents' eyes."

“It is even said, Ella, that there are persons whose regular business it is to drown infants like puppies."

"O horrible! And how far must people be corrupted before they would bear children to meet such a fate!"

"There is nothing so corrupting as poverty, Ella; and there is no poverty like that of the Chinese."

"And yet China is called the richest country in the world."

"And so it may be. It may produce more food in proportion to its bounds; it may contain more wealth of every sort than any country in the world, and may at the same time contain more paupers. We call newly-settled countries poor countries, because they contain comparatively little capital; but the happiness of the people does not depend on the total amount of wealth, but on its proportion to those who are to enjoy it. What country was ever poorer than Garveloch twenty years ago? Yet nobody was in want. What country is so rich as China at this day? Yet there multitudes eat putrid dogs and cats, and live in boats for want of a house, and follow the English ships, to pick up and devour the most disgusting garbage that they throw overboard."

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Suppose such should be the lot of our native kingdom,” said Ella, shuddering. "Such is the natural course of things when a nation multiplies its numbers without a corresponding increase of food. May it be given to all to see this before we reach the pass of the Chinese! -and even if we never reach it-if, as is more likely, the evil is palliated by the caution of the prudent, by the emigration of the enterprising, and by other means which may yet remain, may we learn to use them before we are driven to it by famine and disease!"

"It is fearful enough, Ella, to witness what is daily before our eyes. God forbid that the whole kingdom should be in the state that Garveloch is in now!"

"In very many towns, Katie, there is always distress as great as our neighbours' now; and so there will be, till they that hold the power in their own hands-not the king, not the parliament, not the rich only, but the body of the people-understand those natural laws by which and under which they subsist."

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Many would be of Ella's opinion if they could, like her, see the operation of the principle of increase within narrow bounds; for nothing can be plainer, nothing more indisputable, when fully understood. In large societies, the mind of the observer is perplexed by the movements around him. The comings and goings, the births, deaths, and accidents, defy his calculations; and there are always persons at hand who help to delude him by talking in a strain which would have suited the olden time, but which is very inappropriate to the present state of things. In every city, however crowded with a half-starved population, there are many more who do their utmost to encourage population, than can give a sound reason for their doing so; and while their advice is ringing in the cars, and their example is before the eyes, and there is no lack of inaccurate explanations why our workhouses are