ing properly divided and classed according to their sexes, ages, and characters. Those buildings would then be, what they ought to be,— places of refuge for the destitute, places of useful and moral instruction for the young, and places of industry and correction for the idle and profligate. Workhouses so constructed, arranged, regulated, and managed, would become highly important auxiliaries in the promotion of national civilization, and of national

resources.

It is also essential, that the poor rates should solely include the amount of the actual relief afforded to the poor, and no other charges whatever. The poor rates would then consist of two portions, which should be exhibited under separate heads; namely, the real natural price of the various products of labour on which the poor-rates should have been expended, and the sum paid, directly and indirectly, in taxes on these various products; the people would then perceive how little cause exists for the ignorant clamour against the poor laws, on the alleged ground of the great amount of the rates levied under their authority.

CHAPTER XI.

"DIFFERENT PLANS OF IMPROVING THE CONDITION OF THE POOR, CONSIDERED."

LET our readers bear in mind, throughout this chapter, that "the inability of the poor labouring classes to maintain all their children," does not prove, à priori, that population is redundant; that is,-too many in number, which is what Mr. Malthus here intends to be understood by these terms. We must first inquire into the causes of the inability. How has it come to pass ? What is the reason? Are the earnings of their labour left to them, and no deductions made, directly or indirectly? If no artificial discouragements to industry exist; if the earnings of labour be solely applied to the support of the collective labourers, and be inadequate to their support, and that of average families; then redundancy of population will be apparent. Even then we are only in the middle of our road, in quest of the cause, and must not stop there,

and carelessly or capriciously assign the poor laws, or any thing else, as the producing cause of that redundancy.-No; we must proceed to investigate and search out the real cause, which we shall then find to be, the previous application of some artificial, and, therefore, unnatural excitement to the increase of population, since the numbers of the people are far below the capacity of the country to yield them the requisite support. On ascertaining this, we are bound, if we pay due regard to truth and justice, to refrain from charging these evil effects to causes that are quite clear of any share therein, and to shew the justice and propriety of compelling the authors of such excitement to contribute their all, if requisite, for the necessary and due support of the redundant population, which their measures have been the means of exciting into existence.

It is stupid, at least, to talk of "regulating population by the demand for labour." The produce of labour is its natural regulator,-that is to say, the average amount of its earnings; if these are fictitiously and, consequently, temporarily increased, an ultimate, though temporary, redundancy of population will be produced. If these are suffered to remain at their natural height, and to proceed in their natural progress, a redundant population will never exist. The poor laws, even in their present abused

and perverted state of administration, do not encourage, but discourage, an increase of that part of the population for whose relief they are principally calculated. If reformed and restored, so as to effect the original design for which they were framed, they would perform what they ought to perform; neither encourage, nor discourage, an increase of population,-but merely relieve unavoidable distress, instruct those who cannot otherwise acquire instruction, and punish profligate licentiousness.

Mr. Malthus says, that "the wages of labour will be regulated by the demand and supply;" this is just so much nonsense. In a natural state of things, the real wages of labour, its real power to support the labourer, is always regulated by the returns to labour and capital, or collective labour, as has been clearly demonstrated by Mr. Ricardo; but no one can say, how it will be regulated by unjust power. If the wages of labour, and the profits of capital, be so much reduced by civil and ecclesiastical taxation, that the remainder is not sufficient for the labourers' subsistence, surely, its insufficiency is owing to an artificial-not to a natural state of things.

It is clear, from the quotations made by Mr. Malthus from Mr. Young's Travels in France, (before the Revolution, we presume,) that " Mr. Young clearly understood the principle of popu

lation," not in the sense which Mr. Malthus is endeavouring to affix to it, but in the sense for which we are contending, as the following interrogative sentence from one of those quotations sufficiently indicates :-" But why encourage marriages, which are sure to take place in all situations in which they ought to take place?" and he might, with equal truth and consistency, have added,-why talk of discouraging marriages? Leave them alone. We are not now engaged in examining Mr. Young's opinions, or we could, probably, shew them to be, on many points, quite as unfounded, and as impertinent, as those of Mr. Malthus; but Mr. Young's intentions were good.

Mr. Malthus here informs us, in a note, that "the capital of the country (Ireland) is required to be better proportioned to its population, ere success is to be expected from any attempts to ameliorate the condition of the Irish,"-and, likewise, maintains, that population has naturally increased faster than capital. The nobility, gentry, and clergy of Ireland, are constantly draining away its capital as fast as it is produced; but the author's simplicity has kept him in utter ignorance of that all important circumstance. In the course of his special pleading, or preaching, against potatoes, there appears to be the glaring flaw of taking the means for the end. Is labour valuable only for