That it would be impracticable to convince the individuals of such societies as Mr. Owen proposes, that if the aggregate body were subject to difficulties, the particular member of them must be so likewise, is for Mr. M. to prove, rather than assert; and, we will ask, would the punishment of starvation for a breach of the rules of such society, be more unnatural or cruel, than for a breach of certain general considerations, or "public notices,"* in the present state of society? We, therefore, think, that the outlines of the answer which we have thus endeavoured to give to his grand question, will tend to shew, that the assertions with which he concludes this chapter, are, to say the least of them, unproved and unwarranted.

We have often been inclined to doubt, whether certain occurrences, which have happened at a certain college, would have taken place, if the professors, &c., had been such adepts in the knowledge of the human heart, as some of them pretend to be, and we do not feel our doubts removed by the perusal of this Threevolume Essay on Population.

As to the Spencean doctrines concerning the land, we have no knowledge of them, beyond. what is furnished by Mr. M.'s note on this chapter; and, as we have treated the subject of rent

* See page 63 of this volume.

in another place, and shall have frequent occasion for reverting to it, we would merely ask Mr. Malthus, whether, in the course of his reading, he ever met with the following paragraph?

"The land shall not be sold for ever, for the land is mine; for ye are strangers and sojourners with me: and in all the land of your possession ye shall grant a redemption for the land." If he answer in the affirmative, it will be more completely satisfactory, if he will also direct us which we are to impeach-the wisdom of the law-giver, the veracity of the record, or, the modern mode of appropriating the land of a country to the support of idleness, and then taxing the labourers of the country, to support, not only the necessary, but the wanton and wicked, expenses of the government, to any amount it may please to squander or destroy.

CHAPTER IV.

"OF EMIGRATION."

MANY of the reasonings contained in this chapter of Mr. Malthus's work are, like the preceding, founded on the false assumptions which we have had such frequent cause to expose, viz., that all the assertions embodied in the title-page and introduction in particular, and throughout the work in general, thus far are correct, and have been proved so. But, as all those arguments are, in consequence of such false assumptions, inadmissible and irrelevant, the business of examination is reduced almost to that of mere incidental notices, while perusing the chapter.

Mr. Malthus supposes, that "the thirst of gain, the spirit of adventure and religious enthusiasm, are more powerful passions" than the exertion of the power of procreation; a concession of considerable importance to our view of the subject, but one of those unac

countables every now and then presented to us by the author of the Essay on Population.

That" the Mexicans, at the time of the Conquest, were superior to the Spaniards, in moral worth as well as numbers," is an assertion rather out of character, when proceeding from the pen of a public teacher of Christianity, and is, doubtless, as unfounded as it is unbecoming. Why does not Mr. M. enlarge upon the evils, if any, which resulted from the principle of population in Peru, where a species of equality system was established?

That colonization has, in many instances, failed, either at first, or altogether, through ignorance and mismanagement, forms no argument against emigration, and colonization in general; except it could be shewn, that such ignorance and mismanagement are necessarily unavoidable.* To talk of expenses is, in most cases, quite ridiculous. Parliament, to enable the emigration of the redundant population, which their own war and loan measures had produced, granted a miserable pittance of fifty thousand pounds, out of a revenue of sixty millions, levied annually from the produce of

* The knowledge and good management of those who directed a late emigration from a certain country, to one of its colonies, was so superabundant, as to save them the trouble of previously corresponding with the local government on the subject.

the labour and productively employed capital of the country. If it had been five millions annually, for several years, it would have been but trifling in comparison of the object which, according to their own professions, they ought to have had in view.

That" the establishment of Colonies, in the more thinly peopled regions of Asia, would evidently require a considerable force to protect them," is not altogether a well-founded assertion, as applied even to the continent, and is quite unwarranted, if meant to include the Asiatic Islands. The whole redundant population of the United Kingdom, granting it to be as numerous as Mr. Malthus may chuse to assert, could be landed in New Guinea, without experiencing any hostility of importance. That delightful island might soon be converted into a terrestrial paradise; so, also, might the other islands of the Eastern Archipelagos* and Polynesia, &c. The distance from England does not form a very material objection. A voyage to and from those islands or countries may now be performed with safety and comfort, and does not require much more time than was occupied by the voyage to and from America, at the

* See Farquhar on the Islands of the Malay Archipelago, and the Friend of India, printed at the Serampore Mission Press, &c. &c.