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ILLUSTRATIONS AND PROOFS
PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION
IXCIUDINC
AN EXAMINATION OF THE
PROPOSED REMEDIES OF MR. MALTHUS,
AND A REPLY TO THE
OBJECTIONS OF MR. GODWIN
AND OTHERS.
By FRANCIS PLACE.
It to this day remains a problem, whether the number of our species
can be increased. Godwin, p. 1 1.5.
LONDON :
PRINTED FOR
LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,
PATERNOSTER-ROW.
1822.
I^ONDON ;
Printed by A. & R. SpoUiswoode,
New -Street-Square.
fh -^
CONTENTS.
Page
Introduction vii
CHAP. I.
Statement of the Question concerning Population, as
between Mr. Malthus and Mr. Godwin. — Mr. Godwin's
First Reply to the " Essay on Population." — Mr. God-
win's Second Reply. — The " Enquiry concerning the
Poiver of Increase in the Numbers of Mankind." 1
CHAP. II.
OF SWED£IN.
Its Population. — Tables of Mortality. — Power of Pro-
creation. — Mr. Godwin's Assertion that Sweden en-
joyed singular advantages as to Population, examined
and refuted. — Compared with the United States of
North America 19
CHAP. III.
OF THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA.
Section I. — Introduction. — Question stated. — Increase
of People from Procreation compared with Sweden. —
Emigration from Europe to the United States. — From
Great Britain and Ireland. — Parliamentary Returns. —
Dr. Seybert's Statistical Annals of the United States. —
American Immigration Act. — Number of Immigrants. —
A 2
iv CONTENTS.
Page-
British Laws respecting Passengers to Foreign States.
— Number of Ships, Tons, and Passengers to the United
States, 181 J to 1821. — Deserters from the British
Armies in America — Probable number of Emigrants
during the last twenty-five years 35
Section II. — Increase of People in the United States
from Procreation. — Examples. — In the Parish of
Hengham. — At Portsmouth. — Value of Life in the
principal Cities of the United States. — In Sweden. —
Compared. — Proofs of a very rapid Increase of People
from Procreation in the United States, from Mr.
Godwin's data.... 72
Section III. — Number of Children in America. — In
Sweden. — Number of Adults. — Number of Children
to a Marriage. — Number of Children reared. — Number
of Breeding Females in both Countries. — Compared.
— American Community much better adapted to an
Increase of People than that of Sweden 83
CHAP. IV.
On the " Dissertation on the Ratios of Increase in Popul-
ation, and in the Means of Subsistence. — By Mr. David
Booth." 93
CHAP. V.
On the Population of Antient States. — Desolation of
some Foreign States. — Evils of Human Institutions. —
Examples. — Persia. — Egypt. — Montesquieu. — Mr.
Godwin's Statement of the Principle of Population 125
CHAP. VI.
MEANS OF PREVENTING THE NUMBERS OF MANKIND FROM
INCREASING FASTER THAN FOOD IS PROVIDED.
Section I. — Ideas of Mr. Malthus and Mr. Godwin,
relative to these Means , 135
CONTENTS. V
Page
Section II. — State of the People of England, regarding
the Means of preventing their Increase faster than Food 151
Section. III. — Ideas of the Author, relative to the Means
of preventing the People from increasing faster than Food 157
CHAP. VII.
OF THE POPULATION OF ENGLAND.
Section I. — Introduction. — First Historical Period. —
— the Britons. — Country very thinly inhabited at the
Invasion of Julius Caesar. — Second Historical Period.
— The Roman. — Population increased. — Third His-
torical Period. — The Saxon and Danish — Population
probably not increased. Estimated at about 2,000,000
at the Norman Conquest in 1066 180
Section II. — Fourth Historical Period. — From the In-
vasion of the Normans in 1066, to the Invasion of France
by Edward III. in 1 339. — Population not much increased
during this Period 193
Section III. — Fifth Historical Period, — From the Ac-
cession of Edward III. in 1327, to the Accession of
Henry VII. in 1485 206
SECTid"N IV. — Sixth Historical Period. — From the Ac-
cession of Henry VII. to the Revolution of 1688 217
Section V. — Seventh Historical Period. — From the Revo-
lution of 1688, to the Present Time 222
CHAP. VIII.
Of the Decrease of Mortality in England 247
CHAP. IX.
Of the Accumulation of Capital, as it conduces to the
well being of the People. — Consequences of increasing
the Number of People, more rapidly than Capital in-
creases. — Spade Cultivation. — Does Population press
A 3
vi CONTENTS.
Page
against the Means of Subsistence ? — Example, Ireland.
— Increase of People. — Low Wages. — Ignorance. —
Disease '259
CHAP. X.
Conclusion. — Mr. Godwin's Repugnance to the Science
of Political Economy. — The Doctrines inculcated in this
Work cannot be promoted, nor the Condition of the
People be materially and permanently improved, with-
out a competent Knowledge of the Science of Political
Economy 269
APPENDIX, No. I.
On the Extent of the United States, and of the Number
of States and Territories at the taking of the several
Censuses of the People in 1790, 1800, and 1810 273
APPENDIX, No. II.
On the Number of Emigrants from the British Islands to
the United States of North America 277
INTRODUCTION.
J^ HE following work is the result of an examina.
tion of Mr. Godwin's " Enquiry concerning the
power of increase in the numbers of manldnd" and
of Mr. Malthus's ^^ Essay on the Principle of
Population.** In every reply to the ^^ Essay on
Population^** preceding the present one, which is
the second from the pen of Mr. Godwin, the prin-
cipal point in the controversy, the power of
increase, has been conceded. In some of these
replies, the power to increase has been admitted
to be quite as potent as Mr. Malthus has described
it, while, in all of them its efficacy is admitted to
be sufficient to have peopled the earth to the
utmost extent of the means of subsistence ; had
even the art been discovered to which Mr. God-
win alludes, of providing food by chemical affini-
ties. How the population has been kept down,
each writer accounts for in his own way ; most of
them admit the checks named by Mr. Malthus,
and all of them agree with him, even while they
appear to dissent from his doctrines ; that the po-
pulation of the earth would have been much
A 4
Vlll INTRODUCTION.
greater than it is, had knowledge been more gene-
ral, and governments more mild.
Mr. Godwin has embodied in his book the
objections of the writers alluded to. He has, also,
denied the power of the human race to increase
its numbers, has insisted that there is more reason
to fear a decrease, than to expect an increase of
mankind, has, with his friend and associate, Mr.
David Booth, conjectured that the human race is
wearing out, and has peremptorily denied that the
population in this or any other country presses
against the means of subsistence. Mr. Malthus
has shown, that in almost all the countries of the
earth, the population is constantly pressing against
the means of subsistence.
I am not aware that any of the numerous attempts
to disprove the *^prmc?ple ofpopulatiori,** which
preceded this, from the pen of Mr. Godwin,
have attracted the particular attention of the pub-
lic, or weakened the confidence placed in the truth
of that principle. It is not so, however, with Mr.
Godwin* s E7iquiry. His book has been extolled in
Parliament, quoted from with praise in various
publications ; and represented both by the public
press, and by many intelligent persons, as a satis-
factory refutation of the principle of population.
Upon reading Mr. Godwin's book, it appeared
to be no more a refutation of the work of Mr.
Malthus, in relation to the principle of popu-
INTRODUCTION. IX
lation, than any of the works which had preceded
it. To me it seemed to be a plausible attempt,
utterly destitute of proof. I have, therefore, ana-
lysed his arguments, and examined the evidence
he has adduced ; and if in doing this I have found
it necessary to show that his arguments are weak
and inconclusive, that his proofs are defective, or
make against him, and that the style and tone of his
work are such as do no credit to ]iim as a philoso-
pher, I trust, I have avoided, as much as was pos-
sible, whatever was calculated to wound his
feelings. * The same may be said of Mr. Booth,
whom I sincerely respect, and whose dissertation
has been freely handled.
In an enquiry of great importance to the com-
munity, it is the duty of every man who interferes
to endeavour to put the matter in dispute in the
clearest light ; however he may be obliged to
oppose, or to expose the arguments of those from
* I might, indeed, use Mr. Godwin's own words, as he has
appHed them to the work of Mr. Malthus. — " It has not been
the purpose of this work to expose contradictions. Never book
afforded greater advantage to an adversary ; almost every page
would be found, upon a strict enquiry, to contain an answer to
the page which went before. But I had higher objects in view.
It has been my purpose to assail his theory at the foundation.
I have taken the main propositions of his volume ; and without
troubling myself with the question, how often he has betrayed
his cause, and thrown down the fabric he has raised, I have
gone straight to the consideration of the truth or error of his
principles."
X INTRODUCTION.
whom lie cannot but regret he is compelled to
differ.
The principle question discussed is, has mankind
a tendency to increase faster than the means of
subsistence.
It will be shown, that in the United States of
North America, where man is free and wages high,
where large tracts of fertile land are yet unculti-
vated, the powey" of producing food has exceeded
that of producing men, and that this will probably
continue to be the case until after all the land has
been a})propriated and cultivated. In respect to
that country, proof will be given of its having
repeatedly doubled its population from procrea-
tion in periods of less than twenty years.
It will be proved in respect to England, that the
population has, for several ages, gone on increasing
as fast as the means of subsistence would permit,
and that the rate of increase has been very much
accelerated during the last seventy years.
In Poland, and in South America, and, indeed,
in the w^hole of Spanish America, the population is
very thin in proportion to the extent of land, and
its capability of being made to produce every
thing useful to mankind. In South America there
are many extensive tracts of fertile land, which
might support hundreds of persons, for every one
who at present inhabits or roams over them. Mr.
Godwin thinks the thinness of the population
in these countries, is a decisive proof that man-
INTRODUCTJON. XI
kind cannot increase by procreation. But he him-
self furnishes an answer, when he speaks of bad
government. In those countries, bad government
has brutalized the people, or prevented them from
emerging from the brutal state, in which state it
needs no arguments to prove a dense population
cannot exist. Bad government has, in some of
these countries, operated to a greater extent, than a
barren soil, ora pestilential climate, would have done
under better systems of government. The same,
with considerable limitation, may be said of Poland.
Thus positive institutions, which Mr. Malthus has
considered as comparatively trifling evils, will be
found among the most serious of the evils to which
mankind are subjected. Mr. Malthus has, how-
ever, given sufficient reasons for his assertions, that
even in these countries, small as is the amount of
the population, it continually presses against the
means of subsistence, as it must continue to do
till better governments be established, and the
people become wiser. Mr. Godwin, it will be
seen, forbids us to hope for any considerable in-
crease of people, under any circumstances, and yet
he has shown in his former writings, that a country
to be well governed, and made capable of great in-
tellectual enjoyment, must be well peopled, and
has founded his political system upon this cir-
cumstance.
I have not gone through Mr. Godwin's book
in the order he has arranged his chapters, but hav-
XU INTKODUCTION.
ing stated the case between him and Mr. Mai thus,
have gone at once to the principal points in the
controversy. Mr. Godwin has built his hypothesis
on two fallacies, one of which is, that in order to
double the j)opulation in twenty years, it is ne-
cessary there should be eight children born for
every marriageable woman in the community.
The other fallacy lies in the evidence which Mr,
Godwin thinks the population tables of Sweden
afford, when applied to the United States of North
America ; he has brought to his aid, in support of
his opinions, a " Dissertation on the Rations of In-
crease in Population, and in the Means of Suhsis-
tence,*^ written by Mr. David Booth. Mr. God-
win's chapters on Sweden, on the United States of
North America, and Mr. Booth's dissertation, are
treated of in the order here named. The re-
mainder of the volume is occupied with enquiries
respecting the dispute relating to the population of
Antient States — the means of preventing the num-
bers of mankind from increasing faster than food is
provided for them — the progressive population of
England, the accumulation of capital, and its
application to the increase of people, particularly
in England and Ireland.
The author is perfectly aware, that he has exhi-
bited views, and proposed remedies, which will,
with some persons, expose him to censure; but he
is also aware of the utility of thus exposing himself.
He is fully persuaded of the usefulness of his sugges-
INTRODUCTION. XIU
tioiis, and will not be much affected either by cen-
sure, or by the words in which it may be conveyed.
He is, he hopes, open to conviction, and prepared
to retract any opinion he now entertains upon its
being proved erroneous, and to adopt any other
which may be shown to be correct.
The work was composed in the early part of the
year 1821, and was nearly ready for the press,
when Mr. Scarlett introduced to the House of Com-
mons, his " Bill to amend the Lazes 7^elating to the
Poor of Erigland.'^ The clause in this bill which
enacts : " That it shall not be lawful to allow or
give any relief whatever, to any person whatsoever,
who shall be married after the passing of this act,
for himself, herself, or any part of his or her family,
unless in case of age, sickness, or bodily infirmity,'*
differs but little from the proposal of Mr. Malthus,
to exclude from parish aid all the children born
after a certain notice, which has been examined
and commented upon in Chapter VI. I have not
thought it necessary to make any alteration in the
body of the work, on account of Mr. Scarlett's
bill ; since, what is said on the proposal of Mr.
Malthus, will be found to be equally applicable to
the bill of Mr. Scarlett. To what is there said, it
seems only necessary to add, that Mr. Scarlett's
attempt at legislation, in this instance, is in con-
formity with the notion of petty legislation, which
prevails every where, which has been carried to
XIV INTIIODUCTIOM.
great excess in this country, without, however,
having been found to answer the })urposes in-
tended.
The notion so generally prevalent that the
remedy for every evil, whether real or imaginary,
and the extinction of crime, is to be found in penal
acts of Parliament, indiscriminately heaped upon
one another, seldom fails, when reduced to practice,
to increase both the quantity of evil, and the num-
ber of crimes.
We need not travel far for proofs of the folly of
this piece-meal mode of legislating. The last ses-
sion of Parliament furnishes but too many exam-
ples, one of which may here suffice. Mr. Scarlett's
bill forbids parish officers to relieve the poor, and
shuts them out of the workhouse. The New Va-
grant Act empowers any single Justice of the
Peace, when in his opinion any person brought
before him, has committed an act of vagrancy, to
commit the person to prison, for any time not less
than one month, nor more than three months.
Thus, Mr. Scarlett's bill would shut the pauper
out of the workhouse, and the Vagrant Act pro-
vides for him in the gaol. To persons doomed by
the operation of Mr. Scarlett's bill to starvation ;
the being sent to Bridewell, and there supplied
with clean clothes, dry lodging, wholesome food,
and moderate labour, would be no great hardship.
But while these laws made the poor somewhat
INTRODUCTION. XV
more wretched, and more vicious, than they be-
fore were, tliere would be no saving of expence,
since what was saved from the poor rates, by
refusing to reUeve the poor as paupers, would be
expended as county rates, in providing for them as
criminals, — probably a much larger sum would be
requisite.
The remedy which Mr. Scarlett vainly hopes to
find in the legislative measure he has proposed,
can alone be found in the instruction of the people,
particularly in respect to the principle of popul-
ation, and in a much more comprehensive and
correct system of legislation, than either Mr.
Malthus or Mr. Scarlett appear to have contem-
plated.
r
Fehruary 1, 1822.
CHAPTER L
l] STATEMENT OF TilE QUESTION' CONCERNING POPULATION AS
BETWEEN MR. MALTHUS AND MR. GODWIN. — MR. GODWIN'S
5 FIRST REPLY TO THE " ESSAY ON POPULATION." — MR.
I Godwin's second reply, the " enquiry concerning
II THE POWER OF INCREASE IN THE NUMBERS OF MANKIND."
I
Mr. Godwin commences " His Enquiry" thus:
" It happens to men sometimes, where they had it
in their thoughts to set forward and advance some
j mighty benefit to their fellow-creatures, not merely
to fail in giving substance and efficacy to the sen-
timents that animated them, but also to realize
and bring on some injury to the party they pro-
posed to serve. Such is my case, if the speculations
s that have iiotv been current for nearly txventy yearSy
I and which had scarcely been heard of before, are
\ to he henceforth admitted as forming an essential
I branch of the science cfjmlitics.** Preface, p. i.
I In page v., speaking of the attacks that his
I Enquiry concerning Political Justice produced,
I he says, " / hailed the attack of Mr. Mai thus, I
I believed that the Essay on Population^ like other
erroneous and exaggerated representations q/ things,
would soon fold its own level,*'
2 MR. CODWIN^S FIRST RF.PrV
In the same page, he declares his disappointment.
Finding that whatever arguments had been pro-
duced against it by others, it still held on its pros-
perous career, he resolved to put into a permanent
form what had occurred to him on the subject.
** / was,** he says, ** sometimes idle enough to sup-
pose that I had done my part in produci?ig the book
that had given occasion to Mr. Malthus*s Essay,
and that I might sajely leave the comparatively easy
task., as it seemed, of demolishing the principle of
POPULATION, to some one of the men who have
risen to maturity since I produced my most consid-
erable performance, ' '
In his first chapter he observes that : " Mr.
Malthus has published what he calls an Essay on
the Principle of Population, by which he undertakes
to annid every thing that had previously been received,
respecting the views that it is i?icumbent upon those
who py^eside over political society to cherish, and the
measures that may conduce to the Jmppiness of man-
kind. HIS THEORY IS EVIDENTLY FOUNDED UPON
NOTHING. He says that, ' population, when un-
cJiecked, goes on doubling itself every twenty-fve
years, or increases in a geometrical ratio* If we
ask why we are to believe this, he answers, that,
* in the northern states of America, the population
has been found so to double itself for above a cen-
tury and a half successively :* all this he delivers
in an oraculous manner. He neither proves, nor
attempts to prove, what he asserts. If Mr. Mal-
thus has taken a right view of the question, it is
to be hoped, that some author will hereafter arise.
TO MR. IMALTHUS. 3
who will go into the subject, and show that it
is so."
These passages are very extraordinary, coming
as they do, from the pen of a man, who more than
any other that I know of, or than 1 believe can be
found, has so ** mainly supported the principle of
Mr. Malthus,*' as Mr. Godwin himself.
The first edition of Mr. Godwin's ** Enquiry
concerning Political Justice,*' was published in
Feb. 1793 f a second edition was published in
1796, and a third in 1798. In the last of these
years, Mr. Malthus published his " Essay on the
Principle of Population." In 1801, three years
after the publication of his third and last edition,
and of Mr. Malthus's Essay, Mr. Godwin pub-
lished, " Thoughts occasioned by the Perusal of
Dr. Parr's Spital Sermon, preached at Christ
Church, April 15, 1800 ; being a Reply to the
Attacks of Dr. Parr, Mr. Mackintosh, the Author
of the Essay on Population, and others." It can-
not be said that between the publication of the
Essay, and Mr. Godwin's reply, there was not
time enough for Mr. Godwin fully to revolve the
subject in his mind, and indeed he tells us himself
that he did so.
Having replied to Dr. Parr and Mr. Mackin-
tosh, he says, " / approach the author of the Essay
071 PopulatioJi with a sentiment of mfeigned appro-
bation and respect. The general strain of his argu-
ment does the highest honour to the liberality of
his mind, — he has argued just as if he had no end
4 MR. COUWIN's first IJKPl.Y
m x'icrv hut /he invcsligation of evidence and the dc-
velopement of truth.'''' p. 55.
" With the most unatlected simplicity of mari-
ner, and disdaining every parade of science, lie
appears to me to have made as uiujucst'ionahle an
addition to the theory of j^olitical economi/y as any
writer for a century past. The grand propositions
and outline of his work wilU I believe, be found not
less conclusive and certain, than they are nexv. For
myselfi I cannot refuse to take some })ride, in so
far as by my writings I gave occasion, and fur-
nished an incentive, to the producing so valuable
a treatise." p. 5Q.
*' The foundations of the discovery contained in
this treatise'* (the Essay on Population) *' are ex-
ceedingly simple. Every one, whose attention is
for a moment called to the sidyect, will immediately
perceive that the ptincij^le of multiplication in the
human species is xvithout limits; and that, if it
TENDS TO ANY INCREASE in the numbcrs of mankind,
it must have that tendency, independently of any in-
trinsic causes checking the growth of population, for
every p. 56.
" The general doctrine of the Essay 07i Popula-
tion is so clear, and rests on such irresistible
EVIDENCE, that this circumstance, together with its
novel and miexpected tenor, is apt to hurry away
the mind, and take from us all power of expostula-
tion and distinction." p. 70.
Mr. Godwin afterwards adverts to tlie enquiries
of Ur. Franklin in America, which he concludes
%
^^
TO 3IR. MALTHUS. 5
tliiis : " Hence it aj:)pears that the progress'* (of
population in the United States of North America)
'* is in the nature of a geo3Ietrical ratio — or,
2. 4. 8. 16. 3'2. 6k DOUBLING ITSELF EVERY
TWENTY YEARS.'* p. 5"/.
** Having thus ascertained,'* (he continues)
•' and fixed the pRiNcirLE of population, we come
next to consider the measures of subsistence. If
the latter do not keep pace with, or at least press
closely on the footsteps of the former, the most
dreadful calamities and disorders must be expected
to ensue. To ascertain this point, then, let us
suppose, the actual produce of the soil of England
precisely capable of feeding its present inhabitants,
and let us suppose that the number of those is
eight millions. It has already api)eared that, in
txventij years, the principle of population if o})er-
ating without a check, would cause those inhabi-
tants to double their ])resent number, that is, to be
sixteen millions. — Let us imagine, that as the first
twenty years, produced additional subsistence for
the eight millions of added inhabitants, the next
twenty years, shall produce subsistence for eight
millions more, and so on in an arithmetical ratio
Jbr ever. This is an ample allowance ; as the soil
of England, as well as the surface of the globe is
limited and contains only an assignable number of
acres. But this ct)nclusion, j)resents to us in the
most striking light, the inade([uateness of the i)rin-
ciple of subsistence, to meet and to bear up against
the principle of population. Population left to
i> 3
5 MU. Godwin's first reply
itself, >would go on in the ratio of 9,. 4. 8. IG. 32. ()4..,
and subsistence, upon a supposition certainly suffi-
cienlly favourable, only in the ratio of ^2. 4. 6. 8. 10.
12., for every twenty years successively." p. 57, 58.
Such were Mr. Godwin's opinions three years
after the Essay on Population made its appearance.
And it is very remarkable that in his new w^ork of
6^Q pages he should never once have alluded to
his former reply. Doubtless Mr. Godwin was at
liberty to change his opinions ; but he was bound
in fairness towards the public, and in candour to-
wards Mr. Malthus, to have stated the reasons
which had induced him to decide that it was his
duty to hold out Mr. Malthus as the hard-hearted,
unfeeling enemy of the human race, after the pains
he had taken to represent him as their benefactor.
We have seen, we shall further see as we go
along, that Mr. Godwin inculcated with ardour
** the principle of population ;" and that he devised
remedies for the evils which resulted from a too
rapid increase of people.
Mr. Godwin may be of opinion that his first
reply was all folly, and nothing to the purpose ;
and that now, when he is better informed, it
does not deserve to be noticed : but then he should
have said so. Others may have been confirmed
in their opinion of the value of Mr. Malthus's
work, by Mr. Godwin's clear statements and elu-
cidations. Mr. Godwin w^as also bound to treat
Mr. Malthus, not only with respect, which he has
not done, but with something more, after the en-
TO MR. MALTIIUS. 7
eouragement. he had given him to proceed, by
clearing and advocating " the principle of popu-
lation.**
Mr. Malthus, in his preface to his first edition
of tlie Essay on Population, published in 1798, in-
forms us, that *' it owed its origin to a conversation
with a friend on the subject of Mr. Godwin's Essay
on Avarice and Profusion, in the Enquirer.'* Mr.
Godwin had previously, in his " Enquiry concern-
ing Political Justice,'* supposed a state of society
might in time exist infinitely more wise and vir-
tuous than the present state of society, in which
all would be nearly on a footing of equality, and,
as he stated, infinitely more happy. This he again
advocated in the essay referred to by Mr. Malthus.
To this Mr. Malthus replied, *' No ; you have not
sufficiently considered the principle of population,
and its effects : you will be x)verwhelmed with
people pressing against the means of subsist-
ence ; and, as this must necessarily produce vice
and misery, your theory will never be realized."
The answer to this seemed obvious ; and Mr.
Malthus might himself have been produced as an
evidence for the justness of the theory. If the
tendency of population be to increase in a geome-
trical ratio, and the period of doubling be a short
one, it follows, of course, that the mass of the
people in an old country must remain in a state of
wretchedness, until they are convinced that their
welfare depends upon themselves, and that it can
be maintained in no other way than by their ceas-
ing to propagate faster than the means of comfoil-
B 4
8 MR. GODWIN .S FIRST REI'LV
able subsistence are produced. This appeared to
be the very point to which Mr. Godwin's theory
led : it is, in fact, the point to which he himself
conducted it. In the eighth book of his " Enquiry
concerning Political Justice,'* he discusses, as will
be noticed, at the end of the fifth chapter, the
necessity for restraining the too rapid increase of
population, which he saw was at variance with his
theory. The object of his writing was to prove
that mankind might and would be happier in pro-
portion as they became wiser. The book was to
show them in what particulars they were deficient,
and to inculcate the knowledge necessary for their
improvement. If, then, there were any truth in
Mr. Godwin's theory, Mr. Malthus was answ^ered
at once : he had answered himself; for, unless the
people did obtain the necessary knowledge, they
could never be in the state supposed by Mr. God-
Avin ; and Mr. Malthus, in endeavouring to pre-
vent them from procreating too rapidly, and con-
sequently from deteriorating their condition in the
first instance, and putting it out of their power to
improve it afterwards, was placing them in a situ-
ation to realize Mr. Godwin's theory.
I would not, however, be understood as approv-
ing the whole of Mr. Malthus's expedients ; neither
do 1 believe that Mr. Malthus would himself, were
he not in too great a hurry to witness their effects,
and were he not, but too often, disposed to favour
the prejiidices of the rich. Tlie consequence of
this haste and prejudice has been to create ill-will,
and to perpetuate animosities.
TO :\n;. malthl^s. 9
No effectiuil check to the progress of popuhition,
at all beneficial to the people, can be expected, bnt
by means of increased knowledge ; to teach which
to the great body of them must be a work of some
time, requiring in the teachers great urbanity,
great diligence, great patience, and great clearness
of statement; and yet, if it were set about in the
right spirit, there is no knowing how short the
time might be before a visible alteration for the
better would become apparent. This was another
of Mr. Godwin's points, and to this he should have
held fast; and this was also, at one time, Mr. God-
win's opinion. In his first Re})ly, p. 55., he says,
" I had been invited and urged to enter into the
discussion of the principles contained in the Essay
on Population ;" but he adds, " I own I never
could persuade myself to see any adequate reasonfor
so doing. It stood out so obvious and glaring to my
mind, that the reasonings of the Essay on Popula-
tion did not bear with any paiticular stress on my
hypothesis; that I thought other men, who had any
considerable motive to wish for information, ought
to be able to make it out for themselves, Avithout
calling upon the original author for assistance."
In his second Reply, Mr. Godwin says, " The
result of an investigation into the subject of po})u-
lation, I believe mil afford some presumption tiiat
there is in the constitution of the human species a
POWER, absolutely speaking, of increasing its numbers,''
This cautious and equivocal manner of treating
the subject, leaves the writer at liberty to conclude
just what he plea^cb from it, or to exjilaiii it awa} ;
10 MR. (;0D win's first reply
it conveys no distinct idea to the reader. Mr.
Godwin goes on : — " Mr. Malthus says, that the
POWER is equal to the multipHcation of mankind,
by a doubling every twenty-five years ; that is, to
an increase for ever in a geometrical series, of
which the exponent is two ; — a muliipUcation tihich,
it is difficult Jbr human imagination, or (as I should
have thought) Jbr human credulity, to JollowJ^
— Introduction, p. 4. Who that reads this could
suppose that the most credulous of human beings
was Mr. Godwin himself? Who could have
imagined that Mr. Godwin had ever written, and
deliberately sent to the press, the passages which
have been quoted, or that which follows ?
*' Let it be recollected, that / admit the ratios
of the author in their full extent, and that I do 7wt
attempt, in the slightest degree, to vitiate the great
foundations of his theory. My undertaking coi fines
itself to the task of repelling his conclusions.**
*' I admit fully that the princijjle of population
in the human species, is in its oxvn nature energetic
and unlimited, and that the safety of the ivorld can
no otherwise be maintained^ hut by a constant and
powerful check upon this principle. — This idea
demolishes at once many maxims which have been
long and unsnspectedly received into the vulgar
code of morality, such as, that it is the first duty
of princes to watch for the multiplication of their
subjects, and that a man or woman who passes the
term of life in a condition of celibacy, is to be
considered as having failed to discharge one of
the principal obligations, they owe to the com-
TO MR. MALTHUS. 11
munity. On the contrary, it now appears to be
rather the man who rears a numerous family, that
lias in some degree transgressed the consideration
he owes to the public welfare. Population is
always, as this author observes, in all old settled
countries (putting out of our view the temporari/
occurrence of extraordinary calamities, which, \\q\\.
eYQY,mai/ be expected to be rapidly repaired, )in some
degree of excess beyond the means of subsistence ;
there is constantly a smaller quantity of provisions y
than would be requisite for the cornfortable and
vigorous support of all the inhabitants.*' p. 61.
It is rather too much, after having been thus
instructed by Mr. Godwin himself, to be told we
are in a state of fatuity for believing him.
The quotations from Mr. Godwin's first reply,
might have been reserved until I came to examine
the chapters which treat more particularly of the
topics to which they relate j but as Mr. Godwin
has made his introduction a kind of summary of
his book, has condemned the principle of popula-
tion, in a few sweeping clauses, and given Mr.
Malthus's credulous disciples a castigation for
their folly, it appeared to me that this was the
proper place for them. The reader will frequently
find occasion to refer to them.
In his new work, Mr .Godwin goes on, through
many pages, arguing apparently against Mr.
Malthus, when, in fact, he is arguing with him. lie
accuses him of doing what he has not done, and
he blames him for not doing what he has done :
he picks out a particular passage, or a few words
V2 Mil. Godwin's si:( ond reply
wluch ill the loose way in which Mr. Mallhus has
occasionally written, make against him ; antl he
comments on them as if they were conclusions
from a scries of reasonings.
Thus, Mr. Godwin quotes a passage in the
" Essay on Population," against Mr. Mallhus,
which he had taken from Dr. Faley, in which he
observes that, " tJiedccaij of population is the greatest
evil that a state can sajjer.'" New this is prec'sely
what Mr. Malthus has taken much pains to in-
culcate. To prevent this decay, to keej) the
popidation u\) to the highest point, at whicli the
mass of the people can be maintained in comfort,
is the very object and end of his essay. Mr. Godwin
chooses to understand iiim in another sense. He
proceeds thus :
"Such has been the doctrine," (Paley's) "I
believe, of every enlightened politician and legis-
latoi", since the world began. l»ut Mr. Malthus
has placed this subject in a new light ; lie thinks
that there is a possibility that the globe of earth
may, at some time or other, contain more human
inhabitants than it can subsist ; and he has there-
fore written a book, the direct tendencij of which
is to keep down the numbers qf^ mankind. IJe has
no consideration for the millions and millions of
men who might be conceived as called into ex-
istence, and made joint partakers with us in such
happiness as a sublunary existence, with liberty
and improvement, might impart ; but, for the sake
of a i'uture possibility, would shiU again.^t them,
once Jar alt, the door ifciistcncc.
TO MR. IMALTilUS. 13
" He says, indeed, ' the difficulfj/, so far from
being remote, /> hnmiueni and irtrincdiate. At every
period doing the progress of cidtivation, from the
present moment to the time when the whole eartl>
was become Hke a garden, tlie distress for want of
food, woidd be constantly jiressing on all mankind.'
He adds, it is true, in this place, ' if they xvere
equal;' but these words are plainly unnecessary,
since it is almost the sole j^tf^yose of his hook to
show that, in all old established countries, * the
population is ahvays pressing hard against the means
of sid)sistence.* This however, I mean the disti^ess
that must always accompany us in every step of our
progress, is so palpably untrue, that I am astonished
that any man shoidd have been induced, by the love
of paradox, and the desire to dividge something new,
to make the assertion.** p. 16. Perhaps Mr. Godwin's
astonishment may cease, when he finds that Mi*.
Malthus is not the only writer who has propagated
the ^^ palpable untruth** and illustrated it, so as to
give it the semblance of truth. Hear one of them.
He says :
" In all old settled countries, the measure of
population continually trenches on the measure of
subsistefice, and the actual quantity of provisions
falls somewhat short of what would be necessary
for the vigorous and comfortable support of the
inhabitants.
*« It is therefore well worthy of our attention
to enquire, respecting such a country as England,
where, according to the majority of political cal-
14 MR. Godwin's first reply
culatioii, j)opiilation has long been at a stand, by
wliat checks it has been kept down within the
limits it is found to preserve.
" One of the cliecks continually operating, is,
that great numbers of the children who are born
in this country, are half destroyed by neglect and
improper food, and that, after pining away a few
weeks or a year or two of existence, they perish
miserably, without any chance of approaching
maturity. The parents, in many classes of the
community, scarcely able to maintain themselves
in life, if they provide food in sufficient quantity
for their children, can at least pay no attention to
its being properly adapted to their age or con-
stitution. The married w^oman, whose only shelter
is a hovel or a garret, if she is unfortunate enough
to be prolific, is so harrassed by the continual labour
which her circumstances require of her, that her
penury becomes visible to every spectator, in the
meagreness of her shattered frame. She can pay
no regularity of attention to the infants she brings
into the world. They are dragged about by
children a little older than themselves, or thrust
into some neglected corner, unable to call or to
seek for the supply of their wants. They are
bruised, they are maimed, their bodies distorted
into horrible deformity, or their internal structure
suffering some unseen injury, which renders them
miserable while they live, and ordinarily hurries
them to an early grave. This is, undoubtedly,
a sufficient check upon increasing population."
/
TO MR. MALTHUS. 15
" Another check upon increasing population,
which operates very powerfully and extensively in
the country we inhabit, is that sentiment, whether
virtue, prudence, or pride, which continually re-
strains the universality and frequent repetition
of the marriage contract." Mr. Godwin pro-
ceeds to develope, with a masterly hand, the oper-
ation of this check, and he anticipates its operation
and its value in an improved state of society. In
such a state of society, says he, *' It will be im-
possible for a man to fall into the error on which
we are commenting, from inadvertence. The doc-
trines of the Essay on Population^ if they he truej
as I HAVE NO DOUBT that they are, will be fully un-
derstood. Society will not fall into clans as at
present, nor be puzzled and made intricate, by the
complexity of its structure. No man will be able to
live, without character and the respect of his
neighbours ; and no consideration on earth will
induce him to forfeit them." — Mr. Godwin's
Reply, 1801, pp. 71, 7^. 74, 75.
It is really difficult to persuade one's self that the
passages quoted were dictated by the same under-
standing, and penned by the same liand ; Mr.
Godwin no where tells us he has changed his opi-
nions, but goes on as if they had always been what
they are at the present time. He writes a book
against himself, in which he freely uses offensive
terms against those who may have been persuaded
by his writings to have faith in the Principle of
Population.
IC) .'Ml'.. Godwin's second iiep.ly
The passage referred to, as quoted from Mr.
Malthiis's Avork by Mr. Godwin, wants tlie head ;
liad tliat not. been cut oW, it would have ap})eare(l
that Mr. Malthus was combating the systems of
equality of Wallace and Condorcet, who, like others
who advocated systems of equality, invariably
represent the difficulties arising from a rapid
increase of population, as being at a great and
almost immeasurable distance. " Even Mr. Wal-
lace,'* says Mr. Malthus, *' who thought the argu-
ment itself of so much weight as to destroy his
whole system of equality, did not seem to be
aware that any difficulty could arise from this
cause, till the earth had been cultivated like a gar-
den y and was incapable of' any further i?ic7'ease of
'produce. If this were really the case, and a beau-
tiful system of equality were in other respects
practicable, I cannot think that our ardour in the
pursuit of such a scheme ought to be damped by
the contemplation of so remote a difficulty. An
event at such a distance might be left to Pro-
vidence. But the truth is, that if the view of the
aT'gume?it given in this essay be just, the difficulty,
so far from being remote, is imminent and imme-
diate. At every period during the progress of
cultivation, from the present moment to the time
when the whole earth was become like a garden,
the distress from want of food would be con-
stantly pressing on all mankindy if they were all
equal. Though the produce of the earth would
be increasing every year, population would be in-
TO MR. MALTHUS. 17
creasing much faster, and this superior power must
necessarily be checked by the periodical or con-
stant action of moral restraint, vice, or misery."*
Having decapitated the passage, Mr. Godwin
also cut off the lower extremities, and then called
out, This is the object Mr. Malthus intended to ex-
hibit; when, in truth, the object differs essentially
from the part which is exhibited for the whole.
Mr. Godwin affirms, that Mr. Malthas has no
consideration for the millions on millions of men
who might be conceived as called into existence.
But if, as Mr. Godwin argues in other places, the
power of increase, if it exist at all in the human
species, is exceedingly small, and that if war and
other atrocious follies of mankind were to cease,
it might still be doubted if mankind could in-
crease, and, as he says in his conclusion, that there
is more reason to fear a diminution than to expect
an increase, there seems to be no reason why he
should so pathetically complain of the cruelty of
Mr. Malthus, in desiring to prevent the birth, and
to deprive of enjoyment the millions on miUions,
which, according to him, could never be brought
into existence.
Mr. Godwin cannot, or will not see, what their
being " equal** has to do with the question;
and yet it seems plain enough. If they were not
" equal" then, according to Mr. Malthus, the poor
would be the sufferers ; if they were " equals*
then all would suffer. Mr. Malthus does not
deny that ; mankind may go on increasing ; he
* Malthus, vol. ii. p. 220. 5th Edition.
c
18 MR. Godwin's second reply.
repeatedly says they may, and happily too, pro-
vided they do not increase faster than the means
of subsistence is provided. He does not say the
whole earth may not be cultivated like a garden ;
on the contrary, he expresses his desire that it
should be so ; but he says, you cannot preserve
the beautiful system of equality you have sup-
posed, and go on breeding without restraint ; and
that, if you attempt it, you will be disappointed.
Mr. Malthus, in some parts of his work, speaks
doubtfully of the effects of moral restraint and the
preventive checks, to keep the population from
heading the means of subsistence. In other
places, he seems disposed to believe they will
some day be found efficient and equal to the pur-
pose. He has, however, taken much pains to in-
culcate the necessity of resorting to them, in the
hope of mitigating the terrible effects of the posi-
tive checks, " vice and misery," not for the pur-
pose of keeping down the population, as Mr. God-
win represents, but for the purpose of improving
the condition of the mass of the people, and in-
creasing their number, as fast as the means of com-
fortable subsistence can be provided for them.
CHAP. 11.
OF SWEDEN.
ITS POPULATION. TABLES OF MORTALITY. — POWER OF PRO-
CREATION. — MR. Godwin's assertion, that sweden en-
joyed SINGULAR ADVANTAGES AS TO POPULATION, EXA-
MINED AND REFUTED. COMPARED WITH THE UNITED STATES
OF NORTH AMERICA.
In Sweden, an account of births, marriages, and
deaths, has been taken with more regularity, more
accurately, and for a longer period, than in any
other country. The censuses of the people have
also been more correctly and more frequently
taken, and contain many more particulars than
the governments of other nations have thought it
necessary to require. Mr. Malthus has therefore
taken particular notice of the tables which relate
to the population of Sweden, for the purpose of
supporting his doctrine ; and Mr. Godwin has re-
ferred to them, for the purpose of showing its un-
soundness. Between these two gentlemen, almost
every thing that can be said respecting these tables
has been said. Mr. Malthus has shown that popu-
lation increases but slowly in Sweden ; Mr. God-
win has done the same. Mr. Malthus has also
shown, that the population constantly presses
against the means of subsistence in Sweden j Mr.
Godwin denies this. Jn other particulars there is
' very little difference between them, Mr. Godwin
^0 SWEDISH TABLES
generally confirming the doctrines of Mr. Malthus,
while he gives to his words the appearance of con-
tradicting them. The difference between these
two gentlemen, lies in their applications of the
Swedish tables to other countries. Of this more
will be said, in the chapters on the Population of
the United States of America.
It appears from a very laboured analysis of the
Swedish population by Mr. Godwin, that not quite
one in five of the whole population is a marriageable
woman, and that the births are not quite four one-
eighth to a marriage. Mr. Godwin infers, that
nearly all the women marry at some period of their
lives, and that as great a number of children are
born in that country as can be born from the same
number of people in any country. That the mor-
tality of children under twenty years of age, which,
by the " constitution and course of nature," is at
the least one out of every two births, may be taken
as the mortality of England, France, and the United
States of North America. That these conclusions are
erroneous, will be shown even with respect to Eng-
land, and still more so with respect to the United
States of North America.
The Swedish tables are defective, inasmuch as
they do not notice the ages at which the females
are married. Had this been done, it would pro-
bably have been found, that a considerable number
do not marry at all, that marriages generally do
not take place so early as they would do were the
climate more genial, the land more fertile, and
the government better adapted to promote the
OF MORTALITY. 21
well-being of the people ; and, consequently, tliat
there are neither so many children born as might,
under other circumstances, be born, nor so many
of those which are born, reared. Mr. Godwin has
taken much pains to induce his readers to believe
the contrary ; but it will be seen, when we come to
treat of the United States of North America, that
not only has he failed in establishing his propo-
sitions, but that he lias himself adduced proofs
which establish the contrary, and fully confirm
Mr. Malthus's assertions, of the power in the hu-
man species to increase with great rapidity.
The Swedish tables contain a great deal of cu-
rious and useful information respecting the popul-
ation of that country, and one cannot but regret
with Mr. Godwin, that we have not as correct
accounts of the population of other countries.
These tables are, however, useful only in re-
spect to Sweden, and to countries similarly
circumstanced, and can only lead us into error,
when we apply them to countries very differently
circumstanced. Yet Mr. Godwin has so applied
them, disregarding the best established principles
of political economy ; he has rejected evidence
which would have led him to correct conclusions,
and in his want of know^ledge, he has set up to
teach what he does not comprehend, and expects
unqualified credence to his crude notions.
1. Mr. Malthus has said, " That in no country
have the means of subsistence been so abundant,
and the manners of the people so pure, that no
check whatever has existed to early marriages,
c 3
*2^ x'lATjj. or
from the difficulty of providing for a family ; and
that no waste of the human species has been
occasioned by vicious customs, by towns, by
unhealthy occupations, or too severe labour. Con-
sequently, in no state that we have yet known, has
the power of population been left to exert itself
with perfect freedom." *
2. That *• in the Northern States of America,
where the means of subsistence have been mucii
more ample, the manners of the people more pure,
and the checks to early marriages fewer, the
population has been found to double itself, for
above a century and a half successively, in less
than 25 years." t
3. And this, he says, *' has been repeatedly
ascertained to be from procreation only." t
It is to prove the impossibility of this increase,
and of the power of mankind to increase at a very
slow rate, if at all, in any country, and under any
circumstances, that Mr. Godwin has bestowed so
much labour on the Swedish Tables.
*• Sweden §," says Mr. Godwin, ** Is B,7^egiopene
toto divisa orbe. It receives few emigrants, and
it sends forth few colonies." This may be granted.
Sweden sends forth a considerable number of male
emigrants, who spread themselves all over Europe;
but it is probable that a large proportion of them
return home again. Mr. Godwin says, ** In the
period to which the accounts relate that I am
about to produce (174<8 to 1805), this kingdom
* Malthus, vol. i. p. 6. f lb. p. 7.
J. lb. p. 9. ^ Enquiry, p. 152.
SWEDEN. 23
has enjoyed a great portion of internal tran-
quillity.*' This is a deceptive way of putting the
case ; but if it could be truly said of Sweden, it
could also be said of the North American States,
the internal tranquillity of which has been much
less disturbed during the same period, than
Sweden. It is true, Sweden has not had to sus-
tain many long continued foreign wars, but those
it has engaged in have been very destructive, and
it has been miserably plagued, with what Mr.
Godwin considers as the most destructive of all
causes to the human species — *' bad govern-
ment.*' Sweden has indeed suffered greatly from
this cause, during the whole of the period to which
the accounts selected by Mr. Godwin relate. The
revolution of 17<56, as well as the causes of it, were
inimical to the welfare, and, consequently, to the
increase of the people. The war which followed
that revolution, produced nothing but loss of
lives, money, and reputation. In I762, com-
menced the misfortunes and miseries occasioned
by the two factions of the Hats and Bonnets, each
faction receiving support from foreign powers, de-
sirous of the ruin of Sweden. Each faction
triumphed in its turn, and the country was torn
to pieces ; so miserable did the factious aristocracy
make the people, and so much did they embarrass
all affairs of state, that at length the king resolved
to abdicate, in order to obtain a convocation of
the Diet, which might, it was hoped, afford some
alleviation to the long sufferings of the people.
The Diet effected none of the requisite changes,
c 4
24* STATE or
produced none of tlie good effects expected ; and
it has been remarked, that when Adolphus Fre-
derick died in 1771> he was regretted for his good-
ness and humanity, and pitied by those who had
been witnesses to a reign, which the injustice and
vexation of a corrupt and mercenary senate had
rendered a period of misery to the people, and
discomfort to the king. He was succeeded by
Gustavus III., who effected a revolution by means
of the army, and governed the nation as he pleased,
until he was assassinated by Ankerstrom, in 179^.
In 1788 he made war upon Russia, exhausting the
state, and impoverishing the people. This war
was most disastrous, and, during its continuance
in the north, the southern provinces were overrun
by the Danes.
Gustavus IV. succeeded him, under the regency
of his uncle, by whom, and afterwards by the crazy
king himself^ the government was conducted in a
way calculated to do infinite injury to the people.
Well might a French aristocratical writer in
1796 exclaim, '* To what a deplorable govern-
ment has not Sweden been subject for these 50
years !" *
Yet Mr. Godwin assures us, that *' Swedeji has
possessed almost every imaginable advantage for the
increase of its inhabitantSy by direct procreation.^' t —
And, adverting to the slow rate of increase, he
• Fortia's Travels in Sweden, Mr. Pinkerton's Collection,
A'ol. vi. p. 373- I have not been able to procure a copy of Fortia's
Travels in the French Language.
f Enquiry, p. 1.52.
SWEDEN'. 25
says, " We have seen that, under the most Javoii?'-
able circumstances^ and such as cannot he ej^pected
to continue in any country for any length of time,
the increase is perfectly insignificant.'* * Mr.
Godwin has thus given up his expectation of
improvement in the human race ; and all those
acquirements of whicli he vaunted, have been,
and will continue to be, useless. It might be sup-
posed, did we not know the contrary, that Sweden
was a perfect Arcadia. Bad government, ex-
treme ignorance, and, consequently, bad habits
among the people ; a sterile country, a rigorous
climate, frequent dearths, occasional famines, and
severe epidemics, gave to Sweden, according to
Mr. Godwin, ** almost every imaginable advan-
tage for the increase of its inhabitants,'* placed
the population in " the most favourable circum-
stances," enabled him to compare it with the
United States of America, and to conclude, with
what reason we shall see presently, that fewer
children are born to a marriage in the United
States than in Sweden, and that as many of those
that are born, die in their nonage in the one
country as in the other.
This slight sketch of the political condition of
the people of Sweden, contains a refutation of Mr.
Godwin's assertion. But the domestic and moral
condition of the people, is unhappily still more
conclusive against him. Dr. Clarke, in his Travels,
observes, that " at Gothenburgh, on the 18th of
June, the inhabitants said, they had experienced but
* Enquicy, p. 369.
'20 STATE OF
fifteen days of summer, the ice having thawed on the
Sd only, and that in Sweden there is no spring." *
" The winter had,*' to be sure, " been uncom-
monly severe, and of more than usual duration.
This had caused a general dearth of provisions, both
among men and cattle. Many of the houses and
barns had been unroofed, the thatch having been
torn off to supply fodder. As we travelled from
Sjord, across the country to Tang, the bones of
famished cattle, which had perished during the
winter, were every where visible ; and we heard
dreadful accounts of the sufferings the late scarcity
had occasioned."
" We examined the interior of mant/ of the cot-
tages of the poor ; but in this part of Sweden
(south of Stockholm,) we never had the satisfac-
tion to observe any thing like comfort or cleanli-
ness. In these respects, they certainly are inferior
to the Danes. A close and filthy room, crowd-
ed with pale, swarthy, wretched-looking children,
sprawling upon a dirty floor, in the midst of the
most powerful stench, were the usual objects that
presented themselves to our notice." t Yet this is
the country Mr. Godwin thinks possesses almost
every imaginable advantage for the rearing of
children.
"At Orebo, a considerable town, on the market-
day, the only provisions for sale, were, butter,
dried fish, eels, and perch ; there was not a joint of
meat to be seen."t
* Clarke's Travels, vol. v. 4'to. p. 107. f lb. 109.
t lb. p. Ul.
SWEDEN. ^7
♦' The diet is principally salted fish, eggs, and
milk. We rarely saw butcher's meat, during this
or any subsequent part of our journey,*' * although
it lasted till October. Eggs and milk, it must be
concluded, are not to be had but in small quanti-
ties, during the long and severe winters in Sweden.
Dr. Clarke, it must be remembered, was received by
the better sort of people, and had the means of
commanding the best of accommodation and enter-
tainment. If, then, the persons with whom he
associated, were thus scantily supplied, what must
have been the condition of the mass of the people?
The Doctor tells us, that " bread, and brandy
flavoured with anniseed, are the two most import-
ant articles of diet of the people." t " Bread
is baked in the greater part of Sweden, only twice
in the year, in many other parts of the country
only once ; it is made, for the most part, of 7^ye
JiouTf seasoned wuth anniseed ; it is made in the
form of biscuits spitted upon rods, and hung up
over the heads of the inhabitants." t
" Misne bread is mentioned as being still eaten
by some of the people in the northern parts, and
by others, in seasons of scarcity. It is made of
the rind of the pine and fir, sometimes mixed with
the meal of wild oats." § And further on, our
traveller <* recommends the people to eat the
rein-deer moss, or Lichen Mangiferinus, which
may in many places be obtained by removing the
snow." II
* Clarke's Travels, vol. v. p. 140. f lb. p. 110.
X lb. p. 201. § lb. p. 283. jl lb. p. 556.
28 STATE OF
Tlierc are no other substitutes to which the
people can resort, and they have not the means of
purchasing grain, to supply the deficiency of bad
seasons from foreign countries.
** Potatoes are not common, and garden vege-
tables are seldom seen.'* *
In by far the greater part of Sweden, the farmers
are obliged to cut the grain in an unripe state.
North of Stockholm, this is always done ; " every
dwelling has by the side of it a lofty ensign of the
climatey in a high conspicuous rack, for drying the
unripened corn. These machines make a great
figure ; sometimes there are, 2, 3, or 4, of them to
one dwelling, which are seen at a distance, and
announce to the traveller the proportion of
arable land in the occupation of the landholder,
whose dwelling he approaches." t
Mr. Malthus, who w^as a fellow-traveller with
Dr. Clarke, speaks of the same year, 17.99, as a
very fatal one. *' In July, about a month before
the harvest, a considerable portion of the people
was living upon breads made of the inner bark of the
Jir, and of dried sorrel^ absolutely xvithout any mix-
ture of mealy to make it more palatable and nourish-
ing. The sallow looks and melancholy countenances
of the peasants^ betrayed the unwholesomeness of
their nourishment ; many had died^ but the full
effects of such a diet had not then been felt. They
would probably appear afterwards, *in the form of
some epidemic sickness.*' X
' * Clarke's Travels, vol. v. p. 580. f lb. p. 201.
} Malthus, vol. i. p. 409.
SWEDEN. 29
" The years 1757, 1758. I768. 1771, 1772, 1773,
are, on good authority, stated as particularly mortal.
The year 1789 must have been very highly so : it
materially affected the proportion of births to
deaths, for the twenty years ending 1795." *
** Both men and women, north of Stockholm,'*
says Dr. Clarke, *' go barefooted, maintaining, and,
perhaps, with reason, that it is much better to do
so, than to wear the wooden shoes which are used
in the south of Szvede?iy which always cause ex-
crescences upon the feet, and often lame those
who use them.'* t
The general use of spirituous liquors, and its
bad consequences, have • been noticed by every
traveller. M. Fortia, who travelled over a large
portion of Sweden in 1791, observes, that this
lamentable habit begins in infancy, and may be
regarded as one of the causes of the depopulation of
Sweden. We have seen (he says) children, nine
or ten years of age, drink such large glasses of
brandy, as we ourselves never could compass.
The habit of diinking, far from being peculiar to
the common people, prevails among the higher
classes. "t After speaking of the climate and seasons,
he adds, " The frequent use of brandy, which we
have before noticed, is another cause of diminish-
ing the number of its inhabitants, from the great
number of victims who die before they reach ma-
turity, or who, if they live, remain, in consequence,
wifit for procreatio7i.*' §
* Malthus, vol. i. p. 408. % Clarke's Travels, vol, v. p. 202.
X Fortia in Pinkerton, vol. vi. p. 520. § lb. 523.
30 STATE OF
The peasants distil the grain for their own use ;
and an attempt to prevent the practice, in a time
of scarcity, caused an insurrection.
M. Fortia says, " There is no dearth of libertin-
ism in the great towns ; there it begins sometimes
earlier than at twelve years of age, and is carried to
excess till eighteen or twenty. The young folks
then become prudent, that is to say, confine them-
selves to one lover, and after some years marry^
commonly to great advantage ; the men not
regarding in the least their former way of life." *
Mr. Williams, who travelled for five years in the
north of Europe, for the purpose of collecting
information respecting the constitutions, laws, and
customs, of the several nations, who had, as he
informs us, access to the houses of the most con-
siderable people, to the collections of the curious,
and the archives of the state, has collected a great
many particulars respecting Sweden, which de-
serve attention j some few of them, from his
chapter on Manners and Customs, and that on
the Laws, shall be briefly noticed, t
*' The nobility alone," he says, " amount to
10,900, so that about the 214th part \ of the nation
are privileged to live on the labours of the others.
* Fortia, 520.
f Vide " The Rise, Progress, and present State of the North-
ern Governments, viz. the United Provinces, Denmark, Sweden,
Russia, and Poland," &c. by J. Williams, Esq. Printed for T.
Becket, London, 1777, in two Vols. -tto.
:|: The British aristocracy does not comprise the 2014th part
of the people.
SWEDEN. ^
They have adopted much of the French manners
and customs, but the smaUness of their fortunes,
and tlie laws of the country, prevent them from
wearing rich apparel. They never descend to any
employment, in the church, or to the practice of
the law or physic, or to the exercise of any trade :
there is scarcely an example known, of a gentle-
man who has accepted the command of a Swedish
merchant ship. They are too proud to cultivate
and improve their lands, and the generality of
farmers are so poor, and their lands so fettered, by
the policy of the government, that they are not
capable of cultivating them. They are precluded
from all the rights and privileges which the nobi-
lity enjoy, and in many instances, are denied the
natural rights of mankind. Although agriculture
has always been esteemed the surest basis of the
riches and power of a state, it is in this kingdom
deprived of its necessary supply of workmen, bur-
thened with the heaviest taxes, and with the entire
charge of recruiting both soldiers and sailors. By
the nearest calculation, one in six of the adult
cultivators must serve in the army ; that is, every
five of the farmers must provide a sixth for the
army and navy, from which the nobility and all
the other orders of the state are exempt.
" It is no small part of the policy of this govern-
ment, to keep the farmers or peasants, in a poor and
distressed state. Every farmer is prohibited by
law, to purchase any of the free estates of the
kingdom, or to keep more than one servant to
assist hirn in, the cultivation of the land, if he have
.S2 STATE OF
ever so great an estate to cultivate and improve ;
he is, moreover, forbidden to make a division of his
farm, and thereby to multiply the number of la-
bourers ; and whoever attempts to cultivate small
parcels of land, are declared every year from the
pulpits to be vagabonds, and are forced into the
military service, from which they can never be
released, except they are maimed or disabled.
There are no magazines, nor is one province al-
lowed to send its produce to another ; so that one
part of the kingdom may be in great want, and
another part have a superfluity.
" The farmers, and particularly those who cul-
tivate the crown lands, have the titles and pos-
session of these lands frequently disputed upon the
most frivolous pretences, and often in the most
unjust manner taken away from the cultivator,
by those who have no just pretension whatever,
and the poor farmer finds himself deprived of
the property of the houses he has built, and of
the land he has cultivated ; and his wife and
family deprived of a place of abode, and even of
subsistence.
" Most of the farmers live in a poor condition,
and are taught, by necessity, to practise several
arts in a rude manner, in making instruments of
husbandry and other necessaries, which they can-
not afford to buy; and, to keep them to this, and
to favour the cities, it is not permitted to have
more than one tailor, or other such artizan in the
same parish, though it be ever so large ; and
many of the parishes are fifteen to twenty miles
in circumference.
10
SWEDEN. 33
" The different branches of trade, as well as every
other thing relating to merchandize ; are monopo-
lized ; only a fixed number of any sort of artizan
and tradesmen is allowed in any town, so that
w^hen a young man has served his apprenticeship,
he cannot exercise his trade till he has served
another term of years as a journeyman, and then
not till there be a vacancy by the death of one
of the masters. The workmen are bad, and there
is but little improvement in their manufactories.'*
" The condition of the women is very lamentable.
There is no part of the world, where the women,
among the lower classes, are made greater drudges
than in Sweden ; for, besides the ordinary offices
of their sex, they are put to plough, to thresh,
to row in boats, to bear burthens at the building
of houses, and on other occasions, and often they
are employed as postillions.**
** The administration of the law is described
as unjust in the extreme ; the lawyers and judges
as poor, and constantly open to be bribed ; so that
unless a man be rich, he has no chance whatever
of having justice done him."
If, with all these disadvantages, Sweden could
increase its population, as Mr. Godwin admits it
did, what reasonable man can doubt, that, in
a country where few of these disadvantages pre-
vailed, the rate of increase would be much more
rapid j and such a country is the United States of
North America.
In no part of these States is the winter either
so severe, or of so long continuance, as in the
D
34 STATE OF SWEDEN.
most southern parts of" Sweden. The soil is
generally very superior, in many places it is very
fertile, while the government is of all others by
far the best, in relation to the increase of the popu-
lation. There are some unhealthy spots, such as
New Orleans, and the swamps in the more south-
ern states on the Atlantic ; but, generally, it is a
healthy country. Among others, a recent travel-
ler, * who appears to be an observing plain mat-
ter-of-fact man, having no hypothesis to support,
has stated a number of circumstances from which
no other inference can be drawn.
Yet Mr. Godwin puts this country far behind
Sweden, in every respect, in regard to its popu-
lation ; with how much justice will be seen in the
fbllpwing chapters.
* See Palmer's Travels.
85
CHAPTER III.
OF THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA.
SECTION I.
INTRODUCTION. QUESTION STATED. INCREASE OF PEOPLE
FROM PROCREATION, COMPARED WITH SWEDEN. EMIGRA-
TION FROM EUROPE TO THE UNITED STATES. FROM
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. PARLIAMENTARY RE-
TURNS. DR. SEYBERt's STATISTICAL ANNALS OF THE
UNITED STATES. AMERICAN IMMIGRATION ACT. NUMBER
OF IMMIGRANTS. BRITISH LAWS RESPECTING PASSENGERS
TO FOREIGN STATES. NUMBER OF SHIPS, TONS, AND
PASSENGERS TO THE UNITED STATES, 1811 TO 1821.
DESERTERS FROM THE BRITISH ARMIES IN AMERICA.
PROBABLE NUMBER OF EMIGRANTS DURING THE LAST
TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.
Ihe United States of North America constitute
the only nation oi' which we have any knowledge,
whose population has been repeatedly doubled,
in very short periods, by means of procreation.
The proofs are numerous, clear, and conclusive.
Mr. Godwin hailed the statement of this in-
crease as an unquestionable and highly important
a/ldition to our knowledge ; but he now says, in
a tone of derision, *« If America had never been
discovered, we should never have heard of the
geometrical ratio." Mr. Godwin might have ob-
jected to the discoveries of Newton on the same
D Q
36 UNITED STATES
ground, and given aS a reason, that, had the apple
never fallen, Newton would never have studied
the subject of gravitation ; or have maintained,
in contradiction to his own most laboured writ-
ings, and the opinions of all philosophers, that
effects may be produced without causes. Tf it be
true, however, that the power of increase in the
human species, is equal to a doubling of the whole
population of a nation, in periods of twenty-five
years or less, not only will the geometrical ratio
of Mr. Mai thus be proved, but the tendency
of mankind to increase faster than the means of
subsistence can be provided, will also be proved ;
and it will follow of course, that poverty, vice, and
misery, will abound in every country in which the
popuktion does so increase, and that it will con-
stantly press against the means of subsistence.
It has been already observed, that every writer
on the subject of population, has admitted the
power in the human species to increase their
numbers. Mr. Godwin, however, doubts the ex-
istence of such a power; he says, "It remains
to this day a problem whether the numbers
of our species can be increased,"* Dr. Price,
whom Mr. Godwin holds up to the terror of those
who admit the principle of population, supposed
the power to increase the number of mankind to be
much more efficacious than Mr. Malthus has stated
it to be in the United States of North America.
There appears to be no reason why Mr. Malthus
should be taunted or reproached, or his doctrine
* Reply, p. 115.
OF NORTH AMERICA. 37
now held up to ridicule more than in 1801, when
Mr. Godwin lauded his discovery, and rested his
praise on the very same ground, then, that he
does his censure now.
Mr. Godwin has divided his subject into books
and chapters ; his fourth book treats of the United
States of North America. It commences by his
observing that, •* In the second book of this work,
I have shown the absolute impossibility , so far as
all the tables that have yet been formed respecting
the multiplication of mankind can be relied on,
that the increased population of the United States
of North America, '* a doubling," according to
Mr. Malthus, '• for above a century and a half
successively, in less than twenty-five years," could
have been produced by the principle of *^ popula-
tion.** We have seen (he says, alluding to
Sweden) that *' under the most favourable circum-
stanceSy* and such as cannot be expected to continue
in any country for any length of timCy the increase
is perfectly insignificantj compared with the mon-
strous propositions of Mr. Malthus, — and that^om
the constitution of human nature, it must neces-
sarily be so. Here, then, I might have closed
my argument respecting the principal topic of
the present treatise. I might have rested my ap-
peal with every strict and impartial reasoner,
whether the phenomenon of the increased numbers
of the people of the United States, must not be
accounted for in some other way, and not from
procreation. But I know that many readers, and
many persons calling themselves reasoners, are
D 3
38 INCREASE OF PEOPLE
neither strict nor impartial. And I would wil-
lingly consent to depart a little from the rigid
forms of logical deduction, if, by so doing, I can
the more fully satisfy such as these." *
Here are several matters deserving notice, 1.
That it is absolutely impossible, according to cer-
tain tables, that the population in America should,
for a century and a half, have doubled in twenty-
five years successively from procreation. 2. That
the reason for this inference, is, that it was not
so in Sweden, under the most favourable circum-
stances. 3. That these circumstances, such as they
were in Sweden, cannot be expected to exist in
any country for any length of time. 4. That by
the constitution and course of nature, there can be
none but a perfectly insignificant increase of man-
kind. That Sweden, during the latter half of the
last century, or indeed in any period with its
barren lands, its severe climate, its despotic
government, its poverty ^ its destructive mines, its
ignorant people, should have been the very best
country in the world to breed the largest number
of persons, is a proposition which it is presumed
very few, *' strict and impartial reasoners,'* will
admit ; but that Mr. Godwin, of all men, should
affirm, that, taken as a whole, Sweden, during
this period, presented so very many favourable
circumstances, as to warrant him in saying, in the
face of the doctrines he has all his life long been
teaching, that " they cannot be expected to continue
in any country, for any length of time," is very
* Reply, p. 368.
IN THE UNITED STATES. 39
strange indeed. It seems as if Mr. Godwin's new
hypothesis, the xvant of poxver in the human species
to increase their niimtjer, had totally eradicated his
old hypothesis of the perpetual tendency of man-
kind towards perfection.
I however shall not give up this doctrine quite
so easily. It was Mr. Godwin who first led me
to the contemplation of the progress of human
intellect in its march towards happiness, and I am
neither to be made to doubt of the improved state
of mankind, at the present moment, compared
with former periods, nor of the still higher state
at which they will arrive. What Mr. Godwin
means by the '* constitution of nature forbidding
an increase which is not insignificant," is, that
half the born are inevitably doomed by that
'* occult cause,*' which he has here named ** 7ia-
turey** never to arrive at the age of manhood, than
which nothing can be well more absurd; here
again, too, Mr. Godwin has abandoned, and con-
tradicted his former good teaching, and would fain
persuade us, that all our knowledge, present or
future, will never enable us to prevent the pre-
mature and unnecessary death of half the human
species, at that time of their lives, when, of all
others, there is surely the least reason, " according
to the constitution of nature," that they should
die : the reasonings and tables in Book II. of
Mr. Godwin's work, so far from being conclusive
against the power of procreation, have very little,
if any relation to the question. Showing what
Sweden did, and inferring some matters relating
D 4
40 INCREASE OF PEOPLE
to America, and asserting that the " most favour-
able circumstances for increasing mankind existed
in Sweden, are any thing but proofs of the want
of power to increase by procreation, under any
circumstances. It will, however, be fully proved,
that the United States of America enjoy many
more favourable circumstances than Sweden, both
for the production of children, and for the rearing
them when produced, and, that the population
has doubled for a considerable space of time from
^^procreation only,'' in less than twenty five years,
and is still doubling at the same rate.
It seems strange, that Mr. Godwin should call
what he has said in his *' second book, rigid
logical demonstration," as showing the want of
power in the human species to increase, and to
assert, that here he might have closed his argu-
ment triumphantly. Surely this is dogmatizing
with a high hand.
" I protest," he says, " against any imperfect-
ness in the present division of my treatise, as
having the effect of vitiating the reasonings of
the divisions immediately proceeding." *
If this protest mean any thing, it means, I
protest that the reader shall take what I have
said as ** rigid logical deductions," and "if I
shall not be able to make out, to demonstration,
the precise sources of the increase of population
in the United States, I shall at least show, in what
follows, that it is impossible that the source should
be found in the principle of procreation ;*' that is,
* Reply, p. 370.
IN THE UNITED STATES. 41
if J cannot show that the increase has been from
emigration, still I protest that you must beheve
it has, whether it be so in fact or not, or whether
it be possible or impossible. You must not dis-
believe, or attempt to disprove my conjectures,
for, after all, to this conclusion you must come,
** that it could not have been from procreation"
This, to be sure, does not seem much like
" strict logical deduction," or philosophy. If it
should appear from indisputable evidence, that
not a twentieth part of the number of persons has
emigrated to the United States, which Mr. Godwin
has found to be necessary to account for the po-
pulation, all his assertions and protests will go for
nothing ; and however impossible the increase by
procreation may appear to him, still, to that, and
to that only, must it be referred.
Mr. Godwin deprecates all attempts to show
that the United States have increased by pro-
creation, because, he says, it is not an inaccessible
island like Japan. He denies the possibility of
proof, thus : ** Well, then, there can be no proof
that the increasing number of the inhabitants of
the United States came from procreation only.** *
If, however, it be proved^ that the people did not
come by emigration, it will be difficult to find
how they could come but by procreation.
Mr. Godwin, speaking of the United States,
says, *' Without imputing to them any vicious am-
bition, they might, from mere virtue and benevo-
lence of soul, wish to see the vast tracts, above,
below, and around them on every side, ador}icd
* Reply, p. 374.
42 EMIGRATION
'with a healthy, an Indus triouSy a civilized^ and a happy
race of people. Their government is free, their in-
stitutions are liberal, and what they most obviously
want, is greater multitudes of men to partake these
blessings. They are not converts to Mr. Malthus's
philosophy ; or, at least, not such converts, as to
be disposed to make it their rule of action, for the
territory over whiclV they (the government) pre-
side. They are not exactly prepared, to trust for
the future population of their domain to procre-
ation only."
*' Long has the coast of North America been
looked to by the discontented, the unhappy, and
the destitute of every kingdom in Europe, as the
land of promise, the last retreat of independence,
the happy soil on which they might dwell and be
at peace. How could it be otherwise? Here every
man, without let or molestation, may worship God
according to his conscience. Here there are 710
legal iiiflictions of torture, no hastiles and dungeons,
no SANGUINARY LAWS. HerE LAND, BY HUNDREDS
AND THOUSANDS OF ACRES, may be had almost for
NOTHING. Here the wages of labour are high." *
Here is an enumeration of circumstances all
conducive to happiness, scarcely one of which is
enjoyed by Sweden. Here are reasons for the
prevalence of good moral habits, such as can be
exhibited no where else. Here are inducements
to every girl to get a husband, and to every young
man to take a wife, which no old country can
offer. Here is the proof, that a family of children
is to the working man his greatest blessing ; while
* Reply, p. 375.
TO THE UNITED STATES. 43
in Sweden, as in other old countries, it is but too
frequently his greatest curse. How strange it
seems, that after Mr. Godwin has declared Sweden
to possess *' the most Javourable chrumstances" to
increase its population, he should immediately ex-
hibit so many " circumstances'* in the very country
he was depreciating, all of them of extreme effi-
cacy, all of them infinitely more favourable than
*' the most favourable 1" How strangely does the
ignis fatuus of an hypothesis lead astray the
most acute minds !
Mr. Godwin labours through many pages, quot-
ing the rhodomontade of Dr. Johnson on emi-
gration ; and in endeavouring to enlist the feelings
of his readers, in the hope of leading them to con-
cur in the Doctor's assertions, of the " fever of
emigration, the prodigious numbers that shipped
themselves for America from 1776, the period of
the declaration of independence, to the breaking
out of the French Revolution in 1789. But this
last was the event, tliat, if we trace its conse-
quences through all its ramifications, may em-
phatically be said to have broken down the dykes
which held in the population of Europe, and
poured out the streams of its real, or its ima-
ginary superfluity, to fructify the immeasurable
plains of the Western A¥orld." *
Those sweeping and overwhelming passages
must be received with great caution ; our under-
standings must not be carried away by the flood.
Speaking of the United States prior to 177-5, Mr.
* Reply, p. 397.
44 ExMIGUATION
Godwin says, *• Hitherto it had been a fashion
with many to regard our American colonies with
scorn, on account of those convicted of crimes
here being sent thither ; it was the declaration
of independence which changed the scene in
the Western World, and gave a new and a
powerful impulse to the tide of emigration,"*
This is most true, and most consolitary. But
we must not reckon on any very large number
of persons emigrating to America, for some years
after the declaration of independence. The dis-
content and troubles which existed, and had con-
tinually increased, for several years immediately
preceding that declaration, the " scorn" men-
tioned by Mr. Godwin, and also the war with this
country, which was only terminated by the treaty
signed on the Sd September 1783, almost wholly
prevented emigration. Many more persons were
lost to the United States, in consequence of their
joining the English standard, or by being killed
in the war, by their removal to Canada, where
provision was made for them, by their removal
to Europe, and to other parts of the world, than
were gained by emigration during the eight or
nine years of the war, from its first breaking out
to the ratification of the treaty of peace. It is
only since that time, that we are authorised to
talk of any considerable annual emigration to
America. No very great number of persons
settled in America, in consequence of the French
revolution. The period between the breaking
* Reply, p. SQl.
10
TO THE UNITED STATES. 45
out of that revolution and the war between Eng-
land and France, was but a short one, and it put
an end to emigration from France. From the
commencement of that war in 1793, to its final
conclusion in 1814, very few persons passed from
any part of the continent of Europe to the United
States of North America. Almost the whole of
her emig-rants were from the British Islands. The
reader is requested to bear these circumstances in
mind, while perusing the following pages.
Mr. Godwin has cautioned his readers in the
outset, against believing that the United States
of America could have any but the most insig-
nificant increase of people from procreation, and
in other places he peremptorily denies there could
be any increase at all, except from emigration.
" America," he says, •' does not from procreation
only keep up its numbers ;'* he has, therefore, set
down 70,325, as the amount of the annual emi-
gration from 1749 to 1790, notwithstanding the
reason he has given, why previous to 1775 there
could be no very considerable emigration ; and
notwithstanding he had read in Dr. Price's book,
which he quotes with apparent satisfaction, that
during a portion of this time more came from the
United States than went to them ; and notwith-
standing the war, which continued for more than
eight years, wholly prevented emigration during
that period. It may then be fairly concluded, that
no considerable annual emigration took place un-
til 1784 at the soonest.
Mr. Godwin states the population of the Unitel
States thus :
40 EMIGRATION
" 1. As it was estimated in 1749 1,046,000
2. The census in 1790 3,929,320
3. The census in 1810, omitting., for the sake
of 'perspicuity, that o/'lSOO 7,239,903." *
How omitting the census of 1800, was to make
either the statement, or the observations on it
more perspicuous, does not appear ; but it makes,
as will appear, a very material difference in the
amount of the emigrants, who are by Mr. Godwin
asserted to have gone to America annually, from
1800 to 1810.
Mr. Godwin is willing to take the present popu-
lation of the United Sates at 10,000,000. It is
expected that, by the census now taking, it will
be found to exceed that number ; but taking it,
as Mr. Godwin has done, at 10,000,000, upon
the hypothesis that nothing worthy the name of
a settlement was made before 1610, the annual
increase of people will be.
From 1610 to 1749 6,973
1749 ... 1790 70,325
1790 ... 1810 165,527
l^, however, we take in the census of 1800, as
we ought to do, the annual increase to 1821, will
be as follows :
From 1610 to 1749 6,973
1749 ... 1790 70,325
1790 ... 1800 138,042
1800 ... 1810 193,014
18iO ... 1820 276,809
Mr. Godwin is too accurate an observer, not to
have seen all the consequences which would follow
* Reply, p. 401, 402.
TO THE UNITED STATES. 47
from his retaining the census of 1800, and there-
fore he rejected it. To have asserted that 193,014
persons actually arrived every year^ and remained
as settlers in the United States from 1800 to 1810,
and that '276,809 arrived annually and remained
from 1810 to 1820, would have been too large a
draft to draw even on credulity itself, and the
average was therefore made to run back as far as
1790, including a period of 20 years, although
there had been an actual enumeration of the
people in 1800, and totally excluding the period
since 1810. Mr. Godwin seems to have got angry
with this part of his subject ; he says, " We should
proceed very idly in our examination of this ques-
tion, if we did not admit that there is considerable
difficulty. It was this difficulty that gave birth to
the vain boasts of Dr. Franklin and Dr. Styles, and
to the atrocious and heart-appalling theories of
Mr. Malthus.'* *
Mr. Godwin endeavours to give a plausible ap-
pearance to his statement of emigration, defective
as he has made it : 1. By taking the whole period
from 1790 to 1810, from which to calculate the
annual average : 2. From not having brought it
down to 1820: 3. By deterring the reader from
a too close examination of his statement, by pre-
tending difficulty where there is none, and by his
abuse of Dr. Franklin, Dr. Styles, and Mr. Malthus.
•' There is," he says, *' no choice in the solution of
the question, but either to refer it to an inherent,
rapid, and incessant po'wer in the human species,
* Reply, p. 402.
48 EMIGRATION
to multiply its numbers^** which, he says, he has
proved " to be impossible, or to emigration." —
" The present population, with one ejcception, must
have arisen from a direct transportation of the in-
habitants of the Old World to the New."
" What are 10,000,000 of human creatures to
the population of Europe, which is computed to
contain 153,000,000 of souls ? 10,000,000 of these
might be taken away, and never missed."*
This is all very unsatisfactory, and very sophistical.
All Europe is made to be contributory, and yet by
far the greater part can scarcely be said to have
supplied an emigrant. Russia has sent none.
Sweden and Denmark, very few. Austria, Bo-
hemia, Hungary, Poland, and Turkey, none, per-
haps. Prussia, and the north of Germany, no
great number ; Switzerland and France, not many;
Spain and Portugal, none ; Holland, a few only.
Nine-tenths have probably gone from. England,
Scotland, and Ireland. Mr. Godwin's attempt to
bolster up his absurd account of the number of
emigrants, and his endeavours to give it an air of
probability, ought to have no weight whatever
with any *• diligent enquirer."
Another argument, not a bit better, is built up
from the " Tonnage of shipping cleared outwards,
from 1663 to 1818. At the first period, it was
142,000 tons, at the latter, 3,074,409 tons j" but
this loose way of stating possibilities, adds nothing
to our information, and it could hardly have been
intended for that purpose. " Transportation," as
* Reply, p. 403.
TO THE UNITED STATES. 49
emigration is now called, to the country, Mr. God-
win has truly described as the most desirable in
the world for the mass of" the population, is repro-
bated as *' one of the blessings^* immediately grow-
ing out of Mr. Malthus's theory." * But Mr.
Godwin is himself a better evidence than Mr.
Malthus, that, notwithstanding what he here says
in contradiction to what he had said just before,
" Transportation'* to the United States of North
America, is a real blessing.
An account is given of a scheme of a Mr. John
Campbell, in 1815, to induce the Scotch to remove
to Canada, which has very little to do with emi-
gration to the United States. Niles*s Weekly
Register, published at Baltimore, is then put in
requisition, and an extract is taken from one of
its numbers, in which it is asserted, that '* within
the two last weeks ending the 15th August I8I7,
26 vessels brought to the several ports of the
United States,
From Amsterdam, Germans and Swiss 1896
England, Scotland, and Ireland 281
The same, through Nova Scotia and
Newfoundland 238
France 97
Total 2512
*' Aug. 30. I8I7. Within the two weeks ending
yesterday, in 21 vessels.
From England, Ireland, and Scotland ......... 557
Holland, Germans and Swiss 365
France 25
Total 947 1
* Reply, p. 409. f lb. p. 411.
E
50 F.MinnATiOM
" Of these 171 reached the United States, via
Halifax, though great inducements are held out
to settlers there. As, for instance, a Dutch ship
which arrived at Philadelphia, put into that port
for provisions, when the government offered to
the passengers 10,000 acres of land gratis in fee
simple, and farming utensils, if they would stay
there; but they refused. Many settlers, as they are
called, arrive in Canada, from whence hundreds
of them pass up the river, &c. and cross into New
York and Ohio. It seems to be discovered, that
it is more convenient to reach our country through
the British Colonies, than to come on direct. Fa-
cilities are afforded for the former, which are denied
to the latter." *
Then comes an account of a ship from London,
with settlers going to Canada, who rose upon the
crew and carried her into Boston.
Mr. Godwin again quotes " Niles's Register,
12th September, 1818," thus : " The current of emi-
gration from the British Dominions, to the terri-
tory of the United States^ never was so strong as it
is noxv. For the week ending the 31st August,
2150 passengers, nearly the whole of whom were
emigrants from Europe, arrived at the single port
of New York, and for the subsequent week we
kept an account of the passengers reported in the
newspapers (which is far short of the number that
arrived), and found them to amount to nearly
3000, for fve or sia: principal ports, and the aggre-
gate may be fairly estimated at 6000, for the two
weeks preceding the 6th September. Of the 6OOO,
* Reply, p. 412.
TO THE UNITED STATES. 51
there were from England about 4000 ; from Ire-
land, 1000 J from Scotland, Holland, and France,
1000 ; total, 6000 : about a hundred only from
France.** *
Having done with Mr. Niles and his Register,
Mr. Cobbett and his Register is next taken up.
In his «' Register,'* August M-, 1819, in a letter
by that gentleman, dated Long Island, in the
State of New York, is the following assertion:
" Within the last twelve monthst upwards of
150,000 HAVE LANDED FROM ENGLAND, tO Settle
Jiere.**
Mr. Godwin makes these statements, in order
*< strikingly to illustrate the fact, of the vast number
of emigrants from Europe, that may be conveyed
across the Atlantic.** t
Not one of these statements deserves the least
credence. Niles wrote his accounts at random,
from such common rumours as our own news-
papers often do, where, in respect to numbers, hun-
dreds are multiplied into thousands.
During the years 1816, 1817, and 1818, a hot
dispute was going on respecting emigration to
America. It was maintained by writers here, that
America was overstocked with emigrants, and it
was to counteract these statements, as well as to
extol their own country, that some of the Ameri-
can journalists, Niles among them, magnified
both the numbers that arrived, and the advan-
tages they met with. The stagnation of business
• Reply, p. 413. f lb. ^l*.
E 2
5^ KAF If; RATION'
which followed, put an end to the dispute. It
was then asserted, in an authoritative manner in
the newspapers, that our consuls in the different
sea-ports of the United States, had, by the direction
of our ambassador, shipped several thousands of
British emigrants, who were unable to provide for
themselves, for Canada. A New York paper, in
July, 1819, said, there were then upwards of 5000
workmen in that city, for whom no sort of em-
ployment could be found, and it recommended
them to remove into the Western States, where
labourers were much wanted.
Mr. Cobbett, in his Register, written in Long
Island, notices these circumstances, and in his
** Year's Residence in America," he observes :
" But some go back after they come to Ame-
rica, and the consul at New York, has thou-
sands of applications from men who want to go to
Canada, and little bands of them go off to that fine
country very often.*' * It is very probable that
Canada received more emigrants from the United
States, than it furnished ; and there is no good
reason for believing, that Canada ever supplied
any very great number.
The passage quoted by Mr. Godwin from Cob-
bett's Register, is taken from a letter addressed to
several persons here, who were detained in prison
for imputed political offences, during the suspen-
sion of the Habeas Corpus Act. He is showing
the effects of the system pursued by ministers, and
* Reply, p. 384.
TO THE UNITED STATES. dS
among them, that of driving the people out of the
country. He takes up the round number 150,000,
prohably as an approximation from what he had
seen in the American newspapers ; but be this as
it may, it was not possible for one-third of the
number to have emigrated from these islands.
Tile whole tonnage, both British and foreign, of
all the ships cleared outwards to the United States
of North America, during the year of which Mr.
Cobbett speaks, was 1 1.5,344 tons. Foreign vessels
are allowed to carry one passenger only, for every
five tons, and British vessels one, for every two
tons including the crew. But if any British vessel
carry *' merchandize, or goods," then she can
carry but o?ie passenger Jbr everij two tons of the
iinladen part of the vessel. Taking the average
all round at one passenger for every five tons, and
allowing nothing for merchandize or goods, and
excluding the crews from all consideration, the
whole number of persons could not have exceeded
29.069.
But the absurdity, the impossibility, of 150,000
persons arriving in America, from Great Britain
and Ireland, much less from England only,
as Mr. Cobbett's words imply, admits of as
direct proof in another way: 1.50,000 ])assen-
gers would require 1500 ships of 400 tons each,
if every ship took 100 passengers; or 1875 ships
of 320 tons each, if every ship took 80 passen-
gers; if every ship carried a passenger for every
four tons, and took no merchandize whatever, and
the amount of tonnage would be (300,000 tons.
E 3
54" EMIGRATION
But the returns to Parliament, to use Mr. God-
win's language, *' sets all this at rest for ever."
By these returns it appears that the total number
of vessels cleared out from all the ports of Great
Britain and Ireland, for the United States of North
America, in the year 1819, was as follows :
Ships. Tons. Passengers.
England 386 117,140 7,350
Ireland 71 19,161 2,513
Scotland 35 9,043 637
492 145,344 10,500
Tiius, instead of 1500, or 1875 ships, measuring
600,000 tons, carrying 150,000 emigrants, there
were only 492 ships, measuring 145,344 tons, car-
rying 10,500 passengers, and among this number
were many merchants, clerks, travellers, and
others, who were not emigrants.
Instead of 80 or 100 emigrants to each ship,
and one emigrant for every four tons, there were
not 22 passengers for each ship, and not one pas-
senger for every 13 tons.
The returns to Parliament, from which the above
statement is taken, are, for the ten years preceding
1821, for England and Ireland ; and for the nine
years preceding 1821, for Scotland. All these
accounts show a vast increase of emigration, in the
years, 1816, 181?, 1818, and 1819, which decreased
very much in 1820.
More than three-fourths of all the emigrants from
England went in these four years of the series, and
TO THE UNITED STATES. 55
less than one-fourth in the remaining six years
of tlie series.
Considerably more than half the emigrants from
Ireland went in the same four years, and consider-
ably less than half, in the remaining six years of
the series.
While, from Scotland, nearly three-fourths went
in these four years, and the remaining one-fourth,
in the other five years of the series.
** The limitation to which ** Mr. Godwin
** alludes lies," he says, " in this : The majority of
the emigrants that pass over from Europe to
North America may be supposed to be in the
flower of their life. Now every such emigrant is
equal to two human beings, taken indiscriminately
among tlie population, or rather among the rising
generation of an old-established country. For ex-
ample, we have found that in four children born
into the world, we have no right to count upon
more than one female who, by child-bearing, can
contribute to keep up, or increase the numbers of
mankind, in the next generation. But of emigrants
withdrawing themselves to America, as we have
been informed they usually withdraw themselves
in families, we have a right, if they go in the flower
of their lives, out of every four to count iqjon tico
females who, by child-hearing, may contribute to the
future population of the comitry. Those who pass
over in the flower of their lives have already sur-
mounted the dangers of childhood, and early life ;
and the females among them may immediately be
counted in the roll of those effective members of
E 4
5(3 EMIGRATION
the community, for the purpose here treated of,
who, and who alone, are of value in keeping up
the internal, and proper population of a country.
Perhaps, in consideration of this exception, we
may reduce the number of emigrants necessary,
upon the principles of tliis treatise, to account for
the reported increase of population in the United
States for twenty years, from 1790 to 1810, from
165,000 annually, to 80,000 or 90,000." *
This is a sad begging of the question ; it is very
loose and very assuming. He knows very little of
emigration to the United States who can believe
*' that the emigrants usually withdraw in families."
It is perfectly notorious, that the proportion of
male to female emigrants is very great. Mr.
Godwin does not, to be sure, say, that all who
emigrate are in the flower of their lives, or that
half of them are females just ready to commence
breeding ; but the passage is so worded as to
convey the idea ; and this being so, and taking a
table constructed by Mr. Booth as a guide, the
reader is called upon to believe, that the 165,000
persons, supposed by Mr. Godwin to have emi-
grated annually, from 1790 to 1810, may be re-
duced to 80,000 or 90,000, and, of course, that
the 276,000, from 1810 to 1820, may also be re-
duced to 140,000, or 150,000 annually. This is
any thing but reasoning. The hypothesis is equally
fanciful and absurd.
Mr. Godwin says, *' I have received an offi-
cial account fiom Ireland, of the number of
* Reply, p. 401.
TO THE UNITED STATES. 57
persons who emigrated from this country to North
America in three years, ending 5th January, 1819.
The total stands thus :
Number of persons emigrating from Dublin 6,6-^5
from Ireland generally... 35,633
Total 42,278
Is there no chance that the persons actually
emigrating^ should even have exceeded the number
officially reported under that head ?"*
In the first place, it may be necessary to re-
mark, that no report is made under " that heady''
that is, as emigrants ; the return is simply as to
passengers, and whether he be an emigrant, a
merchant, or a traveller, he is a passenger.
In the second place, it is hardly possible, as we
shall see, when we come to speak of the laws on
this subject, that any considerable number of pas-
sengers should be omitted in the return.
In the third place, it does not appear, from JNIr.
Godwin's statement, how many were emigrants to
Canada ; and it is very probable, that a general
return, such as Mr. Godwin speaks of, included
also the West Indies, as the Irish accounts for
North America usually do.
In the fourth place, it does not appear what
Mr. Godwin means by an official return. In the
official return made to Parliament, it appears, that
in the three years to which Mr. Godwin refers,
and they were years of comparatively very large
* Reply, 1). 111.
58 EMIGRATION
emigration, the total number of ships for the
three years, was 321 j of tons, 81,098 ; of passen-
gers, 14,239, cleared out of all the ports of Ire-
land, for the United States of North America ;
while the average of passengers for the last ten
years, is 3,065 annually, instead of 14,092 an-
nually, as Mr. Godwin's statement might lead us
to believe.
Mr. Newenham remarks, that, " if we said
that during the fifty last years of the last century
the average annual emigration to America, and
the West Indies, (for a considerable number went
to the West Indies,) amounted to about 4000, I
am disposed to think, we should rather fall short
of, than exceed the truth." * And even this
must be taken to include the Canadas.
Mr. Newenham represents the years 1771, 177^,
1773, as years when emigration was carried to a
great extent from the North of Ireland, and
the «* annual average is stated at 9,533 ;"t but
how many went to Canada, how many to the
United States, and how many to the West Indies,
does not appear.
Mr. Wakefield, who had access to the official
documents, doubts the correctness of Mr. Newen-
ham's statement. He says, ** that considerable
emigrations may have taken place, in some years,
I do not mean to controvert, but they w^ere not
annually to such an extent ; and from all the ac-
counts I have been able to collect, they have now
* Enquiry respecting the Population of Ireland, p. 60.
t lb. 59.
TO THE UNITED STATES. 59
(1811) almost ceased, as will appear from the fol-
lowing list." *
A list is then given of the names of all the
vessels which cleared out of all the ports of Ire-
land, their tonnage, and number of passengers in
each, and the day on which they cleared for any
port in the United States of America, between the
5th of March, 1806, and the 1st of June, 1811,
inclusive. By this list it appears, that.
In 1806 the number of passengers was 192
1807 304
1808 113
1809 126
1810 45
In 1811 emigration increased with great rapidity.
Mr. Wakefield's account comes down to the 1st of
June + only, by which time a return had been
made of 628 passengers, who had embarked, and
the official return, which will be noticed pre-
sently, shows that the number of emigrants in that
year was a considerable number.
In 1818 was published at Philadelphia a very
valuable work, under the title of " Statistical An-
nals of the United States of North America, founded
on Official Documents t from the 4th March
1789 to 20th April 1818, by Adam Seybert, M. D.,
* Wakefield's Account of Ireland, vol. ii. p. 712.
f It should be observed, that emigration to North America
is confined almost wholly to the summer.
,t. This work was compiled under the sanction of the Amer-
ican Government, " by an act passed on the 20th April, 1818.
The Secretary of State is directed to subscribe for, and to
receive, for the disposal of Congress, 500 copies of the
()() ]::M] ORATION
Deputy to Congress from Pennsylvania, and
Member of several Scientific Societies."
The second section treats of emigration.
The compiler says, " It is not his intention to
establish any theory of population, but to deter-
mine as much as possible from facts, leaving the
s])eculative philosopher to draw his own conclu-
sions, and to contend with .Wallace, Davenant,
Petty, Hume, Price, Malthus, and other political
economists.'*
*' It is," he says, " believed that the population
of the United States has been much augmented by
the emigrants from Europe : there are no authentic
documents on the subject, and we can only estimate
the increase we have thus acquired. Emigrants
come pr'mcipallij from Great Britahi, Irelandy and
Germany; hut fe^tjc from other countries. In 1794',
Statistical Annals purposed to be published by Adam Seybert
of Philadelphia."
On the 23d Jan. 1819, it was
" Resolved, by the Senate and House of Representatives in
Congress assembled, that the Secretary of State cause to be
distributed one copy of Seybert's Statistical Annals to the Pre-
sident of the United States ; to the Vice-President of the
United States, and to the Executive of each State and Terri-
tory, one copy ; two copies for the use of each of the depart-
ments, viz. State, Treasury, War, and Navy; one copy for the
use of the Attorney-General of the United States ; and one
copy to each member and delegate of the fifteenth Congress ;
and one copy to each College and University in the United
States, if applied for by such College or University ; and the
residue of the 500 copies of the Annals aforesaid shall be de-
posited in the Library of Congress, for the use of the members."
TO THE UNITED STATES. (U
Mr. Cooper estimated tliem at 10,000. In 180(5,
Mr. Blodget said, from tlie best records and
estimates at present attainable, they did not
average more than 4000 per annum for the ten
preceding years. In 179 i^, the people in Great
Britain were very much disposed to come to the
United States, but this current was soon checked
by the acts of the British Government.**
'* Though we admit that 10,000 foreigners
might have arrived in the United States in 1794,
we cannot allow that they did so hi an equal number
in any preceding or subsequent year until I8I7.**
Dr. Seybert enumerates several causes which
prevented emigration from this country to the
United States ; among others, the custom of im-
pressing men found on board ships leaving this
country, which was, as I know, a common
practice.
In I8I7, one of the great years of emigration to
the United States, when many causes, both here
and in other European States, induced people to
leave their native countries, it appears, that the
arrivals from all parts of the world in the ten
principal ports of the United States, and they are
almost all the ports at which emigrants arrive,
were !22,'210.
*' The returns were obtained from the records
of the Custom Houses, except Charlestown, which
was made from the report of the Harbour Master.
They include all passengers, citizens, and aliens,
who arrived in the ports enumerated.**
C)^ AMERICAN LAW
The number of persons who went on business
must have been very great. Many from the West
Indies, for instance, many from the Canadas, may
also be supposed to be of this description, and some
probably made several voyages during the year.
Dr. Seybert concludes that (iOOO settlers per annum^
from 1790 ^0 1810, w«5 the utmost the United States
could have received.
By an act of the 15th Congress of the United
States, dated March 2, 1819, chap. 4G. sect. iv.
and V. it is ordered,
That every captain or master of every ship or
vessel arriving in any port of the United States, or
the territories thereof, shall, when he reports his
vessel to the proper officer, deliver a list, which
shall contain,
1. An accurate account of every passenger taken
on board his ship or vessel in any foreign port or
place.
2. Every such list must contain the age, sex,
and occupation of every passenger.
3. The country to which they severally belong.
4. The country in which they purpose to settle.
5. The number, if any, of those who died on the
voyage.
6. The list shall be sworn to by the master,
under the same penalties for neglect or refusal,
and the same disabilities and forfeitures, as are
provided for a refusal or neglect to report and
deliver a manifest of the cargo.
7. The collectors of the customs must deliver.
RELATiyG TO IMMIGRANTS. 63
every quartei' of a year, the lists received to the
Secretary of State, who must lay them before
Congress in every session.
In the National Calendar for the year 1821, a
list is given of the number, sex, and occupation of
the passengers who arrived in the different ports
of the United States from the 30th Sept. 1819, to
the 30th Sept. 1820 ; and by this list it appears
that the total number of persons, exclusive of the
crews of the vessels, was 7j001 ' of which, 1,9*59
were females^ and 5,042 were males. The ages are
not given, nor the countries whence they came ;
except that " they are chiefly from Great Britain,
Ireland, Germany, and France. Many belonged
to the United States, and were returning home,
which has tended to swell the number under the
class of merchants, which appears to be 938. A
very few have stated their residence to be but tem-
porary j and there are some who appear to be
merely passing to and from Canada." The list
contains an account of all who came. There are
in it, two ambassadors, four consuls, one governess,
one steward, one judge, one nurse : these are pro-
bably among those whose intended residence was
declared to be temporary. There is no account of
the number of persons who at any time left the
United States : yet the number must have been
considerable.
" The question between us,'* says Mr. Godwin,
" is the cause of the increase. Mr. Malthus says
it has been repeatedly ascertained to be from pro-
creation only. I SAY the cause is emigration." *
* Reply, p. 4-39.
()4< BRITISH LAWS
The American evidence which has been adduced
proves the absurdity of Mr. Godwin's assertion,
and is decisive of the question against him.
Having shown, from the American evidence,
tlie insignificance of tlie immigration to the rapid
increase of the popuhition in the United States, the
next enquiry shall be as to what better evidence
the British accounts furnish to support Mr. God-
win's assertion.
By the act 43 G. 3. c. 56. British vessels are
allowed to carry, includiiig the crew, one person for
every two tofis, hy measurement of such part of the
vessel as may remain unladen.
Foreign vessels one person for fve tons only.
No vessel can be cleared, unless a muster-roll,
containing the name, age, sex, &c. of every person
on board, has been delivered to the officer of the
customs. The penalties under this act are quite
sufficient to ensure its strict observance.
50/. per head for any person above the number
allowed.
50/. for each omission in the roll.
500/. for taking any person on board at a place
where there is no custom-house.
Vessels may be overhauled by a magistrate in
port, and by ships of war at sea, and may be seized
and detained until the penalties are paid, or se-
curity to pay them given.
Every vessel having fifty persons on board must
take a qualified surgeon, a medicine chest, and
must conform to other regulations.
By 57 G. 3. c. 10. British ships clearing out
RELATING TO EMIGRANTS. 65
for the Canadas are allowed to have on board one
adult, or three children under fourteen years of
age, for every ton and a half of the unladen part
of the ship. But every vessel clearing out for the
Canadas must give a bond, in the penalty of 500/.,
to land the passengers at the port to which the ship
cleared, and nowhere else. On arrival at the port,
the list of passengers is to be delivered to the gov-
ernor of the port, who is to cause the passengers
to be examined and compared with the list. No
passenger must be allowed to land until the list
and passengers have been compared by the proper
officer ; nor can the bond be cancelled until it has
been done.
It would be mere waste of time to attempt
showing that an accurate account must be given of
all persons on board ships leaving the country,
and indeed every body at all connected with ship-
ping knows that such an accoinit is given.
The substance of the official accounts laid before
Parliament, of the number of ships, British and
Foreign, cleared out from all the ports of Great
Britain and Ireland, their tonnage, and the
number of passengers, is exhibited in the following
tables.
()(i
NUMBER OF EMIGRAlfTS
Table I.
Of the number of Ships cleared out, from all the Ports of Great Britairt
and Ireland, for the United States of North America. The amount of their
Tonnage, and the number of Passengers, from the official returns laid before
Parliament, for the following years : viz.
England.
Ireland.
Scotland.
Totals
■
Years.
Years.
Ships.
Tons.
Passengers.
Ships
1811. Tons
Passengers
395
111,653
1,095
90
25,529
5,881
No Account.
485
566
70
9
499
625
707
722
492
625
137,182
102,878
19,247
2,711
166,133
199,825
194,739
200,486
145,344
166,568
6,976
5,661
260
32
3;850
11,052
9,657
14,259
10,500
6,714
i 1811
1812
1813
1814
1815
1816
1817
1818
1819
1820
1812.
S
293
82,339
936
64
18,176
4,562
9
2,363
163
T
P
1813.
S....
70
19,247
260
None.
None.
T...
P
1814.
S
9
2,711
32
None.
None.
T
P
1815.
S
440
151,317
1,774
57
8,840
1,733
22
5,976
338
T
P
1816.
S
455
159,891
3,255
131
31,089
6,895
39
8,845
902
T
P....
1817.
S
574
161,009
5,657
87
21,676
3,244
46
12,054
776
T.
P
1818.
S
T
569
159,899
9,015
386
117,140
7,350
105
28,333
4,100
50
12,254
1,144
P
1819.
S
71
19,161
2,513
55
9,045
637
T
P
1820.
Ships
Tons
Passengers
54V)
144,836
4,254
51
13,884
1,720
29
7,848
740
Totals:
10 years Eng
and& IreU
ind. — 9 ye
irs Scotland.
4,600
1,335,113
68,961
FROM GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
67
Table II.
Showing the total number of Ships cleared outwards, from
all the ports of England andlreland, in the ten Years, ending
31st December, 1820; and from Scotland in the nine Years,
ending 31st December, 1820. The amount of their Ton-
nage, and the number of Passengers, from each country,
separately and collectively.
England
Ireland
Scotland
Ships. Tons.
Passengers.
3,756 1,110,042 53,608
634 166,688 30,653
230 58,583 4,700
Totals
4,600 1 1,335,113 1 68,961
Table III.
Showing the Annual average, deduced from Table 11. and
also the proportion of Passengers to each Ship, and the
number of Tons to each Passenger.
England...
Ireland ...
Scotland...
Ships.
Tons.
Passengers.
Passengers. 1
573
63
26
1 1 1 ,004
16,688
6,487
3,560
3,065
522
1 to' 33 tons
1 to 5| do.
1 to I2i do.
9 to a Ship.
49 do.
20 do.
Totals
462
134,179
6,947
1 to 19 do. 15 do. 1
The returns to Parliament include natives re-
turning home, merchants, clerks, and other men of
business, travellers and others, as well as settlers.
No accounts can be obtained of those who left the
United States and returned home; or of those who
entered into the service of the South American
States: of those who went to Canada and all other
parts of the world; or of those who were killed in
the late war; yet the number must have been very
great, and the loss, upon the whole, much greater
than the number received by the United States
from the Canadas. If, however, the numbers be
F 2
(is DESERTERS FROM THE KRITISIT ARMY '
considered equal, some allowance made for de-
fective returns from some of the ports in Ireland,
and the number of actual emigrants to be taken
at six thousand per annum, it will surely be stating
the number sufficiently high. If to this number
be added two thousand per annum from the rest of
Europe, it will make tiie total number of settlers
eight thousand per annum. Let us, however, sup-
pose that America has received eight thousand
settlers annually for the last twenty-five years,
which assuredly she has not, and to these let us add
tlie number of deserters from the British armv, in
Canada and in the United States during the late
war, to which Mr. Godwin has referred. The
means of estimating the utmost possible amount
of the settlers obtained from this source is also
within our reach. An account is annually made
up at the War Office, and regidarly laid before
Parliament, of casualties, deaths, and desertions,
in the whole army, abroad and at home, including
the militia. By these accounts it appears that
" the number of desertions Vvas,
In 1812 at home ... 3,409 abroad 2,509
. 1813 -3,233 2,589
1814 3,477 5,380
1815 3,374 4,029."
The desertions at home appear to have been
nearly the same in each of the four years ; those
abroad differed very little in 1812 and 1813 ; but,
in 1814^ the number was rather more than doubled :
it was during this year and the early part of 1815,
that the great desertions from the armies in North
America took place. If, then, we take the lowest
IN THE UNITED STATES. 69
number, that of 1812, as a standard, it will appear
that, in the three subsequent years, the number of
deserters was increased as follows : viz. in
1813 by 89
1814 by 2,871
1815 by 1,520
Total... 4, 4-80
If we suppose every man of them to have settled
in the United States, the annual average, for the
last twenty-five years, will only be increased by 180.
But it will be an increase of the unproductive class
as to procreation, the whole number being men,
and none of them breeding women. If these be
added to the eight thousand before-mentioned, the
total annual number of new settlers will be eight
thousand one hundred and eighty. Eight thousand
settlers per annum, for the last twenty-five years, or
for any previous number of years, is a much larger
number than America received ; but there is still
room enough for a more ample allowance, and, to
put the matter beyond dispute, I will take it at '
ten thousand ; and, notwithstanding Mr. Godwin
says the native part of the population in the United
States is decreasing, and that, including the emi-
grants, population, so far as it depends upon pro-
creation, is at a stand, I will sup})ose that the
immigrant population has doubled from ])rocrcation
during those twenty-five years. Taking, then, an
annual immigration of ten thousand for twenty-five
successive years, and allowing them to double their
numbers in the same space of time, the account will
stand as in the following table : —
F 3
70 NUMBER OF EMIGRANTS
A Table, showing the Proportionate Licrease of
10,000 Emigrants annually for 25 years, from
179(3 to 1821, the period of their doubling by
Procreation being also 25 years.
„ Number of Emigrants Number of Emigrants and their
' " in each Year. Increase at the Close of 1820^
1796 10,000 20,000
1797 10,000 19,453
1798 10,000 18,921
1799 10,000 18,404
1800 10,000 17,900
1801 10,000 17,411
1802 10,000 16,935
1803 10,000 16,471
1804 10,000 16,021
1805 10,000 15,583
1806 10,000 15,157
1807 10,000 14,744
1808 10,000 14,339
1809 10,000 13,947
1810 10,000 13,566
1811 10,000 13,195
1812 10,000 12,834
1813 10,000 12,483
1814 10,000 12,142
1815 10,000 11,810
1816 10,000 11,487
1817 10,000 11,173
1818 10,000 10,867
1819 10,000 10,570
1820 10,000 10,281
Total of Emigrants...250,000 With Increase...365,694
The Population of the United States in 1800 w^as 5,309,758
in 1790 it was ... 3,929,326
Showing an Increase of 1,380,432
AND THEIR INCREASE. 71
If this increase be divided by two, and the half
be added to the amount of the population of 1790,
itwillgive for the population, in 1795, — 4,619,542.*
If this be doubled in the ensuing twenty -five years,
the amount of the population, in 1820, will be
9,239*084 ; and, if to this number be added the
emigrants and their increase, as per the preceding
table, the total population will be 9,604,778, half
a million, probably, less than the amount of the
census now taking.! Had the emigrants and their
increase been nearly three times the number they
have been assumed, for the purpose of illustration,
to be, still the population would have doubled its
number by *' procreation only '* since 1795, without
any aid from emigration, or any increase of people
from increase of territory, t
* In allowing half the increase for the first half of the ten
years, from 1790 to 1800, more is conceded than an accurate
calculation would warrant ; but greater precision is not neces-
sary.
f March, 1821.
^ Sec Appendix, No. I.
F 4
Tl
CHAPTER III.
OF THE POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES OF
NORTH AMERICA.
SECTION II.
INCREASE OF PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES FROM PROCRE-
ATION. EXAMPLES IN THE PARISH OF HENGHAM. AT
PORTSMOUTH. VALUE OF LIFE IN THE PRINCIPAL CITIES OF
THE UNITED STATES. — IN SWEDEN. COMPARED. PROOFS
OF A VERY RAPID INCREASE OF PEOPLE FROM PROCREATION
IN THE UNITED STATES, FROM MR. GODWIN'S DATA.
JjiNOUGH has been sakl to establish the fact, that
the population in the United States of North
America has doubled in periods short of twenty-five
years, from procreation ; and that immigration has,
for a long period, been of comparatively small conse-
quence. And here, repeating Mr. Godwin's words,
" the argument might be closed.'* But Mr. God-
win lays much stress on the arguments he has used
in his succeeding chapters, and if these were left un-
noticed, it might be objected that they could not be
refuted. The subject is also of too much importance
to the welfare of the human race to justify any one
who interferes with it, in leaving any part of it in
doubt or obscurity, which he has the means of
elucidatmg
In what follows, it will be seen that Mr. Godwin
has proved his cafl<e against himself. While deny-
ing to the United States any increase at all from
procreation, he has produced evidence which
MORTALITY AMONG CHILDREN. 7^
proves a very rapid increase, although he does not
appear to have appreciated the proof he has
adduced. He says, '« he trusts it has appeared
that the only increase of population hy procreation,
must he by increasing the p)roportion of births to a
marriage, or, more strictly speaking, to the amount
of women capable of child-bearing in that com-
munity." * This, however, like other parts of
Mr. Godwin's system, is founded on the assertion,
" that by the constitution and course of nature,
half the born 7nust die in their non-age." Yet he
has shown, that, in Sweden, where half the born die
in their non-age, the population increased nearly one
half in fifty-four years, with the proportion of births
of which he was speaking, but he does not seem to
have been at all aware of the contradiction. Mr.
Godwin had formerly said, childhood and youth
were the periods when mortality ought to be the
least ; and those who have had opportunities of
investigating the subject, will, it maybe expected,
concur in this conclusion. But now he says,
*' Mr. Malthus must have six out of every eight
children born, die for the benefit of the geometrical
ratio," and he himself must have nature to destroy
half of them for the benefit of his paradox. It
does not follow that an increase of births is neces-
sary to an increase of people, and this Mr. Godwin
has himself proved in the case of Sweden j even
in that country, a decrease of mortality in the
juvenile part of the community would alone be
sufKcient rapidly to increase tiie number of peoplc.
* llcply, page -iiy.
74 INCREASE OF POPULATION
Mr. Godwin proceeds to sliovv, from a paper read
at the American Philosophical Society on the
18th March 1791, and published in their Transac-
tions, that, in the parish of Hengham, in the state
pf Massachusetts, in fifty-fbur years tlieie were
Births 2247
Deaths 1113
Marriages 521
Mr. Godwin has made no remark on the great
increase of the population, although the births
were more than twice as many as the deaths. But
he says, this statement " brings us down to some-
thing like an European standard ;'* it will be seen,
however, that it does no such thing. When Mr,
Godwin speaks of Europe, he must be understood
as referring to Sweden ; he has rejected the tables of
every other country, and declared those of Sweden
to be alone worthy of regard, and in Sweden ** half
the born die by the constitution and course of
nature, in their non-age."
The parish of Hengham was noticed by Mr. Mai-
thus,* and what he has said, although published
before Mr. Godwin's observation, may still be con-
sidered a reply to him. Yet there are some
important circumstances connected with the state-
ment which were not noticed either by Mr. Mal-
thus or Mr. Godwin.
It is plain that *' the constitution and course of
nature'* did not kill half the born at Hengham in
their non-age, the whole of those who died at every
age being less than half the number born.
* Vol. 1. p. 150.
IN THE UNITED STATES. — IN SWEDEN. 7<5
It also appears that the number of births to
a marriage was nearly four and three-eighths ;
Mr. Malthus calls it four and one-half, Mr. God-
win four and one-quarter.
If half the born died in their non-age, only one
in four of all the born could ever grow up to
be a marriageable woman, and Mr. Godwin has
shown that the women capable of child-bearing in
Sweden were not quite one in five of the whole
population*, and he made it out that the pro-
portion was four and one-eighth births to every
such woman, t As, however, the number of
children at Hengham must have been much
greater than in Sweden, there must have been a
smaller proportion of child-bearing women to the
whole population in Hengham than in Sweden, and
we should not perhaps err if we reckoned the birtlis
at upwards of five for every such woman. But
taking the Swedish tables for our rule, let us en-
quire as to the results. " The births in Sweden,"
Mr. Godwin shows us, *' are four and one-eighth
to a marriage." t If each marriage produced four
births only, we have his authority for asserting that
the population could not be kept up, but that the
one-eighth of a child additional, when spread over
a population of three millions, is sufficient to supply
the place of those who do not marry, and to in-
crease the population nearly one-half in fifty-four
years. § At which rate the population would be
doubled in 94.012 years. If one-eiglith of a child
* Godwin, p. 168. f lb. p. 171.
t lb. p, 186. § lb. p. 172.
76 INCREASE OF rOl'ULATlOX
to a marriage under these circumstances be sufficient
to supi)ly the deficiency of those women who do
not marry, and to double tlic })opulation in ninety-
four years, how long, it may be asked, will three-
eighths at Hengham require to do the same ?
Mr. Godwin resorts to the rule of proportion ; and,
although by that rule the period will come out longer
than by a more accurate deduction it would do, yet
it comes near enough for the present purpose ; this
rule answers the question by 31 .33 years. And thus,
if the value of life were nogreater at Hengham tluitt
in Sweden, the population would double in 31^
years. But the statement shows that the value of
life is much greater at Hengham than in Sweden.
In p. 157, Mr. Godwin has inserted a table of
the marriages, births, and deaths, in the whole of
Sweden for fifteen years, by which it appears
there were
Born 1,299,290
Died 980,341
More born than died 318,949
The result is that, in the fifteen years for which
the account for Sweden is given, more than three-
fourths the number of all the born died, and the
increase was less than one-fourth ; while, in the
parish of Hengham, in the fifty-four years for
which the account is given, not quite half the
number of the born died, and the increase was
consequently more than half; a rate of increase
prodigiously greater than that of Sweden.
The difference in the degrees of mortality, be-
tween the whole of the United States of North
9
IN THE UNITED STATES. IN SWEDEN. 77
America and Sweden, is very great; and there is,
perhaps, no part of Mr. Malthus's Essay which is
more clearly and satisfactorily made out, than the
effect of decreased mortality in rapidly increasing
tlie population ; and the parish of Hengham is a
striking example. It cannot be supposed that the
grown-up population at Hengham lived to a greater
age, generally, than that in Sweden ; whence it
follows, that the number of children reared at
Hengham must have been greater than in Sweden.
A larger number of persons there must attain the
middle age, and consequently the decrease of mor-
tality must be principally among the younger, and
the breeding part of the community.
The parish of Hengham is a satisfactory answer
to Mr. Godwin, and sufficient to account for the
rapid increase of the population in that part of the
United States. Mr. Godwin selects it as a sample
of the country parts of those States ; and, in this
view of the case, it is quite conclusive against him.
But Mr. Godwin does not stop here. He exhi-
bits a statement of births and marriages at Ports-
mouth, a sea-port town in New Hampshire j and
here the births appear to be 4.44., nearly four and
a half to a marriage ; a higher rate than at Heng-
ham. If we suppose the mortality to be as great
in Portsmouth as in Sweden, that the marriages are
not more numerous, and that they are contracted
as late there as in Sweden, still the population will,
according to the rule of proportion, be doubled in
26.7 years. But if we suppose, what it is much more
reasonable to suppose, that marriages are more
78
MORTALITY IN THE CITIES OF THE
numerous ; that the women marry at an earlier age ;
and that the mortality is nearly the same as atHeng-
ham, the population will double in less than twenty-
five years.
Thus Mr. Godwin's documents prove his case
against himself ; and shew that the power of pro-
creation is quite as efficient as Mr. Malthus has
described it as being.
In Dr. Seybert*s Statistical Annals,* is a table of
deaths in the four principal cities of the United
States, for the year 1814 ; from which it appears
that in no one of them were half the number of
deaths under twenty years of age ; while, from an
average of all the Swedish tables furnished by
Mr. Godwin, it appears that considerably more than
half of those who died in Sweden were under
twenty years of age.
The account is as follows :
Baltimore.
Boston.
N.York.
Philadel.
Sweden.
Died under 20
years of age.
551
353
824
857
39,109
Died upwards of
20 years of age.
GOl
374
1150
946
51,887
Total, died.
1152
727
1974
1783
70,996
Which gives for the proportions dying under twenty
years of age, to the whole number of deaths,
In Baltimore .« 47.82 per cent..
Boston 48.55 I . , , ,,
New York 41.74 \ ^^"'"^S^' ^^•^^'
Philadelphia ... 46.94 J
Sweden « 55.08.
Page 49.
UNITED STATES. IN SWEDEN. 79
Every one of those cities gives a higher value of
hfe than does the whole of Sweden ; and the tables
prove that a much larger proportion of the children
born in those cities are reared, than are reared in
the whole of Sweden.
The difference is very considerable, there being
only 45^- deaths in those cities in every hundred,
under tw^enty years of age ; while, in Sweden, the
number of deaths in every hundred, under twenty
years of age is upwards of 55 ; an increase in
favour of America, of nine and a half on 45^.
Mr. Godwin has taken the marriageable age of a
woman at twenty, and that period cannot there-
fore be considered as too early ; and it follows, as
matter of course, that if, instead of being married at
twenty, every woman abstained until she was
twenty-six or thirty years of age, she would produce
fewer children.
Mr. Godwin, however, insinuates, that this would
not be the case. He says, *' It seems sufficiently,
indeed, probable, that the female of the human
species is endued with a certain degree of fecund-
ity; and I believe it will be found, in a majority of
instances, that the woman who is called upon early
to afford that species of nutrition from her frame
which the unborn infant requires, sooner grows old,
and ceases from the power of child-bearing, than
the woman in whom this faculty is not called forth
till a later period.*'*
In other places Mr. Godwin controverts his own
doctrine : for instance, he says, '' Though the
* Kapl)^ page 428.
so ■ NUMBER OF CHILDHEN
actual period of" child-bearing may be stated as
from the age of twenty to forty-five years, yet the
activeness ofthatcapacitij will be found to be greatlt/
diminished ^for a considerable time before it totality
ceases. And ag ain, he says,* * When we take the
terra of twenty-five years, from twenty to forty-five
years of age, as the period in which a woman is
capable of child-bearing, we must not suppose that
capacity to subsist in equal strength during the
whole period. A woman endowed with all the
fruitfulness of the most fruitful of her sex, may, for
a time, bear a child regularly, within a certain
period. From twenty to thirty, we will say she may
do so; but this is less likely to happen after thirty —
more improbable after thirty-five."*
In his former reply to the Essay on Population,
Mr. Godwin says, " It is needless to remark, that
whei^e marriage takes place at a later p'einod of life,
the progeny may be expected to be less numerous.''*
How all these matters are to be reconciled, must
be left to Mr. Godwin and Mr. Booth. But of
this we may be certain, even if Mr. Godwin had
not himself produced the proof, that more chil-
dren would be born by having all the women
married at eighteen, than there would be by
delaying their marriages until they were twenty-
five or thirty years of age.
Yet, with documents selected by himself, and
making directly against himself, in direct contra-
diction to his own doctrines, and even to his very
words, who could have expected that Mr. Godwin
would have printed the following passage.
* Reply, page 213.
TO A MARRIAGE. 81
*' Now I say, that a greater number of children
are not born to a marriage in the United States
than in Europe. To which I here add, that as
large a number are cut off prematurely by disease,
or otherwise, in the United States as in Europe.'* *
Mr. Godwin has a chapter on diseases in the
United States, but it proves nothing. It shows only,
that people die in America as they do every where
else ; and that certain diseases kill more than
others, which needed no proof. Consumption is
noticed as the most destructive disease in the sea-
port towns of the United States. " The number of
consumptive cases (deaths) was, in 1816, in New-
York, 678 ; exceeding by 60 what took place in
1815." In I8I9, the deaths from consumption in
New- York, were 577; less by 101 than in 1816.
Dr. Heberden has shown, that the " deaths in
London from consumption, during the last century,
increased from 3,000 in the beginning, to 5,000 at
the end."t In 1820, they were 3,959. It has,
however, botli by the same authority and by others,
been satisfactorily shown that the health of the
population in London, as well as in all the towns in
the kingdom, has greatly improved ; and this has
also been confirmed to me by the actuaries at
several of the Life Insurance offices. Thus the
prevalence of a particular disease may be no proof
of a great, or of an increased mortality.
* Reply, p. 430.
\ Observations 011 the Increase and Decrease of different
Diseases, 4to. p. 42.
G
82 NUMliER OF CHILDREN TO A MARRIAGE.
To have made his chapter on diseases bear upon
the question, it would have been necessary to have
shown the proportion of deaths to births, in at least
a very large portion of the Union, and the numbers
living at several periods. This has not been done ;
and it is impossible, from any thing Mr. Godwin
has said of the proportion of births and deaths to
the whole population, even in the parish of Heng-
ham, and the sea-port town of Portsmouth, to judge
accurately of the increase ; since the numbers of
the living are not given at either of those places.
83
CHAPTER III.
OF THE POPULATION IN THE UNITED STATES
OF NORTH AMERICA.
SECTION III.
NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN AMERICA. — IN SWEDEN. NUMBER OF
ADULTS. NUMBER OF CHILDREN TO A MARRIAGE. NUMBER
OF CHILDREN REARED. — NUMBER OF BREEDING FEMALES IN
BOTH COUNTRIES. COMPARED. AMERICAN COMMUNITY
MUCH BETTER ADAPTED TO AN INCREASE OF PEOPLE THAN
THAT OF SWEDEN.
" 1 NOW comCy^* says Mr. Godwin, ♦* to tJie princi-
pal point in my whole subject. * The question
between us is, the cause of the increase of the popu-
lation in the United States? Mr. Malthus says,
that * it has been repeatedly ascertained to be from
procreation only/ 1 / say the cause is emi-
gration J*
" Now, fortunately the contents of the reports
of the American Census seem to set that question
Jor ever at rest. Certainly, if these reports may
be depended on as accurate, / see no rvay of
escaping Jroni the conclusion I draw from them."
The conclusions are two : 1st, that in order to
double the population in tw^enty-five years, there
must be eight children to a marriage j 2d, that
population in the United States has not been in-
creasedy and is not increasingyjrom procreation.
* Reply, p. 437. t lb. p. 439.
84 NUMBER OF CHILDREN
" The authors of the American Census for 1800
and 1810, have fortunately classed the free white
inhabitants according to their ages, and thus
enabled us to ascertain the number of adults
and the number of children. This is the most
important piece ofinfoy^mation relative to our subject
that can be conceived. According to the Census of
1810, the free white inhabitants under sixteen
years of age throughout the union amount to
2,933,211 ; above sixteen years of age to, 2,9^28,882;
placing those under and above sixteen years of age as
nearly as possible on an equality. Hence it inevitably
Jbllows, that, throughout the union the population, so
Jar as depends on procreation, is at a stand ; and
that there are not, on an average, more than Jour
births to every Jemale capable oj child-bearing.
This is altogether as satisfactory as if we had a
table of births and marriages for every state in the
union as particular as Sussmilch*s tables for the
German dominions of the King of Prussia. It
may be considered as equivalent to a general re-
duction and summary that should be made of the
results of such tables, when they had once been
constructed, and, as being made on a larger scale,
it may seem to be less liable to error." *
** If it were true that * the population of the
United States doubled itself for above a century
and a half successively in less than twenty-five
years,' and that this had been ' repeatedly ascer-
tained to be from procreation only,* it is ab-
solutely certain that in that country the children
* Repl}', p. m.
IN THE UNITED STATES. 85
would out-number the grown persons two or three
times over. It would have been a spectacle to
persons from other parts of" the world of the most
impressive nature. The roads and the streets
would have seemed covered with children.'*
" The Census sets all this at rest for ever. It
assures us, from the highest authority, that there
are no more children in the United States than
there are grown-up persons. Of consequence,
supposing all to marry agreeably to Dr. Frank-
lin's hypothesis, the average number of births
to a marriage is remarkably smally four must be
an AMPLE allowance. 1 own for myself I felt
some scepticism as to the European accounts of
four births to a marriage : I thought that still
there might be some latent error ; but, with res-
pect to the United States, I do not see how we
can resist the evidence before us : four birtJis to a
marriage must be the utmost that occur in that
country." *
This is delivered in a high tone of exultation,
and yet there is nothing in it. Mr. Godwin has
run on without ever looking where he was going :
he has stated his case in a rapid plausible manner,
and has carried along with him the understandings
of a great many persons, who, without examin-
ation, have taken his assertions and conclusions for
facts.
It has appeared, from Mr. Godwin's own data,
on the authority of the Swedish tables, and on the
* Reply, p. 44<2.
c S
,86 NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN THE
American accounts, that the population in the
United States may double its population in less
than twenty-five years from procreation, without
there being the smallest necessity for eight births
to a marriage, so repeatedly insisted upon by Mr.
Godwin.
Mr. Godwin will have it that the population in
the United States is at a stand, because the num-
ber of children under sixteen years of age do not
greatly exceed half of the whole population ; and
he gravely tells us, that he has drawn this " inevit-
able conclusion''* from a comparison of the propor-
tion of children to adults in Sweden. This is a
very singular inference, for the comparison, it will
be seen, gives directly the contrary result.
In pages 154, 155, 156, and 158, of his Reply,
Mr. Godwin has inserted tables of all the living in
Sweden at five different periods. The ages in those
tables are classed as follows : viz.
lorn 1
to
3
3
...
5
5
...
10
10
...
15
15 ... 20, &c.
The ages, as stated in the American tables, are.
Under 10 years of age,
10 to 16
16 ... 26, &c.
In order, therefore, to ascertain the number of
children under sixteen years of age in Sweden,
one-fifth of the number between fifteen and twenty
years of age has been added to those under fifteen
UNITED STATES AND SWEDEN COMPARED. 87
years of age ; and the result is, that the number
of children under sixteen years of age to the whole
population, was,
In 1757, rather more than 40 in the hundred.
1760 40
1763 40
1780 35
1805 rather less than 36
giving for the whole series an average of 38 per
cent.
Dr. Seybert's tables were, he informs us, collated
with the tables of the actual returns to Congress,
and from these it appears that the free white po-
pulation in the United States was as follows :
In 1800 under 16 years of age 2,109,476
1810 2,933,211
In 1800 above 16 years of age 2,200,280
1810 2,928,882
which gives for the number of children under six-
teen years of age to the whole population,
In 1800 rather less than ... 49 in the hundred
1810 rather more than SO
y average 49^
being, in comparison with the population of Sweden,
an increase in favour of the United States of Hi-
children on every 38.
The carelessness of Mr. Godwin is quite unac-
countable. *' In America," he says, " the average
number of births is remarkably small ;" and the rea-
son he assigns is, " that oJiJj/ //«//' of the population
is under sixteen years of age ;'* and he '* cannot
see how the evidence is to be resisted, that Jour
G 4
88 OF MARRIAGES IN THE
births to a marriage must he the utmost. ^^ Whence,
then, came the children ? The *' irresistible evid-
ence" is, that in America half the population is
under sixteen years of age, and that in Sweden not
much more than one-third of the population is
under sixteen years of age. And yet, strange to say,
in Sweden there are four and one- eighth births to
a marriage, in America not quite four. How Mr.
Godwin came to make such a statement is incon-
ceivable. It is perfectly clear that, in proportion
as the number of children in America is large, the
number of breeding women must be small, both
cannot be in excess ; and it will accordingly be
found, that the number of breeding women is a
smaller proportion of the whole population in
America than it is in Sweden, while the proportion
of children to breeding women is largest in Ame-
rica. Whence it follows, that the number of chil-
dren born in America is larger in proportion to the
number of breeding women than it is in Sweden ;
and that more of those born in America grow up
to a child-bearing age than in Sweden.
Still does Mr. Godwin contend, that " it inevit-
ably Jbllows that the population in the United
States, so far as depends on procreation, is at a
stand." Sweden, with thirty-eight children in the
hundred of the whole population under sixteen
years of age, could double its population at the rate
of ninety-four years ; but America, with forty-nine
children in every hundred of its population, is in-
evitably doomed to stand still. Such are Mr.
Godwin's reasonings; such the results of his com-
parLsons.
UNITED STATES. IN SWEDEN. 89
Mr. Godwin, in his remarks on the Swedish
tables, has dwelt at much length on the proportion
of child-bearing women to the whole community,
whicli he says must, in an increasing population,
be very great. He has presumed that this must
be so, because, by the " constitution and course of
nature, half the horn rnust die in their non-age^^^
and because, " as far as we have yet had an oppor-
tunity of ascertaining, we shall have four births for
every woman arriving at a proper age for child-
bearing.'** And in the United States of America
he finds they are less than four.
But Mr. Godwin has here proved too much. If
there can be but four children to every marriage-
able woman, and if half of those children die in
their non-age, the inference cannot be mistaken —
the utmost the parents can do is to replace them-
selves. If Mr. Godwin's arguments were sound,
the earth would have been a desert long since.
His arguments are not only unsound, but he pre-
sents us with evidence to disprove them — when he
tell us, that in fifty-four years Sweden added one
half by procreation to her population.
If the number of such women be less than one
in four of the whole population, and Mr. Godwin
says they are only one in five ; and if the children
reared be two and one-sixteenth only to every such
woman, population must decline, and it can never
recover itself ; for, if there are no more than four
and one-eighth children to each such w^oman, and
half of them die by the ** constitution and course
* Reply, p. 172.
90 NUMBER OF CHILDREN IN THE
of nature in their non-age,*' no means are left
again to increase the number of the people, and
the community must perish. Sweden, according
to Mr. Godwin, has as nearly as possible the exact
number of breeders, while the United States of
North America fall short of what he calls the re-
quisite number ; and, strange as this may at the
first moment appear, it will be found to be an
essential condition in a state which is rapidly in-
creasing its population from procreation.
Mr. Godwin admits that the children under sixteen
years of age in the United States form one half of
the whole population : this is, to be sure, a very
large number. " But," says Mr. Godwin, " were
population in America increasing with the rapidity
of which Mr. Malthus talks, " they would out-
number the grown persons two or three times
over.*' It is this delusion which seems to have
blinded Mr. Godwin. He must have the right
number of breeders ; and as he cannot have that
number and the children too, he rejects the evid-
ence, sufficient as it is ; and, as he cannot see his
way out of the labyrinth in which he has involved
himself, he denies that there is any way out.
He says, " A greater number of children are not
born to a marriage in the United States of North
America than in Europe.'*
" That as many die in their non-age as in
Europe ;*' and,
" That four births to a marriage there, must be
the utmost that occur." *
* Reply, p. 431.
UNITED STATES AND SWEDEN COMPARED. 91
If these assertions be tried by the rule laid down
by Mr. Godwin, it will appear that the United
States are rapidly decreasing, at least so far as pro-
creation is concerned.
The number of females between sixteen and
forty-five, to the whole population of Sweden,
appears to be twenty-two in the hundred. In the
United States, nineteen only in the hundred.
The number of children in Sweden, in 1805,
who were under sixteen, was thirty-six in the hun-
dred. In the United States, in 1810, no less than
fifty in the hundred of the whole population.
Whence it follows, that, in Sweden, for every
twenty-two females between sixteen and forty-five,
there were thirty-six children under sixteen years
of age. While in the United States, for every
nineteen such females, there were fifty children.
This simple statement of the fact, appears to me
decisive. If in the American tables the ages had
been stated, as they are in the Swedish tables, the
number of children to the grown-up women, would
have appeared still larger.
The number of child-bearing women in America
is, to the whole population, about seventeen in
the hundred less than it is in Sweden. But al-
though the females in America, between the ages
of sixteen and forty-five, bear a much smaller
proportion to the whole population, than they do
in Sweden, still they bear a larger proportion to
the grown-up population.
In Sweden, by the tables before referred to, it
appears that the females between sixteen and
92 INCREASE OF POPULATION IN AMERICA, &C.
forty-five years of age, were nearly sixty-seven in
the hundred of all the females who were upwards
of sixteen years of age.
In the United States of North-America, they
were seventy-seven in the hundred of all the
females above sixteen ; making a difference in
favour of America, of ten on every sixty-seven
breeding women in Sweden. And here, again,
could we compare the intermediate ages in Ame-
rica with the Swedish tables, the account would,
no doubt, come out still more advantageously for
America.
Hence results " the inevitable conclusions,"
that there are more births to a marriage in America
than in Europe ; or, as Mr. Godwin has it, more
births to every grown-up woman ; that more chil-
dren are reared, and, indeed, that the population is,
as it must necessarily be, a better population for
the purposes of rapidly increasing the number of
the people.
It could not but be thus. The United States of
America are happily free from all the most mate-
rial evils, whether of government or climate, which
afflict Sweden, and inevitably tend to the destruc-
tion of human life in its early stages. The poverty
too, which must deter numbers from marrying
in Sweden, and cannot fail to delay the period
of marriage generally, may hardly be said to ope-
rate at all in any part of the United States. In the
one country, a family, if it be not a curse, is a very
heavy burthen j in the other it is an actual blessing.
10
93
CHAPTER IV.
ON THE '* DISSERTATION ON THE RATIOS OF INCREASE tS
POPULATION AND IN THE MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE ; BY
MR. DAVID BOOTH."
Mr. Godwin, in his preface, says, ** Without the
encouragement andpressing instances of Mr. David
Booth, mi/ ivork 'would never have been begun j
and the main argument of the second book f of the
power of increase in the numbers of mankind, and the
limitation of that power ) is of his suggesting. But,
indeed, the hints and materials for ilkistration, I
have derived from his conversation are innumerable,
and his mathematical skill assisted my investig-
ation, in points in which my habits for many years
were least favourable to my undertaking.*'
At the end of the second book is a *' dissert-
ation from the pen of Mr. Booth, on tlie ratios of
increase in population, and in the means of subsist-
ence," intended to prove mathematically, as it is
called, that is, by calculation, that the increase of
people, in a geometrical series, is, under any circum-
stances, impossible ; and, indeed, that any increase
of people, however small, cannot reasonably be
expected.
Mr. Booth says, that " Mr. Malthus, if he under-
stood the subject, has taken it for granted, tliat his
comparison of ratios would escape the notice of
94 OBSERVATIONS ON MK. BOOTH's
mathematicians; and that his order of increase in
the geometrical ratio of 1. 2. 4. 8. 10. 32. 64. 128.
256. f &c. represents 7io connected chain of the
ed'pansion of human life.'** It seems somewhat
strange that Mr. Booth should thus have peremp-
torily decided on what might, or might not be pass-
ing in the mind of Mr. Malthus ; and still more so
that he should give as a reason for the conclusion,
that the increase would not be in each and every
year, exactly in the same order. Mr. Malthus has
said, over and over again, that the increase would
fluctuate ; but that, in a certain number of years,
the population would be doubled ; and, circum-
stances continuing the same, it would again double
in the same space of time. Mr. Malthus cannot
be understood to be speaking even of the periods
of doubling with mathematical exactness. He
puts down the series, in order to show, that under
certain circumstances, there would be an increase
of people at a certain rate, were it not prevented by
the impossibility of food being provided at the same
rate. All he can be fairly understood to mean, is
that in a healthy country, where there was " no
crowded and selfish metropolis,'* (or large manu-
facturing tow^ns) " with their nauseous and hidden
dens, where man lives unseen and unpitied,
and where he dies of hunger." Where the people
were virtuous, and where a large quantity of fer-
tile land was unoccupied, their numbers would be
doubled in a series represented by 1. 2. 4. 8., &c., in
* Reply, p. 245.
MATHEMATICAL DISSERTATION. 95
periods of twenty-five years ; so long as food was pro-
duced at the same rate of increase ; that when all
the land had been appropriated, and perhaps before
all the land had been appropriated, food would no
longer be produced at the same rate; and that
whenever this happened, the poorest part of the
community would at first be worse supplied
with comforts than they had formerly been, and in
the course of time, with fewer necessaries. That
the increase of people would be checked, by what
he calls the preventive check, or delayed marriage ;
from which fewer children would be born, and from
the consequences of vice and misery which the
want of sufficient food, and other accommodations
necessary to health, would, in various ways, and
under various forms, engender. How any body
can misunderstand this as the substance of what
Mr. Malthus has said, seems strange ; and how any
one, wishing to understand Mr. Malthus, and de-
sirous of discovering the truth, should interpret him
in any other way, seems still more strange. This
was the way in which Mr. Godwin formerly under-
stood him; he saw no absurdity, contradiction, or
ev^en ambiguity, in Mr. Malthus*s statements; they
appeared to him to be clear enough, and it has been
seen that he took considerable pains to propagate
the knowledge of the principle of population, as
laid down by Mr. Malthus. *' Let it," says Mr.
Godwin, " be recollected that / admit the ratios of
the author in their full extenty and that I do not
attempt in the slightest degree to vitiate the great
96 OBSERVATIONS ON MR. BOOTH *S
Junctions of his theory.*' * " The basis of" our
author's work, the ratios of population and subsist-
enccy I regard as unassailable^ and as constituting a
valuable acquisition to the science of political eco-
nomy." t " As unquestionable an addition to the
theory of political economy as any writer for a
century past, has made ; made too," he says,
" without any parade of science^ and the most un-
affected simplicity of manner." X
' Mr. Booth sees the *' mote in his brother's eye,
but he cannot see the beam in his own ;" he seizes
hold of an illustration, tries it by a rigid mathe-
matical induction, to which it is plain it was never
intended to be submitted, and to which it cannot
in fairness be submitted, finds fault with the want
of strictness in the mode of expressing it, when he
himself, even while occupied in exposing the loose
way in which Mr. Malthas has written, commits
the same fault himself, and in his mathematical
treatise, talks of " the coiinected chain of the Cjc-
pansion of human life.'*
Mr. Booth makes two accusations against Mr.
Malthus ; 1st, *' That his philosophy is not the
method of induction. He perpetually appeals to
principles which have never been brought into
action, and which are opposed to all experience."
2d, " He speaks of tendencies to human increase,
and of powers of population, which in no state
have been left to exert themselves with perfect
* First Reply, p. 61. f lb. p. 76. % lb. p. 56,
MATHEMATICAt DISSERTATION. 97
freedom." Having made these accusations, he
passes sentence in the following words : '* This is
exactly in the stile of those dreamers, who predict
of the future something unlike and opposite to what
has ever appeared in the past." * The first ac-
cusation is neither logical nor intelligible. The
second is directly opposed to facts. Mr. Godwin
has said, that Mr. Malthus did not, because he
could not, prove his assertions. Mr. Malthus pro-
bably thought, and indeed he says as much, as that
the power to increase, so as to double the popu-
lation in twenty-five years, was proved as soon as
the increase in the United States of America was
mentioned. That the United States have doubled the
amount of their people in less than twenty-five years,
from procreation repeatedly, has been fully proved
in the preceding chapter, and Mr. Malthus has at
least been shown to be neither a " predictor" nor
a *' dreamer" on this part of his subject. Yet a man
may predict " something unlike and opposite to
what has ever appeared in the past," without being
" a dreamer," or Mr. Booth has passed a severe con-
demnation on Mr. Godwin's " Enquiry concerning
PoliticalJustice." After the sentence passedbyMr.
Booth on those who talk of tendencies, and predict
of the future, it could not have been expected that
Mr. Booth should himself become a dreamer, that
he should dream, and relate his dream in the stile
he has condemned ; yet it is so. Mr. Booth sets
himself to answer the following question : " If a
colony were constituted of persons of all ages,
* Reply, p. 246.
H
98 OBSERVATIONS ON MR. BOOTIl's
such as they exist in Europe, and were the pro-
portion of births raised in a great degree by the
removal of" the presetit checks to population, might
not the inhabitants increase in a geometrical ratio,
and double their number in twenty-five years?"*
If removing the *' present checks/* would "increase
the proportion of births in a great degree,'* and thus
decrease the rate of mortahty, Mr. Booth has at
once answered himself and Mr. Godwin, and
proved Mr. Malthus*s case. To prove his own
case, Mr. Booth refers to a table he has con-
structed of 10,000 persons, and then goes on
reasoning to show, that *' it would require forty
years for the first doubling, and about thirty years
for each of the two succeeding doublings, and
that tliis period would become less and less
through a series of a very complicated form,
though it (the doubling) would never he under
twenty-Jive years.** \ Were this table really of any
use, it would prove all that Mr. Malthus has assert-
ed j for in an enquiry like this, where a term of years
was taken simply as an illustration, a fluctuation in
the periods of doubling between twenty- five and
thirty years, would be a matter of very little mo-
ment. This is, however, the way Mr. Malthus and his
disciples, *' the dreamers of dreams,'* are answered
by mathematicians wide awake. Mr. Booth treats
the ratios and tendencies spoken of by Mr. Malthus
as unqualified absurdities, even as to language, and
then he adopts both himself, and expresses them
in the very words used by Mr. Malthus. Mr.
* Reply, p. 283. f Ibid.
MATHEMATICAL DISSERTATION. 99
Booth does, to be sure, call to his aid a supposi-
tion, that by some occult cause the females shall
become doubly prolific. To this he was obliged
to resort, to make the results correspond with his
hypothesis, but this does not at all alter the case ;
he predicts exactly in the way he accuses Mr.
Malthus of doing, and if the objection will hold
against Mr. Malthus, it will also hold against Mr.
Booth.
But neither Mr. Malthus nor Mr. Booth are
absurd in talking of tendencies and ratios ; it would
be difficult to divine how either of them could
have made himself understood in any other way ;
the absurdity lies in Mr. Booth's suppositions, on
which he has formed his table, in his condemn-
ation of Mr. Malthus, without refuting him, and
in the asperity in which both he and Mr. Godwin
have indulged. In answering the question, Mr.
Booth has refuted liimself.
Mr. Booth having condemned the geometrical
series, whose exponent is 2., and having observed
that any other series might have been assumed,
asks, '* Why not take 1. 4. 9. 16. 25., &c. which
increase as the squares of the terms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.,
&c. for ought that Mr. Malthus has discovered,
this may be the latent law of increase.** It is
hardly fair to ask a man, why he has not done
something different from what he has done, when
it does not seem necessary that he should have
done it, yet both Mr. Booth and Mr. Godwin
pursue this course. Mr. Malthus might, howevei',
reply, why not, indeed ? In what relation to the
H 2
J 00 OBSERVATIONS ON MR. BOOTIl's
increase of mankind, consists the difference be-
tween the geometrical ratio and the squares of 1.
2. 3. 4. 5., except in the length of the periods.
There is no argument against Mr. Malthus in this.
" The mathematician,'* says Mr. Booth, *' forms
series at his pleasure, where the additions are j^e-
gulated by certain laws. // is not so uith those
qfnatureJ'* This seems very strange. Like causes
can no longer produce like effects. Mr. Booth is
in the lady's secret, it seems, and we have all been
cheated by false appearances. Although he adds,
that those laxvs of nature are beyond the philoso-
pher's ken." This, to be sure, has not much the
appearance of mathematical language, notwith-
standing his is a mathematical dissertation, and
notwithstanding he would pin down Mr. Malthus
to mathematical exactness, when he made no pre-
tensions to any such accuracy, and when his sub-
ject did not require it.
The second section of Mr. Booth's dissertation
is almost wholly a repetition or extension of what
Mn Malthus has himself said, but put into a form
which implies contradiction, and into words con-
demning Mr. Malthus, for saying there is an in-
herent power in mankind to increase faster than
food can be provided for them, the consequence
of which is extreme poverty, vice, and misery.
According to Mr. Booth, it is very unwise to talk
of tendencies, where the object to which they tend
has never yet been realised, and this too is Mr.
Godwin's present opinion ; yet of how many ten-
dencies of this kind has Mr. Godwin dwelt upon
MATHEMATICAL DISSEllTATIOX. 101
in his •' Enquiry concerning Political Justice ;"
and that too with good effect, it is only, as he him-
self teaches, by those who obtain a knowledge of
general principles, take long views, and see to
what circumstances tend, that practical men can
be put in the way to be useful, or society be ma-
terially improved. How these things are to be
accomplished, without understanding the tenden-
cies of general principles, is more than Mr. Booth's
mathematics will enable him to explain.
Mr. Booth has made assertions, which are as
much oj)posed to Mr. Godwin as to Mr. Malthus.
He laughs at an inherent power, which, according
to him, can never be called into action. This,
however, is, in the present case, a mere play upon
words. Mr. Malthus has explained clearly enough
what he means ; he says, the capability exists, but
that it is prevented exerting itself to the utmost, by
different counteracting causes, operating, more or
less, in different countries. Mr. Booth makes tliis
identical with the mathematical proposition, that
equal forces destroy each other ; and he here as-
sumes, that a counteracting force equal to the
preventing any increase of people, always exists.
True enough it is, that the powder or force of
population may be destroyed at a certain point,
by want of the means of subsistence, by vice and
misery ; but inasmuch as vice and misery are ter-
rible evils, and as the conflict is continually going
on, and, as the tendency may be counteracted by
reason, instead of those terrible evils, Mr. Mal-
thus proposes, that it shall be brought under the
H 3
102 OBSERVATIONS ON MR. B00TI1*S
guidance of reason, and the suffering which its
being allowed to operate occasions, be as much as
possible prevented. This is Mr. Malthus's propo-
sition ; whether his mode of remedying the evil, be
in all its parts the best mode that can be devised,
is another matter.
Mr. Booth, however, treats all this with con-
tempt, despises the reasoning, and denies the
power. Mr. Godwin, on the contrary, finds him-
self compelled to admit, that *' if there were not a
power of increase in the numbers of the human
species — sometimes operating ^ and at other times
existing as a power only without present agency —
the human species would, in all probability, have
been long since extinct.'** Mr. Booth must be
left to reconcile himself to Mr. Godwin, respecting
this " latent power *^ which both have condemned
Mr. Malthus for alluding to.
Mr. Booth, in a confused paragraph, points
out two modes of estimating the increase of
mankind, or rather two modes of proving that they
could not have increased at all. One from the
account of the creation, the other from the aspect
of human society. " Every table," he very truly
observes, ** made from the assumption of a single
pair, must proceed on data furnished by the im-
agination." The table constructed by Euler for
Sussmilch, is given as an example. •* He (Euler)
takes a married pair twenty years old, as the founders
of his race. This pair are to have six children, at
* Reply, p. 347.
MATHEMATICAL DISSERTATION. 103
three births, three males, three females ; these
births are to be in the twenty-second, twenty-
fourth, twenty-sixth years of the parents, Avho
are to live till forty years of age, and then die.
Every succeeding pair are to marry at twenty,
and have six children at three births, as before,
and to die at forty ; tiiis is supposed to con-
tinue in the same way, from generation to gener-
ation, and the results are given in a table for
300 years, at the end of which period, the
number living is stated at 4.003.954.* Nothing
can be much more absurd, tlian the hypothesis
on which this table is constructed, and nothing
can be more useless than such a table. Yet
liere, says Mr. Booth, *' surely here, if any ichere,
the geometrical ratio should be Ibund." Mr.
Booth says this gravely, although he knew that
the absurd supposition on which the table was-
founded, excluded the possibility of such a series.
Yet Mr. Booth would have us consider this as fair
and candid reasoning.
Mr. Booth having remarked on the absurdity of
the statement, on which Eulcr constructed his
table, jumps at once to the conclusion, that " under
any form of increase from a single pair, it is im-
possible there can be a geometrical proportion in
tlie increase of mankind," t and he implies, that
this can never be the case, at any period, for he
observes, that " the descendants of a single })air,
can never increase in a geometrical ratio," and lie
adds, *« neither can a modern colony, for such a
# Reply, p. 256, ct scq. \ lb. p. 262.
II 4
104 OBSERVATIONS OF MR. BOOTh's
colony is only a certain number of grown-up
pairs." But this is a sad begging of the question,
in every way. — He shows that from a single pair,
a number of children may be born, and that
the first period of doubling may be very short,
and so, by possibility, may be the second; but
as we must wait until the children grow uJ3,
before there can be a further increase, the ratio
will be destroyed ; he then makes a colony of
similar pairs, and presents it to us as a reality, from
which we are to make our calculations, and to
draw our conclusions, assisted by his arbitrary rule
which he lays down, just as Sussmilch did for
Euler ; all this is clearly nothing to the purpose,
and yet it has imposed upon many, who ought to
have known better, than to have suffered them-
selves to be cheated out of their understandings,
by a display of figures, and by absurd calculations.
Mr. Booth next proceeds to " contemplate
mankind, as they are found existing on the earth;"*
but as we cannot know all that is necessary to be
known, respecting the births, deaths, ages, &c. of
any one nation, for a series of years, Mr. Booth
takes the best evidence he can find, the Swedish
tables. " The population of Sweden," Mr. Booth
observes, " appears to be increasing, but certainly
in no ratio approaching geometrical." This is
precisely M^hat Mr. Malthus has said, and this,
indeed, is the ground on which he stands ; he says,
under the most favourable circumstances, population
* Reply, p. 264.
MATHEMATICAL DISSERTATION. 105
would double in periods of about. twenty-five years ;
but that, in all old settled countries, this rate of
increase is impossible ; could it even be doubled
in a very long period, it could not go on doubling
in the same space of time again, in a lengthened
series. Mr. Booth is not then opposing the doc-
trine of Mr. Malthus, but is bearing witness to its
truth, — confirming it.
Mr. Booth exhibits a table of the popidation of
Sweden for nine years, 1754 to 1763, from which
it appears, the numbers were.
In 1754. 2,323,195
... 1763 2,446,394
being an increase of 123,199, or 13,799 annually.
Mr. Booth's observations on this table, are very
remarkable ; he says, " The population is nearly
stationary, and certainly not increasing ; if we
keep in view the necessity of a fund, to supply the
waste occasioned by those calamities of nature,
and unexpected convulsions of society, which
history records as having so often retarded and
diminished the population of kingdoms." * Some-
thing more precise than the mode of expression
here used, might have been expected from Mr.
Booth, particularly as one of his objections to Mr.
Malthus is the want of accuracy. Mr. Godwin
has inserted a table of the increase of population
in Sweden, from 1751 to 1805, from which it
appears that there were,
* Reply, p. 266.
106 OBSERVATIONS ON MR. BOOTIl's
"In 1751, persons of all ages 2,229,611
... 1805 3,320,647
Showing a total increase in 54 years of 1,091,036 or one-
half nearly" *
This too is an answer to Mr. Booth. On this
table, Mr. Godwin remarks, that, " to judge from
what has appeared in 5i< years, from 1751 to 1805,
we should say, that the human species, in some
situations, and under some circumstances, miglit
double itself in somewhat more than 100 years." t
And this is an answer to Mr. Godwin by himself.
In the beginning of the Swedish series, popul-
ation increased very slowly, and Mr. Booth, for the
purpose of illustration, picks nine years from the
series, two of which were years of extraordinary
dearth, and then he makes, ** a table averaged
from these nine years together, with the propor-
tions calculated to a population of 10,000. These
tables are formed from the comparison of nine
years, but did they represent the average of cen-
turies, they would give us a fair view of the progress
and waste of human life in the state and climate of
Sweden. We will suppose they do." t • Did they
represent nine centuries, they would doubtless give
us the progress of human life during that period ; as
it is, they give us the progress for nine years, out of
a series of fifty-four years, and nothing else; there is
a fallacy in Mr. Booth's way of putting his case,
calculated to mislead his reader, which must be
* Reply, p. 160. f lb. p. 161. t lb. p. 269.
MATHEMATICAL DISSERTATION. 107
exposed. Mr. Booth takes the consequitive nine
years from the series which contain the lowest
rate of increase ; during the greatest part of the
whole series, the population increased by more
than double the number taken by Mr. Booth, and
then he says, the population of Sweden is to be
considered as not increasing at all.
He takes no notice of the population having in-
creased nearly one-half in fifty-four years, but he pro-
ceeds to construct tables to prove, as he says, that
thei^e can he no doubling in geometrical progressionj
nor, according to him, any increase at all ; so he
reasons here. He might, had he pleased, have
taken the nine years of the greatest increase j he
might have taken the three years of greatest in-
crease, inasmuch, as for the construction of such a
table as his, three years, would have answered the
purpose as well as nine. , But then he would have
confuted himself, by showing that the period of
doubling would be very short. He might have
made his table from a period in the series, when,
as appears by the Swedish table, the population
was declining ; and then, upon his plan, he might
have proved that, not only in Sweden, but also in
the North American States, the population was
fast wearing out. Tables constructed on such
arbitrary data, and so applied, are absolutely good
for nothing.
Mr. Booth assumes a rate of increase, or de-
crease, at his pleasure. He has half the born
regularly killed, '* by the constitution, and due
course of nature, in their non-age :'* he has all
108 OBSERVATIONS ON Mil. EOOTH*.S
the marriages, and the number of the born, always
exactly alike as to time and age. But this is not
" dreaming." No : He condemns Mr. Malthus,
and the rest of the dreamers, for asserting the
power of the human species, under the most fa-
vourable circumstances, to double in short periods,
because, as he says, they have only the three or
four first steps of the series, and then he puts his
nine isolated years for all countries, and for all
times, and exhibits its effects in the following
table.
MATHEMATICAL DISSERTATION.
109
00
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5
<-o
110 OBSERVATIONS ON MR. BOOTIl's
" It appears," says Mr. Booth, " that 370 annual
births are just sufficient to keep up a population
of 10,000.'* * This is excessively weak ; no
regard is paid to climate or food, to the increased
value of life from any cause ; every thing must
remain as Mr. Booth has set it down, without change
or variation. Mr. Booth has pointed out the ab-
surdity of the data on which Euler constructed
his table for Sussmilch, and has observed, that " the
mathematician forms series at his own pleasure,
where the additions are regulated by certain laws.
It is not so with those of nature, whether her series
alternately progress and retrograde ; whether they
circulate or decrease or Jioxv in straight and eternal
lineSy is beyond the ken of the philosopher.'* t Here
we have a circidating series^ and a flowing series^
in straight lines, which are eternal ; surely this
is not mathematical language ; but, whatever it
is, and whatever it may mean, is of little conse-
quence. Mr. Booth has subjected nature to a
series formed by a " mathematician at his plea-
sure," and what was hidden " from the ken of the
philosopher," is discovered and laid open ; oapri-
cious nature can no longer " progress and retro-
grade, or circle, or flow eternally in a straight li7ie :'*
she must go on until from 7j892 persons she has
produced 10,000, and then Mr. Booth cries halt,
and is obeyed. Here we have 1850 births every
five years to a day, not one more nor less, always
1408 children under five years of age, always 859,
* Reply, p. 269. f lb. 248.
MATHEMATICAL DISSERTATION'. Ill
or considerably less than half the born between
fifteen and twenty years of age, so that the " con-
stitution and due course of nature" is made to kill
half the born in about seventeen years. All the
numbers in all the ages are always exactly the
same ; and, if it so please Mr. Booth, always
10,000 ; but not one more at any time to disturb
the regularity of Mr. Booth's table. Nature has
submitted herself to his control, and he, by a
mathematical calculation^ has put an end to her
caprices for ever. Mr. Booth's table was intended
to prove another point of which Mr. Godwin has
not however availed himself, namely, that every
person above the age of forty-five, man or woman,
are perfectly useless in regard to population, and if
they were all cut off, the population would still go
on increasing just at the same rate, until it had
increased to 10,000. « We find," says Mr. Booth,
** from the foregoing tahle^ that although we de-
stroyed more than a fifth of the population, the
whole are created anew in the coarse of fifty years,
the 10,000 inhabitants are again brought forward,
and society ceases to have any further increase."
This is arrant trifling, and quite unpardonable in a
person who had, but a few pages before, exposed
the absurdity of all such calculations.
Mr. Booth is not, however, to be put aside from
his purpose; it is not enough that he has condemned
all such tables, and shown their inapplicability to
the real circumstances of the world, but he applies
his tables directly to those circumstances. He
112 OBSERVATIONS ON MR. BOOTIl's
says, " the diseased and inefficient members of the
community, in addition to those above fifty years of
age, might be cut off, which would reduce the
number to less than 7>00C). The apparent num-
ber of propagators would have thus been lessened,
but the births would not therefore be fewer, and in
a certain number of years the 10,000 would be
restored,'* but not one more. " There may there-
fore happen to be very extensive variations in the
census of a society, in the germ of which there is
no principle of permanent increase. They are pre-
cisely those adventitious beings, who increase with
favorable years, and who, when unfavorable seasons
arrive, swell by clusters the bills of mortality.'* *
Mr. ^Qo\\\JindSy that *' The number of grown-up
women in the 10,000, are 1,7^7 ; that of these 267
will not produce children, and that the remaining
1,500 will produce annually just exactly S70 chil-
dren, who will produce again, in exactly the same
order, the same number of children. He has found
also that twenty years of age is exactly the period
for a woman to marry, to have the largest nimiber of
children ; because, if they marry sooner, they will
cease to breed sooner. And this empyricism, this
effort of the imagination, is to be taken by sobei",
thinking men, as an answer to Mr. Malthus, — as a
refutation of the " Principle of Population."
But Mr. Booth has not yet exhausted his im-
gination : " Keeping in view our table of 10,000.'*
* Reply, p, 273.
MATHEMATICAL DISSERTATION. 113
— Nothing can be done without our table of 10,000!
— Let us suppose :
1. A colony of 3,837 persons.
2. Half males, half females.
3. Between the ages of 15 and 40.
4. This being the marriageable or child bearing age.
5. With only the Swedish poxvcrs of propagation, according to
our table, (not what these powers appear to have been at any
other period of the series ; or what they were in any other
country at any time.)
6. An annual emigration for the first 15 years of exactly 172
persons, half males, half females, and all between 15 and 40
years of age, and in exact proportion to the ages of those who
formed the colony.
Was there ever before such a series of supposes,
so absurd, so impossible to be realised? But, grant
them all, and then — Mr. Booth will make another
table. This he has done, and placed it in p. 276.
By the help of this table he proceeds to show, that
10,000 persons would be produced, but not one
more. He pretends to apply his table, and his rea-
soning, to the actual state of society, and says, that
such a colony would expand with great rapidity in
the beginning of the series. He then assumes all
his supposes to be realised, in the actual condition
of the American United States, compares it to *« the
polypus without its limbs, which Mr. Malthus
catches in the middle of its growth, measures the
length of limbs already attained, and comparing it
with time, forms a ratio of increase, in which, he
asserts, they will expand for ever." Here Mr.
Booth has committed almost all the faults, real or
imaginary, which he and Mr. Godwin have found
in the work of Mr. Malthus, and mixed them up
with the grossest absurdities, which, of course, can
IH* OBSERVATIONS ON MR. BOOTH'.S
in no way be applicable to the purpose for which
the dissertation was written. " Granting for a
moment," says Mr. Booth, '* that the three or
four censuses which have been taken in the United
States of America, do exhibit something like a
duplication in twenty-five years ; granting, too, that
this increase has arisen solely from procreation, in-
dependent of emigration, there certainly exist no
data from which to infer the law of the series.
We have only four, or, at most, five terms given us,
some of them extracted at intervals of time by no
means regular, from a series perpetually Jiouingy
and of the ebbs and floods of whose motion we
know nothing ; and from these the ordinary readet
is presented with a picked set of numbers in geo-
metrical progression with the ratio of two.'* *
Taking for granted, as Mr. Booth says, the increase
from population, the whole of Mr. Malthus's case
is fully proved ; not only as an approximation for
the purpose of illustration, but also as showing
enough of a series for all the purposes to which he
has applied it. How any man can be called upon to
prove more than is necessary to the full develope-
ment of his case, and why he should be considered
as having proved nothing, because he has not done
what it is utterly unreasonable and impossible he
should do, must be left to the consideration of such
calculators as Mr. Booth ; who, while they condemn
Mr. Malthus, make tables themselves, more absurd
than any thing they have pointed out in tlie tables
of others, t
* Reply, p. 2t6.
MATHEMATICAL DISSERTATIOX. ll.'J
Mr. Booth has constructed a table of tlie popu-
lation in Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, and
Indiana, and observes, that here a population of
281,341 persons more than doubled its numbers in
ten years. " These," he says, " are ratios of which
Mr. Malthus might have boasted, but he has not
boasted.'* Why Mr. Malthus should have boasted
without any reason, does not appear. Mr. Malthus
knew that the increase was not alone from pro-
creation ; he knew that emigrants from other
parts of the United States were settling in these
particular states ; and, in the very next page, Mr.
Booth himself alludes to this circumstance. The
increase of the population in the several states
named by Mr. Booth, is staled as follows, viz.*
Kentucky, ratio of increase in ten years, 1.8
Tennessee, 2.35
Mississippi, 4.44'
Indiana, 5.21
By which it appears, that the increase in the oldest
settled states, in which all the land had been sold
by the government, was less than one-fourth, as
rapid as in the newest state in which but a
small proportion of the land had been sold. But,
says Mr. Booth, '• It may be said, and perhaps
with truth, that many of the emigrants to these
states may have been from the other parts of the
United States, and not from Europe ; but com-
paring in the same manner the whole American
census, we shall find an astonishing extent of emi-
gration." He means a large increase of people,
* Reply, p. 280.
i2
llf) OpSEIJVATIONS ONT MR. EOOTll's
for the census can show nothing else. Tliis is,
however, the language of a mathematician. " The
white population,*' continues Mr. Booth, " of 1800
was, '1<,S05,971> these in ten years would be dimi-
nished by a fourth. It is very improbable that
more than 3,^00,000 should have constituted the
number of those above ten years of age in the
census of 1810; for w^hatever proportion the births
of that country may bear to the whole population,
the proportion of deaths is certainly greater than
in Europe. And it is not necessary to suppose a
power of procreation to account for the increase,
beyond what is found to prevail in European na-
tions.*' * It must be borne in mind, that Mr. Booth
brings all tliese matters to the test by means of his
table of 10,000, composed from nine years picked
from tlie Swedish series, of " little or no increase ;"
and hence it follows, that if the actual procreation
in the North American States be no greater, and
the value of life no higher than Mr. Booth repre-
sents it, the population, but for the immense emi-
gration, would in no very long period be extinct.
Mr. Godwin says, the United States have not kept,
and do not keep, up their population by procreation.
But Mr. Booth, although no other inference can be
drawn from his statements, says, that it does some-
thing more than keep up its population from pro-
creation.
*' The actual census of 1810 was," Mr. Booth
remarks, " 3,845,389 persons above ten years of
age, giving a surplus of 645,389," (that is a surplus
* Reply,, p. 2SL
MATHEMATICAL DISSERTATION. 117
above bis estimate wbich must be taken as infal-
lible,) '* wliicli can be accounted for in no way but
by emigration." It has, howev^er, been accounted
for, but not by emigration. *♦ The census of 1810
contains also 'i,Ol6,704< children under ten years
of age : ))art of these, too, as well as the deaths
of emigrants since their arrival, should be added
to the 645,389 above stated ; and, therefore, of the
1,556,12'2 persons which the census of 1810 ex-
hibits beyond that of 1800, it is clear as sunshine^
that nearly one half was added hy direct emigration.
Of the effects on the increase of popuhition by the
introduction ot" grown-up persons wc have already-
spoken ; and, adverting to these tico efjecls^ along
with the statement now given, the additional popu-
lation is completely accounted for, without sup-
posing a power of procreatio7i beyond what is found
to prevail among European nations."* It follows,
from this statement, that, besides the emigrants^
who died between 1800 and 1810, there remained
alive at the latter period 645,389, which deducted
from the total increase of the population, leaves for
the number of chikben born to tlie eraig.ranta
900,7^3, who were living in 1810, besides those
who died between 1800 and 1810. In a rough
estimate, which is, however, quite sufficient for the
purpose, it may be taken for granted, that the
number of emigrants and their children who died
were in proportion to those left alive ; both may,
therefore, be omitted, and attention given to the
* Rt'iily, p. 282.
I 3
118 OBSEllVATJONa OxV MR. UOOTIl S
living only. Of the 645,389 emigrants in ten
years, the yearly average is 64,538. Mr. Godwin
says, the marriageable women in Europe are as one
to five of the population ; but that about one in
twenty do not marry. * Mr. Booth says about one
in seven are never fitted for marriage.! But,
setting all this aside, and allowing that, of the
number of persons supposed by Mr. Booth to have
emigrated to the United States, one in every three
was a young married M'oman,t and that every one
of them was equally prolific, which is surely enough
to satisfy even Mr. Booth's credulity, let us en-
quire a little into the rate of increase necessary to
the production of 900,7^3 children, who should be
all alive at the end often years. By Mr. Booth's
account, it " is clear as sunshine" that 64,538
emigrants yearly, on an average, arrived in the
United States. One-third of this number is 21,513
nearly, and this represents the married women
supposed to have arrived annually ; and from these
the 900,723 children are to proceed, '* without a
power of procreation beyond what is found to pre-
vail in European nations," which is stated to be
four children and one-eighth to a marriage. If the
ten years be divided into seven periods and a half,
each of these periods will represent sixteen months ;
and if the 21,513 women have every one of them
* Reply, p. 184. f lb. p. 270.
:j; From the returns made to Congress of the actual number
of persons who arrived in the United States from Sept. 1819 to
Sept. 1820, it appears that the males were more than five-
sevenths, the females less than two-sevenths.
MATHEMATICAL DISSERTATION. IIQ
a child at the end of sixteen months from their
arrival, and another child at the end of every
sixteen months from that time, every one of those
who arrived,
Children. Children.
In the 1st year would have 7| Among them all 161,347
2nd 6i 14-5,215
3rd 6 129,078
4th 5i 112,942
5th 4i 96,809
6th 3f 80,676
7th 3 64,539
8th 2i 48,404
9th li 32,270
10th f 16,136
Total number of children 887,416
If from this number we deduct one-third for
deatlis, there will remain 591,611
How absurd, when carried out, does this appear,
on Mr. Booth's own showing. What could he be
thinking about, when he asserted that from 645,389
emigrants 900,723 children could be born and
reinain alive at the end of ten years ? Did he take
it for granted that his assertion, " that the whole
increase of the American population was accounted
for as clear as sunshine, by 6i5,389 emigrants, and
the children they would produce," without a
power of procreation beyond what is found to pre-
vail among European nations, and with a greater
mortality than those European nations, would
escape the notice of mathematicians, or that such
assertions could in any way be useful ?
Mr. Booth does nature's work in grand stjlc*
I 4
1^0 OBSERVATIONS ON MIS. BOOTH's
She is, in fact, no longer necessary. Mr. Bootli
has superseded her entirely, and substituted his
tables in her stead ; and then he cries out, *• /
have found itP'
From the wording of one passage, it may perhaps
be objected that Mr. Booth means that nearly half
of the increase was from emigration, and something
more than half from procreation : all the difference
this would make would be, that, instead of sixteen
months being the period for each woman to have
a child, it would require about eighteen months.
It is not quite clear what Mr. Booth really does
mean, and it may be taken either way.
** The whole white population in the United
States in 1800 was 4,305,971 - these in ten years
would be diminished by a fourth j'* * while all who
remained of them would be upwards of ten years
of age, and their number would have been
3,229,479. But as it is not necessary, in a mathe-
matical dissertation, to be at all exact, and as a
few thousands on one side of the question are as
nothing, Mr. Booth cuts off the 29,479, saying,
** It is very improbable that more than 3,200,000
remained alive in 1810. But the actual census
was 3,845,389, giving a surplus of 645,389 of those
above ten years of age, which can be accounted
for in no other way than by emigration." t
But Mr. Booth's own statements disprove his *
bold assertions.
* Reply, p. 28J. f W- ib.
MATHEMATICAL DISSERTATION. 121
The number of white persons, according to the
census of 1800, who were above ten years
of age, was 2,871,021
Mr. Booth says the number of the same descrip-
tion of persons in 1810 ought to have been 3,200,000
Admitting, by his own account, a clear addition
to that part of the population which was
above ten years of age, of 328,979
Here, then, we have Mr. Booth endeavouring
to prove that, if not a single emigrant had set his
foot in the country during these ten years, the
population above ten years of age would have in-
creased 328,979. This acknowledged increase,
cut down as it is to suit Mr. Booth's purpose, is
an increase in the breeding portion of the com-
munity principally, the older dying off, and the
younger growing up ; and we have Mr. Booth's
own authority for the great ** effects of the in-
crease of population by the introduction of grown-
up persons,'* which is the very description of per-
sons of whom we are now treating. And thus
Mr. Booth proves his case against himself. If,
according to Mr. Booth's own showing, the por-
tion of the population above ten years of age was
increased by 328,979 from those who had grown
up, it will not be asking too much even of him to
allow the probability that the population below ten
years of age had, " by the introduction of grown-
up persons," been increased by twice that number,
which would be altogether an increase of 98(3,937
persons. If a very few less than one-fourth died,
as Mr. Booth has conjectured, the wIkjIc increase of
122 OIISERVATIONS ON MR. BOOTH's
the population, as shown by the census of 1810,
with such a reasonable emigration as has been
proved to have taken place, will be accounted for.
Mr. Booth has himself, by his statement, suggested
the means of satisfactorily accounting for the in-
crease, without resorting to his absurd emigration
of from 64,000 to 70,000 annually.
Mr. Booth has also set aside his favourite table
of 10,000. By that table, 3700 children were to
be produced in ten years ; that is, something more
than one-third of the whole stock of 10,000 ; the
whole number of breeders starting fair at once.
But in America only one-tenth of the breeders
could have arrived in the first year ; and the whole
number could never have been complete until the
end of the ten years. And yet, with his table
staring him in the face, he makes the breeders who
arrive in America produce three times as many
children as his colony, which was complete in the
first instance. Such are the absurdities into which
mathematicians sometimes fall, when they set them-
selves to maintain an hypothesis which is funda-
mentally erroneous. Mr. Booth is here the asserter
of a rate of increase from procreation far beyond
any that Mr. Malthus or any body else ever ima-
gined; and this he has done while attempting to
prove there could be no increase at all but by
emigration.
Mr. Godwin does not appear to have attached
much credit to the arguments and calculations of
Mr. Booth, nor to have been very desirous of draw-
ing the attention of the reader to a too near exa-
MATHEMATICAL DISSERTATION. 123
miiiation of them. If he has not set them aside alto-
gether, he has at the least thrown great doubt upon
them. *' We are not,'* he says, *' enquiring respect-
ing gratuitous and arbitrary suppositions ; asking
with Euler what would be the consequence if the
deaths bore a certain proportion to the births,
which never occurred ; or, if occurring for short
periods, is substantially the same as not having oc-
curred at all." And he might have added with
Mr. Booth, " We are not enquiring how the earth
was originally peopled ; for which purpose, accord-
ing to Derham, it was necessary that the duration
of the life of man should be about 1000 years.*"
In his conclusions respecting the increase of popu-
lation, he sets aside Mr. Booth's estimate of the
increase from those who were above their tenth
year in 1810, which Mr. Booth's statement makes
328,979 ; and says boldly, " That the 'whole increase
of the population in the United States of America,
has been solely from emigration.^ ^ Mr. Booth
found no difficulty in conveying upwards of 64,500
persons (settlers) across the Atlantic annually, for
ten years ; and Mr. Godwin found as little in con-
veying twice or thrice the number. What the
number, really was, has been shown in the pre-
ceding chapter.
Mr. Booth argues over again, that unless the ad-
vance of" population be mathematically exact every
year, there can never be a geometrical progression
in the increase of mankind ; and this not being the
* Reply, p. 189.
r^t OBSERVATIONS ON Mil. IJOOTll's, &C.
case, •' we may rest assured that the society does
not exhibit a permanent principle of increase in the
ratio, and in the time prescribed by Mr. Malthus."*
It is well for Mr. Malthus that he did not talk of
permanent principles. But whether the power of
increase be such that under ** the moi^t favourable
circumstances" mankind would double in less than
twenty-five years, is, after all, not of any material
consequence, and does not in the least affect the
principle of population. And Mr. Booth has made
a calculation himself, showing, according to his
method, that the periods would be under thirty
years.
Mr. Booth concludes his dissertation with a hint
that the very race of mankind is wearing out.
He asks " what vice and. misery prevents the
unlimited increase of eagles and sharks ?" And he
suggests that *' the duration of life itself may
diminish as it radiates from the primaeval stock.
So far from having to frighten ourselves with the
idea of an overwhelming population, have we not
rather to fear that we are sinking b}^ degrees into
a degenerate race, which in the lapse of time may
be swept (he means worn out) from the face of the
earth. These, to be sure, are (he tells us) ques-
tions of mere possibilities j but they are as probable
and as demonstrable as the possibilities of (he means
the j)rinciples developed by) Mr. Malthus." t
The ** diligent enquirer after truth" will prob-
ably come to an opposite conclusion.
* Reply, p. 286. t ^^' P- 288,
125
CHAPTER V.
ov the population of antiemt states. desolation of
some foreign states. evils of human institutions.
examples. — persia. egypt. montesquieu. mh,
Godwin's statement of the principle of population.
JN o inconsiderable portion of Mr. Godwin's vo-
lume is devoted to an examination of the com-
parative numbers of mankind in antient nations.
He refers to the dispute which existed in the
early part of the last century, which occupied the
attention of many learned men, but on which he
has thrown no new light, nor done any thing which
does not tend more towards the support of the con-
clusions in the Essay on Population, than to their
refutation. In some respects, particularly in his
account of the Romans, he proves, as others had
done before him, that they were almost con-
stantly *' pressing against the means of sub-
sistence." He shows the decline of population
among the Lacedemonians, gives it as a proof that
mankind cannot maintain their numbers, or that
if they can, it must be with extreme difficulty j
and then with much apparent simplicity, he asks
Mr. Malthus to show him, how it happened that
the Spartans came to be extinct as a people. Mr.
12G POPULATION OF
Malthus has already shown how it was the po-
pulation of Lacedemonia decreased ; and Mr.
Godwin, had it suited his purpose, would have
been at no loss to account for the extinction as
a nation of that atrocious people.
The controversy respecting the populousness of
antient nations can never be decided, since evidence
of the actual amount of people, in even the most
civiHzed of those nations, does not exist, and each
disputant will draw his conclusions, so as to sup-
port the hypothesis he has adopted. But if it
had been otherwise, if the actual population of
all those nations could at every period be cor-
rectly known, it would not in the least destroy the
reasoning of Mr. Malthus, in his exposition of
the " principle of population." The principle or
power which mankind possess to increase their
species, must remain as long as human beings re-
main, although, as Mr. Godwin has himself stated,
that power may be dormant under some circum-
stances, and be called into a vigorous state of
activity under other circumstances.
Mr. Godwin quotes from the same authors as
Mr. Malthus ; each selects such passages as are
favourable to his hypothesis; and this kind of strife
might be continued to almost any extent, and each
might claim the unprofitable victory. Mr. Malthus
has, however, used his learning to prove, that all
those antient nations were controled by the prin-
ciple of population, and that the people were al-
most constantly pressing against the means of
subsistence. Mr. Godwin, on the contrary, denies
ANTIENT STATES. 127
those inferences, and condemns the principle of
population as developed by Mr. Malthus, because,
he sai/Sf it " is opposed to all antient authority."
In his former reply, this was a ground of praise.
The discoveries of Mr. Malthus were as ?z<?w as
useful, as '• unquestionable an addition to Political
Economy, as any discovery for a century." * It
could hardly have been expected after this, that
tlieir novelty would have been made the ground
of their condemnation.
Mr. Godwin's third book contains an examin-
ation of the general causes of the desolation of
several foreign nations, nearly in the same lan-
guage as Mr. Malthus has himself spoken of them.
But Mr. Malthus has in some places been so very
desirous to keep the effects of bad government out
of sight, as by no means to have allowed them to
fill the space they should have occupied. There
are passages in his book in which its desolations
are noticed, but they are finally declared to be of
little moment. In his first edition, he said the
evils of bad government were *' mere feathers that
float on the surface, when compared with the evils
which arise from the passions of mankind." In his
fifth edition, he admits that they are *' the obvious
and obtrusive causes of much mischief to society,
but yet in reality light and siipeijicialj when com-
pared with those deeper seated causes of evil, which
result from the laws of nature and the passions of
mankind.'' t This is one of the passages w^hich called
* First Reply, p. 5G. f Vol. ii. p. 246.
128 EFFECTS OP HUMAN INSTITUTIONS.
forth Mr. Godwin's indignation, and caused Isini
to argue with as mucli zeal as truth, that this part
of' the subject was treated by Mr. Maltlius in a
way calculated to encourage a pitiless despotism,
to degrade and to destroy the people. Such pass-
ages as these have furnished an excuse to the proud
and hardhearted for their contumelies and oppres-
sions, and increased the ill will between diflerent
classes of the community. And yet it is impossible
but to believe the intention of Mr. Malthus, in
writing his book, was just the contrary.
If the institutions of society are of so little mo-
ment, what rational hope can any man entertain
of amendment among the people ? If those in-
stitutions, however administered, are neither good
nor evil, but to so very trifling an extent as Mr.
Malthus would persuade us ; they are, if they
cannot be brought to operate upon the manners
and morals of the people, but in the most *' light
and superficial way,'* what means are there from
which greater effects can be expected? How
strange does it appear, that with almost unlimited
power of commanding and punishing, and dis-
posing of the lives and properties of a people, we
are still to believe, that the evils this enormous
power has the means of inflicting, however it
may inflict them, and however long it may con-
tinue them, is of " little moment, when com-
pared with the laws of nature and the passions
of mankind." Evidently meaning, that the
evils of mis-government do not result from " the
passions of mankind." L-ight, however, as
EFFECTS OF HU:\IAN INSTITUTIONS. l^^
those evils are represented to be, still Mr. Mal-
thus strangely thinks they are too momentous
to be remedied, or that any attempt should be
made to remedy them. You must not touch
any pohtical institutions ; these you cannot im-
prove 9 the evils they produce you cannot remove ;
this is too great a work to be undertaken. But
til ere is another work, to which, in comparison,
these are " mere feathers floating on the sur-
face," that you may undertake ; in that you may
succeed. There is, however, a fallacy in this. The
condition of the mass of the people will be wretched
in any country, no matter what its population, so
long as it is wretchedly governed, and one of three
things must happen : 1st, Government must be re-
formed, and be made to impede human happiness
as little as possible. Or, ^d, It must conform itself
to the increase of knowledge among the people ;
or, 3d, It must subdue them, and rule them as
slaves.
Persia and Egypt are referred to as examples,
both by Mr. Malthus and Mr. Godwin. Mr.
Malthus has very clearly shown, what Mr. God-
win, however, directly denies, that the population
in those countries constantly presses against the
means of subsistence, except, indeed, at intervals,
when the plague has thinned the population. Mr.
Godwin has shown, what it would have been quite
unnecessary to have shown, had not Mr. Malthus
attributed it to other causes, that the population
in those countries was diminished, and has been
kept down by bad government.
130 OF TIIF, rorULATION
Egypt lias remained desolate nearly 2000 years,
and this terrible and long-continued desolation
must be attributed to bad government ; and this
is at once an answer to Mr. Malthus.
Mr. Malthus has observed, that if Turkey and
Egypt have been in a stationary state as to their
population for the last century, the births between
their periodical plagues must have exceeded their
burials in a greater proportion than those in France
and England. There can be no doubt of this ; had
it not been thus, the population would have been
extinct.
But a better government would have caused or
permitted a state of society to have existed, so
different from what we behold in these countries,
as to warrant the expectation, that even the plague
might have been exterminated, as it has been from
England ; but even, with its continuance, there
would be a much larger number of peoj)le than
the whole country now contains, who woidd pos-
sess many intellectual and physical enjoyments,
which scarcely any person in those countries at
present possesses, while the truly wretched would
be a comparatively small number ; whereas the
present population may be said to be all wretched,
and, with but few exceptions, as cruel, as vicious,
and as abandoned to all sorts of crimes, as per-
haps any people on the face of the earth. Mr.
Godwin, whose hypothesis excludes him from
contemplating an increased population, would
say, that the effect of a better government would
be, to make the present number of people more
IN FOREIGN STATES. 131
comfortable, and more virtuous, but not more nu-
merous.
Mr. Godwin, in order to elucidate his sub-
ject, quotes several instances *' of the most me-
morable examples of the achievements of savage
conquerors ;'* and he adds, " but we must not
suppose, that the desolations produced by con-
quests were confined to such as these ;** and then
he quotes other instances of the horrid desolations,
caused by more civilized conquerors, and the
terrible effects of bad government, in the various
forms it assumes, to thin mankind, and make
them miserable.
Mr. Godwin also presses into his service, in
order to show how difficult, or impossible it is, to
increase the number of mankind, the opinions of
several modern authors, particularly Montesquieu.
But his selections prove only, that Montesquieu
did not fully comprehend the principles of popul-
ation, and was consequently unable to develope
them. But Montesquieu abounds in passages di-
rectly the reverse of those Mr. Godwin has selected,
and those who take either side of the question
might, with equal ease, and with equal effect, quote
Montesquieu. The only value of the authorities
adduced is, in the way Mr. Malthus has used them,
to prove that population was continually pressing
against the means of subsistence.
Mr. Godwin himself appears to have been
nearer the true solution of the principles of
population, than any writer who preceded Mr,
Malthus.
K 1^
132 CHECKS TO POPULATIOxX
" It has been calculated,'* he says, '* that th6
average cultivation of Europe might be so improved,
as to maintain five times her present number of
inhabitants. There is a principle in human so-
cieti/, hy which population is perpetually/ kept down
to the level of the means of subsistence, — Thus
among the wandering tribes of America and Asia,
we never find, through the lapse of ages, that po-
pulation has so increased, as to render necessary
the cultivation of the earth. Thus among the
civilized nations of Europe, by means of territorial
monopoly, the sources of subsistence are kept
within a certain limit, and, if the population be-
came overstocked, the lower ranks of the inhabit-
ants would be still more incapable of procuring
for themselves the necessaries of life. There are,
no doubt, extraordinary concurrences of circum-
stances, by means of which changes are occasion-
ally introduced in this respect ; but in ordinary
cases the standard of population is held in a
manner stationary for centuries. Thus the estab-
lished administration of property may be con-
sidered as strangling a considerable portion of our
children in their cradle. Whatever may be the
value of the life of man, or rather whatever would
be his capability of happiness in a free and equal
state of society, the system we are here opposing
may be considered as arresting, upon the threshold
of existence, four-fifths of that value and hap-
piness.*
♦ Enquiry concerning Political Justice, vol. ii. p. 466, 3d
edit. 1798.
IN EUROPE. IN AMERICA. 133
«* The question of population, as it relates to
the science of politics and society, is considerably
curious. — There is a principle in the nature of
human society, by means of which every thing
seems to tend to its level, and to proceed in
the most auspicious way, when least interfered
with by tlie mode of regulation ;" whence he
argues against restraining mankind from propa-
gating. •' In a certain stage of tlie social pro-
gress, (lie observes) population seems rapidly to
increase ; this appears to Ik the case hi the United
States of North America. In a subsequent stage it
undergoes little change, either in the xvay of increase
or dimi)iution ; this is the case in the more civilized
countries of Europe. Tlie number of inhabitants in a
country will, perhapSy never be found, in the ordinary
course of affairs, greatly to increase, beyond the
facility of subsistence. Nothing is more easy than to
account for this circumsta7ice. So long as there is a
facility of subsistence, men will be encouraged to early
marriages, and to a careful rearing of their children.
In America, it is said, men congratulate them-
selves upon the increase of their families, as upon,
a new accession of wealtli. The labour of their
children, even in an early stage, soon redeems,
and even repays, with interest, the expense and
effort of rearing them. In such countries the
wages of the labourer are high, for the number of
labourers bears no proportion to the demand, and
to the general spirit of enterprize. In many Euro-
pean countries, on the other hand, a large family
has become a proverbial expression for an uncom-
K 3
134 CHECKS TO roruLATioN, kc.
mon degree of poverty and wretchedness. The
price of labour in any state, so long as the spirit of
accumulation shall prevail, is an infallible barometer
of the state of its population. It is impossiblcy
wliere the price of labour is greatly reduced^ and an
added population threatens a still further reductiony
that 7nen should not be considerably under the infu-
ence of fear y respecting an early marriage^ and a
jiumerous family J*
Speaking of the " precautions that have been ex-
erted to check the increase of population," he says,
** there are various methods by the practice of which
population may be checked ; by the exposing of
children, as among the ancients, and at this day in
China; by the art of procuring abortion, as it is said
to subsist in the Island of Ceylon ; by a promis-
cuous intercourse of the sexes, which is found
extremely hostile to the multiplication of the
species ; or, lastly, by a systematical abstinence,
such as must be supposed, in some degree, to pre-
vail in monasteries of either sex. But without
any express institution of this kind, the encou-
ragement or discouragement that arises from the
general state of a community, will probably be
found to be all-powerful in its operation."*
And so says Mr. Malthus : Mr. Godwin might,
with some show of reason, have alleged that Mr.
Malthus, in laying down the principle of popul-
ation, and in elucidating it, had done nothing more
than carried out and developed his own views.
♦ Enquiry concernmg Political Justice, vol. ii.p. 5\B — J 7.
135
CHAPTER VI.
MEANS OF PREVENTING THE NUMBERS OF MAN-
KIND FROM INCREASING FASTER THAN FOOD
IS PROVIDED.
SECTION I.
IDEAS OF MU. -MALTIIUS AND MK. GODWIN KELATIVE TO
THESE MEANS.
Mr. Malthus has made two propositions, on
which he appears to place great reUance for the
purpose of decreasing, and of gradually abolishing
the poors' rate, and for keeping the population
within the means of comfortable subsistence.
Mr. Godwin, in his former Reply to the Essay
on Population, also proposed a remedy which he
thought would be adequate to the correction of
the evils admitted by him to have been produced
by a redundant population.
The object at which Mr. Malthus aims, is the
comfort and happiness of the great mass of the
community. But he has not, on all occasions, taken
the best means to accomplish his purpose. He
has sometimes even treated his subject in a way
which cannot but impede him in his course, and
K 1<
1S6 THE iiiGin
has laid himself open to animadversion, from the
prejudice he has displayed in favour of the rich, at
the expense of the poor. Passing over what Mr.
Malthus has said of " Nature's mighty feast,**
from which the poor man is thrust, since he has
omitted it in his last edition, still is there left but
too much cause for complaint. It ought, however,
to be confessed, that in other places Mr. Malthus
is fully disposed to do the poor man justice.
*' There is," he says, " one right which a man
has been generally thought to possess, xvhich I am
sure he neither does, nor can possess : a right to
subsistence, when his labour will not fairly purchase
it** • «* This,** he says, *' is the law of nature,
which our laws attempt to reverse." And again :
" He who ceased to have the power ceased to have
the right.** If, speaking for the poor man, he
says, ** If I firmly believed that, by the laxvs of
nature, which are the laws of God, I had no claim
of right to support, I should feel myself more
strongly bound to a life of industry and frugality.**
I cannot help believing, that if the poor in this
country were convinced that they had no claim of
7'ight to support, and yet in scarcities, and all cases
of urgent distress were liberally relieved, which I
think they would be, the bond which unites the
rich with the poor, would be drawn much closer
than at present,'*!
* E«say, vol. iii. p. 154. f lb. p. 351.
OF THE rOOK TO EAT. IcJ?
That Mr. Malthus is perfectly sincere in thus
expressing his opinions and declaring his expect-
ations, cannot be for a moment doubted ; but the
belief in his sincerity is at the same time a belief
of his extreme ignorance of human nature, in
some very important particulars.
Mr. Malthus denies to the unemployed poor
man the right to eat, but he allows the right to
the unemployed rich man. He says, " every man
may do as he will with his own,*' and he expects
to be able to satisfy the starving man with bare
assertions of abstract rights.
Mr. Malthus is not speaking of legal rights for
he says, the poor have a legal rights which is the
very thing he proposes to destroy. It is an ab-
stract right which is denied to the poor man, but
allowed to the rich ; and this abstract, which has
no meaning, although dignified with the title of
the ** law qfnaturey which js the law ofGodt* is to
be explained, and taught to the poor, who are to
be " fully convinced.'*
These assertions of Mr. Malthus are all of them
assumptions, founded on a vague notion of right.
A man, he says, has no right to exists if another
man cannot or will not employ him in some kind
of labour. This, he says, is the law ofnature^ which
our laws attempt to reverse, — and this law of
nature^ is, he tells us, the law of God. He at the
same time admits in words, that the means of ex-
istence are at hand, but are withheld ; for he says,
that even in times of scarcity, ♦« the poor would be
138 MU. MALTHL's's I'UOrOSAI.
liberally relieved," would not b« permitted to die
of hunger. No such rig/it us Mr. jNIalthus speaks
of, was ever instituted by nature. Nature never
ordained that one man should labour for another
man, nature made no such relation among men :
nature left every tiling in common, and the appro-
j)riation of any of her gifts, how ever acquired, can
only be maintained and secured by compact ; and
it is by compacts and conventions among men, that
right has any existence in the sense Mr. Malthus
uses the word. ^
A man in possession of the good things of this
life has a righty a right created by law, to keep what
he has from others, if he choose so to do; but take
away this legal right, as Mr. Malthus has done,
and substitute his ** law ofnature,** and the whole
is at once resolved into a question of brute force,
and the one has as much right to take as the other
to withhold ; and in a case of possession on the
one side, and starvation on the other, to kill the
possessor, to obtain the means of subsistence, if
by other means he cannot obtain it.
The denial of the right of the poor man to the
means of existence, when by his labour he cannot
purchase food, is, notwithstanding its absurdity,
purely mischievous ; its obvious tendency is to
encourage and increase the hard-heartedness of
the rich towards the poor, and to lay Mr. Malthus
himself under the same imputation. It is one of
the passages in his book, which has mainly im-
peded the progress of information, respecting the
principle of population among tiie people.
TO SUPEUSEDE THE VOOli LAWS. 13<J
The other proposition of Mr. Malthus is not
less mischievous than the preceding one, nor less
calculated to produce, ** envy, hatred, and malice,
and all uncharitableness.'*
'* As a previous step," he says, " even to any
considerable alteration, in the present system of
the poor laws, which would contract or stop the
increase of the relief to be given, it appears to
me that we are bound in justice and honour form-
ally to disclaim the right of the poor to support,**
This may be considered as the preamble to the
bill which follows, and it is hardly possible to
conceive a more offensive or unnecessary para-
graph J the style is particularly revolting. *♦ To this
end, (he continues) I should propose a regulation"
to be made, declaring, that no child born from
any marriage, taking place after the expiration
of a year, from the date of the law, and no
illegitimate child born two years from the same
date, should ever be entitled to parish assistance."*
This is followed by several pages, written in a
loose, figurative style, and on which, as well as
on the proposal itself, Mr. Godwin has been
particularly severe in his remarks, without, how-
ever, opposing the proposition on the right
grounds.
Mr. Malthus proceeds, in an unsatisfactory, in-
conclusive manner, to condemn the man who,
after notice given, may choose to marry xdthout a
* Essay, vol. iii. p. 178.
140 MR. Godwin's niorosALs
prospect qf being able to support a family .'**
Mr. Godwin, in reply to this, has successfully
shown that no labourer, and very few artisans,
have a prospect of being able to maintain a
family; and that, consequently, on Mr. Malthus's
hypothesis, scarcely any of them can marry with-
out committing an immoral act. This seems
never to have occurred to Mr. Malthus ; he appears
to have looked only to the consequences of an
improvident marriage, in those who might happen
to be thrust out, and become at some period of
their lives unable to provide food for their
children.
In his former Reply to the Essay on Population,
Mr. Godwin examined the checks named by Mr.
Malthus, and observed, " that there were other
checks much less injurious to society, and less de-
plorable than vice and misery ;'* and he instanced
irifanticidey on which he made the following ob-
servations. " What was called the exposing of
children, prevailed to a considerable degree in
the ancient world. The same practice continues
to this hour in China."t
Mr. Hume's objection, that *♦ infanticide has
never been found to keep down the population,**
is examined, and the conclusion, at which Mr.
Godwin arrives, is, " that the exposing of children
is in its own nature an expedient perfectly ade-
quate to the end, for which it has been cited.'*
Mr. Godwin reasons thus :
* Essay, vol. iii. p. 180. f First Reply, p. 64.
IMFANTICIDE. H-1
** I know that the habits and prejudices of
modern Europe are strongly in arms against this
institution. I grant that it is very painful and
repulsive to the imagination of persons educated,
as I and my countrymen have been. And / hopef
and trust, that no such e.vpedie?it will be necessary
to be resorted to, in any state of society which
shall ever be introduced in this or the surrounding
countries.
*' Yet if we compare it with misery and vice,
the checks pleaded for in the Essay on Popu-
lation, what shall we say? I contemplate my
species with admiration and reverence. When I
think of Socrates, Solon, and Aristides among the
Greeks ; when I think of Fabritius, Cincinnatus,
and Cicero among the Romans; above all, when
I think of Milton, Shakspeare, Bacon, and Burke,
and when I reflect on the faculties and capacities
every where, in different degrees, inherent in the
human form, I am obliged to confess that I know
not of how extraordinary productions the mys-
terious principle, to which we owe our existence
is capable, but that my imagination is able to
represent to itself nothing more illustrious and
excellent than man. But it is not man, such as I
frequently see him, that excites much of my venera-
tion ; I know that the majority of those I see
are corrupt, low-minded, besotted, prepared for
degradation and vice, and with scarcely any
vestige about them of their high destination.
Their hold, therefore, is rather upon my com-
142 MR. MALTIIUS AND MR. GODWIN's
passion and general benevolence, than upon my
esteem. Neithei- do I regard a new-horn child
xvith any superstitious reverence. If" the alternative
were complete, I had rather such a child should
perish in the first hour of its existence, than that
a man should spend seventy years of life, in a
state of misery and vice. / know that the globe
of earth affords room for only a certain number of
human beings^ to be trained to any degree of
perfection ; and I xvould rather witness the eaistence
of a thousand such beings^ than a million of million
of creatures^ burthensome to themselves^ and con-
temptible to each other J^*
This is doubtless a correct estimate, and ac-
cords with the opinion of Mr. Malthus, ex-
pressed in various passages in his book ; but
he has not ventured to propose infanticide as
a remedy ; he has, however, proposed one no
more likely to be adopted than infanticide,
nor less likely to produce intense suffering, but
equally inefficient, to prevent the evil complained
of. No one need be under any apprehension lest
those propositions should be adopted ; we are not
in a condition to adopt either ; and before we shall
be in such a condition, both, it may be anticipated,
will be unnecessary, even were they as efficacious
as they are impotent. I, however, have no hesi-
tation in saying, that if other and better means
could not be found, that however painful it might
•* First Reply, p. 64.
PROPOSALS EXAMINED. li'3
be to my feelings, however revolting, however
intense the suffering, and however widely spread in
the first instance, I would at once recommend their
adoption, were it made clear to my understand-
ing, that they would matei^iall^ and permanently
benefit the working people in their pecuniary
circumstances, without making them in other re-
spects more vicious. But it may be asked if we
are not in a condition to adopt tliese remedies,
but must wait till the time comes when we may
be in a condition to adopt others ? Are the poor
laws to continue to eat up the produce of the land,
until none be left for any other purpose? I reply,
No ; these laws might soon be reduced to one or
two plain and simple statutes, and the rates to a
very small sum, if the government were to do its
part, and if those whose duty it is to instruct the
people, chose to supersedethe necessity for raising
a large sum. As for the rates eating up the produce
of the land, of which w^e hear so much from land-
owners, farmers, and members of parliament, it is,
after all, little better than nonsense ; they eat up
but a small portion, w'hich under a better state of
things would not be paid as wages. My objection
to them arises from this, that they degrade every
person connected with their administration, but
most of all the labouring part of the community,
and inasmuch as they increase the population,
they increase it in the worst possible manner.
Mr. Malthus says, he has well considered his
proposal, and concludes tliat it would, if adopted,
144 MR. MALTHUS'S PROPOSALS
reduce the poor rates. That this would be'one of
its effects no one can doubt ; but it would in all
probability cause much greater evils to the whole
of the working people, than those occasioned by
the poor laws. It would degrade them and re-
duce them to the very^ lowest state possible j
and much as Mr. Malthus may have considered
his proposal, he would, it may be concluded,
instantly withdraw it, were he convinced that
it had the tendency here attributed to it.
Mr. Malthus evidently thinks his proposal less
cruel than infanticide, the one being a permanent
evil, the other, as he supposes, transitory. Infanti-
cide, unless the children of the poor were forcibly
put to death against the will of the parents,
would certainly not be " adequate to the end
proposed ;'* neither would excluding from parish
aid, the children born after the notice proposed
to be given. Such a law, if passed in the present
uninformed state of the people, on the principle
of population, would not decrease their number
in any perceptible degree, perhaps not at all, but
it would reduce the whole of the working people
to a state of absolute misery. Few marry from
the encouragement held out to them by the poor
laws, and Mr. Malthus appears to be of this
opinion. He says, " the obvious tendency of the
poor laws is to encourage marriage ; but a closer
inspection to all their indirect as well as direct
effects, may make it a matter of doubt to what
extent they really do this,** in a note he adds.
TO REDUrn THE POOR's RATE. 14,5
" the most fav^ourable light in which tlie poor
laws can possibly be placed, is to say, that, under
all the circumstances with which they have been
accompanied, they do not miidi encourage mar-
riage ; and undoubtedly the returns of the popu-
lation act, seem to warrant the assertion.*'*
Without parish relief, the parents of the pro-
scribed children would be compelled to work for
that rate of wages which would scantily furnish
them with potatoes without salt, and in a little
time the number of people in this condition
would be so large, that, by underselling other
labourers, the whole would be reduced to the
same or nearly the same state of absolute misery.
Once reduced to this state, any improvement in
their condition would be almost hopeless, since
they would become ignorant, stupid, and brutish.
They would be soon reduced to the state in which
several parts of Ireland are now found. Mr.
Wakefield and other accurate observers have re-
marked, that, where the use of the potatoe has
become general, and w^here poverty has deprived
the people of other sustenance, diseases have
increased, and their physical powers have de-
clined.t
Mr. Malthus has evidently some forebodings,
that his proposal will not be found " adequate to
the end proposed,'* although it might reduce the
* Vol. iii. p. 374.
t Wakefield's Ireland, vol. ii. p. 71:8, et seq.
146 STATE OF THE POOR
poor's rate. He says, "the abolition of the poor laws,
however, is not of itself sufficient, and the obvious
answer to those who lay too much stress upon this
system is, to desire them to look at the state of
the poor in some other countries where such laws
do not prevail, and to compare it with their con-
dition in England. But this comparison, it must
be acknowledged, is in many respects unfair ; and
would by no means decide the question of the
utility or inutility of such a system." * This may
be admitted, but his proposal as a " 2^re//w/;2«r7/
stepy** would probably produce much such a state
as Mr. Rose has described as existing in the
north of Italy. Among other relations, is the fol-
lowing :
*« As at Padua and elsewhere, you are beset
by beggars in Coffee houses, and hung upon in the
market-place. Words are wanting to paint the
poverty of this people in colours which could
give you some idea of the reality. It is a spectre
which breaks in upon you in the solitude of the
fields, it crosses and blasts you amidst the crowds
of gaiety and dissipation.
*' I mentioned, in my preceding letter, having
once found a poor child lying on the ground,
under the infliction of an ague fit ; at a little
distance was seated a small circle of young child-
ren, who were eating a mess of panada, (bread
boiled in broth or water, with an infusion of oil
» Vol. iii. p. 190.
9
IN THE NORTH OF ITALY. 147
or butter,) with a single wooden spoon, which
circulated, as' in the romance of Vathek, round
the little group. I conjured this ring of ragged
fairies in such terms as I could, and give you the
results of the questions and answers :
" Is that your brother lying under the sack ?
(^The eldest. ') Yes, Sir.
What is the matter with him ?
He has the fever, Sir.
Why don't you put him in some dry place ?
We don't know where to find one, Sir.
Why, where do you sleep ?
In an empty stable. Sir ; and I will put him
there.
Where are your father and motner?
Our mother is dead, and our father begs, or
does such little chance jobs as offer in the hotel.
And what do you do ?
I get up the trees here, and pick vine leaves
for the waiters to stop the decanters with, and
they give us our panada.
" Had my pecuniary means been adequate to my
desire to diminish this mass of misery, how was
the thing to be accomplished ! / do not believe I
could have found a family that would have boarded
these melancholy little mendicants^ and am quite sure
that no one would have had the patience to bear
with the waywardness of sickly childhood^ or rack
their inventions to reconcile and familiarize it
to a remedy, against w'hich even the strongest
constitution revolts. In England, the parish work.
L 2
148 PROBABLE EFFECTS
house^ or some neighbouring liosj)ital, would have
afforded a ready resource."*
This would be too much for the humanity of tlie
people of this country; and private benevolence in
a multiplicity of forms would supply the place of
public charity, and thus still further degrade tlie
working man ; while, so far as the children of the
poor were concerned, little upon the whole would
be saved in point of expense to the nation. ^'^In
most countries," (Mr. Malthus observes,) " among
the lower classes of people, there appears to be
something like a standard of wretchedness, a point
below which they will not continue to marry and
propagate their species; this standard is different in
different countries, and is formed by various con-
curring circumstances, of soil, climate, govern-
ment, degree of knowledge and civilization, &;c.'*t
Mr. Malthus admits, that *' throughout a very
large class of the people, a decided taste for tlie
conveniencies and comforts of life, a strong desire
of bettering their condition, that master-spring of
public iwosperity, and in consequence a most lauda-
ble spirit oj' industry and foresight are observed to
prevaiL"t But his proposal would reduce the
standard of wretchedness to the very lowest point,
destroy the "laudable spirit of industry and fore-
sight," and produce unheard of wretchedness.
Mr. Malthus nmst, however, be acquitted of any
* Letters from the North of Italy. — Letter the xi. on the
extreme misery of the lower orders in Italy, vol. i. p. 28.
f Essay, vol. Ui. p. 209. % Vol. iii. p. 191.
OF MR. MALTHUS'S PROrOSALS. 149
design to do injury to the working people — lie says
distinctly, that he is opposed to any thing which
has a tendency, however remote, to degrade them.
In his remarks on some of Mr. Artliur Young's
proposals, he observes, " as it is acknowledged
that the introduction of milk and potatoes, or of
cheap soups, as the general food of the lower
classes of people, would lower the price of la-
bour, jierhaps some cold politician might propose
to ado])t the system with a view of under-
selling foreigners in the markets of Europe. I
should not envy the feeUngs wiiich could suggest
such a proposal. I really cannot conceive any
thing nuich more detestable, than the idea of
knowingly condemning the labourers of this country
to the rags and xvretched cabins of Ireland * for the
purpose of selling a few more broad cloths and ca-
licoes. The 'wealth and poxcer of nations are^ after
ally only desirable as they contribute to happiness."\
Those, therefore, who accuse Mr. Malthus of a
desire to degrade the people, are bound to report
him fairly, and not to select those passages only
which have a tendency, real or apparent, to injure
the poor man, as proofs of Mr. Malthus's design to
injure him. That the j)oor laws have degraded
the working people, can scarcely be doubted by
any one who takes a large view of the subject.
Mr. Godwin, however, thinks otherwise. 'J'liis 1
regret, knowing as 1 do his ardent desire to see the
* Sec More on the State of Irclaml, in chap. ix.
t Vol. iii. p. 252.
L 3
150 EFFECTS OF MR. MALTHUS's PROPOSALS.
greatest possible improvement of the people, both
morally and physically. He says, however, that
** he declines to pronounce judgment upon the
poor laws,*'* yet the bearing of many passages in
his book is clearly in their favour.
JBut the proposals of Mr. Malthus, to persuade
the poor that they have no right to eat — and to
exclude from parish aid the children born from
future marriages, as well as Mr. Godwin's infanti-
cide, are all of them proposals to commence at the
wrong end. The remedy can alone be found in pre-
ventives, as will be further shown in the following-
section.
* Reply, p. 560.
151
CHAPTER VI.
MEANS OF PREVENTING THE NUMBERS OF MAN-
KIND FROM INCREASING FASTER THAN FOOD
IS PROVIDED.
SECTION II.
STATE OF THE PEOPLE OF ENGLAND REGARDING THE MEANS OF
PREVENTING THEIR INCREASE FASTER THAN FOOD.
In liis account of the working people, and in his
suggestions for their advantage, Mr. Malthus has
frequently obscured his statements and propositions
with a multitude of words, and has drawn the at-
tention of his readers from the contemplation of
the plainest truths, and the consideration of the
most wholesome remedies, to that of tropes and
figures. On many occasions when speaking of
the condition of the working people, he calls to
his aid *« nature, providence, God, the King and
country," &c. and talks as familiarly of them as he
could have done had he really clear ideas of his
subject, which he has not, and had there also been
a previous agreement between him and the work-
ing people that his assertions should be received
as precise facts.
We have already seen what he says of '* the law
of nature, being the law of God," in respect to the
right of the poor to eat, and of our *' being bound
L 4
152 STATE OF THE
in honour" to refuse parish aid. Speaking of the
poor man marrying, he says, *' he has always been
told, that to raise up subjects for his King and
country was a meritorious act ; he has done this
and yet is suffering for it, and it cannot but strike
him as most extremely cruel in his King and coun-
try to allow him to suffer for giving them what they
are continually declaringthey particularly want."*
This is quite new to me. I thought I was pretty
well acquainted with the working people, yet I
never heard any one of them talk in this way. I
have heard it said on some particular occasions, as
an antidote to despair, ** that God never sends
mouths, but he sends meat;" but they are not quite
so iminformed and ignorant as to talk of the King
and country in the way Mr. Malthus has made
them. I have heard them, and do still hear them
complain of the oppressive conduct of all above
them, particularly of the rich and powerful, whom
they but too justly accuse of imagining they have
a distinct and separate interest, which can best be
promotedby the debasement of the people, as some
of the opponents of Mr. Malthus have taken much
pains practically, as well as theoretically, to prove
they have. I have heard them allege as proofs of
the conspiracy of the rich to depress the poor, their
excluding them from voting for members of the
House of Commons, of the laws of settlement, of
the payment of wages from the poor rates, of the
heavy taxes laid on the necessaries of life, of the
* Vol. iii. p. 108,
WORKING PEOPLE IN ENGLAND. loS
laws which forbid them leaving the country, when
they can no longer maintain themselves in it, of
the laws, which, by prohibiting the import and
export of commodities, injure manufactures and
commerce, of the law of impressment, which is con-
fined exclusively to their class, of the laws against
the combination of workmen to raise their money
wages, and of the laws which tend to make corn
dear; of all these things they complain, and of most
of them they may surely complain without being
thought very unreasonable. If, however, none of
these causes of complaint existed, it is still possi-
ble that the increase of people might have been
too rapid, and thus have brought the labouring
man into the miserable situation in which we find
him. But then he would not have had, as he now
has, those aggravations of his misery for ever j)re-
sent to his mind, which, by accounting to him for
his degradation and want of the means of comfort-
able subsistence, prevent him from seeing the fun-
damental cause of his poverty in the too rapid in-
crease of the people. Mr. Malthus hardly ever
alludes to these causes of complaint, or his alkisions
are so very general, or their application so very
remote, as scarcely to be observed. In one place,
however, he is a little more particular. He says,
says, " the poor man accuses the insiijfficiency of
the price of labour to mamtain a familijy he
accuses the parish for its tardy assistance, he ac-
cuses the rich of suffering him to want what they
can well spare, he accuses the partial and unjust
institutions of society, he accuses perhaps the dis-
1,5'1< STATE OF Tin:
pensations of Providence."* Tims he is held out
as a seditious grumbler, if not a blasphemer, with-
out sufficient cause for his grumbling, whereas it
has been shown that he really has much cause for
complaint. He is, however, according to Mr. Mal-
thus, " to be spoken to in tlie language of nature.
He is to be told that his King and country do not
want more subjects, that lie is not fulfilling a duty
to society by marrying, tliat he is acting directly
contrary to the zcill of God, and his repeated admo-
nitions.''^ What Mr. Malthus calls the " language
of nature,^* is the language he has here used. Was
there ever any thing more absurd ? The *' countrjj"
does not want more *' subjects :" what can be more
nonsensical ? and the poor wretch is to believe that
he has the power to contravene ** the will of God**
This exordium is followed by a castigation in the
*' language of nature'* too, for his "idleness and
improvidence." Idle he is not, improvident he
generally is, to some extent, and it can hardly be
otherwise. He must spend an odd sixpence or a
shilling now and then, although he had certainly
better save it. But as to his idleness — all the work
is done that is desired to be done ; and there he
stands, ready and willing to be engaged to do the
hardest, the most disgusting, and the most destruc-
tive kind of work.
He is not, however, dissolute. Some men are
idle, some are dissolute, but the number of these
among the working people in this country is very
small ; and it is quite time that those who wish to
•^ Vol. ili. p. 107.
WORKING PEOrLE IN ENGLAND. 155
see the people wise, virtuous, and happy, should
acquire correct notions on this important" subject,
and cease to calumniate and libel the working man.
Such men as Mr. Malthus, have not had the op-
portunity of judging correctly of the working peo-
ple; his own notions, his rank in life, his very pro-
fession, and their reserve and suspicion have all
conspired to prevent him. He has not been into
workshops and trade-societies, on a footing of
equality for considerable periods of time. He has
not had opportunities of seeing the labouring peo-
ple congregated, and of observing their manners,
and hearing their unrestrained conversation. He
can know but little of the shifts continually made
to preserve a decent appearance. Of the privations
endured, of the pains and sorrows which the work-
ing people suffer in private, of the truly wonderful
efforts long continued, even in the most hopeless
circumstances, which vast numbers of them make
" to keep their heads above water." Mr. Malthus
has seen, every body has seen, the conduct of the
dissolute among the labouring classes ; they are
open to continual observation, and the whole are
condemned, unjustly enough, for the errors and
crimes of the few. In the other classes of society,
a dissolute course does not so invariably lead to
extreme poverty, neither is it so apparent to all the
world 5 but I will venture to assert, that, if any
other class were to be judged of by its dissolute
members, either as to niunbers or extent of dissolute
conduct, proportionably, that its cliaracter would
be equally bad, if not worse than that of the work-
i5G STATK OF TIIK WORKING PEOl'LE, &C.
ing people ; among whom I do not include (nei-
ther ought they ever to be included) that class of
wretched beings who seldom or never laboiu-, but
live or linger on in existence by the liabitual prac-
tice of vice, and the perpetration of crime. Of the
virtues of the working people it is not possible for
Mr. Malthus to be accurately informed, for they
are unobtrusive, and must be sought out. But
although Mr. Malthus is necessarily deficient in
knowledge on these points, I at least may make
some pretension to better information. A hired
workman myself for several years, enjoying the
confidence of large bodies of workmen, an active
promoter and conductor of trade-societies during
those years, and an encourager of them to the pre-
sent hour, I have had opportunities of seeing and
Jeeling, and knowing most intimately, the charac-
ters and habits, the virtues and vices, the pleasures
and pains, the joys and sorrows, of large masses of
the population, and may still claim a sympathy
with them, which I feel will never be eradicated.
How then, I ask, can these be taught by those who
are ignorant of their habits, and do not understand
their real situation, who confound them with those
whom they themselves despise, who suppose them
infinitely less intelligent, less honest, less disposed
to be virtuous, and less willing to be instructed
than they really are ; who attribute to them the
most puerile notions, address them in the language
of children, or goad them like slaves, who accuse
them of making complaints they do not make, and
pay no attention to those they do make ?
i.r/
CHAPTER Vr.
MEANS OF PREVENTING THE NUMBERS OF MAN-
KIND FROM INCREASING FASTER THAN FOOD
IS PROVIDED.
SECTION in.
IDEAS OF THE AUTHOR RELATIVE TO THE MEANS OF PREVENT-
ING THE PEOPLE FROM INCREASING FASTER THAN FOOD.
In tlie preceding section we have seen one set oC
propositions, and one mode of teaching the people
pointed out. Mr. Malthus, as has been sliown,
insisted that, as previous steps, the poor should be
convinced they have no right to eat when out of"
employment, and that we are bound injustice and
honour formally to disclaim their right to support,
and these proposals if adopted, he tells us, would
unite the rich and the poor more closely. The
futility of these modes of teaching and uniting have
been already shown. We will now proceed to
examine another set of propositions, which, if well
understood and steadily acted upon, would render
the former propositions altogether unnecessary.
They are, to be sure, somewhat at variance with
the former propositions, but this is by no means
an uncommon occurrence in the work of Mr.
Malthus.
158 MR. MALTIIIJS*S OBSERVATIONS
Many of the facts and observations to be found
in the work of Mr. Malthus, are of the greatest
importance, but to make them useful to the high as
well as to the low, they should be arranged so as to
form a whole, and not be scattered through the
work. They should be elucidated in the plainest
manner, their practical consequences should be
shown, as well as the way in which those conse-
quences are to be brought about. The higher classes
are quite as ignorant as the lower classes, and the
middle classes are by no means too well-informed
on the subject of population. Mr. Malthus himself
has produced evidence of this. " It is," he says,
" of the utmost importance, that the gentlemen of
the country, and particularly the clergy, should not
from ignorance aggravate the evils of scarcity every
time that it unfortunately occurs. During the
dearths of 1800 and 1801, half the gentlemen and
clergymen in the kingdom richly deserved to have
been prosecuted for sedition. After inflaming the
minds of the common people against the farmers
and corn-dealers, by the manner in which they
talked of them or preached about them, it was but
a feeble antidote to the poison they had infused,
coldly to observe, that, however the poor might be
oppressed or cheated, it was their duty to keep the
peace."* Mr. Malthus observes, that "it does not
seem entirely visionary to suppose, that if the true
and permanent causes of poverty were clearly ex-
plained, and forcibly brought home to each man's
bosom, it would have some and perhaps a conside-
* Vol. iii. p. 202, Note.
ON THE WORKING PEOrLE. 15^
rable influence on his conduct, at least the ea-peri-
ment has never yet heenfairli) tried.''* " We must
explain to them the true nature of their situation,
and show them that the withholding the supplies
of" labour, is the only possible way of really raising-
its price, and that they themselves being the pos-
sessors of the commodity, have alone the power to
do this.*' t — *' We cannot justly accuse them of im-
providence, and want of industry, (although he has
himself accused them,) till they act as they now
do, after it has been brought home to their com-
prehensions, that they are themselves the cause of
their own poverty, that the means of redress are in
their own hands, and in the hands of no other per-
sons whatever.^'* This is all excellent; and thus
has Mr. Malthus replied to himself, and proved
the absurdity and cruelty of the propositions be-
fore noticed. Were what he has here proposed
but properly followed up, no doubt need be enter-
tained of a remedy. He goes on — *' The popula-
tion once overtaken by an increased quantity of
food, and by proportioning the population to the
food, we are not to relax our efforts to increase the
quantity of food, and thus unite the two grand
desiderata, a great actual population, and a state of
society in which abject poverty and dependence
are comparatively but little known ; two objects
which are far from being incompatible.*' §
* Vol. iii. p. 108. t Vol. iii. p. 114-.
X Vol. iii. p. 108. § Vol. iii. p. U.S.
160 SUCGESTIONS FOR THE BENEFIT
" This once effected, it (population) might then
start afresh, and continue increasing for ages with
the increase of food, maintaining always the same
relative proportion to it. 1 can conceive tliat this
country, with a proper direction of the national
industry, might in the course of some centuries
contain two or three times its present population,
and yet every man be much better fed, clothed
(and he might have added instructed), than he is
at present." *
*' The prudential restraint from marriage, if it
were generally adopted, by narrowing the supply
of labour in the market, would soon raise its price.
The period of delayed gratification would be passed
in saving the earnings which were above the wants
of a single man, and in acquiring habits of so-
briety, industry, and economy, which would enable
him in a few years to enter into the matrimonial
contract without fear of its consequences. The
operation of the preventive check in this way,
by constantly keeping the population within the
limits of the food, though constantly following its
increase, would give a real value to the rise of
wages. As the wages of labour would thus be
sufficient to maintain a large family, every mar-
ried couple would set out with a sum for con-
tingencies, all abject poverty would be removed
from society, or would be confined to a very few
who had fallen into misfortunes, against which no
prudence or foresight could provide." t
* Vol. iii. p. 116. f Vol. iii. p. 86.
OF THE WORKING PEOPLE. iHl
Yet, notwithstanding these and similar passages,
Mr. Godwin accuses Mr. Malthus of being the
enemy of the working man, *' and always an ad-
vocate for low wages.'* Mr. Godwin, in his former
reply, dwelt much upon the same topics as those
which have just been noticed, but he brought his
subject more home to the immediate attention of
his readers, and did not obscure his statement
by extraneous or irrelevant matter.
** Let us suppose (he says) that population was
at this moment in England, or elsewhere, so far
advanced, that the public welfare demanded that
it should not increase.'** Mr. Godwin enters into
some calculations, to show how many would pro-
bably marry, and how many children each mar-
riage might be permitted to produce ; he then
observes, that *' The prejudice which at present
prevails against a single life, and the notion so
generally received, that a man or woman without
progeny has failed in discharging one of their un-
questionable duties to society, frightens many men
and women into an inclination towards the mar-
riage state. This prejudice the doctrines of the
Essay on Population, when they shall come to be
generally diffused and admitted, will tend to re-
move. If this subject were further pursued, it
would lead to many observations and details,
curious and important in their nature, but which
would prove repulsive to the general reader, and
would more properly find a place in a treatise on
medicine or animal economy, t
* First Reply, p. 68. ' t ^^' P- ^9.
M
162 CHECK ON POPULATION
" Another check upon increasing population,
which operates very poxverjidly and extensively in
the country we inhabit, is that sentiment, whether
virtue, prudence, or pride, which continually re-
strains the universality and frequent repetition of
the marriage contract. Early marriages in this
country, between a grown-up boy and girl, are of
imcommon occurrence. Every one, possessed in
the most ordinary degree of the gift of foresight,
deliberates long before he engages in so mo-
mentous a transaction. He asks himself, again
and again, how he shall be able to subsist the
offspring of his union. I am persuaded, it very
rarely happens in England that a marriage takes
place, without this question having first undergone
a repeated examination. There is a very numerous
class in every great town, clerks to merchants and
lawyers, journeymen in shops, and others, who
either never marry, or refrain from marriage, till
they have risen through the different gradations
of their station to that degree of comparative
opulence, which, they think, authorises them to
take upon themselves the burthen of a family.
// is needless to remark^ that where marriage takes
place at a later period of liJCj the progeny may
he expected to be less numerous. If the check from
virtue, prudence, or pride, operates less in the
lower classes of life than in the class last de-
scribed, it is that the members of those classes
are rendered desperate by the oppression under
which they groan ; they have no character of pru-
dence or reflection to support, and they have
FFIOM DEFERRED MARRIAGES. l63
nothing of that pride, arising from what is called
the decent and respectable appearance a man
makes among his neighbours, which should enable
them to suppress the first sallies of passion, and the
effervescence of a warm constitution."* Mr.Godwin
anticipates the operation of the preventive check
in an improved state of society, in wliich " The
doctrines of the Essay on Population, if they be
true, as I have no doubt that they are, will be fully
understood, and in which no man would be able to
live without cliaracter and the respect of his neigh-
bours." t In such a state of society, the checks
alluded to by Mr. Godwin would, no doubt, be
sufficient, without resorting to infanticide. Mr.
Malthus has also drawn a picture of an improved
state of society, which, he thinks, may be realized,
" in which there would be no improvident mar-
riages, which would remove one of the principal
causes of offensive war, and eradicate these two
fatal disorders, internal tyranny and interal tu-
mult, which mutually produce each other. In-
disposed to a war of offence, in a war of defence,
such a society would be strong as a rock of ada-
mant. Where every family possessed the neces-
saries of life in plenty, and a decent portion of
its comforts and conveniencies, there could not
exist that desire for change, or, at best, that melan-
choly and disheartening indifference to it, which
sometimes prompts the lower classes of the peoi)le to
say, " Come what will, we can't be worse ofi"'t
* First Reply, p. 72. t H). P- T+.
;|: Essay> vol. iii. p, 99.
M '2
I(i4 MEANS OF INSTRUCTING
"' The master-spring of public prosperity," as
Mr. Malthus has properly enough called the love
of distinction ; the hope of rising, and the fear
of falling in the world, and in the moral estim-
ation of his neighbours ; " the decent pride/*
and tlie effect it produces, which has been so well
spoken of by Mr. Godwin, and to which my inter-
course with the world enables me to bear witness,
and which would, no doubt, be equally efficacious
among the commonest mechanics and labourers ;
if without any thing which should have the appear-
ance of immediate self-interest in the teacher, at
the expence of the scholar; if without what to
the people may appear like canting ; if without
airs of superiority and dictation ; if without figure
and metaphor, means were adopted to show them
how the market came to be overstocked with
labour ; that this was the cause of the low
rate of wages — that it was impossible for real
wages to rise, so as to enable them to live in com-
fort while they continued to keep the supply above
the demand ; — if it were clearly shown to them,
that inevitable poverty and misery would result
from marrying and having a family while this state
of things continued ; if familiar instances were
collected of the poverty and misery, the crime
and disgrace, to which indiscreet marriages too
frequently led ; if it were shown, that overstock-
ing the market, even in a small degree, with
labour, inevitably deteriorated the condition of
every working man ; — if all this were clearly and
familiarly shown, on the one side, and if, on the
. THE PEOPLE. H55
Other, it was as clearly shown, that by abstaining
from marriage for even a few years, the supply of
labour might be brought rather under the de-
mand J that, when so, its price, like that of bread,
or meat, or potatoes, when scarce, would rise, and
might, by their abstinence from marriage, be raised
so high as to enable them to maintain themselves
respectably, and give many of them a fair chance
of rising in the world ; — if a hundredth, perhaps a
thousandth part of the pains, were taken to teach
these truths that are taken to (each dogmas, a
great change for the better might, in no con-
siderable space of time, be expected to take place
in the appearance and the habits of the pcoj)le.
It, above all, it v;ere once clearly understood,
that it was not disreputable for married per-
sons to avail themselves of such precautionary
means as would, without being injurious to health,
or destructive of female delicacy, prevent concep*
tion, a sufficient check might at once be given to
the increase of population beyond the means of
subsistence ; vice and misery, to a prodigious
extent, might be removed from society, and the
object of Mr. Malthus, Mr. Godwin, and of every
philanthropic person, be promoted, by the in-
crease of comfort, of intelligence, and of moral
conduct, in the mass of the population.
The course recommended will, I am fully per-
suaded, at some period be pursued by the people,
even if left to themselves. The intellectual ))ro-
gress they have for several years past been making,
the desire tor information of all kinds, which is
M S
1()(3 TREATMENT OF
abroad in the world, and particularly in tliis coun-
try, cannot fail to lead them to the discovery of
the true causes of their poverty and degradation,
not the least of wliich they will find to be in
overstocking the market with labour, by too rapidly
producing children, and for which they will not
fail to find and to apply remedies.
" One objection to decreasing the supply of
labour (says Mr. Malthus) which perhaps will be
made, is, tha.t J rom which alo?ie it derives its value
— a market rather understocked xcith labour. This
must undoubtedly take place to a certain degree,
but by no means in such a degree as to affect the
wealth and prosperity of the country. But put-
ting this subject of a market understocked in the
most unfavourable point of view, if the rich will
not submit to a slight inconvenience,* necessarily
attendant on what they profess to desire, they can-
not really be in earnest in their professions. Their
benevolence to the poor must be either childish
play or hypocrisy ; it must be either to amuse
themselves, or to pacify the minds of the common
people with a mere show of attention to their
wants. To wish to better the condition of the
poor, by enabling them to command a greater
quantity of the necessaries and comforts oi' life,
and then to complain of high wages, is the act of"
a silly boy, who gives his cake and then cries for
it. A market overstocked with labour, aud an
ample remuneratiou to each labourer^ are oljccts
perjectlij i?7co?npatible zcith each other. In the
annals of the world they never existed together ;
THE TEOPLK. li)J
and to coiii)le them even in imagination, betrays
a gross ignorance of the simplest principles of
political economy." *
This is all very true ; but hitherto the conduct
of the rich has not only been quite as absurd as
has been described, but it has also been directly
in opposition to their professions. The very men
who pretended to be most desirous to better the
condition of the poor man, even while they were
making professions to serve him, took the advan-
tage tlie laws gave them to prevent even the re-
mote possibility of a labouring man becoming
chargeable to a parish, to which he did not at the
moment belong by acquiring a legal settlement ;
and when a man was found likely to obtain a new^
settlement, he was either expelled the parish, or
transported back to his own ; no matter wliat were
his prospects, or how^ well soever he was doing ; it
was quite enough that in the opinion of the ma-
gistrates he might some day become chargeable to
the parish in W'hich he resided, if allowed to make
a settlement. Thus he was imprisoned in his own
parish. Having got him into this state, the next
thing was to reduce him as low as possible, and to
keep him so. For this purpose, the land-owners,
magistrates, and principal farmers openly combined,
and formed what the law in the case of the la-
bourer treats as a conspiracy ; and having, in their
capacity of conspirators, ascertained the smallest
quantity of food necessary to keep the male liuman
animal in barely working condition, this they said,
* Essay, vol. iii. p. 115.
1G8 CONDUCT OF THK lUCH
or its equivalent in money, should be the wages
paid to him ;* if he chose to marry and have chil-
dren, then he was to receive from the parish '* a
gallon loaf for feedi and 3d. in money for clothes, for
his XV fe, and for each of his children once a iceek.**
But as this would not afford assistance to any of
his family in sickness, he was to look for aid to
private benevolence. But if at any time he dared
to complain, he was to be punished; if he congre-
gated, or made an attemjot to congregate, for the
purpose of preventing his own degradation, he was
prosecuted as a felon, and told from the seat of
justice, by the mouth of an English judge, that
*• his crime xvas worse than felony ^ and as bad as
murder" and sentenced to two years solitary con-
finement, separated from his family, and in some
cases almost entirely debarred from even a know-
ledge of the deplorable distress and misery to
which his unjust and cruel sentence had been the
means of reducing them.
This has been the justice meted out by the rich
to the poor ; this the intelligible proof of their de-
sire, when associated together, to improve the con-
dition of the working man. This is the practical
lesson many are at the present moment learning in
different gaols ; this is the recompence they have
received at the hands of the rich, for attempting to
perform their moral duties ; and this is the way, or,
* About twenty years ago a meeting so composed was held
in Berkshire, and a table of wages, calculated by the price of
bread, in order to ascertain the money-wages to be paid, was
published, with a recommendation to those whom it might con-
cern, not to pay more than waj allowed by the tabic.
TOWARDS THE WORKING PEOPLE. lG9
rather, one of the ways, the rich have taken to
" draw the bonds of" society closer.'* Such were
the laws the British legislature thought it wise to
enact, and such the proceedings under them which
they sanctioned. Have not the poor, then, a right
to complain ? Can it be of any use to preach to peo-
ple thus treated, of the law of nature excluding them
Jrom all claim to support under any circumstances ?
Will tliey believe, merely because they are told so,
that these barbarous laws, savage denunciations,
cruel sentences, and conspiracies to degrade and
pauperize them, are any thing but wanton outrages
of power ; and ought any man to expect they will
be operated upon by those whom they have but too
much reason to believe are their decided enemies,
whenever their pride, their ignorance, and love of
power, induce them to suppose they have an inte-
rest in doing them mischief? Do they not know,
that the whole practice of the government, in re-
spect to them, has been, and still is, an attempt to
keep down the wages of labour? Do tliey not
know that this has all along been recommended to
the government, by the gentry, the magistrates, and
the great manufacturers ? Do they not know that
it has been the intention of all above them to
reduce them to the most abject state of depen-
dence ? Do they not know that, while they are
preached to, as it were, with one hand, they are
scourged with the other ? Do tliey not know that
no attempt has been made to lead them, but that
on all occasions they have been driven ? TJuit the
laws and the magistrates have always treated them
170 CONDUCT OF THE RICH
as a seditious, dishonest, covetous, dissolute set of
brutes, and that they have never been recognized
in any other capacity ?* Yes, all this they know,
* Among a thousand instances which might be given, the
act of the 1st and 2d of the King, called the New Vagrant Act,
may be cited as the most recent instance of unwise legislation.
Under this act, if a man cannot find employment in his own
parish, and either does not choose to become a pauper, or to
remain one, but laudably endeavours to remove himself to some
other place, in the hope of being able to maintain himself by
the labour of his hands ; if a man so circumstanced should fail
to obtain employment, until his poverty had compelled him to
commit an act, which any Justice of the Peace should deem to
be an act of vagrancy, he may commit him to prison for any
time not less than one month, nor more than three months, and
there keep him to hard labour on the gaol allowance. A little
time ago two men were brought before one of the Aldermen of
the City of London ; they had been found sleeping in the sheep
pens in Smithfield Market. One of them stated that he was a
farrier, and had travelled all the way from Alnwick in Northum-
berland, seeking employment in his business ; he had endea-
voured to obtain work all along the road, but without success,
and had never been in London before. The other said that he
had been shopman to a grocer in Shropshire, but having been
long out of employment, had come to London in the hope of
obtaining it. Both begged to be discharged, and promised to
make their way home again in the best way they could ; but to
this request the magistrate would not accede. The act allows
two magistrates to pass vagrants to their respective parishes at
once, if they think the case requires it. The Alderman there-
fore, as this was the first case which had occurred under the
act, carried it before the Lord Mayor. The Alderman observed
that he did not like to form a precedent for his brother magis-
trates, yet he felt it was necessary that a rule should be laid
down which might be uniformly adhered to in all future cases
of this nature. In the present case he was of opinion the jni-
soners were not justified in coming to town without any pros-
TOWARDS THP: WORKING PEOPLE. I7I
and much more, and nothing can be so absurd as to
expect their confidence can be obtained by those
who treat them thus, whose pretensions to do them
service are " either childish play or hypocrisy.''''
Three things must be done, if there be where
there ought to be a real desire to better the condi-
tion of the working people.
1. A repeal of all the laws relating to tlie com-
binations of workmen to increase their wa^es. No
good reason has been or can be given for restrain-
pect before them, for they must have known that, in the present
state of trade, no one would take them in, nor indeed would any
one be justified in taking in a perfect stranger; and, therefore,
they must have been axuar^ that they would ultimately become
burthensome to the district where they Jell. But whether their
conduct arose solely from ignorance or not, he cont,/de7-ed was
immaterial ; the magistrates could not know their minds, and
could make no distinction.
The Lord Mayor agreed with the Alderman. The City Ma-
gistrates wished it to be known in the country at large, that in
future they should feel themselves bound to send all lo hard
labour for the term enacted, whether they were actuated by a
vicious spirit of vagabondage, or with whatever professed object
or speculation they came to town. In short, they would put the
law in fall force against all who coidd not j^rove reasonable
assurance, or certainty ofo obtaining employment, as their motive
for coming to London. The men were passed home to their
respective parishes. No comment is necessary, on a law which
authorizes a magistrate to tell a labourer, or a journeyman me-
chanic, that if unable to live by the labour of his hands inhis own
parish, he seek it in another, and failing to obtain it, commits
an act of vagrancy, he shall be punished as severely as lie would
be, after he had been convicted of one among many serious
crimes. But it may be asked, if this be not one of those laws
which induce men to commit crimes?
172 PROrOSALS FOR IMI'ROVING
ing the workmen and their employers from making
their bargains in their own way, as other bargains
are made.
2. A repeal of the laws restraining emigration.
These laws might all be repealed at once.
3. To repeal, as rapidly as possible, all restrictive
laws on trade, commerce, and manufactures,* and
particularly the corn laws.
Before, however, the latter sentence could be
well pronounced, the rich, it miglit be expected,
would rise in arms against both the proposition and
the proposer. This would, however, only prove how
very far we are from the desirable state contem-
plated, inasmuch as it depends upon the rich. If,
however, the rich are not disposed to take this
course, they, of all men, ought to cease complain-
ing of the conduct of the poor, and the pressure
of the poor's rate.
Were those in whose hands the power is held,
to show a sincere desire to do but bare justice to
the working people, they would find them not the
last to acknowledge the intended benefit. They
would be the first, not only to acknowledge the
benefit intended them, but eagerly desirous to be-
come acquainted with the truths on which their
welfare so materially depends.
* There would be less difficulty and less inconvenience in
carrying this recommendation into effect than is generally sup-
posed. The committee of the House of Commons on "the
depressed state of agriculture," says, " It may well be doubted
whether, with the exception of silk, any of our considerable ma-
nufactures derive benefit from the assumed protection in the
marketsof this country." Report, folio '2o.
THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 173
Mr.Malthiis seems to sliriiik from discussing the
propriety of preventing conception, not so much
it may be supposed from the abhorrence whicli he
or any reasonable man can have to the practice, as
from the possible fear of encountering the preju-
dices of others, ^as, towards the close of his work,
resolved all his remedies into one, the efficacy of
which he has all along doubted, and on which he
seems afraid to rely. " He candidly confesses that
if the people cannot be persuaded to defer marriage
till they have a fair prospect of being able to
maintain a family, all our former efforts zvill be
throxvn away. It is not in the nature of things ^ that
any 'permanent general improvement in the condition
of the poor can be effected xdthout an increase in tJic
preventive check.* Nothing can be more true
than the concluding clause of the sentence quoted,
and we need give ourselves no further trouble to
discuss the propriety or cruelty either of infanti-
cide, or excluding children from parish aid. Nei-
ther would be adequate to the end proposed, and
neither are likely to be adopted. Mr. Malthus
confesses that his proposal to exclude them would
not remove the evil, and both he and Mr. Godwin
liave declared that the true remedy can alone be
found in preventives. It is nothing to the purpose
that Mr. Godwin has, at length, persuaded himseli"
that *' we have more reason to fear a decrease than
to expect an increase of people." It is time, liow-
ever, that those who really understand the cause of
* Essay, vol. iii. p. 299.
171' PROPOSALS FOR IMPROVING
a redundant, unhappy, miserable, and considerably
vicious population, and the means of preventing
the redundancy, should clearly, freely, openly, and
fearlessly point out the means. It is " childisii" to
shrink from proposing or developing any means,
however repugnant they may at first appear to be ;
our only care should be, that we do not in remov-
ing one evil introduce another of greater magni-
tude. He is a visionary who expects to remove
vice altogether, and he is a driveller who, because
he cannot accomplish what is impossible to be ac-
complished, sets himself down and refrains from
doing the good which is in his power.
One circumstance deserves notice, as an objec-
tion which will probably be made — would not in-
continence be increased, if the means recommended
were adopted ? I am of opinion it would not ; so
much depends on manners, that it seems to be by
no means an unreasonable expectation that if these
were so improved, as greatly to increase the pru-
dential habits, and to encourage the love of distinc-
tion, " the master spring of public prosperity," and
if, in consequence of the course recommended, all
could marry early, there would be less debauchery
of any kind. An improvement in manners would
be an improvement in morals; audit seems absurd
to suppose an increase of vice with improved
morals. Mr. Malthus has, however, set the ques-
tion of continence in a very clear point of view ;
he says, " it may be objected, that, by endeavouring
to urge the duty of moral restraint" ** we may
increase tlie quantity of vice relating to the sex.
9
THE COXDITION OF THE PEOPLE. I76
1 shoulil be extremely sorry to say any thing
which could either directly or remotely be con-
strued unfavourably to the cause of virtue ; but
/ certainly cannot think that the vices which relate
to the se.v are the only vices tchich ai'e to be con-
sidered in a moral question^ or that they are even
the greatest and most degrading to the human
character. They can rarely or never be commit-
ted without producing unhappiness somewhere or
other, and, therefore, ought always to be strongly
reprobrated. But there are other vices, the effects
of which are still more pernicious ; and there are
other situations which lead more certainly to moral
offences than refraining from marriage. Poxcerfulas
may he the temptations to a breach of chastity^ I am
inclined to think that they are impotent in comparison
with the temptations arising Jrom continued distress.
A large class of women and many men, I have no
doubt, pass a considerable part of their lives con-
sistently with the laws of chastity j but I believe
there will be found very fexv who pass through the
ordeal of squalid and uoi^eless poverty^ or even of
long-continued embarrassed circumstanceSj without a
great moral degradation cfcliaracter.''*
The most effectual mode of diminishing promis-
cuous intercourse is marriage, if all could be married
wliile young, with reasonable hopes that pro-
priety of conduct and a fair share of industry would
save them from degradation, and the multiplied
evils of the wretched poverty which exist in a poor
* Essay, vol. iii. p. 117.
iji) PROPOSALS FOR IMPROVING
man's family, and which, althoiigli much talked
about, cannot be fully appretiated, even by the imagi-
nation of those whose situation precludes them from
witnessing those evils for any long-continued period,
as well as from feeling them. * If means were
adopted topreventthe breedingof a larger number of
children than a married couple might desire to have,
and if the labouring part of the population could
thus be kept below the demand for labour, wages
would rise so as to afford the means of comfortable
subsistence for all, and all might marry. Marriage,
* Abject poverty sometimes paralizes all exertion, destroys
all hope. The extent to which it produces hard-heartedness,
and extinguishes even the love of parents for their offspring,
would scarcely be believed, without actual knowledge of the
facts. I have known but too many instances. A few years
ago, upon an investigation made from house to house, and
from room to room, in the upper part of Drury Lane, and the
courts and alleys adjoining, for the purpose of ascertaining the
real state of the people, Mr. Edward Wakefield, one of the
investigators, after reporting many instances, sums up his report
by observing, thathe " witnessed great wretchedness and misery,
which appeared to be permanent. The unhealthy appearance
of the majority of the children was too apparent ; it would seem
as if they came into the world to exist for a few years in a state
of torture, since by no other name can I call the dirt, ignorance,
want of food, and sickness, which I found to prevail."
Mr. Wakefield met with several parents evidently not bad
people, yet so reckless, that all regard for themselves or their
children was nearly or entirely extinguished. In a family where
one child was dying and another sick, the father, who had not
been always in extreme poverty, confessed that he had no hope
of being able to bring up his family, and had made no application
for medical aid, since death, he said, would be a relief both to
the children and himself.
THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 177
under these circumstances, would be, by far, the
happiest of all conditions, as it would also be the
most virtuous, and, consequently, the most beneficial
to the whole community ; the benefits which might
reasonably be calculated upon are very extensive
and very numerous ; the poors rate would soon be
reduced to a minimum, and the poor laws might,
with the greatest ease, be remodeled and confined
to the aged and helpless, or might, if it should
appear advisable, be wholly abolished. Much
even of that sort of promiscuous intercourse car-
ried on by means of open prostitution, now so ex-
cessively and extensively pernicious, would cease,
and means might be found which, without greatly
infringing on personal freedom, might render so
much of this sort of promiscuous intercourse, as
could not be prevented, less pernicious, even to
those females, the most degraded and most un-
fortunate of all human beings; a vast many of
whom, in large towns, are doomed to continual
prostitution, and of whom a very competent judge
says, " With respect to the prostitutes, there are
such innumerable instances of extreme misery,
that I could almost cut my hand off, before 1
could commit so poor a wretch to additional
misery ; they are miserable in the extreme. —
Within our present district of Westminster, or
half way down the Strand, towards Temj)le
Bar, there may every night be found above 500
to 1000 of that description of wretches. How they
can gain any profit by their prostitution, one can
hardly conceive ; but they are the most hardened
N
178 niOPOSALS- FOR IMPROVING
and despicable of the whole, notwithstanding the
misery which makes them objects of compassion."*
I cannot for a moment admit the observation,
however general, of well meaning people to
have any weight, namely, that we are not
to mitigate, by means of regulations, such a
horrid mass of misery, or remove, as much as
is possible, the temptation to promiscuous inter-
course, as it is now indulged in, an indulgence
excessively pernicious to young men, and to which
a prodigious number of young women are sacrificed,
lest we should seem to countenance the course of
life followed by common prostitutes. A large
portion of the mischief done to society by these
women, and the exceedingly gross and vicious
conduct they adopt, might, to a considerable ex-
tent, be prevented, were we not restrained from
making the attempt, by our mistaken apprehen-
sions, that, by interfering, our virtuous notions
might be deteriorated, and our detestation of vice
be diminished. But as this, as well as many other
vices, owes its extent, both as to enormity and
number, to the too great proportional increase of
population, its great corrective must be looked
for in proportioning the labourers to the demand
for labour, and to the increase of the means of
subsistence.
There appears, upon a view of the whole case,
no just cause for despair, but much for hope, that
* The late William Fielding, Esq., chief magistrate at the
Police Office, Queen Square, Westminster, in his evidence be-
fore the Police Committee of the House of Commons, in 1817>
fol. 405.
THE CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE. 179
moral restraint will increase, and that such physi-
cal means of prevention will be adopted, as pru-
dence may point out and reason may sanction,
and the supply of labour be thus constantly kept
below the demand for labour, and the amount of
the population be always such as the means of
comfortable subsistence can be provided for. The
improvement which, under very adverse circum-
stances, the mass of the people have acquired the
general desire for information which exists, and the
means of instruction which have been of late adopt-
ed, would be increased, and would produce a high
state of knowledge, of ease, and comfort, among
all classes, and this country would attain an emi-
nence in wealth, in strength, and in wisdom, far
beyond any which has hitherto been known.
N il
180
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE POPULATION OF ENGLAND.
SECTION I.
INTRODUCTION. — FIRST HISTORICAL PERIOD. THE BRITONS-
COUNTRY VERY THINLY INHABITED AT THE INVASION
OF JULIUS CiESAR. SECOND HISTORICAL PERIOD. THE
ROMAN POPULATION INCREASED. THIRD HISTORICAL
PERIOD. THE SAXON AND DANISH POPULATION PRO-
BABLY NOT INCREASED. ESTIMATED AT ABOUT 2^000,000
AT THE NORMAN CONQUEST IN 1066.
JViR. Godwin has laid much stress on the desolat-
ing effects of bad government, of war, pestilence,
and famine, and has argued at some length the in-
ability of the human race to keep up its numbers in
the face of so many, and such terrible evils. Yet,
with a strange inconsistency, he asserts in Chap. IV.
Book III., that " TVe have no certain reason to believe
that England contains a greater number of inhabit-
ants non\ than it did in 1339, *when Edzcard III. com-
mencedhis e.vpeditionJbr the conquest of France.*^ *
Mr. Godwin has observed some caution in his
mode of expression ; he utters his words hesi-
tatingly, introducing the passage thus : — " For in-
stance, I will set it down that we have no certain
* Reply, Page 332.
rorULATION OF ENGLAND. 181
reason," &c. ; but he afterwards reasons on it as
an historical fact. He was well aware that the
devastations he had described were applicable, to
a very great extent, to this country, from the first
dawn of its history, and for a period of many
hundreds of years, almost without interruption ;
and he has assigned no cause particularly exempt-
ing this country from the consequences of tliose
devastations.
Few countries have suffered more in the re-
peated loss of its people than this country, none
has from time to time more completely, or more
rapidly, repaired the loss, and the history of no
country furnishes so many facts, by which its pro-
gress in this respect may be judged of; none
more proofs of tlie power of the " principle of
population.** The means of ascertaining the pre-
cise number of the people at particular times do
not exist, neither are they necessary. But evi-
dence that it could not exceed a certain number
is abundant. As the detail may not be altogether
uninteresting on other accounts, as well as in re-
lation to the mere numbers of the people, I may
expect to be excused for presenting so much of
the evidence as I have judged necessary to lay
before the reader.
Mr. Godwin thinks that this country could have
maintained upwards of 10,000,000 of peo{)le five
centuries ago, and that it__^did maintain that num-
ber. How so large a number could have been main-
tained, or how so large a number could have been
produced amidst the terrible disasters of preced-
N o
182 POPULATION OF ENGLAND
ing ages, Mr. Godwin gives himself no trouble to
enquire ; but he does most dogmatically assert,
that the evils which have afflicted this country,
since the year 1339, have been sufficient to pre-
vent any further increase of the population.
Caesar, speaking ol" England, says it contained a
great multitude of people. But this must be ad-
mitted with caution, and his words taken in a very
general sense, as implying a large number, when
compared with the small number he expected to
find in a country so very barbarous as England at
that time was. Tacitus tells us, that Caesar only
made himself master of the sea-shore, the dis-
coverer, not the conqueror, of the island ; he only
showed it to posterity. Caesar says, the inha-
bitants of the inland country subsisted on their
cattle, while those on the sea-shore were agri-
culturists ; and this appellation even can be ap-
plied only to some of the inhabitants living south
of the Thames. The great mass of the people
lived in the woods, and on the borders of the
forests, which overspread a large portion of the
land. They appear to have been in a state of
deplorable barbarism, without the knowledge ne-
cessary to enable them to construct a house of
any kind, to shelter them from the inclemency of
the weather. They grew no grain, had no fruits,
no edible roots, neither did they cultivate any
kind of culinary vegetables ; clothed in skins, or
not clothed at all, it required a large space for
them and their cattle to roam in. In such a state,
and in a country where, often for several weeks
UNDER THE ROMANS. 183
togetlier, the earth was covered witli snow and
bound by frost, overgrown with wood, and full
of fens and marshes, it is quite impossible the
people could be numerous, as compared either
with the population at subsequent periods, or with
the extent of land they occupied.
Tacitus says, the cUmate is unfavourable, al-
ways damp with rain, and overcast with clouds ;
and in another place he informs us, that the na-
tives were a fierce and savage people, running
wild in the woods ; whence Agricola took much
pains to allure them, and used all the means in
his power to induce them to build houses, and
to settle in towns and villages.
The first invasion of the Romans was about
fifty-five years before the Christian sera, and they
held it until a. d. 410. During this period a con-
siderable advance was made towards civilization,
and it has hitherto been supposed, notwithstand-
ing the wars which the Romans waged with
the nations before they were brought into sub-
jection, that during the four centuries they held
it, the population was considerably increased.
From the year 410, notwithstanding the Ro-
mans did not wholly withdraw their forces until
the year 426 or 427, the country fell into the
utmost disorder. The Picts and Scots, those
merciless invaders, ravaged the country almost
without opposition. The Romans had taken care
to deprive the Britons of arms, and to prevent
them being trained to their use. The native
soldier was carefully removed, and sent into a dis-
N 4
184- STATE OF ENGLAND
tant province, and was never permitted to rettirrl
home. So powerless, and timid, do the natives ap-
pear to have been, that when invaded by the
Picts and Scots, they wholly abandoned the
northern parts of the country to their desolating
enemies. Both Gildas and Bede record the dis-
sensions among them ; and, notwithstanding tlie
fictions with which Gildas has crammed his account,
and the superstition and credulity of both those
writers, enough may be collected from them, and
from other sources, to enable us to judge of the
terrible effects of their domestic contentions; fa-
mine and pestilence drove multitudes of men into
the Roman legions, and destroyed still greater
numbers of the people at home. Amidst this
desolation, and to increase its horrors, the Picts
and Scots passed the H umber, ravaging and de-
stroying all before them ; nothing which could be
destroyed was left, while the people of both sea:es,
and of all ages, were indiscriminately murdered.
Their principal object seems to have been, the ex-
termination of those whom they considered foes.
Mr. Turner, in his excellent history of the Anglo
Saxons, says, *' The lamentations of Gildas con-
cur with the obscure intimations of Nennius, to
prove, that a considerable part of the interval, be-
tween the emancipation of the island and the ar-
rival of the Saxons, was occupied with the contests
of ambitious partisans."
" The country," says Gildas, " though weak
against its foreign enemies, was brave and un-
conquerable in civil warfare. Kings were ap-
8
IN THE FIFTH CENTURY. 185
pointed, but not by God ; tliey, who were more
cruel than the rest, attained to the high dig-
nity/*
** With as little right or dignity as they de-
rived their power, they lost it." — ** They were
killed, not from any examination of justice, and
men more ferocious still, were elected in their
place. If any one happened to be more virtuous
or mild than the rest, every degree of Iiatred
and enmity was heaped upon them." — *' The
clergy, too, partook of the contentions of the
day." *
Half a century of such a state, as has been de-
scribed, must have thinned the scanty population,
and prepared the country for the Saxon domin-
ation which soon followed.
Worn out with miseries of various kinds, and in
a state of despair, the Britons at length invited
the Saxons to their assistance, the first body of
whom landed in the Isle of Thanet in a. d. 449.
They were followed by other bodies, who, makino-
common cause against the Britons whom they came
to assist, were soon found to be as bitter enemies
as the Picts and Scots whom they had been invited
to repel.
The character of these barbarians is fairly and
ably drawn by Mr. Turner. " It would," he
says, " be desirable to give a complete portrait of
our ancestors in their uncivilized state. But our
curiosity must submit to disappointment on this
* History of the Anglo Saxons, vol.i. p. 85. ed. ii. 4to.
186 CHARACTER OF THE
subject. Tlie converted Anglo-Saxon remembered
the practices of his idolatrous ancestors with too
much abhorrence to record them for the notice of
future ages ; and as we have no runic spells to
call the Pagan warrior from his grave, we can only
see him in those imperfect sketches which patient
industry may collect, from the passages that are
scattered in the works which time has spared.
The character of the ancient Saxons displayed the
qualities of fearless, active, and successful pirates.
These ferocious qualities were nourished by the
habit of indiscriminate depredation. It was from
the cruelty and destructiveness, as well as from
the suddenness of their incursions, that they were
dreaded more than any other people. Like the
Danes and Norwegians, their successors and assail-
ants, they desolated where they plundered with
the sword and flame. Their warfare did not origin-
ate from the more generous, or the more pardon-
able of man*s evil passions. It was the offspring
of the basest. Their swords w^ere not unsheathed
by ambition or revenge. The love of plunder and
of cruelty, was their favourite habit ; and hence
they attacked indifferently every coast they could
reach." * Again he says, " they were bands
of fierce, ignorant, idolatrous, and superstitious
pirates, enthusiastically courageous, but habitually
cruel." Such were the people who possessed
themselves of the south part of Britain in the fifth
and sixth centuries. To check the ravages of
* Hist. Aug. Saxon, vol. ii. p. 1.
SAXON INVADERS. 187
these ferocious people, tlie Britons invited Am-
brosius, king of Armorica, wiio came over
with a considerable body of warriors, between
whom and the natives a war soon commenced,
which was not appeased until both parties had
suffered greatly, and a large portion of the
country had been desolated. A series of war,
rapine, and murder now commenced, and was
carried on with little intermission, until, to escape
total destruction, those of the natives who had not
submitted to a state of slavery under the Saxons
retired into Wales, leaving their invaders in pos-
session of their country, which they divided into
seven, as is generally related, but, as Mr. Turner
has shown really, into eight separate kingdoms.
Of this octarchy, or heptarchy, little is known,
except that there was almost perpetual war among
themselves. In this age, Mr. Turner remarks,
'* when every man was a soldier, no conquest was
permanent, no victor secure."
No sooner were the whole of the Saxon kinof-
doms united under one head, and, consequently,
secured, it might be supposed, from invasion, than a
new, a powerful and most destructive foe appeared
in the Danes, who are described as invading the
land with a fury almost without a parallel. " For
two hundred years," says Rapin, " these new
enemies were so determinately bent upon the ruin
of the island, that it cannot be conceived, either
how their country could supply them with troops
for so long and bloody a war, or the English hold
out against so many reiterated attacks."
188 CHARACTER OF THE
Mr. Turner's description of the Saxon and
Danish rovers is truly horrible, " The ferocity
and useless cruelty," he observes, •« of this race of
beings almost transcends belief; besides the most
savage food, (raw flesh and blood) they used to
tear the infant from the mother's breast, and to
toss it on their lances from one- to another.
Familiar with misery from their infancy, taught to
value peaceful society, but as a rich harvest easier
to be pillaged, knowing no glory but from the de-
struction of their fellow-creatures; all their habits,
all their feelings, all their reasonings were ferocious ;
they sailed from country to country, not merely to
plunder, but to murder or enslave its inhabitants.
The flame and sword were unsparing assailants,
and villages were converted into uninhabited de-
serts."* Such was the dismal state of society in
the North, when these Scandinavian hordes in-
vaded England.
Mr. Turner describes, in glowing language, the
progress of these savages : " Of all the Anglo-
Saxon governments, the kingdom of Northumbria
had been always the most perturbed. Usurper
murdering usurper is the prevailing incident.
It was while this sanguinary drama was re-acting
when, in a. d. 866, the Northmen first debarked in
East Anglia, and to the miseries occasioned by the
invaders, was added a great dearth. Two years
afterwards *' two of the most terrible calamities to
mankind occurred ; a great famine, and its inevit-
* Hist. Aug. Saxon, vol. i. p. 209.
SAXONS AND DANES. 189
able attendant, a mortality of cattle, and of the
human race.'* The Northmen, who had possessed
themselves of Nottingham, retreated beyond the
Humber, and as the general misery presented no
temptation to their rapacity, they remained a year
in their Yorkshire stations. In a. d. 87O, they again
passed the Humber, and " from this period, lan-
guage cannot describe their devastations. It can
only repeat the words, plunder, murder, rape,
famine, and distress. It can only enumerate towns,
villages, churches and monasteries, harvests and
libraries ransacked and burnt.*'* The progress of
the Danes southward, was truly horrible. The
Picts and Scots strove to exterminate the Britons,
and the Danes, in their turn, strove to exterminate
the Saxons, who, when favoured by fortune, retali-
ated on the merciless barbarians the cruelties they
practised. At length, in a. d. 1014, the Danes suc-
ceeded in placing a king upon the throne, who
died or was poisoned soon after his elevation, when
the Saxon king, Ethelred II. was restored. He
was succeeded by Edmund Ironside, who was
assassinated by his brother-in-law in a. d. IOI7 ;
when Canute the Dane got possession of the
throne, which he held till he died in a. d. 1036,
and was succeeded by the Dane, Harold the
First, who died in a. d. 1039. Canute the
Second, another Dane, who was probably poisoned
at a feast in a. d. 1041, when the crown once more
* Hist. Ang. Saxon, vol. i. p. 228.
190 POPULATION OF ENGLAND
reverted to the Saxon race, in which it remained
until the invasion of the Normans in a. d. lOGti.
Mr. Chahners * remarks on the period of which
a very faint outHne has been drawn, that when the
Romans left the island, " commenced a war of sia:
hundred years* continuance, if we calculate the
settlement of the Saxons, the ravages of the
Danes, and the conquest of the Normans, a cour^se
of hostilities lengthened beyond example^ and waste-
ful above description. It was, probably, he con-
tinues, a consideration of these events, with the
wretched condition of every order of men, which
induced the Lord Chief Justice Hale and Mr.
Gregory King to agree in asserting, that the 'people
of England at the arrival of the Normans might be
somewhat above two millions ; and the notices of
that most instructive record, the Doomsday-book,
seem to justify the conjectures of both, by the ex-
hibition of satisfactory proofs of a scanty popul-
ation at that memorable epoch in the country as
well as in the towns." t
Whoever will take the trouble to examine the
historical accounts which have come down to us
respecting the manners, customs, and habits of the
* Estimate of the Strength of Great Britain, p. 4. ed. 1810.
•j- Among other particulars, the inquisitors were to enquire
of, and to mention in, their returns, all the tenants of every
degree, and what was the number of slaves.
No survey was made of Northumberland, Cumberland, West-
morland, Durham, and part of Lancashire, they being in a
miserable, waste, and desolate condition.
UNDER THE SAXONS. 191
people, their modes of culture, and will survey the
•face of the country from the time the Romans left
it to that when the Normans completed the deso-
lation of the four northern counties, and will bear
in mind that nearly the whole of the inhabitants
must have consisted of Saxon, Danish, and Nor-
man invaders, and the posterity of the two first-
named people, will, probably, be satisfied, that the
country could hardly contain *• something more
than 2,000,000 of people." This is one of the
many dilemmas into which Mr. Godwin has led
himself. Few men are perhaps better acquainted
with the history of this country than Mr. Godwin ;
and it may be presumed, by me, at least, from
what I know of Mr. Godwin's information on this
subject, that he would not be disposed to estimate
the population at a larger number.
Even to get to this conclusion it is necessary to
believe, that at least 2,000,000 of persons had ar-
rived from Scandinavia and settled in this country,
besides the multitudes that perished, which, at
10,000 a year for six hundred years, would amount
to 6,000,000 ; and one can hardly imagine that
less than 10,000, including both parties, (except-
ing only the Britons,) were annually destroyed.
If procreation kept up the numbers of the remain-
der of the people, it must, under such circum-
stances, have been very powerful indeed. Difficult
as it is to believe that there were more than
2,000,000 at the time alluded to in this country,
it is certain that victims were constantly fiunished
192 POPULATION OF ENGLAND, A. D. lOHG.
in very large numbers, and that tlie country was
not depopulated.
Taking then the population at something more
than 2,000,000, we will proceed to enquire, what
probability there was of their being increased to
upwards of 10,000,000 in a. d. 1339.
19S
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE POPULATION OF ENGLAND.
SECTION ir.
FOURTH HISTORICAL PERIOD FROM THE INVASION OF THE
NORMANS IN 1066, TO THE INVASION OF FRANCE BY ED-
WARD III. IN 1339. POPULATION NOT MUCH INCREASED
DURING THIS PERIOD.
It will not, it may be concluded, be maintained by
any body, that the number of people in England
was increased by the invasion of the Normans.
They must speedily have destroyed more tlian
they supplied the place of, and it is probable the
population diminished during the time they re-
mained masters of the country. The annals of
England from the conquest to the death of Henry
HI., in 1272, are filled with revolutions in the
government, insurrections of the people, domestic
ravages, foreign wars, crusades, famines, and pes-
tilences. Dr. Campbell has enumerated various
circumstances, demonstrating the unhappiness of
the nation during these times, which were equally
ferocious and unsettled, and by necessary conse-
quence to show, he says, the decline of the number
of people.*
* Campbell's Survey, vol. ii. c. iii. p. 63.
o
191' POPULATION OF ENGLAND
Hume' says, " At the Conquest tlje cities were
little better than villages." Brady tells us that,
*' in York city, in the time of King Edward, be-
sides the Archbishop's wards or divisions, there
were six wards or divisions, one of which was de-
stroyed when the castles were built ; in five there
w^ere 1418 mansions, &c. Of all tliese mansions
there are in the king's possession 409 great and
small, and 400 mansions not inhabited, (i. e. had
no constant inhabitants) the best of which pays
one penny, and others less, and 510 mansions so
inhabited as they yield nothing at all. — The
French hold 14.5."* — Canterbury was a very small
place.
William transported large numbers of the Eng-
lish to the continent, and his reign here was little
else than one continued series of revolts, battles,
massacres, and desolations. Brady, the friend and
advocate of tyranny, gives a just, and tridy hor-
rible account, of the degradation and destruction
of the people, by this king and his followers, and
he is borne out in his account by all the more an-
cient historians. Such was the desolation w^hich
he completed in the north, that from York to Dur-
ham there remained not a single house. While, in
the south, thirty-six parishes, with their churches,
were destroyed, to make the New Forest, the
people being expelled and left to perish, their
merciless oppressor remaining heedless of their
cries, and refusing to give them the smallest suc-
cour.
* Brady on Burghs, 8vo. p. 16. from Domesday.
UNDER THK XORMAYS. 195
" 'I'he Nonnaiis, and other foreigners, who
followed William's standard, having completely
subdued the people, pushed the rights of con-
quest to the utmost extremity against them. Ex-
cept the former conquest of England by the
Saxons themseh^es, who endeavoured to exter-
minate the natives, it would be difficult to find
a revolution more destructive or attended with a
more complete subjugation of its inhabitants.'**
*' It was AVilliam's declared intention to depress,
or, rather, to extirpate the English gentry." t So
completely was his power established in the first
few years of his reign, and so little reason had he
to fear from the resentment of the people, that
when the two great Earls Morcar and Edwin had
been subdued, he ordered the hands to be lopped
off, and the eyes to be put out of many of the pri-
soners, and he dispersed them in that miserable
condition throughout the country, as monuments
of his severity." t
Rufus reigned in the same spirit, and followed
up the policy of William.
In the reign of Stephen, all England was filled
with castles; no less than one thousand one hundred
and seventeen having been built ornewly fortified by
the king and the contending barons. *' They were
garrisoned either with their vassals, or with licen-
tious soldiers, who flocked to them from all quar-
ters. Unbounded rapine was exercised upon the
people for the maintenance of those troops ; and
♦ Hume, vol. i. p. 283. f lb j.. 252. J; lb. p. 261.
O '^
196 POPTJLATION OF ENGLAND
private animosities, which had with difficulty been
restrained by law, now breaking out without con-
trol, rendered England a scene of uninterrupted
violence and devastation. Wars between the
nobles were carried on with the utmost fury in
every quarter ; and the inferior gentry, as well as
the people, finding' no defence from the laws
during this total dissolution of sovereign authority,
were obliged, for their immediate safety, to pay
court to some neighbouring chieftain, and to pur-
chase his protection, both by submitting to his
exactions, and by assisting him in his rapine upon
others." * To this was added an invasion headed by
David, King of Scotland, the fury of whose mas-
sacres and ravages caused a number of the tur-
bulent barons to make common cause with the
king, who in a great battle defeated the Scots,'* t
and for a time relieved the country from their
incursions.
" Were we (continues Mr. Hume), to relate all
the military events transmitted to us by contempo-
rary and authentic historians, it would be easy to
swell our accounts of this reign into a large volume.
It suffices to say, that the war was spread into
every quarter — the barons carried on their devast-
ations with redoubled fury, exercised implacable
vengeance on each other, and set no bounds to
their oppressions over the people. The castles of
the nobility became the receptacles of licensed
robbers, who, sallying forth day and night, com-
* Hume, vol.i. p. 355. f lb. p. 357.
UNDER THE PLANTAGENETS. 197
mitted spoil on the open country, on the villages,
and even on the cities ; put those they captured to
the torture in order to make them reveal their
treasures, sold their persons to slavery, and set fire
to their houses, after they had pillaged them of
every thing valuable. The fierceness of their dis-
position leading them to commit wanton destruc-
tion, frustrated their rapacity of its purpose ; and
the property and persons even of the ecclesiastics,
generally so much revered, were, at last, from ne-
cessity, exposed to the same outrage, which had
laid waste the rest of the kingdom. The land was
left untilled, the instruments of husbandry were
destroyed or abandoned, and a grievous famine, the
natural result of these disorders, afiected equally
both parties, and reduced the spoilers, as well as the
defenceless people, to the most extreme want and
indigence." *
In the reigns of Henry II. and Richard I. Eng-
land was drained for the crusades. There was,
says Hume, *' no regular idea of a constitution,
all was confusion and disorder ; force and violence
decided every thing.t — The history of all the pre-
ceding kings of England since the conquest, gives
evident proofs of the disorders attending tiie feudal
institutions. The cities^ during tlie continuance of
this violent government, could 7ieither bcverjj nume-
rous 7ior populous; and there occur instances
which seem to evince, that, though these are
always the first seats of law and liberty, their police
* Vol. i. p. 360. t lb. p. '1-53.
o 3
198 I'oruLATioN or kngland
was in general loose and irregular, and exposed to
the same disorders with those by which tlie country
was generally infested. It was a custom in Lon-
don for great numbers, to the amount of a hundred
or more, the sons and relations of considerable citi-
zens, to form themselves into a licentious confede-
racy, to break into rich houses and plunder them, to
rob and murder the passengers, and to commit with
impunity all sorts of disorders. The citizens durst
no more venture abroad after sun-set, than if they
had been exposed to the incursions of a public
enemy ;" * and he alludes to the thousands that
were murdered.
These disorders were excessively increased in
the miserable reign of Richard, which followed.
Of the reign of John, it is hardly necessary to
speak ; the disorders of his reign are familiar to
every one.
The reign of Henry the Third was disturbed by
civil wars, and rapine and murder was carried to an
enormous height. *' In a case of robbery and mur-
der, the jury appointed to try some of the robbers,
although men of property themselves, were in con-
federacy with those they were to try, and acquitted
them." Mr. Godwin, quoting from Matthew Paris,
says, "a second jury was inclosed, who at length
thought proper to make a full disclosure, and im-
peached many persons who, from their wealth, or
their connection with the court, were most free
from suspicion. Of these thirty were immediately
* Hume, vol. ii. p. 'i^GG.
9
UNDER THE PLANTAGENETS. 1<J9
hanged, those belonging to the household declaring,
that to the king they might justly ascribe their un-
happy destiny, as he, by detaining from them the
wages of their service, had reduced them to the
necessity of having recourse to rapine for a subsis-
tence." *
*' By the award made between the King and
Ills Connnons, at Kenilworth," commonly called
*' The Dictum of Kenil-dcoy^th^^ a. d. 1267, and of
his reign the 52d, it is among other things agreed,
that "knights and esquires, which were robbers,
and among the principal robbers in wars and roads,
if they have no lands but goods, shall pay for
their ransom half their goods, and find securities
to keep tlie peace of the king and of the realm
henceforth." t Those who had nothing, were to
give security to keep the peace. This general
pardon, although it proves that many men of title
and property were robbers and murderers, does
not seem to have abated the e\il to any very con-
siderable extent, since, in the thirteenth year of
Edward I., by the Statute of Wynto7i,X all walled
towns are commanded to shut their gates at
sun-set, and keep them closed luitil sun-rise -^
great jealousy is shown respecting strangers, and
particular direction given to arrest every one seen-
in the streets. And in the statutes for the city
of London, § passed in the same year, it is enacted^
* Godwiu's Life of Chaucer, vol. i.p. 197.
\ Statutes of the Reahii, vol. i. s. xiv. fol. 14-.
X lb. s.iv. ibl. 97. ^ lb. lol. 102.
o i
200 rOPULATION OF ENGLAND
that, " Whereas, many evils, as murders, robberies,
and manslaughters, have been committed hereto-
fore in the city by night and by day. It is
enjoined that none be so hardy as to be found wan-
dering about the streets of the city, after curfew
tolled at St. Martin's Le Grand, with sword or
buckler, or other arms for doing mischief, or
whereof evil suspicion may arise, nor in anij other
manner^ unless he be a great man, or other lawful
person of good repute, or their certain messenger,
having their warrants to go from one to another,
with lanthern in hand.'* It further enacts, in
order to prevent bands of robbers and murderers
from assembling, ** That none do keep a tavern
open for wine or ale, after the tolling of the
aforesaid curfew, but they shall keep their tavern
shut after that hour, and none therein drinking or
resorting. Neither shall any man admit others into
his house, except in common taverns, for whom
he will not be answerable unto the king's peace."
It is impossible to believe, that the popul-
ation could have increased from the conquest
to the death of Henry III. It is most likely it
decreased ; the many and terrible afflictions of
humanity were not partial, but general, during
almost the whole of that dreadful period.
The reign of Edward the Second was troubled
with insurrections, civil commotions, and war with
the Scots. The country was afflicted during nearly
half of his reign with a grievous famine ; " perpe-
tual rains, and cold weather, not only destroyed
the harvest, but bred a mortality among the
UNDER THE PLANTAGENETS. 201
cattle, and raised ev^ery kind of food to an uncom-
mon price. The famine was so consuming, that
wheat was sold for above four pounds ten shillings
a quarter ; usually for three pounds. A certain
proof of the wretched state of tillage in those
ages.*' Mr. Hume goes on reasoning to prove,
that " the ignorance of those ages in manufactures,
and still more, their unskilftd husbandry, seem a
clear proof that the country was far from being
populous." *
The miserable reign of this wretched king, who
was cruelly murdered in the year 1327, is thus
closed by Hume. " The disorders of the times,
from foreign wars, and intestine dissentions, but
above all, the cruel famine, which obliged the
nobility to dismiss many of their retainers, increased
the number of robbers, and no place was secure
from their incursions. They met in troops like
armies, and over-ran the country. Two cardinals
themselves, the pope's legates, notwithstanding the
numerous train which attended them, were robbed
and despoiled of their goods and equipage, when
they travelled the highway." t
Yet it is at the conclusion of such a period as
has been slightly sketched, certainly not described ;
it is at the close of a thousand years of horrors,
with but few intervals of repose, and scarcely one
of comfort; after the almost total annihilation of
one race, by the invasion of still greater barbarians
than themselves ; and the terrible destruction of
* Hume, ii. p. 366. et.seq. f lb. vol. iii. p. 369.
^'0^ POPULATION OF KXGLAND
the invaders, by another people more advanced in
knowledge; but scarcely less barbarous and vindic-
tive, when the arts of life were remarkably low ;
it is the close of this period, that Mr. Godwin has
pitched upon as the most populous, as containing
as many people as it does now. Mr. Godwin
says, ** wherever depopulation has once set up its
standard, the evil goes on ; — wherever depopul-
ation has continued for a considerable time, and to
a great extent, there is no instance of recovery but
by immigration."* The standard of depopulation
was not only set up here, but was maintained
for many centuries ; all the circumstances which
usually depopulate countries existed in excess, and
had there been no means of replacing the people,
but those of immigration, they would have perished
to a man. The state of society in the whole of
Europe, during the same period, was such, that,
but for the power of procreation in intervals of
repose, the whole of the people would have been
eaten out. If under " the most favourable circum-
stances, and such as cannot be expected to exist
for any considerable period," mankind have barely
the power to maintain their numbers, how was the
enormous waste of life supplied during those ages
of savage ferocity, of plague, pestilence, and
famine ? It is no answer to refer to the northern
hive, to tell us of the multitudes of barbarians ; for
the question again occiu's, how did they become
such multitudes ? When we look to the north of
* Reply, p. 1308.
UNDER THE PLANTAGENETS. 203
Europe, and observe the large portion of it,
which at the Christian sera was either not at all,
or but very thinly inhabited ; when we consider
the barbarous mode of life of the " hairy naked
savages,'* the space necessary for the maintenance
of a few thousands of persons, and compare it with
tlie present state of civilization, it is impossible to
believe but that there must be many times over
the number of people now, that could be main-
tained then ; and the question again recurs,
whence did the people come? — certainly not from
emigration. The Asiatic hordes, which since that
period have invaded Europe, carrying fire and
sword with them, desolating the countries they
traversed, and extirpating the inhabitants, could
hardly have replaced the numbers they destroyed.
It has been procreation then, which the peculiarly
ferocious manners of the people could only re-
strain, but not destroy. Violent and atrocious as
w^ere the invaders of this and other countries, still
the forms of society were less permanently de-
structive of mankind, than those which became
established in Egypt, and other eastern countries ;
and the people from time to time reproduced their
numbers, and in after times greatly increased the
population. The state of by far the greater part
of Europe, and more particularly of this country,
is an answer to the strange assertion of Mr. God-
win, that they could only have been replaced by
immigration.
It was necessary for the support of ]Mr. God-
win's hypothesis, that he should reject tlie testi-
S04 rOFULATION OF ENGLAND
mony which history presents, respecting the
amount of the population, and assert tliat the
number of people was as great in 1339, as it is at
the present day.
But Mr. Godwin must have been well aware, that
at the Conquest the country could have contained
but a small number of people ; he knew that the
Britons had been almost exterminated, and that
scarcely any remained in England ; that the differ-
ent hordes of barbarians who had invaded the
country, and who had been tearing one another to
pieces, could not compose a dense population ; he
knew, that even to assert that the sword, the plague,
and famine, had spared 2,000,000 of those who
really invaded the country, would be to estimate
the number very high.
Mr. Godwin is left without any choice. He
must, to maintain his hypothesis, say, that not-
withstanding the horrid state of society which pre-
ceded the Norman invasion, the barbarians of the
north transplanted some 20,000,000 of people, one
half of whom were destroyed by the sword, by
disease, and famine, and that the other half were
maintained by the produce of the earth, notwith-
standing the desolate state of the country ; which
was impossible ; if with so many and such terrible
causes of depopulation constantly operating ; if j
notwithstanding the horrid desolations, the des-
tructive foreign and domestic wars, the crusades,
the celibacy of the priests and nuns, the plagues
and famines, the general ignorance of all ranks of
people, the slavery of the common people dining
UNDER THE TLANTAGENETS. ^205
a considerable portion of tlie time, from the Con-
quest to the reign of Edward III. ; their bad
habits of husbandry, the state of the country in
respect to fens, marshes, and forests, the want of
roads, and means of conveyance; — if, notwith-
standing all these things so inimical to an in-
crease of people, they doubled their number twice;
if the country did actually maintain upwards of
10,000,000 of people, what was it that, spite of all
these manifold evils, caused this increase of people
in less than three centuries from the Conquest,
and yet prevented any increase at all in the next
five centuries of increasing information, the lat-
ter half of which was a period of comparative
tranquillity, and during which an almost infinite
number of circumstances has operated favourably
to an increase of the population?
Mr. Godwin has here got himself into an inex-
tricable mass of difficulties ; he must say that the
population was much greater at the Conquest than
in 1339, and was reduced by that time to about
10,000,000, or that they were as numerous at the
Conquest as in 1339, and that the power of pro-
creation was equal to the devastation ; which would
be an abandonment of his hypothesis. Or, that
the number of the people was a small one at the
Conquest, but that the power of procreation was
so great as to double the population tw^ce in 273
years, and supply the waste during the same period,
which is more than the greatest ** dreamer" would
contend for.
206
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE POPULATION OF ENGLAND.
SECTION III.
FIFTH IIIST0R1CAI> PERIOD, FROM THE ACCESSION OF ED-
WARD III., IN 1327, TO THE ACCESSION OF HENRY VII.
IN 1485.
IVIr. Godwin next proceeds to show, that the
population coiikl not have increased between the
year 1339, and the accession of Henry VII. in
1485.
At the commencement of the reign of Edw. III.,
some progress had been made in civilization, which
was considerably increased during his reign, and
those of his successors ; yet the state of the coun-
try was at several periods inauspicious to an increase
of people, and there were times when it must have
declined.
Mr. Godwin observes that, ♦♦ In 1339, Edw. III.
led forth an army for the conquest of France. He
repeated the same proceeding in 1342, and again in
1346, while, at the same time. Queen Philippa
marched against the Scots, who were defeated in a
great battle, in which 20,000 North Britons were
slain, and the Scottish king, and many of his nobles,
POPULATION OF ENGLAND. QOJ
were taken prisoners. The expulsion of the English
from France, in the latter end of the reign of Kdw.
Ill,, was probably more destructive than his con-
quests. To these events we must add the plague of
1348, of the victims of which 50,000 are said to have
been interred in one year, in a burial-ground now
the scite of the Charter House, besides those who
died (zoere buried') in other parts of London ; iliis
injection appears to ha've diffused itself uivaiitially
through every part of England.*' * In another of
his works, Mr. Godwin has entered more at length
into an account of this dreadful plague ; he says,
'* We have a ground of singular authenticity to
calculate the population of London : Sir Walter
Manny purchased a piece of ground now the scite
of the Charter House, for the interment of such
persons as the churches and church-yards of Londo7i
might not suffice to bury ; and it appears, from an
inscription upon a stone cross, which remained
when Stowe wrote, that more than 50,000 persons
were buried in this groimd, in the space of one
year. Maitland very naturally observes, that this
cannot be supposed to exceed the amount of one
half of the persons who died at that period. " t " la
London, certainly not fewer than 100,000 persons
perished, which was perhaps the half, and perhaps a
greater proportion of the population, which the me-
tropolis of England then had to boast. Walsingham
states it as the general opinion, that not more than
the tenth person was left alive, but seems himself
* Reply, p. 34-8. f Life of Chaucer, vol. i, p. 15.
^^OS POPULATION OF ENGLAND
inclined to believe, that half mankind survived the
calamity."*
Sir Walter Manny was not the only person who
purchased ground for the purpose of providing a
place of interment for the dead. The then Bisliop
of London, Ralph Stratford, bought a piece of
ground for the same use ; and another piece was
also purchased by one John Corey, a clergyman.
The inscription mentioned by Mr. Godwin says,
" more than 50,000 bodies were buried, besides
many others since thenceforward." " All of
which," says Maitland, " with the additions of
those buried in other grounds, church-yards, and
churches, may convince us of the assertion, that
not one in ten survived, and that there could not
die less than 100,000 in the whole." t
The plague broke out in England in the month
of August 1348, and continued a year.
If so many as 100,000 persons died in the me-
tropolis, it must have been a much larger propor-
tion than half, nearer indeed, as the old historians
assert, of nine in ten. Mr. Godwin, from Hume,
says, that " London, in the reign of King Stephen,
contained 40,000 persons ;" and from Stowe, that
the whole of the ground within the walls, was not
covered with houses. " Cheapside was no manner
of street, but a fair large place called Crown Field,
and tournaments were held there in the reign of
Edward III. Among the environs of London, we
find enumerated the villages of Strand, Charing,
* Life of Chaucer, vol. i. p. 403. f Maitland, fol. 128.
UNDER THE PLANTAGF.NETS. 209
and Holborn."* It is probable, that London,
within the walls, never at any time contained so
many as 150,000 inhabitants, and in the reign of
Edward III. the whole of the metropolis must
have contained much less than that number.
The great plague of 1348 had so thinned the
people, that Knighton says, a horse worth 40s.
was sold for 6s. 8d. ; a cow, at Is., an heifer or
steer, at Gd., and a fat mutton, at 4d. The parlia-
ment, in the next year, judged it expedient to pass
the ** statute of labourers," which enacts, *' That
because a great part of the people, and especially
workmen and servants, had died of the pestilence,
many will not serve unless they receive excessive
wages ; every man and woman not otherwise pro-
vided for, who are under threescore years of age, and
able to work, are commanded to work for those who
will employ them, at the usual wages paid during
the six years immediately preceding the plague,
under pain of imprisonment, and those who em-
ploy them are forbidden to give more wages than
are allowed by the statute.*' t
In the next year, the commons complained that
the statute was not observed, and that labourers
would not work, unless they received double or
treble the wages ordered ; and, upon their petition,
the statute was made more special, t Workmen
were to bring their tools into the most public
* Godwin's Life of Chaucer, vol. i. p. l^.
t Statutes of the Realm, 23d Edward III. vol.i. fol. 307.
:J: Neither this complaint of the commons, nor the special sta-
tute, produced the effect intended; for in the next year the com-
P
210 POrULATION OF ENGLAND
place, and tliere to be hired ; and servants in
husbandry were to be si^orn to the performance
of their labours two times in the year. None
were allowed to go out of the county, nor any
to remain idle, under very severe penalties."*
From complaints made in parliament, it appears
that many persons, in consequence of the plague,
were enabled to Jive in much greater splendour
than they had before been able to do ; the people
having been more reduced in number than the cap-
ital of the country was reduced in value, and there
being fewer people to possess it, many persons,
therefore, engaged large numbers of labourers, to
whom they gave liveries, and who, finding it more
to their interest than working at the low wages
fixed by statute, " chose to live,'* as the commons
expressed it, " in idleness rather than work." The
scarcity of labourers, and the abundance of capital,
necessarily defeated the provisions of the law, and
the employer was obliged to give his labourers higher
wages than the law allowed, without which he could
not get his business done. That this was so is further
proved by the subsequent act, 6th Henry VI.,
c. 3., re-enacting the former statutes wdth certain
modifications, expressly on the ground that " the
statutes be not kept, nor put in execution." t.
In the 37th of Edward III., the commons peti-
tioned,That such persons as, in the time of the pes-
mons again complained, and prayed that corporal punishment
might be inflicted on the refractory. Rolls, vol. ii. fol. 227. No. ii.
* Statutes of the Realm, vol. i. fol. 311. See also Statutes
31st, Slrth, 36th, and 42d Edward III. f lb. vol. ii. p. 233.
r;>JDER THE PLANTAGENETS. 211
tilence, did let forth their manors holden of the king
in chief, without Hcence, to sundry persons for term
of life, may accordingly continue the same until the
people be more populous.* Mr. Hume has ob-
served, " That the commons were sensible that
this security of possession was a good means for
rendering the kingdom prosperous and flourishing,
yet they durst not apply all at once for a greater
relaxation of their chains.'* t This was a great step
in civilization.
" We can," says Mr. Chalmers, " from incon-
testible evidence establish the whole number of
inhabitants in the year 1377* the 51st Edward III.,
with sufficient exactness to answer all the practical
purposes of the statesman, and even to satisfy all
the doubts of the sceptic ; a poll-tax of four-
pence having been imposed on every lay person,
as well male as female, of fourteen years and up-
wards, real mendicants only excepted. There re-
mains an official return of the persons who paid
the tax, amounting to l,367,23f). By adding those
under fourteen years of age, calculating the num-
ber by the tables of Dr. Halley, Mr. Simpson,
Dr. Price, and others, adding also the clergy,
and allowing for omissions, he makes the whole
population of
England amount to 2,156,643
Wales 196,560
Total of England and Wales 2,353,203 t
This was twenty-nine years after the great plague.
* Cotton's Abridgment, fol. 97- f Vol. ii. p. 449,
J Chalmer's Estimate, p. 12. etseq.
P 2
212 POPULATION OF ENGLAND,
Mr. Godwin goes on thus : ** The turbulent
times of Richard II., the insurrection of the com-
mon people under Wat Tyler, and afterwards the
contests between the king and his barons, could
not have been favourable to population,'*
" The reign of Henry IV. was scarcely less dis-
turbed than that of his predecessor."
** Henry V. acted over again the achievements
of Edward IH. for the conquest of France, and
these were followed by still more disastrous scenes
in the reign of his son.'*
•* The series of events next brings us to the
wars of York and Lancaster, upon which Hume
observes, *' This fatal quarrel was not finished
in less than a course of thirty years j it was sig-
nalized by twelve pitched battles ; it opened a
scene of extraordinary fierceness and cruelty, and
is computed to have cost the lives of eighty princes
of tlie blood, and to have almost annihilated the
antient nobility of England." What effect this
had upon the general population may easily be
imagined. It is no less true of these wars, than of
the war of Troy :
" Quicquid delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi."
In the first year of Richard II., stat. i. c. 7«»
it is enacted as follows : * " Iteniy Because that
divers people of small revenue of land, rent, or
* Statutes of the Realm, vol. ii. p. 3. This statute was
further inforceJ by statute 1st Henry IV. c. 7., and 7th
Henry TV. c. It., and 8th Henry VI. c. 4., 19th Henry VII.
c. 1 \.
1399 TO 1485. 21&
other possessions, do make great retinue of
people, as well of esquires as of other, in many
parts of the realm, giving to them hats and other
liveries, of one suit by the year, taking of them
the value of the same livery, or percase the double
value, by such covenant and assurance, that any
of them shall maintain other in all quarrels, be
they reasonable or unreasonable, to the great mis-
chief and oppression of the people," &c. On which
Hume remarks, * " This preamble contains a true
picture of the state of the kingdom ; the laws had
been so feebly executed, even during the long,
active, and vigorous reign of Edward III., that no
subject could trust to their protection. Hence these
confederacies, which supported each other in all
quarrels, iniquities, extortions, robberies, murders,
and other crimes ; and hence the perpetual tur-
bulence,'disorders, factions, and civil wars of those
times.'*
In the 9th year of Henry V., a. d. 1421., stat. 1.
C.5., it was enacted, Thatt " whereas by the statute
made at Westminster, in the 14th year of King
Edw. in., it was ordained, &c. that no sherifFshouId
abide in his bailiwick above one year, and that another
should be set in his place, and no escheater should
tarry in his office above a year j and whereas at
the making of the said statute, divers sufficient
persons were in every county of England to occupy
and govern the same offices v/ell towards the king
» Vol. iii. p. 58.
t Statutes of the Realm, vol. ii. fol. 2()(i.
r 3
214 POPULATION OF ENGLAND,
and all his liege people. Forasmuch that, as well
by divers pestilences within the realm of England,
as by the wars without the realm, there is now no
such sufficiency^ it is ordained, &c., that the king
may make the sheriffs and escheaters through the
realm at his will, until the end of four years.'*
The Honourable Daines Barrington, in his ob-
servations on this statute, remarks, that " the
laurels the king acquired are well known, but he
hath left us a most irrefragable proof, that they
were not obtained but at the dearest price — the
depopulation of the country.^**
In the 4th year of Henry VII. a. d. 1488, was
passed, "An acte agaynst pullyng doun of tounes."t
" The king, &c. whereas great inconvenyences daily
doth encrease, by desolacion and pulling doun
and wilfull waste of houses and townes within
this his realme, and leyeng to pasture londes,
which custumeably have been used in tilthe,
whereby ydilnes grounde and begynnyng of all
myschefes daily doo encreace ; for where in some
townes tuo hundred psones were occupied and
lived by their laufull labours, nowe ben there
occupied two ' or three herdemen, and the re-
sidue fall in ydelnes, the husbondrie, whiche is
one of the grettest comodities of this realme, is
gretly decaied, churches destroied, the svice of God
withdrawen, the bodies there buried not praied for,
the patrones and curates wronged," &c.
* Observations on the Statutes, Fifth Edition, p. 386.
I Statutes of the Kcuhn, vol. ii. tol. 542.
1390 TO 11-85. 215
These statutes seem to imply a very consider-
able decrease of the people, and is a proper com-
mentary to the close of the long-continued civil
wars.
Mr. Godwin's remarks imply an opinion, that
during the period treated of in this chapter, the
])opulation was reduced. This, however, may be
doubted, notwithstanding the miserable course the
nation had run in, although it is very possible that
the population might have decreased during the
civil war.
If the population were as high in 1339, as it
was in 1077, after the Conqueror had completely
subjugated the English, and entirely desolated the
northern counties, and if the subsequent events
between 1077 and 1339, did not reduce the num-
ber of the people, it is not probable that those
which occurred between 1339 and 1485, could
have kept it below what it was at the first of these
periods ; for notwithstanding the circumstances
which have been noticed, the period of which this
chapter treats was not more, and probably less
destructive, than that which preceded it. So-
ciety had undergone some material changes ; the
people had risen into considerable consequence ;
the form of government, and the administration of
justice had become much more settled, and, con-
sequently, many matters were taken notice of in
Parliament, which in former times were wholly
disregarded. So far as these relate to the popul-
ation, if considered without reference to the pre-
vious periods, they may seem to imply a decrease in
1' 1
'216 POPULATION OF ENGLAND.
the number of the people, which was probably not
the case.
Nothing can well be more unreasonable than the
attempt of Mr. Godwin to persuade his readers,
that the population in 1339 was equal to the po-
pulation at the present day ; and nothing can
prove the power of procreation more completely
than the evidence which lias been given, that the
number of the people in this country was, pro-
bably, as great at the close of the long civil wars
in 1485, as it was in 1339. If, however, it be
contended, that at the close of those wars the
population was reduced somewhat below what it
was in 1339, or in 1066, the point will hardly be
worth a dispute ; for it will be seen that in a very
few years from the last of these periods, the popul-
ation certainly exceeded 2,500,000.
217
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE POPULATION OF ENGLAND.
SECTION IV.
SIXTH HISTORICAL PERIOD FROM THE ACCESSION OF
HENRY VII. TO THE REVOLUTION OF 1688.
Ihe close of the civil wars in 14-85, allows us
time to breathe ; with them closed for ever the age
of barbarism in this country. It has been re-
marked by Hume, that " here commences the
useful, as well as the more agreeable part of mo-
dern annals. The art of printing extremely facili-
tated the progress of all improvements. The
invention of gunpowder changed the art of war ;
mighty innovations were afterwards made in reli-
gion, and thus a general revolution was made in
human affairs, and men gradually attained that
situation with regard to commerce, arts, science,
government, police, and civilization, in which they
have ever since persevered." *
Mr. Godwin could not conceal from himself the
effect of this change on population. " Tiie reign of
the Tudors may," he says, " upon the whole, have
* Vol. Hi. p. 106.
218 rorui.ATiON of England,
been favourable to po})u]ation,'* but he denies that
the reign of the Stuarts was so. ♦' Ciiarles the First
never spared the blood of his people, and his con-
duct at length involved the nation in a civil war.'*
*' The interregnum, with all its fluctuations and
uncertainty of government, did not lend io increase
the number of our countrymen.
" Charles the Second could not have been bene-
ficial to the nation."
One cannot but regret to see a man like Mr.
Godwin driven to such shifts as these ; he was
compelled to maintain the position he had taken,
however absurd the arguments he used. Accord-
ing to him, population must have grown up to
10,000,000 at the conquest, which all the destruc-
tion which afterwards fell upon the people in every
way, and in every form, could not reduce below
that number. Procreation was, it seems, able to
supply all losses ; arid to keej? the number of people
at the same amount. The principle of population
must be admitted to have been very powerful, if it
accomplished this.
It must, at the least, have maintained the num-
ber of the people from 1331), to the accession of
Henry VII. and this maybe believed. But there
must have been some •* occult cause,'* which, from
the accession of Henry VII. to the Revolution in
1688, kept the population from increasing. It is
absurd to suppose that the *' principle of popul-
ation" could act only under such terrible circum-
stances as the country was placed in from 1066 to
1485; and that it sliould wliolly cease from 1185
148.5 TO 1G88. 219
to 1688, a period so exceedingly dilierent, and
upon the whole, if compared with the former, so
much more auspicious to the people.
Henry VII. enacted several statutes against
maintenance,but the recitals in those statutes prove,
tiiat the manners of the people were much changed.
They no longer speak of the nobiHty as chieftains
carrying on open war, or as robbers with bands of
armed men, acting with the ferocious barbarity of
their predecessors.
The statute of labourers was re-enacted in tlie
eleventh of this king, but it was found necessary
in the next year to repeal so much of it as related
to masons, carpenters, and others concerned in
buildings, and to servants in husbandry.*
During this reign many restraints were put upon
manufactures, trade, and commerce, under the
mistaken notion of promoting them, or for the
purpose of raising money, which, with various mo-
difications, and some extensions, still exist. But,
upon the whole, this king's reign must have been
favourable to population.
If but little occurred calculated to promote a
rapid increase of people in the long reign of
Henry VIII., few circumstances occurred calcul-
ated to decrease it ; while the improvement in the
laws relating to tenures, the abolition of monas-
teries, and a better administration of the laws
generally, could not fail to assist in producing, at
* Stat. Realm, 12 Hen. VII. vol.ii. fol. 637.
2^0 roiUJ>ATION OF ENGLAND,
no great distance of time, a state of things favour-
able to a considerable increase of people.
The reigns of Edward VI. and Mary, although
far from quiet, and in some respects productive of
unhappiness, were not, upon the whole, inimical
to an increase of people ; while, during the long
reign of Elizabeth, very many circumstances com-
bined to promote population.
That the reign of the Tudors was favourable to
an increase of the population cannot be doubted.
Arts, sciences, literature, commerce, manufac-
tures, agriculture, and gardening, were all much
increased or improved. The celibacy of the priests
was put an end to, and nunneries were abolished.
It has been calculated, that during many years,
not less than 150,000 persons were constantly re-
strained from marrying by these institutions. It is
probable, however, that all who had led a monkisli
life would not marry, yet but few of the females
would remain single, when they were obliged to
continue in the world, in an improving state of
society ; when capital was accumulating, and the
means of living comfortably, and of employing
labour were greatly increased. The monasteries
tended to prevent the diffusion of capital, and
promoted idleness in various ways, as did also the
fasts and holidays of the Catholic church. It is
true, great numbers of persons were relieved or
maintained by the church, but they were, for the
most part, mere consumers, made unproductive b)'
the very system which afterwards relieved their
1485 TO IGSS. ^221
necessities. The release of property from the
ecclesiastical grasp, the liberty to will land, and
the removal of many other restraints, could not
fail greatly to increase the number of land-owners,
and to place the nation in a situation gradually to
increase its means of subsistence, to promote in-
dustry, and to add to its numbers.
'* From the reign of Elizabeth,'* Mr. Godwin
remarks, " began the system of colonization, the
effects of which I shall have occasion more fully
to unfold, when I come to treat expressly of the
United States of America." *
During the reign of James I., the people ob-
tained, or still further secured, several important
advantages, and w^ere certainly in a flourishing
condition at the close of his reign.
The distractions and civil wars in the reisrn of
o
Charles the First ; the fanaticism, distrust, and
gloomy tenets, which were followed by the loose
manners and dissensions which prevailed to the
close of the dynasty, were inimical to the wel-
fare of the people, and their increase was, probably,
at times retarded, and, perhaps, at intervals sus-
pended ; but the people preserved all they had
gained, which tended to the increase of wealth
and population, and at length these advantages
were manifested by the Revolution of 1688.
* This has been treated of in Chap. III.
222
CHAPTER VII.
OF THE POPULATION OF ENGLAND.
SECTION V.
SEVENTH HISTORICAL PERIOD FROM THE REVOLUTION OF
1688 TO THE PRESENT TIME.
Since the Revolution of 1688, it might reasonably
be concluded that there had been a considerable
increase of people. Several causes have already
been noticed calculated to produce this effect ; in
addition it may be remarked, that the plague,
which had been very destructive in the preceding
part of the century, there being only three years
from 1600 to 1665 wholly free from it, ceased at
the latter period. Celibacy was not only no longer
enjoined by law, but was held to be necessary by
none but the priests of the Romish persuasion, who
were reduced to a small number. Rebellion and
civil war may also be said to have ceased, the
two attempts in fiivour of the Pretender in 1715,
and ly'l*^, being of very little consequence in re-
spect to population. Wealth has been diffused
over a larger surface, and capital has accumulated,
particularly during the last half century, wuth un-
exampled rapidity. And thus many causes have
been operating, all of them calculated to encou-
POPULATION OF F-NGLAN'D. 22S
rage an increase of people. Against all this, Mr.
Godwin places continental wars and emigration,
not observing, that, if those two causes operated to
any considerable extent, and that notwithstanding
their operation the population was not decreased,
procreation must have been very active to have
enabled the country to support the loss. Mr.
Godwin observes, that, " at the Revolution of
1688, commenced the system of England making
herself a principal in the wars of the continent."
In a subject more directly political than the pre-
sent, this observation would demand considerable
attention : but so far as it respects population, it
will be seen that our interference in the quarrels
of the nations on the continent of Europe has had
no direct or sensible effect in retarding the increase
of the people. Laige as has been the number of
lives sacrificed in those wars, it is a mere trifle
when compared with the amount of tlie population,
and of but little consequence in the view here
taken, as but few breeding w^omen were destroyed
by them. But it is asked, how does it happen that
so many of the people are in a state of wretched-
ness, since there has been such an increase in the
wealth and means of comfortable subsistence ? Tlic
answer has been given ; in the too rapid increase
of people. If the people increase faster than tlie
capital, which can alone provide beneficial em})loy-
ment; if, in other words, more labour be produced
than is required, the real price of labour will fall,
nor can this be prevented by any legislative mea-
sures whatever : the mass of the people will be
9
224 POPULATION OF ENGLAND,
deteriorated, and numbers will be reduced to ex-
treme poverty.
Restrictive Jaws on agriculture, manufactures,
and commerce, have no doubt aggravated the evil ;
heavy taxation and the poor laws have also contri-
buted their share. Had the restrictive laws been
gradually repealed, instead of being increased, had
there been less war and fewer taxes, the indirect
effect of which prevented a still greater amount
of people, inasmuch as by preventing the further
accumulation of capital, they prevented also the
means of employment for more people. But for
these causes more people would have been pro-
duced, the attention of many of those among us
who are anxiously desirous of benefiting the
people, would have had more scope, and have also
had a better chance of being attended to; and it is
probable that means would have been adopted so
to adjust the amount of the population to the
means of subsistence, as greatly to have improved
the condition of the people, and to have main-
tained in comfort a much larger number than the
country at present contains.
If the increase of capital had been proportion-
ally greater than the increase of people, there
would have been a continual demand for labour
beyond the supply ; real wages would have been
high ; there could have been but little poverty, and
no complaints of the operation of the poor laws.
*' It has been calculated,** says Mr. Ricardo,
*' that, under favourable circumstances, population
may be doubled in twenty-five years j but under
1688 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 2*25
the most favourable circumstances, the whole capi-
tal of a country might possibly be doubled in a
much shorter period. In that case, wages during
the whole period would have a tendency to rise,
because the demand for labour would increase still
faster than the supply."* Whether the exact
period of doubling be twenty-five, or any other
number of years, the reasoning is equally sound,
and the conclusion equally just. This state of
things, if assisted by the j)reventive checks, might
produce and keep up for an indefinite period, a
much more numerous, more virtuous, and happier
people than have hitherto existed.
Mr. Malthus and Mr. Godwin have both be-
stowed considerable pains on the period treated of
in this chapter. In every respect it is by far the
most interesting and important of our history.
Every department of human knowledge has been
extended with a rapidity before unknown ; and
there seems no reason to doubt, but that mankind
will continue to increase their knowledge with
accelerating velocity.
But although Mr. Godwin has in his present as
well as in his former works, admitted that there
have been great improv^ements in arts, manufac-
tures, and agriculture, since 1668, he denies that
they have tended to increase the population, while,
from his account as well as from most of those who
have written against the principle of population,
it should seem that these improvements have
* Principles of Political Economy and Taxation, p. 98.
Q
226 POPUT-ATION OF F,Nr;LAND,
been of no use to the people, since we are no
more able to feed, clothe, and instruct the same
number of people now than we were then, or
rather that we are less able ; since a very large
proportion of the people are scantily provided for
in every respect as paupers, who formerly main-
tained themselves in comfort by their labour.
Mr. Godwin all along reasons inconsequently,
if the population in 1339 was as great as it is
710W ; if the country maintained its number to the
accession of Henry VII. ; if it rather increased
than diminished during the reign of the Tudors j
and if the population did not decrease, or decreased
very little during that of the Stuarts, it would
of course be as great at the revolution in 1688 as
flow ; and this is Mr. Godwin's hypothesis. Dr.
Price took much pains to prove, that for the
greater part of the last century the population
diminished with considerable rapidity, and this
opinion is countenanced by Mr. Godwin. Ac-
cording to Dr. Price and Mr. Godwin, the
population declined from 1688 for nearly a cen-
tury, and consequently the number of the people
must have been greatly reduced at its lowest
point of declension. Yet since that period, which
could not have been half a century ago, it has
even, according to Mr. Godwin's own show-
ing, again recovered its lost numbers, and this,
too, notwithstanding the emigration, as Mr.
Godwin tells us, of several millions, and the con-
sequences of the almost perpetual wars in wliich
the nation has been engaged, both of which cir-
1688 TO THE PRESENT TIME. ^^7
cumstances are considered by him to be efficient
causes of depopulation. In admitting these fluc-
tuations, Mr. Godwin admits the existence of the
power his book was written to deny ; and has
made a conckisive case against himself.
Mr. Godwin will not allow that we have any
evidence of an increase of population, in the re-
turns of houses to the tax office, and this he
attempts to prove by means of a table in which he
has, " collected (he says) the different accounts on
this subject under one point of view."
His account is as follows :
Houses in England and Wales.
In 1660 1,230,000
1685 1,300,000
1690 1,319,215
1759 986,482
1761 or 1765 980,692
1777 952,734
1801 1,633,399
1811 1,848,524-
The first three are taken from the hearth books,
there being at that time a tax of two shillings on
every hearth. The next three, in like manner, are
extracted from the returns to the tax office, given
by the surveyors of the house and window duties
for the different departments. The last two from
the population returns to parliament. *
Dr. Price had so completely succeeded in
deceiving and frightening himself, with the no-
* Reply, p. 223.
Q 1
^2'28 POPUI-ATION OF ENGLAND,
tion of a rapid decrease of tlie people, at a
time when a great number of the causes of pre-
mature mortality had ceased, that he could not for
a moment allow any reasoning to prevail, which
did not support his hypothesis ; and Mr. Godwin
has taken advantage of this weakness in Dr. Price,
to condemn the enumeration of houses altogether.
He says he has "collected the different accounts on
this subject ;** and yet he has taken the first six
from Dr. Price without further enquiry. This is, to
be sure, the right way to throw discredit on the
table which Mr. Godwin avows to have been his
object, but it is not the course which a man who
is a *' diligent enquirer after truth" should take.
Mr. Godwin ought to have searched for further
information, and if he had he would have found
it. It is easy for a man to take up the first opin-
ion he meets with which suits his purpose, to dis-
credit the facts of history, and to make them more
obscure ; but it is the duty of the philosopher
to clear and to establish as many of those facts
as come under his cognizance. The absurd at-
tempt to shew that England contained as many
people in 1339 as in 1820, compelled Mr. Godwin
to condemn where he ought to have elucidated.
The hearth-tax, which could not be easily avoided,
and the returns of the number of houses to that
tax, which have been generally admitted as correct,
was repealed in I69O, and the window tax was
then established. By the window tax act, houses
having less than ten windows were not liable to
the duty, and' under this act, a very large proper-
1688 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 229
tion of the whole number of houses were exempted.
Davenant has stated that the number of cottages
in 1689, inhabited by tlie poorer sort of people,
amounted to 500,000 ; and Mr. Chalmers, " from
his researches in the tax office, concludes from
the returns made in I7O8, that there were yiOjOOO
houses and cottages which paid nothing."* It
appears, he says, from a report made to the
treasury in 17«54, that, in the year I7IO, when an
additional tax on windows was imposed, that it
became a common practice to stop up lights, so
much so, that notwithstanding the additional duty,
the revenue from this source fell short of what
it was in 17O8 by about a sixth :
The sum collected in 1V08 being. .„ £121,033
1711 115,675
Other modes of evading the tax had also been
found out, and the return of houses to the tax
office became less and less. The act 20 Geo. II.
A. D. 1747-8, recites some of those evasions, as a
fraud upon the revenue ; but it does not, like tlie
statutes of Hen. VII. and Hen. VIII. recite. That
whereas houses are pulled down, and towns are
falling to deca}-^ ; neither does any of the subse-
quent acts relating to houses, although those acts
are pretty numerous.
*' Dr. Forster (continues Mr. Chalmers) t
having, in 17<57> obtained the collectors* rolls in
nine contiguous parishes, he counted the number
* Comparative Estimate, chap. xi. f lb. p. 205.
Q 3
2S0 POPULATION OF ENGLAND,
of houses, and found that out of 588, only 177
were assessed to the tax ; that Lambourn parish,
wherein there is a market town, contained 445
houses, of which 229 only paid the tax. When it
was objected to Forster tliat his survey was too
narrow for a general average, he added afterwards
nine other parislTes in distant counties, whereby it
appeared, that of 1045 houses, only 347 were
charged to the duty ; whence he inferred, that the
cottages were to the tcuvable houses as more than
two to one. Mr. Wales equally objected to the
truth of the surveyors' returns in their full extent.
And Mr. Howlet endeavoured, with no small
success, to calculate the average of their errors,
in order to evince what ought probably to have
been the true amount of the genuine number.
In this calculation. Dr. Price hath doubtless shewn
petty faults ; yet is there sufficient reason to con-
clude with Dr. Forster and Mr. Howlet, that the
houses returned to the tax office are to the whole
as 17 to 29." — " In 1794, the returns to the tax
office was 1,008,222, — and in I78I, 1,003,810.*' •
These returns are not given as an exact account
of the number of houses, the rate collectors having
no very strong inducement to be exact in enu-
merating houses from which no revenue was to
arise ; but they prove that there was no decay of
population, and they, with the foregoing statement,
sufficiently account for the apparent decrease of
houses,
* Chalmers, p. 214.
1688 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 23^1
But Mr. Godwin has destroyed his own argu-
ment. He says, " Another conclusion which would
follow from calculating on the number of houses
would be, that the country was rapidly de])opu-
lating, from the Revolution at least, up to 1777;
a conclusion which no reasoning founded upon any
other consideration will incline us to believe." *
Yet Mr. Godwin has brought forward Dr. Price,
as an unquestionable authority, to prove the de-
population. He has dwelt upon our Continental
wars, and tlie millions whicli, according to him,
have emigrated to all parts of the world. He has
denied the increased value of life, and has admit-
ted no one circumstance, wliich, according to his
mode of reasoning, could at all tend to counteract
the depopulating causes which have been named.
In order to show that the amount of the popu-
lation in 1700, as estimated by Mr. Rickman, in
the preliminary observations to the parliamentary
returns respecting the population was too low,
Mr. Godwin says, " If I calculate the question
of inhabitants to a house by the rule of propor-
tion, and suppose as many persons to a house in
1690, as in 1811, to which I see 710 reasonable oh'
jectio?iy the population of England and Wales at
the former of these periods will be upwards of
7,000,000." But as even tliis amount of people,
to which when the millions whom Mr. Godwin
supposes to have emigrated were added, would
show an increase totally destructive of his hypo-
* Reply, p. 22i.
0. t
232 POPULATION OF ENGLAND,
thesis, he rejects all former accounts, and says he
shall confine himself to the two enumerations of
1801 and 1811.
Mr. Rickman*s estimate of the population in
1700, viz. 5,475,000, is probably much nearer the
truth, than that as taken by Mr. Godwin in order
to prove its fallacy. Mr. Godwin " sees no
r^easonahle objection to taking the same number of
persons to a house in I69O and 1811." He might
however, with no great difficulty, have found
several '* reasonable objections.'* He has, in
several places, lamented the decrease of cottages,
a conclusion, perhaps, too hastily adopted, and
too generally made. He has also, although with
much reluctance, brought himself to admit that
London has somewhat increased. London, in the
time of Queen Elizabeth, did not cover more than
one-eighth of the ground it now occupies. In
1690, it did not contain a fourth part of the houses
it now contains; and certainly there were not half
so many houses in 1750 as at present. This maybe
easily ascertained by an inspection of the maps or
plans made at the periods named. Many villages
have grown into towns, and many towns have
increased to several times their extent since I7OO;
and consequently a larger portion of the people
are huddled together, not only into a smaller
space, but more in a house, than when compared
with the whole number of the people. Cottages
were more common, and, on Mr. Godwin's hypo-
thesis, the towns have not increased in population
from procreation, but by drawing the people from
1688 TO THE PRESENT TIME. ii33
the country, whose number has consequently de-
creased.
Another " reasonable objection" miglit have
been discovered in the number of persons cm-
bodied in the army, and employed in the navy
and merchants service, but not included in the
census of 1811, as inhabitants of any houses.
The whole number of those, thus employed, w^as
640,500. In 1690, the number employed was
comparatively a very small one. It appears that
towards the close of the war with Louis XIV.
the number of sailors in the navy was only 45,000,
and that the minister declared, '* the fleet could
not be increased, as not having ships enough, nor
men, unless we stop even the craft trade.'* The
merchants service employed only 11,432 men,
while the army, including officers, ordnance, trans-
ports, and hospitals, was only 87,440 men, making
a total of 133,872, half a million less than in 1811.
*• Another reasonable doubt" might have been
found in the number of persons wholly maintained
in workhouses, and these, according to the returns
made to parliament in 1813, amounted to 9!2,'2£3.
In the population returns in 1811, the whole
number in each workhouse w^ere necessarily re-
turned as the inhabitants of one house, and the
number in some of these houses exceeded 600.
In 1690, the number of workhouses were very few,
and the persons in them a mere trifle. Another
cause for ** reasonable doubt," might also have
been found in the number of ])ersons confined for
debt, and in that oi' those coutiued in prisons and
234 FOI'LLATION OT ENGLAND,
hulks for crimes, tlie number of which was greatly
increased at the latter period; yet, when all have
been added together, the average is not quite six
persons to an inhabited house. When all these
causes of *' reasonable doubt" have been duly
appreciated, it will be found that five persons to
a house in 1690, is probably too large a number,
and consequently that the population at that
period did not exceed 5,500,000. Dr. Davenant,
Mr. King, and others, made the population in
1700 amount to about 5,500,000. Dr. Davenant
observes of Mr. King, that he was as well qualified
as a man could be, and ** proceeded on as au-
thentic grounds as perhaps the matter is capable
of.'* * Major Grant, in 1756, calculated the num-
ber at 7j200,000. These statements were approx-
imations demanding some attention, and are far
from meriting the contempt with which they have
been treated by Mr. Godwin.
Mr. Godwin sayst, " The period from 1S39
to the reign of Hen. VII. was unfavourable to
population ; that the reign of the Tudors was upon
the whole favourable to population ; not so the
reign of the Stuarts." At the Revolution com-
menced the system of England, making herself a
principal in the wars of the Continent. From the
reign of Elizabeth we have been colonizing, and
in the reign of Geo. III., we 7iot onlij sent out our
planters to America, but xve have settled an
empire in the East Indies, and distributed our
* Davenant, vol. ii. p. 191. f Book iii, chap. 4.
1688 TO THE PRESENT TIME. QS5
colonists profusely to other parts of the ivoT'ld.
Till the fire of London, in 1666, Hume says,
" the plague used to break out with great fury
in this metropolis twice or thrice in every century.'*
Hence it is impossible, Mr. Godwin infers, that
the population can have increased. This can hardly
be called reasoning, and in fact it contradicts
itself; for, notwithstanding the causes which have
operated to destroy the population, and the reason
to apprehend the diminution of people, and since,
as Mr. Godwin asserts in another place, that
America does not keep up its number by pro-
creation, and consequently all the English and their
descen dents in the United States in Canada and
in the East and West Indies, must be reckoned
emigrants from this country, there must have been
produced at the least as many persons to supply
the waste by emigration, as the country at present
contains. This one would think was itself no bad
proof of the power of the principle of population.
Not so, however, Mr. Godwin. He says, there is
more reason to fear a decrease, " than to expect
an increase of people,'* " even if war and other
atrocious follies were put an end to.** The truth
is, that Mr. Godwin has taken a false view of the
subject, and has treated of it absurdly. Mr.
Godwin says most truly, •' it is the glory of modern
philosophy to have banished the doctrine of occult
causes."* Yet, what but some " occult cause** can
help him out of the difficulty ? According to him,
* Reply, P' 312.
236 roruLATioN of England
population maintained itself from the Norman con-
quest in 1066 to 1339, and from 1339 to Hen. VII.
It did no more under the Tudors, or the least in
the world more; it did no more, if so much, under
the Stuarts, and has not increased since the Re-
volution, It must, indeed, have heen some " occult
cause," which has kept it steady during periods
so very dissimilar in their eflbcts.
Mr. Godwin, in his 96th page, appeals at once to
this ** occult cause." He says, " There is something
much more mysterious in the principle, by which
the race of mankind is perpetuated, than any man
lias yet distinctly remarked j and he that shall
sufficiently attend to it, instead of wondering that
the globe has not long ago been overstocked
with inhabitants, and seeking for vague and in-
definite causes to account for the thinness of
population, will be apt rather to wonder why the
human race has not by this time become extinct.'*
It can only be lamented that, in his attempts to rec-
tify the theory of Mr. Malthus, Mr. Godwin should
commit the very faults he reprobates, namely, those
of contradiction, and absurdity.
That the population in 1339, could not exceed
2,500,000, is as well established as any fact of his-
tory can be. If it did not decrease from that
period, to the accession of Henry VII. ; if the
power to increase was such, as to sustain the number
of people, notwithstanding the adverse circum-
stances of that disastrous period ; the same power
must have increased the number of people under
the Tudors to the utmost extent the accumulation
1688 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 237
of capital, employed according to the notions which
prevailed at that time, would permit. There is
reason to believe that the accumulation of capital,
and the increase of people, when compared with
later times, went on but slowly, but in comparison
with former times, the increase must have been
rapid.
No doubt can remain in the mind of any man,
who will take the trouble to enquire, and who has
not an hypothesis to support, that whatever effect
the turbulent times, from the accession of Edw. III.
to that of Hen. VII. might have had on the popula-
tion, that the number of people must have increased
very much during the reign of the Tudors, and
must have continued to increase during that of the
Stuarts, although there were short periods when it
decreased, and that at the Revolution it amounted
to about 5,500,000 ; that it continued increasing
until about the middle of the last century, when,
from the better modes of employing capital, from
the improvements in arts, commerce, and manu-
factures, and from the facility of better modes of
conveyance — there was a more rapid accumulation
of capital, and increase of people, than had ever
before been known ; and that great as was the
increase of people, it was by no means so great as
it would have been, under a better administration
of the government, and a wiser disposition of
capital.
But Mr. Godwin, as we have seen, denies that
the population has at all increased ; and he adds
.in p. 625, i as the result of his reasoning, " Till
human affairs shall be better and more auspiciously
238 POPULATION OF ENGLAND,
conducted, than they have hitherto been under the
best governments, there 'will be no absolute increase
in the numbers ofmankindJ*
General as is the wording of this extract, the
meaning must be, in any one country ; for if
under any government which has hitherto existed,
mankind could have increased, so might the whole
human race have increased, if placed under circum-
stances equally propitious. That this is its mean-
ing, and that it is applicable to this country, is
proved by the extracts which have been made ;
but even if government were ever so much better
than the best with which we are acquainted, and
if human affairs were conducted with any assign-
able increase of wisdom — still, Mr. Godwin is not
satisfied that there could be any increase of
people ; for in p. 452., he expresses his doubt
thus : " if war, and the other atrocious follies of
society were abolished, we should have reason to
expect, that if the numbers of mankind were not
enlarged, at least they would not then decrease.'*
Yet, in p. 625., he says, "there is in man, absolutely
speaking, a power of increasing the number of his
species," and in his " Enquiry concerning Political
Justice," he says, " There is a principle in human
society, by which population is perpetually kept
down to the level of the means of subsistence." *
« When England," says Mr. Chalmers, ** was a
country of shepherds and warriors, we beheld
them inconsiderable in numbers. When manu-
factures found their way into the country, when
* Vol. ii. p. 466. 3d Edition.
1688 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 2S9
husbandmen gradually acquired greater skill, and
when the spirit of commerce actuated all, people,
we have seen, grew out of the earth, amidst convul-
sions, famine, and warfare. He who compares the
population of England and Wales, at the conquest,
at the demise of Edward III., at the year 1588,
with our population in 1688, must trace a vast
progress in the intervening centuries. But Eng-
land can scarcely be regarded as a manufacturing
and commercial country, at the revolution, when
contrasted with her present prosperity* in manu-
factures and trade. The theorist, then, who
insists, that our numbers have thinned, as our
employments have increased, and our population
declined, as our agriculture and manufactures,
our commerce and navigation, advanced, argues
against facts, opposes experience, and shuts his
eyes against daily observation."!
This conclusive reasoning was urged against
the theory of Dr. Price, who maintained that the
population was declining — and is equally conclu-
sive against Mr. Godwin's hypothesis, that it has
not increased during a period of nearly five
hundred years.
The two enumerations of the people, the first in
1801 — the second in 1811 — although very defi-
cient in particulars, are extremely valuable, in as
much as they are a more exact account of the
number of the people, than has ever before been
obtained.
* 1810. t Comparative Estimate, p. 213.
240 POPULATION OF ENGLAND,
The accounts, or rather abstracts of the accoimts,
sent from tlie parishes, were printed by order of
the House of Commons. To the last of these
accounts was prefixed, " PreUminary Observa-
tions, by Mr. Rickman." By the two returns,
it appears, that the population amounted
In 1811, to 12,596,803
... 1801 ~ 10,9't2,646
Shewing an increase of. 1,654',157
But by comparing the baptisms and deaths, as
given by the parish registers, Mr. Rickman found,
that — "the increase fell considerably short of the
increase, as shewn by the two enumerations, it
being only 928,717»" — and he observes, **that
since the registry of baptisms is much more defi-
cient than that of burials ; and as it does not
seem possible to ascertain by direct evidence, in
what degree one deficiency exceeds the other,
recourse must be had to probabilities, founded on
analogies and general principles." *
Mr. Malthus supposes, reasonably enough, that
the enumeration of 1801, was somewhat below the
truth. The reasons are obvious, and could not
escape Mr. Godwin's notice ; he mentions the
apprehension of being taxed, or drawn for the
militia, or the fear of conscription for the army,
as reasons which would deter many, on being first
questioned, from stating the whole number. No^
* Preliminary Observations to the Parliamentary account of
the population in 1811, fol. xxvi.
1(>8S TO THE PRESENT TIME. 241
doubt, those considerations had some effect on the
returns, but the number thus concealed was proba-
bly not a large one. Where they did operate,
it must have been to conceal the able-bodied
men ; and had the number concealed been very
large, the number of females would have greatly
exceeded that of the males, which was not the
case, the excess of females in England, Wales, and
Scotland, being only 42,062. Yet, Mr. Godwin
says, " It is very conceivable, that there was not
one human creature more in the country, in 1811,
than in 1801.'* Mr. Godwin thinks it probable,
and all his reasonings are calculated to persuade
his readers to believe, that the concealment of per-
sons in 1801, amounted to nearly one in nine of all
the men, women, and children, in Great Britain ;
to nearly one half of all the males, between twenty
and sixty years of age, including those embodied
in the army and militia, and those serving in the
navy, and considerably more than half of all the
males between those ages, if those thus serv-
ing be deducted. This supposition might be
thought sufficiently absurd, but a much greater
absurdity follows :
The number of inhabited houses were, by the
Parliamentary returns in
1811, stated at 2,101,597
1801, 1,870,476
Increase of houses 231,121
The causes which have been noticed, as tending
in some degree to make the returns in 1801 rather
R
•242 POPULATION OF ENGLAND,
lower than they ought to have been, can none of
them be assigned for the concealment of houses ;
and yet to make Mr. Godwin's argument worth any
thing, upwards of 200,000 houses must have been
concealed. The population must either have
resided in ^231,121 houses less in 1801 than in
1811, or that number of houses must have been
omitted in the return. Having rejected all foriner
accounts of the population, he says, *' 1 shall refer
myself, therefore, only to the actual enumerations
of 1801 and 1811. There the enquiry was directed
to the clergyman or overseer in each parish, who
could hardly he conceived to have any temptation to
conceal the number of houses i?i his district ; to
which I may add, that a house is a sort qfcommodity
not easily hid.*** Thus we have Mr. Godwin's
own testimony for the correctness of the return of
houses at both periods. He tells us plainly, that
there was no concealment of houses, and this con-
fession is fatal to his hypothesis.
Mr. Rickman t found that the increase of
people from 1801 to 1811, was 1,654,157, accord-
ing to the actual returns, but by the parish registers
only 928,717. This, of itself, was a corroborative
proof of increase of great value. As, however,
the parish registers were defective, Mr. Rickman
took some pains to show in what they were
defective, and reasonably concluded that the
increase was greater than by those registers it
* Reply, p. 225.
f Prcliiniiiary Observations to Earliametntary Returns.
lf)88 TO THE PRESENT TIME. 243
appeared to be. In fol. xxiv. is a table of propor-
tions of baptisms to marriages, from the parish
registers. This was seized upon by Mr. Godwin,
who, altliough he rejected all the statements
and opinions on which Mr. Rickman appears to
have relied, and although he treated the whole
of that gentleman's labours with unmerited con-
tempt, yet he inserted the proportional table in his
book *, and in the way in which he introduced it,
left his readers to infer, that it was a document the
accuracy of which was unquestionable and conclu-
sive. *' From whence," he says, '* it appears, that
the average proportion of births to marriages in
England and Wales, during this period, (I76O, to
1810,) has been about thirty ^five to te?i."f Mr.
Rickman said nothing about births ; he spoke only
of the baptisms. The very purpose of the table was
directly the reverse of that for which Mr. Godwin
used it ; it was inserted merely as a step in the pro-
cess to ascertain the increase of people. Mr. Rick-
man says, " The marriages of Dissenters of every
denomination, takes place in the established
church ; excepting those among Quakers, who are
permitted to marry in their own congregation.
To these may be added the Jews, who marry
according to their own ceremonial. But neither
of these sects are numerous : and with these ex-
ceptions, the marriage registry of England and
Wales, may be deemed complete and unexception-
able." t Not so the baptismal registers; many
* Reply, p. 203. f lb- P- 204- t Prelim. Ob. fol. xxi.
R 2
214) POPULATION- OF ENGLAND,
causes of incorrectness are mentioned by Mr.
Rickman*; among others, that many Dissenters
baptise after their own manner, or not at all. Pri-
vate, or half baptisms, as they are called, are stated
to be very numerous, while the number of unen-
tered baptisms amount to a large number. ** The
baptisms being in reality as forty-hscOy to ten mar-
riages\\* which is four one-twentieth children
baptised to a marriage. Of all this Mr. Godwin
-takes no notice; beseems resolved that there shall
be no increase of people, and he, therefore, omits
what makes ag-ainst him. He has neither treated
the compiler of the "Preliminary Observations t,'*
nor the subject, fairly.
* Prelim. Ob. fol. xxiii. f lb. xxvi.
X The preliminary observations to the population returns of
1811, contain many curious and useful remarks ; one paragraph,
*'hich is in itself a proof of the increase of people in England,
shall be here inserted.
" The division of the southern parts of England into
hundreds, is unquestionably of Saxon origin, and probably in
imitation of similiar districts, which existed in their parent
country, but in what manner the name was applied is not
certain. At least one hundred, (which in Saxon numeration
means one hundred and twenty,) free men, householders,
answerable for each other, may be supposed originally to have
been found in each hundred ; for that the hundreds were
originally regulated by the population, is evident from the
great number of hundreds in the counties first settled by the
Saxons. Thus Kent and Sussex, at the time when Domesday
Book was compiled, each contained more than sixty hundreds, as
they do at present. In Lancashire, a county of greater area
than either, there are no more than six hundreds. — In Cheshire
seven ; and upon the whole, so irregular is this distribution of
territory^ that while several hundreds do not exceed a square
1(388 TO THi: PRESENT TL^ME. S45
, In speaking of the Swedish tables, Mr. Godwin
says, *« It fully appears from the tables, that the
births are scarcely more than four to a marriage." *
Yet he admits that Sweden increased its popula-
tion nearly one-half, in fifty-four years. It has
been proved, with respect to Sweden, that these
fifty-four years were much more inimical to an
increase of population than were those in England,
in the period of which we are now treating. It
should also be observed, that it is the baptisms^ and
not the births^ which are stated by Mr. Rickman at
forty-two to ten marriages, while in Sweden, the
births are inserted in the tables, among which, even
the still-born children are included, and they, it
appears, are one in every sixty-eight of the whole
number born. In Sweden, half of all the born die
under twenty years of age ; while, in London, it
appears from the bills of mortality t, that the
number of burials under twenty does not greatly
exceed one-third of the baptisms, and if the births,
instead of the bajjiisms, were inserted, it may be
believed, that the actual number of deaths under
mile in area, nor one thousand persons in population, the
hundreds in Lancashire average at three hundred square
miles of area, and the population contained in one of them>
(Salford Hundred) is above 250,000. Fol. xi."
In 1801, the population of Sussex was J90,083.
of Lancashire 828,309.
* Reply, p. 185.
f The bills of mortality do not contain an exact account
of the births and deaths in the metropolis, but the proportion
of deaths to baptibnis is not probably very inaccurate,
R 3
246 POPULATION OF ENGLAND, &C.
twenty years of age, would not exceed one-third of
the births. Hence follow two most important
causes of a more rapid increase of people in Eng-
land, than in Sweden, which nevertheless increased
its population nearly one-half in about fifty-two
years.
1. Marriages more fruitful.
2. A considerably less mortality in those under
twenty years of age, even in the metropolis, than
in the whole of Sweden.
Thus is the increase fully accounted for, and
Mr. Godwin's arguments must fall to the ground.
21-7
CHAPTER VIII.
OF THE DECREASE OF MOKTALITV IN ENGLAND.
It was necessary to Mr. Godwin's hypotliesis, that
neither the number of children born should be
increased, nor the country become more salu-
brious, and that the means of preserving the
2)eople, and particularly the children, from prema-
ture death, should not be more efficient than they
had formerly been. Yet he quarrels with the doc-
trine of Mr. Malthus, which he calls atrocious, as
tending to prevent the birth of millions on millions
of beings, capable of the highest intellectual enjoy-
ment. He is very indignant at hearing Mr. Mal-
thus say, that vice and misery keep down the
population to the means of subsistence, against
which it is constantly pressing, and then he tells
us, that *' by the constitution and course of nature,
half the children born must die in their non-aece."
He says, that the births in Europe do not exceed
four to a marriage, and that in this country they
arc four to every marriageable woman ; of these
nature must and will kill two, according to her own
method, in their non-age, and the other two must
remain to replace their parents. It is, or at least it
might be supposed, that those whom nature slavs in
their childhood, die of some disease, and conse-
218 DECREASE OF iMOKTAI.lTY
quently of misery j and it does seem rather strange,
that if nature so resolutely and constantly kills half
the born, that vice and misery should kill none ;
and yet, according to Mr. Godwin, it is so, for he
sees no misery in the case of those who die by na-
ture's hand, and he says it is atrocious and heart-
appaUing, to assert, that vice and misery are the
causes. Such is Mr. Godwin's logic, such his phi-
losophy. All this, however, sounds very oddly,
from a man who has taken great pains to inculcate
the belief of a constant, and considerable improve-
ment in the moral and physical state of mankind,
which he has hinted may, at some future time,
totally eradicate all disease whatever.
Mr. Godwin says, "I had heard before of the
improving salubrity of London, in consequence of
its widened streets, and better arrangement of its
buildings. But that, the whole climate from the
Lands End, in Cornwall, to Berwick-upon-Tweed,
should have improved, is, I confess, new to me.'* *
All that Mr. Godwin can bring himself to say,
with respect to the metropolis, is, that he " had
heard" — and he denies, by implication, an in-
creased value of life in other parts of the country.
But surely no one besides himself will doubt, whe-
ther London was more healthy in the 18th than
in the lyth century, or that it is more healthy now
than it was in I7OO, in 1750, or even in 1800. No
doubt can remain in the mind of any candid en-
quirer, that the salubrity of London has, upon the
whole, gone on increasing for more than a century
■• Reply, p. 227.
IN LONDON. '249
past, although some years have been more fatal
than others. In the first sixty-five years of the^
17th century, the plague raged no less than four
times, and its devastations are recorded in the bills
of mortality, as follows, viz.
In 1603 deaths by plague, 36,269
... 1625 35,U7
... 1636 10,400
... 1665 68,596
The bills of mortality exhibit only three years free
from plague, from 1603 to 1665, the last time it
appeared in this country. It was not so, however,
with all other epidemical and contagious disorders.
Dr. Heberden has given an interesting account
of those disorders, and has proved the increased
salubrity of London and other towns, and tracts
of country. The writer in Rees* Cyclopedia,
Art. Health, has among other judicious observa-
tions respecting the metropolis, the following :
** Epidemics, although somewhat diminished in
number, still occurred to a great and fatal extent :
so that, in proportion to the actual population, the
annual mortality was exceedingly great.
*' This will appear in strong colours, when it is
stated, that the actual mortality was greater at the
beginning of the 18th century, than at the end of
it, notwithstanding the great increase both in
number and extent of the out-parishes, included in
the bills of mortality. The annual average of
deaths in the first ten years of the century being
upwards of 20,000, in the last decade of years only
11),000 and tipwards. The mortality and (piau-
250 DICCREASE OF MOJITALITY
tity of disease, in proportion to tlic population, was
incalculably greater, at the commencement than at
the close of the century.
*♦ The principal amelioration in the health of the
metropolis, however, seems to have been more par-
ticularly brought about within the last sixty years.
Until nearly the middle of the last century, mor-
tality kept pace, in some measure, with the in-
creasing population ; for in the third and fourth
decades, that is from I72O to 17^1^ the annual
average of burials was from 26,000 to 28,000."
During the last twenty years, the number of
houses and of people within the bills of mortality
have been prodigiously increased, yet the burials, ac-
cording to the yearly bills, average less than 19,000.
In the latter half of the seventeenth century, the
dysentery caused the death of 2000 persons an-
nually in the metropolis ; its prevalence gradually
decreased during the last century, and the disease
itself is now almost extinguished as a fatal disease.
Only fifteen are S'tated to have died of it in the
year 1820.
In 1722, inoculation for the small-pox was
introduced, and from the enquiries to which
the disputes respecting its efficacy gave rise,
and which continued for upwards of thirty years
impeding its beneficial effects, it was found, that,
of those who took the disease in the natural way,
nearly one in six died. The ague, too, had its
victims in large numbers. Towards the close of
the seventeenth century, nearly one in forty, of
those who were buried in London, are stated to
IN LONDON. 251
have died of this disorder, which is now but seldom
heard of, and kills nobody. Even those counties,
where it was most prevalent and most fatal, are
comparatively free from it, it being confined to
much smaller spaces, and, from increase of know-
ledge as to the mode of treating it, it lias become
much less destructive, in those places.
The only fatal disease which seems to have much
increased in London, is consumption ; but all other
diseases which used to be most destructive to per-
sons in their non-age, have declined. From a care-
ful examination of the bills of mortality, it appears
that there has been a great increase in the value of
life * since the middle of the last century ; con-
siderably more than half the number of burials at
the commencement of the series being under twenty
years of age, and considerably less than half of
the burials being under twenty years of age at the
end of it.
In the 10 years from \ ~j
1750 to 1760, the ( 205 .,79
whole number of '"
burials was J >being 7249
Of which under 207 j^g 264 I
years 01 age J J
T- i-T^i ^ , ^»„ r>c,A tt\i-^ >-above 20 years ol
From 1761 to 17/0 234','1'071 „„„ ^
more under than
19
age.
Under 20 years of) , ,„ q^^ vbeing 35
age J ' ' \
From 1771 to 1780 2M,605 7
Under 20 years of ) 1 , o i qq f being 9661
age JllAUJ^ J
* This has been affirmed to me as applicable to the whole of
the towns," from the Land's End in Cornwall to Jkrwiclc upon
Tweed," by the actuaries at some of the principal life insurance
offices in the metropolis.
•252
CAUSES Ol IlIE DECREASE OF
From this period, the proportion of those who
died under twenty years of age was less than half
the whole number buried, the proportionate num-
ber of those dying under twenty decreasing in
every ten suceeding years.
From 1781 to 1790,"
the whole number I 192,690
of burials was J
Of which, under 20
years of age ........
being 338
From 1791 to 1800 196,801
Under 20 years of
age
From 1801 to 1810
Under 20 years of
age .....
[ 90,126
196,801-1
j 98,J0*j^^*"g ^^^
188,842)
[ 90,397 p^^"g««*«
less under than
above 20 years
of age.
From 1811 to 1820 190,568")
Under 20 years of) g^ „_> being 18,660
age J ' J -J
The difference is considerable, and proves a
very rapid increase in the value of life within
the last fifty years ; the difference in favour of
the last ten years of the series, being no less than
25,909 above the first ten years of the series. By
the summary of the baptisms and burials appended
to the population returns for 1811, it appears, that
the mortality in the metropolis in 1700 was as one
in twenty-five, in 1750 as one in twenty-one, in
1801 and the four preceeding years, as one in
thirly five, and from that period to 1811, as one
in thirty-eight. Much of this is attributable to the
increased salubrity of the metropolis, much to the
increase of surgical and medical knowledge, much
MORTALITY IN' LONDON. 2.53
also to the change that has taken place, not only
in London, but all over the country, in the habits
of the working classes, who are infinitely more
moral, more sober, more cleanly in their persons
and their dwellings, than they were formerly, par-
ticularly the women ; partly from the success of
the cotton manufactures, w^hicli has enabled them
to discard the woollen clothes which were uni-
versally worn by them, which lasted for years^
and were seldom, if ever washed ; partly from
increased knowledge in domestic concerns, and
the nursing and general management of children.
Notwithstanding the vice, the misery, and the
disease which still abounds in London, its general
prevalence has been greatly diminished.
Mr. Godwin cannot but remember the vast num-
ber of rickety, crooked-legged, scald-headed child-
ren, who used to run about the streets of the metro-
polis ; whereas it is now by no means common, to
see such children, even in the very poorest neigh-
bourhood. Of this any one may satisfy himself,
by visiting the parish, the National, and the Lan-
casterian schools, in several of which hundreds of
children may be inspected at one visit. Within the
memory of many persons, the habits of the working
people, and of the master tradesmen even, were
exceedingly dissolute, when compared with what
they are now. Public-house parlours, and what are
called ** free and easy,'* or " chair clubs," were
very numerous. At these clubs, some one took the
chair at a fixed time in the evening, and whoever
pleased attended the meeting, upon paying the price
254 CAUSES OF THE DECREASE OF
of a pot of beer, sixpence, or a shilling, for which
they received liquor to the amount of the money
paid. To many of these women were admitted, and
then they were called " cock and hen clubs.'* Drink-
ing, swearing, and singing obscene songs, were the
regular amusements ; and it was by no means un-
common for the master and his apprentice to smoke
their pipes in these clubs at the same table. The
remains of these nurseries of every thing infamous,
are now only to be found among the outcasts of
society, and even among them they are by no
.means common.
Scarcely thirty years ago, there were in the
environs of London no less than twenty-seven
places of public resort, in which all sorts of
vicious conduct were carried to an excess, of which
by far the greater part of the present generation
can form no conception. No one such place is now
in existence ; and it is a remarkable circumstance,
4,hat all the attempts which have been made within
a few years to revive them, have wholly failed. *
The change in the habits of the people, caused,
as it has been, by their being better informed, has
not been confined to the metropolis, but has spread
all over the country ; and, when taken into con-
sideration with the other circumstances which
have been mentioned, will be found to be no in-
efficient causes of an increase of the population ;
and had food been provided for a still larger
* Much curious matter relating to the habits of the people
within the last fifty years has been collected, and may possibly
be some day laid before the public.
MORTALITY IN LONDON. "255
number, that number would have been suppUed.
Mr. Malthus has observed, that *' the removal of
any particular causes of mortality, can have no
further effect upon population than the means of
subsistence will allow * ;" and that the " increase
of salubrity in London could not have existed, if
the causes thereof had not been accompanied by
the preventive check." t In speaking of the mor-
tality occasioned by different diseases, he says,
" That as all that are born above a certain num-
ber must die, if old diseases are exterminated,
other diseases will be generated, or those in exivS-
tence will become more fatal. If, for instance,
the cow-pox should exterminate the small-pox, and
yet the (proportionate) number of marriages con-
tinue the same, we shall find a very perceptible
difference in the increased mortality of some other
diseases. Nothing could prevent this effect but a
sudden start in our agriculture, and if this should
take place, it will not be so much owing to the
number of children saved by the cow-pox inocul-
ation, as the alarm occasioned by the late scar-
cities.'* To this ])assage Mr. Malthus, in his last
edition, adds a note, as follows : ** The start here
alluded to, certainly took place from 1801 to 1814,
and provision was really made for the diminished
mortality." t This doctrine is perfectly sound, and
the facts are incontrovertible.
Mr. Malthus observes, that "marriages in Eng-
land are later than in France, the natural conse-
* Essay, vol. iii. p. \'M. -|- lb. p. 134.
X lb. p. 137.
25() CAUSES OF THE DECREASE OF
quence of that prudence and respectability gene-
rated by a better government ; and can we doubt
that good has been the result ? The marriages in
this country are now later than they were before
the revolution, (he means of 1688,) and I feel
firmly persuaded, that the increased healthiness
observed of late, could not possibly have taken
place without the accompanying circumstance." *
Mr. Malthus has here attributed too much to the
government ; it is one of his general, sweeping,
indiscriminating clauses which discredit his work.
The prudence and respectability of which bespeaks,
although it could not have increased in a much
worse governed country than this, has, in the pre-
sent instance, been more owing to the exertions of
the people in the middle rank of society than to the
government, which cannot be said to have done
any thing in this respect for the people. Nor is
this to be wondered at. In its very nature it is
capable of doing very little absolute good, while,
by its intermeddling in all the concerns of the
people, it is continually producing evil.
** A diligent inquirer after truth,** will, however,
find reason enough to be satisfied with the rest of
the passage quoted; it led me to enquire respect-
ing the married and unmarried grown-up daughters
in all the families with which I am sufficiently
acquainted, to be able to ascertain their ages.
Those families are all in the middle rank of life ;
tradesmen, merchants, bankers, and professional
* Essay, vol. iii. p. 3^61.
OF MORTALITY IV LONDON'.
'i:>l
men, and the result is as follows. 'I'hc number of
families is tweiity-lwo, and in all that number there
is no instance of any female having been married
under her twentieth year. They mav be classed
thus : —
MARRIED.
LXUARRIFD.
rOTA L.
Under 25
Above 25
Between
20 and 25
Above 25
Married 14
Botb...5G
9
5
15
27
Unmarried 42
Mr. Malthus has inferred from the returns to the
population acts, that the number of marriages has
decreased proportionally as the population has in-
creased ; that the births to marriages have also
decreased, and yet that the population has in-
creased. A superficial observer, or a mere practi-
cal calculator, would, probably, have been led by
these circumstances to infer, that the population
had declined. Dr. Price, for example, would have
been sure to have made this mistake, and we need
not be surprised that other persons should have
come to the same conclusion. Mr. Malthus has,
however, very truly inferred, that the increase of
the salubrity of towns, and the increased value of
life, is attributable, in no small degree, to these
circumstances.
Dr. Heberden has adduced several circum-
stances which prove, that the country is generally
more salubrious than formerly ; he says, " The
s
2.58 PAUSE OF THE DECREASE, ^'C.
cause of SO great an alteration in the health of the
people of England, I have no hesitation in attri-
buting to the improvements which have gradually
taken place, not only in London, but in all great
towns, and in the manner of living throughout
the kingdom, particularly to cleanliness and ven-
tilation." *
These are consolatory circumstances, and an ear-
nest, that, with due care, some, or all of the pre-
ventive checks may, in time, be found efficient.
That the population may be kept rather below than
above the means of subsistence, and the demand
for labour, that poverty and misery, vice and crime
may be removed, to an extent which scarcely any
one would, at present, venture to predict.
# Observations on Uie increase and decrease of different
diseases, by W. Heberden, M.D. F.R.S. 1801. 4to, p. 35.
259
CHAPTER IX.
OF THE ACCUMULATION OF CAPITAL, AS IT CONDUCES TO THE
WELL-BEING OF THE PEOPLE.— CONSEQUENCES OF INCREAS-
ING THE NUMBER OF PEOPLE MORE RAPIDLY THAN CAPITAL
INCREASES. — SPADE CULTIVATION. DOES POPULATION
PRESS AGAINST THE MEANS OF SUBSISTENCE? — EXAMPLE,
IRELAND. — INCREASE OF PEOPLE. — LOW WAGES. — IGNO-
RANCE. — DISEASE.
When the population of any country increases,
one of two things invariably takes place ; either a
proportional increase of capital as fast as that of
the people, or a deterioration in the circumstances
of the great body of the people. Many excellent
remarks on these circumstances may be found in
Mr. Malthus*s chapter on the agricuJtural system.*
Capital consists of things accumulated — the sav-
ings from labour, which again furnish the means
of employment. It is clear, that if every thing
were consumed as fast as it was produced, without
any reproduction, there could be no accumulation
and no increase of capital, every one would be
obliged to produce the food necessary for his Ov^ ii
subsistence, and mankind would be degraded to
the lowest possible point.
* Essay, vol. ii. p. 381.
s 2
The uutlior of the History of British India has,
in another place*, stated the principles of popula-
tion with admirable precision and clearness, and
has shown the effects which could not fail to be
produced, were we to adopt the spade cultivation,
as recommended by Mr. Godwhi, in the degrada-
tion of mankind.
«* There can,*' he observes, •' be no doubt, tliat,
by increasing every year the proportion of the po-
pulation which you employ in raising food, and
diminishing every year the proportion employed in
every thing else, you may go on increasing food as
fast as population increases, till the labour of a
man, added upon the land, is just sufficient to
add as much to the produce as will maintain him-
self and raise a family. But if things were made
to go on in such an order till they arrived at that
pass, men would have food, but they would have
nothing else. They would have neither clothes,
nor houses, nor furniture. There would be no-
thing for elegance, nothing for ease, nothing for
pleasure. There would be no class exempt from
the necessity of perpetual labour, by whom know-
ledge might be cultivated, and discoveries useful
to mankind might be made. There would be no
physicians, no legislators. The human race would
become a mere multitude of animals of a very low
description, having just two functions, that of
raising and that of consuming food." " What
♦ See the article Colony, in the Supp. to the Encyclopedia
Britamiica.
9
CULTIVATION.*. 26l
then," he asks, *' are the best means of checking
the progress of population wlien it cannot go on
unrestrained without producing one of two most
undesirable effects, either drawing an undue pro-
portion of the population to the mere raising of
food, or producing poverty and wretchedness •,"
and ihiSy he observes, '* isy indeed, the most impor-
tant practical problem tt) xvJiich the tiisdom of the
politician and tnoralist can be applied. It has, till
this time, been miserably evaded by all those who
have meddled with the subject, as well as by all
those who were called upon by their situation to
find a remedy for the evils to which it relates.
And yet, if the superstitions of the nursery were
discarded, and the principle ofutilitij ke})t steadily
in view, a solution might not be difhcult to be
found, and the means of drying up one of the
most co})ious sources of human evil a source
which, if all other sources of evil were taken
away, would alone suffice to retain the great mass
of hiunan beings in misery, might be seen to be
neither doubtful nor difficult to be aj)plied."
If population increase without a proporlionate
increase of capital, which we have seen it may do,
the real wages of labour will iall. In course of
time, the })eople will be reduced to extreme ])over-
ty and misery, and a stop will, by their means, be
put to any further increase ; in this state, a bad
iiarvest or two will cause dearth or famine, and
produce pestilential diseases. Ireland, unhappily,
furnishes a melancholy proof of a people in the
latter state. Even there, no doubt, cjipit.al was
26^ INCREASE OF rorULATIOxX
accumulated, but at a much slower rate than the
increase of the population required. There the
people supported themselves by " the spade culti-
vation,'* and there tiie immediate consequence ot"
the causes mentioned may be seen in the misery of
the people, and the diseased state of the country,
particularly in those parts where the increase of
people had exceeded the accumulation of capital
with the greatest rapidity.
No one who will take the trouble to enquire will
doubt, that Ireland has added greatly to its popu-
lation during the last 100 years. Mr. Newenham
and Mr. Wakefield have, with great care and dili-
gence, collected all that is known on this subject,
and their researches go far towards proving a
doubling in that country in less than half a cen-
tury, and afford reasons for believing, that, at
particular periods, it has increased at a much
faster rate.
Those who, like Mr. Godwin, deny that popu-
lation presses against the means of subsistence,
have asked how, if there be a rapid increase of
people, can they press at the same time against
the means of subsistence. The answer is, that
there is, in all old countries under these circum-
stances, an attempt to produce people faster than
subsistence, and the consequence is, that there
can be no rapid increase for any considerable
length of time, it can only be occasional. Some
contend, that it is the increase of people that
causes the increase of food to be provided. No
doubt this is sometimes the case, and perhaps al-
IN IRELAND. 26S
ways so to some extent, by keeping up the demand .
But there is always an effort to produce as much
food as possible, tliose concerned in producing it
having a perpetual interest in increasing the quan-
tity, except under some very peculiar circum-
stances — such as a ])lague, wliich has greatly
reduced the population; but this, like the circum-
stance first mentioned, is an exception to the rule,
not the rule itself. In Ireland, for instance, mar-
riages are contracted at an early age, and the j)ro-
geny is therefore large. The only restraint, and
that is not, in many cases, found effective, is the
want of a cabin and a potatoe garden. Once in
j)Ossession of the cabin, the garden, and the girl,
the Irishman sets himself and his wife to work to
provide themselves with food ; this they can al-
most always succeed in doing, but the surplus
beyond mere feeding is worth so little, that it is
seldom sufficient to enable them to purchase the
most ordinary utensils, while the money they earn
at daily labour is as seldom sufficient to enable
them to pay their rent, and provide the miserable
clothing to which their desires are limited. Thus
they go on, until the increase of the family makes
it impossible for them to provide food enough in
ordinary seasons lor the healthy sup})ort of" tiicm-
selves and their children, the old and the helpless.
While this system continues, and while a rood of
land capable of producing potatoes can be had, the
population may continue to increase, anti must re-
main in its })resent dc])lorable condition, ill ied,
worse taught, ill clothed, itlle, tlirly, ragged, and
s 1.
'264 rN-cRi:;Asi: of topulatiOn*
wretched in the extreme, constantly pressing
against the means of subsistence, and occasionally
cut down by disease.
It is apparent that food, even such food as the
poor Irish are compelled to subsist upon, cannot
be produced as rapidly as the increase of popula-
tion requires, and that numbers are prematurely
cut off. That here the increase of the people is
not the cause of food being provided, for it is not
provided. That early as are the marriages and
numerous the progeny, there would yet be more
marriages and more children, could every young
man obtain possession of a cabin and a potatoe
garden. Population always presses, and when the
pressure becomes excessive, disease reduces the
number of the people, population starts anew, and
is again repressed ; still, however, increasing in
proportion to the increased quantity of land taken
into cultivation, and to the quantity of food which
spade cidtivation will produce in ordinary sea-
sons. Ireland furnishes proofs in refutation of
every one of Mr. Godwin's positions, of Mr.
Booth's dissertation, and of all the writers who
have attempted to disprove the ** the principle of
population."
It is the same in every old-settled country, but
its demonstration cannot so easily, so plainly, and
in so short a space, be so satisfactorily explained.
Mr. Malthus has, however, taken mucli pains to
prove, and has succeeded in proving, that popula-
tion constantly presses against the means of sub-
IN IRELAND. '. fG5
sistence in almost every country throughout the
world.
Mr. Wakefield, among much highly useful and
curious information respecting the population and
condition of the poorer sort of people in Ireland,
is of opinion that spade cultivation, as used in
most parts of that country, for the purpose of
producing potatoes, deteriorates the population
in every respect ; and where the potatoe constitutes
the sole food, he observes that the size as well as the
strength of the people is diminished. " One great
drawback on potatoes, as food for the inhabitants
of a country,'* he observes, " is, that in no crop is
there a greater difference in good or bad years,
as to the quantity produced. Two or three
good years will create people, the redundancy
of which population will be repressed by sub-
sequent years of failure. But the evil is seldom
traced to its real origin ; the check for the moment
shows itself in disease, arising from bad nourish-
ment, and the loss occasioned is ascribed to the
disease rather than to the cause by which it is
produced.*' " Every one that knows Ireland is
convinced, that years of scarcity in that country
are very frequent, and these periods put an end
to the false part of the population, if I may
be allowed the expression, raised by years of
plenty."*
Since Mr. Wakefield wrote, Ireland has been
visited with two remarkably bad seasons in suc-
* Account of Ireland, vul. ii. p. T~b.
'266 DECUKASE OF PEOPLE IN
cession, those of 1816 and I8I7, the consequences of
which were famine, disease, and death ; no part of
that unfortunate country was exempt from disease;
but in tlie northern provinces, where the people
were not wholly fed upon potatoes, but where meal
and occasionally animal food made part of their
diet, the fever was less general, and less destructive ;
but in those provinces where the people were
almost wholly fed upon potatoes, the state of dis-
ease and misery was so truly honid as to make
one's blood run cold, while reading the accounts
of the medical inspectors. In Feb. 1819, the Lord
Lieutenant appointed a medical inspecter for each
of the four provinces, who ascertained on the
spot the state of the fever since 1816, and the
condition of the people. The inspectors made
written returns to a set of questions, ten in num-
ber, embracing all the most important points
necessary to be ascertained.*
All the inspectors attribute the fever to bad
and insufficient nourishment, the jmlatoe crops
having Jailed in consequence of tlie extreme
humidity of the two years before mentioned, and
there being nothing icJiich could be resorted to as a
substitute.
They observe, that even the seed potatoes were
taken up and eaten as food ; that nettles, and
all other esculent herbs, with the coarsest bran,
were eaten ; that the people became feeble from
* These accounts were printed by order of the House of
Commons on the IT^h May, 1819.
IRELAND FROM FEVER. Q()J
want of food ; that their extreme wretchedness,
and the despondency their miserable circumstances
produced, fitted them to receive the fever ; that
they wandered about in masses, men, women, and
children, knowing not where to go, nor what to
do, and spreading disease and death on all sides.
Medical assistants, and many of the officiating
priests, caught the fever, some of whom died ;
and when temporary fever-houses had been pre-
pared, it often happened that the greatest diffi-
culty existed in procuring nurses.
In some places, when a person was seized with
the fever, such was the dread of contagion, that the
sufferer was removed to a barn or outhouse, where
a sort of bed having been prepared, the patient
was locked in, and food and medicine handed
through a hole made for tlie purpose in the wall :
here, if able to assist himself, and to live in jiis
own filth, until some time after the disease had
subsided, he was released ; if unable to assist him-
self, he perished.
AVhen a stranger, or labourer who had no cabin
of liis own, took the disease, it was quite customan/
to prej)are a shed for liim by tiie roatl side, by
inclining some spars or sticks against a wall or
bank of a ditch, and covering them with straw.
Under these sheds, which the rain penetrated, the
the patients lay on a little straw, and cruel as
such treatment may a])pcar, sucii was the malig-
nant nature of the disease, tluit fewer died in
those sheds than in the wretched nmd cabins.
Imagination can scarcely picture a more horrid
26s DECREASE, ScC.
slate than that of the great mass of the population
of Ireland in the years 18 17, 1818, and part of
1819.
It was remarked by the inspectors, that the
popuhition liad been rapidly increasing; with their
increase came increase of povert}^ and being re-
duced to the lowest possible state of existence,
failure in the crop of potatoes produced famine, —
famine, disease, and death reduced the population
to the number which could be maintained in
ordinary years by the spade cultivation of potatoes.
It is perfectly clear, that while this system con-
tinues, and while the people remain ignorant of
the radical cause of their misery, the same course
will be pursued, and the same consequences will
follow ; yet Mr. Godwin denies, that population
presses against the means of subsistence.
One circumstance deserves to be noticed, very
few comparatively of the rich were afflicted with
the fever ; and in places where the soldiers were
kept in their barracks, well fed, well clothed and
lodged in dry apartments, they were wholly free
from the fever which raged around them.
SG9
CHAPTER X.
CONCLUSION.
MR. Godwin's repugnance to the science of political
ECONOMY. THE DOCTRINES INCULCATED IN THIS WORK
CANNOT BE PROMOTED, NOR THE CXiNDlTION OE THE
PEOPLE BE MATERIALLY AND PERMANENTLY IMPROVED,
WITHOUT A COMPETENT KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCIENCE OF
POLITICAL ECONOMY-.
JVlii. Godwin says, " The Enquiry into the Wealth
of Nations is not a book much to my taste. It is
very proper that sucli subjects should be discussed,
but I own there is something in the discussions
that makes me feel, while engaged in them, a
painful contraction of the heart."* Every man
who greatly desires the well-being of his species,
and indulges in speculations on his future intel-
lectual progress, has no doubt felt the repugnance
which Mr. Godwin has mentioned, at finding him-
self compelled to abandon, as it were, the notions
he would fain indulge without ^ alloy ; and to de-
scend to calculations and comparisons of losses
and gains, of trade, commerce, and manufactures,
of the nature of rent, profit, and wages, the accu-
mulation of capital, and the operation of taxes.
* Reply, p. 611.
270 NECESSITY OF KNOWLEDGE
But he who woiikl essentially serve mankind, has
no choice; he must submit himself patiently to the
pain he cannot avoid w^ithout abandoning his duty.
Mr. Godwin did this ; he submitted patiently, and
he pursued his course perseveringly, until he had
produced his Enquiry concerning PoliticalJustice;
until he had published three editions, and is, as I
have reason to know^, not wholly disinclined to pre-
pare a fourth edition of that work. .
But he cannot bring himself to the same state
of mind in respect to the science of Political Eco-
nomy. The reasons are obvious ; Mr. Godwin
thinks, 1st, political economy is at variance witli
his doctrines, which he may be assured it is not, so
far as those doctrines are really sound. 2. He
does not at all comprehend its vast importance to
the community. It is, however, impossible that
the political condition of the people can be greatly
improved by those who do not themselves possess
a competent knowledge of this, " the latest dis-
covered science." If it were true, that *' man-
kind have not the power to increase their number,
or if they have the power, that it can operate but
slowly, — if there were more reason to fear a de-
crease, than to expect an increase of mankind,"
as Mr. Godwin represents, he might congratulate
himself on the near approach of the accomplish-
ment of some of his speculations, since the most
material obstacle would be removed, and all the
necessaries, and as many of the luxuries of life
as he pleased, might soon be had in great abun-
dance.
OF THE SCIENCE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY. 271
But if the tendency of mankind to increase be
great, if the actual increase be more rapid than
the accumuhition of capital, notldng can save the
community from distress ; and the same effect will
be produced, if capital decrease, while the popu-
lation remain stationary. It is not, however, in-
tended to be insinuated that a more judicious use
could not be made of the capital of this or of any
other country. Here, at least, it might be so used
as to afford to every person in the country tlic
means of rational enjoyment for a moderate portion
of labour. But to efiect this salutary change, it
would be necessary that the whole community
should possess a considerable portion of the know-
ledge Mr. Godwin is recommended to acquire.
Looking then at man, not as Mr. Godwin ac-
cuses Mr. Malthus and his followers of looking at
him, as a mere brutal machine, but as an intellec-
tual being, a light in which Mr. Godwin is very
properly fond of placing him, it may safely be
concluded, that were Mr. Godwin well instructed
in the principles of political economy, he would
be one of the most zealous, as well as one of the
most useful supporters of the doctrines he has taken
so much pains to condemn.
.3
.4>
APPENDIX, No. I.
ON THE EXTENT OF THE UNITED STATES AND OF THE
NUMBER OF STATES AND TERRITORIES AT THE TAKING
OF THE SEVERAL CENSUSES OF THE PEOPLE IN 1790,
1800, AND 1810.
The territorial possessions of the United States, as settled
by the Treaty of Peace in 1 783, were bounded on the east
by the Atlantic Ocean ; on the north by the British pos-
sessions; on tlie west by the Mississippi River; and on the
south by the thirty-first degree of north latitude, which
separated them from East and West Florida.
At the peace of ] 783, that part of the territory which
was best peopled, was formed into thirteen states, designated
by the following names : viz.
1.
New Hampshire.
8.
Delaware.
2.
Massachusett's Bay.
9.
Maryland.
3.
Rhode Island.
10.
Virginia.
4.
Connecticut.
11.
North Carolina.
5.
New York.
12.
South Carolina.
6.
New Jersey.
13.
Georgia.
7.
Pennsylvania.
All the land not included in these States, was called the
Western territory.
By an ordinance of Congress made on the 1 3th of July,
1787, all the land lying east of the Mississippi, and north
of the Ohio rivers, called the North Western territory, was
directed to be divided into not less than three, nor more
•274 APPEND JX, NO. 1.
than five districts, or separate territories, since called by
the names of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, and the
North Western territory. By the same ordinance, it was
settled that as soon as there should be 5,000 free male
inhabitants upwards of twenty-one years of age, in any of
the territories or districts, they should elect, from among
themselves, a number of persons to form a representative
assembly of the territory ; and this assembly was directed
to elect one person as a representative in Congress, Avho
was to be allowed to debate, but not to vote. It also di-
rected, that when any of the territories had 00,000 fiee
inhabitants, they should have the right of constituting their
territory a state, and of being represented in Congress, on
an equal footing with the original states, in all respects
whatever.
By the fourth clause of the second section of the first
article of the constitution of the United States, ratified on
the 17th of September, 1787, it was ordained that an
actual enumeration of the inhabitants should be made
within three years, after the first meeting of the Congress
ef the United States; and within every subsequent ten
years, in such manner as the law shall direct. The first
Congress met on the 4th of March, 1789, and in 1791*
the first census, or enumeration was taken; the second
census was tak^n in 1801 ; and the third in 1811. These
have been called the censuses of 1790, 1800, and 1810.
By act of Congress, Dec. 6, 1790, a district which had
formerly been claimed both by the state of New York and
the state of New Hampshire, was constituted a separate
state under the name of Vermont.
A district westward of the state of Virginia had been
settled some years earlier, under the name of Kentucky. In
1785, the inhabitants were desirous to be admitted into
the union as a separate state, but in consequence of some
disputes with Virginia, respecting the right of territory, it
was not admitted as a separate state until the year 1799.
9
APPENDIX, NO. T. 275
It had, however, formed a constitution for itself in 1 792, and
was in most respects considered a separate state. This state
extends along the south bank of the Ohio to the Mississippi.
' In the census of 1790, the states of Vermont and Ken-
tucky are named as separate states, making fifteen states.
All the land not formed into states, is designated in this
census by the title Western territory.
The lands lying south of Kentucky were claimed by the
Carolinas, and by Georgia; but these claims liaviug been
relinquished, a state was formed south of Kentucky, and
admitted into the union in 179G, under the name of
Tenassec.
The country south of Tenassec, and west of Georgia,
was called the Mississippi territory. These divisions of
territory are recognized in the census of 1800. The ter-
ritory of Indiana was also settled, and admitted as a
separate territory', as was also a portion of the states of
Maryland and Virginia, which those states ceded for the
purpose of forming a territory for the permanent scat of
government, of which the city of Washington is the capital.
This state is recognized in the census of ISOO, by the name
of the district of Columbia. With these additions, these
states and territories amounted to twenty.
In 1802, the district of Oliio established itself, and was
admitted as a separate state, into the Union. Michigan
and Illinois soon afterwards became sejiaratc tcrritc^rics,
and are so recognized in the census of 1810, uKiking the
number of states and territories at that time, within the
boundaries of the United States, twenty-three.
But besides these states and territories, two others were
added in 1803, by the names of Louisiana and Orlean-,
making the whole number twenty-five.
These two territories were settled by the French anil
Spaniards ; and after changing masters several limes, were
in 1800 ceded by Spain to France; and in ISOU, by
France to the United Stales. As these statcb made no
T '2
iijG APPENDIX, NO. 1.
part of the territories of the United States in 1790, llic
population they contained when ceded in 1803, was an
addition to the population of the United States, equal to
the arrival of the same number of emigrants. By the
census of 1810, it appears that the number of free white
inhabitants in these territories was 51,538. How many of
these had emigrated from the United States, from the time
the country was ceded to the taking of the census in 1811,
I have no means of ascertaining ; but it is not material
since if the whole number as it was found in 1811, be de-
ducted from the population of the United Stales, it will in
no way affect the calculations and estimates in the body of
the work.
This Appendix appeared to me to be called for by the
vague and erroneous notions which I have found to prevail,
respecting the geography of the United States, the terri-
tories which have been added to them, and the accession
of people thus acquired.
APPENDIX, No. IL
ON THE NUMBER OF EMIGllANTS FllOM THE BRITISH ISLAlilJS
TO THE UNITED STATES OF NORTH AMERICA.
IVlR. Godwin and Mr. Booth have both of them apphed
the Swedish population tables to this country, and to the
Anglo-American States, and have argued therefrom, that
there has been no increase of people in this country for
several ages ; and that in the United States the people do
not from procreation keep up their numbers. Both admit
the increase of the population in the United States, and
both affirm, that it has been wholly caused by immigration.
Neither of them appear to have been aware of the dilemma
into which their statements and assertions would neces-
sarily lead them. Yet one of two circumstances, either of
which is totally destructive of their hypothesis, must follow
from their premises.
Tf the increase in the American population has been
wholly occasioned by emigration, the population in those
countries whence the emigrants proceeded, must have been
decreased by at the least as large a number as America re-
ceived; or if the population in those countries has not
decreased, the number which emigrated has been supplied
by procreation, and thus its power is proved in those
countries.
If America has not increased its jiopulation materially
by emigration, then the power of procreation is proved
$^78 APPENDIX, NO. II.
there ; so that in cither case, the theory of Mr. Godwin
and Mr. Booth falls to the ground.
By the American census for 1790, it appears that
the number of free persons in the United States
was 3,223,629
By the census of 1810 6,01-8,539
Giving an increase in twenty years of 2,825,910
The census now taking will, it is supposed, even by
Mr. Godwin, show a total population of 10,000,000
If from this number we deduct the slave
population as it stood in 1810 1,191,364*
The number of the free population will be 8,808,636
Which gives for the increase of the free population,
in the ten years between 1810 and 1820, 2,760,097
Being a total increase in thirty years of 5,586,007
, On the statement then of Mr. Godwin and Mr. Booth
that the increase has been wholly occasioned by emi-
gration, if we take the emigrants from Great Britain and
Ireland at two thirds f, and the emigration from other
countries at one third, the British islands must have fur-
nished 3,724,005. If half of the emigrants from Great
Britain and Ireland were, as Mr. Godwin endeavours to
persuade us they were, young women, we should have
lost no less than 1,862,002 of our best breeders, of that
part of the population by which alone the number of the
people could be maintained. But, says Mr. Godwin, " I
have one exception :" It was not necessary for more than
* No slaves have been imported since the year 1810; and as
Mr. Godwin assures us, that the free population does not from
procreation maintain its number, he will not, it may be con-
cluded, contend that the slave population has increased in
number.
-}■ It is probable that seven-eighths of the settleis in the United
vStatcs went from these islands.
APPENDIX, NO. ir. 279
half the miniber to have j;one, for as each female was a
breeding woman, and was worth two of the ordinary run
of the population, they would quadruple their own number,
and double that of all the emigrants in the period named.
But this is a fallacy which will not avail, for, on Mr. God-
win's own showing, if these picked women could quadruple
tlieir number in America, they would have done the same
had they remained here, and consequently whatever number
was gained by America, was lost to us.
If we take the population of the British islands in 1790
at 17,000,000*, which Mr. Godwin and Mr. Booth will
both allow to be an outside number, and divide it by five,
one in every five being according to Mr. Godwin a mar-
riageable woman, the whole number of such women will be
3,400,000; and if from this number we deduct the female
emigrants 1,862,002, there will remain only 1,537,998,
considerably /^55 than /lalf the "teeming women" necessary^
according to Mr. Godwin and Mr. Booth, to supply the
waste of mortality, and to heep the population from de-
clining.
These gentlemen, by their statements, suppose a loss of
3,724,005 of the prime members of the population, out of
17,000,000 in thirty years, which would reduce the number
to 13,275,995, a number wliich by the census now taking
will probably be found in Great Britain alone. But the
number would be reduced much lower than by a mere sub-
traction of the number of emigrants it would appear to be;
those emigrants being picked from the most valuable part
of the community, and we have the assurance of Mr. God-
win, and Mr. Booth's tables, to prove that the people thus
taken away could never be replaced. Mr. Godwin indeed
says, " Wherever depopulation has once set up its standard,
* England and Scotland 12,500,000
Ireland..... 4,500,000
17,000,000
^80 Al^PENDIX, NO. ir.
the evil goes on — wherever depopulation 1ms operated to a
great extent, and for a considerable length of time, 1 be-
lieve we shall never find that country resuming its preced-
ing prosperity and populousness, unless by an actual
planting and settling of a new race of inhabitants within
its limits."* Yet here, according to him, depopulation
has been going on rapidly for more than two centuries,
and yet the population has been greatly increased. If it
were true that the people in the United States were not
able to keep up their numbers by procreation, the total
amount of the immigrants must at every period of time
have been at the least as great as the whole population. If
from the present amount of the population, taking it at
10,000,000, we deduct for the slave population 2,000,000,
and allow two thirds of the remaining 8,000,000 to repre-
sent the number of emigrants from the British islands, we
shall have furnished nearly five and a half millions, and if to
these be added the amount of the English population in
the Canadas, in the East and West Indies, in New Hol-
land, and in all other parts of the world, we must be sup-
posed to have lost nearly, or perhaps quite 7,000,000 of
people. Had this been the case, the population at home
could by no possibility, on the system of Mr. Godwin and
Mr. Booth, have been equal to half its present amount.
The inferences to which the statements of Mr. Godwin
and Mr. Booth lead, are equally numerous and absurd ;
but as they are all disproved by the actual population at
home, and in the Anglo-American States, it does not seem
necessary to push them any further.
* Reply, p. 308.
THE END.
TvONDON :
Printed by A. (k R. SpoUiswoode,
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