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aftd imports , and the balance of trade ; and , we doubt not , that he has given a clear and comprehensive view of them . But we fear we have already
made our readers weary of the subject ; indeed , we grow weary ourselves for this reason we must also pass over all that he has said on revenue , taxes , stock , interest , annuities , &e .
But , as the question of population is in itself so interesting to individuals as well as states , and as the peculiar views of Mr . Malthus are often made the subject of conversation where there is little actual knowledge , it may not be unacceptable to detain our readers by a short account of his celebrated Essay .
Dr . Smith had said , " that the demand for men , like that for any other commodity , necessarily regulates the production of meiy . " Mr . Malthus advances a step farther , and having observed , that population invariably increases where the mearj ? of
subsistence increase , proceeds to lay it down as a sort of axiom , that there is a constant tendency in animals to increase beyond the nourishment prepared for them , and traces to this source a considerable part of the vice and misery in the world . Assuming , from the instance of North America
that population , when unchecked , doubles in twenty-five years , or in a geometrical ratio , while the means of subsistence , after all the land shall have been occupied , and the yearly increase of food can only depend on
melioration of land and its management , cannot possibly be estimated ta increase beyond an arithmetical ratio $ then , taking the whole earth , which puts emigration out of the question , the human species can only be kept down to the level of the means of
subsistence by some powerful checks . These are either preventive , consisting in moral restraint , or destructive , as poverty , bad nursing , vice , diseases , war and famine . No ono can hesitate to prefer the preventive to the
destructive checks ; it follows , therefore , that every effort should be made to discourage helpless and improvident habits , and raise them to a sense of the dignity of their nature . This must be done by good government and education , and whatever tends to
raise theftr respectability and independence- The poor laws have this ,
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among other bad effects ; they tend to encourage marriage between those who have no prospect of providing for their offspring , and take from them every motive to frugality and forethought . They raise the price of provisions by increasing the number of mouths , and those mouths idle
ones . He proposes , that the poor laws should be gradually abolished by enacting , that no child , the product of a marriage taking place a year after the passing of the law , shall be en * titled to parish relief ; and no illegitimate clvild born two years from the same date . This he thinks would be
fair notice ; and without pressing hard on any individual , would throw off the rising generation from their wretched spirit of dependence , and all its incal- * culable evil consequences .
Although the good intentions of Mr . Malthus are evident in every page , he has probably , in endeavour ^ ing to avoid one extreme , fallen into the opposite . The system of Providence does not seem liable to the
objections . which must present themselves to every reflecting person on his scheme . And would not private benevolence be extended in propor * tion as legislative was withdrawn ? And may it not be questioned whether individual obligation might not create a more abject spirit of dependence >
It is but justice to say ,, that Mr . Madds , " the precise reason why I wish no more children to be born than the country can support is , that the greatest possible number of those born may be supported ; Every loss of a child from the consequences of
poverty , must evidently be accompanied by great misery to the individuals concerned ; and with respect ; to the public , every child that dies under ten . years of age , is a- loss to the nation of all that has been expended on it . A decrease of mortality is what we aim at : for this we must impress on the
minds of the young , that to avoid great misery , and secure all the proper advantages of marriage , they must defer it till they have a fair opportunity of maintaining a family . It is not in the nature of things that any permanent and general good can be effected without an increase of the
preventive check- ' We have onjy time to observe further , that the chapter on > the
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Review . —^ Shepherd , Joyce and Carpenter ' s Systematic Education . 707
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Nov. 2, 1818, page 707, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2482/page/43/
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