The Sun.
London, England, 1830-02-09 00:00:00

tMIGRATION-PAUPERISM.

Extracts from " Causes and Remedies of Pauperism"—
Comspondence between the Right Hon. R. Wilmot
Horton and M. Duchatel.

LETTER PROM THE RIGHT HON. R. WILMOT HORTON,

11. P., TO MONS. DUCHATEL.

MY DEAR SlR,—Your answer to my letter upon the
question of expense is perfectly satisfactory ; because I
am prepared to spew that, in my own country, the ex-
pense of colonization is less than the expense of home
maintenance ; and having demonstrated that fact, I am
entitled to claim your authority in support of the policy of
the measure.
The principal and most successful argument which is
employed against me, by' persons whose authority com-
tnands an attentive consideration of their criticism, is the
following :—That it, by a national effort, the proportions
between capital and labour were restored, upon which the
prosperity of the poorer classes depends, the additional sti-
mulus which would be given to the remaining population
by the abstraction of redundant labourers, would at a very
early period reproduce the evil, and that, consequently,
the expense would be thrown away. To speak with
plainness, notwithstanding the sanction of these authori-
ties, /ant of opinion that nething can be less true or less
philosophical than this objection.
I consider that, with reference to population, there are
three states of society, which specially operate upon its
rate of increase. The first state is, where, from the inde-
finite supply of land of the first quality, there is a
greater temptation to colonize and spread, than to labour
for hire ; consequently, where wages are high, and where
the lower classes of society feel that children are a source
of wealth, power, and enjoyment. It is superfluous to say,
that, under these circumstances, that spring and stimulus
is given to population, which has been remarked in the
statistics of certain infant states.

The second state of society is, where the proportions
between labour and capital are pretty correctly adjusted,
and where labour is sufficiently remunerated to enable a
man of average strength, with average economy, to sup-
port himself and an average family in point of number.
It is in that state of society, that the prudential cheek has
the greatest tendency to operate, inasmuch as it is a state
in which, although children may not prove a source of
positive benefit, they may become a source of private com-
fort and satisfaction, without having poverty and misery
entailed upon them and their parents as the consequence of
their birth. I consider this to be the state of France at
the present moment.
The third and last state is one where population is re-
dundant in reference to the demand for labour, and conse-
quently, where the condition of the labouring classes of
society is universally deteriorated, and n.any individual
members of those classes are reduced to a state of absolute
pauperism.
In this condition of society, equally hopeless and reck-
less, marriages are contracted under the natural impulse of
human feeling, without any prudential considerations, in-
asmuch as no exercise of prudential considerations appears
to the parties sufficient (and they are perfectly correct in
their logic in that opinion) to remedy the extent of the
evil as applicable to themselves. It may indeed be true
that, if the prudential check were to be brought into
operation in a country like Ireland, where a redundant
population exists, it might effectually cure the evils of such
redundancy in some future generation; but it could not
produce those substantive and immediate effects, the pros-
pect of which would prompt those parties who suf-
fer, to have recourse to it, as a remedy by which they
themselves might benefit. There is therefore no adequate
motive to resist that natural impulse which prompts to
marriage. I believe that this third state is, more or less,
the state of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire-
land at the present period ; although I am decidedly of
opinion that, were it not for Ireland, it would not be the
condition of Great Britain.
I find a forcible and familiar illustration of this opinion,
in a passage in thoSe letters on the state of Ireland, which
were written with so much ability by a friend of yours,
in the year 1827: " Quand on est ai pituvre, pourquoi,
dira-t-on, se marier? Alive prklter cette doctrine au
paysan Irlandais, et prouvea-lui, Malthus it la main, que
le mariage empire as condition. Je ne phis etre plus mal,
vows repondra-t•il, et je ne me refuserai point le sett]
bonheur qui me reste."
Now, it appears to me in the highest degree true and
philosophical to maintain, that if a country can he taken,
by a national effort, out of this third state, and placed in
the second, the prudential check on the part of the lower
classes (which we both consider to be the only effectual
check), will be snore likely to be in operation, and conse-
quently, that, so far from a greater stimulus to the re.
maining population being given by the abstraction of the
redundant portion, the existing. stimulus will be di-

minished. -
But I have heard it observed that, although the pru-
dential check might come into operation more efficiently
after an abstraction of redundant labourers, yet a check

at present in operation, namely, the destruction of the
lower classes by distress and misery, may be diminished
after such a nation,' effort, and the absence of that check
may lead to the reproduction of the abstracted pauperism.
Here again, I beg to recur to the description of an Irish
peasant's cabin, given by the author of the " Letters on
the State of Ireland." " Entrez dans Bette miserable butte
de terre, sans cheminee, sins lit, sans meubles d'aueune
espece; et regardez cette famille nombreuse, qui, etendue
pole-mete stir le sol, n'a pas meme un matelas pour as
toucher, une couverture pour etendre stir sod."
I cannot possibly admit that this state of existence, de-
scribed with so much energy and effect, so revolting to all
ideas of civilization, so repugnant to every principle of
humanity, is, at the same time, so conveniently destructive
of human life, that it is impolitic to attempt to remedy it,
from the dread of thereby producing an additional stimu-
lus to the ratio of population.
It is unnecessary to observe to a person so conversant
with these subjects as yourself, that if the proportions be-
tween capital and labour, after having been restored, were
duly maintained, the numerical increase of the population
would be an advantage instead of an evil. But if the view
which I take, of the comparative effects of a state of hope-
less misery, and of a state of comparative independence,
upon the ratio of increase of population, be correct, the re-
sult of such an abstraction of redundant labour from a
country in the former state, as would bring the remaining
population into the latter, would not he to produce even
such numerical increase.

If an emigration of labourers were to take place from
France, where able-bodied pauperism can be scarcely said
to exist, or in other words, vrbere labourers competent to
work may find employment if they choose to seek it, a sti-
mulus would be given to the remaining population; be-
cause, the emigration consisting of persons mainly employed
in productive industry, their absence would necessarily
raise materially and inconveniently the wages of the re-
maining labouring classes ; and the effect of the improve-
ment in their condition would operate as an encourage-
ment to population. It is a mere truism to say, that
wages,tenceh.a v
In other
tendency
words,to s tat l e down
population to t hceanpoint e
safely
mul-
tiply,sub-
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as long as individuals can receive, for their labour, a
sum sufficient to keep them in an average state of subsist-
ence. Such would be the state of the United Kingdom,
if a national effort of colonization were to take place ; and
though an incalculable improvement, as contrasted with
dependence, misery, and want, it would not be a state which
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of the condition of the lower classes, a national effort awttiehor:e;
to remove that redundancy, and restore proportion between
capital and labour, are you of opinion, that the prudential
check to the multiplication of the labouring classes beyond
the real demand for labour in such a country, would be
found to be less substantively in operation, subsequently to
that change, than it bad been, prior to the restoration of
those proportions ?
I have the honour to remain, my dear Sir, with great
regard, yours ever faithfully,
R. WILMOT HORTON.