The Sun.
London, England, 1822-01-02 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 2, 1822.

FOR, THE SUN.

Mr. MALTHUS's SCH O.OL of POLITICAL 1346N01141

[UTTER. ILj

" It is the diffusion of luxury among the mass of the people,
" and not an excess of it in a few, that seems to be most ad-
" vantageous, both with regard to national wealth and na-
" tional happiness."--MALTHus.

MR. EDITOR,—,It is, or ought to be, the ob-
ject of political economists, to explain by what
means the greatest quantity of articles necessary
to the well-being of a state can be produced,
and how the produce can be so distributed as to
ensure the comfortand prosperity of all its mem-
bers. Now, as it is evident that the condition of
the laborious classes of society mtxst.:depend upon
the proportion which their numbers bear to the
numbers for whom profitable employment can be
found ; in other words to the state of the market
for labour ; it is of the utmost importance to as-
certain whether or not it be possible so to regu-
late the supply of human labour, as to ensure to
the labourer the means of comfortable subsist-
ence.

Mr. Malthus has been at great pains to prove,
that the evils which afflict society are occasioned
by the tendency of population to increase faster
than the means of subsistence, and the same doc-
trine has been maintained by Mr. Mill, iu a work
very recently published, and which is entitled
" Elements of Political Economy." Mr. Mill is
a writer of unquestioned talents, and has de-
servedly established a high reputation by the ela-
borate, learned, and critical work on India af-
fairs, which he has given to the public. In his
Elements of Political Economy we have the fol-
lowing passages :
" That population has a tendency to, increase
faster than capital has in most places actually
increased, is, proved incontestably by the condi-
tion of the population in almost all parts of the
Globe. In almost all countries, the condition
of the great body of the people is poor and mi-
serable."

" This general misery of mankind is a fact
which can be accounted for upon one only of
two suppositions : either that there is a natural
tendency in population to increase faster than
capital, or that capital has, by some means, been
prevented from increasing so fast as it has a ten-
dency to increase."

Mr. Mill proceeds to prove that the first is
the true supposition. This he does by shelving
that the human female is capable of bearing ten
children, and that land becomes
.less and less
grateful for each successive dose of capital which
is administered with a view to stimulate its pro-
ductive power.
Although we might argue that the art of
agriculture is as yet in its infancy, and that
it probably is within the competency of che-
mical and other sciences to discover the
means of vastly increasing the fertility of
our lands, and of rapidly converting our
wastes into productive fields, it would be
absurd to deny, that if population should go on
increasing, at whatever rate, a period, however
distant, must arrive when the whole surface of
the globe would be covered with inhabitants.—
A devout believer in the Divine authority and
permanent obligation of the primitive command,
" Increase, and multiply, and replenish the
earth," would perhaps tell us, that when it came
to such a pass, either the Almighty would rain
down manna from Heaven, or teach us to draw
our food from the bowels of the earth. Why,
he would say, should it be deemed more un-
likely that men may hereafter subsist upon me-
tals, than that they should derive their nourish-
ment from clay, which Humboldt, and other
veracious authors, assure us actually constitutes
the food of some hordes of Indians ? Let us,
then, go on propagating, fearlessly, until the
whole substance of the globe is converted into
human life ; and if we should then be constrain-
ed to devour each other, depend 'won it, there
will be as much pleasure in being eaten, as in
eating. We shall know that nothing is in reality
destroyed ; and always retaining a consciousness
of our identity, we shall doubtless perceive that
every transformation of form is a change for the
better.

Abandoning this ground to theologians, let us
apply ourselves to the awful question of popula-
tion, in the serious and sober, not to say sad spi-
rit, which befits the character of a political
economist.

Before I address myself to this task, I will
confess to you, that, from my earliest recollec-
tions, I have been prone to speculate upon the
gradual improvement of society, and have even
gone so far as to expect that the progress of im-
provement would not be arrested, until it had
entirely banished vice and misery from the
world.—l am aware that such a confession is ill
calculated to give weight to the opinions which
I may have formed upon the subject of political
economy ;—it is enough to excite a suspicion
that I have not as much brain as ear-wax ; but
have made, and will not recal or qualify it.—
This being my creed, you will naturally sup-
pose, Sir, that hearing almost every right-headed
man of my acquaintance pronounce the new doc-
trine of population to be irrefragable, and being
told, that, in comparison with the evils produced
by the principle of population, those resulting
from human institutions, however foolish or ty-
rannical, were " as mere feathers that float on the
surface," I must have dreaded to look into a book
which was so hostile to my long cherished notions.
Such, in truth, was the fact. I laid my account
with being obliged either to abandon them alto-
gether, or,, at the best, to refer them to an age
when miracles should again be wrought upon