The Sun.
London, England, 1835-01-01 00:00:00

DEATH OF MR. MALTHUS.

Few men have obtained greater celelSrity as political motto..
mists than the Rev. Mr. Malthus, whose death it is our duty
to communicate to our readers. The work on Population took
a strong hold of the public, and ever since its appearance the
doctrines he advanced have more or less entered into all spe-
culations with regard to the condition and future prospects or
mankind. He is also the author of various tracts on the Corns
Laws, &c., and a work on Political Economy; but these pub-.
lications did not add much to his reputation. He committed
the capital blunder of supposing that a glut could exist in all
commodities at the same time, which amounts to a positive►
contradiction in terms.

With respect to the great work on Population, it appeared
tint as a moderately-sized octavo, in answer to the extrava-
gant views of perfectibility advanced by Mr. Godwin and
others. It was next published as a quarto, with great addi-
tions and modifications. Several succeeding editions were
also greatly altered.

1111. Malthus has neither correctly expounded the doctethe
of population, nor done justice to the many able modem
writers, who, long before the appearance of his work, edivanced
opinions on the subject similar to his own. He has uniformly
placed the tendency of our species to increase beyond their
means of subsistence under a somewhat gloomy aspect. It is,
however, to this tendency that we are indebted for all our ad-
vancement in civilization. The ingenuity of individuals is
sharpened by necessity to escape the evils of poverty, and me-
chanical inventions of all kinds, whereby man has obtained
such a wonderful power over the material world, are the re-
sult, Besides, he has not done sufficient justice to the power
of habit over mankind. When habit has once made certain
commodities necessary to a people, they will not willingly,
forego the enjoyment of them. And we find, in fact, that ex-
cept in the few cases in which the natal order of things has
been deranged by 4h-Surd -I°Oslatlon, the history of any given
society has been, in genertl,
in the condition that of progressive amelioration
°F ...41e great body of the people. The labour-
ing Englitman of our days commands a far greater share of
necessaries and luxuries of life than the labourer of a cen-
tury back. The fear of sinking stimulates to invention, and
every addition thereby made to the enjoyments of mankind,
enlarges their notions of what they ought to obtain, and be-
comes then a point from which further advances are made.
The doctrine of population is, in fact, the revival of an
old doctrine. The old English writers seem to have tad con-
stantly present to them the danger of multiplication beyond
the means of subsistence. Sir Matthew Hale, in his Primi-
tive Originations of Mankind, may be referred to with profit
on the subject. Ortes, an Italian Economist, and several
French writers, and Townhsend among ourselves, before Mal-
thus, laid down the doctrine in a less exceptionable form.
Justus Moeser, a German, in a work of Essays published
about the middle of last century, complained of the modern
notion of the strength of a nation being in the ratio of its pp-
pulation, and endeavoured to show that, from the remotest pe-
riods, all the nations of Teutonic origin had constantly endea-
voured to repress population by restrictions of various kinds,
direct and indirect.
Mr. 'Malthus was principally indebted for his celebrity to the
period when his work first appeared.
Mr. Malthus was beloved by all who had the advantage of
knowing him. He was, in truth, a most amiable and %own-
plished gentleman. 4.:.