, 1873-06-01
INTERPRETATION.

ma that when the L0rQ 6euQR moutnb ab Mul
send meat" Mr. Malthus showed by an ex-
haustlre review OF the various famines which |
have afflicted the world that this dogma WEB
false, Some persons claimed TINT his book was
impious, because Jesus Christ taught us to take
no thought for the morrow, what VIC should
eat or what wo should drink or wherewithal We
should be clothed. Mr. Malthus replied that
in point OF fact all his assailants we're habitualy
disobeying that injunction,- THAT they we're en-
gagged for the most part in taking thought OF
those very things,-that ho only insisted that
they should take tho same thought for the chill
dren they were bringing into the world as for
themselves, lest nature, Or If you please, Divine
Providence, should merciessly level the popula-
ton OF the world to tho means Of subsistence by
periodical famines and by the plaques
which result from scant supply OF food
As for Mr. Malthus' religious character, he
iyed and died clergyman OF the Church Of
England, aud in all respects, cave IS to his
=" hard-hearted doctrine" was "a orthodox as
st.. Paul himself.
Unluckily, Mr. Ma1thus attempted to put his
doctrine into mathematical form, stating that
ratio, while the capabiIty Of the earth to pro-
duce food increases only in an arthmetica1 ratio,
thus: Each pair Of human beings on the
average will produce four children, while an
acre Of ground on the average cannot be
made to produce more than double the quantity
Of food in one generation that it produced in
the previous generation. Therefore, at the end
of thirty years there will be four persons re-
quiring subsistence from the same amount OF
land that formerly subsisted two persons. I'm
proved methods Of cultivation will answer to
produce double quantity Of food. At the end
of oixty years t4u1o nil bu eight poIsunB to be
fed from the same area. But improved methods
OF cultivation will not suffca to increase the
productiveness Of the land by more than the
amount which it produced at the beginning OF
the sixty years. Il it produced enough for two
at the beginning and enough for four at the end
Of thirty years, it will not produce more than
enough for six at the end Of sixty years. So
there will be two persons unprovided for; and
| at the end Of ninety years there will be sixteen
| persons, and only enough food for eight. His
| formula stood thus:
Increase Of population. .-...-....-.....2 16 80
| Produchyeness Of land. d........-........o 10
| This formula, which WAS introduced by
hr. Malthus for purposes Of Illustration
| merely has been assailed for want of
accuracy. That it is not accurate has been
| proved, but al TINT Mr. Nautilus claimed was
| that population increases faster than the pro-
ducti1eness Of land can be made to increase, and
that after all the available land On the globe shall
have been brought under cultivation (and even
much sooner than that, since the difficulty and
cost OF colonization are very great), means must
be taken to prevent the full natural increase OF
population, else there will be an increasing num-
ber Of persons born to life Of penury and Btarv-
alton. What the hfalthusian doctrine really con-
sists Of is stated by its author in these words:
The increase Of population ia necessarily limited by
the means Of subsistence Population invariably in
creases when the means Of Subsistence increase
less prevented by powerful and obvious checks These
chccks and the checks which keep the population down
to the le7cl Of the OF subsistence no1al
strain, ,vlce, and misery.
The whole argument Of Mr. Ma1thus went to
enforce "moral restraint ~ as the only admissi-
BILE remedy for the evils OF over-population.
What is meant by moral restraint is defined BY
Mr. ]. s. MILL in his Principles Of Political Econ
omy, rs follows:
| Unhappily, sentimentelity rather than common
sse d ,t,a tsra T. u snese
to the hardshipa OF the poor, and ready disposition
to admit elnims in them to the good Offices Of other
49, a., 5,e.1,,tr ~ ths5- nos1tton - sart
an to the conditions which nature has made indis-
pensable to the improvement Of their physical lot.
!na M un 'o ~ aennnoato5a as i.
Who are supposed to be Indifferent to it !;
projects Of one kind or another for improving