formerly. The like is obfervable in Britain, and in every country where luxury abounds. Remedies are proposed and put in practice, celebacy difgraced, marriage encouraged, and rewards given for a numerous offspring. All in vain! The only effectual remedies are to encourage husbandry, and to reprefs luxury. Olivares hoped to repeople Spain by encouraging matrimony. Abderam, a Mahometan king of Cordova, was a better politician. By encouraging industry, and procuring plenty of food, he repeopled his kingdom in less than thirty years * Luxury is a deadly enemy to population, not only by intercepting food from the industrious, but by weakening the power of procreation. Indolence accompanies voluptuoufnefs, or rather is a branch of it: women of rank feldom move, but in changing place employ others to move them; and a woman enervated by indolence and intemperance, is ill qualified for the fevere labour of child-bearing. Hence it is, that people of rank, where luxury prevails, are not prolific. This infirmity not only prevents population, but increases luxury, by accumulating wealth among a few blood-relations. A barren woman among the labouring poor, is a wonder. Could women of rank be perfuaded to make a trial, they would find more felf-enjoyment in temperance and exercise, than in the most refined luxury; and would have no caufe to envy others the bleffing of a numerous and healthy offspring. Luxury is not a greater enemy to population by enervating men and women, than defpotism is by reducing them to slavery, and * A foundling hospital is a greater enemy to population than liberty to expose infants, which is permitted to parents in China, and in fome other countries. Both of them indeed encourage matrimony: but in fuch hofpitals, thousands perish yearly beyond the ordinary proportion; whereas few infants perish by the liberty of expofing them, parental affection generally prevailing over the distress of poverty. And, upon the whole, population gains more by that liberty than it lofes. destroying industry. Defpotifm is a greater peft to the human fpecies than an Egyptian plague; for by rendering men miferable, it weakens both the appetite for procreation and the power. Free ftates, on the contrary, are always populous: a man who is happy longs for children to make them alfo happy; and industry enables him to accomplish his purpose. This obfervation is verified from the history of Greece, and of the Leffer Afia: the inhabitants anciently were free and extremely numerous: the present inhabitants, reduced to flavery, make a very poor figure with respect to numbers. A peftilence destroys those only who exist, and the lofs is foon repaired; but defpotifm, as above obferved, strikes at the very root of population. An overflowing quantity of money in circulation, is another cause of depopulation. In a nation that grows rich by commerce, the price of labour increases with the quantity of circulating money, which of course raises the price of manufactures; and manufacturers who cannot find a vent for their high-rated goods in foreign markets, must give over business, and commence beggars, or retire to another country where they may have a prospect of fuccefs. But luckily, there is a remedy in that cafe to prevent depopulation: land is cultivated to greater perfection by the fpade than by the plough; and the more plentiful crops produced by the fpade are more than fufficient to defray the additional expence of cultivation. This is a resource for employing those who cannot make bread as manufacturers; and deferves well the attention of the legislature. The advantage of the fpade is confpicuous with respect to war; it provides a multitude of robuft men for recruiting our armies, the want of whom may be fupplied by the plough, till they return in peace to their former occupation. SKETCH SKETCH III. Progrefs of Men with respect to PROPERTY. A Mong the fenfes inherent in the nature of man, the sense of property is eminent. By this sense wild animals caught by labour or art, are perceived to belong to the hunter or fisher; they become his property. This fenfe is the foundation of meum et tuum, a distinction of which no human being is ignorant. In the fhepherd-state, there is the fame perception of property with respect to wild animals tamed for use, and also with respect to their progeny. It takes place alfo with respect to a field separated from the common, and cultivated by a man for bread to himself and family (a). The fenfe of property is flower in its growth toward maturity than the external fenfes, which are perfect even in childhood; but ripens faster than the fenfe of congruity, of fymmetry, of dignity, of grace, and other delicate fenfes, which fcarce make any figure till we become men. Children discover a sense of property in distinguishing their own chair, and their own fpoon. In them however it is faint and obfcure, requiring time to bring it to perfection. The gradual progress of that sense, from its infancy among favages to its maturity among polifhed nations, is one of the most entertaining articles that belong to the prefent undertaking. But as that article makes a part of Historical (a) See Principles of Morality and Natural Religion, p. 77. edit. 2. law law-tracts (a), nothing remains for me but a few gleanings. Man is by nature a hoarding animal, having an appetite for storing up things of use; and the sense of property is bestow'd on men, for securing to them what they thus ftore up. Hence it appears, that things provided by Providence for our fuftenance and accommodation, were not intended to be poffeffed in common; and probably in the earliest ages every man feparately hunted for himself and his family. But chance prevails in that occupation; and it may frequently happen, that while fome get more than enough, others must go fupperlefs to bed. Senfible of that inconvenience, it crept into practice, for hunting and fishing to be carried on in common * We find accordingly the practice of hunting and fishing in common, even among grofs favages. Thofe of New Holland, above mentioned, live upon finall fifh dug out of the fand when the fea retires. Sometimes they get plenty, * Inequalities of chance, which are great in a few inftances, vanish almost entirely when the operation is frequently reiterated during a courfe of time. Did every man's fubfiftence depend on the fruits of his own field, many would die of hunger, while others wallowed in plenty. Barter and commerce among the inhabitants of a district, leffen the hazard of famine: the commerce of corn through a large kingdom, fuch as France or Britain, leffens it ftill more: extend that commerce through Europe, through the world, and there will remain scarce a veftige of the inequalities of chance: the crop of corn may fail in one province, or in one kingdom; but that it should fail univerfally is beyond the varieties of chance. The fame obfervation holds in every other matter of chance: one's gain or lofs at game for a night, for a week, may be confiderable; but carry on the game for a year, and fo little of chance remains, that it is almoft the fame whether one play for a guinea or for twenty. Hence a skilful insurer never ventures much upon one bottom; but multiplies his bargains as much as poffible: the more bargains he is engaged in, the greater is the probability of fuccefs. (a) Tract 3. fometimes fometimes very little; but whether fuccessful or unfuccessful, all is broiled and eat in common. After eating they go to reft: they return to their fishing next ebb of the tide, whether it be day or night, foul or fair; for go they must, or starve. In fmall tribes, where patriotism is vigorous, or in a country thinly peopled in proportion to its fertility, the living in common is extremely comfortable: but in a large ftate where selfishness prevails, or in any state where great population requires extraordinary culture, the best method is to allow every man to fhift for himself and his family: men wish to labour for themselves; and they labour more ardently for themselves than for the public. Private property became more and more facred in the progrefs of arts and manufactures: to allow an artist of fuperior talents no profit above others, would be a fad difcouragement to industry, and be scarce confiftent with common justice. The fenfe of property is not confined to the human fpecies. The beavers perceive the timber they store up for food, to be their property; and the bees feem to have the fame perception with respect to their winter's provifion of honey. Sheep know when they are in a trefpafs, and run to their own pasture on the first glimpse of a man. Monkies do the fame when detected in robbing an orchard. Sheep and horned cattle have a sense of property with refpect to their refting-place in a fold or inclofure, which every one guards against the incroachment of others. He must be a fceptic indeed who denies that perception to rooks: thieves there are among them as among men; but if a rook purloin a stick from another's neft, a council is held, much chattering enfues, and the lex talionis is applied, by demolishing the nest of the criminal. To man are furnished rude materials only: to convert these into food and cloathing requires industry; and if he had not a fenfe that the product of his labour belongs to himself, his induftry would be extremely faint. In general, it |