the present, to contain general assertions, copious detraction, and no one attempt to inquire into or canvass the principles laid down by the check-population philoso"pher," as you have designated Mr. Malthus. But, Sir, that your corrospondent may be driven from an ungenerous attempt of being opprobrious without argument, if he entertains such a wish, which I am prone to believe he does, I call upon him in his next letter to fulfil his promise, and fairly and openly to discuss the principles laid down by Mr. Malthus; and, Sir, that no misrepre sentation of that gentleman's principles may take place, I will take the liberty of stating what I understand them to be. The important position I conceive to be laid down, and on which Mr.. Malthus's system is chiefly founded, is that, by the immutable law of nature, the procreative power of man is greater than the productive power of food; or, in other words, that there is a constant disposition in the human species to increase beyond the means of subsistence. This is a position therefore, Sir, that I call upon A. O. in the first instance to controvert; for, if it be irrefragable, then it must follow, ex necessitate, that unless this tendency to increase be by some means or other prevented or checked, that at some period or other the means of subsistence must be deficient; and that that deficiency will be in proportion to the increased population: and as scarcity in creases, and poverty makes its appearance, its attendants, misery and vice, must be proportionally multiplied. Now, Sir, if the acuteness and discernment of your correspondent A. O. should be incapable of exploding these propositions, and which, I presume, you will think in candour he ought to do, before he enlarges the bounty of his cen suring epithets, the only subject left for consideration, will be, in what way the evil can be best remedied. Mr. Malthus has ventured to say, that poverty is an evil: will the rich philanthropists at Lloyd's say it is not? But if poverty arises from a scarcity of provisions, it does not seem indicative of extraordinary humanity to wish to increase the number of those who will be craving for food, while, at the same time, the quantity of food is to remain stationary: those tender-hearted creatures, those men of melting charity, will hardly advance that as a philanthropic measure, But then, perhaps, we shall be told, that the cause of this increase of population is implanted on man by an ordinance of the Diety, and that as all things ordained by God have their utility, the passion for affording an increase of the species ought not to be stinted; but,' Mr. Cobbett, will not the same argument apply to every other passion, and will the same reasoners enforce the propriety of indulging to the fullest extent all our other passions? If they do, what becomes of that master-spring of man, his reason; of what utility will that be stated to be, if we are to suffer the instinctive parts of man to rove ad libitum. Our reason informs us that to destroy a human being is an offence of considerable magnitude towards the author of nature; will not however the same chain of reasoning equally inform us, that the bring ing into the world a progeny without any means of support, is a murder of greater iniquity than any other, in proportion as it is more deliberate, and as famine is the most acute and dreadful of all species of mortality. In fact, Sir, in what way can an evil be better prevented than by remov ing the cause? Will that not more become the wisdom of man, than, by suffering the cause to remain unrestrained, to make it necessary for such occasional dreadful visitations of Providence, as famine and pestilence to clear away the superfluous population? But I shall proceed no farther upon this topic for the present.-I have only been anxious in this letter to stem the delusive effects, which an indiscriminate profusion of tender and sympathising expressions are apt to have upon the judgment of man,' by calling his passions to its aid; and which must have the necessary effect of producing a prejudice, that once raised, few men will be found disposed to attack; and I most sincerely hope that such of your readers, Sir, who have not perused Mr. Mal thus's work attentively, will wait for a dispassionate and impartial investigation of the principles he has laid down, before they join in reprobating him as a hard-hearted misanthropist. However, to shew those who have not perused Mr. Malthus, that he has some traits of benevolence in his character, I will just quote a passage from his work, which will, I am satisfied, prove to any unprejudiced enquirer, that Mr. Malthus possesses the true and genuine spirit of philanthropy and benevolence; which are so frequently bruited, yet so little known by that part of society who are so clamourous in their behalf. 66 We are "not," says Mr. Malthus, in any case, "to lose a present opportunity of doing good, from the mere supposition that we 86 may possibly meet with a worthier object. "In all doubtful cases, it may be safely "laid down as our duty to follow the natu "ral impulse of our benevolence; but "when in fulfilling our obligation as rea "sonable beings to attend to the consequences of our actions, we have, from our own experience and that of others, drawn the conclusion, that the exercise of our benevolence in one mode, is prejudicial in its effects, we are certainly "bound, as moral agents, to check our "natural propensities in the one direction, and to encourage them and acquire the habits of exercising them in the other." I should think after a due consideration of this passage, it will be difficult to attach to the author of it, the character of hard-hearted ; and still less that of misanthropist. I had almost omitted to mention, that education, by which is not to be understood the knowledge of the "Learned Languages," but the cultivation of the human mind, by enabling it to form a just conception of men and things, is thought by Mr. Malthus, and I believe by most thinking men, as the best if not the only effectual mode of improving the morals, and consequently the happiness of society; but such a scheme is reprobated by A. O. for a very curious reason as it appears to me; he says, "is knowledge in "itself a principle of such universal and in"disputable excellence that it can never be "misapplied, that it can never be made the "instrument and incentive to mischief, or "that it can never be mixed and contami"nated with baser matter?" I would ask you, Mr. Cobbett, whether this kind of argument does not recal to your memory the solid reason a father gave for not permitting his chilel to learn to read or write, namely, that he had thereby effectually prevented him from being punished for a forgery. If the possibility of converting or straining a virtue into vice, be an allowable argument against the encouragement of virtue, then is A. O.'s an argument against the propagation of learning-But to the present verbum sat; I shall postpone my further remarks until after the promised letter of A. O. shall make its appearance. W. F. S. Lincoln's Inn. POOR LAWS. Being the second Letter of A. 0. SIR,The English have been called a nation of philosophers; as I conceive on very slender foundations. They are, indeed, a grave people, somewhat slow and dull, and would be wise, if they could. They are of a melancholy turn, and extremely anxious. about what does not concern them. They are fond of deep questions, without understanding them; and have that perplexed and lodding kind of intellect, which takes de"ght in difficulties and contradictions, with What is out ever coming to a conclusion incomprehensible and extravagant, they take to be profound: whatever is remotes obscure, and uncertain, they think must be of great weight and importance. They are always in want of some new and mighty project in science,win politics, or in morals, for the morbid sensibility of their minds to brood over, and feed upon; and, by the time they are tired of puzzling themselves to no purpose about one absurdity, another is generally ready to start up and take its place. Thus there is a perpetual, restless succession of philosophers, and systems of philosophy; and the proof they give you of their wisdom to day, is by shewing you what fools they were ten years before. Their pretensions to solidity of understanding rest on the admission of their own shallowness; and their gravest demonstrations rise out of the ruins of others. Mr. Malthus has been for some time past lord of the ascendant, the very polar star of philosophy. But, I will venture to predict, that his reign will not be of much longer duration. His time is come; and this mighty luminary, like many others, that lately scorched us in the meridian, "will sink temperately to the west, and be "hardly felt as he descends." It is not difficult to account for the favourable heating Mr. Malthus's work has received from certain classes of the community. It must be a source of daily complacency and inward exultation to their minds, and a great relief from the troublesome importunity of certain silly prejudices. But I can only account for the attention it has excited among thinking men from a habit of extreme abstraction and over-refined speculation, unsupported by practical reasoning and observation, in consequence of which the mind is dazzled and confounded by any striking fact, which thwarts its previous conclusions. Besides, there is a mixture of meanness and malignity in the human mind, which is glad of the first opportunity to escape from the contemplation of magnificent scenes and visionary improvement, to find once more its own level, and hug itself in that low indifference and apathy which Mr. M.'s work is calculated to encourage. It was a nice let-down from the overstrained enthusiasm, and too sanguine hopes which preceded it. Else, how a work of so base a tendency, and so weakly exe cuted, that strikes at the root of every hu mane principle, and cants about sensibility and morality, in which the little, low, rankling malice of a parish beadle or the overseer of a workhouse is disguised in the garb philosophy, and proposed as a dress for every English gentleman to wear, where false lo - gic is buried under a heap of garbled calcula- | improvement, virtue, happiness, and liberty -tions, such as a bad player would make at of mankind, which Mr. Malthus first ap cribbage, to puzzle those who understood plied it to overturn. For, it is to be rec recolJess of the game than himselfy where every lected, that the use which Mr. M. has sincè argument is a felo de se, and detects its own made of this principle to snub the poor, to imposture, containing its bane and anti- keep down their wages, to shut up the dote within itself," how otherwise such a workhouse, to deny them relief, and finally, miserable, reptile performance should ever to preach lectures to them on the dreadful have crawled to that height of reputation sin of matrimony, was an afterthought. His which it has reached, I do not understand. first, his great, his most memorable effort But it seems Mr. Malthus's principle was a was directed against the modern philosophy. discovery. There are those, who place him It was the service which his borrowed weaby the side of Sir Isaac Newton, as both pons did in that cause, which sanctified equally great, the one in natural, the other them to all other purposes. I shall soon in political philosophy. But waving this have occasion to examine the force of the comparison, I must confess, Sir, that if 1 argument as thus applied; at present I shall were convinced that Mr. Malthus had made only inquire into the originality of the idea. any discovery at all, there is so little original- I might here refer your readers to the book ity in the world, and so much illiberality and itself, or, I might say, that after indulging in ill nature, that I should be disposed to over- all the romantic scenes of visionary happiness Jook the large share of the latter which Mr. which have been so often held out to the M. has in common with others, which may expectation of man, he has written a distinct probably be owing to a bad digestion, ill essay for the express purpose of shewing that health, or some former distaste conceived these scenes could never be realised, or could against poverty, and to consider him merely never be lasting, from the sole principle of in the light of a man of genius. Multum Mr. Malthus's Essay; or, as he expresses it, abludit imago. Indeed, I do not much see from these "primary determinations in nawhat there is to discover, after reading the ture, a limited earth, a limited degree of fergenealogy of Noah's descendants, and know- tility, and the continual increase of maning that the world is round. But, even sup. kind." But people do not like to take these posing that there was some deep veil of things upon trust, or general representation; mystery thrown over the subject, which en- and, it is probable, that few of your readers tirely concealed or involved it in obscurity, have the book within their reach. I must, Mr. M. was not the first person who pene- therefore, beg room for a few extracts from trated into the secret. Whatever some of bis "Prospects of Mankind," &c. and, his ignorant admirers may pretend, Mr. though they will run to some length, yet, as Malthus will not say that this was the case. you, Sir, seem with me to think the sources He has himself given us a list of authors, of Mr. Malthus's reputation a matter of no some of which he had read before, and some mean interest, you will not, I hope, think since the publication of his Essay*, by your pages misemployed in dissipating the whom this principlex was well understood illusion. As for Mr. Maithus himself, he and distinctly stated long ago. Among these ought ought to be satisfied with this acknowledgWallace is the chief: he not only stated the ment of his importance." But without principle itself with the utmost force and "entering further into these abstracted and clearness, shewing the necessary dispropor- " uncertain speculations, it deserves our tion between the ratios of the increase of population, and the increase of the produce of the earth, after a certain period, (and till a certain period, I must contend in opposition to Mr. Malthus that the disproportion is not necessary, but casual or voluntary,) but what is most remarkable, he has brought this principle as an answer to the very same schemes of Utopian perfection, and to the same arguments in favour of the progressive * Among the former are Hume, Wallace, Smith, and Price among the latter are the French economists, Montesquieu, Frank lin, Steuart, Arthur Young, Mr. Townshend, Plato and Aristotle. 66 particular attention, that as no govern"ment which hath hitherto been establish"ed is free from all seeds of corruption, or can be expected to be eternal; so if we suppose a government to be perfect in its original frame, and to be administered in "the most perfect manner, after whatever + See some Essays on this subject in the Monthly Magazine, by an ingenious and well-informed writer, who possessed too much sense and firmness to be carried away by the clamours of upstart ignorance, After the publication of these Essays, some notice was taken of the name of Wallace in the Essay on Population. "mankind immortal, as to support the ani"mal frame without food, it is equally cer"tain that limits are set to the fertility of the "earth, and that its bulk so far as is hitherto "known hath continued always the same. "It would be impossible, therefore, to sup "model we suppose it to have been framed, "such a perfect form would be so far from "lasting for ever, that it must come to an "end so much the sooner on account of its perfection. For, though happily such go"vernment should be firmly established, though they should be found consistent "with the reigning passions of human na"ture, though they should spread far and wide, nay, though they should prevail 66 66 66 universally, they must at last involve "mankind in the deepest perplexity, and 66 in universal confusion. For how excellent soever they may be in their own nature, they are altogether inconsistent "with the present frame of nature, and with 66 a limited extent of earth.-Under a per"fect government the inconvenience of length of this period, of necessity it must "be granted that the earth could not nou"rish them for ever, unless either its ferti lity could be continually augmented, or by some secret in nature, like what cer"tain enthusiasts have expected from the "Philosopher's Stone, some wise adept in "the occult sciences should invent a me"thod of supporting mankind quite differ"ent from any thing known at present. "Nay, though some extraordinary method "of supporting them might possibly be "found out, yet, if there was no bound to "the increase of mankind which would be "the case under a perfect government, "there would not even be sufficient room "for containing their bodies upon the sur"face of the earth, or upon any limited sur"face whatsoever. It would be necessary, "therefore, in order to find room for such "multitudes of men, that the earth should "be continually enlarging in bulk as an "animal or vegetable body.Now, since philosophers may as soon attempt to make port the great numbers of men who would "be raised up under a perfect government, "the earth would be overstocked at last, "and the greatest admirers of such fanciful "schemes must foresee the fatal period "when they would come to an end, as they 66 are altogether inconsistent with the limits "of that earth in which they must exist.— "What a miserable catastrophe of the most 66 generous of all human systems of govern"ment! How dreadfully would the magis"trates of such commonwealths find them"selves disconcerted at that fatal period "when there was no longer any room for "" new colonies, and when the earth could produce no further supplies! During all "the preceding ages, while there was room "for increase, mankind must have been "happy, the earth must have been a paradise "in the literal sense, as the greatest part of it "must have been turned into delightful and "fruitful gardens But when the dreadful "time should at last come, when our globe 66 by the most diligent culture could not produce what was sufficient to nourish its "numerous inhabitants, what happy expe"dient could then be found out to remedy so great an evil?——In such a cruel necessity, must there be a law to restrain marriage? Must multitudes of women be "shut up in cloisters like the ancient vestals "or modern nuns? To keep a balance be "tween the two sexes must a proportionate "number of men be debarred from mar"riage? Shall the Utopians, following the "wicked policy of superstition, forbid their priests to marry; or, shall they rather sa"crifice men of some other profession for "the good of the state? Or, shall they ap"point the sons of certain families to be "maimed at their birth, and give a sanction "to the unnatural institution of eunuchs? "If none of these expedients can be thought 66 proper, shall they appoint a certain num"ber of infants to be exposed to death as soon as they are born, determining the "proportion according to the exigencies of "the state, and pointing out the particular "victims by lot, or according to some esta"blished rule? Or, must they shorten the "period of human life by a law, and con"demn all to die after they had compleated "a certain age, which might be shorter or longer as provisions were either more scanty or plentiful? Or, what other me "thod should they devise (for an expedient "would be absolutely necessary) to restrain "the number of citizens within reasonable bounds?-Alas! how unnatural and "inhuman must every such expedient be accounted! The natural passions and ap"petites of mankind are planted in our "frame to answer the best ends for the hap piness both of the individuals and of the species. Shall we be obliged to contradict "such a wise order? Shall we be laid un"der the necessity of acting barbarously and inhumanly? Sad and fatal necessity! And which after all could never answer the end, but would give rise to violence and war. For mankind could never agree "about such regulations. Force and arms must at last decide their quarrels, and the "deaths of such as fall in battle leave suffi"cient provisions for the survivors, and *make room for others to be born.—Thus, "the tranquillity and numerous blessings of "the Utopian government would come to as at present.----Such a melancholy si"tuation in consequence merely of the want of provisions, is in truth more unnatural than all their present calamities. Supposing men to have abused their liberty, by which abuse vice has once been "introduced into the world, and that wrong "notions, a bad taste, and vicious babits, "have been strengthened by the defects of "education and government, our present distresses may be easily explained. They may even be called natural, being the na"tural consequences of our depravity. They may be supposed to be the means by "which Providence punishes vice, and by setting bounds to the increase of mankind prevents the earth's being overstocked, and men being laid under the cruel neces It is certainly fit to set just bounds "to every thing according to its nature, and "to adjust all things in due proportion to one another. Undoubtedly, such an ex"cellent order is actually established throughout all the works of God in his "wide dominions. But, there are certain primary determinations in nature, to which all other things of a subordinate "kind must be adjusted. A limited earth, a limited degree of fertility, and the con"tinual increase of mankind, are three of the original constitutions. To these "determinations, human atlairs and the "circumstances of all other animals must "be adapted. In which view it is unsuit"able to our ideas of order, that while the carch is only capable of maintaining a de"termined number, the human race should "increase without end. This would be the necessary consequence of a perfect government and education, on which account it is more contrary to just propor"tion to suppose that such a perfect govern "ment should be established in sach cir Supplement to No. 20, Vol. XI.-Price 10d |