I am confident I am addressing a gentleman who will fully appreciate the force of this reasoning.

THE SUBSISTENCE AND ANTIPOPULATION THEORIES.

At concluding this discussion, concerning the real process of Nature in the production of wealth, I shall embrace the opportunity to add a few words, with respect to a theory which is more your own. In investigating the causes and results of the increase of population, I have had occasion to bring forward some views of the subject, which you do not seem to have taken into your consideration in the formation of your theory; nor do I find you have hitherto either endeavoured to show them to be erroneous, or admitted them to be correct. Yet they are of the most vital importance towards coming to a correct conclusion concerning the real system of Nature in the case.

I here repeat what I have already stated, that I shall be happy to discuss the question at issue between us, either privately or publicly, in a friendly way.

What I would wish to press upon your attention is, that facts uniformly show, that the great law of Nature, the regulating power of the demand over the supply, extends as completely to subsistence, as to any other branch of the supply: that population is so far from having a natural tendency to increase faster than subsistence, that, for these four thousand years its increase has not at all approached the rate at which the latter can be made to increase: probably not nearer than as 30 to 420: that, in further proof of there being no such tendency in population, there is every where an abundance of materials for supplying additional food, in uncultivated or ill-cultivated land; and that, instead of there being a natural deficiency of suppliers of food, there is an universal and constant emigration of persons from the country to towns, from the want of employment in the cultivating lines and that, as a decisive confirmation of the supply of subsistence being, on the average, fully equal to the demand, the price of it, on the average, has been fair, and fully as often under the average rate as above it.

:

That with respect to employment und wealth, facts uniformly agree in proving, that the increase of population, instead of having a tendency to diminish employment, and produce poverty, is the grand source of all permanent increase in employment and wealth :1

If even your principle of population were that of Nature, by the fifth principle of circulation, an increase of wealth, not of poverty, would necessarily be the result. "Were it true, that population increased faster than subsistence, famine indeed would ensue; but it is plain, from the laws of

that a town, a district, or a country, cæteris paribus, is uniformly inore constantly employed and richer, the more populous it is, and in a higher degree than the different numbers, calculated at the former rate, would warrant that the faster population increases, the more rapid is the increase of employment and wealth, while a stationary condition of population is constantly attended with stagnation and low prices; and, with a decreasing population, there is constantly a diminution of the means of employment and wealth, and a ruinous decay of commercial enterprise: and that the increase of pauperism, which is frequently found in the most populous states, springs not, like the poverty so universal in thinly-peopled countries, from a deficiency of the means of employment, but from the vicious and imprudent habits, which wealth is so apt to generate, and from the great portion of the young, in such states, having employment so early and amply afforded them, as to prevent the formation of the sober, frugal, accumulating habits, necessary to ensure success in life, even in states where there is the greatest abundance of employment.

If these positions be founded on facts and they certainly have the appearance of being so founded-the subsistence theory, and the antipopulation dogmas are contrary to the principle of Nature's arrangements. They must, therefore, be proved to be unwarranted, before either your principle of population, or the doctrine of Arthur Young, Sismondi, and others, concerning the impoverishing effects of populousness, can be admitted. But as far as I know, though of the most decisive influence on the great question at issue, they have not yet been distinctly considered either by you or by any other writer who denies the wealth-augmenting influence, which I have endeavoured to show is essentially connected with the increase of population.

I have now only to add, that any observations, which you may reckon the interests of science call upon you to make with respect to these principles and facts, you may rest assured will meet with attention, aud be considered with candour.

Camden Town, 25th July, 1820.

I have the honor to be, Reverend Sir,
Your very obedient Servant,
S. GRAY.

Statistics, that the superiority of the demand over the supply, instead of producing slackness with respect to employment, would tend to create a constant stimulus, and quicken the demand for hands. By raising the prices of the cultivating class very high, it would raise those of other classes also, and augment income, capital, and wealth." "Hap. of States,” p. xxx.

ON

THE PRESENT

NATIONAL DISTRESS;

ADDRESSED

TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE LORD

BY VINDEX.

ORIGINAL.

LONDON:

VOL. XVII.

Pam.

NO. XXXIV;

2 D

THE uniform integrity and manliness of your Lordship's public conduct, would have, induced me to address to you the "following observations, on the present national distress, independent of the ties of private friendship. The steadiness and courage with which you have, on all occasions, combated public abuses, give you an irresistible claim to the confidence of all honest Englishmen ; and it is with extreme satisfaction I have observed your Lordship taking an active share in the deliberations of this most interesting session of Parliament.

In your Letter to Mr. S, your Lordship seems to anticipate some important changes; and you lament that there is not existing, at this present critical moment, any man of sufficient talent and public virtue to take advantage of favorable circumstances, and give them a proper direction for the public benefit :a melancholy reflection surely! were it true; but I trust your Lordship has prejudged the case. I heartily wish indeed, there were many more able, honest, and independent public characters than I fear there are ;-but while your Lordship lives, I will not despair. It is an imperfection inherent in all popular governments, that mere loquacity ensures to its possessors a degree of influence in public affairs, often vastly disproportionate to their real desert. It is possible, however, that the importance of this faculty, great as it is, may be overrated; for there cannot be a doubt, that in political as in other affairs, a sound judgment is greatly preferable to a brilliant fancy; and that in public as in private life, honesty is always the best policy.

One of the most surprising features of these eventful times, is

the apathy and torpor which seem to pervade the men of rank and landed property. One would have thought, that were they too indolent or too selfish to stand up like their bold ancestors in their country's cause, they would at least have stood up for their own estates. One would have thought that a tithe of the present calamity would have called forth public meetings, in every county, town, and parish, from Berwick to Penzance. But scarce an individual seems disposed to stir, or to encounter the odium of avowing in public those unpleasant truths on the present state of the country, which all are forced to lament in private. The lower orders are thus unfortunately left to the impulse of their own passions and indiscretion, without the salutary checks and counterpoise of property, education, and experience. The consequence is too obvious to require illustration.

Is there no country party now-a-days, my Lord?-no association as in former times, of independent county members ?-no foxhunting squires of the ancient breed? There surely is yet a remnant. But the echo of Jacobinism still scares them at every thing bearing the most distant resemblance to reform of abuses; and the redoubted name of Hunt, and his Spafields mob, will charm them to stand motionless and mute, while their whole estates are quietly transferred to the loanmongers, Jews, and money scriveners of Change-alley. It is indeed, well nigh come to this already. And if they do not bestir themselves-and that quicklyscarce a man of them will be able, seven years hence, to keep a hound or a horse, or the roof upon his father's house.

Such has been the effect of the measures pursued by government, during the war, that the short-sighted and credulous landholders have absolutely been stript of half their property within these twenty years; for the purpose, it would seem, of protecting the fundholders, placemen, and others, whose property, pensions, and offices, were considered peculiarly vulnerable, by enemies from without or from within; and who now, when this purpose is answered, have contrived, as it would seem, to throw the whole cost and burthen of that war which was undertaken chiefly for their protection, on the shoulders of the landed interest. And what renders the sacrifice doubly galling-these very fundholders, placemen, and capitalists; who have, through the generous devotion of the landed interest, been saved from destruction; have not only come out of the struggle virtually without loss, but absolutely with an increase of their efficient income and property, to the amount, in many cases, of fifty per cent. !

Is it possible, my Lord, while the landed interest are crushed into their native earth, and through their ruin, the whole of the in dustrious classes are verging to starvation, that these men, who