of London, on the 18th of January 1836. The paper was contributed by Mr. Hallam, and was founded upon a communication made to him by Sir Francis Palsgrave, who, in his researches amongst ancient documents in the Record Office, had found a statistical account of the population of England at a very early date. To show the working of the geometrical principle, the population at the period of the compilation of Doomsday Book, about the year 1086, was taken at the number one million. The intervening period of 750 years gave 30 cycles of 25 years each. The number one million was taken as the hypothesis, and the ratio 2 used as the multiplier, and worked to the 30th degree of power. The result was, that the population of England, in the year 1836, should have been as the number 1,068,852,224.000,000, or 5953 to each square yard of the surface of the country. I have thought it proper to copy the above figures from the published Report of the Statistical Society; but there is a very considerable error in the calculation. The following table shows the product to be much greater :

"By means of the above simple and easy calculation, we are enabled to discern the false and the absurd conclusions to which we are led by working out the inductions from the premises which It follows, therefore, that, on the one Malthus has given, notwithstanding the premises are true. hand, there are certain assignable circumstances under which the principle will act up to the degree proved, for Malthus has established the fact, that in a great variety of instances, population has been increased at the rate assigned by him, which is, that of doubling its number in twenty-five years; on the other hand, it follows, that there are certain assignable circumstances under which the principle will not act up to the degree proved, or even approaching at all near to it. Thus it hecame the duty of Malthus to have directed the entire energies of his mind to the tracing out the operation of these circumstances, and to have refrained from drawing conclusions until he had gained a perfect knowledge of the laws by which such vast and important influence is acquired. I shall have to show, that in prosecuting his researches, he became bewildered and lost on almost every point; that in this state of darkness, he adopted principles which are as destructive of his own reputation, and as repugnant to truth, as they are inimical to the dearest and most sacred interests of his country and of mankind. In my next letter, I will continue my argument on his population principle.

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ON THE

LETTER XIV.

POPULATION PRINCIPLE" OF MALTHUS,

"To J. R. M CULLOCH, Esq.,

"SIR,-In my last letter I called your attention to the two rates of increase which form the foundation of those important calculations which Malihus Las propounded to the world. These are the geometrical rate as applicable to the increase of population, and the arithmetical as applicable to the increase of the means of sustaining population, which are called capital. By a table constructed on a very simple plan. I showed you, that the geometrical rate of increase upon which Malthus has placed his principle of population is entirely beyond the range of truth, and I brought it to the test of practical result. In this letter I propose to prove that the rate of inerease of population in England has not been even nearly so rapid as the slower of the two rates which Malthus has adduced, or that which he has assigned as applicable to the increase of the means of sustaining population, namely, the arithmetical rate.

Now, as bearing upon the two important subjects which are under consideration-that of population, or the principle of the expansion of human vitality on the one side, and on the other, the principle which appertains to the expansion of the means of sustaining this vitaley-there occurs, at page 3 of his work, the following remarkable and startling passage:- This is incontrovertibly true, throughout the animal and vegetable kingdoms. Nature has scattered the sceds of life abroad with the most profuse and liberal hand; but has been comparauvely sparing in the room and the Lourishment necessary to rear them.'

In the proposition which is thus laid down by Malthus, and which the understandings of men are called upon to receive and to hold as an axiom--for be pronounces it to be incontrovertibly truethe writer asserts the existence of a great ant most formidable law of nature bearing with irresistible force against the physical well-being of mankind. In one short sentence he calls in question and condemus the arrangement and providence of God. A slight examination, however of the sentence itself, will lead to a perception of its entire fal-eness. Malthus has here asserted, that throughout the animal and vegetable kingdoms a principle of vast prolificacy prevails. Thus, at the same time that he argues upon the prolific nature of man, he argues also upon the prolific nature of the matter which has been ordained to serve as the sustenance of man, namely, all that part of the animal kingdom which is adapted for being the food of man, and the same of the vegetable kingdom. If, therefore, the principle of the increase of these great portions of the animal and vegetable kingdoms which are ordained for the sustenance of man be of greater or even of equal power with the principle of the increase of the human species, the argument of deficiency will fail, and they the only portion of the proposition which remains will be that of room'; and every person will pere ceive that it would be absurd to raise an argument respecting this question of 100m."

"I will now prove that the increase of population in England has been so far from partaking of that excessive character which Malthus has attempted to impute to it, that it has not, in fact, increased in a degree nearly equal to that slower rate, which he has assigned as the rate of increase of the means of sustaining population, that is, the arithmetical rate. In order to show this clearly, I will quote again that passage of his in which he has stated the two rates; thus- The human pecies would increase as the numbers 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 61. 128. 256, and subsistence as 1, 2, 3, 4. 5. 6, 7, 8, 9' In my preceding letter I constructed a table, whereby the results of working out the increase of population under the first of these laws of increase were exhibited; and the following table shows the results which are arrived at by working out the last:

"By this table, it is demonstrated, that if the increase of the population of England be calcu Jated in conformity with that slower rate of increase which Malthus Las assigned as the rate of the increase of subsistence, the result in the year 1936 would be 31 millions. Now this is much more than double that which the real increase is, reference being made to England only.

With regard, then, to the population principle of Malthus, which has been made to assume so important a feature in modern political economy, and also in the policy of modern legislators, it is evident. that in every point of view it is false; and I will now quote respecting it the observations of Mr. Hallam, who is esteemed one of the most careful writers of the present age. His judgment is as follows: When he compared the enormous expansion of the logarithmic curve with the petty 14 millions of which we have to boast as our real numbers, he was led to think that there is still a great deal on the subject of population unexplored; and that the counteracting causes which have, in ages past, so retarded the developement of this prodigious force, as, numerically speaking, to have reduced its actual efficacy almost to nothing, are deserving of the most serious and diligent investigation.'

The judgment thus pronounced by Mr. Hallam is of the highest importance; and every reflecting and sensible person must agree with him, that there is still a great deal on the subject of population UNEXPLORED; and also, that it is a question which deserves the most serious and diligent investigation.

After perusing the solid and sensible remarks of Mr. Hallam, how disheartening and painful it is to behold the confident and supercilious manner in which this awful subject has been treated by a statesman who has been permitted to proceed recklessly on a course of legislation. I allude to the Parliamentary proceedings of Lord Brougham. In the oration which he delivered in the House of Lords, when he introduced a measure which, above all other measures, demanded the greatest caution, the utmost tenderness and forbearance in treatment, because it went directly to affect the condition of the poor and the destitute of the community, he spoke as follows respecting that principle which I have shown to be so false. His words were-My Lords! those who framed the Statute of Elizabeth were not adepts in political science-they were not acquainted with the TRUE principle of population-they could not foresee that a Malthus would arise to enlighten mankind upon that important, but as yet ill-understood branch of science-they knew not the true

principle upon which to frame a preventive check to the unlimited increase of the people. To all that they were blind.' Fine words, conveying false meaning! Adepts in political science!! These strong and captivating terms, when boldly advanced, as they were on the momentous occasion to which I refer, serve to over-awe and to make dupes of the uninitiated. But, in fact, what a lamentable perversion of words and thoughts! Adepts in political science!! And yet this is only a small specimen of the many high-sounding deceits which this statesman has practised on the credulity of his countrymen. Abject and miserable indeed must the condition of that people become, to whose high places such a man has been exalted.

"I now submit to you that I have deposed the population principle of Malthus; and I must express my astonishment that this principle should have been received with any portion of credence either by statesmen or statisticians. In my next letter it is my intention to enter upon an examination of the manner in which Malthus has treated the other great branch of political science-I mean that of commercial economy, or the means whereby the physical condition of a people is maintained. "I remain, Sir,

(From the Shropshire Conservative, April 9th, 1812.)

"THE FACTORY SYSTEM,

Notwithstanding the decided opposition of the members of the Government to ameliorate the condition of our poor White Slaves, by the introduction of a Ten Hours' Factory Bill, it is very probable-in spite of the formed opinons of the Ministerial leader of the House of Commons, and the previous calculations of the great manufacturers-that the point will be yielded to avarice and necessity, that would most strenuously have been withheld, had Humanity only lifted up the voice of supplication. It is now ascertained, not that women and children are crippled and starved, but that destruction must visit the mill-owners, if so many hours labour is kept up, as their stock increases beyond the demand. The state of the moral habits, or rather, we should write, immoral habits of those employed in factories, would hardly gain credence from any but those whose personal observations too well bespeak the lamentable truth. To Mr. Richard Oastler all friends of humanity are deeply indebted, for an earnest advocacy of that unhappy class. There is an extract from Mr. Mark Crabtree's Journal in the Fleet Papers, Vol. 2, No. 15, which will explain the nature of the demi-savage life of these poor creatures; we would give the full quotation from the Fleet Papers, but really we have not space:

*

*

*

"After this follows a dialogue between Mr. Crabtree and one of the factory women, in which it is stated, they rise at five o'clock in the morning, go to work at six, have fifteen minutes allowed for breakfast and tea, and one hour for dinner,-that they have to lift above their heads four combs, weighing 24 lb. each, every minute, or 96 lb. a minute the day through, and ieave off work athalfpast seven-this for 6s. to 8s. per week! There is, likewise, a statement, that nearly the whole of the unmarried females have had illegitimate children. One poor woman said the factories had been their ruin; her eldest daughter, being only sixteen, had had one child, and the other, although but fourteen years of age, was pregnant. Mr. Crabtree continues:

*

*

"If there is not enough in the passage we have quoted and referred to, to excite commiseration and indignation, we know not of what flesh the human heart is composed-or rather, of what stone. There can be no excuse avoiding searching reforms into a system so iniquitous-a system that not only saps up the springs of life-withering the flesh before its maturity should bloom, but far worse -destroying the souls of thousands-permitting them to live in a state of absolute heathenism on our own soil, when so many thousands of pounds sterling are freely given, and well distributed, to convert the heathen abroad. Lord Ashley has done his best to procure a curtailment of the hours of labour, and should that object be achieved, there will yet remain the more important task-that of rooting out the evils of the present conditon of the working-people. Could less time be given to manual labour, and a little more to the cultivation of the mind with moral precepts, in schools, we might hope for a better state of things than to see children become abandoned to every species of profligacy and vice. Lord Ashley and Mr. Oastler may strive to soften down labour-to curtail the hours of toil, but beware the worse danger of idleness, or rather, spare time devoted to excesses, and a prolongation of vicious habits. Mr. Oastler himself bears testimony to the beastly system of Factory Slavery. We cannot improve on his own honest, and plain, unvarnished account:"Had the 'Factory Lord' been feiled to the earth, and trampled upon as a reptile, the law, in its tender mercies, would have punished the man who inflicted the chastisement. Violence, indeed! Such wretches should be apportioned to the gallows-they are wilful, calm, calculating, coldblooded destroyers of human life! The murder of a day's premeditation, cannot be worse than this. Will some Member of the House of Commons have the honest mauliness to read the remarks of Mr. Crabtree and Mr. Oastler to the Premier, in his place in Parliament! The country should know these things, and know that the first Minister of the Crown is not ignorant of them. Men may evade or neglect in private what they cannot so easily shuffle off in public. Would that Oastler stood by the side of Ferrand in the House of Commons. Good, pure, God-loving-good would spring from their united exertions. The trophies of Marlborough and Wellington live in History, in the eyes of men, deeds of humanity and beneficence live in Eternity, and the Great Spirit hears and beholds them, and loveth them. THE PHILANTHROPIST'S SIGH SHALL OUTWEIGH THE STATESMANS PEN, OR THE WARRIOR'S SWORD, WHEN TIME CEASES, AND WORLDS ARE NOT!"

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