And a better idea will be formed of the cause of the thin population of America at the time of its discovery, than by prying into and analysing the evils Mr. M has represented that country a prey to.

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I shall now close my remarks on this chapter, which appears to me one of the most important in the whole of our author's publication. I have not thought it necessary, on any point, to bring forward a weight of opposite testimony to that Mr. M. has produced, for this would have left the matter in suspense; but I have confined my observations to the principles of things, and to the nature of man. Whether I have done justice to the subject I am uncertain; but I am persuaded, if Mr. M's. chapter be attentively considered, whether the preceding remarks be received or not, so many objections to it will arise, as to shake the confidence of that gentleman's firmest adherents. The picture he draws is so overcharged, the facts are so distorted, and the whole is a tale of such unmixed woe, that it can only be read in connexion with eastern allegories, as a fiction, the work of a heated imagination, embodying misery, and directing to its residence. But even allowing that a fair and correct representation has been given of the American Indians,

the leading principles the work was written to establish are refuted: a great mortality is, in a hundred places, stated to be a sure pledge of an increase in marriages and in children; it is an unceasing theme, alluded to in every chapter, and vauntingly made the test of the truth of what is advanced. But in America, death, in a thousand forms, is made to do its office: but no writer ever noticed even a temporary improvement in the state of the people; no period when marriages became more frequent, or children more numerous; no period when former evils, which is Mr. M's. doctrine, increased their present comforts;

OF THE

CHECKS TO POPULATION

AMONG THE

Ancient Inhabitants of the North of Europe.

THEORY, founded on truth, gains support by every examination to which it can be submitted; if the facts on which it rests are placed in different connexions, and viewed under various circumstances, still the same leading features present themselves. In the chapter before us, Mr. Malthus has an opportunity of trying the theory he advances by this test. The ancient Germans, of whom he principally treats, lived under the same laws, observed the same customs, subsisted by the same means, and were exposed to the same calamities, as the North American Indians. Like them, too, they were just learning the rudiments of civilization; and were there no other, this circumstance alone would produce a resemblance in character; for the rudiments of

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government, like those of science, admit, in the subjects of them, of no distinction. Enter a school, where the alphabet can scarcely be repeated, and as there is no scope for the display of talent, so none is expected; a future Newton, should there be one, is not distinguished from the most arrant blockhead. Let the idea of a school be transferred to a nation, while yet rude and barbarous; during that age the same common character runs through the whole, and applies to every nation not better informed.

In the first giving way of midnight darkness, in the first glimmering of light, all remote objects are involved in obscurity; no one can see them more clearly than another; and the slight knowledge gained rather tends to confound than to direct. Thus circumstanced, no one attempts to deviate from the common track; the footsteps of one are a guide to the whole. But when more knowledge is acquired, when the sun has risen above the horizon, the prospect enlarges, objects are seen more distinctly; the footsteps of another are no longer sought after, which lays the foundation of a diversity of opinions, and gives loose to a variety of tastes and inclinations. It is now that the man of genius is discerned; now the rudiments of the republic or the

monarchy are laid, and every succeeding age increases the difference between them. But in darkness there is no distinction.

The Germans, described by Cæsar and Tacitus, and the Americans by Columbus, Charlevoix, Ulloa, and others, are so nearly alike in the state of their knowledge, in their character, and in their conduct, that the same pen describes both. The light each had attained was so little, that it is impossible they could widely have differed. The miseries of Germany were the miseries of America; the enjoyments of Germany were the enjoyments of America. Mr. M., charmed with the condition of the Germans, has translated from Tacitus part of what he relates concerning them; to which, by way of comparison, I shall connect what is known of the American Indians, on the same subjects.

"The Germans," he translates, "do not inhabit cities, or even admit of contiguous settlements." The same may be said of the Ameri cans.--- Every German surrounds his house with a vacant space." If they are not contiguous, it cannot be otherwise.---"They (the Germans) content themselves almost universally with one wife." So do the Americans; but polygamy was