always to fubfift between the fingle man, and him that has a family. Upon thefe grounds, he objects to the fyftems of Sir James Steuart, Mr. Townfend, and A. Young, Efq. On the cow-fyftem of the latter, he remarks, that at firft much good would appear to be produced; but that, as soon as the commons had been allotted, and land began to be scarce, difficulties ftill greater than the prefent would occur, from the extended population, which a habit of early marriage, fostered by this fyftem, would produce. We confider Mr. Malthus's obfervations refpe&ting the use of potatoes, or the cheap foups of Count Rumford, as perfectly juft, and diftated by a fpirit of liberality. If these were adopted for the food of the poor, the price of labour would, as he obferves, be regulated by the price of thofe articles, as it is now, in fome meafure, by the price of wheat. This lowering the price of labour might be propofed by a commercial politician, with a view of underfelling foreigners in the market; but the policy of condemning our poor to rags and wretchednefs, with the view of increafing our exports, is deteflable, and must be abhorred by every friend of mankind. Under that fyftem alfo, if the average confumption of potatoes fhould at any time equal the average growth, and a scarcity of that article fhould enfue, it would occafion a more dreadful dearth than a scarcity of wheat; because the poor, having been habituated to live on the cheapest and most productive food, would be without any fubititure, except the bark of trees, and a great part of their muft of neceflity be ftarved. The queftion is not, as Mr. Young feems to have ftated it, how to provide in the beft and cheapest manner for a given number of people; this involves no difficulty; but the true confideration is, how to provide for those who are in want, fo as to prevent a conflant accumulation of their number; and this is no eafy tafk. Unless the marriage of the poor can be reftrained, Mr. Malthus imagines no permanent improvement of their condition can take place; a diminution of mortality (by the introduction of the cow-pox or otherwife) will only produce a greater mortality in future; and, if their condition is ameliorated in one place, it will be depreffed in another. Luxury, which tends to raife the ftandard at which marriage ceafes, he confiders as advantageous, because it tends to prevent that union. By thus diminishing the numbers of the lower claffes of fociety, the industrious, he obferves, would have a greater chance of rifing into the middling flation. The price of labour ought to allow fubfiftence for a family of fix children; if a labourer had more than that number, fome allowance might be made, fo as to raife his condition to that ftandard, which might be done without encouraging marriage. This advance in the price of labour would not be fuch as to put a flop to our manufactures; because, the price of provifions would be more equal, the poor-rates would be abolished, a great faving of what is at prefent expended upon young children who die prematurely would take place, and economical and induftrious habits would generally prevail. In the conclufion of his work, Mr. Malthus observes, that as civilized fociety requires manufactures and large towns, this would diminish, in fome degree, the neceffity of a very great extenfion of the preventive check; and, although it would be abfurd to fuppofe, that more chastity would be found in the fingle flate than at prefent, the duration of that state might certainly be prolonged as far as is neceffary, without any great reftraint. He is of opinion, that if the prudential check to marriage could be increafed, without a very great increase of the illicit intercourfe of the fexes, the happiness of fociety would be highly promoted; that this might be done is evident, he thinks, from the example of Norway, Switzerland, England, and Scotland, where, although that check operates with greater force than in the neighbouring flates, those countries rank higher in point of chaflity. At any rate, allowing an increafe of vicious intercourfe between the fexes, the diminution of the vices arifing from indigence would, he thinks, fully counterbalance that evil; and the caufe of happinefs would have, in addition, the advantage of diminished mortality, and fuperior comforts. The author even imagines, that although it would be highly advantageous that pofitive inftitutions fhould co-operate with prudential refraints, yet much good would be done, by merely laying alide the inflitutions which encourage marriage, and no longer circulating opinions and doctrines which favour it. Nay, even the mere knowledge of the effects produced by the tendency of the fpecies to increafe, would, in his judgment, be beneficial; as it would prevent the rich from exerting their benevolence in a wrong direction, by fhowing them the phyfical impoffibility of aflifting the poor, fo as to enable them to marry early, and bring up a large family with decency; and it would teach the poor, that the caufes of poverty have no connexion with forms of government, or the unequal diftribution of property; which would tend to render them more contented and peaceable. The importance of this work, to the general interefts of fociety, has led us to be rather copious in our account of it. The lights which the author has thrown upon the fubject, are are of the most interesting nature. All the former systems are, indeed, in a manner, overturned by his principles, and the important deductions he has drawn from them; and yet, fuch appears to be the general correctnefs of his remarks, that we muft more frequently give than withhold our affent. Legiflators and politicians have been conftantly in the habit of endeavouring to increase, by pofitive laws, the number of the people, as if their number were the efficient caufe of profperity; with the fame views, they have deplored, and attempted to ftop, the occafional emigrations of the natives. This conduct, we are now told, is abfurd in the extreme; an increase of the people will immediately follow any improvement of the country, merely from the course of nature, and independent of pofitive inftitutions. If this improvement however is not made, to flop the emigration of the fuperfluous hands is, in fact, only condemning them to want and mifery at home. On the fame principles, nations have encouraged the importation of foreigners, which, abftracted from the view of introducing new arts, equally mili tates against the juft principles of policy; as their introduction can only tend to impoverish the natives, and hinder their increafe at any favourable time. This importation of foreigners has been carried to the utmoft excefs in the Weft-Indies, where a ftrange race has been introduced, whose condition renders them difloyal, and whofe numbers makes them formidable. The fear, least the mother country fhould be unable to afford the neceffary fupply of hands, and fhould be depopulated in the endeavour, was undoubtedly the original cause of this ftep; a fear, however, which now appears perfectly groundless. Mr. Malthus notices a fact ftrongly in point, namely, that the two provinces of Spain from which the greatest emigration took place to America, became, in confequence of an extended demand for people, more populous. At the fame time that we give Mr. Malthus praife for his industry in collecting facts, and for his ingenuity in apply. ing them, to fhow the remote caufe of the mifery and diftrefs of the lower claffes of fociety, we diffent from him, in the means he propofes for avoiding thofe evils in future. The total abolition of the poor laws, even though gradual, is a measure much too violent. Nor are we for introducing actual changes haftily, upon any theory, however fpecious. We do not object to a national fyftem of education, if directed by wholefome views, and on found principles: but we cannot agree with his ideas of extending the period, and even the habit, of celibacy. That, by fuch conduct, much poverty poverty and diftrefs in families might be occafionally avoided, we do not deny; but, unless monaftic inflitutions for the female fex were revived (an event neither likely to occur, nor fit to be recommended) this would be accompanied with a very great increafe of vice. An increase which we are taught, by every principle of religion, natural or revealed, to confider as of much greater confequence than any temporary preffure of circumflances. Independently of religion and morality, even political reasons fland in the way of a great extenfion of Mr. Malthus's fyftem. A diftrict formed with fuch habits, if it were capable of difcharging its fuperfluous members upon its neighbours, and of drawing from them the neceffary fupply of domeftic fervants, might perhaps be looked up to, in theory, as the model of a perfect fate; when applied, however, to an entire nation, and still more to the European republic, we cannot affent to it as eligible. The countries in which the preventive check to population is moft prevalent, and its concomitant effects motifible, feem to be the only countries in which it can be adop ed. The inhofpitable climate of Norway, whatever happies its pe fautry may enjoy, offers too uninviting a profpes to empt the cupidity of the more powerful monarchies of the fouth. The infular fituation of Great Britain protects it from invafion; and the large difpofeable revenue which is y'ded by its commerce, enables it to hire others to fight its battles. It confequently does not require fo much attention to abfolute popula tion; and its inhabitants are enabled to enjoy their advantages, without any great danger of falling under the dominion of nations richer in tren, and moved by a fingle mind. Upon the continent, however, the cafe is different. A flate which thould adopt fuch prudential maxins, muft be weak in its adminiftration, from the independency of the inhabitants, and their jealous reftrictions on the executive power; and it must have the reputation of being rich. With two fuch powerful incentives to roufe the paffions of the furrounding nations, and with a reftrained population, infufficient to fupply defenfive armies, nothing but the mutual jealoufies of its neighboms could fave it from falling at once under their dominion. At all times, notwithstanding its wishes to be neutral, it would be drawn into the difputes of its neighbours, if it were only that it might ferve as the theatre of war, as well to keep the difh effes incident to war from their own dominions, as because the abundance of its furplus produce would be well adapted for the fubfiftence of the contending armies: this has been the fate of Flanders, Italy, and Poland. In fuch fuch a flate, to the mifery of having armies of foreigners ranging through its territories, would be added the still greater mifery of foreign factions, arifing out of the relations fpringing up between individuals and the contending powers; until at length, exhausted by faction, it would fink under the dominion of the moft fortunate of its neighbours, or be divided among them, as foon as they could agree refpećting the partition. The general adoption of fuch habits by all the European ftates, fuppofing for a moment fuch an event poffible, would only tend to haften the period when Ruffia will attempt to overwhelm the northern and midland ftates with her numerous forces; or, to encourage the followers of fome new prophet, or other adventurer, from the fandy plains of Arabia, again to overrun the fouthern parts, and to wath away the crimes or errors of the inhabitants in their blood. It is but juftice to this author to declare, that in this edition. of his Effay, we do not find any trace of what we conceived to be intimated in the former; a notion that human minds were framed, by fome natural procefs, from inert matter. On the contrary, he seems here to write as imprefled with a due sense of religious as well as moral truths. Refpecting the style of this work, as we have given feveral extracts, we have, of courfe, little to fay. A defire to leave nothing unfaid upon a subject of fo much importance, has certainly led Mr. Malthus to be rather diffuse. A more concile view might have been more pleasing to fome perfons, and better adapted for general reading. For ourselves, we can truly fay, that we found every part of the work fo curious, and fo ably treated, that it did not appear to us too long. ART. IV. A Commentary on the Revelation of St. John: accompanied with hiftorical Teflimony of its Accomplishment to the prefent Day. By the Rev. E. W. Whitaker, Rector of St. Mildred's, Canterbury. 8vo. 497 pp. 8s. Rivingtons. 1802. T will be remembered that, in the year 1795, Mr. E. Whitaker published a fmall, but very meritorious, tract on the Prophecies, which we had an opportunity of noticing, in the fifth volume of our Review. The prefent work is but an enlarged edition of the former; but the additions are valuable, and of indifpenfable importance to Mr. W.'s plan, as they are calcu lated |