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more superfluous to each other. The city is gradually depopulated; the mart is deserted, and at length returns to a bare rock, where perhaps a few fishermen build their huts on the foundation of ancient palaces, and spread their nets where once a crowd of princely merchants assembled. Cultivation disappears; the boundless plain now scarcely makes "room" for a few wretched shepherds, who migrate with their scanty flocks across its rude and barren extent; and these again give place to the savage hunter, who resumes once more his primeval haunts of solitary wretchedness. Meantime the smile of Providence has been gradually withdrawn; all has darkened; and the gloom which settles upon the miserable remnant who have survived the very memory of their name and origin, hides them from the notice and curiosity of the human race. All that concerns them, worthy of the attention of mankind, is their ancient history; and this, indeed, affords a striking lesson. It proves that Necessity, created by population, is at once the strength, glory, and safety of every nation on earth, which has yielded to its dictates.

(15) If it be said, that this conclusion addresses itself to the imagination, I answer, that it appeals still more strongly to experience and truth. Exactly such has been the history of many of the fairest regions upon the face of the earth, once crowded with inhabitants, overflowing with plenty, and invested with supreme dominion. Their population was checked, no matter by what means, and history speaks the melancholy consequences. Many of the most ancient and most powerful nations of the earth have experienced this doom. The cradle of man seems to have become his tomb; the ruins of immense cities and "solemn temples" swept, as it

were, with the besom of destruction, and without a possessor, appear like the sepulchres of human greatness; and the curious traveller who would gaze upon them has to bear his provisions over desolate and trackless plains, which once furnished inexhaustible supplies for myriads. Nor have these catastrophes been brought to pass by any miraculous interposition! The means of their destruction, checking the increase of the species, whether by vice or oppression, would produce the same effects on the proudest of the surviving empires. They would produce it in our own; and the voice of history warrants me in saying, that such a course would be irremeable. It seems as though nothing could revive the energies, or restore the prosperity, of a country whose population has long continued to decline; they will sink into inevitable ruin, and it will be reserved for others who feel the inspiring impulse they have quenched, to recolonize their nation, to restore its prolificness, and fill it with inhabitants who shall better fulfil the designs of Almighty Providence.

(16) With some, however, an appeal to the principles of what is called Political Economy will have much more weight than any proofs derived from the principles of common sense, history, or philosophy. I shall, therefore, close this argument by an appeal to the great authority of the modern school, Ricardo. He unequivocally asserts and maintains the precedence of population to production; the miracle is, that it should ever have been denied, or even doubted'.

1 Ricardo, Polit. Econ., p. 561.

132

CHAPTER VIII.

OF THE PRECEDENCE OF POPULATION TO PRODUCTION, AS A MAIN CAUSE OF PEOPLING THE EARTH;

WITH REMARKS ON EMIGRATION.

(1) THE precedence of population to food has another most important consequence which yet remains to be pointed out, a result which none who acknowledge the existence of a Deity can refuse to believe was in his contemplation as Creator of the world, and one which it is not conceivable could have been accomplished by any other means, consistently with that order of things which he has been pleased to establish; I mean, the peopling of the earth. I am aware of the difficulties which environ this particular view of the subject, and have, therefore, intentionally separated it from that branch of my argument to which it naturally belongs, in order to give it a distinct consideration; being unwilling to connect what may, perhaps, be denominated conjecture, with absolute certainty. The reader may, therefore, reject the view of the subject which is about to be presented to him, without any detriment to the general argument; for myself, I confess, after having given it no slight attention, consulting, as well as I have been able, the nature, necessities, and history of the human race, it has fixed itself upon my mind as an incontrovertible truth.

(2) Were I called upon to express, in as few terms as possible, and with the most scrupulous attention to their arrangement, the procession of population to that state of universal prosperity and happiness, to

which, it is to be hoped, it is ultimately destined to attain; no form of language appears to me so succinct and comprehensive as that already used by the most ancient, not to say sacred, historian of the universe. It is put into the mouth of the Deity himself, and is, I humbly conceive, as sublimely appropriate as another expression from the same source, which a great heathen writer has selected as an example of the true sublime; it is the irrevocable benediction of the Deity pronounced on man at his creation. "And GOD "blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it." That is, marry,—increase,—spread,—cultivate! This is the sacred canon of the system I espouse. The law of Nature is quite as clear as that of inspiration, on this head. And yet there are those who have the audacity to proclaim, that this command is no command; that this blessing is a curse; that the law is abrogated long before its object is fulfilled. Let such cast their eyes upon the world at large, or upon Europe, nay, even on their own country, and tell us if the earth be yet replenished, if it be yet subdued? But it is no wonder that such should inveigh against the Divine principle of human increase and multiplication at the present time, since they have declared it the source of evil from the very " commencement of society."

(3) But to return. This process of Nature, or of Divine Providence, is in striking conformity with the idea already maintained at large, namely, that population precedes production, originating that necessity, of which the ultimate object is to subdue the earth by culture. But, in order to this universal culture, it is obviously necessary that mankind should be distributed as well as multiplied; and this previous and most im

, subigere terram. See also Locke, Treatise on Government, p. 191.

portant office necessity has to perform. It is the great and efficient cause of replenishing the earth, as well as of subduing it. This it effectuates by means which are more powerful than perceptible, unless we give a near attention to the subject; then, indeed, it will be clearly seen, by what adequate causes the purposes of Providence are accomplished, to which, even the weaknesses and ignorance of human nature (I mean not its wickedness) are rendered finally sub

servient.

(4) That necessity is the main spring of human labour, with all its great and beneficial results, is undeniable; but that man, however benefited by it, is naturally averse from labour, especially that which is imposed by necessity, is equally true; and I conceive that it was from the mutual operation of these seemingly adverse principles, that mankind were originally scattered, and the earth, consequently, peopled. We have seen the beneficial effects of the law of necessity; and a moment's consideration, I think, will convince us that the principle which seems to oppose, or rather to moderate, its operation, is hardly less essential to the happiness and welfare of the species, especially in the more advanced stages of civilization. The bare necessaries of existence are attainable in the savage state; but those advantages which are created and increased by man, as he advances in civilization, are the consequences of accumulated labour, which can be enjoyed only in a state of comparative ease and independence, This ease and independence are the prize for which so many contend, the quickening motive of so much of that individual labour, of which the united results astonish even those who have contributed to produce them. And if the hope of this excites man to such beneficial exertions, it is rarely indeed that its possession

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