present system, is, of all objects presented to the feeling mind, one of the most deplorable; though the laws for sustaining the poor in this country, contemplate their preservation and future welfare. But what would be their condition under the guardianship of the theory of the anti-populationists, when reduced to practice, one of whose first and most important demands is, that the poor-laws should be utterly destroyed, and that these forlorn beings should have no longer "any claim of right to the smallest portion of food?" According to the present practice, the postponement of the marriages of the poor would, of necessity, greatly increase the rates for their sustentation; but, in the system recommended, there are to be no poor-laws. O rare Daniels!

(7) There is good reason, however, to believe that the proposition regarding the preventive check is not meant to be confined to the postponement of marriage merely, but that it implies, when its projectors think necessary, its inhibition altogether. This opinion does not rest upon the eulogies lavished upon the unmarried females of high life, and the adjustment of their claims to precedency; on the contrary, it is founded upon the requiring from the poor, that they should, before they enter into the marriage state, make out that fair prospect of supporting their families, which has been already shewn to be impossible, and which I defy any one in existence to believe that they could, generally speaking, render any fairer, as they advance further in life. In proof of this assertion, we perceive the acrimony with which late marriages are spoken of. "Such marriages," says Mr. Malthus, "must, to every delicate mind, appear little "better than legal prostitutions, and they often bur"den the earth with unnecessary children, without

"compensating for it by an accession of happiness "and virtue to the parties themselves." This passage again refers to the higher ranks of life, and clearly indicates that he does not require the postponement of marriage from them. The preventive check is

meant for the poor only.

(8) But for whomsoever designed, or whatever it implies, whether the postponement or the forbidding of marriage be meant; just as it obtains, it defeats the order of nature, spreads vice and misery, and is fatal to human happiness and prosperity. And it will be the purpose of succeeding parts of this work to shew that it does so gratuitously, encountering the mischiefs which itself contemplates, without any prospect whatsoever of effecting the object it has in view.

1 Malthus, Essay on Population, p. 524.

372

CHAPTER XXII.

OF THE PREVENTIVE CHECK: ITS DIMINUTION AS
POPULATION HAS INCREASED.

(1) WITH regard to what are called the direct checks to population, it has been already, I hope, most clearly shewn, that their influence and operation have greatly diminished as population has increased. Indeed, the fact, as incontrovertible, has been admitted by the most determined advocates of the theory opposed. The business, therefore, of adjusting the numbers of human beings to their food, and of repressing the former, so as to reduce them to the level of the latter, is left to the increased operation of what is called the preventive check. If, therefore, this check also has diminished in its prevalence as population has increased, the fact must be fatal to the entire theory in question.

(2) The great mass of every community consisting of the lower classes, it is unnecessary to say that the proof of the prevalence of the preventive check must rest in shewing that it exists among them. But it is, perhaps, one of the most singular parts of the argument of the advocates of the prevailing theory, alternately to assert and deny the existence of the preventive check, as it is called, in this immense class. When undeniable facts oblige them to confess that the other and more direct checks to population have greatly diminished in their operation, then it is requisite to state that the diminution has been in consequence of the general observance of

this prudential restraint, as it is sometimes called. When, on the contrary, it is necessary to shew that the existing evils of society are attributable to superfluous numbers, and to point out the remedy for them, according to their views, then do they inveigh against the early and improvident marriages of the poor, and their non-observance of the restraint in question; which, they moreover observe, little prevails as it respects that class of society, any where. These contradictions are palpable, but the system is made up of them. When, however, the rights, feelings, or interests of the lower classes are discussed, then are their early marriages insisted upon, their reckless improvidence arraigned, the criminality of their otherwise honourable connexions pronounced; in a word, the evil is declared to be so great, and the consequent dangers so imminent, that the utter abrogation of the poor-laws, as it respects the deserving, as well as the profligate poor, is earnestly propounded as the only effectual remedy.

(3) Now, still to keep our eye on the vast mass of the community, with whom, in regard of their numbers, the national calculation must rest, it is necessary to observe, that one of two circumstances must be the fact. The labouring poor either marry early, or they do not. If they do, the preventive check in this country is a mere nonentity, notwithstanding all that has been assumed regarding its negative effects. Where, then, are the tremendous alternations which the system under consideration presents as the only remaining means of keeping down the frightful tendency to excess in the population, as compared with the food, of the country? Where are those bloody and desolating wars, those sweeping pestilences, those terrible famines, those horrible infanticides, which we

are taught to believe would then be the necessary and only conservators of the general happiness and plenty of the community? Where! In the frightful systems of the anti-populationists; and, thank GoD, there only!

(4) But if the labouring poor do not marry early, and the preventive check does prevail generally among that class, what then becomes of those direct attacks, and still more galling insinuations, against them upon this head? Let the labouring poor of England have, at least, justice, from a system which deliberately denies them mercy! Let the anti-populationists no longer head the false accusations against a class which must, of consequence, be unspeakably meritorious in their eyes; rather let it be acknowledged that they postpone, if they do not finally forego, the sole solace and comfort which fate awards them in this life, (an infinitely greater sacrifice than the same conduct could become in any other rank,) in order to preserve their independence, or rather to avoid burdening those for their occasional relief whom their toils are constantly serving and enriching. Let it be proclaimed that this meritorious rank, who are neither philosophers, nor divines, nor economists, make a greater and more disinterested sacrifice than any such; that they cheerfully labour till the short span of their life is still shortened by their toils, and, while so doing, defraud the morning of their days of its only sunshine, that they may not cast a transient shade upon the bright and lengthened day of prosperity which their richer fellow-creatures enjoy. Regarding this class, therefore, let it be the study of their betters to benefit them; instead of robbing them of their birthright, and furnishing to hearts naturally too hard, and seldom softened by prosperity, those arguments