it was seriously proposed by the Lacedæmonian transport them into some part of Greece, where might be under protection from the Persians. To the Athenians, and probably the Ionians (very wis objected, but upon grounds perfectly distinct want of room: had this been felt, and Greece peopled', the expulsion of the adherents of the k which was, at the same time, proposed, could have created it.

(27) A single sentence may be given to the more important subject of Roman colonizations, effects of which have been so deeply and permane felt throughout so many countries, and down to present hour. Let it suffice to observe, that the pol and objects of these are clearly pointed out by author of the Rise and Fall of the Roman Empi but the want of room and food is not amongst the On the other hand, we know that they constituted « of those constant drains upon the native citize which were the cause of diminishing their numb and consequently of hastening the fall of that mig empire. The Roman agriculturists, which, wheth as poets or prose writers, form a very interesting cla of authors, give us too clear an insight into rur affairs at that period, to allow us to suppose, for Ն moment, that the Roman colonies were sent forth consequence of want of room and food at home. V accumulating property, and increasing luxury, des lation was making rapid advances, even in the ver heart and centre of the empire; and Tacitus inform us that, even in his day, the fields of Italy, formerl so minutely cultivated and highly productive, wer left, in great measure, untilled.

(28) I will prolong these remarks, on the subjec 1 1 Herod., Calliope, 105. Voyage du Jeune Anacharsis.

colonization, so far as to make a short allusion to more modern times. Let us then advert to Spain. t the very mention of the country is enough! at with forced, and what with voluntary colonizan, the expulsion of the Moors, and the emigrations the Indies, her inhabitants, one would think, have en sufficiently checked. But, alas, no! still, as they ve been diminished, they have become increasingly lundant; and through what Mr. Malthus calls the vent” for these, prosperity, happiness, and chaeter have likewise escaped, and abandoned the coun 1, perhaps for ever!

(29) I shall conclude, by again referring to the riking illustration the history of this country affords the principle at issue, and which, I think, is in full informity with that of Greece. It was in the Elizaethan age that this great country commenced " the eroic work of planting," which is destined to make er the mother of mighty nations. With the motives If these enterprises, want of room or food had nothing aatever to do. These were-the spirit of enterprise, he lust of gold, religious persecution, political animoities; in short, very similar reasons, with those shewn to have been the main springs of Grecian colonization; And these settlements, once formed, were constantly plenished by the same causes as those already ticed, in reference to the latter country. As a further proof of a striking similarity, in both instances, and as an additional demonstration that want of room is always one of the last pretexts that can ever be assigned for wars, the colonists of two branches of the European states, England and France, forming a mere handful of human beings, scattered over a vast and fertile continent, had hardly settled in their respective possessions, before they renewed, in the solitudes of

America, those struggles by which the paternal kingdoms had so often afflicted each other, and shaken Europe from its centre to its circumference. But this is not the point which I wish to leave, more particularly, in the reader's recollection. It is rather the period at which this colonization was first fully effected— the earlier part of the seventeenth century;-a period when at least a moiety of the surface of this country, unrivalled in fertility, was not even touched by cul tivation: it is upon record, that narrow and ignorant men were then found asserting that the country was surcharged with inhabitants, and they were successful, not only in disgracing the literature, but, partly, the policy of the country, by their dogmas. Hence, England poured forth some of her best blood, and long felt the consequences of her unwise conduct. Time has given the lie to the selfish suppositions of those days and men, and " yet their posterity approve their sayings," at least as applied to the present moment, which, with weak minds, is always the only one worthy of notice; and, were it possible that the notion I am opposing should obtain in this country, and, at the same time, the art of printing could be forgotten, and the history of that great colonizing period should be consequently left in the obscurity in which that of Greece is involved, future political economists, when tracing up to that period the peopling of vast continents from this empire, would, doubtless, attribute the emigrations of the seventeenth century to a "struggle for room and food."

193

CHAPTER XI.

OF ANCIENT GREECE. THE CHECKS TO POPULATION PROVED TO BE UNNECESSARY AND PERNICIOUS IN THAT COUNTRY.

HAVING, in the preceding view of Greece, shewn that war, and what is supposed to answer the same end, expatriation, were never rendered necessary by the principle of population, it may, perhaps, be thought that, in reference to that country, the subject has been sufficiently pursued. It will appear, however, otherwise, when the reader is reminded that hitherto only one, and that the least important, view of the question has been taken; the negative argument, if I may so express myself, being far less striking than the positive one, which the due consideration of the checks invariably suggests. The former, indeed, serves to shew that they are unnecessary; the latter that they are pernicious, that they often create, and always increase, the evils which it is imagined, by the system I am opposing, they are constantly redressing: in a word, that it is their absence, and not their presence, that is essential to the well-being of mankind.

(2) The question, then, which remains to be answered, as it respects Greece, is, whether "the overflowing numbers" taken off by the drains of war, or finding their vent in colonizations1, occasioned the return of comparative plenty. More particularly, let us inquire whether war, which was far more instrumental in keeping down the population of that country, than 1 Malthus, Essay on Population, p. 163. VOL. I.

2 Ibid., p. 15.

all other causes combined, was the means of conferring that blessing.

(3) And can this really demand an answer? Where has it been that plenty has not been connected with peace, as its inseparable consequence? Where, but in the system I am opposing, which is as utterly regardless of the experience, as of the feelings, of mankind? In vain does a poet of the country, to which we are both appealing, denominate peace the "Parent of Wealth1;" wealth, it seems, is the daughter of war in vain does a Divine Bard exclaim, that men shall refresh themselves with the abundance of peace:" war only, it appears, makes way for their refreshment.

(4) As it respects Greece, never was there a principle hazarded more at variance with truth. Prosperous and plentiful indeed would the country have been, if this check could have contributed to plenty and prosperity! But it occasioned, as one of its historians observes, "those calamitous times in which not only the fortunes of this people were continually wasted3," but the sufferings of the bulk of the inhabitants must have been extreme; for, to the horrors of war, those of pestilence and famine were often added: all checks to population, and which, being of the same species, mutually engender together and perpetuate each other. Thus "wearied and weakened by perpetual war", to use Sir Walter Raleigh's expressions, they sunk into that condition which, as he intimates, they well deserved; affording a threatening proof of what the checks, when fully unkennelled, will do for any

1 Fragment of Euripides, Polyb., lib. xii., ex. 7.

2 David, Psalm xxxvii. 11.

Polyb., lib. ii., c. 62. Hampton's Transl., vol, i., p. 263.

4 Raleigh, Hist. World, b. iii., ch. 15, § 10, p. 448. Diod. Sic., 1. xiii., c.15, p. 353. Ibid., 1. xi., c. 15, p. 249. Raleigh, Hist. World, b. iii., ch. 8,

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§ 1.