were born. No: I rather allude to those numerous benevolent institutions, established for the special purpose of succouring the indigent and distressed of every country, who may from whatever motive have taken refuge in theirs. The names of these establishments are various, but their object is uniform, and substantiates the fact which has called them into existence. But I must refer to Dr. Morse, Mr. Warden, Mr. Mellish, and others, for their description; for, to the honour of the New World, they are too numerous to be particularized in a work of this nature'. There is not a country upon earth where the first and distinguishing virtue of human beings, the peculiar badge and brand (as Tertullian calls it) of Christianity, Charity, is in more constant, warm, and unwearied exercise. And in speaking of such a people, whom it is the glory of England to have planted, and for whom all true Englishmen cherish fraternal feelings, if I have called into question their notions of human prolificness, which, however, they have in great measure imbibed from "the philosophers of Europe," it is only that I might defend the universal rights of human nature and the institutions of GOD from a theory founded upon their supposed increase. In all other respects, and while the Americans are thus worthy of the fathers that led them forth and planted them in the New World, as it regards their principles and conduct, political and religious; so far from wishing their diminution or decay, "May GOD make them an hundred "times so many more as they be!"

1 There are in Philadelphia, besides fit societies for foreigners and their dethese associations for the relief of dis- scendants. Warden, vol. ii., p. 88. tressed emigrants, eleven mutual bene

506

CHAPTER IX.

OF EMIGRATION TO NORTH AMERICA, PROVED FROM THE CENSUSES OF THE UNITED STATES GENERALLY, AS DIVIDED INTO SEXES AND AGES.

(1) HAVING in the preceding chapters proved, by a variety of historical, as well as incidental, evidence, the existence of emigration to America, to an extent which must have had a very great, instead of an immaterial, effect upon the progress of population in that country, I proceed to substantiate that conclusion by a direct appeal to the censuses of the inhabitants; which, though destitute of direct information on the subject, will still yield to a careful examination facts decisive of the question, which the commonest capacity cannot mistake, or the most subtle disputant evade.

(2) In doing this, I shall construct no hypothesis of my own, nor rely upon observations of a doubtful or debatable nature; but rest the argument upon the established and universally recognized laws of Nature. If the advocates of the geometric theory shall contend that the population of America, on which their theory is solely founded, exhibits a series of exceptions to those laws, that confession would be to evade the difficulty by surrendering their principle.

(3) I think it is unnecessary to prove what none have ever doubted, namely, that whatever their numbers may be, a considerable majority of the emigrants are of the male sex. The reason of the case confirms

the evidence of constantly recorded facts'; and, were any found with confidence sufficient to deny both, the censuses would not permit it to be done, without compelling them, at the same time, to impute to the operations of Nature a series of irregularities of which she is never guilty.

(4) My first proof, then, that the population of America is very materially affected by emigration, (and it is one which merits priority, both in regard to its simplicity and certainty,) is founded upon the proportion of the sexes as given in the censuses of that country; they being found to give, contrary to the fact, as it respects all others, and also to the established laws of mortality, a great plurality of males.

(5) The near equality in the numbers of the sexes at birth, with that trifling excess of males, which, however, soon disappears, in consequence of the more favourable law of mortality, that prevails as an universal law of Nature as it respects the other sex2, continuing through every stage of life, so as to constitute a majority of the existing population of every community in the civilized world, with the exception of that of the United States, females, is a fact too universally known to need any proof, and the subject will be resumed in another part of this treatise. The sole reason of the United States being an exception, is Emigration, which is constantly composed, as we have observed, of so much larger a pro

1

Major Graunt, Observations, p. 66. Dr. Franklin, Works, vol. ii., p. 156. Dr. Price, Revers. Payts., vol. ii., pp. 264, 333. Dr. Barton, American Phil. Transactions, vol. iii., p. 135, " More men than women emigrate." Dr. Drake, Hist. of Cinn., quoted by Warden, vol. ii., p. 249. Dr. Seybert, Statistical Annals, p. 29. Bulletin Universel, vol. ii., p. 367. Encyc. Brit., Supplement, Art. Population.

2 Dr. Price, Revers. Paym., vol. i., pp. 8, 81, 126, 360, 367; vol. ii., 8. 148, 149, 267. Muret, Mem. Soc. Eion de Berne, 1766, Part I. Susmilch, Gottliche Ordnung, tom. ii., p. 317, &c. Wargentin, K. V., Ac. Handl., 1766. Nicarder, K. V. Ac. Handl., 1801. 1 Qu. tab. Q. Dr. Heysham, Hutchinson, Hist. of Cumb., vol. ii., pp. 667, 668. Milne, Annuities, vol. ii., pp. 520, 530.

portion of males than females, as, in that one country, to reverse the proportions which Nature has established regarding all the rest.

(6) The censuses of every country in Christendom which has yet produced any, might be here appealed to. I shall, however, only particularize those of Sweden, as perhaps the most minutely accurate, in most respects, of any that have hitherto been taken. In the Swedish censuses of 1800 and 1805, which now lie before me, the former gives a total of 1,532,849 males, and 1,649,283 females; the latter 1,599,487 males, and 1,721,160 females. It will be found, that very similar proportions existed in the censuses of 1757, 1760, and 1763. Regarding the different divisions of this country, in England there were, at the last census, 5,483,679 males, and 5,777,758 females; in Scotland, 983,552 males, and 1,109,904 females; and, in Wales, 342,154 males, and 358,056 females. The last census of the United States gives, on the contrary, a vast majority to the male division of the census, this being 3,995,053, and the female one only 3,866,657. In the preceding censuses the same striking fact presents itself, and even in a somewhat larger disproportion.

(7) Before I proceed to calculate from these data the many hundred thousands of male emigrants only which must have been added to the American population, to occasion such an effect, it may be well to clear away, by a prolepsis, those objections which may, by possibility, be urged against so important a deduction, though they are of a nature which are almost sufficiently answered by being mentioned. They are these: the sexes may possibly be born, in different proportions, in America, compared with other countries, so as to produce this unusual result;

or, secondly, the relative laws of mortality, as it respects the sexes, as observed every where else, may be reversed in that country. These suppositions, I repeat, are almost too ridiculous to deserve answering; but the importance of the argument demands that it should be defended from objections, however futile.

(8) First, then, the sexes are not born in different proportions, at least, in any degree that can at all invalidate the general conclusion. In this and the succeeding demonstrations, I shall generally refer to the census of Wales, because I conceive the population is there more agricultural and pastoral than in any other part of Great Britain; and again, because the peculiarity of their language, and their attachment to their native country, render the inhabitants, generally speaking, more distinct, and less affected by emigration in any sense of the word. Let us, therefore, compare the first division of the American census, namely, that which gives the numbers of the males and females, respectively, under ten years of with the first two divisions of the census of Wales, which, together, include the same term of years; the result must be perfectly conclusive, for it is quite clear that no individual emigration under that age can take place; and as to those who emigrate in families, it is as obviously true, that the sexes of the children will be in the natural proportions. As, therefore, 1,345,220 male children under ten years of age in North America are to 1,280,550 females of the same age and country, so are 99,940 males under ten in Wales to 95,135 females. There are actually in the summary 95,340. Or if we take the mean numbers of the last and preceding census of the United States, the proportions will stand thus: as 1,185,249 males under ten, are to 1,130,988 females under ten, so

age,