354. 1st ed., pp. 63, 64.

355. 1st ed., pp. 65–6; cf. 2nd ed., p. 300, and 7th ed., p. 193.

356. See below, Bk. II. ch. iv., &c.

357. The numbers given then were five millions.—Froude, Hist. of England, i. 3.

358. See Hansard, Parl. Hist., xiv. 1317.

359. Not unfelt in 1801. So Arthur Young speaks as if the agricultural interest had not unfrequently regarded the Board of Agriculture as a new instrument of taxation. (Report on Suffolk, p. 16.)

360. In charge of Rev. Alexander Webster.

361. Parl. Hist., vol. xv. p. 69, quoted by Mahon, Hist. of England, sub dato, ch. xxxi. p. 39. Cf. Trevelyan, Early Life of Fox, ch. i. p. 14.

362. Dr. Adam Anderson, Chronological Deduc. of Commerce, Introd., p. xliii.; first printed in 1762.

363. See especially Estimate (7th ed., 1758), Vol. I. Pt. II. sect. viii. pp. 186 seq.

364. Chron. Ded., ibid.

365. I. e. to the discussion described by Dr. Anderson. Cf. Malthus, Essay, 7th ed., p. 164. Muret’s pessimistic paper was printed in 1766.

366. In his Political Arithmetic, 1774.

367. Estimate of the Comparative Strength of Britain during the present and four preceding Reigns, by George Chalmers, F.R.S., S.A., 1st ed., 1782.

368. Natural and Political Observations, 1696. Apud Davenant and Chalmers.

369. Primitive Origination of Mankind.

370. Political Survey of Great Britain, 1774.

371. Cf. Chalmers, Estimate, p. 4, Pref. p. cxxxviii., and John Howlett’s Examination of Dr. Price’s Essay (Maidstone), 1781.

372. Cf. Macaulay, History, ch. iii. 137.

373. Observations, supplement, p. 366. Cf. Malthus, Essay, App. p. 519. Arthur Young, France, p. 409. The whole subject will be considered later in connection with Scotland.

374. See Observations on Smuggling, 1779.

375. But see the caveat in the Registrar-General’s 44th Report (for 1881), p. vi.: The price of wheat and the marriage rate do not always vary inversely.

376. In the same way the returns to the Board of Agriculture at the end of the century are full of (not quite disinterested) praises of enclosures as an encouragement of population.

377. Lecky, Eighteenth Cent., i. 261, 479 seq. Restrictions on the sale were successfully adopted by Pelham in 1751, at the time when the question of depopulation was coming to the front.

378. An unsafe presumption. See below, Bk. II. ch. ii., &c.

379. E. g. inoculation.

380. Essay, 2nd ed., p. 317; 7th ed., p. 198, compared with 7th ed., p. 189, &c., above, pp. 115–16.

381. Essay, 7th ed., p. 198 note; first printed in 3rd ed. (1806), p. 461 n.

382. 2nd ed., p. 302 n.; 7th ed., p. 194 n.

383. This is asserted in the Preliminary Report to the last English census (1881). Against the idea, see the Annual Register’s reviews of Eden’s work on the Poor (1797), and of his Estimate of English numbers (1800). The Register had numbered Burke and Godwin among its writers, and was not likely to be behind public opinion.

384. See the review of Arthur Young’s Question of Scarcity plainly stated, 1800, in Ann. Register, sub dato.

385. Chairman of the Committee on the Public Finances 1797, Speaker of the Commons 1802, Lord Colchester 1817.

386. 2nd ed., p. 318; 7th ed., p. 204. Cf. 2nd ed., p. 317; 7th ed., pp. 192, 203, 206, 219, &c.

387. 2nd ed., p. 311; 7th ed., pp. 201, 202, foot. Compare 44th Rept. of Reg.-Gen. (England), p. v.

388. As e. g. in 1800–1 compared with 1802–3; 7th ed., p. 214.

389. 2nd ed., p. 319; 7th ed., p. 205. Cf. passages cited on last page.

390. Cf. Essay, 2nd ed., pp. 308–9; 7th ed., pp. 198–9.

391. 2nd ed., pp. 312–13; 7th ed., p. 201. The 2nd ed. has a reference to “the late scarcities” wanting in the later edds. Registration, be it remembered, was then of baptisms and burials, not births and deaths.

392. See above, p. 176. Cf. on the other hand the concession, 2nd ed., p. 317; 7th ed., p. 203, middle.

393. Essay, 2nd ed., p. 319; 7th ed., pp. 205–6.

394. 7th ed., p. 188.

395. Rickman himself allowed their defectiveness. See Essay, 2nd ed., p. 304; 7th ed., p. 196. Cf. above, p. 179.

396. 2nd ed., p. 302; 7th ed., p. 194. By the Registrar-General’s Report for 1882 it was as 1 in 64½ in that year.

397. 2nd ed., p. 303; 7th ed., p. 195.

398. 7th ed., p. 205.

399. 2nd ed., pp. 213–14; 7th ed., p. 202.

400. 45th Report of Registrar-General (England), (1882), p. ci.

401. 7th ed., p. 210.

402. 2nd ed., p. 302; 7th ed., p. 194 n.

403. Numbers calculated by “natural increment,” i. e. births and deaths—26,138,248; numbers actually enumerated—25,968,286.—Preliminary Report, p. iii.

404. ’31–’41, incr. 14.52; ’71–’81, incr. 14.34.

405. Or three and a quarter millions of people to England and Wales alone.

406. 7th ed., II. ix. p. 215 (written first in 5th ed., 1817).

407. Essay, 7th ed., p. 258; cf. Prel. Rept. Census, 1881, p. ix.

408. The account of Scotland in the Essay, Bk. II. ch. x., is taken from the Statistical Account of Sir John Sinclair, 1791–99. Sinclair was acting, on the south side of the Tweed, as President of the Board of Agriculture. See below, Bk. II. ch. i. p. 218.

409. There was very little in Scotland. It is only once mentioned by Adam Smith. MacCulloch says “never,” but he had overlooked Wealth of Nations, IV. vii. 251–2.

410. The last of late introduction. See Reports to Board of Agriculture: Central Highlands (1794), p. 21.

411. 2nd ed., p. 384; 7th ed., p. 229.

412. Not feudal but pre-feudal, or allodial. See Wealth of Nations, III. iv. 183, 1.

413. Wealth of Nations, ibid.

414. Selkirk, Highlands, 1805, p. 25.

415. See the Legend of Montrose, &c.

416. Adam Smith, l. c.; cf. I. viii 36, 1 (the often-quoted description of “half-starved highland women” with their twenty children in contrast to the “pampered fine lady” with few or none.)

417. Reports to Board of Agriculture: Central Highlands, 1794, p. 52.

418. Wealth of Nations, III. iv. 184, 1 (written 1774), a passage which shows that the clearances and the consequent cry of Depopulation are to be looked for as early as the middle of the century. We are sometimes told that from the ’45 to the end of the century was the golden age of highland farmers. But the willingness of the clansmen to enter Chatham’s highland regiments would hardly imply great contentment.

419. Cf. Essay on Pop., pp. 332 (2nd ed.), 227 (7th ed.), and Selkirk, l. c., pp. 43 seq. Contra, see Report of Crofters Commission, 1884, p. 51.

420. Made under the Marquis of Stafford between 1807 and 1820, in which year the popular odium was at its height, and the landlord made his defence in a well-known pamphlet by his factor, James Loch.

421. Cf. Malthus, Essay, 7th ed., p. 229, top; cf. pp. 221 ft., 223 ft.; 2nd ed., pp. 326–7.

422. See Malthus, Essay, 7th ed., p. 227. Cf. Farr in Statist. Journ., 16th Feb. 1846.

423. Drawn chiefly from the Statistical Account of Scotland, 1791–99.

424. Lavergne, Econ. Rur. de l’Angleterre, ch. xx. p. 310.

425. The 6th simply adds the numbers of the people from the census of 1821, with hardly any comment.

426. 2nd ed. says “barbarism.”

427. 2nd ed., “depressed.”

428. 2nd ed. adds, “by the filth of their persons.”

429. 2nd ed., pp. 334–5; 7th ed., p. 229. He refers to the rebellion of 1795–98, that was prelude to the Union of 1800, and was fresh in his memory.

430. Edin. Review, July 1808, the only review in that journal assigned to him by express testimony.

431. 3rd Report of Emigration Committee (1827), Evid., qu. 3225.

432. In the article on Newenham he incidentally utters the paradox that in view of the low standard of food the people’s indolence is almost an advantage, for it prevents wages falling quite down to that level.—Art. p. 341. Cf. Essay, IV. xi. 456–7. For his view of potatoes in Ireland, ibid., 453.

433. Cf. Review of Newenham, p. 352.

434. Cf. Rogers, Six Centuries of Work and Wages (1884), p. 484.

435. In a sense already frequently noticed. So in answer 3401, where he seems to accept the phrase “moral degradation” as applied to Ireland.

436. Cf. above, pp. 95 and 195 n. Professor Rogers must have forgotten such passages as these when he wrote the 62nd and 63rd pages of his Six Centuries of Work and Wages (1884), though he furnishes his own correction on a following page (484).

437. Wealth of Nations, V. iii. 430, 1, 2.

438. Sir Wm. Petty made it 1,100,000 in 1672. See MacCulloch, Append. to Wealth of Nations, (IV.) 462.

439. See Sir H. Parnell’s evidence in 3rd Report to Emigration Committee, 1827, p. 200. He thinks that between 1792 and 1821 the population of Ireland had doubled itself.

440. Malthus, Evidence before Emigration Committee, 1827; 3rd Report, qu. 3430, p. 327.

441. Querist (1735) 134: “Whether if there was a wall of brass a thousand cubits high round this kingdom, our natives might not nevertheless live cleanly and comfortably, till the land, and reap the fruits of it?” The “caged rats” of the Corn Law pamphlets give us the other side of the question.

442. “Of such consequence in the encouragement of any industry is a steady unvarying policy.”——Arthur Young, France, p. 388.

443. See above, p. 151, &c.

444. See above, pp. 191–2.

445. l. c. p. 399. Cf. Lecky, Eighteenth Cent., vol. ii. pp. 222 seq.; Review of Newenham, pp. 349, 350.

446. See above, p. 18.

447. 7th ed., p. 378 ft. Cf. Polit. Econ., 1st ed., pp. 252, 290, and 394 seq.

448. Essay, III. viii. 323 (first in 5th ed.). See later, p. 268, &c.

449. Essay, 7th ed., pp. 452–3; 2nd ed., pp. 575–6.

450. Ibid., p. 323 ft. (7th); MacCulloch, Appendix to W. of N., p. 467, 2.

451. Essay on Pop., 2nd ed., p. 576; 7th ed., p. 453 ft.

452. Lavergne, pp. 423–4.

453. Even in 1875 the Registrar-General’s Report showed that there were then fewer marriages in Ireland than in England, in proportion to the population, and that they came later. Cf. the 18th Report, for Ireland (1882), pp. 18, 19.

454. Review of Newenham, pp. 351–4.

455. See above, Bk. I. ch. i.

456. 2nd ed., Bk. III. chs. i. to iii.; 7th ed., Bk. III. chs. i. and ii.

457. 7th ed., ch. iii. (on Owen, &c.), which replaces a reply (2nd and 3rd edd.) to Godwin’s first reply.

458. All except those on pauperism. When pauperism is reached, the thread of the essay is again taken up.

459. Pol. Econ., 1820, Introd. p. 11. Cf. Tract on Value, p. 60 ft., and above, p. 37.

460. High Price of Bullion, 1809. See below, p. 285.

461. Malthus, Pol. Econ., Introd. pp. 2, 5, 22, &c.; Essay on Pop., Pref. &c.; Ricardo, Principles of Pol. Econ. and Taxn. (1817), Pref.

462. Life of Ricardo in preface to Works, p. xxxi.

463. J. S. Mill, Political Economy, 1848 and 1849. It was not a complete breach. The new faith and the old perplex each other and the reader, in the pages of Mill.

464. Pol. Econ., Introd. Cf. the Discussions on the Measure of Value, Pol. Econ., ch. ii., and pamphlet on the subject. So Roscher, Nationalökonomie, § 1 and n.

465. Arist., Ethics, i. (3).

466. “Definitions in Political Economy, preceded by an inquiry into the rules which ought to guide political economists in the definition and use of their terms, with remarks on the deviations from these rules in their writings” (1827), p. 5.

467. Pol. Econ., Introd. p. 11.

468. Definitions, p. 4.

469. Ibid., p. 5.

470. Definitions, pp. 6, 7.

471. Pol. Econ. (1820), p. 28. “And have an exchangeable value,” was the Ricardian addition; and in the Quarterly Rev., Jan. 1824, p. 298, Malthus weakly allows the addition to pass.

472. Pol. Econ., Introd. p. 11.

473. MacCulloch, Life of Ricardo, prefixed to Princ. of Econ. and Taxation (ed. 1876), p. xxv.

474. Letter quoted by Empson in Edin. Review, Jan. 1837.

475. Pol. Econ., Pref. pp. 12, 13 (2nd ed.). Cf. above, p. 57.

476. Arist., Ethics, x. 1. Some thought pleasure was the goal, but, for the sake of others, “one must not say so.”

477. See below, ch. iv.

478. Porter’s Progress of the Nation, p. 148 (ed. 1851). Cf. MacCulloch, Wealth of Nations, Notes, p. 525.

479. Dissolved in 1817.

480. Between 1767 and his death in 1820, he wrote no less than a hundred volumes on agriculture. His bet is given in Sir J. Sinclair’s Life by Archdeacon Sinclair, i. 253.

481. At the end of 1801.

482. Communications to Board of Agriculture, iv. 232–5 (1805). Cf. Ann. Reg., 1801, p. 131.

483. E. g. that the members should always use mixed instead of pure wheaten flour.

484. Ann. Reg., 1801, p. 129.

485. As was done, e. g., by Chief Justice Kenyon, King’s Bench, Rex v. John Rusby, Nov. 1799.

486. See J. S. Girdler, Forestalling, &c. (1800), S. J. Pratt’s poem on Bread for the Poor (1800).

487. Girdler, l. c. pp. 46,48, &c.

488. Philps, Progress of Great Britain, p. 132.

489. Cf. the figures given in Malthus’ Tract on Value, pp. 69–79, and in Professor Rogers’ Six Centuries of Work and Wages, pp. 487 seq.,—both of them taken chiefly from Eden on the Poor.

490. Wealth of Nations, I. viii. 44, 1.

491. On the whole subject see Craik, Hist. of Commerce, ii. 142–5.

492. Macpherson, ditto, iii. 148 (year 1728), 307 (year 1757).

493. Ibid., iii. 329, 331; MacC., Comm. Dict. (ed. 1871), p. 430.

494. Cf. Essay on Population, p. 352 (7th ed.). Cf. above, p. 25.

495. Macpherson, iii. 438, 452.

496. Cf. Malthus, Essay on Pop., p. 453 (2nd ed.); Grounds of on Opinion, &c., p. 43.

497. E. g. National Industry of Scotland, vol. ii. pp. 208–9 (1779). MacCulloch has quoted other passages (Wealth of Nations, xlviii. n., and Note on Rent, p. 453, 1, and n.). Sir Edward West agrees with Malthus in his qualified approval of the Corn Laws. See Price of Corn, &c., p. 139.

498. A reprint of the 3rd (?)

499. If we include the Crisis, it would be the fifth time.

500. It was popular enough to reach a 3rd edition in 1815.

501. See Grounds of an Opinion, &c., p. 2.

502. Observations, pp. 20–1.

503. Ibid., p. 17.

504. The English price in Nov. 1884.

505. Observations, pp. 19, 22, 23, 27.

506. Ibid., p. 28. If the Ricardian hypothesis is not true of individuals, it is still less true of Governments, as Cobden experienced.

507. Ibid., pp. 30, 31.

508. Ibid., p. 32: “Many of the questions both in morals and politics seem to be of the nature of the problems de maximis et minimis in fluxions; in which there is always a point where a certain effect is the greatest, while on either side of this point it gradually diminishes.”

509. Cf. even Observations, pp. 5, 12, 13.

510. See below, chs. ii. and iii.

511. The expression of Grenville in a letter to Pitt, 1800. See Stanhope, Life of Pitt, ii. 371.

512. Unless perhaps Mr. Bagehot’s. Col. Thompson understood the theory of population only in its cruder form. In answer 337 of the Catechism (1839) he meets the objection that free trade would only increase population by saying: “No man has a right to prevent us running a constant race with hunger if we can.”

513. Grounds, &c., p. 46 n.

514. Ibid., pp. 3, 11, 12,

515. Ibid., pp. 30, 33.

516. Ricardo, Works, p. 33[8?]5 (MacC.’s ed.). For remarks on this part of Malthus’ tract see ibid., p. 382.

517. Grounds, &c., p. 36 n. Cf. Ricardo, p. 390.

518. See above, p. 211.

519. Pol. Econ., ch. iii. sect. i. p. 134 (1820).