the Tay, the Tanm of Tacitus ; not the Romans, was covered with woods. that of the Solway Frith, called Taw, Though most authors, approximatfor the first time by Mr. Chalmers. ing the old Caledonian words to All military commanders, especi- English idioms, write Ochills, and ally in the invasion of unknown coun- sometimes Oakhills, the true ety.uotries, are particularly careful to avoid logy and orthography, preserved by the intricacies of woods, morasses, oral tradition, and the unvaried hills, and mountains, and to keep speech of all Scotland for ages, is the open plains. Mr. C. completely neither Ochills, nor Ockhills, nor inverts this system of conduct. He yet Aichills: but the Aichil hills, brings the Romans from Cumberland that is, the woody hills.-Chulé, in to the Locher Moss, in Dumfries- the Celtic language, signifies a wood. shire, twelve miles and three broad. Never would thirty thousand CaleThrough this morass, and the billy donians, so vigilant, alert, and condistrict bevond it, he marches them versant with various stratagenis of into Galloway, and then turning them war, as Tacitus represents them, have back on their steps, for some time, remained quietly on the slope of Bento the east, he gives them a northerly voirloch, only two or three miles direction through the forest of Ette- from the pass of Glen-Eagles, and rick, and the whole of the mountain- have suffered the invaders to march ous country between the Annan and through both Glen-Devon and Glenthe Clyde. From Fife, “the hostile Eagles unmolested!! The Romans land of the Horestii , (as Mr. C. calls were not more completely surroundit,) Agricola, in like manner, led his ed and taken by the Samnites, at the army to the roots of the Grampions, Caudine Forks*, than they would through Glen-Devon and Glen-Ea- have been in a narrow and intricate gles. The pass at Glen-Eagles, pass through the woody Ocbills. at the entrance, on the north side, Mr. C.'s great sheet-anchor is Taum, where it looks to the Grampians, (id nomen æstuario). It is a strange is narrowed to two or three bun- fancy in Mr. C. to suppose that he dred yards, at most, by a stupen- can make up for bis ignorance of dous rock, the habitation of eagles, Latiu by a knowledge of Erse! on the one band, and a hill rising Though it cannot be said that Mr. suddenly from its base to a consider. Chalmers's topographical observaable height on the other. In front, tions have added much to the stores and fast by the entrance into the of historical knowledge, they have, glen, on that side, there was the a in many instar es, coufirined and ilmorass, near two miles in length from lustrated iis truth, aod-aust afford not east to west, and little less than a a little entertainment to a native of mile in breadth; as appears from the North Briton ; while his descriptions nature of the ground at this day, of manners, custons, and ihe general which the industry of the proprietors state of sociely, will probably, with bas not yet been able completely to most readers, atone in some measure drain. In additiou to all this, the for liis style and mauner, though both bills, through which Mr. C. conducts extremely disgusting, We are parVOL. XLIX. 3 T ticularly * The narrowest and darkest valley of the Appenrines. ticularly pleased with the concluding chapter of the second book; which chapter relates to the introduction of christianity into North Britain. It gives an account of the arrival of mouks, and the establishment of monasteries; the sincerity, the zeal, and the perseverance of those christian missionaries; and the benign influence of christianity on rugged chiefs and a savage people. And the recollection of all this is enlivened by references to monuments existing at this day. So also is that of many other historical facts mentioned in this volume. Writers on government and political economy, differing from oue another in many points, have agreed, with one accord, in this; that in every system, or plan of government, regard is to be paid to the advancement of population. Not so Mr. Malthus-he considers the rapid progress of population as a most formidable evil; and there is nothing he dreads so much as that it should outrun the means of subsistence, so inadequate, he thinks, to the principle of propagation in man, and all animal nature. 1 "The principal object of the present essay," says Mr. M. "is to examine the effects of one great cause inti-if mately united with the very nature of man, which, though it has been constantly and powerfully operating since the commencement of society, has been little noticed by the writers who have treated on this subject. The cause to which I allude, is the constant tendency in all animated life to increase, beyond the nourishment prepared for it. That population has this constant tendency to increase beyond the means of subsistence, will sufficiently appear from a review of the different states of society in which man has existed. But before we proceed to this review, the subject will perhaps be seen in a clearer light, if we endea. vour, to ascertain what would be the natural increase of population, if left to exert itself with perfect freedom; and what might be expected to be the rate of increase in the productions of the earth, under the most favourable circumstances of human industry. A comparison of these two rates will enable us to judge of the force of that tendency in population to increase beyond the means of subsistence which has been stated to exist. "In the northern states of America, where the means of subsistence have been more ample, the manners of the people more pure, and the checks to early marriages fewer, than in any of the modern states of Europe, the population was found to double itself for some successive periods every twenty-five years; yet even during these periods, in some of the towns, the deaths exceeded the births, and they consequently required a continued supply from the country to support their population. According to a table of Euler, calculated on a mortality of 1 in 36, the births be to the deaths in the proportion of 3 to 1, the period of doubling will be only 12 years; and these proportions are not only possible suppositions, but have actually occurred, for short periods, in more countries than one. Sir Wm. Petty supposes a doubling pos sible in so short a time as ten years. But to be perfectly sure that we are far within the truth, we will take the slowest of these rates of increase; a rate in which all concurring testimonies agree, and which has been repeatedly ascertained to be from procreation only. It may safely be pronounced, therefore, that population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every 25 years, or increases in a geometrical ratio; (suppose à population of one million of people, in one period of 25 years they will increase to two millions, in the second period to four millions, in the third to eight, and so on): but the increase of subsistence cannot be at the same rate; if, by good manage-, ment, the quantity be doubled in 25 years, in the next period of 25 years it cannot be quadrupled. The rate of doubling in the population is géometrical, but in the subsistence it is only arithmetical. "The necessary effects of these two rates of increase, when brought together, will be striking. Let us call the population of this island 11 millions, and suppose the present produce equal to the easy support of such a number; in the first 25 years the population will be 22 millions, and the food being also doubled, the means of subsistence would be equal to this increase; in the next 25 years the population would be 44 millions, and the means of subsistence only equal to the support of 33 millions; in the next period the population would be 88 millions, and the means of subsistence just equal to the support of half that number; aud, at the conclusion of the first century, the population would be 176 millions, and the means of subsistence equal only to the support of 55 millions, leaving a population of 121 millions totally unprovided for. The human species would increase as the numbers, 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256; and subsistence, as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. In this supposition no limits whatever are placed to the produce of the earth, yet still the power of population being in every period so much superior, the increase of the human species can only be kept down to the level of the means of subsistence by the constant operation of the strong law of necessity, acting as a check upon the greater power.' The way in which this acts may be classed under two general heads the preventive, and the positive: by the preventive, is understood celibacy: by the positive, is comprehended "all unwholesome occupations, severe labour and exposure to the seasons, extreme poverty, bad nursing of children, great towns, excesses of all kinds, the whole train of common diseases and epidemics, wars, pestilence, plague and famine; to these are added, promiscuous intercourse, and unnatural passions, violations of the marriage-bed, and improper acts to conceal the consequences of irregular counexious.” Such are the checks which keep down the population of the world to the subsistence in it, and which may be resolved into moral restraint, vice, and misery. With three such powerful agents at command, Mr. Malthus lays down the following propositions: "1. Population is necessarily limited by the means of subsistence. 2. Population invariably increases where the means of subsistence increase, unless prevented by some very powerful and obvious checks. 3. These checks, and the checks which repress the superior power of population, and keep its 3T2 effects effects on a level with the means of subsistence, are all resolvable into moral restraint, vice, and misery." Dr. Jarrold, having examined this theory, sums up his observations and reasoning on it in the following conclusion: "In the foregoing remarks I have endeavoured to prove that the checks to population, which Mr. Malthus thinks have been as constant as any of the laws of nature, are not necessary to the government of the world; that they arise out of circumstances that are perfectly optional, and are most experienced under a bad system of government, and least under a good one, and consequently may in a great measure be driven from the world. Were war, famine, and pestilence, natural evils, provision would be made in the economy of nature to excite them, and their approach might be foreseen and calculated like the return of the seasons; a certain number of victims would fall in a given space of time, and no more; they would be to a nation what superabundant fruit is to a tree: but we are well assured that these evils may desolate a land; we know of no check to their fury but human means, means that would have prevented their approach. Misery has ever been the consequence and the scourge of ignorance and depravity, knowledge its corrective; virtue and knowledge repair the breach made by vice and misery, but vice and misery cannot be applied to improve the effects produced by virtue and knowledge: hence, therefore, if virtue and knowledge are applicable to man, vice and misery can have no natural place in our economy. Very few persons have such an opinion of the Deity, as to suppose that he would endow with life without providing the means of its support, yet this is the idea Mr. Malthus holds out: I need not say such an idea banishes the Deity from the world,-it cannot be, that the works of God are so imperfect, or his government so weak, he has made laws which cannot be fulfilled, he has given promises he cannot verify. Morality ceases to have a name under such a government as Mr. M. describes: but, happily for mankind, vice and misery exist not as the sovereigns to which we are legitimately subject; they are the consequence of our ignorance, and can never be appealed to as friends. We can never say we want more vice and misery to render our condition better, but, on Mr. Malthus's theory, this is a very common want. Vice and misery are punishments, and punishment implies transgression; there is no authority in them; they sanction laws, but they are not laws themselves. "In the view I take of the subject, the life of man is secure, his happiness well guarded by obeying the laws Mr. Malthus would teach us to break. A wise and benevolent Creator has his eyes constantly upon us: has he appointed our years to be threescore and ten, they were intended for the business of life, and ought to be filled up in the service of mankind; not to be wasted in ennui, not to be dragged on through their latter half in perpetual fear of death, paralizing every action, and casting a gloom over scenes that ought to inspire joy. The business of life should go promptly on to its close; it is cowardice to shrink back when we have proceeded only half way, and seem afraid to meet fresh duties; it is our business to be always employed, that when the exaniple a a finger of death shall point towards and in a few generations, pursuing us, we may have no duty upper- the same measures, extinction may formed. A bireling has his stated be with certainly anticipated.-Bať employment for the day; he may where civilization and knowledge feel weary in the execution, but until extend to the people at large, the be has fulfilled liis obligation a res- same inordinate application, the pite fram labour is a crime. Infancy same restless desird of fame cannot and youth are spent in acquiring be felt, nor the same consequences knowledge, which experience ma- follow. · Athens is not an tures: as knowledge is never lost, to the contrary, the number of her so it ought never to be unemployed; freemen were small , and they were the bulk of mankind want instruc- to the world at large wbat the nobles tion, and it ought to be the pleasure of this country are to us. as it is the duty of those whose life “But it may be asked, if a country is not necessarily occupied in their was just as much civilized as to give own affairs, to furnish them with to the priuciple of fucrease its full the means. Life is a gist, the value liberty, would not the people in a of which is not generally appre- few years become too numerous ? ciated; the accumulation of pro- To this I answer, that the experi- . perty, which ought to be only a ment has been tried: China has for secondary consideration, is made the ages been sufficiently civilized to first, and greatly tends to divide ensure the people personal security; life between care and disgust; hence their numbers have not been wasted arise many evils which Mr. M. in war, or cut off by famine or pes. charges on Providence. But it may tilence, or lessened by celibacy, yet be said, should the mind be culti- they ceased to increase. War, favated, it would be equivalent to mine, and pestilence have not been passiug a sentence of extinction on more destructive since the populaa family, and would prove an evil tion stopped, but care lias been rather than a good. multiplied; the jarring interests of “ It will be seen by the preceding individurrls are more filt; more perchapters, that many circumstances sonal exertion is requisite in a staand events of life have an influence tionary than in an increasing populaon the propagation of the species. tion: the struggle, in any full.peoIf a sober, steady, persevering ef- pled state, is not so much for the fort to cultivate the understanding bare necessaries of life as for its has an influence on the body, that comforts, its riches, and its hônours. influence is only in excess, it only Thousands of busliels of corn are threatens extinction, when it is con- yearly consunied in the Chinese disnected with much anxiety and care: tilleries : there is, of course, 'a sura cultivated mind is commonly eager plus of food, which, on Mr. M's. to obtain distinction; schemes are theory, is a bait held out to popu-' laid which, in attempting to execute, lation: here, however, is a refuta, the mind is agitated in a thousand tion of his theory; China wants not ways; and if under these circum- bread, yet the births and deaths are stances children are born, they par- equal: and what has ocurted in one take in some measure of the consti- country, it is not difficult to prove tution of the children of mamelukes, may occur elsewhere. 3 T 3 " Moral |