site to secure a supply of food, leaving few for the preparation of clothing, the building of houses, or the production of any other of the comforts of life. His condition is improved, but he is still poor and miserable.

XXXVI. That with the further accumulation of capital he brings into action soils still more inferior, and with every such change finds increased facility in obtaining the necessaries of life from a diminished surface; he is, therefore, enabled to draw daily nearer to his fellow men, and daily more and more to cooperate with them, by which co-operation his labour is rendered daily more productive. This increased facility of obtaining the means of subsistence, causes a constant diminution in the proportion of the population required for the production of food, and enables a constantly increasing proportion to apply themselves to the production of clothing, shelter, and the other comforts of life.

XXXVII. That thus, as capital increases, population becomes more dense, and the inferior soils are brought into action with a constantly increasing return to labour. Men are enabled to benefit by the co-operation of their neighbours, and habits of kindness and good feeling take the place of the savage and predatory habits of the early period. Poverty and misery gradually disappear, and are replaced by ease and comfort. Labour becomes gradually less severe, and the quantity required to secure the means of subsistence is diminished, by which he is enabled to devote more time to the cultivation of his mind. His moral improvement keeps pace with that which takes place in his physical condition, and thus the virtues of civilization replace the vices of savage life.

Such we believe are the laws of nature, verified by the experience of all the nations of the world. If the reader will now examine the progress of the people of Great Britain, and of the United States, he will see that the propositions above submitted for his consideration are in exact conformity with the changes that have taken place in those countries. All nations have not, however, made equal progress, owing to causes that have arisen out of the interference of man. In the words of our motto, we may say," "God hath made man upright, but he has sought out many

inventions." We propose now to examine the nature of those "inventions," and the extent to which they have operated in various parts of the world, with their results as shown in the growth of population and the condition of the people. If we can show that the condition of the people is poor and miserable, precisely to the extent that those inventions have been permitted to supersede the laws of nature, and that where they have least prevailed there has been the most rapid growth of populationthe most rapid increase of wealth-of happiness-and of physical and moral improvement-we may perhaps, be able to satisfy our readers that man was made "upright," and that the unfortunate condition in which he exists in so large a portion of the globe, is not the result of any defect in the laws of nature, but of ignorant or perverse interference with those laws, by which, however desirous he may be, he is deprived of the power of improving his condition.

It will be observed that we have omitted all reference to the principle of population, or to the results that have been anticipated as likely to arise therefrom at some future period, in consequence of the possibly great increase that may take place. It is sufficient for us, at present, if the reader is satisfied that in Great Britain, and in the United States, the two countries in which population has increased most rapidly, the means of support and of enjoyment have increased with still greater rapidity, giving to all classes the means of living better than in former times when population was thinly scattered over the land. On a future occasion we shall inquire how far the relative condition of the nations of the eastern continent corresponds with the density of their population and their rate of increase-into the probable future increase of wealth and of population-and how far the results of past experience would warrant us in permitting the apprehension of the possible increase of population to influence present action with a view to arrest its progress.

END OF PART THE FIRST.

ог

POLITICAL ECONOMY.

PART THE SECOND:

ОР

THE CAUSES WHICH KETARD

INCREASE

IN

THE PRODUCTION OF WEALTH,

AND

IMPROVEMENT

IN

THE PHYSICAL AND MORAL CONDITION OF MAN.

BY H. C. CAREY,

AUTHOR OF AN ESSAY ON THE RATE OF WAGES.

"All discord harmony not understood."-POPE.

"God hath made man upright, but they have sought out many inventions.”—

ECCLESIASTES.

PHILADELPHIA:

CAREY, LEA & BLANCHARD.-CHESTNUT STREET.

1838.