CHAPTER XVIII.

HAVING thus passed in review several of the principal nations, the reader will probably be disposed to admit that there are abundant reasons for the state of things that exists, and will now be prepared for & brief examination of the views of some of the writers who insist that all the poverty and wretchedness that exist, arise out of the erroneous arrangements of the Deity.

Mr. Mill (Elements of Political Economy,) takes the same view of the influence of capital as that which will be found at p. 30. He says, "If the ratio which capital bears to population increases, wages will rise; if the ratio which population bears to capital increases, wages will fall." Being, however, a full believer in the Malthusian theory, that population is always disposed to increase so rapidly as to be threatened with starvation, and only kept down by the apprehension thereof, he asserts that population has increased much faster than capital, as "is proved incontestably by the condition of the population of most parts of the globe. In almost all countries, the condition of the great body of the people is poor and miserable." I do not doubt their poverty, but do doubt their being as poor as they were, one, two, or three centuries since, and if they are not so, capital must, according to Mr. Mill's own theory, have in

creased more rapidly than population. That they are not so, is evidenced by the case of Great Britain; by that of Prussia, where population is increasing more rapidly than in any other part of Europe, and where improvement in the condition of the people keeps pace with the increase of population; and by that of the late kingdom of the Netherlands, whose population at its present rate of increase would double itself in 63 years. Even were such not the case, and were they as poor, or even poorer than they had been, it would be necessary, before admitting such to be the natural course of things, to examine how far the measures of the various governments had tended to promote or to repress the growth of capital. If upon such examination it were found, that in some of them, all the disturbing causes, treated of in the previous chapters, had been in full operation, and in others a portion of them, it might well be doubted if its slow increase had not arisen from those interferences alone, which are abundantly sufficient to keep any people "poor and miserable." In accordance with the above doctrine, Mr. Mill asserts, that "whether, after land of superior quality has been exhausted, capital is applied to new lands of inferior quality, or in successive doses, with diminished returns upon the same lands, the produce of it is continually diminishing in proportion to its increase. If the return to capital is, however, continually decreasing, the annual fund from which savings are made, is continually diminishing. The difficulty in making savings is continually augmented, and at last they must entirely cease." The means of accumulating

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capital being thus cut off, it follows that "how slow soever the increase of population, provided that of capital be still slower, wages will be reduced so low, that a portion of the population must regularly die of want." He says that population does increase more rapidly than capital, and we must therefore be gradually approaching that state of things which he describes.

The first dose of capital applied to land, was probably in shape of a spade, and the next that of a plough, and it is unlikely that the return in the second case, was less than in the first. Among the most recent are the cradle and horse-rake, and it is highly improbable that any farmer will admit that capital thus applied, pays him less interest than that previously applied in the shape of a reaping-hook and hand-rake.

The "inferior soils" of Mill, Ricardo, and others, mean those which by reason of their inferiority of quality, or distance from market, are last brought into cultivation. It is evident that both situation and quality must enter into the consideration of the character of land, as that of second, third, or fourth quality near New York or Philadelphia would be sooner brought into cultivation, and command a higher rent, than that of first quality in Ohio or Indiana. The latter are emphatically the "inferior soils" referred to, and yet fresh doses of capital are daily administered to them, and to lands in Illinois, Missouri, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama, and so far are they from being attended with a "diminished return," that circulating capital is there worth 12,

15, or 18 per cent. per annum, and is used to greater profit by the borrower than in the older states, when obtained at 5 or 6. Those distant lands are brought into cultivation in consequence of the "doses of capital" being administered in the form of canals, turnpike and rail-roads, by which the transport of their products is facilitated; but the result would be the same if the lands were less distant and of inferior quality, and the capital were applied in the form of manure, or improved methods of culture. Yet Mr. M'Culloch refers to the culture of lands in Indiana and Illinois in support of this theory!

Such theories are so totally opposed to the evidence afforded by all Europe, and particularly Great Britain, as well as this country, that it is difficult to account for their production. They would be amusing, were it not that they are adopted by men in elevated stations, whose modes of thinking influence the happiness and prosperity of the people over whom they are placed. There is no doubt that population may increase with great rapidity, and it is probable that it will increase at a much more rapid rate than it has done, but if governments can be induced so to modify their systems as to permit the labourer to enjoy the product of his labour, his situation will become more comfortable with every such increase. Even now it does so in Prussia, the Netherlands, and Great Britain, and still more so in the United States, where the demand for labour and its reward, are, with a population of fifteen millions, vastly greater than when there were but five millions.

Such being the case, it is difficult to believe in the

awful consequences to be apprehended from this enormous increase; or to dread starvation, when misgovernment is not carried too far. The disciple of Mr. Malthus would ask if there can be a doubt as to the geometrical increase of population, and arithmetical increase of food, or that if population should double in fifteen or thirty years, it would be attended with the horrible effects that have been predicted. So the advocate of restrictions upon trade objects to taking off the duties upon coffee, on the ground that the increased demand must increase the price at the place of production, and that the duty will be paid to the grower, in place of the government. The advocates of the corn laws, when the approach of famine has made it necessary to import a large quantity, and they see that it is paid for in bullion, deem it conclusive evidence of the incorrectness of the assertion of their opponents, that a free trade in corn would promote the demand for British goods. All are restrictionists, and all equally in error. By prohibiting the trade in corn in ordinary seasons, the one does all in his power to depress the people of Prussia and Poland, and keep them in a state of poverty, preventing the accumulation of capital, and the growth of a taste for British wares, and then uses the fact of their poverty as a reason why the system should be continued. By heavy duties upon coffee, the consumption is discouraged, and the owners of plantations are compelled to root up their trees, which cannot be replaced for several years, and when the production is thus reduced to the demand, we are told that the system must be persevered in, lest the