Section

of labour and property, especially of the lesser cul-

tivators and proprietors, 282.

3. The question necessarily national; and discussed, there-

fore, in reference to the empire at large, 284.

4. Injustice and impolicy of withdrawing protection from

agriculture, 285.

5. The kingdom fully capable of feeding and sustaining

its people: the question, therefore, one of policy and

humanity, 287.

6. Importance of the subject shown from the great nume-

rical superiority of the agricultural interest; proved

by an appeal to the census of the kingdom, 289.

7. The same fact proved from sundry fiscal and pecuniary

data, 295.

8. Misconceptions removed. Corn, the reverse of dear,

compared with past times, 301.

9. Great mistakes on this point instanced, 303.

10. Foreign supply would not lower prices, but the reverse,

306.

11. Nor equalize them, but the reverse, 311.

12. Would diminish home production, 314.

13. And aggravate the severity of real scarcities, 315.

14. And render them more frequent, 317.

15. Importation, under such circumstances, to be an effectual

relief, should not be perpetually resorted to, 318.

16. Further mistakes refuted. The supposition that im-

portation would, if permitted, be very limited, consi-

dered, 319.

17. The effect of a constant importation, however limited,

shown, 324.

18. Importation would not, on the general balance, increase

trade and manufactures, 327.

19. Would necessarily throw more hands out of employ-

ment than it would cause to be employed, 328.

20. In other respects prejudicial, excepting to a few, 330.

21. Further arguments in favour of importation refuted;

and first, that cheap prices are favourable to manu-

Section

XV.

factures. This disproved by an appeal to past history,

331.

22. The present state of the world in reference to the ques-

tion, considered, 334.

23. The experience of England on this subject further

appealed to, 335.

24. Remunerating, and consequently not low prices, favour-

able to all branches of industry, 335.

25. Low prices unfavourable to the

poor, 339.

26. The financial obstacles to a free trade in corn insuper-

able, 342.

27. Illustrated, 346.

28. The proposition in a late number of a popular Review
examined. The miscalculations, as well as cruelty
and injustice it involves, 338.

29. Ruinous consequences of habitually depending on

foreign supplies, 360.

30. The answers and anticipations of the theorists noticed,

362.

31. Ultimate and certain effects of withdrawing due pro-

tection from British agriculture, on both that and

commerce, 366.

32. The peculiar interests of Ireland, in reference to the

question, finally urged, 369.

THE POPULATION OF IRELAND numerically considered,
and the true principle of human increase demonstrated
therefrom.

1. Human fecundity in Ireland regulated, as elsewhere,
by the co-existing numbers.

2. This principle proved, in a different mode to that

pursued in other demonstrations of the same fact.

Table, 375.

3. Proved by the same calculation applied to the cities

and towns of exempt jurisdiction. Table, 378.

4. Preceding facts proved by a different method of cal-
culation. Table, ib.

Section

5. Population regulates the condition of society in Ireland,

as elsewhere, which improves as the former advances,

379.

6. Plenty not increased by fewness of people or fertility

of soil, but the contrary, 382.

7. Consequently, the proposition of the emigration com-

mittee respecting Ireland, fundamentally erroneous

and pernicious, 383.

8. The demonstration more minutely given, and extended

to the counties severally calculated. Table, 385.

9. Objections anticipated, 388.

10. Preventive check not prevalent in Ireland, 389.

11. The true principle of population further proved by an

appeal to the progressive increase of the different

provinces of Ireland. Table, 391.

12. The supposed periods of doubling, and other mis-

conceptions relative to population, refuted, 396.

13. Present ratio of increase in Ireland a diminishing one,

and likely to continue diminishing, 398.

14. Errors of certain writers concerning the effects of

vaccination, on marriages, and mortality, 400.

15. The foregoing facts and principles further confirmed

by an appeal to the imperfect census of 1813 compared

with that of 1821, 401.

16. Deductions, 404.

17. Conclusion. The happy effects of a better policy, in

reference to Ireland, anticipated, 405.

Postscript, 413.

INTRODUCTION.

THE following pages were written as a supplement to a work on the subject of Population, now preparing for the press. The publication, in the first instance, of a part of a treatise, in which frequent references are made to the whole, is so unusual as to demand an explanation, even in times when the apologies of authors are little attended to, and, indeed, hardly tolerated. The circumstances which

led to it, are these:

Some time ago I delivered, to a Literary and Philosophical Society, in the north of England, to which I have the honour of belonging, a course of lectures on an important branch of our national economy, the Poor-Laws of England; connecting a defence of the principle of that system, and a view of its progress, with those practical improvements in its application, which the altered circumstances of the country seem to dictate, in order to restore its primitive character and efficiency. Little difficulty occurred in showing the legal provision for the poor to have been founded on the plainest principles of natural right and justice, as well as dictated by the most enlarged views of national policy; and still less in answering the objections urged against it under a very general mis

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