CHARLES R. DRYSDALE, M.D., OF THE ROYAL COLLEGE OF PHYSICIANS OF LONDON, FELLOW OF THE ROYAL aly when, in addition to just institutions, the increase of mankind shall work of in the r 29th, y to his [althus College. is Col- 1. Econ 2413.1.90 DEXTER FUND Sep2811927 PREFACE. SINCE the memorable trial of Regina versus Bradlaugh and Besant, which took place on June 18, 1877, in the Court of Queen's Bench, before Lord Chief Justice Cockburn-a trial which, in the words of Professor Alexander Bain, was "an epoch in the history of our liberties" -the views of Malthus have become widely known among almost all classes of our English-speaking populations. Shortly after the acquittal of the defendants in this case, Mr. Edward Truelove, bookseller, of Holborn, London, was prosecuted for selling a work written by Senator Robert Dale Owen, of the United States, son of the great Socialist, Robert Owen. Mr. Truelove was convicted by a jury at the Central Criminal Court, and was sentenced to four months' imprisonment and a fine of £100. The fine was paid by the members of the Malthusian League, and Mr. Truelove left his prison and was welcomed home by a number of staunch friends and admirers. The odium of these prosecutions was so great that they put an end to the existence of the Society for the Suppression of Vice; and no prosecution of any Malthusian work took place for some years. Dr. H. A. Allbutt, of Leeds, published a little medical treatise, The Wife's Handbook, in which were included some hints as to how families could be kept within due limits. The General Medical Council attacked Dr. Allbutt for this work, and erased his name from the register of medical practitioners, on account of some advertisements the publication of which they considered as "infamous' conduct, a technical expression. On December 12, 1888, a bookseller named Danby was prosecuted in Sydney, New South Wales, for publishing Mrs. Annie Besant's pamphlet entitled "The Law of Population." The prosecution failed, as two judges, Sir W. Windeyer and Justice Stephen, held that the work was not obscene. In his judgment, Sir W. Windeyer said of the pamphlet: "As it cannot be denied that the question propounded for discussion is of enormous importance, and that it is right to advocate in the abstract the expediency of checking the advancing tide of population, it appears to me impossible to contend that language which tells how this may be done is obscene, if it goes no further than is necessary for this purpose. . I see nothing in the language which an earnest-minded man or woman of pure life and morals might not use to one of his or her own sex, if explaining to him or her what was necessary in order to ur aerstand the methods suggested by which married persons could present the number of their children increasing beyond their means of s porting them." Unfortunately, this able judgment of Sir W. Windeyer is not com sidered to bind judges in Great Britain; and, consequently, we have had the sorry spectacle of a prosecution of a bookseller in Newcastle, in 1891, which entailed a conviction and a month's imprisonment; and another trial in Bombay, Hindostan, in July, 1892, where a bookseller has been fined £12 10s. for selling a little penny pamphlet written by Mr. Holmes, of Hanney, Wantage, Berkshire, England. But the spread of Malthusian views is so rapid, and the example of France so convincing, that such trials only serve to help on the cause fought for by the Malthusian League and its friends, and which is certain to prevail in the near future. 23 Sackville-street, Piccadilly, London, W. October, 1892. C. R. DRYSDALE, M.D. THE POPULATION QUESTION ACCORDING TO T. R. MALTHUS AND J. S. MILL. CHAPTER I. INTRODUCTORY. [For much of this chapter the author has to thank the work of the eminent perpetual Secretary of the Société de l'Economie Politique of Paris, M. Joseph Garnier.] THOMAS ROBERT MALTHUS was born at the Rookery, in the neighbourhood of Dorking in the county of Surrey, on February 14th, 1766; he died at Bath on December 29th, 1834. His father, Daniel Malthus, was a man of some means, but as he had determined to leave his property to his eldest son, he embarked his second son, Thomas Robert, in the career of a churchman. His education was confided first to Richard Graves, the author of "The Spiritual Don Quixote," and he was afterwards sent to the Warrington Academy in Lancashire. He finished his school-days under the tuition of Gilbert of Wakefield, who was a renowned scholar at that time. When of the age of eighteen, Malthus went to Cambridge, and entered as student in Jesus College. He took his degree there in 1788, became Fellow of his College, and the year afterwards entered the Church. Whilst remaining a short time in the house of his father at Dorking, he performed the duties of curate in the neighbourhood. About this time there was a great fermentation in the minds of men all throughout Europe, by reason of the philosophical movement that had been going on, and on account of the French Revolution. William Godwin, an author already known to fame, had just published his work on "Political Justice," in which he laid down the idea that immorality, and the different calamities of the human race, had no other cause than bad government. He proposed the equality of all persons in society as the only way for preventing the effects of bad political institutions. This work had many adversaries and partisans in England, among the latter of whom was Daniel Malthus, the father of the great writer. Thomas Robert, his son, had learnt in the writings of Adam Smith, whose work was published in 1770, and of David Hume, who had published his essays after reading the works. of J. J. Rousseau, that, if bad governments contribute to make men miserable and vicious, the ignorance and degradation of the lower classes contribute powerfully, on the other hand, both in forming and in maintaining such bad governments. Malthus was, then, not likely to be deluded as to the nature of the results to be expected from political reforms. Godwin published in 1797 a review called the Inquirer,. which was composed of a series of essays upon education,. morals, and literature. One of these essays, on the “Prodigality of Avarice," tempted Malthus to take up his pen, although quite a young man at that time, and he replied by an "Essay on the Principle of Population," which was pub-lished anonymously, and which must be looked upon less as. a first edition than as a preparation for the celebrated work he published five years later. Malthus combated the position of those writers in whose eyes the perfectibility of men and of political institutions was without limits, and reduced to very low figure the influence of bad governments: he defended the rights of property, and combated the different socialistic theories which were at that day in the air he showed, also, that human societies had at. all times had only two obstacles to their increase, namely, Vice and Misery: and he pointed to the too rapid increase of population in proportion to subsistence, as being the prin ripal cause of these obstacles. The work of Malthus, which was in direct opposition to all the Utopias and systems imagined for securing the happiness of the race by popular writers, and which placed social phenomena in an entirely new light, was attacked and defended in a most lively way, as Godwin's work on "Political Justice" had been. This caused Malthus to go more deeply into the question. He had before this made use for his argument of the works of Hume, Wallace, Adam Smith, and Price. Dr. Wallace, a clergyman, who died in 1771, had written an "Essay on Population," after reading Hume's work: and D. Price was a dissenting minister, who died in 1791, and who published several treatises concerning the finances and debts of England, and an "Essay on Population." Malthus first of all made inquiries as to the influence which the principle of population, he had just enunciated, had exercised on nations at different epochs of history; and then he became anxious to add to the lessons of past ages that of his He determined to travel through Europe for the purpose of making inquiries on this point. own. In the spring of 1799 he, therefore, accompanied by three other Fellows of Jesus College, Cambridge, among the number being Daniel Clarke, who is known for his travels in different countries of Europe, set out on a trip to the Continent. He visited Denmark, Sweden, and a part of Russia, and subsequently Switzerland and Savoy. The result of these travels was the publication of the second edition of the "Essay on the Principle of Population," in 1803, which received still greater attacks even than his first essay had done. In this work, which was a continuation of the first, but which was new in many respects, Malthus completed his ideas by greater length of detail, and by the narration of numerous facts borrowed from history and from the situation of different countries; he applied these observations to institutions which had always been looked on as beneficent, and exposed the dangers of philanthropy when not guided by intelligence: he pointed out to the working classes that the best method of raising the rate of wages permanently was to exhibit the greatest care in the matter of marriage. He A year after the publication of his work, Malthus was named Professor of History and Political Economy at the East India Company's College of Haileybury, in the neighbourhood of London, and about that date he married. fulfilled for some thirty years his professional duties and those of a clergyman of the English Church; and it was during this time of his life that he put his hand thrice again to the editing of his celebrated work, whilst he pondered on other questions embraced by the science of political economy, and was tempted to publish other writings, such as two on the Corn Laws (1814 and 1815); one on Rent (1815); on the Principles of Political Economy (1819); and on the Definitions of Political Economy (1827). These dissertations of Malthus much contributed to the |