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by their native energy and internal resources, will not only preserve the integrity of their own empire, but must by the force of their institutions gradually triumph over their enemies. In Scotland, the feudal system prevented the introduction of a state of degeneracy similar to that of Ireland; and as poor laws have for a very long time subsisted in Scotland, poor's rates have been regularly called into operation in proportion as the feudal system has worn away, and commerce, manufactures, and tillage, have usurped the seats of baronial splendour, and encroached upon the idle hospitality of the lords of the waste. An institution which produces such phenomena in society must necessarily rest on grounds of deep moral and political expediency. It has been asserted by some, particularly by foreign writers, to be the millstone around the neck of England, which must at length engulf her in a sea of ruin; and we are willing to admit that it is, in the spirit of our other institutions, calculated for a state of progressive prosperity; but that it may accelerate our downfall, should the circumstances of the country begin to decline. But to compensate this evil we think it will appear that, under Providence, so long as the several ranks of the people are true to themselves and to each other, such a state of declension is not within the scope of probability: and we have yet to learn that a law or institution is objectionable, because it is inconsistent with a selfish neglect of duty in those for whose government it is intended."

CHAPTER V.

Brief Recapitulation of the preceding Chapters upon Charity.

CHARITY is confessedly a moral duty enjoined in the Holy Scriptures, and is therefore to be practised in conformity to the commands of God when they can be clearly discerned; and where they are silent, it is to be regulated by the best lights which can be acquired from considerations of moral expediency. Within those limits, I think it has appeared from the preceding chapters of this book, that no political mischief can arise from the most unbounded exercise of the virtue. Beyond those limits, donations in money, under the guise of charity, partake not of the nature of virtue but of thoughtless profusion, and tend more to encourage profligacy than to relieve distress.

That the due exercise of charity can produce no political evils connected with the principle of population has, I think, appeared from the consideration, that the virtue is never called into action so as materially to affect the numbers of mankind, until the natural rate of their increase becomes so slow by the progress of society, that the impulse given to it by charitable exertions is rather an advantage than otherwise to the state. That the sums bestowed in charity will be sufficient to supply all her legitimate demands, and also to satisfy the demands of the idle and profligate who would willingly subsist upon them without any exertion of industry, is more

than we are justified in inferring either from history or experience; although there are many countries where the last mentioned abuse of charity absorbs more money than its legitimate use, and there arefew where the practice of the virtue is conducted in the most judicious and economical manner. The question is resolved therefore more into one of judgment in the mode of distribution, than of comparative expenditure. And the most liberal and enlightened exercise of charity, so far from forbidding, absolutely requires the adoption of every expedient for inculcating religious, moral, sober, and frugal habits among the lower orders; for encouraging them as far as possible to provide for themselves, and to rise independent of the aid either of the public or of individuals, to the utmost extent to which the state of society under which they are living will allow. But as their natural power of effecting these objects is altered by almost every step in the progress of society, it follows that assistance from the state and from philanthropic individuals must come in aid with increased activity as society advances, and the natural means of the poor themselves are diminished. Happily also it has appeared that both the means and the will for granting this aid increase in at least as great a proportion as they are wanted, in every moral and well regulated community. In one parish of London there are more charitable institutions both public and private than in the whole Empire of China; and the effects upon the people respectively may be contemplated in the first book of this treatise. Nothing then can well be more absurd than to sit down and murmur at the superior expenditure of charity in any particular country

over another, without taking into consideration the moral and political condition of each. Nor can it well be disputed that, where the moral and political condition of the people is in the most enviable state, as compared with others in the same stage of society, there the charitable institutions must be constructed upon the truest theory, and most effectually carried into practice. For these institutions have so direct a bearing upon the condition of the people, at least in the advanced stages of society, that it can scarcely be said by those who disapprove of their extent, that the people are happy and comfortable, not through the influence of those institutions, but in spite of them, and by the counteracting force of the other laws and customs by which the people are affected.

Upon the whole then, perhaps, we may conclude that politicians may safely discard their apprehensions that the practice of charity, as commanded by Scripture, or as it results from moral expediency, will ever be found in excess among any people; or that preserved within those limits it can ever be misapplied. And thus upon this great practical question, as well as upon all the rest which we have contemplated, the conviction accompanies us through all its bearings and ramifications, that Christian morality is the only solid foundation for the political welfare of the people.

CHAPTER VI.

On the Propriety of affording a free and equal Option of Marriage to all Classes of the Community.

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THE following passage occurs in the eleventh chapter of the fourth book of Mr. Malthus's Essay. Nothing can be more clear than that it is within the power of money and of the exertions of the rich adequately to relieve a particular family, a particular parish, or even a particular district. But it will be equally clear, if we reflect a moment on the subject, that it is totally out of their power to relieve the whole country in the same way, at least, without providing a regular vent for the overflowing numbers in emigration, or without the prevalence of a particular virtue among the poor, which the distribution of this assistance tends obviously to discourage." The preceding chapters may, perhaps, have satisfied the reader that a power does exist of relieving a whole country without providing for overflowing numbers by emigration; because numbers will not, in fact, overflow. It is the object of the present chapter to show to what extent the prevalence of the particular virtue among the poor, which the exercise of charity is said to discourage, affects the principle of population, and consequently whether the option of marriage may not be afforded to the lower ranks of society upon moral considerations only, and be left perfectly free upon grounds of expediency, and even upon those of political arithmetic."

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