the paffions of man will ever be fo completely fubjected to his reafon, as to enable him to avoid all the moral and phyfical evils which depend upon his own conduct. But this is merely faying, that perfect virtue is not to be expected on earth; an affertion by no means new, or peculiarly applicable to the prefent difcuffion. The differences obfervable in different nations, in the preflure of the evils refulting from the tendency of the human race to increafe fafter than the means of fubfiftence, entitle us fairly to con clude, that thofe which are in the best state are ftill, fufceptible of confiderable improvement; and that the worst may at leaft be made equal to the beft. This is furely fufficient both to animate and to direct our exertions in the caufe of human happiness; and the direction which our efforts will receive, from thus turning our attention to the laws that relate to the increafe and decrease of mankind, and feeing their effects exemplified in the ftate of the different nations around us, will not be into any new and fufpicious path, but into the plain, beaten track of morality. It will be our duty to exert ourselves to procure the establishment of just and equal laws, which protect and give refpectability to the loweft fubject, and fecure to each member of the community the fruits of his induftry; to extend the benefits of education as widely as poffible, that, to the long list of errors from paflion, may not be added the ftill longer lift of errors from ignorance; and, in general, to difcourage indolence, improvidence, and a blind indulgence of appetite, without regard to confequences; and to encourage industry, prudence, and the fubjection of the paflions to the dictates of reafon. The only change, if change it can be called, which the ftudy of the laws of population can make in our duties, is, that it will lead as to apply, inore fteadily than we have hitherto done, the great rules of morality to the cafe of marriage, and the direction of our charity; but the rules themselves, and the foundations on which they rett, of courfe remain exactly where they were before.

This appears to us to be the substance of what Mr Malthus has said. Yet this theory, and these conclusions, simple and consistent as they appear to be, and resting, as they do all along, upon the most obvious and undeniable facts, are rejected by a pretty large class of religious and respectable people, because they think, that the acknowledgement of a law of increase in the human race greater than any possible increase of the means of subsistence, is an impeachment of the power or benevolence of the Deity. Mr Ingram says, that upon the first perusal of the sentiments contained in the Essay, the religious mind revolts at the apparent want of intelligence and contrivance in the Author of he creation, in infusing a principle into the nature of man, which

it required the utmost excrtion of human prudence and ingenuity

to counteract.

In answer to this, and to all similar objections, we should observe, first, that we are not permitted to reject truths, of which our senses and experience give us the firmest assurance, because they do not accord with our preconceived notions respecting the attributes of the Deity. All our evidence for the prevailing benevolence of the works of creation-all our evidence of the

power

of the Creator-is derived from these sources. This evidence we must not, and cannot refuse to hear, in the first instance; and it is an after concern, to reconcile the undeniable state of the fact to the attributes which we assign to the Divinity.

But to such persons as Mr Ingram, and the class who often urge this objection, we have a further answer. serve, that from those who do not believe in revelation, we might We should obexpect such an objection; but that it appears to come with peculiar inconsistency from Christians. deep theologians; but we have always understood that the highWe do not pretend to be est authorities, both in the English and Scotish church, have uniformly represented this world as a state of discipline and preparation for another; and indeed, that this doctrine is almost universally considered as the characteristic doctrine of the New Testa

ment.

Now, we will venture to say, that, in the whole compass of the laws of nature, not one can be pointed out, which, in so peculiar and marked a manner, accords with this view of the state of man on earth. The purpose of the earthquake, the hurricane, or the drought, by which thousands and even millions of the human race are at once overwhelmed, or left to perish in lingering wantit must be owned, is inscrutable; particularly as we have been expressly cautioned, in scripture, not to be too ready to consider such events in the light of judgments for the offences of the persons thus suffering. Yet that these events, which are of obvious and acknowledged recurrence, should be passed over without difficulty by the Christian, and that he should be staggered by a law of nature, which eminently illustrates and confirms one of the main doctrines of his religion, is, we own, to us, quite unaccountable; and affords a very curious instance of the inconsistency of human reason. If it be really true, as we believe it is, that this life is a state of discipline and preparation for another, is it possible that we should find any difficulty in believing that a law of nature exists peculiarly calculated to rouse the faculties, and direct the exertions of the human race, which, by its varying pressure, and the various difficulties to which it gives rise, exercises and enlarges the powers of the mind, and calls into action all the

Hb 2

great

great moral virtues which dignify and adorn human nature, a necessary to human happiness; which, above all, is constantly inculcating the necessity of the subjection of the passions to the dictates of reason and religion, and which, even if vice and misery were almost banished from the earth by the efforts of human virtue, would occasion the necessity of constant watchfulness and attention to maintain and secure the happiness which had been obtained?

On the other hand, if this law does exist, as we cannot for a moment doubt, from the evidence of incontestable facts, it merely affords a striking illustration and confirmation of that view of human life which is held out to us in the Scriptures; and, instead of being objected to by the Christian, it ought to be hailed as a powerful ally; as, to us at least, it appears to be one of those natural laws discovered by human experience, which may be urged with considerable force in favour of revealed religion.

The next clafs of objectors confifts of worldly statesmen and politicians, who, at the flightest mention of checks to population, immediately conceive that our armies will want foldiers, and our manufactures hands. To fuch perfons, it would of courfe be in vain to urge, that defence is better than conqueft, and that the happinefs of a fociety is a confideration paramount to the extent of its exports. If we had no other arguments than these, we know full well that it would be ufelefs to urge them against fuch objectors. But, even thefe perfons, we think, muft allow, that the power of a country, both in war and in commerce, mul lepend upon that part of its population which is active and eff cient, not upon that which is helpless and inefficient. If it has been found by experience that one country, which has, we will fay, 200,000 births in each year, does not rear fo many to pu berty as another country which has only 160,000, muft it not be allowed, that the first is the weaker of the two? And if, in addition to the question of numerical force, we take into conf deration the fate of mifery and deprefTon in the first country, which must have occafioned the premature mortality, we cannot doubt that the fecond would be infinitely fuperior in the industry and energy, as well as the happinefs of its inhabitants. Not on ly would a country, where the checks to population arife from the prudential habits of the lower claffes, rather than from premature mortality, poffefs a greater military and manufacturing population, with the fame means of fubfiftence, but, from the very circumstance of the country's containing this larger propor tion of perfons in the active periods of life, the means of lub fiftence would ftand a much fairer chance of being increafed with rapidity. This is, in fact, confirmed by experience. England, Scotland, Switzerland and Norway, where the premature checks

population are obferved to prevail with the greatest force, inrefe Falter in the funds for the maintenance of labour, and, of ourfe, in the population fupported by them, than most of the ountries of Europe that have a larger proportion of births.

So far, therefore, is it from being true, that the increafed pru Lence of the poor, with regard to marriage, would be attended with a falling off in the military and commercial population of a ountry, or by any obftructions to its further increafe, as far as our experience as hitherto gone, it must be acknowledged that ts elects have been juft the reverse.

We have heard it, however, afked, whether, if the advice wich faculeates an increated prudence with regard to marriage, ད་ 6 really attended to, it might not be carried too far, and ma

day dininith the population of a country, or prevent its ineral? In answer to this, we fhould readily allow, that the ew, however improbable, was within the range of poffibility; b. should add, that if fuch poilibilities were to preclude fimilar precepts, the range of moral inftruction would be limited indeed, It will hardly be admitted, that we fhould be deterred, from enforcing, with all our power, the precepts of benevolence in oppofition to felfithaefs, becaufe, if we really made men quite regardless of their own interefts, we fhould do much more harm than good. There is, in fach cafes, a mean point of perfection, which it is our duty to be conantly aiming at; and the circumftance of this point being furrounded on all fides with dangers, is only according to the analogy of all ethical experience. The fact undoubtedly is, that, in the puft hiftory of the world, and in its actual condition, we fee countless examples of the mifery produced by the neglect of this prudential abftinence; and no inftance, even of the 4ightelt inconvenience, from its exceffive influence. As there is, in reality, no danger of ever making the mafs of mankind too generous or too compaffionate, so there is just as little of our depopulating the world by making them too much the crea tures of reafon, and giving prudence too great a mastery, over the n tural pallions and affections. The prevailing error in the game of life is, not that we mifs the prizes through excels of timidity, but that we overlook the true itate of the chances in our eager and fanguine expectations of winning them. Of all the' objections that ever were made to a moralitt who offered to arm men against the paftons that are everywhere feducing them into mifery, the most Batterieg, but, undoubtedly, the most chimerical, is, that his reafons are fo ftrong, that if he were allowed to darafe them, paffion would be extinguished altogether, and the activity, as well as the enjoyments of man, annihilated along with Ing vices.

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What

What we have now ftated is as much, we fuppofe, as the indolent ftudents, for whofe benefit it is chiefly intended, will be well ble to digeft at a meal. We fhall flop here, therefore, for the prefent; and, if any of them are induced, by what we have faid, to venture on the perufal of Mr Malthus's entire book, we engage, for their encouragement, to help them over the ftartling paffages of it, by a fhort examination of the other objections which have been urged against it.

ART. XII. Ta Tsing Leu Lee; being the fundamental Laws, and o Selection from the supplementary Statutes, of the Penal Code of China; originally printen and published in Pekin, in various successive Editions, under the Sanction, and by the Authority of the several Emperors of the la Tsing, or present Dynasty: Translated from the Chinese; and accompanied with an Appendix, consisting of outhentic Documents and a few occasional Notes, illustrative of the Subject of the Work. By Sir George Thomas Staunton, Bart. F. R. S. 4to. PP. 581. Cadell & Davies. London, 1810.

THE HE Chinefe have not hitherto had very fair play in Europe, The first miffionaries, from the natural propenfity of all dif coverers to magnify the importance of their difcovery, gave a moft exaggerated account of their merits and attainments; and then came a fet of philofophers, who, from their natural love of parades, and laudable zeal to depreciate that part of their fpecies with which they were beft acquainted, eagerly took up and improved upon the legends of the holy fathers, till they had not only exalted thof remote Afiatics above all European competition, but had transformed them into a fort of biped Houyhnms-the creatures of pure reafon and enlightened beneficence. This extravagance, of courfe, provoked an oppofite extravagance; and De Pauw and others, not contented with denying the virtues and sciences of the Chinefe, called equally in queftion their numbers, their antiquity, and their manual dexterity; and reprefented them as among the moft contemptible and debafed of the barbarians, to whom all but Europe feemed to have been allotted in perpetuity. More moderate and rational opinions at length fucceeded; and, when our embaffy entered the country in 1793. the intelligent men who compoled it were as little inclined, we believe, to extol the Chinele, from childish admiration, or out of witty malice, as to detract from their real merits, because they appeared under an outlandish afpect, or had been overpraised by fome of their predeceffors. The effect of this afpect, however, and this overpraife, were fill

visible,