Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

others as detracting from their own, and taking pleasure only in exhibiting what is weak, absurd, or wicked, in our nature. But we make no great account of this. Mischief it may do for a time, but if the habit continue long, the public will become indignant, and discontinue or disavow all allegiance. Man can only maintain an interest with his fellows by sympathizing with their feelings, and taking an interest in their interests. There may be skeletons in society, but the great majority of men are composed of flesh and blood, elements which are sure to generate and support sensation and passion. The bulk of mankind, therefore, will neither long acknowledge nor tolerate men who constantly sport with their common feelings and common interests; and leaving the cynical to die of their own spleen,-the fastidious to writhe under the agonies of disappointed vanity, the public will seek out and make for themselves other leaders of more congenial temperaments, of more generous, benevolent, and useful habits both of thought and action. The great temporal and moral interests of man are those which are commonly termed political. These never have lost, and never can lose, their importance. The political condition of man affects all that is near and dear to him. It reaches even to the condition of his mind,—it tinges his moral reflections,-it touches his religious exercises. The relation of men to each other in a state of society, their mutual duties and obligations, the degree in which power can be relinquished or entrusted, the consequences of weakness, error, and contemplated injuries and encroachments, afford ample scope for the exercise of human intellect, and human virtues. The subject is altogether inexhaustible, in as much as it is constantly presenting new aspects, giving birth to new duties, and scope to new exertions. Human affairs are so complex, that the merely curious are never without subjects of speculation; and in no condition of society do the truly good ever weary in well doing. Human science presents, and ever will present, enough of human occupation; and human knowledge, as we think we have demonstrated, tends, with at least every degree of moral certainty, to human improvement.

A RELATION OF A SINGULAR MODERN MIRACLE.

MR EDITOR,

au

IT is said that the age of miracles has now ceased, but upon what au thority I have not yet learned. If the following account be not miraculous, I leave yourself to judge, or to explain it as you best can. It was avouched to me by the most respectable gentlemen of the neighbourhood where it occurred, and I doubt not they will be willing enough to attest the truth thereof, should you have any scepticism about it. The facts are the following:

In the Isle of Sky is a certain wild sequestered corry or cul de sac, called Neaghhuan, whither a Roman Catholic devotee had retired to go through a severe course of penal fasting. The name of this devotee was Carthuin Ruidhe, and the fame of his piety soon spread among all the adherents of the Infallible Church. He eat no more daily than a handful of parched peas, and drank only a measured quantity of water from a fountain in the Neaghbuan, beside which he lay shelterless and exposed to all the inclemencies of heaven. The only addition to this scanty fare which he ever indulged in was a small quantity of water cresses. Carthuin Ruidhe had not been long in his retirement, when he was joined by another devotee named Fiadhmuine, who, having heard of his penitential vow, had resolved to be his companion in penance. Carthuin Ruidhe agreed to his proposal, on condition that he would never open his lips to speak, except when celebrating mass, which they were to perform alternately.

In this manner they lived together many days, till the time of Lent, when they reduced their daily allowance to one half, in order to show their reverence for that holy season of humiliation. But when Easter arrived, and Carthuin Ruidhe was celebrating mass, and performing the other offices and ceremonies of the solemnity, he was more than once interrupted therein by Fiadhmuine, groaning deeply, and throwing at him a ghastly look, while his face exhibited a cadaverous lankness frightful to behold. He seemed to be struggling sore in spirit, for woe was depicted in all his looks. At last his emotion became uncontrollable, he broke his vow of silence, and burst out

a

with an unearthly howl, vociferating, Flesh, flesh, flesh." Carthuin Ruidhe was so thunderstruck, that he let fall the consecrated Corpus Christi; yet, mirabile dictu, as Virgil says, the holy thing did not touch the ground, but remained suspended in the air: though this part of the miracle was not discovered till afterwards, for Fiadhmuine tumbled down in a fit, still crying out, "Flesh, flesh!"

In this perplexity, Carthuin Ruidhe bethought him of ejaculating a prayer to the beatified St Bride for assistance. He prayed earnestly for a good space, looking devoutly towards Abernethy, where the mortal part of St Bride rests. When he had prayed about half a glass, he beheld a cloud coming towards him over the heights of Drum Cruachan, and as it came nigher and nigher, he perceived that it took the form of a table, on which were laid sundry kinds of savoury meat, rich and smoking, and right delicious to the taste. The table came onward through the air, and placed itself between Carthuin Ruidhe, and the longing Fiadhmuine.

The holy men, thinking it to be no less than a special interposition of St Bride to save Fiadhmuine from death, and judging no harm from a hearty meal sent from above, began to cut up a most tempting piece of roast-beef, and were falling voraciously thereupon, when a party of horsemen on flying steeds, came rushing down the pass of Drum Cruachan, and stood before the astonished devotees, panting and breathless, while the first morsel of the roast-beef was still on their forks.

The horsemen proved to be the retainers of Alaister Macbreac, Esq., from whom it seemed St Bride had piously purloined the table, and the dishes thereon, for the behoof of her votaries; the same St Bride being, while on this earth, much addicted to such pious thefts." The Clann-na-Breac,

* Dubhtachus, the father of St Bride, had received from his sovereign the gift of a splendid gold-hilted sword, ornamented with costly jewels. This sword his pious daughter took an opportunity of stealing, and gave away to the poor the money which she received for it. When she was entrusted with the management of her mother's dairy, she charitably gave away the whole proceeds to the poor; but, upon her more worldly parent becoming angry at her

having apostatized to the Protestant church, were in nowise pleased with the occurrence, but seeing two famishing wretches devouring with greedy eyes their lord's viands, they, out of pure Highland hospitality, permitted them to help themselves to a bit of lean mutton, thinking wisely that roast-beef was too strong for the stomachs of the hungered pulse-eaters.

Now, Mr Editor, you will allow that this fact is a very miraculous one to occur in the nineteenth century, though it is by no means unmatched in former times. It made a great noise in the remote part of the couns try where it happened, and was by the seers thought to indicate either a new commencement of religious warfare, or a missionary expedition, or to have reference to the republic of Criticism, whose myrmidons might, ere long, invade the peaceable and inoffensive islanders." You may either choose between, or reject these expoundings, as shall seem good unto yourself, or you may probably discover some more plausible interpretation. I merely state the fact as it was told to me, and remain, Sir, your most obedient servant,

THOM, TRAVELLER.” Oban, Dec. 24th, (Christmas Eve,) 1818.

[ocr errors]

་ ་་་ ( 1

STRICTURES ON THE DOCTRINE THAT
THE PRINCIPLE OF POPULATION
IS THE GREAT SOURCE OF VICE
AND MISERY.

(From a Correspondent.)

[ocr errors]

FEW subjects have engaged more attention of late, and been discussed with greater acrimony, than questions regarding population, nor upon any have the conclusions of different writers been more directly opposed to one another. The reason seems to be, that it has been too generally taken up on both sides, rather as a subject of political speculation, with particular results in view from the outset, and to which it was the object of the disputants to make all the facts, and all their reasoning from them contribute, than as a matter of sober inquiry and patient investigation, in which the truth was sought for wherever it might be found.

prodigal liberality, she obtained, by prayer, a tenfold increase of milk. COGITOSUS, Vita S. Brigida.

Mr Malthus avows that his attention was first directed to the subject by the schemes of perfectibility and equality which were generated by the French revolution, or, at least, first became somewhat popular about that time; and it is the great object of his book to prove, that the principle of population renders all such schemes impracticable. To the operation of this principle, he ascribes almost all the misery and vice which prevail in society, whether it be savage or civilized, and whether the government be one of liberty or despotism. Population, he tells us, will not only always increase with the increase of the means of subsistence, but it has a constant tendency to increase in a much greater ratio, and is almost always pressing against the limits of subsistence in the most thinly peopled countries, as well as the most populous. His opponents, on the other hand, either deny that there is any such tendency, or that any inconvenience ought to be felt from it, until the earth has been fully cultivated, if the structure of society be reared on the principles of liberty and justice. Some think with Mr Weyland, that the greater mortality of large towns, arising not from want of food, but from unhealthy employments, and more generally from the very density of the population, is sufficient to keep down the general population of a country after it has attained a certain amount, and that, in order to prevent it from becoming retrograde, it may even be necessary to give encouragement to marriage among the rural population, from whence the demands of the great towns are to be supplied. Others again, like Mr Grahame, look to emigration as the effectual resource of an excessive population, without carrying their calculations into the remote period when the whole globe, perhaps, may be fully peopled.

*There is yet another class, however, who see in the speculations of Mr Malthus a disposition to find an apology for the oppression of men in power, and the waste and dissipation of the rich, while it is their natural tendency, they think, to close the hearts of the one and the hands of the other against the miserable. This, it is alleged, is the impression which the general strain of his reasoning leaves upon the mind, notwithstanding that

he endeavours, in a variety of passages scattered throughout his work, to secure himself from such a charge. The language of Mr Malthus, it must be admitted, has, in some instances, been unnecessarily harsh and revolting. Though he cautions us against carrying general principles too far, he has himself carried them to what appear to be very nearly their utmost limits. It is probable, that, if he had attempted less, he would actually have done more. He has irritated those whom it would have been for the success of his opinions and recommendations to have soothed, and exposed his speculations to a torrent of abuse, which, though he may disregard it himself, has probably rendered his work less popular than it might have been a-mong those who stand most in need of its practical views.

The motives and the tendency of Mr Malthus's speculations, however, are subordinate questions. Are his principles just in themselves, and his conclusions from them fully established? In the progress of his reasoning, is there nothing omitted that might vary, limit, or otherwise affect those conclusions? If the means of subsistence regulate population, what is it that regulates the means of subsistence? Why do we sometimes find them abounding in a barren country, that does not afford provision for its inhabitants for three months in the year, and scarce to the great mass of the people of a fertile country, from whence grain has been exported for centuries? Why are countries once populous now a desart, traversed rather than inhabited by a miserable banditti, or sinking fast into that state? Rome, for instance,-did she not become less and less populous, even when her citizens were supplied with food gratis? Finally, it may be asked, Why does not the starving hunter become a shepherd, and the shepherd an agriculturist? Mr Malthus has made the tour of human existence, from its very lowest to its most improved condition, and presented to us scenes of privation and misery in every stage, arising, as he says, from the want of food; but why is there a want of it, while there is land and lahour to produce it? or while it is actually produced, but sent out of the country to be consumed by others? It is true, if it be admitted that there

is a constant tendency, in every stage of society, in population to increase faster than the means of subsistence, that land must at last be wanting for growing corn, and that no efforts of labour will procure it; but what is the value of this argument to a starving people? If they should take his advice, and increase more slowly, rather than redouble their efforts to make the supply meet the demand, Would the supply really get a-head of the demand, as he alleges, or would it not be reduced in a corresponding degree, as we see happen in all other cases; and thus the condition of the people be no better than before, even though they were gradually wasting down to the scanty numbers of the shepherd or hunter state?

These and other difficulties have often crossed our path, when travelling through Mr Malthus's ample volumes; and we have a thousand times implored his help in vain. It seems to us, indeed, that, much as he has written on the subject, he has only taken a view of one side of it. We see population increasing, or strug gling to increase; but we see nothing of the causes that repress production or enlarge it. He does not profess, it is true, to treat of the principles of production, but of population only; but how can they be considered separately? or what is the use of making the attempt? Nothing can be less edifying, and more tedious as well as disgusting, than "the checks to population in the lowest stage of human society, among the American Indians, in the islands of the South Sea," &c. It is a picture of a herd of swine inclosed within a forest, breeding up to the mast, and roots, and herbage which Nature supplies, and, increasing still, at last devouring one another till their number be reduced to the level of their food.

What Mr Malthus has left undone still remains to be done. Later writers have been more anxious to support or overturn his principles and deductions, than to erect a solid and well proportioned fabric of their own. Mr Ensor, the author of a late work which has led to these remarks, contents himself with proving, by means of a well furnished library, that many wise men among both the ancients and the moderns were friendly to population, and asserts, that nearly all

the evils which afflict the human race flow from only one source, which is no other than bad government, with its necessary accompaniments, rapacity and profusion among the powerful and the wealthy. This is running at once to the opposite extreme. The whole tenor of Mr Ensor's book is, indeed, calculated to deceive and mislead the ignorant, and inflame the discontented. He writes with considerable plausibility, and in a style but too well adapted to the purpose which he seems to have in view. Ancient and modern history is ransacked for facts and opinions in support of his doctrines. He is not less perversely industrious in exposing those of his opponents to ridicule or indignation. But the reader will look in vain for impartiality, discrimination, a clear developement of principle, and sound conclusions.

Let us look at population and subsistence, not through the medium of system, but as they are really to be seen in life. The first thing that strikes us is, that the actual supply of food in any civilized country, becomes the property only of those who either themselves have land, or some equivalent to offer for its products. Those who have neither may starve, while profusion riots around them, and abundance is wafted from their shores to distant countries. But in all old peopled countries, where land has be come private property, and property is secured by law, it is evident that the owners of land must be comparatively a small number; and the number is much smalier in many parts of Europe than it would be, and ought to be, if the laws did not throw it into the hands of an aristocracy, and probit its division either by sale or by testamentary destination. What a small proportion do the landholders of Russia, Poland, and Germany bear to the whole population of these countries? The great body of the people, therefore, can only obtain food by presenting to these few something for which they are willing to exchange it, and that something is labour, whether it be the dictum of the lawyer or physician, the fabric of the manufacturer, the servility of the menial, or the sweat of the peasant. But the far greater portion of every society consists of those who have nothing to of fer but bodily labour. If these are

kept in a state of slavery, as is still the case in some of the countries just mentioned, their pittance will, of course, be doled out to them at the pleasure of their masters, without any regard to the actual supply of food; and if they are free, it will be measured out to them according to the demand for their labour among the higher classes, or, in other words, by the rate of their wages.

The demand for labour, or the rate of wages, is evidently affected by a complication of circumstances, over which the labourers themselves have little or no control. The funds destined to the maintenance of labour, to adopt the established phraseology, seem to increase and decrease very suddenly; and sometimes it would appear that a portion of them is altogether inoperative, or diverted from its proper destination. This is the case, particularly in a manufacturing and commercial country, such as ours, where the man that at one time barely exists upon 8s. a-week, at another draws three or four times the sum for the same labour. Money also, in its power of purchasing food, is subject to a similar fluctuation. The price of the necessaries of life in this country have within these few years varied at least 100 per cent. But the number of the labouring classes cannot possibly accommodate itself to such great and sudden variations. Independent, therefore, of all other circumstances, here is a source of misery to those who have no means of obtaining subsistence, but through the medium of wages. Its force may be weakened by economy in times of prosperity, by a prudent provision for the evil day of low wages, and high prices of food, but in what other class does this abstinence and foresight universally prevail ?

The remedy prescribed for all the evils of society, at least for all the sufferings of the labouring classes, is celibacy. Let them cease to marry, and their wages will go farther; and the supply of labour being thus diminished, their wages may, in time, even advance, and give them still a greater command over the necessaries and comforts of life. Subsistence will get the start of population; though, after a time, population will begin to move forward, and at last overtake it. Hitherto subsistence is

considered to be a given quantity, and population has advanced till this quantity is divided into the smallest shares that will support life; but the object now is, to keep population stationary, or to diminish it; while the amount of subsistence, it is supposed, will remain still the same, or be augmented, and every individual will therefore draw a larger share. By this plan, corn would be raised when there were not people to consume it, and clothes before their wearers came into the world, and houses built to be occupied half a century hence. The demand for labour would not continue undiminished, unless these works go forward as usual, nor would wages be the same, nor would subsistence become more abundant and cheap. But if all these consequences would ensue from restraining population, is there not some danger, that, when men no longer felt it necessary to labour so much, their exertions would cease, or be limited by their wants? And, on the other hand, if none of these results would be obtained from rendering population stationary, might it not be advisable to let it go on, under the prudential checks which education may impose, and direct our attention to the supply of its wants, by enlarging the stock of subsistence, or, more properly speaking, by placing the means of obtaining it more within the reach of the lower classes. At all events, these means should not be diminished by taxes on the necessaries of life, by obstructing the access to new employments, by exclusive privileges, by commercial monopolies, by restrictions on personal freedom-or even emigration, nor, in an especial manner, by turning aside the funds that would otherwise be employed in supporting productive labour, to gratify the vanity or ambition of a few. How much useful labour might have been put in motion, how generally throughout every cottage in the united kingdom would privation and suffering have been exchanged for abundance, by the tenth part of the sum, that has been squandered away, within these few years, in war. Every labourer in Britain has been made to pay a portion of his wages for the overthrow of Bonaparte, and the reestablishment of the Bourbons, and unless he dies in celibacy, according to the fashionable prescription, the bur

« ZurückWeiter »