Life and Writings of Thomas R. Malthus

by Charles R. Drysdale

In chapter iv., our author replies to some objections. Some of his critics had said that if his advice were followed, the market would be rather understocked with labour. To this Malthus observes that “a market overstocked with labour, and an ample remuneration to each labourer, are objects perfectly incompatible with each other. In the annals of the world they have never existed together; and to couple them even in imagination betrays a gross ignorance of the simplest principles of political economy.” Mr. Malthus then replies to the oft repeated futurity argument as follows: “I can easily conceive that this country, with a proper direction of the national industry, might, in the course of some centuries, contain two or three times its present population, and yet every man in the kingdom be better paid and clothed than he is at present.”

“While the springs of industry continue in vigor, and a sufficient part of that industry is directed to agriculture, we need be under no apprehension of a deficient population; and nothing perhaps would tend so strongly to create a spirit of industry and economy among the poor, as a thorough knowledge that their happiness must always depend principally upon themselves; and that if they obey their passions in opposition to their reason, or be not industrious and frugal while they are single men, and save a sum for the common contingencies of the married state, they must expect to suffer the natural evils which Providence has prepared for those who disobey its admonitions.”

This, then, is the main argument of our author; but, as we have seen, he fears lest he will not be listened to by the masses, and also sees clearly enough that his advice to delay the marriage day until funds have been reserved to meet all demands on the married pair, is not unlikely to lead to other evils. “A third objection which may be started (he says) to this plan, and the only one which appears to me to bear any kind of plausibility is, that by endeavoring to urge the duty of moral restraint on the poor, we may increase the quantity of sexual vice.”

Malthus finds considerable difficulty in meeting this attack, and few will be found who will be satisfied with the following reply to this objection. “I should be extremely sorry to say anything which could be either remotely or directly construed unfavorably to the cause of virtue; but I certainly cannot think that the vices which relate to the sex are the only vices which are to be considered in a moral question; or that they are even the greatest and most degrading to the human character. They can rarely or never be committed without producing such offences somewhere or other, and therefore ought always to be strongly repudiated; but there are other vices, the effects of which are still more pernicious; and there are other situations which lead more certainly to moral offences than the refraining from marriage.”

All of this is beside the question; and our author fell into this kind of argument precisely because he had no experience as we moderns have of marriage with small families. This alone of all the alternatives gives the human race a chance of comfort, love, and family joys. Were it the custom for all in a country like England to consider it immoral to have a family exceeding four children, there might doubtless be hope that all might lead a virtuous life; but Mr. Malthus’ plan of late marriage necessarily condemns many women to celibacy, and, as he admits, tends to the degradation of numbers of other women.

Our author continues: “Powerful as may be the temptations to a breach of chastity, I am inclined to think that they are impotent, in comparison with the temptations arising from continued distress. A large class of women and many men, I have no doubt, pass a considerable part of their lives in chastity; but I believe there will be found very few who pass through the ordeal of squalid and hopeless poverty, or even of long-continued embarrassed circumstances without a considerable degradation of character.... Add to this that squalid poverty, particularly when joined with idleness, is a state the most unfavorable to character that can well be conceived. The passion is as strong, or nearly so, as in other situations, and every restraint on it from personal respect or a sense of morality is generally removed. There is a degree of squalid poverty in which, if a girl was brought up, I should say that her being really modest at twenty was an absolute miracle. Those persons must have extraordinary minds indeed, and such as are not usually found under similar circumstances, who can continue to respect themselves when no other person whatever respects them. If the children thus brought up were even to marry at twenty, it is probable that they would have passed some years in vicious habits before that period.”

Had Mr. Malthus been alive at this moment, and travelled as he did in his lifetime through the rural districts of France, he would have been the first to admit that the French have given the only solution of the problem he states so clearly, that has ever been given by any nation.

“If (says our author) statesmen will not encourage late marriages, but rather the opposite, then to act consistently they should facilitate, instead of foolishly and vainly endeavoring to impede, the operations of nature in causing a great infantile mortality. Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor, they should cultivate contrary habits. If by these and similar means, the annual mortality were increased from 1 in 36 or 40, to 1 in 18 or 20, we might probably every one of us marry at the age of puberty, and yet few be absolutely starved. If, however, we all marry at this age, and yet still continue our exertions to impede the operations of nature, we may rest assured that all our efforts will be vain. Nature will not, and cannot be defeated in her purposes. The necessary mortality must come, in some form or other: and the extirpation of one disease will only be the signal for the birth of another perhaps more fatal. We cannot lower the waters of rivers by pressing them down in different places, which must necessarily make them rise somewhere else; the only way in which we can hope to effect our purpose is by drawing them off.”

“In a country which keeps up its population at a certain standard, if the average number of marriages and births be given, it is evident that the average number of deaths will also be given: and to use Dr. Heberden’s metaphor, the channels through which the stream of mortality is constantly flowing will always convey off a given quantity. Now, if we stop up any of these channels, it must be perfectly clear that the stream of mortality must run with greater force through some of the other channels: that is, if we eradicate some diseases, others will become proportionally more fatal.”

“Dr. Heberden, (says Malthus) draws a striking picture of the favorable change observed in the health of the people of England, and greatly attributes it to the improvements which have gradually taken place, not only in London but in all great towns; and in the manner of living throughout the kingdom, particularly in respect to cleanliness and ventilation. But these causes would not have produced the effect observed, if they had not been accompanied by an increase of the preventive check; and probably the spread of cleanliness, and better mode of living, which then began to prevail, by spreading more generally a decent and useful pride, principally contributed to this increase. The diminution in the number of marriages, however, was not sufficient to make up for the great decrease of mortality, from the extinction of the plague, and the striking reduction of the deaths from the dysentery. While these, and some other diseases became evanescent, consumption, palsy, apoplexy, gout, lunacy and the small-pox became more mortal. The widening of these drains was necessary to carry off the population which still remained redundant, notwithstanding the increased operation of the preventive check, and the part which was annually disposed of, and enabled to subsist by the increase of agriculture.”