Malthus’ work has become the text book of a large politico-economist party in England. His doctrine is, that “_population unrestrained, will advance beyond the means of subsistence_.” He asserts, that in most countries population at this moment presses against the means of subsistence; and that in all countries, it has a tendency so to do. He recommends, as a preventive of the growing evil, celibacy till a late age, say thirty years; and he asserts, that unless this “moral restraint” is exerted, vice, poverty and misery, will and must become the checks to population. His book, in my opinion, has done infinite mischief. I have heard his disciples openly declare, that they considered the crimes and wretchedness of society to be _necessary_—to be the express ordainings of Providence, intended to prevent the earth from being over-peopled. I have heard it argued by men of rank, wealth and influence, that the distinctions of rich and poor, and even of morality and immorality, of luxury and want, will and must exist to the end of the world; that he who attempts to remove them fights against God and nature; and, if he partially succeed, will but afford the human race an opportunity to increase, until the earth shall no longer suffice to contain them, and they shall be compelled to prey on each other. It must be confessed, that this is a comfortable doctrine for the rich idler: it is a healing salve to the luxurious conscience; an opiate to drown the still small voice of truth and humanity, which calls to every man to be up and do his part towards the alleviation of the human suffering that every where stares him in the face. It is vain to argue with these defenders of the evils that be, that the day of overstocking is afar off. They tell you, it must come at last; and that the more you do to remove vice and misery—those destroyers of population—the sooner it will come. And what reply can one make to the argument in the abstract? I believe it to be proved, that population, unrestrained,[9] will double itself on an average every twenty-five to fifty years. If so, it is evident to a demonstration, that, if population be not restrained, morally or immorally, the earth will _at last_ furnish no foothold for the human beings that will cover it. Take a medium calculation as to the natural rate of increase, and say, that population, unrestrained, will double itself every _thirty-three and a third_ years. That it has done so, (without reckoning the increase from emigration,) in many parts of this continent, is certain. Then, if we suppose the present numerous checks to population, viz. want, war, vice, and misery, removed by national reform, and if we assume the present population of the world at one thousand millions, we shall find the rate of increase as follows: