Page:The Effects of Civilisation on the People in European States.djvu/28

6, that will throw great light on this matter, and but too clearly show that that sum is inadequate, and that it was so at the time mentioned; and that the poor are not in fact furnished with the requisite quantity of the necessaries of life. This argument is of the presumptive kind, but that is the only sort the nature of the subject will admit of.

If we consider the economy of nature, with regard to animal and vegetable life, we may observe that, in order, probably, to keep up the different species of living creatures and plants, the seed produced of both kinds is very abundant; for instance, the spawn of a carp or a salmon shall amount to eighty or a hundred thousand; insomuch that any one species of fish would in a few ages fill the ocean, if all that were brought into life were brought to maturity. In the same manner, the offspring of any one species of land animal would fill, some in a longer, others in a shorter time, the whole earth, if proper and sufficient sustenance were provided for them. The same may be said of any vegetable, if the ground were prepared for the reception of its seed, and the other plants destroyed to make room for it. To illustrate this: if the number of rabbits put into a warren to stock it, be less than the quantity which the ground will maintain, they will increase till