Page:Two Lectures on the Checks to Population.pdf/44

38 years ago, that there were few countries in which one third of the people were not extremely stinted even in the necessaries of life; and, were the point doubtful, similar remarks, applicable to almost every period of history, might be gleaned from other writers. We may also expect them to remain at least equally applicable in future, unless some improvement shall take place in the structure of society, which shall furnish hopes of an advancement in station, leaving less to chance, and, at the same time, producing a degree of isolation, by which the consequences, whether good or evil, flowing from the actions of individuals, may be more fully appropriated to the authors of them.

Such an improvement, however, could not operate through the medium of high wages. Even in past times, when competition was much restricted, and, owing to the difficulty of communication, the field for the employment of labour did not consist of one vast common as at present, but rather of many little commons distinct from each other, and when, by consequence, a fountain of imprudence in one part, could not so readily overflow, and spread misery equally amongst all, still, in every part, there were enough at the bottom of the scale to