Page:Two Lectures on the Checks to Population.pdf/74

68 majority of the labouring families. These were calculated to secure to their then possessors their places in the world, and to give them the advantage in the competition against new comers, who might otherwise have forced them from their positions. Without, however, building too much upon the presumption of the accuracy of Swift's expressions, we may observe generally, that the whole statement is strong; and certainly, far too strong, to allow us to believe it to have been made without more foundation, than the present condition of the English labourer would furnish.

The revolution in manufactures, by which small capitalists have been thrust out of the market, the accumulation of farms, which in agriculture has produced a similar effect, the decay of monopolies, and the increased productiveness of land, with the consequent advance of population, while the right of primogeniture has maintained nearly a stationary condition, or has perhaps caused even a retrogradation in the number of the landed proprietors,—all these causes have vastly altered the