William Forster Lloyd

“ To a plank in the sea, which cannot support all, all have not an equal right; the lucky individuals, who can first obtain possession, being justified in appropriating it to themselves, to the exclusion of the remainder. Where property is much concentrated, and where, by consequence, the class of mere labourers is great, the principle of population would warrant the application of the same argument, to justify the appropriation of the field of employment, and a monopoly of labour. ”

“ Men are attracted upwards by the example of others who are richer than themselves. At the top of the scale this attraction is wanting.
At that point, therefore, it is necessary that there should be a title to wealth without the labour of producing it. A state of perfect equality, by its effect in lowering the standard of desire, and almost reducing it to the satisfaction of the natural necessities, would bring back society to ignorance and barbarism. Still, the same principle of population, which furnishes a reason for the institution of property, prescribes a limit to its concentration. ”

“ For, for the sake of argument, suppose it to prevail, and, by consequence, that the money wages of labour will command a considerable quantity of food. All labourers, therefore, without distinction, have apparently a greater power of maintaining with decency a large family. If all continue to abstain, they will retain this power. But here I ask, what is there to hinder individuals, who do not enter into the common feeling, from taking advantage of the general forbearance? What rule of prudence would they violate by doing so? Would they lower their rank in life? ”

“ Thus it is that the universal distress fails to suggest to individuals any motive for moral restraint.
From what has been said, I draw one general inference, viz. that the simple fact of a country being over populous, by which I mean its population pressing too closely against the means of subsistence, is not, of itself, sufficient evidence that the fault lies in the people themselves, or a proof of the absence of a prudential disposition. The fault may rest, not with them as individuals, but with the constitution of the society, of which they form part. ”

“ Will he not be unable to transmit to his children the same advantages of education and improvement that he had himself possessed? Does he even feel secure that, should he have a large family, his utmost exertions can save them from rags and squalid poverty, and their consequent degradation in the community? ”

“ Prudence is a selfish virtue; and where the consequences are to fall on the public, the prudent man determines his conduct, by the comparison, of the present pleasure with his share of the future ill, and the present sacrifice with his share of the future benefit. This share, in the multitude of a large society, becomes evanescent; and hence, in the absence of any countervailing weight, the conduct of each person is determined by the consideration of the present alone. ”

“ The whole train of common diseases and epidemics, war and plague, are contained in the list. But these, as a whole, are not, either mediately or immediately, the effects of a deficiency of food. The cholera, for example, has appeared in America, to say the least of it, in a form as severe as in England; and though in England it has been most destructive in the abodes of poverty, yet neither has it altogether spared the rich. The like may be said of wars, and other evils which we bring upon ourselves. They are not universally the result of a scarcity of the means of subsistence. ”

“ As time rolls on, he acquires experience, obtains a knowledge of the localities, finds out the most advantageous channels of trade, his orchard becomes productive, the cultivation of his land becomes more easy, he improves his habitation, every year adds to his comforts, and eventually he surrounds himself with many of the conveniences and luxuries of refined life. In a word, his daily enjoyments depend much more on accumulation, than on the daily labour of himself or of his family. ”

“ In this, I have not assumed that the produce of the labour is to be equally divided, but merely, that all are equally interested in it, so long as it is unknown how it will be divided; and, therefore, that each person will view the future consequences, expected to result from an increase or relaxation of his own exertions, in the same light as he would any other benefit or injury extending indifferently to the whole community. ”

“ Systems of equality, with a community of labour and of goods, are highly unfavourable to it. I begin with these, because, in all the objections to such systems, a common principle is involved, the knowledge of which, in its different bearings, will be useful to us afterwards, when we come to examine the encouragements to moral restraint, which, under the existing state of things, are offered to the different classes of society. ”

“ The sons of labourers are themselves, suo jure, labourers. But the sons of tradesmen and farmers are the sons of tradesmen and farmers, and nothing more. They are not themselves tradesmen and farmers. Hence their prudence is described as an effect of exhortation, and not of the original workings of their own minds. They are dependent on others who are interested in their welfare, and who through this dependence have a powerful influence over them.
I have already observed, that the uncertainties and variations of employment are unfavourable to the preventive check among labourers. ”

“ It may be said indeed, that, instead of extravagantly squandering his temporary income in the maintenance of a family, he might save it for himself against the evil day when employment should fail. It is questionable however whether this is practicable to any great extent. The benefit of saving depends in a material degree on its being partial. Were all to make the attempt, they would, probably, by their competition, counteract each other's expectations of advantage. ”

“ I do not profess to be here considering generally the merits of systems of equality, and, therefore, I shall not stop to inquire, whether any, and what substitute, for the motive of private interest, can be suggested, to stimulate exertion, to prevent waste, and to check the undue increase of population. ”

“ Between them, as purchasers of food, there can be no competition. Among capitalists, and the rest of the middling ranks, the same result follows, only contingently, from the limitation of their competition. Were capital as uniformly distributed, and as easily obtained, as is the ability to labour, then, however great its efficacy in assisting labour might be, still the capitalists would be as badly off as are at present the labouring classes. Capital would be in a manner absorbed into labour, and the possession of it would be equivalent merely to an increased effectiveness of labour. ”

“ The failure of employment in one quarter, diverts the command of the means of subsistence, and causes it to flow more strongly in another channel. Consequently, the more fortunate labourers who retain their employment, can purchase, by their labour, an amount of subsistence, which the proportion between the whole population and the food of the country could not afford to all, were all employed. ”

“ Were all to act independently of each other, and to draw, each on his own resources only, in the competition between the purchasers of food the young would have no chance. Their competition would soon cease by the failure of their means. The old could alone purchase a sufficiency, and what the young would want, besides their earnings, to complete the amount of their necessary sustenance, they could obtain only through the favour of the old. Hence, they would generally be in a state of dependence on the old, and from this dependence many advantages would arise. ”

“ Generally speaking, prudence, or the habit of attending to future consequences, is a virtue seldom acquired in any great degree of perfection until late in life. It is the result of long observation and repeated experience. ”

“ Fifty years ago, it was contended by those who advocated the propriety of throwing small farms together, that, by the increase of products which would follow from better husbandry, wages would be raised, and that the husbandman, in his new capacity of a labourer, would, by reason of the high wages, be better off than in his ancient capacity of a small farmer. Those, who argued thus, did not perceive, that the benefit on which they laid so much stress, could not by possibility be permanent. They proceeded rashly on the tacit assumption of population being a given quantity. ”

“ I proposed to consider, in this and in the following Lecture, the checks to population.
We have seen that the increase of food cannot keep pace with the theoretical rate of increase of population. Since, therefore, food is essential to the existence of man, it is obvious, that, with reference to the increase of numbers actually possible, the theoretical power of multiplication can be of little moment, and that, whatever be its extent, the actual excess of the births above the deaths must be determined according to the inferior progression of the supply of food. ”

“ The positive checks to population are extremely various, and include every cause, whether arising from vice or misery, which in any degree contributes to shorten the natural duration of human life. Under this head, therefore, may be enumerated all unwholesome occupations, severe labour and exposure to the seasons, extreme poverty, bad nursing of children, great towns, excesses of all kinds, the whole train of common diseases and epidemics, wars, plague, and famine. ”

“ At any rate, to expect labourers thus to save, would be to make an additional call upon their prudence; and we may remark generally, that, in proportion to the intricacies of the path of life, there will be a certain number of failures, notwithstanding that they may be in some degree mitigated by means of expedients. The expedients are themselves a new subject of attention, which is liable to disorder, and can never afford a remedy, equal to that of rendering the path of life more simple, by removing the evil which occasions the necessity for them. ”

“ In short, upon the supposition of all being able to obtain employment, the inference is, that the consequences of the act of one will be equally divided between all: on the supposition of the field of employment admitting only a certain number, these consequences fall undivided upon some one unlucky person. But before the drawing of the lottery, since the chances of all are equal, we must in idea consider them as divisible. The motives therefore are the same upon both suppositions, and in both cases the encouragement to moral restraint is equally wanting. ”

“ How can we expect that some will abstain from marriage, when others may step in to take advantage of their abstinence?
The fact is, that the wages of the lowest description of labour, in every old country where competition has been tolerably free, have always bordered on the minimum necessary for maintenance. It was an observation of Swift, a hundred years ago, that there were few countries in which one third of the people were not extremely stinted even in the necessaries of life ”

“ That the prudential disposition in human nature is sufficiently strong, where the constitution of society distributes, and fixes properly, the obligation to prudence, is evident from the example of Norway, which, though ranking among the least civilized nations of Europe, is yet that, in which, unless perhaps we except Switzerland, the preventive check prevails in the highest degree. ”

“ We may therefore look on the wars of ancient times in the same light as an unhealthy climate, which diminishes the field for the checks depending directly on want of subsistence, but of which the effects would not be lessened by the prevalence of moral restraint. Hence, considering the importance of a numerous population for the great object of national defence, the maxims of ancient legislators respecting the propriety of encouraging marriage were probably correct as general rules, and suitable to the times to which they were applied. ”

“ I say they will be without advisers, because, though advice in one sense is always cheap, yet they will be without friends, who will so far interest themselves in their welfare, as to watch the occasions in which advice is required, and to take the pains and trouble, of investigating facts, and of acquiring the knowledge which can alone render them competent, to advise with judgment, to support their advice with sufficient reasons, or to weigh properly the objections which may be made to it. ”

“ To suppose, however, that the failure of employment is periodical, or, in other words, that the difficulties of life can be foreseen, would be a concession in favour of the existing state of things far greater than the true nature of the case will warrant. There is in fact a vast degree of uncertainty in the prospects of a labouring man, and the natural consequence is, as I have already intimated, that he must act at random. ”

“ In the actual business of life, we commonly find some labourers out of employment, and more at one time than at another. So long however as the whole stock of food is sufficient for the possible maintenance of all, want of employment does not arise from an absence of demand for labour in general. ”

“ The first class of checks, or, at least, so many belonging to that class, as are also of a positive description, having been contracted, a wider sphere is now opened for those depending on a scarcity of subsistence, and it has become a matter of importance, instead of encouraging marriage, rather to discourage it, and by restraining the number of the births, to prevent the sickness and misery, arising from a want of food, which would be otherwise inevitable. ”

“ But now, when the invention of gunpowder has changed the whole art of war, which, partly from that cause, and partly from the greater humanity of modern times, has become much less destructive; when also from the improvement of medicine, and of the arts which supply the comforts of life, epidemic and other diseases, not depending on want of food, have abated in violence, the ancient doctrine is no longer suitable. ”

“ The magnitude also of an effort of prudence is evidently proportional to the extent of the present sacrifice. For example, in a question about marriage, the effort of prudence, when successful, is greater in proportion as the passion is stronger. The power however of discerning the necessity for such an effort, and consequently cæteris paribus the probability of its being made, seems to vary inversely in this proportion. The human eye is incapable of taking a clear view of many objects at once. When it is intently fixed on one object, all other objects are necessarily overlooked. ”

“ Thus comfortably situated at home, have they no cause for hesitation, or for an interval of preparation, before they venture upon marriage? Surely they have, and so long as man is a reasoning animal, and not only food but all the conveniences and luxuries of life are not to be had for nothing, motives for prudential restraint must present themselves, more or less imperiously, in every condition of society [2] . ”