[How differently do people see things! Ac. cording to Mr. Malthus, this rascally tax-gatherer, this vile nuisance, is a very sacred sort of character, a privileged person, one of the most indispensable and active instruments in the procession of vice and misery, those harbingers of human happiness; and all our reproaches and indignation should fall on the poor peasant, for bringing beings into the world whom he could not maintain, in "the face of the " clearest warning, and in defiance of the ex

66

press command of God," as proved by the tax-book. Our superficial politician was not aware (Mr. Matthus tells us that first appearances are very deceitful) that the produce of the husbandman's labour was much better employed in supporting the waste and extravagance of the rich, than in affording nourishment to his family, as this would only enable him to rear his family, which must operate as an encouragement to marriage, and this again would produce other marriages, and so on ad infinitum, to which unrestricted increase of population it is necessary to put a timely stop.]

"Even in Rome a man may be circum"vented by the fraud of a priest, or poisoned " by one, who would have his estate, wife, "whore, or child; but nothing is done that " looks like violence or tumult. The gover

nors do as little fear Gracchus as Hannibal ; "and instead of wearying their subjects in "wars," [We have not yet reached this pitch of perfection] "they only seek by perverted laws, "corrupt judges, false witnesses, and vexatious "suits, to cheat them of their money and in"heritance. This is the best part of their con"dition. Where these arts are used, there are "men, and they have something to lose; but " for the most part, the lands lie waste; and "they who were formerly troubled with the "disorders incident to populous cities, now "enjoy the quiet and peaceable estate of a "wilderness.-Again, there is a way of killing "worse than that of the sword; for as Ter"tullian says upon a different occasion, vetare “ nasci est interficere; those governments are in "the highest degree guilty of blood, which by "taking from men the means of living, bring "some to perish through want, drive others out " of the country, and generally dissuade men " from marriage, by taking from them all ways "of supporting their families." [Our author, we see, has not here put the cart before the horse. He seems to have understood the necessity of food to population, though Mr. Malthus's essay had not then been heard of.] "Notwithstanding all the seditions of Flo

**rence, and other cities of Tuscany, the hor "rid factions of Guelphs and Gibelines,* Neri, " and Bianchi, nobles and commons, they con"tinued populous, strong, and exceeding rich; " but in the space of less than a hundred and " fifty years, the peacable reign of the Medici " is thought to have destroyed nine parts in "ten of the people of that province. Among " other things it is remarkable, that when Philip "the second of Spain gave Sienna to the Duke "of Florence, his embassador then at Rome "sent him word, that he had given away more " than six hundred and fifty thousand subjects; " and it is not believed there are now twenty " thousand souls inhabiting that city and terri

tory. Pisa, Pistoia, Arezzo, Cortona, and "other towns, that were then good and populous,

:

" are in the like proportion diminished, and " Florence more than any. When that city " had been long troubled with seditions, tumults, " and wars, for the most part unprosperous, it " still retained such strength, that when "Charles the eighth of France, being admitted "as a friend with his whole army, which soon " after conquered the kingdom of Naples, "thought to master them, the people, taking up

66

arms, struck such a terror into him, that he " was glad to depart upon such conditions as "they thought fit to impose. Machiavel re

66

ports, that in the year 1298 Florence alone, " with the Val d'Arno, a small territory belong"ing to that city, could, in a few hours, by the "sound of a bell, bring together a hundred "thousand well-armed men. Whereas now "that city, with all the others in that province, "are brought to such despicable weakness, "emptiness, poverty, and baseness, that they " can neither resist the oppressions of their own "prince, nor defend him or themselves, if they

66

were assaulted by a foreign enemy. The peo"ple are dispersed or destroyed, and the best " families sent to seek habitations in Venice, "Genoa, Rome, and Lucca. This is not the " effect of war or pestilence: they enjoy a per"fect peace, and suffer no other plague than the "government they are under, But he who has "thus cured them of disorders and tumults " does in my opinion deserve no greater praise " than a physician, who should boast there was "not a sick person in a house committed to his "care, when he had poisoned all that were in it. "The Spaniards have established the like peace " in the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily, the "West Indies, and other places. The Turks " by the same means prevent tumults in their "dominions. And they are of such efficacy in "all places, that Mario Chigi, brother to pope "Alexander the seventh, by one sordid cheat

66

upon the sale of corn, is said within eight "years to have destroyed above a third part of "the people in the ecclesiastical state. And "that country, which was the strength of the "Romans in the time of the Carthaginian wars, "suffered more by the covetousness and fraud " of that villain, than by all the defeats received " from Hannibal, &c." Chap. ii. p. 223.

It will be worth the reader's while to turn to Lord Kaims's account of the kingdom of Siam, which, though one of the most fertile countries in the world, is reduced to the lowest state of poverty and wretchedness by the absurd and tyrannical policy of its government. Some of the finest districts that were formerly cultivated, are now inhabited only by wild beasts. One of