condition be improved-would the market for their produce be increased-if, instead of the whole thirty millions being raised by the farmers of Great Britain and Ireland, a third of it were to be transferred to the farmers of Poland and the Ukraine? Would not the former set of cultivators, our own fellow-countrymen and brethren, be as much injured as the latter, our aliens and enemies, would be benefited?

But the case is infinitely stronger than this; for the preceding comparison proceeds on the supposition, that the "new world" of agricultural cultivators who are to be" called into existence" on the continent, to supply the race of the old cultivators exterminated in the British islands, will consume as large a portion of British manufactures, as their predecessors who now flourish on the banks of the Thames, the Tay, or the Shannon. But it is utterly impossible that this effect can take place; and nothing can be clearer, than that any extension of the market for our manufactures, in consequence of the enlarged growth of grain on the banks of the Vistula or the Volga, would be a perfect trifle in comparison of that which would be lost by the cessation of the production of grain to the same amount in the British islands. The great consumption of our manufactures in the home market, has been owing to the enjoyment of freedom, affluence, and comfort, by the working-classes, for many centuries; and at least as many centuries, and as much freedom and prosperity, will be requisite to bring the Polish or Russian peasants to a similar level, or capacity of enjoyment. Artificial wants among the masses of the people, are of the slowest possible growth, even in the most favoured circumstances. To suppose that they

will ever extend to any considerable degree under the present villanage system of Poland and Russia, is, of all absurdities, the most extravagant. The idea that a Polish peasant, who now takes nothing but rye-bread and water, who inhabits a clay-built cottage with an earthen floor, and is clothed in the coarse woollens of his own country, is to replace or compensate the loss of the Norfolk, the East Lothian, or the Carse of Gowrie farmer in the consumption of British manufactures, is perfectly ridiculous. No man now alive would see any material change in the habits of the Polish or Ukraine peasants, or in the amount of our exports for their consumption. Whatever was gained by the importation of foreign grain into the British harbours, at the expense of the British culti vators, would accrue to the benefit of the Polish and Russian landholders, and they would expend it upon the manufactures of their own country, or the dissipation of Paris or Naples, leaving scarce a perceptible fraction to be diverted to the encouragement of British industry.

A zealous anti-corn-law advocate, Dr Bowring, has, in the course of his late mission from Government to examine into the effect of the Prusso-Germanic League, collected information of the most decisive tendency against the probability of the freest corn trade opening any considerable market for our manufacturing industry among the agricultural inhabitants of the corn-growing countries. From the evidence he has obtained, it appears that the peasants of the states adjoining the Baltic consume so little manufactures of any kind, that very little is to be

gained, even by the freest liberty of exporting British manufactures to them.*

The true policy of Britain, therefore, both in regard to commerce and agriculture, is clearly marked out. It consists in three great maxims; agricultural protection, to secure the independence and support the interests of the great bulk of the people, and create sources of wealth in the heart of the empire; colonial encouragement, to afford a vent for its growing numbers, and extend the market for its manufacturing industry, in quarters where no rivalry to that in the heart of the empire is to be dreaded; and the maintenance of a powerful navy, at once to form the highways across the deep, which are necessary to cement the various parts of this immense dominion, and furnish adequate protection and security to its remote dependencies. To assert that these principles, so obviously recommended, both by principle and experience, will insure a permanent or even a lengthened existence to so vast an empire, would be to go farther than human foresight can venture on the chequered depths of futurity; and he must be blind, indeed, who does not perceive that a dominion so wide-spread and powerful, must be subject to causes of vicissitude and sources of danger, increasing yearly with its extension,

* Sugar consumed,

Great Britain. State of Prusso-German League. France.

Bowring's Report on Prusso-Germanic League, 26, 29.

and which nothing but the most consummate prudence and foresight on the part of its Government can for any considerable period avert. But this much may with confidence be asserted, that it is thus that the obvious duty to themselves and mission of the British race in the world, can alone be reconciled; that when their part on the great theatre of Nature has been performed, and they are to give place to future, and, perhaps, greater actors on the stage, it is thus that a foundation will best be laid for retirement with dignity from the scene; that, with least suffering and most glory, the transition will be effected to a stationary or declining condition, and the best preparation made, in the discharge of present duty, for the final advent of the inevitable hour!

CHAPTER XVII.

ON THE FUTURE INCREASE OF MANKIND.

ARGUMENT.

Mode in which the intentions of Nature in regard to the Increase and Destiny of Mankind are carried into effect-Analogy between the changing desires of the Individual and those of the Species-Progressive changes in society which work out the same system in the social world-Rapid increase in early times. -Gradual retardation as society advances-And ultimate stationary condition in its last ages-Exemplified from the history of all nations-Grounds for dispelling all alarms on the subject of the over-increase of Mankind—Origin of the prevailing errors on this subject-From overlooking the progress in human affairs-Examples of the application of these principles in the world at this time -Capacities of increase, existing in the world at this time, for the future growth of Mankind—In Asia, America, Europe, and Australia-Progressive increase in the fertility of the Globe-Boundless capability of yielding food which the ocean contains-Growth of a New Continent from the Coral Islands of the South Seas No dangers, therefore, to be anticipated from over-increase in any quarter of the Globe-Moral doctrines of Mankind-Provision for the spread of civilisation from the power of Russia in Asia, and the spread of the AngloSaxon race in Transmarine Regions-Moving power of the one is the passion for conquest-In the other the desire for Colonization-Which springs from Democratic Feeling-Adaptation of these two moving powers to the great destinies they are ultimately to work out--Approach of the diffusion of Christianity over the Globe by these means-General conclusion.

IN concluding the review of the principles of human increase, it is natural to look forward to THE FUTURE, -to consider the probable destiny of the species in distant ages; and, from the examination of past history, to endeavour to ascertain the laws which are likely to regulate the progress of population in the remote periods of the world. If such speculations are of little practical moment, they are not on that account the