with him wants every thing. Since then this authority appertains, not to the religion which is most commodious,-to the religion which is most sublime and efficacious,--to the religion which suits best with the form, or seems most calculated to uphold the power and stability, of civil government,-but only to that religion which comes from God; we are justified in pronouncing the true religion, by its very truth, and independently of all considerations of tendencies, aptness, or any other internal qualities whatever, to be universally the best.

this rule comes to be applied, will be found a very | By a man who acts with a view to a future judg significant part of the direction. It obliges the ma-ment, the authority of a religion is the first thing gistrate to reflect, not only whether the religion inquired after; a religion which wants authority, which he wishes to propagate amongst his subjects, be that which will best secure their eternal welfare; not only, whether the methods he employs be likely to effectuate the establishment of that religion; but also upon this farther question: Whether the kind of interference which he is about to exercise, if it were adopted as a common maxim amongst states and princes, or received as a general rule for the conduct of government in matters of religion, would, upon the whole, and in the mass of instances in which his example might be imitated, conduce to the furtherance of human salvation. If the magistrate, for example, should think that, although the application of his power might, in the instance concerning which he deliberates, advance the true religion, and together with it, the happiness of his people, yet that the same engine, in other hands, who might assume the right to use it with the like pretensions of reason and authority that he himself alleges, would more frequently shut out truth, and obstruct the means of salvation; he would be bound by this opinion, still admitting public utility to be the supreme rule of his conduct, to refrain from expedients, which, whatever particular effects he may expect from them, are, in their general operation, dangerous or hurtful. If there be any difficulty in the subject, it arises from that which is the cause of every difficulty in morals;-the competition of particular and general consequences; or, what is the same thing, the submission of one general rule to another rule which is still more general.

From the first proposition follows this inference, that when the state enables its subjects to learn some form of Christianity, by distributing teachers of a religious system throughout the country, and by providing for the maintenance of these teachers at the public expense; that is, in fewer terms, when the laws establish a national religion, they exercise a power and an interference, which are likely, in their general tendency, to promote the interest of mankind; for, even supposing the species of Christianity which the laws patronise to be erroneous and corrupt, yet when the option lies between this religion and no religion at all, (which would be the consequence of leaving the people without any public means of instruction, or any regular celebration of the offices of Christianity,) our proposition teaches us that the former alternative is constantly to be preferred.

But after the right of the magistrate to establish a particular religion has been, upon this principal, admitted; a doubt sometimes presents itself, whether the religion which he ought to establish, be that which he himself professes, or that which he observes to prevail amongst the majority of the people. Now when we consider this question with a view to the formation of a general rule upon the subject, (which view alone can furnish a just solution of the doubt,) it must be assumed to be an equal chance whether of the two religions contain more of truth, that of the magistrate, or that of the people. The chance then that is left to truth being equal upon both suppositions, the remaining consideration will be, from which arrangement more efficacy can be expected ;-from an order of men appointed to teach the people their own religion, or to convert them to another? In my opinion, the advantage lies on the side of the former scheme; and this opinion, if it be assented to, makes it the duty of the magistrate, in the choice of the religion which he establishes, to consult the faith of the nation, rather than his own.

Bearing then in mind, that it is the general tendency of the measure, or, in other words, the effects which would arise from the measure being generally adopted, that fixes upon it the character of rectitude or injustice; we proceed to inquire what is the degree and the sort of interference of secular laws in matters of religion, which are likely to be beneficial to the public happiness. There are two maxims which will in a great measure regulate our conclusions upon this head. The first is, that any form of Christianity is better than no religion at all: the second, that, of different systems of faith, that is the best which is the truest. The first of these positions will hardly be disputed, when we reflect that every sect and modification of Christianity holds out the happiness and misery of another life, as depending chiefly upon the practice of virtue or of vice in this; and that the distinctions of virtue and vice are nearly the same in all. A person who acts under the impression of these hopes and The case also of dissenters must be determined fears, though combined with many errors and su- by the principles just now stated. Toleration is perstitions, is more likely to advance both the of two kinds-the allowing to dissenters the unpublic happiness and his own, than one who is molested profession and exercise of their religion, destitute of all expectation of future account. but with an exclusion from offices of trust and The latter proposition is founded in the consider- emolument in the state; which is a partial toleation, that the principal importance of religion ration: and the admitting them, without distincconsists in its influence upon the fate and condition, to all the civil privileges and capacities of tion of a future existence. This influence be- other citizens; which is a complete toleration. longs only to that religion which comes from God. The expediency of toleration, and consequently the A political religion may be framed, which shall right of every citizen to demand it, as far as relates embrace the purposes, and describe the duties of to liberty of conscience, and the claim of being propolitical society perfectly well; but if it be not detected in the free and safe profession of his relilivered by God, what assurance does it afford, gion, is deducible from the second of those proposithat the decisions of the Divine judgment will tions which we have delivered as the grounds of have any regard to the rules which it contains? | our conclusions upon the subject. That proposi

might insinuate themselves into offices of trust and authority, by subscribing political assertions, and yet retain their predilection for the interests of the religious sect to which they continued to belong. By which means, government would sometimes find, though it could not accuse the individual, whom it had received into its service, of disaffection to the civil establishment, yet that, through him, it had communicated the aid and influence of a powerful station to a party who were hostile to the constitution. These answers, however, we propose rather than defend. The measure certainly cannot be defended at all, except where the suspected union between certain obnoxious principles in politics, and certain tenets in religion, is nearly universal; in which case, it makes little difference to the subscriber, whether the test be religious or political; and the state is somewhat better secured by the one than the other.

apon this principle at all, it ought to be applied in regal governments, to the chief magistrate himself, whose power might otherwise overthrow or change the established religion of the country, in opposition to the will and sentiments of the people. The second case of exlcusion, and in which, I think, the measure is more easily vindicated, is that of a country in which some disaffection to the subsisting government happens to be connected with certain religious distinctions. The state undoubtedly has a right to refuse its power and its confidence to those who seek its destruction. Wherefore, if the generality of any religious sect entertain dispositions hostile to the constitution, and if government have no other way of knowing its enemies than by the religion which they profess, the professors of that religion may justly be excluded from offices of trust and authority. But even here it should be observed, that it is not against the religion that government shuts its doors, but against those political principles, which, The result of our examination of those general however independent they may be of any article tendencies, by which every interference of civil of religious faith, the members of that communion government in matters of religion ought to be tried, are found in fact to hold. Nor would the legisla- is this: "That a comprehensive national religion, tor make religious tenets the test of men's incli- guarded by a few articles of peace and conformity, nations towards the state, if he could discover any together with a legal provision for the clergy of other that was equally certain and notorious. that religion; and with a complete toleration of all Thus, if the members of the Romish church, for dissenters from the established church, without the most part adhere to the interests, or maintain any other limitation or exception, than what arises the right, of a foreign pretender to the crown of from the conjunction of dangerous political dispo these kingdoms; and if there be no way of dis-sitions with certain religious tenets; appears to be, tinguishing those who do from those who do not not only the most just and liberal, but the wisest retain such dangerous prejudices; government is and safest system, which a state can adopt; inwell warranted in fencing out the whole sect from asmuch as it unites the several perfections which situations of trust and power. But even in this a religious constitution ought to aim at :-liberty example, it is not to popery that the laws object, of conscience, with means of instruction; the but to popery as the mark of jacobitism; an equivo-progress of truth, with the peace of society; the cal indeed and fallacious mark, but the best and per- right of private judgment, with the care of the haps the only one, that can be devised. But then public safety." it should be remembered, that as the connexion between popery and jacobitism, which is the sole cause of suspicion and the sole justification of those severe and jealous laws which have been enacted against the professors of that religion, was accidental in its origin, so probably it will be temporary in its duration; and that these restric tions ought not to continue one day longer than some visible danger renders them necessary to the preservation of public tranquillity.

After all, it may be asked; Why should not the legislator direct his test against the political principles themselves which he wishes to exclude, rather than encounter them through the medium of religious tenets, the only crime and the only danger of which consist in their presumed alliance with the former? Why, for example, should a man be required to renounce transubstantiation, before he be admitted to an office in the state, when it might seem to be sufficient that he abjure the pretender? There are but two answers that can be given to the objection which this question contains: first, that it is not opinions which the laws fear, so much as inclinations; and, that political inclinations are not so easily detected by the affirmation or denial of any abstract proposition in politics, as by the discovery of the religious creed with which they are wont to be united-secondly, that when men renounce their religion, they commonly quit all connexion with the members of the church which they have left; that church no longer expecting assistance or friendship from them: whereas particular persons

CHAPTER XI.

of Population and Provision; and of Agricul ture and Commerce, as subservient thereto. THE final view of all rational politics is, to produce the greatest quantity of happiness in a given tract of country. The riches, strength, and glory of nations; the topics which history celebrates, and which alone almost engage the praises and possess the admiration of mankind; have no value farther than as they contribute to this end. When they interfere with it, they are evils, and not the less real for the splendour that surrounds them.

Secondly: Although we speak of communities as of sentient beings; although we ascribe to them happiness and misery, desires, interests, and passions; nothing really exists or feels but individuals. The happiness of a people is made up of the happiness of single persons; and the quantity of happiness can only be augmented by increasing the number of the percipients, or the pleasure of their perceptions.

Thirdly Notwithstanding that diversity of condition, especially different degrees of plenty, freedom, and security, greatly vary the quantity of happiness enjoyed by the same number of individuals; and notwithstanding that extreme cases may be found, of human beings so galled by the rigours of slavery, that the increase of numbers is only the amplification of misery; yet, within certain limits, and within those limits

to which civil life is diversified under the tem- | seldom be found to be that which actually checks perate governments that obtain in Europe, it may be affirmed, I think, with certainty, that the quantity of happiness produced in any given district, so far depends upon the number of inhabitants, that, in comparing adjoining periods in the same country, the collective happiness will be nearly in the exact proportion of the numbers; that is, twice the number of inhabitants will produce double the quantity of happiness: in distant periods, and different countries, under great changes or great dissimilitude of civil condition, although the proportion of enjoyment may fall much short of the numbers, yet still any considerable excess of numbers will usually carry with it a preponderation of happiness; that, at least, it may and ought to be assumed, in all political deliberations, that a larger portion of happiness is enjoyed amongst ten persons, possessing the means of healthy subsistence, than can be produced by five persons, under every advantage of power, affluence, and luxury.

From these principles it follows, that the quantity of happiness in a given district, although it is possible it may be increased, the number of inhabitants remaining the same, is chiefly and most naturally affected by alteration of the numbers: that, consequently, the decay of population is the greatest evil that a state can suffer; and the improvement of it, the object which ought, in all countries, to be aimed at, in preference to every other political purpose whatsoever.

the progress of population in any country of the
world; because the number of the people have
seldom, in any country, arrived at this limit, or
even approached to it. The fertility of the ground,
in temperate regions, is capable of being improved
by cultivation to an extent which is unknown;
much, however, beyond the state of improvement
in any country in Europe. In our own, which
holds almost the first place in the knowledge and
encouragement of agriculture, let it only be sup-
posed that every field in England, of the same
original quality with those in the neighbourhood
of the metropolis, and consequently capable of the
same fertility, were, by a like management, made
to yield an equal produce; and it may be asserted,
I believe with truth, that the quantity of human
provision raised in the island would be increased
five-fold. The two principles, therefore, upon
which population seems primarily to depend, the
fecundity of the species, and the capacity of the
soil, would in most, perhaps in all countries,
enable it to proceed much farther than it has yet
advanced. The number of marriageable women,
who, in each country, remain unmarried, afford a
computation how much the agency of nature in
the diffusion of human life is cramped and con-
tracted; and the quantity of waste, neglected, or
mismanaged surface, together with a comparison,
like the preceding, of the crops raised from the soil
in the neighbourhood of populous cities, and un-
der a perfect state of cultivation, with those which
lands of equal or superior quality yield in different
situations,-will show in what proportion the in-
digenous productions of the earth are capable of
being farther augmented.

The importance of population, and the superiority of it to every other national advantage, are points necessary to be inculcated, and to be understood; inasmuch as false estimates, or fantastic notions, of national grandeur, are per- The fundamental proposition upon the subject petually drawing the attention of statesmen and of population, which must guide every endeavour legislators from the care of this, which is, at all to improve it, and from which every conclusion times, the true and absolute interest of a country: concerning it may be deduced, is this: "Wherever for which reason, we have stated these points the commerce between the sexes is regulated by with unusual formality. We will confess, how-marriage, and a provision for that mode of subever, that a competition can seldom arise between the advancement of population and any measure of sober utility; because, in the ordinary progress of human affairs, whatever, in any way, contributes to make a people happier, tends to render them more numerous.

In the fecundity of the human, as of every other species of animals, nature has provided for an indefinite multiplication. Mankind have increased to their present number from a single pair; the offspring of early marriages, in the ordinary course of procreation, do more than replace the parents: in countries, and under circumstances very favourable to subsistence, the population has been doubled in the space of twenty years; the havoc occasioned by wars, earthquakes, famine, or pestilence, is usually repaired in a short time. These indications sufficiently demonstrate the tendency of nature, in the human species, to a continual increase of its numbers. It becomes, therefore, a question that may reasonably be propounded, what are the causes which confine or check the natural progress of this multiplication? And the answer which first presents itself to the thoughts of the inquirer is, that the population of a country must stop when the country can maintain no more; that is, when the inhabitants are already so numerous as to exhaust all the provision which the soil can be made to produce. This, however, though an insuperable bar, will

sistence, to which each class of the community is accustomed, can be procured with ease and certainty, there the number of the people will inerease; and the rapidity, as well as the extent, of the increase, will be proportioned to the degree in which these causes exist."

This proposition we will draw out into the several principles which it contains.

I. First, the proposition asserts the "necessity of confining the intercourse of the sexes to the marriage-union." It is only in the marriage-union that this intercourse is sufficiently prolific. Beside which, family establishments alone are fitted to perpetuate a succession of generations. The offspring of a vague and promiscuous concubinage are not only few, and liable to perish by neglect, but are seldom prepared for, or introduced into situations suited to the raising of families of their own. Hence the advantages of marriages. Now nature, in the constitution of the sexcs, has provided a stimulus which will infallibly secure the frequency of marriages, with all their beneficial effects upon the state of population, provided the male part of the species be prohibited from irregular gratifications. This impulse, which is sufficient to surmount almost every impediment to marriage, will operate in proportion to the difficulty, expense, danger, or infainy, the sense of guilt, or the fear of punishment, which attend li centious indulgences. Wherefore, in countries in

which subsistence is become scarce, it behoves the state to watch over the public morals with increased solicitude; for nothing but the instinct of nature, under the restraint of chastity, will induce men to undertake the labour, or consent to the sacrifice of personal liberty and indulgence, which the support of a family, in such circumstances, requires.

culiarity arises, not probably from any civil advan tages, any care or policy, any particular constitution or superior wisdom of government; but simply from hence, that the species of food to which custom hath reconciled the desires and inclinations of the inhabitants, is that which, of all others, is procured in the greatest abundance, with the most ease, and stands in need of the II. The second requisite which our proposition least preparation. The natives of Indostan being states as necessary to the success of population, is, confined, by the laws of their religion, to the use "the ease and certainty with which a provision of vegetable food, and requiring little except rice, can be procured for that mode of subsistence to which the country produces in plentiful crops; which each class of the community is accustomed." and food, in warm climates, composing the only It is not enough that men's natural wants be want of life; these countries are populous, under supplied; that a provision adequate to the real all the injuries of a despotic, and the agitations exigencies of human life be attainable: habitual of an unsettled government. If any revolution, superfluities become actual wants; opinion and or what would be called perhaps refinement of fashion convert articles of ornament and luxury manners, should generate in these people a taste into necessaries of life. And it must not be ex- for the flesh of animals, similar to what prevails pected from men in general, at least in the present amongst the Arabian hordes; should introduce relaxed state of morals and discipline, that they flocks and herds into grounds which are now cowill enter into marriages which degrade their con- vered with corn; should teach them to account a dition, reduce their mode of living, deprive them certain portion of this species of food amongst the of the accommodations to which they have been necessaries of life; the population, from this sinaccustomed, or even of those ornaments or ap-gle change, would suffer in a few years a great pendages of rank and station which they have been taught to regard as belonging to their birth, or class, or profession, or place in society. The same consideration, namely, a view to their accustomed mode of life, which is so apparent in the superior order of the people, has no less influence upon those ranks which compose the mass of the community. The kind and quality of food and liquor, the species of habitation, furniture, and clothing, to which the common people of each country are habituated, must be attainable with LUXURY, as it supplies employment and proease and certainty, before marriages will be suf- motes industry, assists population. But, then ficiently early and general to carry the progress there is another consequence attending it, which of population to its just extent. It is in vain to counteracts and often overbalances these advanallege, that a more simple diet, ruder habitations, tages. When, by introducing more superfluities or coarser apparel, would be sufficient for the pur- into general reception, luxury has rendered the poses of life and health, or even of physical ease usual accommodations of life more expensive, arand pleasure. Men will not marry with this en- tificial, and elaborate, the difficulty of maintaining couragement. For instance: when the common a family conformably with the established mode people of a country are accustomed to eat a large of living, becomes greater, and what each man proportion of animal food, to drink wine, spirits, has to spare from his personal consumption proor beer, to wear shoes and stockings, to dwell in portionably less: the effect of which is, that marstone houses, they will not marry to live in clay riages grow less frequent, agreeably to the maxim cottages, upon roots and milk, with no other above laid down, and which must be remembered clothing than skins, or what is necessary to de- as the foundation of all our reasoning upon the fend the trunk of the body from the effects of subject, that men will not marry to sink their cold; although these last may be all that the sus-place or condition in society, or to forego those tentation of life and health requires, or that even contribute much to animal comfort and enjoy

ment.

The ease, then, and certainty, with which the means can be procured, not barely of subsistence, but of that mode of subsisting which custom hath in each country established, form the point upon which the state and progress of population chiefly depend. Now, there are three causes which evidently regulate this point: the mode itself of subsisting which prevails in the country; the quantity of provision suited to that mode of subsistence, which is either raised in the country or imported into it; and, lastly, the distribution of that provision. These three causes merit distinct consideration. I. The mode of living which actually obtains in a country. In China, where the inhabitants frequent the sea shore, or the banks of large rivers, and subsist in a great measure upon fish, the population is described to be excessive. This pe

diminution: and this diminution would follow, in spite of every effort of the laws, or even of any improvement that might take place in their civil condition. In Ireland, the simplicity of living alone, maintains a considerable degree of popula tion, under great defects of police, industry, and commerce.

Under this head, and from a view of these considerations, may be understood the true evil and proper danger of luxury.

indulgences which their own habits, or what they observe amongst their equals, have rendered necessary to their satisfaction. This principle is ap plicable to every article of diet and dress, to houses, furniture, attendance; and this effect will be felt in every class of the community. For instance: the custom of wearing broad-cloth and fine linen, repays the shepherd and flax-grower, feeds the manufacturer, enriches the merchant, gives not only support but existence to multitudes of families: hitherto, therefore, the effects are beneficial; and were these the only effects, such elegancies, or, if you please to call them so, sach luxuries, could not be too universal. But here follows the mischief: when once fashion hath annexed the use of these articles of dress to any certain class, the middling ranks, for example, of the community, each individual of that rank finds them to be necessaries of life, that is, finds himself obliged to comply with the example of his equals,