become so predominant a passion as to deter man from taking possession of the new territories prepared for his reception. Far then from being in itself a calamity, emigration is an essential element in the future progress of the United Kingdom, and our fellow countrymen who depart, even if absorbed by an alien community, often minister to our prosperity more effectually than when they dwelt amongst us. The transformation of an indigent and disaffected subject into a prosperous foreign customer is a change not wholly disadvantageous, and the industry which has gone forth to till the prairies of the West cheapens the loaf to millions in the old country.[1]
One thing at all events is certain. In the progress of every civilized community, the period must arrive when the natural increase of population overtakes the normal rate of production. The true remedy may be to communicate additional fertility to the soil: but this is seldom an immediate possibility:[2] as a consequence the rate of increase of
- ↑ We now import nearly 2,700,000 quarters of Indian corn a year; before 1846 our imports of Indian corn only amounted to 11,000 quarters per annum. See Appendix, p. 35.
- ↑ "Whether, at the present or any other time, the produce of industry proportionally to the labour employed, is increasing or diminishing, and the average condition of the people improving or deteriorating, depends upon whether population is advancing faster than improvement, or improvement than population. After a degree of density has been attained, sufficient to allow the principal benefits of combination of labour, all farther increase tends in itself to mischief, so far as
