in proportion as their age approaches the period of their birth, and among old persons in proportion as they are advanced in years; and that those who live in misery are much more often attacked by disease, and much oftener fall victims to it, than those in more comfortable circumstances."*

"In general, the law of mortality, in the early ages, under five years, is more variable and more uncertain than that which regulates the middle portion of life; the same remark applies to the advanced periods of life; so that the result of tables that relate to infancy and old age are less exactly known."†

When, however, mankind are afflicted by the more virulent epidemic diseases, although the very young and the aged may be the first attacked, death will spread its ravages among those of all ages. Yet still is Divine benevolence apparent, for the pestilence will generally be most destruc

* "Annales d'Hygiène Public," 1833, part 2.

+ "Recherches Statistiques sur la Ville de Paris," &c. vol. i. p. 16.

tive where existence is most miserable, epidemic disorders rarely making much havoc where there is little distress. "During the terrible progress of the fever in Ireland in the years 1817, 1818, 1819, it was generally remarked throughout the country that fever did not spread through families in comfortable circumstances; and indeed it might be asserted, that the danger of such extension diminished as the persons visited by it were elevated in society. While fever raged in every part of Ireland, it is curious to remark that the army suffered comparatively little from it, because the private soldier is better fed, lodged, and clothed, than the peasant in Ireland. The prevalence was nearly twice greater among the inhabitants than among the army."* The cholera in like manner appears to attack by preference the sickly, the miserable, the uncleanly, and the drunken.

Thus, while the general rate of increase of population is regulated by the proportionate un

* Barber and Cheyne-" Account of the Fever lately prevalent in Ireland."

prolificness of the higher orders, the more immediate adaptation of the numbers of the people to the available supply of food is effected by the contraction or dilation of the third or pauper class, and this process is carried on in such a manner as to occasion the least possible suffering to the community at large.

THE various means employed by Divine Providence to rectify the temporary redundancies or deficiencies of population, also how mankind is permanently restrained from multiplying to excess, have been already treated of.

The next state of society that will come under our consideration, is where the unprolific orders are too extended, and where the numbers of the people have consequently a tendency to diminution. Either the population of such a country will waste gradually away, or it must be continually recruited by immigrations from abroad.

We shall generally find that those nations which have risen to power by military virtue alone, were prolific whilst they continued poor, but when their greatness had attained its full maturity, and they resigned themselves to luxury and repose, so far from having an excess of population, not only their numerical strength, but even their continuance as a nation, was often dependent upon the influx of foreigners.

Most of the empires of antiquity appear to have declined by what was then supposed to be the natural decay of old age. In modern nations, on the contrary, we find power and stability augmenting with wealth and artificial enjoyments, apparently the very causes of the decline of those of former ages.

The internal structure of the chief modern nations is, however, radically different from those of antiquity. In the modern nations that have risen to greatness by their internal industry, wealth is distributed in various proportions through the several classes of the community, beginning with the great landlords, merchants, and manufacturers, and descending in a regular