Volume 1

An essay on the principle of population, or, A view of its past and present effects on human happiness : with an inquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions / by T.R. Malthus.

  • Malthus, T. R. (Thomas Robert), 1766-1834.
Date:
1807
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An essay on the principle of population, or, A view of its past and present effects on human happiness : with an inquiry into our prospects respecting the future removal or mitigation of the evils which it occasions / by T.R. Malthus. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by King’s College London. The original may be consulted at King’s College London.

    579/604 (page 559)
    to double itfelf in 25 years. The original num- ber of perfons, which had fettled in the four pro- vinces of New England in 1643, was 21,200. Afterwards it was calculated, that more left them than went to them. In the year 1760 they were increafed to half a million. They had therefore, all along, doubled their number in 25 years. In New Jerfey, the period of dou- bling appeared to be 2,2, years, and in Rhode Ifland {till lefs. In the back fettlements, where the inhabitants applied themfelves folely to agri- culture, and luxury was not known, they were fuppofed to double their number in fifteen years. Along the feacoaft, which would naturally be firft inhabited, the period of doubling was about 35 years, and in fome of the maritime towns the population was abfolutely at a ftand.3 From the * Price's Obferv. on Reyerf. Paym. vol. i, p. 282, 283, and vol. ii, p. 260. I have lately had an opportunity of feeing fome extracts from the fermon of Dr. Styles, from which Dr. Price has taken thefe facts. Speakingof Rhode Ifland, Dr. Styles fays, that though the period of doubling for the whole colony is 25 years, yet that it is different in different parts, and within land is 20 and 15 years. The population of the five towns of Gloucefter, Situate, Coventry, Weft green wich, and Exeter, was 5033, A. D 1748, and 6986, A. D. 175-, ; which im- plies a period of doubling of 15 years only. He mentions E 2 afterwards