So long as a great part of the country is uncultivated ; as land proper for liberally rewarding rural labour is cover ed only with spontaneous production ; as even the part un der tillage is imperfectly worked ; as the soil is not rendered healthy, the marshes drained, the hills protected against precipitations, the fields defended against the ruinous force of nature; so long as all this is not done merely for want of hands—it is desirable for the happiness of agriculturists, and for that of the nation living on their labour, that the class of cultivators should be increased, and enabled to ac complish the task reserved for them.
So long as the objects produced by the industrious arts are imperfectly supplied to the consumer, or at least as he cannot procure them except by a sacrifice quite dispro portionate to their value ; so long as he is constrained to furnish himself coarsely by domestic industry, for want of opportunity to buy furniture, effects, clothes, proper for his use ; so long as his enjoyments are restricted by the in conveniences of all the utensils with which he is obliged to content himself,—it is desirable that the manufacturing population increase; since, from the need there is of such a population, it might evidently live in comfort, and con tribute to the enjoyment of other classes.
So long as all hands are in such a degree necessary for agriculture, and manufactures, or trade which serves them, that the guardian professions, equally useful to society, are badly filled up—it is desirable that population continue to increase, that so interior order, security of person and pro perty, may be better protected, health better attended to, the soul better nourished, the mind more enlightened ; and that society may be externally defended with sufficient force, comprehending even the rapid reduitment of a sea or land army, which consume population.
This indeed, whenever it is required, will quickly he replaced. But it is not enough that it be re placed, if it cannot find the niche, to which it is destined. Sometimes a fertile soil is in vain abundant, and remains uncultivated. There is no chance of the most numerous population assembled in its neighbourhood coming to pro fit by its resources. This soil has become the property of a few families ; it is declared indivisible and unalienable ; it will always pass to a single proprietor, according to the order of primogeniture, without the capacity either to be subjected to an emphyteutic lease, or burdened with a mortgage. The proprietor has not the capital necessary for its cultivation ; he can give no security to such as have this capital, that will engage them to employ it in his land. Thus the idle population of Rome in vain calls for labour ; the waste Campagna di Roma in vain calls for labourers : the social organization is bad ; and so long as this shall re main unchanged, the clay-labourer will perish from penury, on the surface of fields which, for want of culture, are re turning to their wild state; and the population, far from increasing, will diminish.
On the same principle in manufactures, the rich pro prietors of Poland will in vain require all the produce of luxury ; the bad condition of the roads, prohibiting every distant transport, will in vain present superior advantages to national industry; oppression and servitude destroy all energy, all spirit of enterprise in the lower class. Else where ruinous monopolies, absurd privileges, affrighting advances, ignoraiice, barbarity, and want of security, will render the progress of manufactures impossible ; no capi tal will be accumulated to animate them. In those cases, to increase the population will not increase industry. The births will in vain be doubled, he quadrupled, (luring a certain number of years ; they will not afford an additional workman, they will only be followed by a proportionably quicker mortality. The social organization is bad ; so long as this shall remain unchanged, population cannot increase.
The guardian population is fed as well as recruited by the other classes. It is not sufficient that many children are born ; unless their parents enjoy a certain degree of opulence, they can never bring them up to the age of men ; the prince can never make soldiers of them. In this case, wars by land or sea will devour the population ; whilst they employ only its superfluity, the social organi zation is good.
The population is always measured, in the long run, by the demand for labour. Wherever labour is required, and a sufficient wage offered, the workmen will arise to earn it. The population, with its expansive force, will occupy the place which is found vacant. Subsistence will also arise for the workmen, or in case of need, be imported. The same demand which calls a man into existence, will like wise recompense the agricultural labour which provides him with food. If the demand for labour cease, the work man will perish, yet not without a struggle, in which not he alone will suffer, but all his brethren and his rivals. The subsistence which enabled him to lie, and w hick henceforth he cannot pay for, and cannot demand, will, in its turn, cease to be produced. Thus national happiness rests on the demand for labour, but on a regular and per petual demand. For, on the contrary, a demand which is intermittent, after having formed workmen, condemns them to suffering and death : it would be far better if they never had existed.