He. and not Malthus. is entitled to the credit of being the real master of the science of population. He saw with astonishing clearness the almost Infinite capacity of the human race for selfmultiplication. Among the most interesting observations in his works are those that were elicited from him at a time when England appeared to be undergoing a rapid diminution in the number of its inhabitants because of emigration. These are his words. in a letter written to the Public Advertiser. of London: As long as the new situation shall be far preferable to the old. the emigration may possibly continue. But when many of those who at home interfered with others of the same rankin the competition for farms. shops. business. offices. and other means of subsistenceare gradually withdrawn the inconvenience of that competition (.eases: the number remaining no longer half starve each other . they find they can now subsist comfortably. and though perhaps not quite so well as those who have left them. yet the inbred attachment to a native country Is sufficient to overbalance a moderate difference. and thus the emigration ceases naturally. The waters of the oceans may usiuve in currents from one quarter of the globe to another. as they happen in some places to be accumulated and in others diminished. but no law beyond the law of gravity is necessary to prevent their abandoning any coast entirely. Thus the different degrees of happiness of diffTreut countries and situations findor. rather. maketheir level by the flowing of people from one to another. and when that level is once found the removals cease.
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emigration