Malthus and the Clergy.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IX, Issue 90, 19 March 1885, Page 4

Malthus and the Clergy.

" Civis,"in his " Passing NoWs, V ay^tl«< "'.dodtfine? dt 2*Mal." 'thus— that populdtion ■• tends to i outrun food supplies^has always been .hated by the clergy, who see m it Tnot -i'only a ; disc'ouragemeptito .rriarriage, but a denial of the ;: g,o6clness of the Creator, Archdeacdri Thorpe, whofee serm6n last Sunday on" ' themarriage' question ' is reported m the ■/ Otago Daily Times, 1 seems to shiare itho, usual, prejudices ( pf his, ov^Qi*i.< He said .some excellent,; things: m rebuke of costly and' extravagant ' living,' aud the absurd notions^ of . y ovjng people starting m lite who ,expcc.t to begin where their parents J left off; but his general, /theory 1 of v rriar'riage' was evidently basedon the. comfqrtabie belief ' that 'where Gojd sends .mouths, he sends meat;V ; Now take the case of the Rev. |Mr Quivepfull, curate on £10 a year, who has married, and — as the manner of curates m sucji pircu instances;, is — has straightway Hegiptten thirteen children. Is not thisl casejin which population outruns food supplies ? T|fe>Rqv. ]\lr Quiverfull is an |extr^me 'example, no doubt, but jnot aiilitinfair one. He .is^the type| of thousands who rush into improvident rna!ry&g es^-. tp $m\) \ that ; jGod sends niQi}th|i , whqre he^does t not send l M«i^ i iV' 1 rffay' <; be > ' tnfeV --as J deacon TJiorpej remarked, that |surope would carry twice its present 'population, and s that Vast continents' are scarcely peopled at all; but of what comfort are those facts to :Mr Q d\ verFiill, who has undertaken to be the bread- winner for a wife jand thirteen children.. ; Kurope might, no doubt j safely double jtsribpulation if at the sanie time it doubled; its tffffilff rs£&ut M\e ? Qiuy.evfjajl.j £ «iode' of multiplication does not do that' It multiplies mouths,,^but no hinds to work for -them. The political' are righi^ it seems' to;me, m their,assertionjs,that the teaching of the Church has favoured j improvident, marria»es;,..and sopromoted poverty i Malthiis, who Iwas himself an amiable clergyman of the (^hufch of England, *has ! neVer ; had justice done him by his brethren of ''ihttViloth. Few of them 'haVe^ been at the trouble to understand him. Moreoveiv ifi. Henry; \ George 'fails anywhere, he fails m his attempt to knockJ the* Ma]thnsiaif ' cocneer-stone from the edifice of politicalseqfrnpmy. The moral of this Note-^a. mdra,! which' should be 1 obvious to j the meanest capacity — is this; Don't marry and have 'thirteen children on '£70 a year ; dbn't come within a; thousandle'agu'es of any such folly !T