I think friendship is by somebody emphatically called the balsam of life. I honour the author, be he sacred or prophane, since nothing has, I am sure, so much contributed to soothe the solitude, and mitigate the anguish of my bed of sickness and of sorrow, as dear Mr. Garrick's very kind and sympa❤ thizing letters. Perhaps I have sustained this fiery trial with a little more fortitude than was expected from so equivocal a character; but, whether from our original construction we are furnished with a secret resource of animal spirits, that but wait for the occasion to rush to our aid,- -or whether "present fears are less than horrible imaginings," I can't say that I have experienced either much dejection or impatience; and yet I have gone through operations, that the whole world should not bribe me to see performed on another. Scissars, knives, saws, lancets, and caustics are now grown familiar to me, and as to potions-what bushels of bark have I taken! Poets talk of their Dryads and Fauns, the fabulous tenants of forests and groves, now I have literally swallowed a wood; and I don't suppose but that my inside is as well tanned as a buckskin pair of breeches: but that process is now at an end; my pains are abated, my opiates withdrawn, and my wound visibly healing every day. The pharmacopals of the neighbouring villages-you know them-I make no doubt but Hampton boasts one at the least-a set of ingenious gentlemen, who deck themselves as the Heathen mythologists did the goddess of Hunting, with triple titles; she, indeed, was Luna in heaven, Diana on earth, and Hecate in hell; but they are physicians, surgeons, and apothe caries in the compass of half a score miles: nay, it is great odds, if they are contented with that-you rarely see a row of stumps on a red rag, and a pewter porrenger of blood in a country window, but the shop within can furnish you with coffee or calomel, rappee-snuff or rhubarb:-my Esculapius from Newberry has a tolerable collateral support from vending candles and soap: whilst his Galenical brother, at Overton, depends chiefly on mops, brushes, and Birmingham_ware-but, however, these sons of Apollo, (as legitimate, I warrant, as Derrick) flatter me with the hopes of getting to town in a fortnight, but I think they are mistaken:-pray when do you turn your back on the Bath? As to summer projects, they have never once entered my thoughts; the short intermissions allotted me from pain, have been all employed in ac knowledging the goodness of those whose humanity, like Mr. Garrick's, has interested them in the fate of the poor unfortunate Foote-amongst the foremost and warmest of which is the gentleman to whose virtues you have inscribed an ode. I must see it-on my discretion you may safely rely. Non sum qualis eram. Calamities of the magnitude that I have sustained are powerful preachers, and I think I have not been deaf to their voice. Your asking leave to bring Mr. Clutterbuck here is pleasant enough; it is just as if you was to make an apology to an epicure for taking the liberty to send him a turtle, or to beg Lady Vane's pardon for the introduction of a young tall rawboned Milesian. So long as I love cheerfulness, good hu mour, and humanity, I shall be glad to meet that gentleman any where; happy if it chances to be where the rights of hospitality call upon me to pay him a particular attention. Sir Francis, who is unalterably yours, though we were a little piqued at your passing us by, begs that upon this occasion I would say "all that you can suppose." Mr. Beard's answer to mine was such as you guessed: it came accompanied by a letter from Smith, just to let me know, that as to cutting the Commissary, (for that I think is the phrase, and a pretty expressive one too,) nothing so remote from his thoughts; his design was only to sink the two best scenes of the piece. The Duke of York, Lord and Lady Mexborough, &c. &c. have been here for three or four days, totally ignorant about my unfortunate artery, and expecting to find me upon crutches, but they are gone, and I am still in bed on my back. To-morrow I have leave to resume my great chair, and, perhaps, the next day-but levius fit patientiâ, quicquid corrigere nefas. Poor Derrick! I expected every day to see him, by some of his irascible countrymen, sowsed in the neighbouring stream-the only chance I think he has of resembling the swans of the Avon. Sir Francis has conceived from your letter, that we are not to see Mrs. Garrick, but we all think and hope he is mistaken. Adieu, dear Sir; it is lucky for you that I am at the end of my paper, otherwise I should not tell you this hour how sincerely I am Cannon Park, Wednesday. We have now done with our old friend and favourite, Samuel Foote. That he was a lively writer, even the letters which we have quoted would show he has, however, luckily left ample evidence besides. If our recommendation were of any avail at the theatres, we would advise that some of the sterling productions of Foote be "got up with appropriate music, scenery, and decorations."Although all the objects of his satire are dead, and the names even of many forgotten, there are heads still in existence, which his caps of folly would fit: his characters have not perished with their prototypes: there are knaves still in black coats, and bullies and blockheads in red:-there may be fair creatures also in petticoats (but, be it remembered, we do not vouch for this,) who are not entirely sincere.-There may be patrons of the stamp of Sir Thomas Lofty, and Nabobs of the fashion of Sir Matthew Mite. We are even inclined to think that Zachary Fungus and Sir Peter Pepperpot are not anomalies-and that the purlieus of Drury-lane will furnish likenesses of Shift and Smirk, and even of honest painstaking Mrs. Cole. We shall now turn our attention to DAVID GARRICK Esq. actor, author, and manager. He presents a striking contrast to Foote in most respects. As an actor, he was undoubt edly far his superior: as an author, although he assisted Colman in the "Clandestine Marriage," he cannot for a moment stand a comparison. He was of a smaller calibre than Your affectionate servant, SAM. FOOTE. the other, and had less of the substance and more of the frippery of authorship: he dressed up his prologues and epilogues sometimes rather smartly; but they were nothing, when placed by the strong characteristic humour, and nervous satire, of Foote. Garrick died worth upwards of one hundred thousand pounds, and Foote worth-we know not what; but we believe, that he died poor.-Foote was a prodigal man, and Garrick, though he gave great entertainments at times, a penurious one. The one, as we have before said, made no difference between player and peer, but extended his hospitable smiles equally to both; the other knew the value of a Lord: he considered that there were steps in society, and these he ran up and down as his occasions required.-They were both vain men; and this is almost the only point in which they appear to have resembled each other. Foote's vanity exhausted itself in extravagant sallies and convivial mirth, and Garrick's evaporated in puffs and private letters. He seems in fact to have lived in the midst of “ Vanity Fair." His correspondence (with the elder Colman, lately published,) shows to what tricks he resorted to sustain his unwieldy reputation, and how ludicrously apprehensive he was of the slightest symptom of popular contempt. Garrick may have been the better actor: indeed he was so; but Foote was unquestionably the greater man." * We shall complete this Article next month, when we shall give one or two letters. from Garrick (perhaps one or two from the elder Colman and others) and a Theatrical Document, which appears to us rather curious. SONNET. OH! had I been a lowly shepherd boy, Feeding my flocks upon the cloudy mountains, Had been to note their strength with frequent telling, But 'twas my bane in city to be born, Where wealth may show, but worth must hide, its head; C. W. SONNET, WRITTEN WHILE TRAVELLING." Το My fellow travellers, as the carriage rolled, Its richer leaves, where all might read and learn; B.. SONNET. OH! take me hence, unto that favour'd land Or fiercer men, when the meek hart they chase— Where from the south the air steals warm and mild And let some gentle cheek, on which the rose And nought be felt save love's voluptuous power. C. S. ON POPULATION. AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING THE POWER OF INCREASE IN THE NUMBERS OF MANKIND, BEING AN ANSWER TO MR. MALTHUS'S ESSAY ON THAT iSUBJECT. BY WM. GODWIN. MR. GODWIN has in this book rendered an essential service to political science. The appearance of the celebrated work of Mr. Malthus formed a new era in political philosophy. Up to that period, modern legislators and politicians never seem to have dread ed the possibility of a too rapid increase of population. Speculative men, who looked back to a period when the whole earth was inhabited by a single pair, might also look forward to an extremely distant period, when the earth should be so completely filled with inhabitants as to be able to contain no more: but this was so remote an evil, that practical politicians were no more, alarmed with it, than the present inhabitants of England are alarmed with the possibility of the whole of the coal of the country being, some time or other, exhausted. So far from conceiving that population could increase beyond the means of subsistence, it was always supposed that an increase of population was synonymous with an increase of prosperity, and the great object of most governments was to increase the number of their inhabitants by all possible means. " Mr. Malthus, from certain hypothetical calculations, which he conceived were confirmed by the Population Returns of North America, drew the conclusion, that "population, where it is unchecked, goes on doubling itself every twenty-five years, or increases in a geometrical ratio;' while the means of subsistence, under circumstances the most favour able to human industry, "could not possibly be made to increase faster than in an arithmetical ratio," that is, every twenty-five years' food would be in creased by a quantity equal to what is at present produced. Thus Population, 1 2 4 8 16 32, &c. Subsistence, 1 2 3 4 5 6, &c. Though the doctrine of the arithmetical ratio in the increase of food, as opposed to the geometrical ratio assumed for the increase of population, has often been made the subject of animadversion, and even of LONDON, 1820. ridicule,-yet the possibility of a population doubling itself every twentyfive years, if free from all check, has been adopted by Messrs. Ricardo, Mill, Say-in short by every econo◄ mical writer of any eminence in this country and the continent. No proposition in Euclid was considered as more clearly proved than this part of Mr. Malthus's system. The logical inconsistency of Mr. Malthus, in taking from the United States of America the proof of the doctrine that population can go on doubling itself every twenty-five years, yet limiting the possible increase of food to an arithmetical ratio, while the same country that afforded evidence of this increase of population, furnished also the proof that food had been obtained in the same ratio,-is so obvious as to force itself on the attention of every person of the least discernment. If the population of America has gone on doubling itself every twenty-five years for some time, and shall continue so to double itself for a long period to come, the food for that population has been, and must continue to be, previously procured. In a country with abundance of unoccupied land, food may continue to be raised in greater quantity than is necessary for the supply of a population increased in the geometrical ratio; and in a country, of whichall the land is occupied, it is fantastical to state any precise ratio at which food can be increased. But the other part of Mr. Malthus's doctrine presents greater difficulties. The foundations for Mr. Malthus's hypothesis are 1. Some loose observations of Dr. Franklin, and Dr. Styles, respecting the fecundity of women in America: 2. An opinion of Sir William Petty, who, assuming that women, between fifteen and forty-four years of age, may bear children every two years, and deducting a certain per centage for sickness, abortions, and barrenness, infers that a population may double itself every ten years: 3. A computation of Euler, found ed on the following arbitrary suppositions: "if in any country there are 100,000 persons living, and the annual mortality is one in thirty-six,then, supposing the annual proportion of deaths to births to be various ly, as 10 to 11, 10 to 12, and so on, up to as 10 to 30, what will be the number of persons who will yearly be added to the society; and what will be the number of years required for the original 100,000 persons to be come 200,000 ?”—Euler's answer is, "that the period of doubling on the first supposition would be 250 years; and on the last, would be twelve years and four-fifths." 4. The American Censuses. It certainly argues very little for the industry of the present age, that, from the appearance of Mr. Malthus's work up to the present day, Mr. Godwin is the only person who has thought fit to inquire, whether the hypothetical ratio of increase of Mr. Malthus is reconcileable with the laws of nature, and whether the American returns do, or do not, afford a confirmation of this hypothesis. The hypothesis of Sir William Petty, supposes every female to be capable of bearing twelve children. The tables which the indefatigable Süsmilch collected, for various periods, from an infinite number of places in different parts of Europe, and which all exhibited a very different result, might well have led to a doubt of the soundness of this hypothesis. Süsmilch was enabled to affirm with certainty, that, in the number of children born of each marriage, no one country of Europe differs perceptibly from another, and the proportion is the same in villages, and the open country, as in towns and cities." The average was only four children to each marriage. 66 In ascertaining the rate at which a population can increase without immigration, the first stage in the inquiry is to ascertain the laws of productiveness in women. Mr. Godwin very properly remarks, that "tables of population for any very limited period, which do not distinguish the sexes, and the different ages, of the inhabitants of a country, are absolutely of no use in determining the question of the power, gene rally, or in any particular case, of progressive increase in the numbers of mankind. The two enumerations, therefore, which were made of the people of Great Britain, in 1801 and 1811, are merely so much labour thrown away." In Sweden, however, an account, attending to all the above distinctions, has been taken, from three years to three years, from 1751 to 1775,-and from five years to five years, from 1775 to the present time. The period during which women, in temperate climates, are supposed capable of bearing children,—is from twenty to forty-five years of age.In warmer climates they begin to bear sooner, and leave off bearing sooner. Marriage at an earlier age than twenty, in our part of the world, is always allowed to be unfavourable, rather than favourable, to the production of a numerous offspring. It appears from the Swedish tables, that, one year with another, the num ber of women who marry in Sweden, nearly corresponds with that of the number of women who arrive at the age of twenty,-consequently, that almost all the women of Sweden marry at some time of their lives. The number of females becoming marriageable for 1757, 1760, and 1763, was for instance 62,720, and the number of marriages for the same period 63,109. This correspondence proves, at the same time, that the females marry in Sweden at an early age, because otherwise, agreeably to the laws of mortality, every year later than twen ty, must, in a certain proportion, di minish the number marrying as compared with the number attaining twenty. The Swedish enumerations were found by Süsmilch, to give the same result of children to a marriage with the enumerations of every other country. The number of births to a mar riage, taken upon an average, does not (as we have already said), exceed the proportion of four to one. There is, therefore, no ground for supposing that, under any circumstances, European women can bear, one with another, twelve children; but on the contrary it may be affirmed, that the fe males of this quarter of the world cannot on an average produce more than four. The next point to be ascertained is the law of mortality. It is well observed by Mr. Godwin, that when |