These statements, however, are based on the assumption that the sugar which results from the fermentation of germinating barley is ordinary grape sugar or dextrose, C 6 H 12 O 6 j but it has been demonstrated, first by O’Sullivan, that it is a form of sugar possessed of peculiar properties to which the name maltose has been given. Maltose, according to O’Sullivan, is isomeric with cane sugar, C 12 H 22 O 11 , but Märcker considers that its constitution should be represented by C 18 H 34 O 17 , and that the equation is as follows :—

Starch. Maltose. Dextrin.

4C 6 H w O 5 + 2H 2 O = C 18 H 34 O l7 + C β H 10 O 8 .

Maltose possesses the power of reducing Fehling’s solution (cupric oxide) only to the extent of 63 per cent, as compared with dextrose, but its power of right-handed polarization is three times as great = + 154°. According to Dubrunfaut the efficient ferment in barley is maltin, a much more richly nitrogenous and active body than diastase, which he considers to be only a product of the decomposition of maltin.

By the processes of malting 100 parts by weight of barley yield about 80 of kiln-dried malt and 2 to 3 of dried radicle and plumule called “malt dust.” The progressive modification in composition is shown in the accompanying table of analyses extracted from the report presented by Mr (now Sir) J. B. Lawes to the Board of Trade “On the Relative Value of Unmalted and Malted Barley as Food for Stock, 1866,”—an inquiry which resulted in showing that the advantages claimed for malt as a feeding material were largely illusory :— [table]

Since the article Brewing was written the malt tax then in force in the United Kingdom has been repealed, and in its place, under the provisions of the Inland Revenue Act 1880 (43 & 44 Vict. cap. 20), an equivalent duty on beer has been substituted. By that enactment numerous modifications have been made practicable in the use of malt for feeding and other industrial purposes, and much greater latitude has been given to brewers in the selection and use of raw materials for the manufacture of the beverages hitherto known as malt liquors. Taking as the unit of measurement the bushel of malt, which is defined by statute as equivalent to 42 ib of malt or corn of any description, or to 28 lb of sugar, the malt duty, which under the provisions of the repealed statutes amounted to 2s. 7d., with 5 per cent, additional, has been transformed into a beer duty of 6s. 3d. charged upon every 36 gallons of wort of a specific gravity of 1057; and every brewer is deemed to have brewed 36 gallons of worts of that gravity who has used 2 bushels of malt in brewing. In the case of brewers for sale, should the quantity of worts produced and the specific gravity of such worts exceed by more than 4 per cent, the quantity and gravity above specified, the duty is charged for the excess over and above such 4 per cent. Brewers for domestic use and for the use of their own farm labourers are exempt from duty when the annual value of the house occupied by the brewer is not more than £10, and all brewers for domestic use who occupy houses exceeding in value that amount, and who consequently are subject to the beer tax, must brew their beer on their own premises only.

The malt tax, which in reality was a duty on raw grain, had long been regarded as a grievous impost, and its repeal was systematically agitated for by the agricultural interest. The tax, it was alleged, operated injuriously on the cultivators of barley, and prevented stockholders from freely using malt for the feeding of cattle and of ewes at the lambing season, &c. On the part of brewers it was maintained that the operation of the tax restricted them to the use of the heaviest and most expensive classes of barley alone; and that they were consequently precluded from using many varieties of grain and saccharine materials which under other conditions they might employ with advantage both to themselves and to the consumers of beer. No sooner, however, was it proposed by the Government to effect the change so long clamoured for—not indeed the entire abolition of taxation on malt liquors, but the freeing of a raw material from fiscal impost—than the agricultural community discovered they had made a mistake, and that, while it was really the beer drinker who paid the malt tax, its operation had rather tended to give the British barleygrower a monopoly of the trade in that raw material, and to artificially enhance the value of the heavier qualities of the grain. Further it was found that the idea of using malt for feeding purposes to any considerable extent, a right which stockholders already possessed under the provisions of the “Gladstone Act” (27 & 28 Vict. cap. 9)was entirely illusory; and as a matter of fact no demand has arisen for malt for such purposes. On the other hand, the freedom of choice as to raw materials which the Inland Revenue Act 1880 has given to brewers has not been without influence on the industry, although the modifications have up to this time been by no means so numerous and important as had been anticipated. Barley continues to be the principal, and, supplemented by sugar, almost the only, raw material of wort; but brewers no longer have any interest in confirming themselves to the heaviest and plumpest growths, and consequently much light foreign-grown barley is now used. It was also expected that raw grain, and particularly maize, would be largely used with malt in the mashings, especially as a method had been devised and. patented by Mr R. Blair Robertson of Glasgow for removing the germ of that grain, which contains a peculiar acrid oil, and which communicates a bitter unpleasant flavour to the wort in which it may be infused. To a limited extent a “maize beer,” in which one-third part of Robertson’s patent prepared maize is mashed with two-thirds of malt, is being brewed with quite satisfactory results, but the mixture does not appear to have com mended itself generally to the trade either on the score of quality or of cheapness.

Malt is also the raw material from which the whisky of Scotland and Ireland is principally distilled, and it is the source of the greater part of the best qualities of table and pickling vinegar. Chiefly on account of the great solvent power over starch possessed by the diastase or maltin it contains, malt is extensively used as a combination in prepared farinaceous food for infants, and in the form of a malt extract it possesses considerable reputation in pharmacy.

The winter climate is temperate and healthy, the thermometer ranging from 51° to 71° Fahr. between October and May. In the summer months the heat is almost tropical; from July to the end of October it ranges between 80° and 90°. Snow is unknown, but hail occurs in winter, and much rain usually falls between December and February. The northerly winds are bracing, bub the southeast wind, called the sirocco, which brings the warm air from the African deserts, and then takes up the salt sea mists, is very deleterious; it occurs suddenly, chiefly in August and September, occasionally in the spring, and fortunately lasts usually but a few hours. The “gregale” (“eurokylon” of Acts xxvii. 14) is a strong north-east wind which occasionally blows in the winter months with great fury and force for two or three days together, especially in November and February, rendering it dangerous to cross the harbour, sometimes tearing up stone walls and landing-steps, and otherwise doing much damage.

The Maltese are a strong well-formed race, the men dark, handsome, and lithe, the women with black eyes and fine hair and an easy carriage; as in other Eastern nations, the working classes grow old at a comparatively early age. They are a cheerful, good-humoured, and industrious people, sober and abstemious, though quick-tempered and addicted to the use of the knife. Bread or pasta, with a few olives, a little oil, or milk cheese, forms the chief support of the poor, who seldom or never eat meat, and drink but little of the light wine of the country. The gentry have a large admixture of Spanish, Italian, and French, but among the people in general the Arab race and character predominate, influenced by contact with Sicily. Of the native language 70 per cent, consists of Arabic words, the rest being chiefly a corrupt Italian; that spoken in Gozo is the purest Maltese. The festivals and ceremonials of the Roman Church are kept up to an extraordinary degree, together with a few that seem to be derived from the Greek Church. The perpetual ringing of monotonous church bells, and the peculiar method of striking time, are relics of South Italian customs.

Malta is divided into twenty-six casais or village districts, Gozo into nine; some of the villages are large and populous, each having its church, often large and handsome. Near the middle of the island, on sharply rising ground, stands the ancient capital, called Civitas Melita by the Romans and oldest writers, Medina (i.e., the city) by the Saracens, Notabile (“jocale notabile, et insigne coronae regiae,” as it is called in a charter by Alphonso, 1428) under the Sicilian rule, and Citta Vecchia (old city) by the knights. The cathedral, overthrown by an earthquake in 1693, but rebuilt, stands on the reputed site of the house of Publius, Paul’s friend; many Maltese gentry live in this town, and the English utilize some of the buildings. The Roman remains and catacombs of Citta Vecchia must not be forgotten. Since 1570 the chief town has been Valetta, —a city built on a ridge of rock (Mount Sceberras) which runs like a tongue into the middle of a bay, which it thus divides into two great harbours, subdivided again by three other peninsulas into creeks. On two of these peninsulas, and at their base, are built the aggregate of towns called the Three Cities, part of which (grown up under the old Fort St Angelo) is much older than the coming of the knights, and is called Vittoriosa in commemoration of the siege of 1565. Valetta, including the suburb Florian, is about 2 miles long and ∣ mile wide; Fort St Elmo, with a lighthouse, stands on the point; the summer suburb Sliema lies on the point which encloses the west or Marsamusceit harbour; Fort Ricasoli on the opposite point enclosing the east or grand harbour. The streets of Valetta, paved with stone, run along and across the ridge, and end on each side towards the water in steep flights of steps. Many of the houses, which are of stone throughout, with flat roofs, are large and luxuriously built; wooden covered balconies project from the windows and give a peculiar aspect to the streets. There are several fine public buildings, as the governor’s palace, the new opera-house, the public library, the auberges or lodges of the knights, especially the Auberge de Castile, the English church built by Queen Adelaide and others. Roman Catholic churches in Valetta are very numerous: the cathedral of St John is famous for its rich inlaid marbles, its Brussels tapestries, its roof painted by Matteo Preti (1661-99), and the picture by Caravaggio, the Decollation of John the Baptist. The hospital of the knights contains one of the longest rooms in Europe, 503 feet in length, without a central support. The extensive bagnios under the rock, formerly occupied by the slaves of the knights, are now used for naval stores. The knights strengthened Valetta and its harbours by bastions, curtain-walls, lines, and forts, towards the sea, towards the land, and on every available point, taking advantage in every particular of the natural rock and of the marvellous advantages of situation, rendering it then almost impregnable. The work of fortifying the place with modern armament is carried on by the British Government, which possesses there the finest naval hospital in Europe, a military prison, and other necessary institutions, including immense subterranean stores of grain. New sanitary and water works and dwellings for the over-crowded poor have lately been undertaken by the local authorities. The city is clean and well-regulated, gay with the motley throng of all nations that continually come and go, and presenting many features common to the East; the influx of winter visitors attracted by the mild climate and social gaieties has of late years proved a source of wealth to the inhabitants. A railroad from Valetta to Citta Vecchia,the first in the island, is now nearly completed.

The importance of Malta lies, as of old, in its harbours, which render it a splendid port of call, repair, or refuge, as well as a fine naval station, in its capabilities as a depot for coals and stores, in its hospitals, and in its strength as a military station. Its position in the Mediterranean is of the utmost value towards keeping a clear highway to the East and to India. During the eighty-two years of British, occupation the population, trade, and produce have largely increased. The government, created by royal letters patent of 11th May 1849, consists of a council of eighteen members, eight elected by the Maltese (about two thousand three hundred electors), nine chosen by the crown, and the governor, with a salary of £5000, who is usually a military officer. To these were added by letters patent of May 1881 an executive council of three members to advise and assist the governor. The council have powers to make laws and to vote money; this last was restricted by the British Government in 1875, leading to a protest in the following year by the elected eight. The government of the islands presents peculiarities owing to the combination of military and civil duties. Several recent inquiries on taxation, education, &c., have led to important changes during the last two years. The consolidated revenue is at the disposal of the crown through the governor and council; Malta is self-supporting, costing the imperial exchequer little beyond the military and naval establishments, and even contributing £5000 annually towards the former. The revenue arises chiefly from import duties (of which a large proportion accrues from a tax of 10s. a quarter upon grain) and tonnage dues. [table]

The tonnage of vessels entering and clearing equals that at Gibraltar; in 1878it amounted to 6,503,859 (5,669,046 of which was for British vessels), and in 1880 it was 6,147,234. In 1879 the value of imports actually landed was £794,565, and of exports £216,050,—a value of about £18,700,000 merely touching at the port. The figures fluctuate; in the following year they fell considerably. In 1837 the revenue was but £95,600, while but one steamship, of 137 tons, entered the harbour; in 1879 2894 steamers, with a tonnage of 2,781,806 entered. In the naval yard numerous vessels are repaired yearly; in 1876— 77 these amounted to 39 ironclad and other ships and 43 smaller vessels. One arm of the harbour is devoted to a coaling station, where enormous quantities of coal are annually imported and sold (384,272 tons in 1880). The British Mediterranean fleet is stationed there for six months of the year, the strength of the naval forces being usually about 5000 men. The strength of the military in the island is usually about 6500, the largest garrison in any British colony.

The population, which in 1837 was 115,570, was 154,892 in 1880, exclusive of British troops and their families, about 24,000 being English and foreigners; it is rapidly increasing, and is unequally distributed, the greater part being settled in the large casais or villages on the eastern half of Malta, including the densely populated Valetta; large tracts to the west are bare and but sparsely inhabited; about one-third of the island is rocky and uncultivated. Malta has now 1510 inhabitants to the square mile, Gozo 962. In 1879 there were 9868 children (about two-fifths of these at school age) attending elementary schools, including 768 students at the university and two lyceums; in 1880 the total was 9595. All the casais of Malta and Gozo (with but one or two exceptions), besides Valetta and the Cities, have schools, which are now placed on the same system as the board schools in England; great efforts are being made to extend the acquisition of the English language, which till recently was neglected in favour of Italian. The director of public education, besides the elementary, has under his care several secondary schools, two lyceums in Vittoriosa and in Valetta, and the university (founded by the knights in 1768), with faculties of philosophy and arts, law, medicine,’ and theology. In Valetta is a large public library founded by the knights in 1760, containing 48,000 volumes, open free daily; in Gozo is a smaller one.

History and Antiquities.— Malta (Melita), with its sister Gozβ (Gaulus or Gaudus), has from time immemorial been a place of importance to whatever race wished to hold the highway of the Mediterranean, whether Phoenician, Punic, Roman, or Arab. Thus even the stories of Homer have a semblance of truth, for the Ogygian isle where Ulysses took refuge has been supposed to be Malta or Gozo, in both of which tradition (born of the poem) yet points out the grottoes of Calypso. The earliest inhabitants of whose presence we have any actual trace are the Phoenicians, from whom we have several important inscriptions which tell of them and their temples, several curious images believed to belong to their worship, and many specimens of their pottery and glass, chiefly found in tombs, some bearing Phoenician characters and potters’ marks. Sepulchral caves and clusters of rock-hewn tombs, especially those in the hills of Bingemma, in several of which terra cotta sarcophagi have been found, are referred with reason to a Phoenician or a Puħic origin; Caruana’s Report gives a list of these in eight places, distinguishing them from numerous Greek and Christian catacombs which also exist in the islands. The most remarkable remains are three rough stone erections, one in Gozo (Torre dei Giganti), and two in Malta, about a mile apart (Hagiar Kim and Mnaidra), which mainly consist of several apsidal chambers side by side, the walls ef which are built of enormous horizontal and upright stones. In Malta the ruins show evidence of much skill in stone-cutting; the entrances to the chambers consist of three large slabs of stone in place of doorpost, each smaller than and at a little distance from the one outside it; several have well-shaped holes for ropes ot other fastening; other slabs have sharply-squared holes and shelves cut in the solid stone; others again are ornamented with “pit-markings” or little depressions cut evenly all over the surface of the stone. A table or altar is also found in some of the rooms, a massive slab of stone supported on an upright formed like the trunk of a tree; in one case the two ends of the slab are carefully mortised into the walls at each side, the chamber being very small, and apparently intended specially for its reception. Hagiar Kim was excavated by the Government in 1840, when considerable traces of the action of fire were found on some of the walls, as well as buried ashes. In other rooms were found quantities of bones, many fragments of pottery, lamps, bowls, &c., nine images, and a small ornamented altar (Archseol., vol. xxix. p. 227). The ruins in Gozo were excavated about 1827 (Archaeol., vol. xxii. p. 294). All these buildings stand on commanding positions, high on the side or the shoulder of steep hills. They have been usually considered Phoenician temples; and, on comparison of them with what is known of the great temple of Melkart at the south-east corner of Malta, the presumption is strong that these too were built by the same race, at some very early period. The bilingual inscription found there belongs to a later age, the Graeco-Punic time, to which Greek coins found in both islands and a few other remains bear evidence. It is probable that the islands shared in some degree the varying fortunes that followed on the wars in Sicily, which took place as Greek drove cut Phoenician, as Carthaginian drove out Greek and tried to regain the ancient possession of the mother-land, as finally Rome conquered all. During the First Punic War (264-241 b.c. ) Malta seems to have been conquered and reconquered more than once (Orosius, iv. c. 8). In the Second Punic War the Carthaginians, under Hamilcar, son of Gisco, gave it up to Titus Sempronius, 218 b.c. (Livy, xxi. 51).

In the pursuit of manufactures and commerce Malta had attained a high degree of prosperity under the Phoenicians, which still existed under the Romans of the Augustan age. It was especially famous for its textile fabrics (probably of cotton, which is grown and spun there to this day); the Sicilian praetor Verres sent there for women’s woven garments. The inhabitants were rich, and there were many artificers of all kinds. Ovid speaks of it as a fertile island {Fast., iii. 567). The” remains formerly existed (unfortunately now for the most part dispersed or destroyed) of several fine Graeco-Roman temples, such as the temple of Juno spoken of by Cicero and Valerius Maximus, whose ornaments and fine ivories and carved figures of Victory tempted more than one sacrilegious robber; the temple of Proserpine, which we learn from an inscription was repaired by Chrestion, a freedman of Augustus, procurator of Malta; and the temple of Apollo at the chief town Melita, which with a theatre shared the munificence of a wealthy Maltese under the Antonine rule; these and the ruins of a princely Roman dwelling with mosaics, system of water supply, &c., at the same place, are buta few signs of the luxury enjoyed in the islands. Diodorus noticed the beauty and adornment of the houses in Malta in his time, a few years after the shipwreck of St Paul. One of the islanders was a friend of Cicero, who had thoughts of retiring there himself. A mole and important harbour works, discovered a few years ago, show that the Romans were not behind in strengthening the natural advantages of the islands for shelter. Inscriptions recording municipal institutions there date from the time of Hadrian; how much earlier they possessed them is unknown. Before then we hear of Chrestion the procurator mentioned above, and a Roman governor under Augustus, Lucius Castricius, styled πpωτos Meλι- τalωv , “chief man of the Maltese” (Caruana, 1882, p. 134; 1881, pp. 20, 21), just as, half a century later, Publius was πpωτos τηs ΐ'ήσ-ου, “chief man of the island” (Acts xxviii. 7); all these were probably concerned in the local government. The Romans retained the Maltese group for many centuries. At the division of the empire in 337 a.d. it passed with Italy, Illyria, and Africa to Constans; after the reunion, and the final division after the death of Theodosius in 395, Malta, as one of the isles of the Mediterranean, remained with the empire of the East....

Malthus’s Essay on Population grew out of some discussions which he had with his father respecting the perfectibility of society. His father shared the theories on that subject of Condorcet and Godwin; and his son combated them on the ground that the realization of a happy society will always be hindered by the miseries consequent on the tendency of population to increase faster than the means of subsistence. His father was struck by the weight and originality of his views, asked him to put them in writing, and then recommended the publication of the manuscript. It was in this way the Essay saw the light. Thus it will be seen that both historically and philosophically the doctrine of Malthus was a corrective reaction against the superficial optimism diffused by the school of Rousseau. It was the same optimism, with its easy methods of regenerating society and its fatal blindness to the real conditions that circumscribe human life, that was responsible for the wild theories of the French Revolution and many of its consequent excesses.

The Essay on the Principle of Population will best be considered under two heads :—(1) the principle itself, with the arguments and illustrations by which it is supported; and (2) remarks on its origin and its applications.

I. The principle itself. The idea with which Malthus starts is the improvement of society. In an inquiry concerning the improvement of society there are two things to be done,—(1) to investigate the causes that have hitherto impeded the progress of mankind to happiness, and (2) to examine the probability of the total or partial removal of these causes in future. Waiving the consideration of such an immense field of thought, Malthus restricts himself to the examination of one great cause intimately connected with human nature and its effects on society, which, though operating since the commencement of society, has been little noticed by writers. This cause is the constant tendency in all animated life to increase beyond the nourishment prepared for it. Throughout both the animal and vegetable kingdoms, nature has scattered the seeds of life abroad with the most profuse and liberal hand. Life on this planet is so prolific that, if allowed free room to develop itself, it would fill millions of worlds in the course of a few thousand years. There is only one limit to the indefinite increase, and that is necessity. In plants and irrational animals, which are impelled by blind instinct untroubled by doubts about providing for their offspring, the problem is simple; in their case increase is checked only by want of room and nourishment. As regards man, whose equally powerful instinct is controlled by reason, the question is more complicated. In his case, increase must either be checked by preventive restraint, which too frequently produces vice; or a constant check, from the difficulty of acquiring food, must be in operation.

That population tends to increase beyond the means of subsistence is obvious in two ways,—(1) from a comparison of the natural increase of population, if left to exert itself with perfect freedom, with the available increase of subsistence under the most favourable conditions, and (2) from a review of the different states of society in which man has existed. Under the first head, Malthus considers it a safe calculation that population, when unchecked, goes on doubling itself every twenty-five years. It has even been calculated that it may double itself in about thirteen years; that proportion has actually occurred for short periods in more countries than one. Malthus, however, contents himself with the more moderate rate, namely, that population, when unchecked, doubles itself every twenty-five years, or increases in a geometrical ratio. If so, how is the rate of increase of the means of subsistence to be estimated? If we take a limited area, no improvement in developing the resources of the soil will keep pace with the unchecked increase of population. We may allow that, through the great improvements of agriculture in Great Britain, the average produce of the island could be doubled in the first twenty-five years; but in the next twenty-five it is impossible to suppose that the produce could be quadrupled. The utmost we can allow is that the produce might be increased every twenty-five years by a quantity equal to what it at present yields. If we apply this supposition to the whole earth, we shall assume an increase much greater than any possible exertions of mankind could effect. On the whole, then, in the present average state of the earth, the means of subsistence could not be made to increase faster than in an arithmetical ratio. With such a disproportion between the ratio of increase of population and of the means of subsistence, population can be kept down to the level of the means of subsistence only by the strong law of necessity operating as a check on the greater power. In fact, the ultimate check to population is the want of food; but this ultimate check is never the immediate check, except in cases of actual famine. The immediate check consists of all those customs and all those diseases which are generated by a scarcity of food, and all the causes independent of the scarcity which tend to weaken and destroy the human frame. These checks are either preventive or positive; and the former consist either of moral restraint or of vice, always so pernicious to society. The positive checks are extremely various, including everything that contributes to shorten the natural duration of human life. “Under this head may be enumerated all unwholesome occupations, severe labour and exposure to the seasons, extreme poverty, bad nursing of children, large towns, excesses of all kinds, the whole train of common diseases and epidemics, wars, plague, and famine.” The checks of all kinds may be reduced to three heads—moral restraint, vice, and misery. This theoretical exposition of the checks to population Malthus supports and illustrates by an exhaustive examination of the checks which have operated or still operate in the various countries and states of society from the brutal and revolting practices prevalent among the savages of Tierra del Fuego and Australia to the moral self-control of the highest nations. It is not a pleasant picture, but it is merely a presentation of historical and statistical facts for which Malthus is in no way responsible. Throughout his entire exposition he does not theorize, but seeks only to systematize and elucidate facts which cannot be controverted, belonging as they do to the history of the world. The only notable exception is his attempt to express in mathematical language the possible increase of the means of subsistence. The conditions determining such increase are too vague and various to be calculated in such a way. On this point Malthus is not followed by subsequent economists, and it is not essential to his principle. At the same time, in spite of its unsoundness, it does help us to realize the disproportion between the possible increase of population and the means of subsistence.

II. What remains to be said of the Essay on the Principle of Population may be embraced in the following notes. (1) Origin of the principle. The population question has always had a great influence on the development of mankind. In the most barbarous nations the problem of preserving the balance between food and population must always have been a pressing one, and has led to some of their cruellest and most immoral customs. The more theoretic consideration of the question has a large place in the political treatises of Plato and Aristotle. Just before Malthus’s time it had been touched by such writers as Benjamin Franklin {Olser-rations concerning the Increase of Mankind), Hume {Populousness of the Ancient Nations'), Wallace {On the Numbers of Mankind in Ancient and Modern Times), Townshend (Travels in Spain), not to mention many other modern writers of less recent date. (2) The remedy for over-population usually proposed is emigration. No doubt there are immense fertile areas yet unpeopled. But the difficulty of transferring the surplus population, and especially of conveying surplus capital to these regions, and of co-ordinating the two, is a point that must not be overlooked. In spite of the great development of steam as a means of emigration, it remains a fact that population tends to excess in many of the most important centres of the world. Besides, emigration is only a postponing of the difficulty. In another century even the Mississippi valley will be well stocked. (3) Relation of Malthus to Darwin. In his book Animals and Plants Under Domestication, vol. i. p. 10, Darwin expressly acknowledges his indebtedness to Malthus in thinking out his cardinal principle of natural selection. After the study of domestic productions had given him a just idea of the power of selection, he saw, ‘ ‘ on reading Malthus On Population, that natural selection was the inevitable result of the rapid increase of all organic beings.” (4) Poor-law reform. The reformed poor law of 1834 was a real triumph of Malthus’s teaching. The effect of the old poor law was to encourage population by relieving the labouring classes of the due responsibility of supporting themselves and their families. By discouraging foresight, self-control, and the spirit of self-reliant independence, it demoralized the working man. The great aim of the new poor law was to emphasize the duty of self-support and the responsibilities of parentage. (5) Relation to modern politics. Some of the greatest difficulties in contemporary politics can be correctly understood onlyin the light of the principle of population. The most striking example of this is India, where, under the good government of England, the old and unhappy checks to population, such as war, famine, pestilence, and religious self-immolation, have been removed. As there has been no proportionate improvement in agriculture, and in the ethical development of the people, population has increased beyond the means of subsistence, and there prevails a tendency to chronic poverty, a very low standard of living, a general misery, and an unsatisfactory social morale, which correspond badly with the high European civilization under which such a state of things is maintained. (6) It is only due to the memory of a good man, who was a sincere lover of truth and of the progress of humanity, that we should emphasize the fact that Malthus is in no way responsible for the immoral theories popularly connected with his name. Apart from such increase in the means of subsistence as may be attained by emigration and improved agriculture, Malthus approved of only one method of solving the population question, namely, moral selfrestraint. His single precept is “Do not marry till you have a fair prospect of supporting a family.” The greatest and highest moral result of his principle is that it clearly and emphatically teaches the responsibility of parentage, and declares the sin of those who bring human beings into the world for whose physical, intellectual, and moral wellbeing no satisfactory provision is made.

Besides his great work, Malthus wrote Observations on the Effect of the Corn Laws; An Inquiry into the Nature and Progress of Rent; Principles of Political Economy ; and Definitions in Political Economy. His views on rent were of real importance. For his life see Memoir by his friend Dr Otter, bishop of Chichester (prefixed to 2d edition, 1836, of the Principles of Political Economy). (T. K.)

.MALTON, a parliamentary borough of Yorkshire, England, which includes Old Malton and New Malton in the North Riding, and the parish of Norton in the East Riding. New Malton is situated on an eminence on the right bank of the Derwent, 22 miles north-east of York and 213 north of London. Old Malton lies about a mile to the north-east, and a bridge across the river connects New Malton with Norton. New Malton, which is a market-town, consists of several well-built streets radiating from the market-place. The church of St Michael is a fine building in the Late Norman style; the church of St Leonard, of mixed architecture, with square tower and spire, has three Norman arches and a Norman font; the west doorway of the church of St Mary at Old Malton is one of the finest specimens of Norman in England. In Old Malton there is a grammar school founded in 1547, and also the remains of a priory of Gilbertine canons, founded in 1150. New Malton possesses a town-hall and a corn exchange. The town has some shipping trade, and also iron and brass foundries, agricultural implement works, corn mills, tanneries, and breweries. In the neighbourhood there are lime and whinstone quarries. The population of the parliamentary borough (area 6855 acres) in 1871 was 8168, and in 1881 it was 8750.

Malton was a Roman station, and various Roman remains have been found in the neighbourhood. The old castle, built by the De Vescis in the time of the Normans, was demolished by Henry II. In the reign of Stephen the town, while occupied by the Scots, was burned down by Thurston, archbishop of York, and on being rebuilt it was named New Malton. The borough sent members to parliament as early as the reign of Edward I., but for some years previous to 1640 the privilege was in abeyance. Since 1868 only one member has been returned.