of the eighteenth
century, but his practical influence, ultimately so great, first made
itself felt in the early part of the nineteenth century. This influence
may be compared within the sphere of social reform to that of Adam Smith
within the sphere of economy. Many amendments of the law, an improved
system of prison discipline, and even the reform of the poor law, may
be directly traced to his counsels, and it was he who inspired the
leading radicals when radicalism was not so much a destructive creed as
a protest against real and gross abuses.

[Pageheading: _MALTHUS._]

Perhaps, next to Bentham, no writer of this period influenced educated
opinion so powerfully as Malthus, whose _Essay on Population_, first
published anonymously in 1798, attracted comparatively little attention
until 1803, when it was republished in a maturer form. No work has ever
been more persistently misrepresented. While he shows that population,
if unchecked, will surely increase in a ratio far outstripping any
possible increase in the means of subsistence, he also shows, by
elaborate proofs, that it will inevitably be checked by vice and misery,
whether or not they are aided by moral restraint. Later experience has
done little to weaken his reasoning, but it has proved that "moral
restraint" (in the most general sense) operates more widely than he
ventured to expect, and that larger tracts of the earth's surface than
he recognised could be brought under profitable cultivation. With these
modifications, his theory holds the field, and the people of Great
Britain only escape starvation by ever-growing importations of grain
from countries whose production--for the present--exceeds their
consumption.

Several other writers of eminence, such as Sheridan and Paley, who lived
in the latter days of George III. are more properly to be regarded as
survivors of eighteenth century literature. Horne Tooke was returned for
Old Sarum in 1801, and enjoyed a reputation in society until his death
in 1812, but his old-fashioned radicalism had long since been superseded
by a newer creed. Dugald Stewart continued to lecture on moral
philosophy until 1809, and was fortunate in numbering among his pupils
Palmerston, Lansdowne, and Russell. A younger student of philosophy was
Richard Whately, who was born in 1787, and elected to a fellowship at
Oriel College, Oxford, in 1811. He soon began to play an active part in
university life, and, after being principal of S