Note 9 — Chapter IV · THE QUESTION IN ITS CONNEXION WITH POLITICAL ECONOMY.

By unrestrained, Malthus and his disciples mean, not restricted or destroyed by any incidental check whatever, moral or immoral, prudential or violent. Thus, poverty, war, libertinism, famine, &c. are all powerful checks to population. In this sense, and not simply as applying to preventative moral restraint, have I employed the word throughout this chapter.