183 Reply to Remarks on Malihus’s Principles of Population. {O&.1,. 
profufe im his cenfures, and unqualified in 
his condemnation, of Mr. Malthus and 
his book, he has not {tated one fa&, nor 
advanced one argument, to fhew that the 
conciufions drawn in the Effay on the 
Principles of Population, are unfound. 
In behalf, therefore, of thofe concluSons 
I fhall not now trouble you, confident tney 
can bear the inveftigation of thofe ac- 
quainted with political economy ; and that 
M.N. “is as ill-qualified to appreciate 
the knowledge and abilities, as he has 
been unjuit in reprefenting the opinions 
of”? Mr. Maithus. 
WwW... D. 
ee 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
OUR Correfpondent, M. N. in de- 
Y fending his friend, Dr. Price, in 
the laft number of your Magazine, trom 
Certain attacks alleged to be made againft 
him by the Rev. Mr. Malthus, in his 
§réat work on the Principle of Popata- 
tion, has been betrayed by his inconfide- 
rate zeal, into fo many mifreprefentations 
of the author and his work, as to call for 
animadverfion. I lament, in common with 
your Correlpondent, that Mr. Malthus 
has publithed his late work in fo bulky 
and expenfive a form; not becaule it is 
the wretched and wicked performance, 
which he has attempted to reprefent it, 
but becaufe I wifh to fee it read, and its 
fa&s and reafonings to be weighed by all 
the perfons capable of underttanding the 
fubjeét 5 particularly by thofe in the coun- 
try, whole fituation as magiltrates, parifh- 
officers, &¢. enable them to make accurate 
oblervationson the condition and increafing 
numbers of the poor; and which, if col- 
Kected and digelied, would, I doubt not 
from my own experience, eftablith the juf- 
tice of Mr. Malthus’s objeétions to our 
fyttern, relating to this very large and daily 
Increafing part of our population. 
Your Correfpondent, in enumerating the 
objets of Mr. Malthus’s work, wholiy 
omits the mention of a principal and main 
part of his defign; being, to expofe the 
abfurd interferences of governments in all 
ages, for increafing the numbers of the 
lower orders of fociety 5 and particularly 
in this country, by the baneful effcdis of 
the poor laws, which he fo jultly repre- 
fents-as increating the mileries, as well as 
the numbers of the poor themfe!ves, while 
it deprives the middle clafles of fo large a 
portion of their ccmforts, and of their 
power and difpofiiion to increafe popula- 
tion with its moit valuable members. It 
is for ret:acing the’e fatal fleps wich fafety, 
that Mr. Malthus recommends, at page 
538, a law to take place at one year after 
its promulgation, requiring clergymen, be. 
fore they fhould folemnize any marriage, 
to read to the parties the law which should 
enact, that no children born of fuc® mar- 
riage would everbe entitled to parochial 
relief: and, that from two years afver the 
profoulgation of the law, no illegitimate 
child fhould be entitled to parifh affittance § 
but parents be compellable to maintain, 
and do their beft endeavours for raifing all 
fuch children. The other recommenda- 
tions of Mr. Malthus are not lels partially 
or unfaicly repre(ented by your Correfpon 
dent, at the bottom of page 93. 
Your Correfpondent unjufily aceufes 
Mr. Malthus of taking a narrow and con- 
fined view of the fubje&, and claims the 
merit of difcovering, that the millions of 
animals and plants whih are annually 
brought into exiftence, are but fufficient 
to fupply the waite that is continually 
taking place; fergetting to notice the 
diftin@iion which Mr. Malthus labours 
throughout his work to inculeate—chat 
this watte of vegetables, and the lower 
orders of animals is unavoidable; while 
man alo-e poflefes the reafoning faculties, 
which fhould forbid the defroying any of 
his fpecies, or his being the means of 
bringing a child into the world, after the 
country of its birth has already as many 
inhabitants as the bounties of nature can 
fupport ; and teach him, that the other 
circumftances, which it is Mr. Malthus’s 
bafnefs to detail-in fo many melancholy 
pages, a3 pofitive checks to the rapid in- 
creafe of mankind, are the neceflary ef- 
fects of mifery, or of war, and other 
crimes. ; 
The pages of Mr. Malthus’s book fur- 
nifh numerous inftances of the ebbing and 
flowing of population, as the means of 
fubfiftence varied, or wr or epidem‘es pre- 
vailed, although overlooked by your Cor- 
refpondent 3; and Mr. Malthus quotes the 
official returns Jately made to Parliament 
to fhew, that the late {carcities of 1795 
and 1800, had a fenfible effe& in increaling 
the deaths, and decreafing the biiths in 
Englard. ; , 
Befides the two philofophers jeeringly 
introduced by your Correfpondent, as fo- 
litary inftances of coincidence with Mr. 
Malthus in opinion, he overlooked the af- 
fertion of the author, who travelled through 
a confiderabie portion of Europe in fearch 
of information on this moft important fub- 
jet; that many others even of the lower 
claffes in Switzerland and Savoy, faw the 
fubject in the fame light ; and that in Nor- 
way, a traveller frequently hears appreher- 
fions exprefled of a redundant population ; 
and. 
