404 
To the Editor of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
ONSIDERING that M. N. ‘© had 
no other view, in his late remarks 
on Mr. Malthus’s Efflay on Population, 
than to vindicate’ the character of Dr. 
Price from anattack as ungrateful as it 
was ill-founded,”? it is fomewhat fingu- 
Jar, that his paper, for that end, which 
appeared in your Magazine for September 
laft, fhould have five columns, out of ‘the 
Seven, to which it extends, occupied in 
combating the ftatements and abufing 
the work of Mr. Malthus generally, 
while but two are devoted to the purpofe 
for which the paper was written. 
Had not M. N., rather peevithly, eati- 
tled his letter to you, of the 15th of O&to- 
ei «* Laft Words,’ I fhould have been 
empted to afk him, to favour your cor- 
ries with the meaning of the word 
ungrateful, ince I did not remark, that 
the letter of M. N., of the 14th of Au- 
guit, changed Mr. "Malthus: with being 
under any obligation, of any deicription 
whatfoever, to either Di. Price or his writ- 
ings. 
As M.N. has entitled his paper ** Latt 
Words,’’ it will be in vain to afk of him; 
T hall therefore afc of the candid readers 
of your Magazine, what more honoura- 
bie means can be. adopted, to exculpate 
Mr. Malthus from the ‘* mifepiefenta- 
tions with which he is charged,” than 
to fhew, that to fupport fuch a charge 
againkt him, his only adverfary, M. N. 
has been forced to have tecourte to the 
help of an unfaithful quotation? This was 
fuccefsfally pone ‘ed out in Mr. Farey’s 
letter of the 10th of September, is page 
389 of your Magazine. 
Though writing only with a view to vin- 
dicate Dr. Price, M. N. cansot refrain from 
infinuating the badnefs of heart and the 
weakne!s of underftanding of ‘* tho‘e who 
can approve either the benevolence or the 
wifdom of his (Mr. Malthus’s) fyftem,” 
Permitting him then to wander from the 
fubje&t, may I not be allowed to odlferve, 
that the foundnefs of certain principles, the 
jufineis of certain conclufions, or the truth 
of certain reprefentations, may be miin- 
tained, without any reflection upon the 
heart of the perfon defending them? The 
que'tion 1s, are they found? ave they juit? 
and are they true? Ii they are fo, and 
benevolence be burt et the information, 
it is the province of wifdom to devile 
{chemes tor diverting the evil, while it is 
the contrary charaGer wilfully to turn a 
ééat car to inftruciion, and to fit down 
with folded arme and clofea eyes, until 
I 
Reply to MN. 
f Dee: ot, 
the coming ruin can be neither ftayed nor 
turned afide. 
M.Wargentin, whom Dr. Price deferib- 
ed as able and ingenious, and as having 
left us little to with for on the fubjeét of 
Swedifh population, (Reverfionary Pay- 
ments, fifth edition, vol. 1, p. 8.) and that 
his memoir, in the Memoires abrésés de 
Ll Acad. de Siockholm, ** contained more 
diftingt and authentic information on the 
fubje&t of human mortality than he had 
ever before met with,”? (ditto p. 369.) 
remarks, page 31, that the years which 
are the moft fruitful in produce, are the 
mot fruitful in children.” Was not Mr. 
Malthus then warranted in faying, that 
in Sweden ‘* population makes a {tart for- 
wards at every temporary inereale of | 
food?” (Principles of F opulation, fecond 
edition, psge 19.) though ir excites the 
difpleafure of MM. N. 
In my letter to you, I defcribed Dr. 
Price as * a blamele(s private charaéter ; 
when doing fo, 1 did not expect M. N.’s 
‘¢ regard for the memory of his friend’? 
would require of him to attribute this 
defcription either to my ignora*ce or 
my folly. I-aifo defcribed Dr. Price as 
‘‘ having written with ability upon the 
doftrine of annuities 5°? will M. N. alfo 
afcribe this part of the chara&er I have 
drawn of his friend, to my ignorance and 
folly? 
But my obferving that “‘ Dr. Piice 
was indebted to Sir James Steuart for his 
much vaunted fchemes for conducting 
new loans, and fer converting low into 
high intereit funds,” and that ** he forgot 
to acknowledge the debt,’” is ftated ‘by 
M. N. as particularly marking my igne- 
rance and folly. 
Sir James Steuart. publithed his invalua- 
ble «* Inquiry into the Principles of Poli- 
tical Economy,” in 1767. Dr. Price, 
“agreeably to Mr. ope Review of his 
Writings,” page 6, ‘in his Treatife on 
Annuities and reverfionary Payments, 
which was publifhed in the year 27695 
firt engaged the public attention on the- 
fubje&t of the National Debt 5” and the 
fame work flates, that in dhe: year 177% 
Dr. Price publifhed his Appealon the fub- 
ject of the National Debt.” 
Now i the edition of this tra&t of 
17749 page xiv. of the preface, the fourth 
buok of Sir James Steuari’s work is quo- 
ted, as to the effect of the French ariét of 
the 2rft of May 1720, in deftroying the 
credit of the Royal Bank, and Mifiiifip pi 
paper. 
’ Mr. Morgan, too, in the fame tra%, 
Price 
‘page 10, lays, “In the year 1777, Dr. - 
’ 
“= a 
~_ en? 
