Page:Malthus 1807 A letter to Samuel Whitbread.djvu/14

 been expected. And I still think that if we weigh on the one hand the great quantity of subjection and dependence which the poor laws create, together with the kind of relief which they afford, against the greater degree of freedom and the higher wages which would be the necessary consequence of their abolition, it will be difficult to believe that the mass of comfort and happiness would not be greater on the latter supposition, although the few that were then in distress would have no other resource than voluntary charity.

But though I think that the difficulties attending this state of things would be more than compensated by its advantages; yet after a compulsory provision for the poor had been so long established in this country, I am aware that these difficulties would be so strongly felt, and indeed I feel them so strongly myself, that I should be very sorry to