Page:Malthus 1807 A letter to Samuel Whitbread.djvu/17

 the condition of the lower classes of society. First appearances indeed are in this branch of the science still more deceitful than in any other; and the partial and immediate effects of a particular mode of giving relief are often directly opposite to the general and permanent consequences. This circumstance renders all inquiries of the kind remarkably open to misconstruction; and those who have not had leisure to pay that attention to the subject which its peculiar intricacy demands, if they hear one or two detached passages noticed by their friends which contradict their first feelings and apprehensions, are naturally disposed to be prejudiced against the whole Work in which they are found. If for a moment during your late Speech you gave the sanction of your authority to these prejudices, I am convinced that it was not really your intention to increase them; but that, in legislating on a point in which the interests of so large a part of the community are concerned, it is your great