Page:Malthus 1807 A letter to Samuel Whitbread.djvu/24

 The operations of the Poor Laws are so complicated, that it is almost impossible to take in at one view all their different bearings and relations. The establishment of them, one should naturally expect, would produce in any country a larger proportion of births and marriages than was usual cœteris paribus in others. But in England it appears that the proportion of births and marriages to the whole population is less than in most of the other countries of Europe; and though this circumstance is principally to be accounted for from other causes, yet it affords decisive evidence that the poor laws do not encourage early marriages so much as might naturally be expected.

The specific cause of this unexpected effect is, I have little doubt, the difficulty of procuring habitations. As the great burden of the poor's rates falls upon the land, it is natural that landlords should be fearful of building cottages except