Page:Malthus 1807 A letter to Samuel Whitbread.djvu/31

 receive the bounties of the rich, I apprehend that it would be possible to reduce the wages of labour to what was sufficient for the support of a single man.

I am perfectly convinced that there is scarcely any man in the kingdom who would more strongly deprecate the consequences that I have described than yourself; but you have made no provision to obviate them.

You have stated in your Bill that the parish poor in many places are very ill accommodated with habitations, and I have no doubt of the fact; but if I rightly comprehend the laws which regulate the progress of population, whatever accommodations you may make for them at present, the difficulty will shortly recur, and the only question is, whether it is better for the permanent happiness of the poor that this difficulty should exist when one eighth, or one