Page:Malthus 1807 A letter to Samuel Whitbread.djvu/34

 I need not, I am sure, insist that such a state of things, were it to take place, would completely counteract the spirit and intention of all the regulations which you have proposed. A state of dependence so general would depress the character of the common people of this country more than any system of education could elevate it; and both the power and the will to save and acquire property, would be so far diminished, that very few, I conceive, would either be disposed, or be able to make use, of your benevolent institution of the Poor's Fund, or even to become members of Friendly Societies.

I am fully aware that the poor's rates, as they are at present distributed, press most unequally on a particular class of the community; and I should think it a point of no considerable importance in the actual state of the country, to relieve the land from bearing almost exclusively