Thomas Robert Malthus

“ If the burden of the poor's rates were really divided equally among all sorts of property, I am afraid it might be shown, from incontrovertible principles of political economy, that it would be a pecuniary advantage to all those who employ labour, and who would according to your Bill have the principal influence in all the determinations of Vestries, to push this encouragement to population to a considerable extent; because, in the employment of their capital, they would gain much more by the cheapness of labour, than they would lose by the payment of their rates. ”

“ I had certainly much rather that the poor were deterred from very early and improvident marriages by the fear of dependent poverty than by the contemplation of positive distress; but this concession implies that dependent poverty is so undesirable, that if it involved a large portion of the society, the evil would entirely overwhelm the good. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ There are not many laws either human or divine, which in particular instances do not appear harsh and unequal; but if on that account we were to be deprived of the guide of general rules, we should lose at once the best security of order, virtue, and happiness among men. ”

“ Putting all idea of the abolition of the Poor Laws out of the question, let us consider the general principles on which they ought to be improved. And here we are quite agreed, that the great object should be, to elevate as much as possible the general character of the lower classes of the community, and to draw a more marked line between the dependent and independent labourer. ”

“ Of this, I think, you will be convinced, if you consider, in the first place, that when the rate of the increase of population depends exclusively on the wages of labour, the unmarried must be paid as high as the married; but that in the application of the poor laws to the encouragement of population, the assistance is only given to those who have families. ”

“ Such is the tendency to form early connections, that with the encouragement of a sufficient number of tenements, I have very little doubt that the population might be so pushed, and such a quantity of labour in time thrown into the market, as to render the condition of the independent labourer absolutely hopeless, and to make the common wages of day labour insufficient to support a single child without parish assistance. ”

“ To make the advantages of a system of Poor Laws counterbalance its disadvantages, it seems to be necessary that they should be so confined in their operation, as not to depress the wages of labour below what is sufficient for the support of the average number of children that might be expected from each marriage. ”

“ The evil would indeed ultimately check itself, as most evils do; but if we advert to the manner in which this would be done, the state to which the country must be previously reduced will not appear to be an enviable one. I apprehend that the increase would continue, till from the failure in the supply of tenements, and the diminished demand for labour, the situation of the poor supported by parishes became so uncomfortable as to deter the rising generation from marrying, with a certainty of being reduced to the same state. ”

“ Our formidable neighbour certainly does not think that education is likely to impede his subjects either in fighting or working; and the conduct of the conscripts, a large portion of whom is taken from a superior class of society to that which forms the mass of modern armies, clearly justifies his opinion. ”

“ Under this difficulty of procuring habitations, which I have reason to think is very considerable, and which indeed I stated in the last edition of my work as the principal reason why the Poor Laws had not been so extensive and prejudicial in their effects as might have been expected, the rates have not only increased daring late years with unusual rapidity; but (what is the only just criterion) the number of the dependent poor continually bears a greater proportion to the whole population. ”

“ I should indeed think that the whole, or a much greater sum, was well applied, if it merely relieved the comparatively few that would be in want, if there were no public provision for them, without the fatal and unavoidable consequence of continually increasing their number, and depressing the condition of those who were struggling to maintain themselves in independence. ”

“ But though to banish poverty from society be a task which, if not absolutely impossible, is clearly beyond the power of legislative regulations; yet the slightest glance at the state of different countries will indicate such important variations in the pressure of this evil, as to give us the best grounded hopes of being able to lighten a burden which we cannot remove. ”

“ Respecting the clause which relates to the Poor's Fund, I see the force of your objections to country establishments, though it must be acknowledged that their vicinity to the poor man would be a very convenient and encouraging circumstance to him. It is most certainly true, as you have stated, that a secure place, in which the savings of industry might be deposited advantageously, is a want very generally felt by the poor, particularly by servants ”

“ The births however might still exceed the deaths, the population might still be increasing, but the character of it would be greatly changed; it would consist of a much larger proportion of persons not capable of adding by their exertions to the resources of the state; each generation would pass away in a more rapid succession; and the greatness of the mortality would sufficiently indicate the misery of the state of the society. ”

“ But those who are convinced of its truth, may, with the most anxious desire of extending the comforts and elevating the condition of the lower classes of society, rationally express their apprehensions, that the attempt to sanction by law a right which in the nature of things cannot be adequately gratified, may terminate in disappointment, irritation, and aggravated poverty. ”

“ Certainly no such provision is to be found in the clauses or probable operation of your Bill. It is your object, and I trust that of the nation, to diminish the proportion of dependent poverty, and not to increase it; but the specific evil which I fear from your bill, as it stands at present, is an increase of it.
I should most earnestly recommend, that, at all events, one or other of the two Clauses which I have particularly noticed should be given up. If parishes be empowered to build cottages, the rates should continue on the land as the only adequate check to their increase. ”

“ It should be recollected that a compulsory provision for the poor is almost peculiar to England, and that there are many parts of the Continent without such a provision, and without those pre-eminent advantages of government which Englishmen enjoy, where the condition of the lower classes is superior. That cases of individual distress must occur in these countries, no person can for a moment doubt; but as there is no habitual dependence on a legal provision, the number is comparatively small ”

“ A man who can read and write now may be discontented with his condition, and wish to rise above it; but if all his fellow labourers possessed the same advantage, his relative situation in society would remain the same as before, and the only effect would be that the condition of the whole mass would be elevate and improved! ”

“ It was in fact a declaration of one of those difficulties with which it is the lot of humanity constantly to contend, and which as they can never be completely overcome without perfect virtue, seem to be destined to furnish unceasing motives to the exercise and improvement both of our intellectual energies and our moral feelings. ”

“ With regard to the large sum which is collected from the higher classes of society for the support of the poor, I can safely say, that in the discussion of the question it has always been with me a most subordinate consideration. ”

“ They are at present not only paying a sum for the relief of others which they can ill spare from their own necessities; but they are really subscribing towards a competition against their own earnings. They are making themselves poorer, not only by the amount of what they pay in rates, but by the amount of the reduction which the application of those rates occasions in the general wages of labour. ”

“ It would still be true however that the Poor Laws even in such a state would have a tendency to depress the independent labourer, to weaken in some degree the springs of industry and good conduct, and to put virtue and vice more on a level than they would be in the natural course of things ”

“ To give respectability to the schools, it would be very desireable that those who are a little above the class of labourers, should send their children to them, which they would never do, if they paid in proportion to their superior means. ”

“ The experience of the last two hundred years, and the circumstances which have called for the present bill, are convincing proofs, that in the establishment of a satisfactory provision for the poor, the efforts of the ablest legislators have been repeatedly foiled. ”

“ The principal object of these apprehensions is the operation of the clause which empowers parishes to build cottages, combined with that which determines every kind of property to be rateable. Though these two clauses are unquestionably calculated to produce present comfort and relief; yet I much fear that their ultimate effects may be of a very different nature, and may tend powerfully to counteract the general principles on which your whole system of improvement is founded. ”

“ If they extended no further than this, every man in marrying might have a fair and rational hope, that by industry and good conduct, he might be able to continue independent; and if this hope failed merely through the largeness of his family, he would not be much degraded either in his own eyes or those of his fellow labourers ”

“ 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. ”

“ You will probably alledge that under your Bill both the landlords and the parishes will still have a strong interest not to build fresh tenements unless called for by the increasing demand for labour. ”

“ All persons will, I conceive, agree with you in the propriety of exempting from the rates cottages, the rents of which are under five pounds. The situation of the persons inhabiting such houses is peculiarly hard. ”