impugn the measures and general government of Mr. Pitt. We have made extracts of one or two passages from this little work, which will be acceptable to those who can compare the opinions here delivered, respecting the treatment of the poor, with the conclusions of his maturer years.[1]
In 1798 appeared his first printed work, an octavo volume, upon Population, under the following title, "An Essay on the Principle of Population as it affects the future improvement of Society, with remarks on the speculations of Mr. Godwin, M. Condorcet, and other writers;" in which the general principle was laid down and explained, and some very important consequences deduced from it; but his documents and illustrations were imperfect, and he himself perhaps at that time scarcely aware of the whole extent and bearings of the subject. The book was received with some surprise, and excited considerable attention, and while the minds of the generality were in suspense, the author left the country in search of materials to complete it. In 1799 he sailed for Hamburg with three other members of his college, of whom Dr. Edward Clarke was
- ↑ "But though it is by no means to be wished that any dependent situation should be made so agreeable, as to tempt those who might otherwise support themselves in independence; yet as it is the duty of society to maintain such of its members as are absolutely unable to maintain themselves, it is certainly desirable that the assistance in this case should be given in the way that is most agreeable to the persons who are to receive it. An industrious woman who is left a widow with four or five children that she has hitherto brought up decently, would often gladly accept of a much less sum, than the family would cost in the work-house, and with this assistance added to her own exertions, might in all probability succeed in keeping herself and her children from the contamination of a society that she has surely just reason to dread. And it seems peculiarly hard upon old people, who perhaps have been useful and respectable members of society, and in their day, "have done the state some service," that as soon as they are past their work, they should be obliged to quit the village where they have always lived, the cottage to which time has attached them, the circle of their friends, their children and their grand-children, and be forced to
