APPENDIX. We are here compelled to dissent entirely from the author's statement, of his having "treated the subject," which he announced for discussion in the Essay on Population, in a detailed manner, and of his having pursued it to all its consequences." Because, in the first place, he has not shewn that "vice and misery are the past and present effects of the principle of population;" secondly, when he asserted, that "no man has a right to subsistence whose labour would not fairly purchase it," he tacitly assumed, in his reasonings thereupon, that the denial of this right was not to extend beyond the labouring classes; and he not only passed over the natural claims to mutual support which every member of the society is possessed of, who is willing to exert his best abilities for the general good; but he, also, left unnoticed the most important consideration, that if any part of the earnings of labour be taken away from the labourers, either directly or indirectly, they are thereby, on his own shewing, invested with a just claim to support, at least, to the same amount, even though they were merely foreign sojourners in the land. When a part of the 'earnings of labour is taken away from the labourer, it cannot be said, that if the remainder be insufficient to furnish the means of his support, he has no claim for those means on the party or parties who have taken away such part of his earnings. We have already noticed Mr. Malthus's absurd denial of the ill effects of taxation; and, since the publication of Mr. R.'s work, he is, probably, aware of its absurdity himself; we shall not, therefore, enlarge upon it in this place; for he must have learned, from the abovementioned work, (except, indeed, he be determined to learn no more,) that the labouring classes do pay a sum in taxation, tithes, &c., (exclusive of national revenue,) from ten to twenty times greater than they receive back in poor rateseven, admitting that the whole nominal amount of those rates is contributed by those who pay it to the collector of the rate. But it is (as is well known) made up, in a considerable degree, of the contributions levied or retained from the poor themselves, by means of arbitrarily lower ing their wages, and returned to them in the shape of poor rates, by their agricultural and other employers. Another large part of the total amount is contributed for the payment of the taxes on the articles used or purchased by the parish officers for the use of the paupers, all which, together with numerous other charges, quite distinct from that of relieving the poor, are, however, included in the nominal amount of rates. Till church and state taxation of labour be entirely abolished; the fact, that wages of labour are thereby so far reduced, as to be insufficient for the support of the labourers, can form no argument for the repeal of the poor laws; but rather, indeed, forms an unanswerable argument against any such measure, and in favour of a reduction or repeal of taxation. It may be said, that every native of a Christian country is under an obligation to support the government and the Christian religion': this is true; but the rent of the land being contributed by the whole population of the country, is a full discharge of the obligation. No taxes, then, can be justly imposed for the above purposes, until the entire rent of the land has been applied to defray the just and necessary expenses of the country, and has been found inadequate. The poor laws afford, at present, the only preventive check to the absolute annual starvation of numbers of labourers and their |