| dc.description.abstract | As the present age is honourably distinguished by efforts, well-meant,
though not unfrequently misdirected, to ameliorate the
condition of the labouring classes; as I believe an all-important
step in that direction to be a general acquiescence in the soundness
of the views enunciated by Malthus, in his "Essay on Population"
and as those views, having encountered a fierce opposition on their
first promulgation, have been recently assailed by Mr. Rickards,
Professor of Political Economy in the University of Oxford, and
are habitually disposed of in a parenthesis at meetings of this
Society, by two of its most distinguished members, Drs. Lawson and
Hancock, under the complimentary designation of "that exploded
fallacy" or "exploded Malthusianism" - in the teeth of the fact
that the names of the two first of living British Economists, Mill
and Senior, are inscribed on the Malthusian banner - under these
circumstances, I feel no apology to be necessary for soliciting your
attention, while I endeavour to point out (1.) what the theory of
Malthus is; (2.) its evidence; (3.) its practical importance; and,
(4.) finally, the attempts that have been made to impugn its truth. | en |
