things, we might safely commit it to that tribunal which, sooner or later, never fails to do justice to the truth; but this is not the case, it is in reality identified with a subject now occupying a great share of the public mind, and coming home to every man's business and bosom, and under this view it is quite essential that no unnecessary delay should intervene in the removal of all errors respecting it. The struggle about the Poor Laws has ended as most political struggles happily do in England, not by the subversion of an institution which, however corrupted by abuse, or injured by time, is yet congenial to the institutions of the country, and founded upon christian principles; but by the renewal of its spirit, the correction of its errors, and the supply of its defects. With these views the Poor Laws Amendment Bill has been framed and passed into a law; and a great experiment is now making throughout the country under its authority, upon the result of which, the due and harmonious adjustment of the relations between the rich and the poor will hereafter mainly depend. But this act is founded upon the basis of Mr. Malthus' work. The Essay on Population and the Poor Laws Amendment Bill, will stand or fall together. They have the same friends and the same enemies, and the relations they bear to each other, of theory and practice, are admirably calculated to afford mutual illumination and support. Nor can it be said that this cooperation is not needed. Notwithstanding the favourable auspices under which the working of the bill has commenced, it is still a question with many how much of this advantage is owing to the intrinsic merits of the act, and how much to the unexampled state of prosperity we now enjoy, and the increasing demand for labour which accompanies it: at all events a strong and lively opposition is still daily carried
