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You can find this quotation in Bowring's edition of Bentham's works ("The 
Works of Jeremy Bentham", Edinburgh: Tait, 1838-43, vol. 8, p. 437, at the 
end of the note * ; reprint in 1995 (Thoemmes Press)). It is form "Outline 
of a work entitled Pauper Management Improved", written in 1797-8, and first 
published in the "Annals of Agriculture" (vol. 29, n° 167). 
 
The citation is : "Which dreads no longer the multiplication of man, now 
that she has shown by what secure and imperishable means infant man, a drug 
at present so much worse than worthless, may be endowed with an indubitable 
and universal value." 
 
It is a true anti-mathusian idea which Bentham expressed here because he 
recognised that, under particular circumstances, the more children a society 
has, the more wealth she has. Among these circunstances, you have : 
assistance for poor provided that they work, security ("with regard to 
subsistance", ibid., p. 437), and so on. 
 
If you are interested in Bentham's positions about poor laws, and familiar 
with french language, I discussed it in an article published in 1999 in P. 
Denizot and C. Revauger (eds), "Pauvreté et assistance en Grande-Bretagne, 
1688-1834", Aix-en-Provence : Publications de l'Université de Provence. 
 
Nathalie Sigot 
 
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