----------------- HES POSTING ----------------- 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 ------------ FOOTER TO HES POSTING ------------ For information, send the message "info HES" to [log in to unmask]