ABSTRACT
Barker wittily undermines Malthusian arguments about poverty, marriage and children and deconstructs complaints that the poor were idlers. Indeed, Barker returns to tropes used by radicals earlier in the century, including the idea that it was the ‘Aristocrats’ who were the true idlers in England. The industrious poor consume but little; the idle rich consume a great deal. If the people would check the increase of population for the future, they ought to begin by forbidding marriage and child-bearing to those who produce least and consume most; and not by interfering with the rights or inclinations of those who consume comparatively little, while they produce a great deal.
