... Have you seen the new work of Malthus on population? It is one of the ablest I have ever seen. Altho' his main object is to delineate the effects of redundancy of population, and to test the poor laws of England & other palliations for that evil, several important questions in political economy, allied to his subject incidentally, are treated with a masterly hand. It is a single 4to volume, and I have been only able to read a borrow'd copy, the only one I have yet heard of. Probably your friends in England will think of you & give you an opportunity of reading it ... (TJ to Joseph Priestley, 29 January 1804)

... A review of Malthus' anonymous tract had given me great prejudices against his principles. But he has greatly mended their appearance in his last work. He has certainly furnished some sound corrections of former errors, and given excellent views of some questions in political economy. But I think with you he is particularly defective in developing the resource of emigration. Were half the money employed under the poor laws in England, laid out in colonising their able bodied poor both the emigrants and those who remained would be the happier. From the singular circumstance of the immense extent of rich & uncultivated lands in this country, furnishing an increase of food in the same ratio with that of population, the greater part of his book is inapplicable to us, but as a matter of speculation ... (TJ to Thomas Cooper, 24 February 1804)

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