Dated 29 December 1821, printed 11 January 1822, signed 'L'ami des hommes' and referring to himself in the third person ('Mr. Godwin, a name of some account among our livng literati' , 'has produced an elaborate work in refutation of Mr. Malthus'). Godwin is replying specifically to a paragraph in the Morning Chronicle on 25 December 1821, which he read as endorsing Malthus's theory of population. The Morning Chronicle preface denies that this is what they had meant and hopes that the letter is not from the same source as one 'written with an asperity quite uncalled for' that had been published in the Examiner the previous Sunday. The Examiner letter is signed 'C', does not read as Godwin's style and might instead be from William Cobbett, whose style it more closely matches and who endorsed Godwin's intervention in the population debate in his Political Register ('I have hunted Malthus out of vogue, and almost out of existence: Mr. Godwin has done the same, and in a much more elaborate manner, with much greater patience, and with a vast deal more of research', 11.2.1832). This is contrary to the decision of Macken and Pollin, who in their Uncollected Writings thought the Examiner piece was likely to be by Godwin.