8 COBBETT'S [No. 



the manufacturing works being near their lands and 

 houses ; arc they, now, to complain, if the vicinage of 

 flif'si- same works causes a charge of rates there, 

 heavier than exists here? Are the owners and occu- 

 piers of Lancashire to enjoy an age of advantages 

 from the labours of the spinners and the weavers; 

 and are they, when a reverse comes, to bear none of 

 the dimtdfintages ? Are they to make no sacrifices, 

 in order to save from pcri>!iiin: those industrious and 

 ever-toiling creatures, by the labours of whom their 

 land and houses have been augmented in value, three, 

 five, or perhaps tenfold ? None but the most unjust of 

 ) 1 1 : i M k i ml can answer these questions in the affirmative. 

 7. But as greet //'." M M never at a loss for excuses 

 for the hard-heartedness that it is always ready to 

 practise, it N said, that the whole of the rents of the 

 land and t lit- houses would not suffice for the purpose; 

 that is to say, that if the poor rates were to be made 

 so high as to leave the tenant no means of paying 

 r. tit, even then some of thfe poor must go without a 

 suiliciency of food. I have no doubt that, in particu- 

 lar instances, this would be the case. But for cases 

 like this the LAW has amply provided ; for, in every 

 case of this sort, (uijnininir / .ay be made to 



/ the hard pressed parish ; and if the pressure be- 

 comes severe on these adjoining parishes, those next 

 adj- - may be made to assist ; and thus the call 



upon adjoining parishes may he extended till it reach 

 nil <>rtr tlic coi/uty. So good, so benignant, so wise, so 

 foreseeing, and so effectual, is this, the very best of 

 all our good old laws! This law or rather code of 

 laws, distinguishes England from all the other coun- 

 tries in the world, except the United States of 

 \ m, rice, where, while hundreds of other English 

 statutes have been abolished, this law has always re- 

 mained in full force, this irreat law of merry and 

 humanity, which says, that no human beini? that 

 trt'df/i* /w/ir//V// >rtuintl shall pr ri.-:/i for wu. 

 and raiment. For such poor per 

 tnirork, the law provides food and clothing; and it 

 commands tliat work shall be provided for such as 



