10 COBBETT'S [No. 



would wholly abolish the poor-laws, or, at lenst. ren- 

 der them of little ellect, and thereby constantly keep 

 thousands exposed to this dire necessity ! 



i). In order to do justice to this great subject; in 

 order to treat it with perfect fairness, and in a man- 

 ner becoming of me and of you, I must take the au- 

 tlmritk's on ttofh .svV/rx. There are some great lawyers 

 who have contended that the starving man is still 

 guilty of felony or larceny, if he take food to satisfy 

 his hunger; hut there are a greater number of other, 

 and still greater, lawyers, who maintain the con- 

 trary. The general doctrine of those who maintain 

 the right to take. j< fmjndrd on the law of nature; 

 and it is a saying as old as the hills, a saying in e 

 language in the world, that " self-preservation is the 

 first law of nature." The law of nature teaches 

 every creature to prefer the preservation of its own 

 life to all other things. But, in order to have a fair 

 view of the matter before us, we ought to inquire how 

 it came to pass, that the laws were ever made to pu- 

 nish men as criminals, for taking the victuals, drink, 

 or clothing, that they might stand in need of. Wei. 

 recollect, then, that there was a time when no such 

 laws existed ; when men, like the wild animals in 

 the fields, took what they were able to take, if they 

 wanted it. In this state of things, all the land and 

 all the produce belonged to all the people in < 

 won. Thus were men situated, when they lived 

 under what is called the law of natt'rc ; when 

 every one provided, as he could, for his self-pre- 

 serration. 



10. At length this state of things became changed : 

 men entered into society ; they made laws to restrain 

 individuals from following, in certain cases, the dic- 

 tates of their own will ; they protected the weak 

 against the strong; the laws secured men in po 

 sion of lands, houses, and goods, that were called 

 THK1RS; the words MINE and THI.XK, which 

 mean wy aim and thy <nrn, were invented to d< 

 nate what we now call y in thin: 



law necessarily made it criminal in one man to take- 



