20 cum;. 1 [No. 



of it ; and therefore, as these texts made very strong- 

 ly against him, he does not give them at full length, 

 but gives us a misrepresenting abbreviation. 



ttl. He had, however too much regard for his re- 

 putation to conclude without acknowledging the ri^ht 

 of seizing on the provisions of others at sea. He 

 allows that private chests may be broki pre- 



vent uien from dying with hunger at sea. He does 

 not stop to tell MX \vhv im-nV lives are more precious 

 on sea than on land. He does not attempt to recon- 

 cile these liberties given by the Scripture, and by the 

 maritime laws, with his own hard doctrine. In short, 

 he brings us to this at last: that lie will not acknow- 

 ///>. that it is /,,,/ theft to take another man's goods, 

 without his consent, under any circumstances ; but, 

 while he will not acknowledge this, he plainly leaves 

 us to conclude, that no English judge and no Eng- 

 lish king will // a poor creature that takes 

 victuals to save himself fram perishing; and he 

 plainly leaves us to conclude, that it is the poor-laws 

 of England ; that it is tin ir exigence and their 

 execution, which deprive everybody in England of 

 the ri;/ht to take food and raiment in case of extreme 

 necessity. 



32. Here I ith him most cordially ; and it 



is because I agree wiih him in this, that I deprecate 

 the abominable projects of those who would annihi- 

 late the poor-laws, seeing that it is those very poor- 

 laws which give, under all circumstances, really 1 

 security to property. Without them, cases must fre- 

 quently arise, which would, according to the law of 

 nature, according to the law of God, and as we shall 

 see before we have done, according to the law of 

 jand. bring us into a state, or, at least, brinsr par- 

 ticular persons into a state, which as } J to 

 them, would law of nature torerice, and 

 to make all thiiirx to he airtietl //; common. To ad- 

 here, then, to these poor-laws ; to rau^e them to be duly 

 executed, to prevent every encroachment upon them, to 

 preserve them as the apple of our eye, are the duty of 

 every Englishman, as far as he has capacity so to do. 



