L] POOR MAN'S FRIEND. 5 



besides, swallows up so large a part of the produce of 

 the land and the labour; it is very true, that these 

 enormous taxes, co-operating with the paper-money^^ 

 and its innumerable monopolies ; it is very true, that 

 these enormous taxes, thus associated, have produced 

 the ruin in trade, manufactures and commerce, and 

 have, of course, produced the low wages and the 

 want of employment; this is very true ; but it is not 

 less true, that, be wages or employment as they may, 

 the poor are not to perish with hunger, or with cold, 

 while the rest of the community have food and rai- 

 ment more than the latter want for their own suste- 

 nance. The LAW OF ENGLAND says, that there 

 shall be no person to suffer from want of food and rai^^j 

 ment. It has placed officers in every parish to see 

 that no person suffer from this sort of want ; and lest 

 these officers should not do their duty, it commands 

 all the magistrates to hear the complaints of the poor, 

 and to compel the officers to do their duty. The LAW 

 OF ENGLAND has provided ample means of relief 

 for the poor; for, it has authorized the officers, or 

 overseers, to get from the rich inhabitants of the par- 

 ish as much money as is wanted for the purpose, 

 without any limit as to amount ; and, in order that 

 the overseers may have no excuse of inability to make 

 people pay, the law has armed them with powers of 

 a nature the most efficacious and the most efficient 

 and most prompt in their operation. In short, the 

 language of the LAW, to the overseer, is this: 

 " Take care that no person suffer from hunger, or 

 from cold; and that you may be sure not to fail of 

 the means of obeying this my command, I give you, 

 as far as shall be necessary for this purpose, full 

 power over all the lands, all the houses, all the goods, 

 and all the cattle, in your parish." To the Justices of 

 the Peace the LAW says: "Lest the overseer should 

 neglect his duty ; lest, in spite of my command to him, 

 any one should suffer from hunger or cold, I command 

 you to be ready to hear the complaint of every sufferer 

 from such neglect ; I command you to summon the of- 

 fending overseer, and to compel him to do his duty." 



