8 COBBETT'S [No. 



the manufacturing works being near their lands and 

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

 these same works causes a charge of rates there, 

 heavier than exists here ? Are the owners and occu- 



Eiers of Lancashire to enjoy an age of advantages 

 *om the labours of the spinners and the weavers ; 

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

 the disadvantages ? Are they to make no sacrifices, 

 in order to save from perishing 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 1 None but the most unjust of 

 mankind can answer these questions in the affirmative. 

 7. But as greediness is never at a loss for excuses 

 for the hard-heartedness that it is always ready to 



Practise, it is said, that the whole of the rents of the 

 md and the 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 

 rent, even then some of th poor must go without a 

 sufficiency 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, adjoining parishes may be made to 

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

 comes severe on these adjoining parishes, those next 

 adjoining them may be made to assist ; and thus the call 

 upon adjoining parishes may be extended till it reach 

 all over the county. 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 

 America, where, while hundreds of other English 

 statutes have been abolished, this law has always re- 

 mained in full force, this great law of mercy and 

 humanity, which says, that no human being that 

 treads English ground shall perish for want of food 

 and raiment. For such poor persons as are unable 

 to work, the law provides food and clothing; and it 

 commands that work shall be provided for such as 



