10 COBBETT'S [No, 



would wholly abolish the poor-laws, or, at least, ren- 

 der them of little effect, and thereby constantly keep 

 thousands exposed to this dire necessity ! 



9. 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- 

 thorities on both sides. 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 ; but 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, is founded on the law of nature ; 

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

 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. We must 

 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 com- 

 mon. Thus were men situated, when they lived 

 under what is called the law of nature; when 

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

 servation. 



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 posses- 

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

 THEIRS ; the words MINE and THINE, which 

 mean my own and thy own, were invented to desig- 

 nate what we now call a property in things. The 

 law necessarily made it criminal in one man to take 



