16 COBBETT'S [No. 



in spite of the most horrible tyranny that ever was 

 exercised in the world, in spite of the racks and the 

 gibbets and the martial law of QUEEN ELIZABETH, 

 those who had amassed to themselves the property 

 out. of which the poor had been formerly fed, were 

 compelled to pass a law to raise money, by way of 

 tax, for relieving" the necessities of the poor. They 

 had passed many acts before the FORTY-THIRD year of 

 the reign of this Queen Elizabeth ; but these acts 

 were all found to be ineffectual, till, at last, in the 

 forty-third year of the reign of this tyrannical Queen, 

 and in the year of our Lord 1601, that famous act 

 was passed, which has been in force until this day ; 

 and which, as I said before, is stilLin force, notwith- 

 standing all the various attempts of folly and cruelty 

 to get rid of it. 



16. Thus, then, the present poor-laws are no new 

 thing 1 . They are no gift to the working people. 

 You hear the greedy landowners everlastingly com- 

 plaining against this law of QUEEN ELIZABETH. 

 They pretend that it was an unfortunate law. They 

 affect to regard it as a great INNOVATION, seeing 

 that no such law existed before; but, as I have shown, 

 a better law existed before, having the same object 

 in view. I have shown, that the " Reformation," as 

 it is called, had sweeped away that which had been 

 secured to the poor by the Common Law, by the Ca- 

 nons of the Church, and by ancient Acts of Parlia- 

 ment. There was nothing new, then, in the w*y of 

 benevolence towards the people, in this celebrated 

 Act of Parliament of the reign of QUEEN ELIZABETH ; 

 and the landowners would act wisely by holding 

 their tongues upon the subject; or, if they be too 

 noisy, one may look into their GRANTS, and see 

 if we cannot find something THERE to keep out 

 the present parochial assessments. 



17. Having now seen the origin of the present 

 poor-laws, and the justice of their due execution, let 

 us return to those authorities of which I was speak- 

 ing but now, and an examination into which will 

 *how the extreme danger of listening to those pro- 



