I.] POOR MAN'S FRIEND. 17 



jectors who would abolish the poor-laws ; that is to 

 say, who would sweep away that provision which 

 was established in the reign of Q,UEEN ELIZABETH, 

 from a conviction that it was absolutely necessary to 

 preserve the peace of the country and the lives of 

 the people. I observed before that there has been 

 some difference of opinion amongst lawyers as to the 

 question, whether it be, or be not, theft, to take with- 

 out his consent and against his will, the victuals of 

 another, in order to prevent the taker from starving. 

 SIR MATTHEW HALE and SIR WILLIAM BLACKSTONE 

 say that it is theft. I am now going to quote the 

 several authorities on both sides, and it will be ne- 

 cessary for me to indicate the works which I quote 

 from by the words, letters, and figures which are 

 usually made use of in quoting from these works. 

 Some part of what I shall quote will be in Latin: 

 but I shall put nothing in that language of which I 

 will not give you the translation. I beg you to read 

 these quotations with the greatest attention ; for you 

 will find, at the end of your reading, that you have 

 obtained great knowledge upon the subject, and 

 knowledge, too, which will not soon depart from 

 your minds. 



18. I begin with SIR MATTHEW HALE, (a Chief 

 Justice of the Court of King's Bench in the reign 

 of Charles the Second,) who, in his PLEAS OF THE 

 CROWN, CHAP. IX., has the following passage, which 

 I put in distinct paragraphs, and mark A, B, and C. 



19. A. " Some of the casuists, and particularly 

 COVARRUVIUS, Tom. I. De furti et rapince. restitu- 

 tione, 3, 4, p. 473 ; and GROTIUS, de jure belli ac 

 pads; lib. II. cap. 2. 6, tell us, that in case of 

 extreme necessity, either of hunger or clothing, the 

 civil distributions of property cease, and by a kind of 

 tacit condition the first community doth return, and 

 upon this those common assertions are grounded: 

 1 Quicquid necessitas cogit, defendii,,' [Whatever 

 necessity calls for, it justifies.] ' Necessitas est lex 

 temporis et loci? [Necessity is the law of time and 

 place.! ' In casu extremes, necessitatis omnia sunt 



