26 COBBETT'S [No. 



of it ; and therefore, as these texts made very strong- 

 ly against him, he does not give them at full length, 

 but gives us a misrepresenting abbreviation. 



31. He had, however, too much regard for his re- 

 putation to conclude without acknowledging the right 

 of seizing on the provisions of others at sea. He 

 allows that private chests may be broken open to pre- 

 vent men from dying with hunger at sea. He does 

 not stop to tell us why men's lives are more precious 

 on sea than on land. He does not attempt to recon- 

 cile these liberties given by the Scripture, and by the 

 maritime laws, with his .own hard doctrine. In short, 

 he brings us to this at last : that he will not acknow- 

 ledge, that it is not theft to take another man's goods, 

 without his consent, under any circumstances ; but, 

 while he will not acknowledge this, he plainly leaves 

 us to conclude, that no English judge and no Eng- 

 lish king will ever punish a poor creature that takes 

 victuals to save himself from perishing; and he 

 plainly leaves us to conclude, that it is the poor-laws 

 of England ; that it is their existence and their due 

 execution, which deprive everybody in England of 

 the right to take food and raiment in case of extreme 

 necessity. 



32. Here I agree with him most cordially ; and it 

 is because I agree with him in this, that I deprecate 

 the abominable projects of those who would annihi- 

 late the poor-laws, seeing that it is those very poor- 

 laws which give, under all circumstances, really legal 

 security to property. Without them, cases must fre- 

 quently arise, which would, according to the law of 

 nature, according to the law of God, and as we shall 

 see before we have done, according to the law of 

 England, bring us into a state, or, at least, bring par- 

 ticular persons into a state, which as far as related to 

 them, would cause the law of nature to revive, and 

 to make all thing's to be owned in common. To ad- 

 here, then, to these poor-laws ; to cause them to be duly 

 executed, to prevent every encroachment upon them, to 

 preserve them as the apple of our eye, are the duty of 

 every Englishman, as far as he has capacity so to do. 



