30 COBBETT'S [No. 



stitution." That is to say, to relieve the necessitous ; 

 to prevent their suffering from want ; completely to 

 render starvation impossible, makes a part of our 

 very constitution. " THEREFORE, our laws ought 

 by no means to be taxed with being unmerciful for 

 denying this privilege to the necessitous." Pray 

 mark the word therefore. You see, our laws, he 

 says, are not to be taxed with being unmerciful in 

 deeming the necessitous taker a thief. And why are 

 they not to be deemed unmerciful? BECAUSE 

 the laws provide effectual relief for the necessitous. 

 It follows, then, of course, even according to BLACK- 

 STONE himself, that if the Constitution had not pro- 

 vided this effectual relief for the necessitous, then the 

 laws would have been unmerciful in deeming the ne- 

 cessitous taker a thief. 



37. But now let us hear what that GROTIUS and 

 that PUFFENDORF say ; let us hear what these great 

 writers on the law of nature and of nations say upon 

 this subject. BLACKSTONE has mentioned the names 

 of them both ; but he has not thought proper to no- 

 tice their arguments, much less has he attempted to 

 answer them. They are two of the most celebrated 

 men that ever wrote ; and their writings are referred 

 to as high authority, with regard to all the subjects of 

 which they have treated. The following is a pas- 

 sage from GROTIUS, on War and Peace, Book II., 

 chap. 2. 



38. " Let us see, further, what common right there 

 appertains to men in those things which have already 

 become the property of individuals. Some persons, 

 perchance, may consider it strange to question this, 

 as proprietorship seems to have absorbed all that 

 right which arose out of a state of things in common. 

 But it is not so. For, it is to be considered, what 

 was the intention of those who first introduced pri- 

 vate property, which we may suppose to have been 

 such, as to deviate as little as possible from natural 

 equity. ' For if even written laws are to be construed 

 in that sense, as far as it is practicable, much more 

 so are customs, which are not fettered by the chains 



