42 COBBETT'S [No, 



justice is there, then, in calling upon this man to 

 take up arms and risk his life in the defence of the 

 land: what is the land to him ? I say, that it is some- 

 thing to him ; I say y that he ought to be called forth to 

 assist to defend the land ; because, however poor he 

 may be, he has a share in the land, through the poor- 

 rates ; and if he he liable to be called forth to defend 

 the land, the land is always liable to be taxed for his 

 support. This is what I say: my opinions are con- 

 sistent with reason, with justice, and with the law 

 of the land; but, how can MALTHUS and his silly and 

 nasty disciples ; how can those who want to abolish 

 the poor-rates or to prevent the poor from marrying; 

 how can this at once stupid and conceited tribe look 

 the labouring man in the face, while they call upon 

 him to take up arms, to risk his life, in defence of the 

 land ? Grant that the poor-laws are just ; grant that 

 every necessitous creature has a right to demand re- 

 lief from some parish or other ; grant that the law 

 has most effectually provided that every man shall 

 be protected against the effects of hunger and of cold; 

 grant these, and then the law which compels the 

 man without house or land to take up arms and 

 risk his life in defence of the country, is a perfectly 

 just law; but, deny to the necessitous that legal and 

 certain relief of which I have been speaking; abolish 

 the poor laws; and then this military-service law be- 

 comes an act of a character such as I defy any pen 

 or tongue to describe. 



52. To say another word upon the subject is cer- 

 tainly unnecessary; but we live in days when "stern 

 necessity^ has so often been pleaded for most fla- 

 grant departures from the law of the land, that one 

 cannot help asking, whether there were any greater 

 necessity to justify ADDINGTON for his deeds of 1817 

 than there would be to justify a starving man in tak- 

 ing a loaf? ADDINGTON pleaded necessity, and he 

 got a Bill of Indemnity. And, shall a starving man 

 be hanged, then, if he take a loaf to save himself 

 from dying ? When Six ACTS were before the Par- 

 liament, the proposers and supporters of them never 



