488 History of the English Landed hiterest. 



closer insiglit into the circumstances and wants of the labour- 

 ing classes than that to which any closet student, however 

 gifted, could admit us. 



Now Cobbett, inconsistent in most arguments, never abused 

 the English Poor Law system. In the days before he was 

 prejudiced against all authority, he describes it as the best in 

 the world — the fairest for the giver, and the least degrading 

 to the receiver. " So wisely," he asserts, " did our forefathers 

 contrive this system, that the compulsion being general, has in 

 it nothing invidious on the one part, or humiliating on the 

 other. The poor man in England," he maintains, " is as 

 secure from beggary as is the king upon the throne, because 

 when he makes known his distress to the parish officers, they 

 bestow on him not alms, but his legal dues." ^ 



If we search the volumes of the Political Register, The Poor 

 Man^s Friend^ The Legacy to the Labourers, and other works 

 of Cobbett, we shall find this doctrine maintained. "Writing, 

 however, in 1820, he declares that " England now contains the 

 most miserable people that ever trod the earth. It is the seat 

 of greater human suffering, of more pain of body and of mind, 

 than was ever before heard of in the world. In countries 

 which have been deemed the most wretched, there never has 

 existed wretchedness equal to that which is now exhibited in 

 this once flourishing, free, and happy country." ^ 



But this pessimism was not intended to prepare the public 

 mind for an attack on the Poor Laws, for he goes on to assert, 

 " In this country, however, the law provides that no human 

 being shall suffer from want of food, lodging, or raiment. It 

 said, and still says, that to make a sure and certain provision 

 for the poor is required by the first principles of civil society. 

 But what do we see before our e3^es at this moment. We see 

 all over the kingdom misery existing to such an extent that, 

 in spite of the Poor Laivs, there is a system of general beggary 

 under the name of subscriptions, voluntary contributions, soup 

 shops, shelters in the metropolis, etc." 



' Porcupine Prieatley'' s Charity Sermon for Poor Emigrants. Ck)b- 

 bett's note, vol. ix. p. 389. 

 ^ "To the Industrial Classes," Pol. Rrg.^ 1820. 



