492 History of the English Landed Interest. 



3. That landlords will all become paupers themselves, unless 

 something be done to put a stop to the increase of those all- 

 devouring poor-rates. 



With regard to the first of these propositions, Cobbett him- 

 self admits that he shared the same views at an earlier period. 

 Since then his mind had changed, principally because he could 

 find no better substitute to meet the necessity than the existing 

 legislation. It was preferable for men to apply for relief under 

 the prevailing system than, as in Scotland, to go from door to 

 door with a beggar's badge on the shoulder and a beggar's 

 licence in the pocket. It was infinitely preferable than that 

 they should be again branded in the cheek, and with iron collars 

 and manacles become slaves to the rich, as in Tudor times ; 

 and lastly, it was no more degrading for them to have this 

 resource in old age or sickness than for the disabled soldiers 

 and sailors to draw their pensions. 



Turning to the second proposition, Cobbett maintained that 

 the right of the poor to claim relief was antecedent to all Acts 

 of Parliament, a practice and duty of the landlord and tithe- 

 owner long before the existence of monasteries, never subse- 

 quently removed, but expressly reserved by Henry the Eighth's 

 abolitionary legislation, and, therefore, a constitutional right 

 of the poor of his day as completely as it had been of their 

 Papist forefathers. 



If, therefore, according to proposition 3, the landlords re- 

 quired State assistance, Cobbett called upon the Lord Chancellor 

 to afford it out of the fifty-two millions absorbed by taxation 

 instead of out of the comparatively trivial four millions and a 

 half devoted to pauper relief. In conclusion, he asserts that 

 nine-tenths of the magistrates and clergy disapproved of the 

 Bill, that the farmers and tradesmen detested it to a man, and 

 that the entire community saw in it a project for drawing the 

 rates, and (what was still worse), the wages of the poor into 

 the pockets of the landlord.^ 



But enough has been now said to demonstrate the influences 

 set in motion by these two opposite characters, Cobbett and 



* "To tho Earl of Radnor," Political Register, Aug. 6, 1834. 



