VAGRANCY. 391 



of course, their number is daily on the increase. This is a question 

 which has never yet obtained its due appreciation, but to which I 

 am anxious, in these limited pages, to call public attention, as also 

 to draw to the subject the consideration of men free from pre- 

 judice, and disposed to listen to the suggestions of truth and 

 justice. 



In civilised societies all men are bound to contribute their 

 quota to the necessities of the state, in order to enable the govern- 

 ment to afford that protection which civil and social institutions 

 demand : the man of capital, his resources ; the man of art, his 

 skill ; the proprietor of the soil, his produce ; the tiller of the 

 ground, his labour. In addition, all are bound so to employ their 

 faculties and exert their energies, that they shall neither become 

 a helpless charge on the state, a burden to their fellow citizens, or 

 indolently and criminally live at tlje expense of the commonwealth. 

 Now, I am not aware on what principle it can be assumed, that 

 the people of these colonies should be made exceptions to this 

 common rule. The liberty granted by Parliament to the slaves 

 was certainly not the natural unrestrained liberty of the savage, 

 but that civil liberty which permits no man to do what can be in- 

 j urious to his neighbour. The man who possesses not an income, 

 an independent freehold, or a rent-roll, must labour in accordance 

 with his ordinary avocation. The artisan must work, the tiller of 

 the soil must toil ; if he works not, if he toils not, want and distress 

 must inevitably be his companions. Food he must have ; true he 

 may obtain it on credit, but with a detriment to the community, 

 by non-payment ; if not attainable on this wise, he must steal. 

 In both cases, the gaol must be his resting-place, either under a 

 civil process, or under a penal conviction; in either case, this man 

 becomes a charge on the public revenue, that is, the other 

 members of his society are called upon to contribute to his sup- 

 port in confinement, after his having, whilst at liberty, taxed their 

 property by dishonesty. Besides, is he not responsible for the bad 

 example he sets to others, and to his own family, if he have any ? 

 is he not responsible for the special neglect manifested towards 

 the physical comfort and moral training of the latter ? It is not 

 in equity that such drones should be permitted in the hive of 

 social industry; and the state is justified in interfering and check- 

 ing their depredations. Why should some toil, and others be 

 allowed, with no claim whatever, to enjoy and consume the fruits 



