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tablished, it is impossible to believe that it had not in view some provision for these destitute persons. It would be monstrous to suppose the contrary. The contrary supposition would argue, that fraud was committed upon the mass of the people in forming this civil society; for, as the sparks fly upwards, so will there always be destitute persons, to some extent or other, in every community, aud such there are now to a considerable extent, even in the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA; therefore, the formation of the civil society must have been fraudulent or tyrannical upon any other supposition than that it made provision, in some way or other, for destitute persons; that is to say, for persons unable, from some cause or other, to provide for themselves the food and raiment sufficient to preserve them from perishing. Indeed, a provision for the destitute seems essential to the lawfulness of civil society; and this appears to have been the opinion of BLACKSTONE, when, in the first Book and first Chapter of his Commentaries on the Laws of England, he says, "The law "not only regards life and member, and pro"tects every man in the enjoyment of them, "but also furnishes him with everything necessary for their support. For there is no "man so indigent or wretched, but he may "demand a supply sufficient for all the neces"saries of life from the more opulent part of "the community, by means of the several "statutes enacted for the relief of the poor; a humane provision dictated by the principles """ of society."

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4. If the society did not take care to act upon this principle; if it neglected to secure the legal means of preserving the life of the indigent and wretched; then the society itself, in so far as that wretched person was concerned, ceased to have a legal existence. It had, as far as related to him, forfeited its character of legality. It had no longer any claim to his submission to its laws. His rights of nature returned: as far as related to him, the law of nature revived in all its force that state of things in which all men enjoyed all things in common was revived with regard to him; and he took, and he had a right to take, food and raiment, or, as Blackstone expresses it, supply sufficient for all the necessities of life.” For, if it he true, as laid down by this English lawyer, that the principles of society; if it be true, that the very principles, or foundations of society dictate, that the destitute person shall have a legal demand for a supply from the rich; sufficient for all the necessities of life; if this be true, and true it certainly is, it follows of course that the principles, that is, the base, or foundation, of society, are subverted, are gone; and that society is, in fact, no longer what it was intended to be,when the indigent, when the person in a state of extreme necessity, cannot, at once, obtain from the rich such sufficient supply in short, we need go no further than this passage of BLACKSTONE, to show, that civil society is subverted, aud that there is, in fact, nothing legitimate in it, when the destitute and wretched have no certain and legal

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3. No man will contend, that the main body 5. But this is so important a matter, and of the people, in any country upon earth, and there have been such monstrous doctrines and of course in England, would have consented projects put forth hy MALTHUS, by the EDINto abandon the rights of nature; to give up BURGH REVIEWERS, by LAWYER SCARLETT, by their right to enjoy all things in common; no LAWYER NOLAN, by STURGES BOURNE, and by man will believe, that the main body of the an innumerable swarm of persons who have people would ever have given their assent to been giving before the House of Commons the establishing of a state of things which what they call "evidence:" there have been should make all the lauds and all the trees, such monstrous doctrines and projects put and all the goods and cattle of every sort, pri- forward by these and other persons; and vate property; which should have shut out a there seems to be such a lurking desire to large part of the people from having such pro- carry the hostility to the working classes still perty, and which should, at the same time, further, that I think it necessary, in order to not have provided the means of preventing show that these English poor-laws, which those of them, who might fall into indigence, have been so much calumniated by so many from being actually starved to death! It is greedy proprietors of land; I think it necesimpossible to believe this. Men never gave sary to show that these poor-laws are the things their assent to enter into society on terms like which men of property, above all others, ought these. One part of the condition upon which to wish to see maintained, seeing that, accordmen entered into society was, that care shoulding to the opinions of the greatest and wisest be taken that no human being should perish of men, they must suffer most in consequence from want. When they agreed to enter into ofthe abolition of those laws; because, by the that state of things, which would necessarily abolition of those laws, the right given by the cause some men to be rich and some men to be laws of nature would revive, and the des'itute poor; when they gave up that right, which would take, where they now simply demand God had given them, to live as well as they (as BLACKSTONE expresses it) in the name of could, and to take the means wherever they the law. There has been some difference of opifound them, the condition clearly was, the nion, as to the question, whether it be theft or "principle of society;" clearly was, as BLACK-no theft; or, rather, whether it be a criminal STONE defines it, that the indigent and wretched should have a right to demand from the rich a supply sufficient for all the necessities of life."

act or not a criminal act, for a person, in a case of extreme necessity from want of food, to take food without the assent and even against the will, of the owner. We have, amongst our

great lawyers, Sir MATTHEW HALE and Sir WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, who contend (though as we shall see, with much feebleness, besitation, and reservation), that it is theft, notwithstanding the extremity of the want; but there are many, and much higher authorities, foreign as well as English, on the other side. Before, however, I proceed to the hearing of these authorities, let me take a short view of the origin of the poor-laws in England; for that view will convince us, that, though the present law was passed but a little more than two hundred years ago, there had been some thing to effect the same purpose ever since England had been called England.

me your best attention, for, I am here going to show you, how the ENGLISH POOR-LAW came to be passed; and how it happened, that no such POOR-LAW ever came to exist in Scotland and in Ireland.

8. I have told you before, that the canonlaw, the common-law, and the ancient statutelaw, all insisted upon a provision for the poor, that is to say, for persons in want of a sufficiency of food, clothing, and lodging; but I must now explain this matter to you more fully; and, here, I beg you to observe these things; first, that effectual provision was made for the poor by the law of MOSES; that charity was, above all things, inculcated by 6. According to the common-law of Eng-JESUS CHRIST; that the Apostles most strictly land, as recorded in the Mirrour of Justices, adhered to his commands in this respect; that, a book which was written before the Norman co-eval with their teaching were their collecConquest; a book in as high reputation as tions for the poor and needy, and that the buany law-book, as any one in England; ac-siness of those whom they appointed to be cording to this book, chapter 1st., section deacons, was to superintend the tables at 3rd., which treats of the "First constitutions which the poor were fed. When Christianity made by the ancient kings;" according to this came to extend itself over great communities work, provision was made for the sustenance of men, the provision for the destitute became of the poor. The words are these: "It was a larger and more regular concern; till at last, "ordained, that the poor should be sustained in all the Christian nations of the world, "by parsons, by rectors of the church, and by TITHES were established by law as an efficient, "the parishioners, so that none of them die for unvarying, and certain resource for the poor "want of sustenance." Several hundred years and necessitous. What we behold now, is a later, the canons of the church show, that monstrous misapplication of the tithes. The when the church had become rich, it took upon ministers, and parsons of different degrees, itself the whole of the care and expense at- and even lay-persons, seem to regard them as tending the relieving of the poor. These belonging to them, instead of belonging to the canons, in setting forth the manner in which necesstrous part of the community. A part of the tithes should be disposed of, say, "Let the tithes, if not wanted for the purpose of "the priests set apart the first share for the charity, were allowed to be applied to the build"building and ornaments of the church; leting and the ornaments of the churches; but, "them distribute the second to the poor and it was always held, that even the altar might "strangers, with their own hands, in mercy be stripped of its ornaments; and that its gold " and humility; and let them reserve the and silver ought to be sold and turned into third part for themselves." This passage is food and raiment, if necessary to the relief of taken from the canons of ELFRIC, canon 24th. the poor. In proof of this, take the following At a later period, when the tithes had, in beautiful passage from ST. AMBROSE, one of some places, been appropriated to convents, the fathers of the church. "When other acts of Parliament were passed, compelling the" means are wanting wherewith to feed the impropriators to leave, in the hands of their" poor, apply even the sacred vases to that vicar, a sufficiency for the maintenance of the purpose. The church of CHRIST stands in poor. There were two or three acts of this sort" no need of gold, except for the purpose of passed, one particularly in the twelfth year of" feeding the hungry and clothing the naked RICHARD the Second, chapter 7th. So that" and freeing the captive. If the necessitous here we have the most ancient book on the "come to starvation, how will the ministers common-law; we have the canons of the" of the church answer their Saviour, when he church at a later period; we have acts of Par-" shall say: You had gold, and you might liament at a time when the power and glory of" have relieved the poor; you had gold, and England were at their very highest point; we you might have freed the captive; it was have all these to tell us, that in England," the live vessels, and not the golden ones, from the very time that the country took the" that you ought to have preserved. Will the name, there was always a legal and secure "accused be able to answer this reproach by provision for the poor, so that no person, how-" saying: I was, O Lord, afraid of dimiever aged, infirm, unfortunate, or destitute, “nishing the magnificence of thy temple."? should suffer from want. "The divine reply will be: My sacraments derive not their virtue from gold; the feeding of the poor, the freeing of the cap"tive, constitute the best ornaments of my temple: the most precious vases are those which are employed in sustaining the life of man.'”

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7. But, my friends, a time came when the" provision made by the common-law, by the canons of the church, and by the acts of the Parliament coming in aid of those canons; a time arrived, when all these were rendered null" by what is called the PROTESTANT REFORMA-" TION. And, here, I must beseech you to lend

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9. The priests, the teachers of the Christian

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Eighth of England, the aristocracy agreed with the King to seize upon the abbey-lands, and divide them amongst themselves; and in that reign and in the three succeeding reigns, they took away the tithes and the whole of the church revenues; and from that time to this they have either kept them to themselves, or disposed of them at their pleasure.

religion, had no claim to anything for themselves, beyond what was absolutely necessary to the sustaining of life and health; and that, too, in the most unostentatious and frugal manner of life. ST. PAUL had said, "that the labourer was vorthy of his hire;" and that he who served at the altar, should live by the altar;" this, having been, even more than a thousand years ago, interpreted by some of the clergy to meau, that they had a right to appropriate a large part of the church revenues to their own use, another father of the church gives them this reproof upon the subject: The labourer," says he, "is truly "worthy his hire, and he who serves at the "altar must live by it. Let him live by the "altar, but let him be satisfied with his food "and clothing, according to the precept of "the apostle. Let him live by the altar, but "let him not be enriched; let him not waste "in vain expenses the sacred oblations; let "Fim not accumulate wealth, as ST. JEROME "observes, out of the ecclesiastical property. "Let him live by the altar, but let him not "erect sumptuous palaces, appropriating for purposes of luxury that which is naturally "destined for the purposes of charity. Let "him live by the altar, but let him not accu"mulate riches; nor spend in vain and su"perfluous enjoyments the sacred property of "the church. Let him live by the altar, but "let him not enrich his relations with the re"venues of the church. Let him remember, "that it is a sacrilegious deed to apply the "goods of the poor to those who are not in "need. The patrimony of the church is the "patrimony of the poor, and the ministers of "the church are guilty of a sacrilegious im"piety, if they attempt to keep for themselves "anything whatever besides their food and "clothing, because they are not the proprie"tors, but simply the administrators and dis-sation at all. At their "union" with Eng. "tributors of the patrimony of the church."

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11. The people of England thus despoiled of their patrimony, and left without any source of relief, in case of need, demanded A COMPENSATION for that which had been taken from them. At first, those who had got possession of the church revenues continued to give relief, in some degree, out of those revenues; but this relief grew smaller and smaller, till at last the people of England insisted upon a regular settled compensation. But now, instead of the aristocracy giving relief out of the tithes and the abbey lands, they passed a law to provide for a general assessment of all perSons occupying real property, which assessment has continued to the present day, under the name of poor-rates. This law, which was passed in the 43d year of the reign of ELIZABETH, provided for the relief of the poor in the best and most effectual manner. It compelled every parish to appoint, on Easter Monday of every year, by a majority of voices of the rate payers, an ovERSEER (being a rate-payer in the parish) to collect whatever money might be wanted for the relief of the poor, and to distribute such relief to whomsoever, belonging to the parish, might stand in need of it. The overseer was not limited to any specific sum, but was to demand and to collect whatever sum might be wanted.

12. Thus, things went on in England for more than two hundred years. The people of Scotland, harassed and oppressed by their sanguinary chieftains, obtained no compens

land, great care was taken not to give them 10. One would think that St. Jerome had this law; and the miserable pittance which actually seen, in a vision, the parsons and they get now, and that too, only in some parts ministers of England and Scotland of the of Scotland, is a mockery rather than the present day! To prevent all temptation to reality of relief; and as to poor Ireland, as it purloin the goods of the poor, the clergy were did not turn Protestant, it had to think itself forbidden to marry. In Eugland, Scotland, harpy if its people were allowed to starve and Ireland, besides the parish churches and without being compelled to die with apostacy bishoprics, and the revenues intrusted to on their lips. But now, mark well as to Engthem, there were numerous monasteries and land herself. The taxes having pressed all hospitals, and free chapelries, founded and the industrious classes to the earth, the poor endowed either by the sovereigus or by private have become forty times as numerous as they persons; but the endowments were always were fifty years ago; and of course the poormerely in trust for the benefit of the poor, rates, or charges upon the land, have become after providing for the monks, the nuns, and heavy in proportion. The Parliament instead other persons belonging to the foundation, and of removing the cause of this increase of pothese were all forbidden to marry, and most verty, have begun at the other end; namely, strictly prohibited from applying any part of diminishing the proportion of relief given to the revenues to their own private use, or to the necessitous. In order to do this, it made that of their relatious or friends. Thus the a monstrous alteration in the poor-law: it tithes and the property of the monasteries and enacted, in the first place, that, all matters in hospitals, which are now called abbey-lands, parish vestries should be decided, not by a always were, in reality and in practice, the majority of the single votes of the rate-payers; patrimony of the poor; and always were so but that every rate payer should have a numconsidered by all the laws. these three king.ber of votes, in proportion to the amount of his doms. But in the reign of King HENRY the occupation or possessions; so that this threw

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15. I begin with Sir MATTHEW HALE (a Chief Justice of the Court of King's Bench in the reign of Charles the Second), who, in his Pleas of the Crown, chap. IX., has the fol lowing passage, which I put in distinct paragraphs, and mark A, B, and C.

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16. A. "Some of the casuists, and particu larly COVARRUVIUS, tom. I. De furti et

the whole power of the vestries into the hands | words, letters, and figures which are usually of the rich. Then, another law immediately made use of in quoting from these works. followed this, authorising these rich pa- Some part of what I shall quote will be in rishioners to form select vestries, and the law Latin: but I shall put nothing in that langave to these select vestries the sole power of guage of which I will not give you the transgiving or of withholding relief, subject to no lation. I beg you to read these quotations control, not even of the magistrates. This with the greatest a tention; for you will find, law further authorised the select vestry to have at the end of your reading, that you have oba HIRED OVER EER, who might be an tained great knowledge upon the subject, and utter stranger to the parish; and the real knowledge, too, which will not soon depart parochial overseer was thus deprived of all from your minds. power to afford relief, and the whole of the poor were thus placed solely at the mercy of the rich! And, people of Scotland, these two laws, well known by the name of Sturges Bourne's Bills, are the real cause of all those disgraceful doings, all those troubles, all those alarms, of which you have heard amongst your brethren of the South; and what is to be the end of all these, no man can conjecture," rapina restitutione, § 3, 4, p. 473; and GROuntil he shall see what is the character, and "TIUS, de jure belli ac pacis; lib. II. cap. 2. § what are likely to be the measures of the Par-" 6, tells us, that in case of extreme necessity, liament now about to assemble. "either of hunger or clothing, the civil dis13. Thus, then, the present poor-laws are "tributions of property cease, and by a kind of no new thing. They are no gift to the work-tacit condition the first community doth reing-people. You hear the greedy part of the "turn, and upon this those common asserlandowners everlastingly complaining against "tions are grounded: Quicquid necessitas this law of QUEEN ELIZABETH. They pretend" cogit, defendit.' [Whatever necessity calls that it was an unfortunate law. They affect" for, it justifies.] 'Necessitas est lex temto regard it as a great INNOVATION, seeing "poris et loci.' [Necessity is the law of time that no such law existed before; but, as I and place.] In casu extrema necessitatis have shown, a better law existed before, hav-"omnia sunt communia. [In case of extreme ing the same object in view. I have shown," necessity, all things are in common]; aud, that the "Reformation," as it is called, had therefore, in such case theft is no theft, sweeped away that which had been secured to "or at least not punishable as theft; and the poor by the common-law, by the cauons of " some even of our own lawyers have asserted the church, aud by ancient acts of Parliament." the same; and very bad use hath been made There was nothing new, then, in the way of "of this concession by some of the Jesuitical benevolence towards the people, in this cele-"casuists of France, who have thereupon adbrated act of Parliament of the reign of QUEEN"vised apprentices and servants to rob their ELIZABETH; and the landowners would act "masters, where they have been indeed them. wisely by holding their tongues upon the sub-" selves in want of necessaries, of clothes or ject; or, if they be too noisy, one may look into their GRANTS, and see if we cannot find something THERE to help out the present" parochial assessments.

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victuals; whereof, they tell them, they them"selves are the competent judges; and by this means let loose, as much as they can, by their doctrine of probability, all the liga"ments of property and civil society."

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14. Having now seen the origin of the present poor-laws and the justice of their due ex- 17. B. "I do, therefore, take it, that, where ecution, let us return to those authorities of "persons live under the same civil governwhich I was speaking but now, and an exa- ment, as here in England, that rule, at least mination into which will show the extreme "by the laws of England, is false; and, danger of listening to those projectors who "therefore, if a person being under necessity would abolish the poor-laws; that is to say, 'for want of victuals, or clothes, shall, upon who would sweep away that provision which "that account, clandestinely, and animo was established in the reign of QUEEN ELIZA- 'furandi,' [with intent to steal,] steal anoBETH, from a conviction that it was absolutely "ther man's goods, it is felony, and a crime, necessary to preserve the peace of the country "by the laws of England, puuishable with and the lives of the people. I observed before "death; although the judge before whom the that there has been some difference of opinion" trial is, in this case (as in other cases of examongst lawyers as to the question, whether "tremity) be by the laws of England intrustit be, or be not, theft, to take, without his "ed with a power to reprieve the offender, consent and against his will, the victuals of "before or after judgment in order to the another, in order to prevent the taker from "obtaining the king's mercy. For, 1st, starving. Sir MATTHEW HALE and Sir WIL-"men's properties would be under a strange LIAM BLACKSTONE say that it is theft. I am" insecurity, being laid open to other men's now going to quote the several authorities on both sides, and it will be necessary for me to indicate the works which I quote from by the

"necessities, whereof no man can possibly "judge, but the party himself. And, 2ud, "Because by the laws of this kingdom [here

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"he refers to the 43 Eliz. cap. 2] sufficient | faith, to make us believe, that the "casuists "provision is made for the supply of such of France," who, doubtless, had servants of "necessities by collections for the poor, and their own, would teach servants to rob their "by the power of the civil magistrate. Conso- masters! In short, this prattle of the judge "nant hereunto seems to be the law even seems to have been nothing more than one of 66 among the Jews; if we may believe the those Protestant effusions which were "wisest of kings. Proverbs vi. 30, 31. 'Men much in fashion at the time when he wrote. "do not despise a thief, if he steal to satisfy 21. He begins his second paragraph, or "his soul when he is hungry, but if he be paragraph B., by saying, that he "takes it" "found, he shall restore seven-fold, he shall to be so and so; and then comes another quagive all the substance of his house.' It is lified expression; he talks of civil government true, death among them was not the penalty" as here in England," Then he says, that "of theft, yet his necessity gave him no exception from the ordinary punishment in"flicted by their law upon that offence."

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the rule of GROTIUS and others, against which he has been contending," he takes to be false, at least," says he, "by the laws of England." 18. C. Indeed this rule, 'in casu extrema After he has made all these qualifications, he "necessitatis omnia sunt communia,' does then proceeds to say that such taking is theft; "hold, in some measure, in some particular that it is felony; that it is a crime which the 66 cases, where, by the tacit consent of na- laws of England punish with death! But, as "tions, or of some particular countries or if stricken with remorse at putting the fright"societies, it hath obtained. First, amongful words upon paper; as if feeling shame for "the Jews, it was lawful in case of hunger to the law and for England itself, he instantly "pull ears of standing corn, and eat (Matt. begins to tell us, that the judge who presides ❝xii. 1); and for one to pass through a vine- at the trial is intrusted, "by the laws of Eng"yard, or oliveyard, to gather and eat with- land," with power to reprieve the offender, in "out carrying away. Deut. xxiii. 24, 25. order to the obtaining of the King's mercy! "SECOND, By the Rhodian law, and the com- Thus he softens it down. He will have it to "mon-maritime custom, if the common pro- be LAW to put a man to death in such a case; “vision for the ship's company fail, the mas- but he is ashamed to leave his readers to be"ter may, under certain temperaments, break lieve, that an English judge and an English 46 open the private chests of the mariners or king WOULD OBEY THIS LAW! passengers and make a distribution of that "particular and private provision for the pre"servation of the ship's company." Vide Consolato del Mare, cap. 256. Les Costumes de la Mer, p. 77."

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22. Let us now hear the reasons which he gives for this which he pretends to be law. His first reason is, that there would be no se→ curity for property, if it were laid open to the necessities of the indigent, of which neces 19. Sir WILLIAM BLACKSTONE agrees, in sities no man but the takers themselves could substance, with HALE; but he is, as we shall be the judge. He talks of a 66 strange insecupresently see, much more eager to establish rity;" but, upon my word, no insecurity could his doctrine; and, we shall see besides, that be half so strange as this assertion of his own. he has not scrupled to be guilty of misquoting, BLACKSTONE has just the same argument. and of very shamefully garbling, the Scrip- "Nobody," says he, "would be a judge of ture, in order to establish his point. We shall the wants of the taker, but the taker himself;" find him flatly contradicting the laws of Eng- and BLACKSTONE, copying the very words of land; but, he might have spared the Holy HALE, talks of the "strange insecurity" arisScriptures, which, however, he has not done.ing from this cause. Now, then, suppose a 20. To return to HALE, you see he is compelled to begin with acknowledging that there are great authorities against him; and he could not say that GROTIUS was not one of the most virtuous as well as one of the most learned of mankind. HALE does not know very well what to do with those old sayings about the justification which hard necessity gives he does not know what to do with the maxim, that," in case of extreme necessity all things are owned in common." He is exceedingly puzzled with these ancient authorities, and flies off into prattle rather than argument, and tells us a story about "Jesuiti- 23. Aye, says Judge HALE; but I have cal" casuists in France, who advised appren- another reason, a devilish deal better than tices and servants to rob their masters, and this, "and that is, the act of the 43d year of that they thus "let loose the ligaments of the reign of QUEEN ELIZABETH!" Aye, my property and civil society." I fancy that it old boy, that is a thumping reason!" "Suffiwould require a pretty large portion of that" cient provision is made for the supply of such sort of faith which induced this Protestant" necessities by collections for the poor, and by judge to send witches and wizards to the gal-" the power of the civil magistrate." Aye, aye! lows; a pretty large portion of this sort of that is the reason; and, Mr. Sir MATTHEW

man to come into my house, and to take away a bit of bacon. Suppose me to pursue him and seize him. He would tell me that he was starving for want of food. I hope that the bare statement would induce me, or any man in the world that I do call or ever have called my friend, to let him go without further inquiry; but, if I chose to push the matter further, there would be the magistrate. If he chose to commit the man, would there not be a jury and a judge to receive evidence and to ascertain whether the extreme necessity existed

or not?

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