Cobbett's Poor Man's Friend; In a Series of Letters Addressed to the Working Classes of Preston Paperback - 2009

From the publisher

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1826 edition. Excerpt: ...before, when all things " lay in common, men could lend one another no assistance, " but what was supplied by their corporal ability, and could " be charitable of nothing but of their strength. Farther, '.such is the force of property, that the proprietor hath a " right of delivering his goods with his own hands; everr ' such as he js obliged to give to others. Whence it fol" lows, that when one man has any thing owing front " another, he is not presently to seize on it at ar venture, but "i ought to apply himself to the owner, desiring to receive it " from his disposal.: Yet in case the other party refuse thus " to make good his obligation, the power and privilege of " property doth not reach so far as that the things may not " be taken away without the owner's consent, either by the " authority of the Magistrate in Civil Communities, or in " a state of Nature, by violence and hostile force. And " though, in regard to bare Natural Right, for a man to relieve another in extremity with his goods, for which he " liimself hath not so much occasion, be a duty obliging " only imperfectly, and not in the manner of a debt, since " it arises wholly from the virtue of humanity; yet there " seems to be no reason why, by the additional force of a " " civil ordinance, it may not be turned into a strict and "perfect obligation. And this, Selden observes to have " been done among the Jews; who, upon a man's refusing " to give such alms as were proper for him, could force " him to it by an action at law. It is no wonder, there" fore, that they should forbid their poor, on any account, " to seize on the goods of others, enjoining them to take only " what private persons, or the Public Officers, or Stewards " of Alms, should give them on their...