When they agreed to enter into that state of things, which would
necessarily cause some men to be rich and some men to be poor; when they
gave up that right, which God had given them, to live as well as they
could, and to take the means wherever they found them, the condition
clearly was, the "_principle of society_;" clearly was, as BLACKSTONE
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."

12. 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, "a supply
sufficient for all the necessities of life." For, if it be 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, is subverted, is 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, and that
there is, in fact, nothing legitimate in it, when the destitute and
wretched have no certain and legal resource.

13. But this is so important a matter, and there have been such monstrous
doctrines and projects put forth by MALTHUS, by the EDINBURGH REVIEWERS,
by LAWYER SCARLETT, by LAWYER NOLAN, by STURGES BOURNE, and by an
innumerable swarm of persons who have been giving before the House of
Commons what they call "_evidence_:" there have been such mo