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 petition. Whence the stealing of what was another's, though upon
extreme necessity, passed in that state for theft or rapine. But now
supposing _under another government the like good provision is not made
for persons in want_, supposing likewise that the covetous temper of men
of substance cannot be prevailed on to give relief, and that the needy
creature is not able, either by his work or service, or by making sale of
anything that he possesses, to assist his present necessity, _must_ he,
_therefore, perish with famine_? Or _can any human institution bind me_
with such a force that, in case another man neglects his duty towards me,
_I must rather die, than recede a little from the ordinary and regular way
of acting_? We conceive, therefore, that such a person doth _not contract
the guilt of theft_, who happening, not through his own fault, to be in
extreme want, either of necessary food, or of clothes to preserve him from
the violence of the weather, and cannot obtain them from the voluntary
gift of the rich, either by urgent entreaties, or by offering somewhat
equivalent in price, or by engaging _to work it out, shall either forcibly
or privily relieve himself out of their abundance_; especially if he do it
with full intention to pay the value of them whenever his better fortune
gives him ability. Some men deny that such a case of _necessity_, as we
speak of, can possibly happen. But what if a man should wander in a
foreign land, unknown, friendless, and in want, spoiled of all he had by
shipwreck, or by robbers, or having lost by some casualty whatever he was
worth in his own country; should none be found willing either to relieve
his distress, or to hire his service, or should they rather (as it
commonly happens,) seeing him in a good garb, suspect him to beg without
reason, must the poor creature starve in this miserable condition?"

42. Many other great foreign authorities might be referred to, and I
cannot help mentioning COVARRUVIUS, who is spoken of by JUDGE HALE, and
who expresses himself upon the subject in these words: "The reason why a
man in extreme necessity may, _without incurring the guilt of theft or
rapine_, forcibly take the goods of others for his present relief, is
because his condition _renders all thing