_justice_ is there, then, in calling upon this man to take up arms and
_risk his life_ in the _defence of the land_: what is the land to him? I
_say_, that it is something to him; I _say_, that he ought to be called
forth to assist to defend the land; because, however poor he may be, _he
has a share in the land_, through the poor-rates; and if he be liable to
be called forth to defend the land, _the land is always liable to be taxed
for his support_. This is what _I say_: my opinions are consistent with
reason, with justice, and with the law of the land; but, how can MALTHUS
and his silly and _nasty_ disciples; how can those who want to abolish the
poor-rates or to prevent the poor from marrying; how can this at once
stupid and conceited tribe look the labouring man in the face, while they
call upon him to take up arms, to risk his life, in defence of the land?
Grant that the poor-laws are just; grant that every necessitous creature
has a right to demand relief from some parish or other; grant that the law
has most effectually provided that every man shall be protected against
the effects of hunger and of cold; grant these, and then the law which
compels the man without house or land to take up arms and risk his life in
defence of the country, is a perfectly just law; but, deny to the
necessitous that legal and certain relief of which I have been speaking;
abolish the poor laws; and then this military-service law becomes an act
of a character such as I defy any pen or tongue to describe.

52. To say another word upon the subject is certainly unnecessary; but we
live in days when "_stern necessity_" has so often been pleaded for most
flagrant departures from the law of the land, that one cannot help asking,
whether there were any greater necessity to justify ADDINGTON for his
deeds of 1817 than there would be to justify a starving man in taking a
loaf? ADDINGTON pleaded _necessity_, and he got a Bill of _Indemnity_.
And, shall a starving man be hanged, then, if he take a loaf to save
himself from dying? When SIX ACTS were before the Parliament, the
proposers and supporters of them never pretended that they did not
embrace a most dreadful departure from the ancient laws of the land. In
answer to LORD HOLLAND, who had dwelt forcibly on this departure from the
ancient law, the Lord Chancellor, unable to contradict LORD HOLLAND,
exclaimed, "_Salus populi suprema lex_," that is to say "_The salvation of
the people is the first