s that circumstance alone to
deprive him of his right, a right of which he stands more in need than
any other man? Perhaps he has, for many years of his life, contributed
directly to those rates; and ten thousand to one he has, by his labour,
contributed to them indirectly. The aid which, under such circumstances,
he receives, _is his right_; he receives it not as _an alms_: he is no
mendicant; he begs not; he comes to receive that which _the law of the
country awards him_ in lieu of the _larger portion_ assigned him by the
_law of Nature_. Pray mark that, and let it be deeply engraven on your
memory. The audacious and merciless MALTHUS (a parson of the church
establishment) recommended, some years ago, the passing of a law to _put
an end to the giving of parish relief_, though he recommended no law to
put an end to the enormous taxes paid by poor people. In his book he
said, that the poor should be left to the _law of Nature_, which, in
case of their having nothing to buy food with, _doomed them to starve_.
They would ask nothing better than to be left to the _law of Nature_;
that law which knows nothing about _buying_ food or any thing else; that
law which bids the hungry and the naked _take_ food and raiment wherever
they find it best and nearest at hand; that law which awards all
possessions to the _strongest_; that law the operations of which would
clear out the London meat-markets and the drapers' and jewellers' shops
in about half an hour: to this law the parson wished the parliament to
leave the poorest of the working people; but, if the parliament had done
it, it would have been quickly seen, that this law was far from 'dooming
them to be starved.'

341. Trusting that it is unnecessary for me to express a hope, that
barbarous thoughts like those of Malthus and his tribe will never be
entertained by any young man who has read the previous Numbers of this
work, let me return to my _very, very poor man_, and ask, whether it be
consistent with justice, with humanity, with reason, to deprive a man of
the most precious of his political rights, because, and _only because_,
he has been, in a pecuniary way, _singularly unfortunate_? The Scripture
says, 'Despise not the poor, _because_ he is poor;' that is to say,
despise him not _on account of his poverty_. Why, then, deprive him of
his right; why put him out of the pale of the law, on account of his
poverty? There are _some_ men, to be sure, who are reduced to poverty b