Here, my friends, you see the origin out of the hearts of the very best and of property, which word means a most virtuous of all mankind, the agrithing which belongs to a person's cultural labourers of this land, so faself, and a thing that nobody else has voured by God Almighty, and for so any right to. But, observe, Stiles many ages the freest and happiest had no property in the crop till he country in the world! But, my friends, created it by his labour; and that, men did not enter into civil society for therefore, labour, and labour only, is the purpose of bringing upon themthe sole foundation of any property selves duties only: they had another whatsoever. Man's first duty, then, is object; namely, that of creating and to labour in some way or other in order enjoying rights. Just, indeed, as we to raise his means of living. If his have seen in the case of John Stiles, father, for instance, have laboured be- who had his crop of wheat taken away fore him, and has given or left him the by the stronger man Nokes, who left fruit of his labour, he has as good a him nothing but a few wheel-barrows right to that as if it were the fruit of full of accursed potatoes, and all their his own labour; a man's next duty is, natural consequences, poverty of blood, to refrain from taking by force or by leprosy, scrofula, pottle-belly, and fraud the property of another man; swelled heels! Now, whenever civilfor, to protect men in the enjoyment of society produces such a state of things, their property was the great end in when a laborious man like John Stiles forming civil society. Perhaps it would is treated in the same way that Nokes not be difficult to prove, that men who treated him, that civil society has not are compelled to work for their bread, answered its purpose. Labour, as we are, provided they earn a sufficiency of have seen, was the foundation of all food and of raiment and other neces- property, and must always be the saries of life, as happy and even happier foundation of property. The labourer, than those who are not compelled to therefore, has a property in his labour; work for their bread; but at any rate, and, as St. James says in his Epistle, such is the nature of things, such is the and as Moses and Jesus Christ order of the world, that there always himself say, to rob the labourer of have been and always must be some his hire, that is to say, to take from very rich and some very poor, and great him or to withhold from him the due multitudes not rich; but in a just state reward of his labour, is the greatest of things, there never will be great crime that man can commit against multitudes steeped in poverty. The God. order of the world demands that some The rights of the labourer are, first, to shall think, while others work; that have food, raiment, fuel lodging, medisome shall make and execute the laws cal and spiritual comfort, in return for to which all are to yield obedience. his labour, and all these, too, in quantity Poverty, therefore, even in its extreme state, gives no man a right to view his rich neighbour with an evil eye, much less to do him mischief on account of his riches. If the laws be impartial in themselves, and be executed with impartiality, every man's conscience will tell him, that it is his bounden duty to yield them a cheerful obedience, and further, to yield respect and honour to those who are charged with the execution of the laws.

and quality sufficient for the preservation of his life, health, and vigour. Next, if he be unable to work, unable to earn a sufficiency for his family, or unable to obtain work so as to obtain that sufficiency; in either of these cases, he and his family have a right to have a sufficiency supplied out of the superfluities of those to whom the law of civil society has secured more than they want. This claim of the poor man is, as Judge Blackstone states, founded in Such are the great duties of all men the very first principle of civil society; in civil society; and God forbid that for it cannot be believed that men can these principles should ever be rooted have assented to enter civil society for

any purpose other than that of the benefit of the whole; it cannot be believed that a million of men, for instance, entered into 'civil society in order that a couple of thousand should have all the meat and all the bread and all the good clothing, and that all the rest should live upon potatoes and go covered with miserable rags. No man upon earth, unless he be one who lives upon the labour of others, will pretend to believe that men entered into civil society, in order that those who did no work, that led idle lives, that created nothing, should have bread and flour and beer and clothing and all sorts of good things, a hundred times more than they wanted; while those that laboured and made all these things, were compelled to live upon a miserable watery root, or die with starvation.

con

Kensington, 24th January, 1831. IN No. IV. of this work, I addressed you on the subject of FLEMING'S (Willis) speech, made against me, at a dinner at Botley, where one of the keen Such are the duties and such the rights WARNERS was in the chair at one end of labouring men. Our forefathers, who of the table. They EXULTED at the well understood those duties and those circumstances that drove me from Botrights, cheerfully performed the one ley. In a few weeks afterwards we read and amply enjoyed the other. They of an attack on the homestead of Willis had an abundance of meat, of bread, (Fleming); and now, in the weekly paper and of all the fruits of the earth; they ("THE BALLOT ") of yesterday, we read were clothed throughout in good wool- the following:-" A most alarming fire len and linen; they had great store of "broke out last night at the seat of household goods and of every-thing to" J. Fleming, Esq. (one of the memmake life easy and pleasant; and when" bers for this county), at Stoneham old age or widowhood, or the orphan" Park, four miles from this place, state, or accident, or any circumstance" which threatened destruction to the producing indigence, befel them, the "mansion, but by the wind changpriest of the parish maintained them "ing, this disastrous fire was out of the tithes, administering to their "fined to the two wings which were wants as the law enjoined," with his " completely gutted. No lives were lost, own hands in charity, humility, and" and the property, we believe, was inmercy. And this, observe, was a "sured. It has been ascertained beyond RIGHT which they enjoyed, and that," doubt, that the fire originated in the too, a right as perfect as that of any apartments appropriated to the serman to his house or his land. When " vants, therefore it is not to be consiour country was bereft, by means which" dered as the work of an incendiary, I have not now the room to describe, "but the pure result of accident.' of that species of protection for the What! the two wings take fire by accipoor, the poor-law was passed to supply dent at one and the same time! the place of that protection; to paro- paragraph is, apparently, taken from chial relief, therefore, the aged, the the paper of the very villain, at Southwidow, the orphan, the infirm, amongst ampton, who published the attack on the labouring people, have just the me by WILLIS and the GRASPALLS and same right as their forefathers had to their crew. They have, seemingly, somethat which was administered to then in thing else to do now than to utter slan so just and kind and Christian-like a ders on me. It will be curious to hear what they will have to say, when Fleming gives the GRASPALLS the next guttle

แ

manner.

12.

That the ministers and the Parlia

This

at my house, in the year 1800; we soon became opposed to each other in politics; but, though we had not spoken to each other for some years, he came to see me when I was in prison, and, upon leaving that prison, I found that though Messrs. Alderman WooD and GoODBEHERE had greatly interested themselves for me, it was to him that I owed a great part of the indulgent treatment that I experienced, to which there belonged this additional merit, that he does not, even to this hour, know that I ever was apprised of his benevolent interference.

THE efforts of this noisy City Cock" to get into a fat birth for life, that of CITY CHAMBERLAIN, have been defeated in a most signal manner, the poll being 3405 for Sir James Shaw, and 1986 for him, when, on Wednesday Still, Sir, notwithstanding these connight, he gave up the contest. I am siderations, which by most men will be aware of the natural dislike. of my considered sufficient to determine my readers to have their valuable time choice, in a case where the office to be wasted on remarks on the conduct of obtained has no apparent connexion such a man; but, there are circum- with political principles or stances, connected with this election, quences, if I had seen in his opponent which will, I hope, be my apology for a man unexceptionable in other respects, the remarks that I am about to offer. and of my own political principles, I On the 26th instant, I sent the follow-should have deemed it my duty to vote ing letter to the Editor of the Morning for that opponent; because the happiChronicle.

To the Editor of the Morning Chronicle.

Kensington, 26th January, 1831.

conse

ness and honour of our country ought, in my opinion, to be preferred before every good of a nature more confined.

But, Sir, do I see in Mr. Waithman SIR, I went, on Friday last, with the a man of my political principles? The intention of being the very first Livery great principle is, and has been, in this man of London to vote for Sir James country, for years, the absolute necessity Shaw in preference to Mr. Alderman of a radical reform of the Parliament. Waithman. I was prevented from so To that principle Mr. Waithman is a doing by the speech of the Alderman, greater enemy than Sir James Shaw, in which, in point of length, exceeded that just that degree that open is less inof the time that I had to spare. To- jurious than disguised enmity. When day I have voted in accordance with Mr. Waithman was Sheriff, he refused my first intention; and, if you will be to call a meeting for reform in the so kind as to give me the room, I will county of Middlesex, though the restate to you, and through you to my quisition, most numerously and rebrother Liverymen, my reasons for giv-spectably signed; was carried him by ing this vote, which reasons are as follows:

Major Cartwright. In the perilous year 1817, when thousands of petitions I have known Sir James Shaw rather were presented for reform, he got up more than thirty years; and I never have a meeting at the Freemasons' Tavern, known a man of more uprightness and to pray for a reform more moderate more benevolence, completely severed than the petitions prayed for; and his from all ostentation. I have known language upon that occasion was such several of his acts, either of which as to encourage the Sidmouths and would add lustre to the brightest character. I have never been what can be called intimate with him; our acquaintanceship arose from his visiting an American gentleman, a common friend,

Castlereaghs to pass the horrible laws by which they crushed the press and crammed the dungeons. If he, or his sons, had not places under the Whigs, in 1806, it was not for want of asking

for. And have we forgotten his "re-siding Magistrate, and Aris, the gauler of tiring from public life," with all the the Coldbath-fields prison; and which, finally and fortunately, established the independence

lugubrious solemnity with which a Nun takes the veil, carrying with him, bowever, into his retirement, a service of plate, instead of a crucifix? Have we forgotten this, and his throwing off the veil (perhaps it was a shawl), and coming out again with more front than ever, as soon as he had compounded for his sins? And have we forgotten his refusal to listen to the Butchers in the case of the grand contemplated job for slaughtering cattle by steam; and have we so soon forgotten the figure his name makes in the Appendix to the Parliamentary Report on that curious matter? And can we have forgotten his conduct with respect to the City Meeting for the purpose of applauding the French for their last glorious achievement? And, looking at these things, or at any one of a score others that I might mention, are men to be accused of "political apostacy," because they prefer the consistent, the sincere, the modest, the upright, the benevolent, though politically erroneous, Sir James Shaw to a man like this?

I am, Sir,

Your most obedient
And most humble servant,
WM. COBBETT.

of the great metropolitan county. Upon that
occasion Mr. Alderman Waithman's exertions
were not wanting on one side, any more than
Mr. Alderman Shaw's on the other. Both la
boured, as they always have laboured, in their
vocation, and both are fairly and equally en-
titled to the support of all those who maintain
the same principles with themselves; but that
Mr. Hume should withhold his support from
Mr. Waithman, and give it to Mr. Alderman
Shaw, is news indeed-it both grieves and
surprises me. He cannot surely know the
history of the times in which we lived previous
to his entrance upon his public career, or have
a notion of the dangers and difficulties and
disadvantages Mr. Waithmau exposed himself
to, in maintaining a cause few men ventured
to own, though now become fashionable; nor,
on the other hand, of the obvious line of safe
selfseekers of the day, then followed. Verily,
and selfish policy his antagonist, with all the
he hath had his reward; and if it de-
pended on the electors of Middlesex, I am
satisfied Mr. Waithman would now, though
late, reap his: I sincerely hope he may, not
anxious on that also, for I think he deserves
so much on his own account--although I am
it-as on account of the public, to which
nothing is more prejudicial than the constant
example of unrequited efforts in its behalf, ac-
companied with mortifying neglect. I am
glad to hear that Mr. Hobhouse presides at the
meeting to-day; it must be pleasing to the
electors of Westminster, so many of them being
electors of Middlesex. Had I known in time,
and that I could have been of any use, I
wou'd, notwithstanding my old enemy the
gout has hold of me by the heel, have put
myself into a coach and come up. It is trou
blesome to write, so I must end; have the
goodness to give this letter to Mr. Waithman's
Chairman, with 501. contribution towards his
"I remain, dear Sir,
"Yours very sincerely,

expenses.

"F. BURDETT."

The letter arrived too late, I suppose, for insertion in the Chronicle of the 27th. At the close of the poll, on Wednesday, just after I came away, the speech-making began, and WAITHMAN again accused his opponents, and me The reader will laugh at these sly amongst the rest, of political apostacy, hints about Middlesex, particularly at and even of “rank conspiracy." One the idea of a poor good-for-nothing of his partizans, a Mr. DILLON, who, thing like this, thinking that he could it seems, came from a Committee in set people against Mr. HUME, who, be Westminister, produced a letter from it. remembered, did NOT "stick his Burdett to the chairman of this com-knees in Canning's back!" This is a mittee, in the following words:

"Brighton, Jan. 25, 1831.

"DEAR SIR,-I ani sorry I was not earlier aware that I had any power of serving. Mr • Waithman in his election for the Chamberlainship of the city of London, or of marking, with propriety, my sense of the invariable conduct of Mr. Alderman Shaw, as a public man and particularly of his conduct as Sheriff towards the electors of Middlesex, during the great contest with Mr. Mainwaring, the pre

pretty fellow to talk about consistency, and to rip up the anti-reforming principles of Sir James Shaw! This is a pretty fellow to "grieve" at Mr. Hume's supporting, for a civil office, a man who, 25 years ago, opposed him in politics! and HOBHOUSE, too! fed with pap purchased with public money, and married to a wife who had, all her

life, been tax-fed! This is another The hand-bill, circulated in 1817, honourable proof of the goodness of entitled "SIGNOR WAITHMAN,” Waithman's pretensions. But, do we representing him as a POLITICAL QUACK, not judge of this man's cause at once, was written by Major Cartwright, and when we see amongst his supporters I have it now, in the Major's own handBURDETT and HOBHOUSE, who were, writing! The Major read it to Burdett only a few months ago, actually pelted and me, at the house of the former, in off the hustings at Covent Garden by the James Street. The Major had no people, of whom they have the brass thought of having it printed; but Burstill to call themselves the represen- dett insisted that it was too good a thing tatives? But (I had like to have for to be kept out of print. So that Waithgotten him) WAITHMAN had another man did not know that it was to this supporter, Mr. WOOLER, who speechified consistent and serious friend of his, that and accused me of having deserted the he owed the roar of laughter raised country in 1817, when I went to America! against him by that humorous squib. This miserable declaimer, whose wri- But," conspiracy!" What share have tings could not live a day in any-thing I, at any rate, had in such conspiracy; higher than a Two-penny scale! This I, who have been speaking contemptubattered sot, whose brains, when not ously of him for fourteen years at the animated by gin, are as vapid as the least. And as to the other conspirators, contents of a mug filled from the tap- to not one man of them did I ever tub; this scribe, who was silenced at speak on the subject, in my life. Nay, once by an act that put his productions until about a month ago, I have not, at a price but one degree higher than I am pretty certain, spoken to Sir waste paper! This is a pretty specimen James Shaw for these ten years last of the supporters of Waithman; a fine past. Then, he being walking up and triumphant contrast with the Fleet Street, and I being in my chaise, "Slades and the Rouths," who were going home, I gót as near to him as I apostates" and " conspirators" be- could, and, as soon as I caught his eye, cause they differed in opinion from said: "Ah! we Jacobins shall beat you man like this!

for his excellent private character, and as a mark of my detestation of the public character of his opponent.

now!" And, laughing, shook his umWaithman makes it a crime in the brella at me, and said something that I "SLADES and the ROUTHS," that they could not hear for the noise of the proposed to raise a sum of money to wheels. In short, my vote was given, put Mr. Cobbett in Parliament. Why, when I knew that it was not wanted, they did subscribe; and, the only dif- merely as a mark of my great respect ference between them and his worthy friend, Burdett, in this respect is, they did it without promising to do it; and that he most solemnly promised to do it, and did not do it! This is the difference between WAITHMAN'S supporter and those who "" conspired" against him. His friend, Mr. DILLON, when he was pointing to the statue of Pitt, as that of the man who had done so much mischief to the country, was not aware, perhaps, that Waithman himself voted for the putting up of that very statue, or, at least, did not oppose it; and that his apology for so doing was, that his friend CHANTRY, who was to make the statue, who was to have our money for doing the job, was a true friend of liberty!"

As if we still wanted some additional proof of the silliness, the low-mindedness, the want of decent pride, the want of common spirit in this blustering and brazen bawler. I hate to fill up my paper with this rubbish; but as it is likely to be amongst the last that is to come from him, let us have it.

Mr. Alderman WAITHMAN again came forward. He hoped they would do him the justice to believe that he would not shrink back from any contest of that sort so long as there was the slightest chance that its continuance would be attended with the slightest benefit to the public. Notwithstanding the dangerous illuess of his son, and notwithstanding the shameful desertion of his political friends, he