The Law Of This Country

The law of this country is, that every man, able to carry arms, is liable to be called on, to serve in the militia, or to serve as a soldier in some way or other, in order to defend the country. What, then, the man has no land; he has no property beyond his mere body, and clothes, and tools; he has nothing that an enemy can take away from him. What 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.

— William Cobbett, The Poor Man’s Friend