If, then, the right of every individual to preserve life, (a right which he never did or could abdicate,) be incontestable; if no man can deny this right, neither can any man deny that the governing power in a state is entitled and obliged to provide, in one shape or other, for the preservation of the lives of its subjects; whereas, if it neglect to do so, it must either punish, as crimes, what in reality are not offences against the laws of nature, or it must permit what are called theft, robbery, violence, and even bloodshed, when these happen to be committed by its subjects, driven to the committal of them by extreme want. As to the manner in which a state may secure subsistence for its indigent subjects, or rather for such of them as cannot possibly sustain themselves, that is a question left to the wisdom or discretion of the ruling powers; it may be done by a distribution of land at home, or by colonization abroad; by a Church establishment, or other corporations entrusted with funds for the maintenance of the poor; by an assessment on property, or by the establishment of alms-houses; but whilst the mode of executing this duty is discretionary with the state, the fulfilment of the duty itself, is of the most strict and rigorous obligation. No theories on political

economy, a most useful science, but one as yet not fully understood, nor rightly applied, can supersede this obligation on the part of a government, whether Christian or Infidel; nor can any person assert with truth, that property, however sacred its nature may be supposed, can be protected against such claims as may be made upon it by the state, for the preservation of the life of the meanest or most worthless of its subjects.

But if a state be found which neglects its duty, so as to postpone the preservation of life to the security of property; should a state be found, which not only does this, but leaves a multitude of its subjects to die of hunger; what is the duty in such a state of those members of the community who hold property at a time when extreme want presses on some portion of their fellow-subjects? Are these proprietors justified in imitating the conduct of government; and can they look on their brethren, dying of want, and be guiltless of their blood? Most certainly not, and the reason is this. That all men are bound to concur in preserving the order established by God, and as this order requires that life be preferred to every other earthly good, he who sees a man perish whom he could save by a sacrifice of property, fails to pre

serve, so far as in him lies, that order in the universe which God established. In other words, he is guilty of the loss of that life which he could have preserved at the expense of a portion of his property. Nor can the example of the state or government justify him, for as no man is justified in doing wrong, by imitating others, neither can a member of any community be justified by the wrong doing of the other members, or of that power or government which represents them.

All consideration of religion is excluded from the foregoing argument, because there may be persons who admit that an obligation of preserving the lives of our brethren in want, at the sacrifice of our goods, arises from the precept of Christian charity; but deny, or rather do not comprehend, how such an obligation can arise from justice, or from the immutable laws of HIM who is the fountain of all justice.

These persons, however, should know that the Blessed Author of our religion, in establishing his code of mercy or mutual love, including a communication of property and good offices, did not annul or supersede any one of those eternal rules upon which justice is founded. What he did was to take the laws of distributive justice, always

existing, but seldom observed, and to raise them to the dignity and sanctity of laws of charity. He explained, and urged us to fulfil, what in justice we owe to each other. He called the fulfilment of those duties by the tender name of charity, or mercy to the poor, and annexed to the performance of them, the rewards of eternal life. Not an iota or a single point did he take away from the law of justice; but he invited to the fulfilment of its duties, by the most pathetic exhortations, and the most solid and lasting rewards. What, therefore, we are bound in charity to perform, we are also generally obliged in justice to fulfil, and the degree or rigour of the obligation is measured more by the urgency of our brother's distress, and by our means of relieving it, than by the quality of the virtue which enjoins its fulfilment.

The admirable doctrine of our Saviour-a doctrine worthy of a God made man, who came into the world that the world might be saved by him, was then rightly understood by Christian states, when they sanctioned the setting apart a portion of the goods of the community for the maintenance of the poor, and entrusted the dispensation of those goods to a class of men, who, divested of other cares, might be the faithful almoners of the

state. It was truly in the spirit of Christ that men, whose characters were holy, and whose affections in this world were not divided, should be appointed to feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, and console the afflicted; but the charity of the Christian world has waxed cold, and not only did the trustees of the poor often become their despoilers, but rapine and sacrilege have stretched their hand to the fund itself of the widow, and to the patrimony of the orphan. In this country there is a crying sin-there is a loud complaint going up daily to heaven, that the property of the poor is held captive in injustice; that their rights are withheld; that their title is known and recognised by all, save those who could enforce it for them; that they daily die of want, whilst their expiring glance rests on the gorgeous, the ungodly display of ecclesiastical pride and pomp; whilst their last sigh can scarcely fail to bring down a heavy curse on that wealth which was left for their support, but which so cruelly and so long has been wrested and withheld from them.

As I intend, however, to lay before the public, in the sequel of these observations, a sketch of the origin, nature, and destination of Church Property as it existed in the several ages of the Gospel dis