Pol. Just. Book VIIT, chap. vr

3. Thoughts occasioned by the perusal of Dr. Parr's Spital Sermon, preached at Christ Church, april 15, 1800 ; being a reply to the attacks of Dr. Parr, Mr. Mackintosh, the author of an éssay on population, and others, by William Godwin, London, 1801. — Avec ce petit ouvrage, on peut tenir comme définitivement close la polémique mémorable que les évé- : nements de France soulevèrent en Angleterre, et qui débuta par les Reflections de Burke, ou même, si l’on veut, par le discours de Price on the love of our country.

LE DROIT À L'ASSISTANCE. — WILLIAM GODWIN

1. Eden lui-même explique comme suit (livre 1, chap. 1) que l'État soit intéressé à l’accomplissement de la fonction d'assistance publique : « That, in rescuing the Infant Poor from beggary and want, the sources of useful population are augmented ; that, in a ready care and cure of the Sick Poor (by the restoration of whose health, indüstrÿ recovers her best means), the productive capital of the nation is increased; and that a bare subsistence for the Aged Poor, is no more than the fair right of those who have spent their best days, and exhausted their strength, in the service of the Public ». — Sur la loi des pauvres comme consacrant le droit à la subsistance et le droit au travail, v. même ouvrage, vol. I, pp. 467 sqq. — C’est à un point de vue un peu différent que se plaçaitle

Dr. Woodward, évêque de Cloyne, dans son « Address to the Public, on the Inexpediency of à regular Plan for the Maintenance and Government of the Poor in Ireland», lorsqu'il voyait dans l'assistance publique un moyen pour faire du contrat originel une réalité, et non plus une fiction. « However flattering to the love of liberty the idea of an original compact may be, and however useful to ascertain the rights and duties of magistrate and subject, yet, in reality, every man is adopted, by compulsion, into the society of which his parents were citizens, entitled only to that portion of the public wealth which accrues to him by inheritance, and precluded from all right of occupaney over any other; that, consequently, if his parents were so poor as to transmit no patrimony to him, he is born the inhabitant of a land, every spot of which is appropriated to some other person How can they (the Rich) justify their exclusive property in the common heritage of mankind, unless they consent, in return, to provide for the subsistence of the Poor, who were excluded from those common rights by the laws of the Rich, to which they were never parties ? » (Cité par Eden, State of the Poor, vol. I, pp. 413-441).

2. Arthur Young, The question of Scarcity plainty stated, and Remedies considered (publiée en 1800). — Allusion au « cow system » ap. Th. Paine, Agrarian Justice, etc.: With this aid they could buy a cow and implements to cultivate a few acres of land; and, instead of becoming burdens upon society, which is always the case, where children are produced faster then they can be fed, would be put in the way of becoming useful and profitable citizens.

3. Rights of Man, Part II, chap. v. Ways and Means of improving the condition of Europe, etc.

4. Agrarian Justice, opposed to Agrarian Law and to Agrarian Monopoly ; being a plan for meliorating the condition of man, by creating in every nation a national fund, to pay to every person, when arrived at the age of twenty one years, the sum of fifteen pounds sterling, to enable him, or her, to begin in the world ; and also ten pounds sterling per annum during life to every person non living, of the age of fifty years, and to all others when they shall arrive at that age, to enable them to live in old age without wretchedness, and go decently out of the world,

5. Pol. Just. Book VIT, of Property. Beaucoup plus développé dans la seconde édition que dans la première, où le chapitre IT fait défaut et le chapitre L° se présente sous une forme abrégée. Le droit de propriété avait été fondé-directement sur la considération de l'utilité sociale, avant Godwin, par Priestley, An Essay, ete. sec. IT. Political Liberty (édit. 1771, pp. 40-42): The sum of what hath been advanced upon this head, is a maxim, than which nothing is more true, that every government, in ils original principles, and antecedent to üs present form, is an equal republic; and, consequently, that every man, when he comes to be sensible of his

natural rights, and to feel his own importance, will consider himselt as fully equal to any other person whatever, The consideration of riches and power, however acquired, must be entirely set aside, when we come to these first principles. The very idea of property, or right of any kind, is founded upon a regard to the general good of the society, under whose protection it is enjoyed; and nothing is properly a man’s own, but what general rules, which have for their object the good of the whole, give to him. To whomsoever the society delegates its power, it is delegated to them for the more easy management of public affairs, and in order to make the more effectual provision for the happiness of the whole. Whoever enjoys property or riches in the state, enjoys them for the good of the state, as wellas for himself; and whenever those powers, riches or rights of any kind, are abused, to the injury of the whole, that awful and ultimate tribunal, in which every citizen hath an equal voice, may demand the resignation of them ; and in circumstances, where regular commissions from this abused public cannot be had, every man who has power, and who is actuated with the sentiments of the public, may assume a public character, and bravely redress public wrongs. — Sauf la théorie des « règles générales » et la théorie du « droit de résistance », c’est la doctrine de Godwin. La théorie de Godwin sur ce point a été excellemment analysée par Anton Menger, Das Recht auf den vollen Arboitsertrag p. 141 sqq. :