A

LEGACY TO LABOURERS;

AN ARGUMENT, SHOWING THE RIGHT OF THE POOR TO RELIEF
FROM THE LAND; ALSO AN ENQUIRY AS TO WHAT IS THE
RIGHT OF THE LORDS, BARONETS, AND SQUIRES TO THE
OWNERSHIP OF THE LANDS OF ENGLAND: IN SIX
LETTERS, ADDRESSED TO THE WORKING
PEOPLE OF ENGLAND.

With a Dedication to Sir Robert Peel, Bart.

EY WILLIAM COBBETT, M.P.
FOR OLDHAM.

"A due care for the relief of the poor is an act of great civil pru-
dence and political wisdom: for poverty in itself is apt to emasculate
the minds of men, or, at least, it makes men tumultuous and unquiet.
Where there are many very poor, the rich cannot long or safely con-
tinue such."-SIR MATTHEW HALE, Tract touching Provision for the
Poor. Preface. 1683.

CONTENTS.

DEDICATION TO SIR ROBERT PEEL;

STATING THE REASONS FOR WRITING THE BOOK, AND ALSO THE

REASONS FOR DEDICATING IT TO HIM.

LETTER I.

HOW CAME SOME MEN TO HAVE A GREATER RIGHT TO PAR

CELS OF LAND THAN ANY OTHER MEN HAVE TO THE SAME
LAND?

LETTER II.

WHAT RIGHT HAVE ENGLISH LANDLORDS TO THE LANDS? HOW CAME THEY IN POSSESSION OF THEM? OF WHAT NATURE IS THEIR TITLE ?

LETTER III.

IS THEIR RIGHT TO THE LAND ABSOLUTE? IS THE LAND NOW THEIR OWN OR, ARE THEY STILL HOLDERS UNDER A SUPERIOR?

LETTER IV.

HAVE THEY DOMINION IN THEIR LANDS? OR, DO THEY

LAWFULLY POSSESS ONLY THE USE OF THEM?

THEY DO WHAT THEY LIKE WITH THEIR LANDS?

CAN

CAN THEY USE THEM SO AS TO CAUSE THE NATIVES ΤΟ

PERISH OF HUNGER OR OF COLD?

DEDICATION.

SIR,

TO SIR ROBERT PEEL, BARONET.

Wolseley Hall, 10 Dec., 1834.

DEDICATIONS are, generally, things of a very unmeaning character. Whatever this may be in other respects, it shall not be without a meaning: it shall state to you, without flattery and without rudeness; FIRST, my reasons for writing and publishing this book; and, SECOND, my reasons for dedicating it to you.

My reasons for writing and publishing this book are these: it has always been my wish, that the institutions of England and her fundamental laws should remain unchanged. Not that I was unable to discover, in the order of nobility, and the circumstances connected with that order; in the distribution of the immense property of the church; in some other really properly called institutions of the country, things which I could have wished to be otherwise, than to be as they were: but there was so much of good in the institutions which we inherited from our fathers, that I always looked at any change in them with