THE RIGHTS OF THE STARVING POOR.

Auckland Star, Volume XIX, Issue 100, 28 April 1888, Page 3 (Supplement)

THE RIGHTS OF THE STARVING POOR.

A correspondent of the ' New York World' had an interview with Cardinal Manning, with reference to his Eminence's recent article in the ' Fortnightly Review,' in which he affirmed the right of starving men to take the property of others to sustain life. He .said his article would certainly nob be hold to justify the unemployed in restoring to violence. His purpose was to sho»v that the English Poor-law was founded upon the broad law of uaturc, and that its recent administration had deviated from its original intention, thereby causing excessive suffering from which follow pauperism and the crime which comes from desperation. In his article he had said that by the natural law a hungry man had a right to demand work or bread, and upon that principle the Poor law of Elizabeth was founded. His Eminence, after reading to his interviewer copious extracts from St. Thomas Aquinas and other great Church authorities, all going much further than himself in asserting the natural right of man, proceeded to state that this doctrine was not safe to give to the uneducated masses without explanation. But while it might be a violation of human law, it would not transgress the moral law. He gave those references to Church authorities for those who were able and are bound to study and to know the foundations of all human law, and not for the uneducated and the profligate, who would abuse them, contrary to their trud and evident sense. As to the present method of administering relief, he was convinced that all the original Poor-laws were designed t.o keep alive and to confirm the domestic life of thepoor. For the prosperity of the Commonwealth, it was vital to maintain all the obligations and charities of home. Outdoor relief from tho Poor-law, and a very slight relief, would be enough— would be a cheap price for so great a boon. He applied this especially to the unemployed who were thrown out of work by winter, and by no fault of their own. Onco break up a poor man's home, and the family became pauperised for life, because the home can rarely be reconstructed. It seemed to him cruel to offer relief in the workhouse, and still ltore to refuse all relief in such cases.