P
Peter_Dawson
Guest
This issue – Is disobeying the law always a sin? – came up in the Hitchhiking thread.
I’m a lawyer, and I say, “No.”
During the Irish Potato Famine, as the Blight began destroying the crops, Parliament realized that they were looking at a catastrophe-in-formation. The problem was that the English landlords (who originally stole the lands by force of arms, by the way) had forced about three-quarters of the Irish into potato cultivation. So, to force variety, Parliament imposed the “Four Pound Clause,” creating a huge annual tax equivalent to about $3,000 in today’s money on every quarter-acre “lazy bed” (for potatoes).
To avoid the tax, landlords began evicting literally everyone, under a standard lease clause permitting eviction for even no reason, and destroyed their “lazy beds.”
Suddenly, 4 million Irish were homeless. As they walked the roads begging, they built junky little shanties in the gutters to the left and right of the roads.
In response, landlords had many counties pass laws prohibitting stopping!
The evicted Catholics were not allowed to stop to rest!
1,500,000 died on the Irish roads. Another 250,000 exhausted, skeletal victims died on the boats on the way over.
So, was it a “sin” for those people to break the law by stopping to rest?
I’m a lawyer, and I say, “No.”
During the Irish Potato Famine, as the Blight began destroying the crops, Parliament realized that they were looking at a catastrophe-in-formation. The problem was that the English landlords (who originally stole the lands by force of arms, by the way) had forced about three-quarters of the Irish into potato cultivation. So, to force variety, Parliament imposed the “Four Pound Clause,” creating a huge annual tax equivalent to about $3,000 in today’s money on every quarter-acre “lazy bed” (for potatoes).
To avoid the tax, landlords began evicting literally everyone, under a standard lease clause permitting eviction for even no reason, and destroyed their “lazy beds.”
Suddenly, 4 million Irish were homeless. As they walked the roads begging, they built junky little shanties in the gutters to the left and right of the roads.
In response, landlords had many counties pass laws prohibitting stopping!
The evicted Catholics were not allowed to stop to rest!
1,500,000 died on the Irish roads. Another 250,000 exhausted, skeletal victims died on the boats on the way over.
So, was it a “sin” for those people to break the law by stopping to rest?