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diff --git a/44800-0.txt b/44800-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c211fae --- /dev/null +++ b/44800-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2497 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44800 *** + +THE LAW + +By Frédéric Bastiat + +Ludwig von Mises Institute Auburn, Alabama + +Cover: Prise de la Bastille ("The Storming of the Bastille"); 1789. +Painting by Jean-Pierre Hoiiel (1735-1813). Permission was obtained from +the Bibliothèque nationale de France for its use. + +Copyright © 2007 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Printed in China. + +Published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute + +518 West Magnolia Avenue, Auburn, Alabama 36832 + +ISBN: 978-1-933550-14-5 + +This book is licensed under a Creative Commons license. + + + +FOREWORD + +{v} + +Anyone building a personal library of liberty must include in it a copy +of Frédéric Bastiat's classic essay, "The Law." First published in 1850 +by the great French economist and journalist, it is as clear a statement +as has ever been made of the original American ideal of government, as +proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, that the main purpose of +any government is the protection of the lives, liberties, and property +of its citizens. + +Bastiat believed that all human beings possessed the God-given, natural +rights of "individuality, liberty, property." "This is man," he wrote. +These "three gifts from God precede all human legislation." But even in +his time--writing in the late 1840s--Bastiat was alarmed over how the +law had been "perverted" into an instrument of what he called legal +plunder. Far from protecting individual rights, the law was increasingly +used to deprive one group of citizens of those rights for the benefit +of another group, and especially for the benefit of the state itself. He +condemned the legal plunder of protectionist + +{vi} + +tariffs, government subsidies of all kinds, progressive taxation, public +schools, government "jobs" programs, minimum wage laws, welfare, usury +laws, and more. + +Bastiat's warnings of the dire effects of legal plunder are as relevant +today as they were the day he first issued them. The system of legal +plunder (which many now celebrate as "democracy") will erase from +everyone's conscience, he wrote, the distinction between justice and +injustice. The plundered classes will eventually figure out how to enter +the political game and plunder their fellow man. Legislation will never +be guided by any principles of justice, but only by brute political +force. + +The great French champion of liberty also forecast the corruption of +education by the state. Those who held "government-endowed teaching +positions," he wrote, would rarely criticize legal plunder lest their +government endowments be ended. + +The system of legal plunder would also greatly exaggerate the importance +of politics in society. That would be a most unhealthy development as +it would encourage even more citizens to seek to improve their own +well-being not by producing goods and services for the marketplace but +by plundering their fellow citizens through politics. + +Bastiat was also wise enough to anticipate what modern economists call +"rent seeking" and "rent avoidance" behavior. These two clumsy phrases +refer, respectively, to the phenomena of lobbying for political favors +(legal plunder), and of engaging in political activity directed at +protecting oneself from being the victim of plunder seekers. (For +example, the steel manufacturing industry lobbies for high tariffs on +steel, whereas steel-using industries, like the automobile industry, can +be expected to lobby against high tariffs on steel). + +{vii} + +The reason why modem economists are concerned about "rent seeking" is +the opportunity cost involved: the more time, effort and money that +is spent by businesses on conniving to manipulate politics--merely +transferring wealth--the less time is spent on producing goods and +services, which increases wealth. Thus, legal plunder impoverishes +the entire society despite the fact that a small (but politically +influential) part of the society benefits from it. + +It is remarkable, in reading "The Law," how perfectly accurate Bastiat +was in describing the statists of his day which, it turns out, were not +much different from the statists of today or any other day. The French +"socialists" of Bastiat's day espoused doctrines that perverted charity, +education, and morals, for one thing. True charity does not begin +with the robbery of taxation, he pointed out. Government schooling is +inevitably an exercise in statist brainwashing, not genuine education; +and it is hardly "moral" for a large gang (government) to (legally) rob +one segment of the population, keep most of the loot, and share a little +of it with various "needy" individuals. + +Socialists want "to play God," Bastiat observed, anticipating all the +future tyrants and despots of the world who would try to remake the +world in their image, whether that image would be communism, fascism, +the "glorious union," or "global democracy." Bastiat also observed +that socialists wanted forced conformity; rigid regimentation of the +population through pervasive regulation; forced equality of wealth; and +dictatorship. As such, they were the mortal enemies of liberty. + +"Dictatorship" need not involve an actual dictator. All that was needed, +said Bastiat, was "the laws," enacted + +{viii} + +by a Congress or a Parliament, that would achieve the same effect: +forced conformity. + +Bastiat was also wise to point out that the world has far too many +"great men," "fathers of their countries," etc., who in reality are +usually nothing but petty tyrants with a sick and compulsive desire +to rule over others. The defenders of the free society should have a +healthy disrespect for all such men. + +Bastiat admired America and pointed to the America of 1850 as being +as close as any society in the world to his ideal of a government that +protected individual rights to life, liberty, and property. There +were two major exeptions, however: the twin evils of slavery and +protectionist tariffs. + +Frédéric Bastiat died on Christmas Eve, 1850, and did not live to +observe the convulsions that the America he admired so much would go +through in the next fifteen years (and longer). It is unlikely that he +would have considered the U.S. government's military invasion of the +Southern states in 1861, the killing of some 300,000 citizens, and the +bombing, burning, and plundering of the region's cities, towns, farms, +and businesses as being consistent in any way with the protection of +the lives, liberties and properties of those citizens as promised by the +Declaration of Independence. Had he lived to see all of this, he most +likely would have added "legal murder" to "legal plunder" as one of the +two great sins of government. He would likely have viewed the post-war +Republican Party, with its 50 percent average tariff rates, its massive +corporate welfare schemes, and its 25-year campaign of genocide against +the Plains Indians as first-rate plunderers and traitors to the American +ideal. + +In the latter pages of "The Law" Bastiat offers the sage advice that +what was really needed was "a science of + +{ix} + +economics" that would explain the harmony (or lack thereof) of a free +society (as opposed to socialism). He made a major contribution to this +end himself with the publication of his book, _Economic Harmonies_, +which can be construed as a precursor to the modern literature of +the Austrian School of economics. There is no substitute for a solid +understanding of the market order (and of the realities of politics) +when it comes to combating the kinds of destructive socialistic schemes +that plagued Bastiat's day as well as ours. Anyone who reads this great +essay along with other free-market classics, such as Henry Hazlitt's +Economics in One Lesson and Murray Roth-bard's Power and Market, will +possess enough intellectual ammunition to debunk the socialist fantasies +of this or any other day. + +Thomas J. DiLorenzo May 2007 + +Thomas DiLorenzo is professor of economics at Loyola College in Maryland +and a member of the senior faculty of the Mises Institute. + + + + +THE LAW [1] + +{1} + +The law perverted! The law--and, in its wake, all the collective +forces of the nation--the law, I say, not only diverted from its proper +direction, but made to pursue one entirely contrary! The law become +the tool of every kind of avarice, instead of being its check! The law +guilty of that very iniquity which it was its mission to punish! Truly, +this is a serious fact, if it exists, and one to which I feel bound to +call the attention of my fellow citizens. + +We hold from God the gift that, as far as we are concerned, contains all +others, Life--physical, intellectual, and moral life. + +But life cannot support itself. He who has bestowed it, has entrusted us +with the care of supporting it, of developing it, and of perfecting +it. To that end, He has provided us with a collection of wonderful +faculties; He has plunged us into the midst of a variety of elements. It +is by + +{2} + +the application of our faculties to these elements that the phenomena of +assimilation and of appropriation, by which life pursues the circle that +has been assigned to it are realized. + +Existence, faculties, assimilation--in other words, personality, +liberty, property--this is man. + +It is of these three things that it may be said, apart from all +demagogic subtlety, that they are anterior and superior to all human +legislation. + +It is not because men have made laws, that personality, liberty, and +property exist. On the contrary, it is because personality, liberty, and +property exist beforehand, that men make laws. What, then, is law? As I +have said elsewhere, it is the collective organization of the individual +right to lawful defense. + +Nature, or rather God, has bestowed upon every one of us the right to +defend his person, his liberty, and his property, since these are the +three constituent or preserving elements of life; elements, each of +which is rendered complete by the others, and that cannot be understood +without them. For what are our faculties, but the extension of our +personality? and what is property, but an extension of our faculties? + +If every man has the right of defending, even by force, his person, his +liberty, and his property, a number of men have the right to combine +together to extend, to organize a common force to provide regularly for +this defense. + +Collective right, then, has its principle, its reason for existing, its +lawfulness, in individual right; and the common force cannot rationally +have any other end, or any other mission, than that of the isolated +forces for which it is substituted. Thus, as the force of an individual +cannot lawfully touch the person, the liberty, or the property of + +{3} + +another individual--for the same reason, the common force cannot +lawfully be used to destroy the person, the liberty, or the property of +individuals or of classes. + +For this perversion of force would be, in one case as in the other, in +contradiction to our premises. For who will dare to say that force has +been given to us, not to defend our rights, but to annihilate the equal +rights of our brethren? And if this be not true of every individual +force, acting independently, how can it be true of the collective force, +which is only the organized union of isolated forces? + +Nothing, therefore, can be more evident than this: The law is the +organization of the natural right of lawful defense; it is the +substitution of collective for individual forces, for the purpose of +acting in the sphere in which they have a right to act, of doing what +they have a right to do, to secure persons, liberties, and properties, +and to maintain each in its right, so as to cause justice to reign over +all. + +And if a people established upon this basis were to exist, it seems to +me that order would prevail among them in their acts as well as in their +ideas. It seems to me that such a people would have the most simple, the +most economical, the least oppressive, the least to be felt, the most +restrained, the most just, and, consequently, the most stable Government +that could be imagined, whatever its political form might be. + +For under such an administration, everyone would feel that he possessed +all the fullness, as well as all the responsibility of his existence. So +long as personal safety was ensured, so long as labor was free, and the +fruits of labor secured against all unjust attacks, no one would have +any difficulties to contend with in the State. When + +{4} + +prosperous, we should not, it is true, have to thank the State for our +success; but when unfortunate, we should no more think of taxing it with +our disasters than our peasants think of attributing to it the arrival +of hail or of frost. We should know it only by the inestimable blessing +of Safety. + +It may further be affirmed, that, thanks to the nonintervention of +the State in private affairs, our wants and their satisfactions would +develop themselves in their natural order. We should not see poor +families seeking for literary instruction before they were supplied +with bread. We should not see towns peopled at the expense of rural +districts, nor rural districts at the expense of towns. We should not +see those great displacements of capital, of labor, and of population, +that legislative measures occasion; displacements that render so +uncertain and precarious the very sources of existence, and thus enlarge +to such an extent the responsibility of Governments. + +Unhappily, law is by no means confined to its own sphere. Nor is it +merely in some ambiguous and debatable views that it has left its proper +sphere. It has done more than this. It has acted in direct opposition to +its proper end; it has destroyed its own object; it has been employed +in annihilating that justice which it ought to have established, in +effacing amongst Rights, that limit which it was its true mission to +respect; it has placed the collective force in the service of those who +wish to traffic, without risk and without scruple, in the persons, the +liberty, and the property of others; it has converted plunder into a +right, that it may protect it, and lawful defense into a crime, that it +may punish it. + +How has this perversion of law been accomplished? And what has resulted +from it? + +{5} + +The law has been perverted through the influence of two very different +causes--naked greed and misconceived philanthropy. + +Let us speak of the former. Self-preservation and development is the +common aspiration of all men, in such a way that if every one enjoyed +the free exercise of his faculties and the free disposition of their +fruits, social progress would be incessant, uninterrupted, inevitable. + +But there is also another disposition which is common to them. This is +to live and to develop, when they can, at the expense of one another. +This is no rash imputation, emanating from a gloomy, uncharitable +spirit. History bears witness to the truth of it, by the incessant wars, +the migrations of races, sectarian oppressions, the universality of +slavery, the frauds in trade, and the monopolies with which its annals +abound. This fatal disposition has its origin in the very constitution +of man--in that primitive, and universal, and invincible sentiment that +urges it towards its well-being, and makes it seek to escape pain. + +Man can only derive life and enjoyment from a perpetual search and +appropriation; that is, from a perpetual application of his faculties to +objects, or from labor. This is the origin of property. + +But also he may live and enjoy, by seizing and appropriating the +productions of the faculties of his fellow men. This is the origin of +plunder. + +Now, labor being in itself a pain, and man being naturally inclined to +avoid pain, it follows, and history proves it, that wherever plunder +is less burdensome than labor, it prevails; and neither religion nor +morality can, in this case, prevent it from prevailing. + +When does plunder cease, then? When it becomes more burdensome and more +dangerous than labor. It is + +{6} + +very evident that the proper aim of law is to oppose the fatal tendency +to plunder with the powerful obstacle of collective force; that all its +measures should be in favor of property, and against plunder. + +But the law is made, generally, by one man, or by one class of men. +And as law cannot exist without the sanction and the support of a +preponderant force, it must finally place this force in the hands of +those who legislate. + +This inevitable phenomenon, combined with the fatal tendency that, we +have said, exists in the heart of man, explains the almost universal +perversion of law. It is easy to conceive that, instead of being a check +upon injustice, it becomes its most invincible instrument. + +It is easy to conceive that, according to the power of the legislator, +it destroys for its own profit, and in different degrees amongst the +rest of the community, personal independence by slavery, liberty by +oppression, and property by plunder. + +It is in the nature of men to rise against the injustice of which they +are the victims. When, therefore, plunder is organized by law, for +the profit of those who perpetrate it, all the plundered classes tend, +either by peaceful or revolutionary means, to enter in some way into +the manufacturing of laws. These classes, according to the degree of +enlightenment at which they have arrived, may propose to themselves +two very different ends, when they thus attempt the attainment of their +political rights; either they may wish to put an end to lawful plunder, +or they may desire to take part in it. + +Woe to the nation where this latter thought prevails amongst the masses, +at the moment when they, in their turn, seize upon the legislative +power! + +{7} + +Up to that time, lawful plunder has been exercised by the few upon the +many, as is the case in countries where the right of legislating is +confined to a few hands. But now it has become universal, and the +equilibrium is sought in universal plunder. The injustice that society +contains, instead of being rooted out of it, is generalized. As soon as +the injured classes have recovered their political rights, their first +thought is not to abolish plunder (this would suppose them to possess +enlightenment, which they cannot have), but to organize against the +other classes, and to their own detriment, a system of reprisals--as if +it was necessary, before the reign of justice arrives, that all should +undergo a cruel retribution--some for their iniquity and some for their +ignorance. + +It would be impossible, therefore, to introduce into society a greater +change and a greater evil than this--the conversion of the law into an +instrument of plunder. + +What would be the consequences of such a perversion? It would require +volumes to describe them all. We must content ourselves with pointing +out the most striking. + +In the first place, it would efface from everybody's conscience the +distinction between justice and injustice. No society can exist unless +the laws are respected to a certain degree, but the safest way to make +them respected is to make them respectable. When law and morality are +in contradiction to each other, the citizen finds himself in the cruel +alternative of either losing his moral sense, or of losing his respect +for the law--two evils of equal magnitude, between which it would be +difficult to choose. + +It is so much in the nature of law to support justice that in the minds +of the masses they are one and the same. There is in all of us a strong +disposition to regard what is lawful as legitimate, so much so that many +falsely derive + +{8} + +all justice from law. It is sufficient, then, for the law to order +and sanction plunder, that it may appear to many consciences just and +sacred. Slavery, protection, and monopoly find defenders, not only +in those who profit by them, but in those who suffer by them. If you +suggest a doubt as to the morality of these institutions, it is said +directly--"You are a dangerous experimenter, a utopian, a theorist, +a despiser of the laws; you would shake the basis upon which society +rests." + +If you lecture upon morality, or political economy, official bodies will +be found to make this request to the Government: + + That henceforth science be taught not only with sole + reference to free exchange (to liberty, property, and + justice), as has been the case up to the present time, but + also, and especially, with reference to the facts and + legislation (contrary to liberty, property, and justice) + that regulate French industry. + + That, in public lecterns salaried by the treasury, the + professor abstain rigorously from endangering in the + slightest degree the respect due to the laws now in + force.[2] + +So that if a law exists that sanctions slavery or monopoly, oppression +or plunder, in any form whatever, it must not even be mentioned--for how +can it be mentioned without damaging the respect that it inspires? Still +further, morality and political economy must be taught in connection +with this law--that is, under the supposition that it must be just, only +because it is law. + +{9} + +Another effect of this deplorable perversion of the law is that it +gives to human passions and to political struggles, and, in general, to +politics, properly so called, an exaggerated importance. + +I could prove this assertion in a thousand ways. But I shall confine +myself, by way of an illustration, to bringing it to bear upon a subject +which has of late occupied everybody's mind: universal suffrage. + +Whatever may be thought of it by the adepts of the school of Rousseau, +which professes to be very far advanced, but which I consider 20 +centuries behind, universal suffrage (taking the word in its strictest +sense) is not one of those sacred dogmas with respect to which +examination and doubt are crimes. + +Serious objections may be made to it. + +In the first place, the word universal conceals a gross sophism. There +are, in France, 36,000,000 inhabitants. To make the right of suffrage +universal, 36,000,000 electors should be reckoned. The most extended +system reckons only 9,000,000. Three persons out of four, then, are +excluded; and more than this, they are excluded by the fourth. Upon what +principle is this exclusion founded? Upon the principle of incapacity. +Universal suffrage, then, means: universal suffrage of those who are +capable. In point of fact, who are the capable? Are age, sex, and +judicial condemnations the only conditions to which incapacity is to be +attached? + +On taking a nearer view of the subject, we may soon perceive the reason +why the right of suffrage depends upon the presumption of incapacity; +the most extended system differing from the most restricted in the +conditions on which this incapacity depends, and which constitutes not a +difference in principle, but in degree. + +{10} + +This motive is, that the elector does not stipulate for himself, but for +everybody. + +If, as the republicans of the Greek and Roman tone pretend, the right of +suffrage had fallen to the lot of every one at his birth, it would be an +injustice to adults to prevent women and children from voting. Why are +they prevented? Because they are presumed to be incapable. And why is +incapacity a reason for exclusion? Because the elector does not reap +alone the responsibility of his vote; because every vote engages and +affects the community at large; because the community has a right to +demand some assurances, as regards the acts upon which its well-being +and its existence depend. + +I know what might be said in answer to this. I know what might be +objected. But this is not the place to settle a controversy of this +kind. What I wish to observe is this, that this same controversy (in +common with the greater part of political questions) that agitates, +excites, and unsettles the nations, would lose almost all its importance +if the law had always been what it ought to be. + +In fact, if law were confined to causing all persons, all liberties, and +all properties to be respected--if it were merely the organization of +individual right and individual defense--if it were the obstacle, the +check, the chastisement opposed to all oppression, to all plunder--is it +likely that we should dispute much, as citizens, on the subject of the +greater or lesser universality of suffrage? Is it likely that it would +compromise that greatest of advantages, the public peace? Is it likely +that the excluded classes would not quietly wait for their turn? Is +it likely that the enfranchised classes would be very jealous of their +privilege? And is it not clear, that the interest of all being one and +the same, some would act without much inconvenience to the others? + +{11} + +But if the fatal principle should come to be introduced, that, under +pretense of organization, regulation, protection, or encouragement, the +law may take from one party in order to give to another, help itself to +the wealth acquired by all the classes that it may increase that of one +class, whether that of the agriculturists, the manufacturers, the ship +owners, or artists and comedians; then certainly, in this case, there is +no class which may not try, and with reason, to place its hand upon +the law, that would not demand with fury its right of election and +eligibility, and that would overturn society rather than not obtain +it. Even beggars and vagabonds will prove to you that they have an +incontestable title to it. They will say: + + We never buy wine, tobacco, or salt, without paying the + tax, and a part of this tax is given by law in perquisites + and gratuities to men who are richer than we are. Others + make use of the law to create an artificial rise in the + price of bread, meat, iron, or cloth. + + Since everybody traffics in law for his own profit, we + should like to do the same. We should like to make it + produce the right to assistance, which is the poor man's + plunder. To effect this, we ought to be electors and + legislators, that we may organize, on a large scale, alms + for our own class, as you have organized, on a large scale, + protection for yours. + +Don't tell us that you will take our cause upon yourselves, and throw +to us 600,000 francs to keep us quiet, like giving us a bone to pick. We +have other claims, and, at any rate, we wish to stipulate for ourselves, +as other classes have stipulated for themselves! + +How is this argument to be answered? Yes, as long as it is admitted +that the law may be diverted from its true mission, that it may violate +property instead of securing it, + +{12} + +everybody will be wanting to manufacture law, either to defend himself +against plunder, or to organize it for his own profit. The political +question will always be prejudicial, predominant, and absorbing; in a +word, there will be fighting around the door of the Legislative Palace. +The struggle will be no less furious within it. To be convinced of this, +it is hardly necessary to look at what passes in the Chambers in France +and in England; it is enough to know how the question stands. + +Is there any need to prove that this odious perversion of law is a +perpetual source of hatred and discord, that it even tends to social +disorganization? Look at the United States. There is no country in the +world where the law is kept more within its proper domain--which is, to +secure to everyone his liberty and his property. Therefore, there is +no country in the world where social order appears to rest upon a more +solid basis. Nevertheless, even in the United States, there are two +questions, and only two, that from the beginning have endangered +political order. And what are these two questions? That of slavery and +that of tariffs; that is, precisely the only two questions in which, +contrary to the general spirit of this republic, law has taken the +character of a plunderer. Slavery is a violation, sanctioned by law, of +the rights of the person. Protection is a violation perpetrated by the +law upon the rights of property; and certainly it is very remarkable +that, in the midst of so many other debates, this double legal scourge, +the sorrowful inheritance of the Old World, should be the only one which +can, and perhaps will, cause the rupture of the Union. Indeed, a more +astounding fact, in the heart of society, cannot be conceived than this: +That law should have become an instrument of injustice. And if this fact +occasions consequences so formidable to the United + +{13} + +States, where there is but one exception, what must it be with us in +Europe, where it is a principle--a system? + +Mr. Montalembert, adopting the thought of a famous proclamation of Mr. +Carlier, said, "We must make war against socialism." And by socialism, +according to the definition of Mr. Charles Dupin, he meant plunder. But +what plunder did he mean? For there are two sorts: extralegal and legal +plunder. + +As to extralegal plunder, such as theft, or swindling, which is defined, +foreseen, and punished by the penal code, I do not think it can be +adorned by the name of socialism. It is not this that systematically +threatens the foundations of society. Besides, the war against this +kind of plunder has not waited for the signal of Mr. Montalembert or +Mr. Carlier. It has gone on since the beginning of the world; France was +carrying it on long before the revolution of February--long before the +appearance of socialism--with all the ceremonies of magistracy, police, +gendarmerie, prisons, dungeons, and scaffolds. It is the law itself that +is conducting this war, and it is to be wished, in my opinion, that the +law should always maintain this attitude with respect to plunder. + +But this is not the case. The law sometimes takes its own part. +Sometimes it accomplishes it with its own hands, in order to save the +parties benefited the shame, the danger, and the scruple. Sometimes +it places all this ceremony of magistracy, police, gendarmerie, and +prisons, at the service of the plunderer, and treats the plundered +party, when he defends himself, as the criminal. In a word, there is +a legal plunder, and it is, no doubt, this that is meant by Mr. +Montalembert. + +This plunder may be only an exceptional blemish in the legislation of a +people, and in this case, the best thing + +{14} + +that can be done is, without so many speeches and lamentations, to +do away with it as soon as possible, notwithstanding the clamors of +interested parties. But how is it to be distinguished? Very easily. See +whether the law takes from some persons that which belongs to them, +to give to others what does not belong to them. See whether the law +performs, for the profit of one citizen, and, to the injury of others, +an act that this citizen cannot perform without committing a crime. +Abolish this law without delay; it is not merely an iniquity--it is a +fertile source of iniquities, for it invites reprisals; and if you do +not take care, the exceptional case will extend, multiply, and become +systematic. No doubt the party benefited will exclaim loudly; he will +assert his acquired rights. He will say that the State is bound to +protect and encourage his industry; he will plead that it is a good +thing for the State to be enriched, that it may spend the more, and thus +shower down salaries upon the poor workmen. Take care not to listen to +this sophistry, for it is just by the systematizing of these arguments +that legal plunder becomes systematized. + +And this is what has taken place. The delusion of the day is to enrich +all classes at the expense of each other; it is to generalize plunder +under pretense of organizing it. Now, legal plunder may be exercised in +an infinite multitude of ways. Hence come an infinite multitude of +plans for organization; tariffs, protection, perquisites, gratuities, +encouragements, progressive taxation, free public education, right to +work, right to profit, right to wages, right to assistance, right to +instruments of labor, gratuity of credit, etc., etc. And it is all these +plans, taken as a whole, with what they have in common, legal plunder, +that takes the name of socialism. + +Now socialism, thus defined, and forming a doctrinal body, what other +war would you make against it than a + +{15} + +war of doctrine? You find this doctrine false, absurd, abominable. +Refute it. This will be all the easier, the more false, absurd, and +abominable it is. Above all, if you wish to be strong, begin by rooting +out of your legislation every particle of socialism which may have crept +into it--and this will be no light work. + +Mr. Montalembert has been reproached with wishing to turn brute force +against socialism. He ought to be exonerated from this reproach, for he +has plainly said: "The war that we must make against socialism must be +one that is compatible with the law, honor, and justice." + +But how is it that Mr. Montalembert does not see that he is placing +himself in a vicious circle? You would oppose law to socialism. But it +is the law that socialism invokes. It aspires to legal, not extralegal +plunder. It is of the law itself, like monopolists of all kinds, that it +wants to make an instrument; and when once it has the law on its side, +how will you be able to turn the law against it? How will you place it +under the power of your tribunals, your gendarmes, and of your prisons? +What will you do then? You wish to prevent it from taking any part in +the making of laws. You would keep it outside the Legislative Palace. +In this you will not succeed, I venture to prophesy, so long as legal +plunder is the basis of the legislation within. + +It is absolutely necessary that this question of legal plunder should be +determined, and there are only three solutions of it: + +1. When the few plunder the many. + +2. When everybody plunders everybody else. + +3. When nobody plunders anybody. + +Partial plunder, universal plunder, absence of plunder, amongst these we +have to make our choice. The law can only produce one of these results. + +{16} + +Partial plunder. This is the system that prevailed so long as the +elective privilege was partial; a system that is resorted to, to avoid +the invasion of socialism. + +Universal plunder. We have been threatened by this system when the +elective privilege has become universal; the masses having conceived +the idea of making law, on the principle of legislators who had preceded +them. + +Absence of plunder. This is the principle of justice, peace, order, +stability, conciliation, and of good sense, which I shall proclaim with +all the force of my lungs (which is very inadequate, alas!) till the day +of my death. + +And, in all sincerity, can anything more be required at the hands of +the law? Can the law, whose necessary sanction is force, be reasonably +employed upon anything beyond securing to every one his right? I +defy anyone to remove it from this circle without perverting it, and +consequently turning force against right. And as this is the most fatal, +the most illogical social perversion that can possibly be imagined, it +must be admitted that the true solution, so much sought after, of the +social problem, is contained in these simple words--LAW IS ORGANIZED +JUSTICE. + +Now it is important to remark, that to organize justice by law, that is +to say by force, excludes the idea of organizing by law, or by force any +manifestation whatever of human activity--labor, charity, agriculture, +commerce, industry, instruction, the fine arts, or religion; for any +one of these organizings would inevitably destroy the essential +organization. How, in fact, can we imagine force encroaching upon the +liberty of citizens without infringing upon justice, and so acting +against its proper aim? + +Here I am taking on the most popular prejudice of our time. It is not +considered enough that law should be just, + +{17} + +it must be philanthropic. It is not sufficient that it should guarantee +to every citizen the free and inoffensive exercise of his faculties, +applied to his physical, intellectual, and moral development; it is +required to extend well-being, instruction, and morality, directly over +the nation. This is the fascinating side of socialism. + +But, I repeat it, these two missions of the law contradict each other. +We have to choose between them. A citizen cannot at the same time be +free and not free. Mr. de Lamartine wrote to me one day thus: "Your +doctrine is only the half of my program; you have stopped at liberty, I +go on to fraternity." I answered him: "The second part of your program +will destroy the first." And in fact it is impossible for me to separate +the word fraternity from the word voluntary. I cannot possibly conceive +fraternity legally enforced, without liberty being legally destroyed, +and justice legally trampled under foot. Legal plunder has two roots: +one of them, as we have already seen, is in human greed; the other is in +misconceived philanthropy. + +Before I proceed, I think I ought to explain myself upon the word +plunder. + +I do not take it, as it often is taken, in a vague, undefined, relative, +or metaphorical sense. I use it in its scientific acceptation, and +as expressing the opposite idea to property. When a portion of wealth +passes out of the hands of him who has acquired it, without his consent, +and without compensation, to him who has not created it, whether by +force or by artifice, I say that property is violated, that plunder is +perpetrated. I say that this is exactly what the law ought to repress +always and everywhere. If the law itself performs the action it ought to +repress, I say that plunder is still perpetrated, and even, in a social +point of view, under aggravated circumstances. In this case, + +{18} + +however, he who profits from the plunder is not responsible for it; +it is the law, the lawgiver, society itself, and this is where the +political danger lies. + +It is to be regretted that there is something offensive in the word. I +have sought in vain for another, for I would not wish at any time, and +especially just now, to add an irritating word to our disagreements; +therefore, whether I am believed or not, I declare that I do not mean +to impugn the intentions nor the morality of anybody. I am attacking +an idea that I believe to be false--a system that appears to me to +be unjust; and this is so independent of intentions, that each of us +profits by it without wishing it, and suffers from it without being +aware of the cause. + +Any person must write under the influence of party spirit or of +fear, who would call into question the sincerity of protectionism, of +socialism, and even of communism, which are one and the same plant, in +three different periods of its growth. All that can be said is, that +plunder is more visible by its partiality in protectionism, [3] and +by its universality in communism; whence it follows that, of the three +systems, socialism is still the most vague, the most undefined, and +consequently the most sincere. + +Be that as it may, to conclude that legal plunder has one of its roots +in misconceived philanthropy, is evidently to put intentions out of the +question. + +{19} + +With this understanding, let us examine the value, the origin, and +the tendency of this popular aspiration, which pretends to realize the +general good by general plunder. + +The Socialists say, since the law organizes justice, why should it not +organize labor, instruction, and religion? + +Why? Because it could not organize labor, instruction, and religion, +without disorganizing justice. + +For remember, that law is force, and that consequently the domain of the +law cannot properly extend beyond the domain of force. + +When law and force keep a man within the bounds of justice, they impose +nothing upon him but a mere negation. They only oblige him to abstain +from doing harm. They violate neither his personality, his liberty, nor +his property. They only guard the personality, the liberty, the property +of others. They hold themselves on the defensive; they defend the equal +right of all. They fulfill a mission whose harmlessness is evident, +whose utility is palpable, and whose legitimacy is not to be disputed. +This is so true that, as a friend of mine once remarked to me, to say +that the aim of the law is to cause justice to reign, is to use an +expression that is not rigorously exact. It ought to be said, the aim +of the law is to prevent injustice from reigning. In fact, it is not +justice that has an existence of its own, it is injustice. The one +results from the absence of the other. + +But when the law, through the medium of its necessary +agent--force--imposes a form of labor, a method or a subject of +instruction, a creed, or a worship, it is no longer negative; it acts +positively upon men. It substitutes the will of the legislator for their +own will, the initiative of the legislator for their own initiative. +They have no need to consult, to compare, or to foresee; the law does +all that for them. The intellect is for them a useless + +{20} + +encumbrance; they cease to be men; they lose their personality, their +liberty, their property. + +Try to imagine a form of labor imposed by force, that is not a violation +of liberty; a transmission of wealth imposed by force, that is not a +violation of property. If you cannot succeed in reconciling this, you +are bound to conclude that the law cannot organize labor and industry +without organizing injustice. + +When, from the seclusion of his office, a politician takes a view of +society, he is struck with the spectacle of inequality that presents +itself. He mourns over the sufferings that are the lot of so many of our +brethren, sufferings whose aspect is rendered yet more sorrowful by the +contrast of luxury and wealth. + +He ought, perhaps, to ask himself whether such a social state has not +been caused by the plunder of ancient times, exercised in the way of +conquests; and by plunder of more recent times, effected through the +medium of the laws? He ought to ask himself whether, granting the +aspiration of all men to well-being and improvement, the reign of +justice would not suffice to realize the greatest activity of progress, +and the greatest amount of equality compatible with that individual +responsibility that God has awarded as a just retribution of virtue and +vice? + +He never gives this a thought. His mind turns towards combinations, +arrangements, legal or factitious organizations. He seeks the remedy in +perpetuating and exaggerating what has produced the evil. + +For, justice apart, which we have seen is only a negation, is there any +one of these legal arrangements that does not contain the principle of +plunder? + +You say, "There are men who have no money," and you apply to the law. +But the law is not a self-supplied + +{21} + +fountain, whence every stream may obtain supplies independently of +society. Nothing can enter the public treasury, in favor of one citizen +or one class, but what other citizens and other classes have been forced +to send to it. If everyone draws from it only the equivalent of what +he has contributed to it, your law, it is true, is no plunderer, but it +does nothing for men who want money--it does not promote equality. It +can only be an instrument of equalization as far as it takes from one +party to give to another, and then it is an instrument of plunder. +Examine, in this light, the protection of tariffs, subsidies, right +to profit, right to labor, right to assistance, free public education, +progressive taxation, gratuitousness of credit, social workshops, and +you will always find at the bottom legal plunder, organized injustice. + +You say, "There are men who want knowledge," and you apply to the law. +But the law is not a torch that sheds light that originates within +itself. It extends over a society where there are men who have +knowledge, and others who have not; citizens who want to learn, and +others who are disposed to teach. It can only do one of two things: +either allow a free operation to this kind of transaction, i.e., let +this kind of want satisfy itself freely; or else preempt the will of +the people in the matter, and take from some of them sufficient to pay +professors commissioned to instruct others for free. But, in this second +case there cannot fail to be a violation of liberty and property--legal +plunder. + +You say, "Here are men who are wanting in morality or religion," and +you apply to the law; but law is force, and need I say how far it is a +violent and absurd enterprise to introduce force in these matters? + +{22} + +As the result of its systems and of its efforts, it would seem that +socialism, notwithstanding all its self-complacency, can scarcely +help perceiving the monster of legal plunder. But what does it do? +It disguises it cleverly from others, and even from itself, under the +seductive names of fraternity, solidarity, organization, association. +And because we do not ask so much at the hands of the law, because +we only ask it for justice, it alleges that we reject fraternity, +solidarity, organization, and association; and they brand us with the +name of individualists. + +We can assure them that what we repudiate is not natural organization, +but forced organization. + +It is not free association, but the forms of association that they would +impose upon us. + +It is not spontaneous fraternity, but legal fraternity. + +It is not providential solidarity, but artificial solidarity, which is +only an unjust displacement of responsibility. + +Socialism, like the old policy from which it emanates, confounds +Government and society. And so, every time we object to a thing being +done by Government, it concludes that we object to its being done +at all. We disapprove of education by the State--then we are against +education altogether. We object to a State religion--then we would have +no religion at all. We object to an equality which is brought about by +the State then we are against equality, etc., etc. They might as +well accuse us of wishing men not to eat, because we object to the +cultivation of corn by the State. + +How is it that the strange idea of making the law produce what it +does not contain--prosperity, in a positive sense, wealth, science, +religion--should ever have gained ground in the political world? The +modern politicians, particularly those of the Socialist school, found +their different + +{23} + +theories upon one common hypothesis; and surely a more strange, a more +presumptuous notion, could never have entered a human brain. + +They divide mankind into two parts. Men in general, except one, form the +first; the politician himself forms the second, which is by far the most +important. + +In fact, they begin by supposing that men are devoid of any principle of +action, and of any means of discernment in themselves; that they have no +initiative; that they are inert matter, passive particles, atoms without +impulse; at best a vegetation indifferent to its own mode of existence, +susceptible of assuming, from an exterior will and hand an infinite +number of forms, more or less symmetrical, artistic, and perfected. + +Moreover, every one of these politicians does not hesitate to +assume that he himself is, under the names of organizer, discoverer, +legislator, institutor or founder, this will and hand, this universal +initiative, this creative power, whose sublime mission it is to gather +together these scattered materials, that is, men, into society. + +Starting from these data, as a gardener according to his caprice shapes +his trees into pyramids, parasols, cubes, cones, vases, espaliers, +distaffs, or fans; so the Socialist, following his chimera, shapes poor +humanity into groups, series, circles, subcircles, honeycombs, or social +workshops, with all kinds of variations. And as the gardener, to bring +his trees into shape, needs hatchets, pruning hooks, saws, and shears, +so the politician, to bring society into shape, needs the forces which +he can only find in the laws; the law of tariffs, the law of taxation, +the law of assistance, and the law of education. + +It is so true, that the Socialists look upon mankind as a subject for +social experiments, that if, by chance, they + +{24} + +are not quite certain of the success of these experiments, they will +request a portion of mankind, as a subject to experiment upon. It is +well known how popular the idea of trying all systems is, and one of +their chiefs has been known seriously to demand of the Constituent +Assembly a parish, with all its inhabitants, upon which to make his +experiments. + +It is thus that an inventor will make a small machine before he makes +one of the regular size. Thus the chemist sacrifices some substances, +the agriculturist some seed and a corner of his field, to make trial of +an idea. + +But think of the difference between the gardener and his trees, between +the inventor and his machine, between the chemist and his substances, +between the agriculturist and his seed! The Socialist thinks, in +all sincerity, that there is the same difference between himself and +mankind. + +No wonder the politicians of the nineteenth century look upon society +as an artificial production of the legislator's genius. This idea, +the result of a classical education, has taken possession of all the +thinkers and great writers of our country. + +To all these persons, the relations between mankind and the legislator +appear to be the same as those that exist between the clay and the +potter. + +Moreover, if they have consented to recognize in the heart of man a +capability of action, and in his intellect a faculty of discernment, +they have looked upon this gift of God as a fatal one, and thought that +mankind, under these two impulses, tended fatally towards ruin. They +have taken it for granted that if abandoned to their own inclinations, +men would only occupy themselves with religion to arrive at atheism, +with instruction to come to ignorance, and with labor and exchange to be +extinguished in misery. + +{25} + +Happily, according to these writers, there are some men, termed +governors and legislators, upon whom Heaven has bestowed opposite +tendencies, not for their own sake only, but for the sake of the rest of +the world. + +Whilst mankind tends to evil, they incline to good; whilst mankind is +advancing towards darkness, they are aspiring to enlightenment; whilst +mankind is drawn towards vice, they are attracted by virtue. And, this +granted, they demand the assistance of force, by means of which they are +to substitute their own tendencies for those of the human race. + +It is only needful to open, almost at random, a book on philosophy, +politics, or history, to see how strongly this idea--the child of +classical studies and the mother of socialism--is rooted in our country; +that mankind is merely inert matter, receiving life, organization, +morality, and wealth from power; or, rather, and still worse--that +mankind itself tends towards degradation, and is only arrested in +its tendency by the mysterious hand of the legislator. Classical +conventionalism shows us everywhere, behind passive society, a +hidden power, under the names of Law, or Legislator (or, by a mode of +expression which refers to some person or persons of undisputed weight +and authority, but not named), which moves, animates, enriches, and +regenerates mankind. + +We will give a quotation from Bossuet: + + One of the things which was the most strongly impressed + (by whom?) upon the mind of the Egyptians, was the love of + their country.... Nobody was allowed to be useless to the + State; the law assigned to every one his employment, which + descended from father to son. No one was permitted to have + two professions, nor to adopt another. + +... But there was one occupation which was + +{26} + +obliged to be common to all, this was the study of the laws and of +wisdom; ignorance of religion and the political regulations of the +country was excused in no condition of life. Moreover, every profession +had a district assigned to it (by whom?).... Amongst good laws, one +of the best things was, that everybody was taught to observe them +(by whom?). Egypt abounded with wonderful inventions, and nothing was +neglected which could render life comfortable and tranquil. + +Thus men, according to Bossuet, derive nothing from themselves; +patriotism, wealth, inventions, husbandry, science--all come to them +by the operation of the laws, or by kings. All they have to do is to be +passive. It is on this ground that Bossuet takes exception when Diodorus +accuses the Egyptians of rejecting wrestling and music. "How is that +possible," says he, "since these arts were invented by Trismegistus?" + +It is the same with the Persians: + + One of the first cares of the prince was to encourage + agriculture.... As there were posts established for the + regulation of the armies, so there were offices for the + superintending of rural works.... + +The respect with which the Persians were inspired for royal authority +was excessive. + +The Greeks, although full of mind, were no less strangers to their own +responsibilities; so much so, that of themselves, like dogs and horses, +they would not have ventured upon the most simple games. In a classical +sense, it is an undisputed thing that everything comes to the people +from without. + + The Greeks, naturally full of spirit and courage, had + been early cultivated by kings and colonies who had come + from Egypt. From them they had + + +{27} + +learned the exercises of the body, foot races, and horse and chariot +races.... The best thing that the Egyptians had taught them was to +become docile, and to allow themselves to be formed by the laws for the +public good. + +FENELON--Reared in the study and admiration of antiquity and a witness +of the power of Louis XIV, Fenelon naturally adopted the idea +that mankind should be passive, and that its misfortunes and its +prosperities, its virtues and its vices, are caused by the external +influence that is exercised upon it by the law, or by the makers of +the law. Thus, in his Utopia of Salentum, he brings the men, with their +interests, their faculties, their desires, and their possessions, under +the absolute direction of the legislator. Whatever the subject may be, +they themselves have no voice in it--the prince judges for them. The +nation is just a shapeless mass, of which the prince is the soul. In him +resides the thought, the foresight, the principle of all organization, +of all progress; on him, therefore, rests all the responsibility. + +In proof of this assertion, I might transcribe the whole of the tenth +book of _Telemachus_. I refer the reader to it, and shall content myself +with quoting some passages taken at random from this celebrated work, to +which, in every other respect, I am the first to render justice. + +With the astonishing credulity that characterizes the classics, Fénelon, +against the authority of reason and of facts, admits the general +felicity of the Egyptians, and attributes it, not to their own wisdom, +but to that of their kings: + + We could not turn our eyes to the two shores, without + perceiving rich towns and country seats, agreeably situated; + fields that were covered every year, + +{28} + + without intermission, with golden crops; meadows full of + flocks; laborers bending under the weight of fruits that the + earth lavished on its cultivators; and shepherds who made + the echoes around repeat the soft sounds of their pipes and + flutes. "Happy," said Mentor, "is that people who is + governed by a wise king."... Mentor afterwards desired me to + remark the happiness and abundance that was spread over all + the country of Egypt, where twenty-two thousand cities might + be counted. He admired the excellent police regulations of + the cities; the justice administered in favor of the poor + against the rich; the good education of the children, who + were accustomed to obedience, labor, and the love of arts + and letters; the exactness with which all the ceremonies of + religion were performed; the disinterestedness, the desire + of honor, the fidelity to men, and the fear of the gods, + with which every father inspired his children. He could not + sufficiently admire the prosperous state of the country. + "Happy" said he, "is the people whom a wise king rules in + such a manner." + +Fénelon's idyll on Crete is still more fascinating. Mentor is made to +say: + + All that you will see in this wonderful island is the + result of the laws of Minos. The education that the children + receive renders the body healthy and robust. They are + accustomed, from the first, to a frugal and laborious life; + it is supposed that all the pleasures of sense enervate the + body and the mind; no other pleasure is presented to them + but that of being invincible by virtue, that of acquiring + much glory... there they punish three vices that go + unpunished amongst other people--ingratitude, dissimulation, + and avarice. As to pomp and dissipation, there is no need to + punish these, for they are unknown in Crete.... No costly + furniture, no magnificent clothing, no delicious feasts, no + gilded palaces are allowed. + +{29} + +It is thus that Mentor prepares his scholar to mould and manipulate, +doubtless with the most philanthropic intentions, the people of +Ithaca, and, to confirm him in these ideas, he gives him the example of +Salentum. + +So we receive our first political notions. We are taught to treat men +very much as Oliver de Serres teaches farmers to manage and to mix the +soil. + +MONTESQUIEU-- + + To sustain the spirit of commerce, it is necessary that + all the laws should favor it; that these same laws, by their + regulations in dividing the fortunes in proportion as + commerce enlarges them, should place every poor citizen in + sufficiently easy circumstances to enable him to work like + the others, and every rich citizen in such mediocrity that + he must work, in order to retain or to acquire. + +Thus the laws are to dispose of all fortunes. + + Although in a democracy, real equality be the soul of the + State, yet it is so difficult to establish that an extreme + exactness in this matter would not always be desirable. It + is sufficient that a census be established to reduce or fix + the differences to a certain point, after which, it is for + particular laws to equalize, as it were, the inequality by + burdens imposed upon the rich and reliefs granted to the + poor. + +Here, again, we see the equalization of fortunes by law, that is, by +force. + + There were, in Greece, two kinds of republics. One was + military, as Sparta; the other commercial, as Athens. In the + one it was wished (by whom?) that the citizens should be + idle: in the other, the love of labor was encouraged. + + It is worth our while to pay a little attention to the + extent of genius required by these legislators, that + +{30} + + we may see how, by confounding all the virtues, they showed + their wisdom to the world. Lycurgus, blending theft with the + spirit of justice, the hardest slavery with extreme liberty, + the most atrocious sentiments with the greatest moderation, + gave stability to his city. He seemed to deprive it of all + its resources, arts, commerce, money, and walls; there was + ambition without the hope of rising; there were natural + sentiments where the individual was neither child, nor + husband, nor father. Chastity even was deprived of modesty. + By this road Sparta was led on to grandeur and to glory. + + The phenomenon that we observe in the institutions of + Greece has been seen in the midst of the degeneracy and + corruption of our modern times. An honest legislator has + formed a people where probity has appeared as natural as + bravery among the Spartans. Mr. Penn is a true Lycurgus, and + although the former had peace for his object, and the latter + war, they resemble each other in the singular path along + which they have led their people, in their influence over + free men, in the prejudices which they have overcome, the + passions they have subdued. + + Paraguay furnishes us with another example. Society has + been accused of the crime of regarding the pleasure of + commanding as the only good of life; but it will always be a + noble thing to govern men by making them happy. + + Those who desire to form similar institutions will + establish community of property, as in the republic of + Plato, the same reverence as he enjoined for the gods, + separation from strangers for the preservation of morality, + and make the city and not the citizens create commerce: they + should give our arts without our luxury, our wants without + our desires. + +{31} + +Vulgar infatuation may exclaim, if it likes, "It is Montesquieu! +magnificent! sublime!" I am not afraid to express my opinion, and to +say: + + What! You have the gall to call that fine? It is + frightful! It is abominable! And these extracts, which I + might multiply, show that according to Montesquieu, the + persons, the liberties, the property, mankind itself, are + nothing but grist for the mill of the sagacity of lawgivers. + +ROUSSEAU--Although this politician, the paramount authority of the +Democrats, makes the social edifice rest upon the general will, no one +has so completely admitted the hypothesis of the entire passiveness of +human nature in the presence of the lawgiver: + + If it is true that a great prince is a rare thing, how + much more so must a great lawgiver be? The former has only + to follow the pattern proposed to him by the latter. This + latter is the engineer who invents the machine; the former + is merely the workman who sets it in motion. + +And what part have men to act in all this? That of the machine, which +is set in motion; or rather, are they not the brute matter of which the +machine is made? Thus, between the legislator and the prince, between +the prince and his subjects, there are the same relations as those +that exist between the agricultural writer and the agriculturist, +the agriculturist and the clod. At what a vast height, then, is the +politician placed, who rules over legislators themselves and teaches +them their trade in such imperative terms as the following: + + Would you give consistency to the State? Bring the + extremes together as much as possible. Suffer neither + wealthy persons nor beggars. + +{32} + + If the soil is poor and barren, or the country too much + confined for the inhabitants, turn to industry and the arts, + whose productions you will exchange for the provisions which + you require.... On a good soil, if you are short of + inhabitants, give all your attention to agriculture, which + multiplies men, and banish the arts, which only serve to + depopulate the country.... Pay attention to extensive and + convenient coasts. Cover the sea with vessels, and you will + have a brilliant and short existence. If your seas wash only + inaccessible rocks, let the people be barbarous, and eat + fish; they will live more quietly, perhaps better, and most + certainly more happily. In short, besides those maxims which + are common to all, every people has its own particular + circumstances, which demand a legislation peculiar to + itself. + + It was thus that the Hebrews formerly, and the Arabs more + recently, had religion for their principal object; that of + the Athenians was literature; that of Carthage and Tyre, + commerce; of Rhodes, naval affairs; of Sparta, war; and of + Rome, virtue. + +The author of the "Spirit of Laws" has shown the art by which the +legislator should frame his institutions towards each of these +objects.... But if the legislator, mistaking his object, should take up +a principle different from that which arises from the nature of things; +if one should tend to slavery, and the other to liberty; if one to +wealth, and the other to population; one to peace, and the other to +conquests; the laws will insensibly become enfeebled, the Constitution +will be impaired, and the State will be subject to incessant agitations +until it is destroyed, or becomes changed, and invincible Nature regains +her empire. + +But if Nature is sufficiently invincible to regain its empire, why does +not Rousseau admit that it had no need of the legislator to gain its +empire from the beginning? + +{33} + +Why does he not allow that by obeying their own impulse, men would of +themselves apply agriculture to a fertile district, and commerce to +extensive and commodious coasts without the interference of a Lycurgus, +a Solon, or a Rousseau, who would undertake it at the risk of deceiving +themselves? + +Be that as it may, we see with what a terrible responsibility Rousseau +invests inventors, institutors, conductors, and manipulators of +societies. He is, therefore, very exacting with regard to them. + + He who dares to undertake the institutions of a people, + ought to feel that he can, as it were, transform every + individual, who is by himself a perfect and solitary whole, + receiving his life and being from a larger whole of which he + forms a part; he must feel that he can change the + constitution of man, to fortify it, and substitute a social + and moral existence for the physical and independent one + that we have all received from nature. In a word, he must + deprive man of his own powers, to give him others that are + foreign to him. + +Poor human nature! What would become of its dignity if it were entrusted +to the disciples of Rousseau? + +RAYNAL-- + + The climate, that is, the air and the soil, is the first + element for the legislator. His resources prescribe to him + his duties. First, he must consult his local position. A + population dwelling upon maritime shores must have laws + fitted for navigation.... If the colony is located in an + inland region, a legislator must provide for the nature of + the soil, and for its degree of fertility.... + + It is more especially in the distribution of property + that the wisdom of legislation will appear. As a + +{34} + + general rule, and in every country, when a new colony is + founded, land should be given to each man, sufficient for + the support of his family.... + + In an uncultivated island, which you are colonizing with + children, it will only be needful to let the germs of truth + expand in the developments of reason!... But when you + establish old people in a new country, the skill consists in + only allowing it those injurious opinions and customs which + it is impossible to cure and correct. If you wish to prevent + them from being perpetuated, you will act upon the rising + generation by a general and public education of the + children. A prince or legislator ought never to found a + colony without previously sending wise men there to instruct + the youth.... In a new colony, every facility is open to the + precautions of the legislator who desires to purify the tone + and the manners of the people. If he has genius and virtue, + the lands and the men that are at his disposal will inspire + his soul with a plan of society that a writer can only + vaguely trace, and in a way that would be subject to the + instability of all hypotheses, which are varied and + complicated by an infinity of circumstances too difficult to + foresee and to combine. + +One would think it was a professor of agriculture who was saying to his +pupils + + The climate is the only rule for the agriculturist. + +His resources dictate to him his duties. The first thing he has to +consider is his local position. If he is on a clayey soil, he must do so +and so. If he has to contend with sand, this is the way in which he must +set about it. Every facility is open to the agriculturist who wishes to +clear and improve his soil. + +If he only has the skill, the manure which he has at his disposal will +suggest to him a plan of operation, which a professor can only vaguely +trace, and in a way that would be subject to the uncertainty of all +hypotheses, which vary and are complicated by an + +{35} + +infinity of circumstances too difficult to foresee and to combine. + +But, oh! sublime writers, deign to remember sometimes that this clay, +this sand, this manure, of which you are disposing in so arbitrary +a manner, are men, your equals, intelligent and free beings like +yourselves, who have received from God, as you have, the faculty of +seeing, of foreseeing, of thinking, and of judging for themselves! + +MABLY--(He is supposing the laws to be worn out by time and by the +neglect of security, and continues thus): + + Under these circumstances, we must be convinced that the + bonds of Government are slack. Give them a new tension (it + is the reader who is addressed), and the evil will be + remedied.... Think less of punishing the faults than of + encouraging the virtues that you want. By this method you + will bestow upon your republic the vigor of youth. Through + ignorance of this, a free people has lost its liberty! But + if the evil has made so much way that the ordinary + magistrates are unable to remedy it effectually, have + recourse to an extraordinary magistracy, whose time should + be short, and its power considerable. The imagination of the + citizens requires to be impressed. + +In this style he goes on through twenty volumes. + +There was a time when, under the influence of teaching like this, which +is the foundation of classical education, everyone was for placing +himself beyond and above mankind, for the sake of arranging, organizing, +and instituting it in his own way. + +CONDILLAC-- + + Take upon yourself, my lord, the character of Lycurgus or + of Solon. Before you finish reading + +{36} + + this essay, amuse yourself with giving laws to some wild + people in America or in Africa. Establish these roving men + in fixed dwellings; teach them to keep flocks.... Endeavor + to develop the social qualities that nature has implanted in + them.... Make them begin to practice the duties of + humanity.... Cause the pleasures of the passions to become + distasteful to them by punishments, and you will see these + barbarians, with every plan of your legislation, lose a vice + and gain a virtue. + + All these people have had laws. But few among them have + been happy. Why is this? Because legislators have almost + always been ignorant of the object of society, which is to + unite families by a common interest. + + Impartiality in law consists in two things, in + establishing equality in the fortunes and in the dignity of + the citizens.... In proportion to the degree of equality + established by the laws, the dearer will they become to + every citizen. How can avarice, ambition, dissipation, + idleness, sloth, envy, hatred, or jealousy agitate men who + are equal in fortune and dignity, and to whom the laws leave + no hope of disturbing their equality? + + What has been told you of the republic of Sparta ought to + enlighten you on this question. No other State has had laws + more in accordance with the order of nature or of equality. + +It is not to be wondered at that the seventeenth and eighteenth +centuries should have looked upon the human race as inert matter, ready +to receive everything--form, figure, impulse, movement, and life, from a +great prince, or a great legislator, or a great genius. These ages were +reared in the study of antiquity; and antiquity presents everywhere--in +Egypt, Persia, Greece, and Rome, the + +{37} + +spectacle of a few men molding mankind according to their fancy, and +mankind to this end enslaved by force or by imposture. And what +does this prove? That because men and society are improvable, error, +ignorance, despotism, slavery, and superstition must be more prevalent +in early times. The mistake of the writers quoted above is not that they +have asserted this fact, but that they have proposed it as a rule for +the admiration and imitation of future generations. Their mistake has +been, with an inconceivable absence of discernment, and upon the +faith of a puerile conventionalism, that they have admitted what is +inadmissible, viz., the grandeur, dignity, morality, and well-being of +the artificial societies of the ancient world; they have not understood +that time produces and spreads enlightenment; and that in proportion to +the increase of enlightenment, right ceases to be upheld by force, and +society regains possession of herself. + +And, in fact, what is the political work that we are endeavoring to +promote? It is no other than the instinctive effort of every people +towards liberty. And what is liberty, whose name can make every heart +beat, and which can agitate the world, but the union of all liberties, +the liberty of conscience, of education, of association, of the press, +of movement, of labor, and of exchange; in other words, the free +exercise, for all, of all the inoffensive faculties; and again, in other +words, the destruction of all despotisms, even of legal despotism, and +the reduction of law to its only rational sphere, which is to regulate +the individual right of legitimate defense, or to repress injustice? + +This tendency of the human race, it must be admitted, is greatly +thwarted, particularly in our country, by the fatal disposition, +resulting from classical teaching and common to all politicians, of +placing themselves beyond + +{38} + +mankind, to arrange, organize, and regulate it, according to their +fancy. + +For whilst society is struggling to realize liberty, the great men +who place themselves at its head, imbued with the principles of the +seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, think only of subjecting it to the +philanthropic despotism of their social inventions, and making it bear +with docility, according to the expression of Rousseau, the yoke of +public felicity as pictured in their own imaginations. + +This was particularly the case in 1789. No sooner was the old system +destroyed than society was to be submitted to other artificial +arrangements, always with the same starting point--the omnipotence of +the law. + +SAINT-JUST-- + + The legislator commands the future. It is for him to will + for the good of mankind. It is for him to make men what he + wishes them to be. + +ROBESPIERRE-- + + The function of Government is to direct the physical and + moral powers of the nation towards the object of its + institution. + +BILLAUD VARENNES-- + + A people who are to be restored to liberty must be formed + anew. Ancient prejudices must be destroyed, antiquated + customs changed, depraved affections corrected, inveterate + vices eradicated. + +For this, a strong force and a vehement impulse will be necessary.... +Citizens, the inflexible austerity of Lycurgus created the firm basis +of the Spartan republic. The feeble and trusting disposition of Solon +plunged Athens into slavery. This parallel contains the whole science of +Government. + +{39} + +LEPELLETIER-- + + Considering the extent of human degradation, I am + convinced--of the necessity of effecting an entire + regeneration of the race, and, if I may so express myself, + of creating a new people. + +Men, therefore, are nothing but raw material. It is not for them to +will their own improvement. They are not capable of it; according to +Saint-Just, it is only the legislator who is. Men are merely to be +what he wills that they should be. According to Robespierre, who copies +Rousseau literally, the legislator is to begin by assigning the aim of +the institutions of the nation. After this, the Government has only to +direct all its physical and moral forces towards this end. All this time +the nation itself is to remain perfectly passive; and Billaud Varennes +would teach us that it ought to have no prejudices, affections, nor +wants, but such as are authorized by the legislator. He even goes so +far as to say that the inflexible austerity of a man is the basis of a +republic. + +We have seen that, in cases where the evil is so great that the ordinary +magistrates are unable to remedy it, Mably recommends a dictatorship, +to promote virtue. "Have recourse," says he, "to an extraordinary +magistracy, whose time shall be short, and his power considerable. The +imagination of the people requires to be impressed." This doctrine has +not been neglected. Listen to Robespierre: + + The principle of the Republican Government is virtue, and + the means to be adopted, during its establishment, is + terror. We want to substitute, in our country, morality for + self-indulgence, probity for honor, principles for customs, + duties for decorum, the empire of reason for the tyranny of + +{40} + + fashion, contempt of vice for contempt of misfortune, pride + for insolence, greatness of soul for vanity, love of glory + for love of money, good people for good company, merit for + intrigue, genius for wit, truth for glitter, the charm of + happiness for the weariness of pleasure, the greatness of + man for the littleness of the great, a magnanimous, + powerful, happy people, for one that is easy, frivolous, + degraded; that is to say, we would substitute all the + virtues and miracles of a republic for all the vices and + absurdities of monarchy. + +At what a vast height above the rest of mankind does Robespierre place +himself here! And observe the arrogance with which he speaks. He is not +content with expressing a desire for a great renovation of the human +heart, he does not even expect such a result from a regular Government. +No; he intends to effect it himself, and by means of terror. The +object of the discourse from which this puerile and laborious mass of +antithesis is extracted, was to exhibit the principles of morality that +ought to direct a revolutionary Government. Moreover, when Robespierre +asks for a dictatorship, it is not merely for the purpose of repelling a +foreign enemy, or of putting down factions; it is that he may establish, +by means of terror and as a preliminary to the operation of the +Constitution, his own principles of morality. He pretends to nothing +short of extirpating from the country by means of terror, self-interest, +honor, customs, decorum, fashion, vanity, the love of money, good +company, intrigue, wit, luxury, and misery. It is not until after he, +Robespierre, shall have accomplished these miracles, as he rightly calls +them, that he will allow the law to regain her empire. Truly it would be +well if these visionaries, who think so much of themselves and so little +of mankind, who want to + +{41} + +renew everything, would only be content with trying to reform +themselves, the task would be arduous enough for them. In general, +however, these gentlemen, the reformers, legislators, and politicians, +do not desire to exercise an immediate despotism over mankind. No, they +are too moderate and too philanthropic for that. They only contend for +the despotism, the absolutism, the omnipotence of the law. They aspire +only to make the law. + +To show how universal this strange disposition has been in France, I had +need not only to have copied the whole of the works of Mably, Raynal, +Rousseau, Fenelon, and to have made long extracts from Bossuet and +Montesquieu, but to have given the entire transactions of the sittings +of the Convention. I shall do no such thing, however, but merely refer +the reader to them. + +No wonder this idea suited Bonaparte so well. He embraced it with ardor, +and put it in practice with energy. Playing the part of a chemist, +Europe was to him the material for his experiments. But this material +reacted against him. More than half undeceived, Bonaparte, at St. +Helena, seemed to admit that there is an initiative in every people, +and he became less hostile to liberty. Yet this did not prevent him +from giving this lesson to his son in his will--"To govern is to diffuse +morality, education, and well-being." + +After all this, I hardly need show, by fastidious quotations, the +opinions of Morelly, Babeuf, Owen, Saint Simon, and Fourier. I shall +confine myself to a few extracts from Louis Blanc's book on the +organization of labor. + +"In our project, society receives the impulse of power." + +In what does the impulse that power gives to society consist? In +imposing upon it the project of Mr. Louis Blanc. + +{42} + +On the other hand, society is the human race. The human race, then, is +to receive its impulse from Mr. Louis Blanc. + +It is at liberty to do so or not, it will be said. Of course the human +race is at liberty to take advice from anybody, whoever it may be. But +this is not the way in which Mr. Louis Blanc understands the thing. He +means that his project should be converted into law, and consequently +forcibly imposed by power. + + In our project, the State has only to give a legislation + to labor, by means of which the industrial movement may and + ought to be accomplished in all liberty. It (the State) + merely places society on an incline (that is all) that it + may descend, when once it is placed there, by the mere force + of things, and by the natural course of the established + mechanism. + +But what is this incline? One indicated by Mr. Louis Blanc. Does it not +lead to an abyss? No, it leads to happiness. Why, then, does not society +go there of itself? Because it does not know what it wants, and it +requires an impulse. What is to give it this impulse? Power. And who +is to give the impulse to power? The inventor of the machine, Mr. Louis +Blanc. + +We shall never get out of this circle--mankind passive, and a great man +moving it by the intervention of the law. Once on this incline, will +society enjoy something like liberty? Without a doubt. And what is +liberty? + + Once for all: liberty consists not only in the right + granted, but in the power given to man to exercise, to + develop his faculties under the empire of justice, and under + the protection of the law. + + And this is no vain distinction; there is a deep meaning + in it, and its consequences are imponderable. For + +{43} + + when once it is admitted that man, to be truly free, must + have the power to exercise and develop his faculties, it + follows that every member of society has a claim upon it for + such education as shall enable his faculties to display + themselves, and for the tools of labor, without which human + activity can find no scope. Now, by whose intervention is + society to give to each of its members the requisite + education and the necessary tools of labor, unless by that + of the State? + +Thus, liberty is power. In what does this power consist? In possessing +education and tools of labor. Who is to give education and tools of +labor? Society, who owes them. By whose intervention is society to give +tools of labor to those who do not possess them? By the intervention of +the State. From whom is the State to obtain them? + +It is for the reader to answer this question, and to notice whither all +this tends. + +One of the strangest phenomena of our time, and one that will probably +be a matter of astonishment to our descendants, is the doctrine which +is founded upon this triple hypothesis: the radical passiveness +of mankind,--the omnipotence of the law,--the infallibility of the +legislator: this is the sacred symbol of the party that proclaims itself +exclusively democratic. + +It is true that it professes also to be social. + +So far as it is democratic, it has an unlimited faith in mankind. + +So far as it is social, it places mankind beneath the mud. + +Are political rights under discussion? Is a legislator to be chosen? +Oh, then the people possess science by instinct: they are gifted with +an admirable discernment; their will is always right; the general will +cannot err. Suffrage cannot + +{44} + +be too universal. Nobody is under any responsibility to society. The +will and the capacity to choose well are taken for granted. Can the +people be mistaken? Are we not living in an age of enlightenment? +What! Are the people to be forever led about by the nose? Have they not +acquired their rights at the cost of effort and sacrifice? Have they not +given sufficient proof of intelligence and wisdom? Are they not arrived +at maturity? Are they not in a state to judge for themselves? Do they +not know their own interest? Is there a man or a class who would dare +to claim the right of putting himself in the place of the people, of +deciding and of acting for them? No, no; the people would be free, and +they shall be so. They wish to conduct their own affairs, and they shall +do so. + +But when once the legislator is duly elected, then indeed the style of +his speech alters. The nation is sent back into passiveness, inertness, +nothingness, and the legislator takes possession of omnipotence. It +is for him to invent, for him to direct, for him to impel, for him to +organize. Mankind has nothing to do but to submit; the hour of despotism +has struck. And we must observe that this is decisive; for the people, +just before so enlightened, so moral, so perfect, have no inclinations +at all, or, if they have any, these all lead them downwards towards +degradation. And yet they ought to have a little liberty! But are we not +assured by Mr. Considerant that liberty leads fatally to monopoly? Are +we not told that liberty is competition? and that competition, according +to Mr. Louis Blanc, is a system of extermination for the people, and of +ruination for trade? For that reason people are exterminated and ruined +in proportion as they are free--take, for example, Switzerland, Holland, +England, and the United States? Does not Mr. Louis Blanc tell us again +that competition + +{45} + +leads to monopoly, and that, for the same reason, cheapness leads +to exorbitant prices? That competition tends to drain the sources of +consumption, and diverts production to a destructive activity? +That competition forces production to increase, and consumption to +decrease--whence it follows that free people produce for the sake of not +consuming; that there is nothing but oppression and madness among them; +and that it is absolutely necessary for Mr. Louis Blanc to see to it? + +What sort of liberty should be allowed to men? Liberty of +conscience?--But we should see them all profiting by the permission +to become atheists. Liberty of education?--But parents would be paying +professors to teach their sons immorality and error; besides, if we are +to believe Mr. Thiers, education, if left to the national liberty, would +cease to be national, and we should be educating our children in the +ideas of the Turks or Hindus, instead of which, thanks to the legal +despotism of the universities, they have the good fortune to be educated +in the noble ideas of the Romans. Liberty of labor? But this is only +competition, whose effect is to leave all products unconsumed, to +exterminate the people, and to ruin the tradesmen. The liberty of +exchange? But it is well known that the protectionists have shown, over +and over again, that a man will inevitably be ruined when he exchanges +freely, and that to become rich it is necessary to exchange without +liberty. Liberty of association? But according to the socialist +doctrine, liberty and association exclude each other, for the liberty of +men is attacked just to force them to associate. + +You must see, then, that the socialist democrats cannot in conscience +allow men any liberty, because, by their own + +{46} + +nature, they tend in every instance to all kinds of degradation and +demoralization. + +We are therefore left to conjecture, in this case, upon what foundation +universal suffrage is claimed for them with so much importunity. + +The pretensions of organizers suggest another question, which I have +often asked them, and to which I am not aware that I ever received an +answer: Since the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is +not safe to allow them liberty, how comes it to pass that the tendencies +of organizers are always good? Do not the legislators and their agents +form a part of the human race? Do they consider that they are composed +of different materials from the rest of mankind? They say that society, +when left to itself, rushes to inevitable destruction, because its +instincts are perverse. They presume to stop it in its downward course, +and to give it a better direction. They have, therefore, received +from heaven, intelligence and virtues that place them beyond and above +mankind: let them show their title to this superiority. They would +be our shepherds, and we are to be their flock. This arrangement +presupposes in them a natural superiority, the right to which we are +fully justified in calling upon them to prove. + +You must observe that I am not contending against their right to invent +social combinations, to propagate them, to recommend them, and to try +them upon themselves, at their own expense and risk; but I do dispute +their right to impose them upon us through the medium of the law, that +is, by force and by public taxes. + +I would not insist upon the Cabetists, the Fourierists, the +Proudhonians, the Academics, and the Protectionists renouncing their +own particular ideas; I would only have them renounce the idea that is +common to them all--viz., + +{47} + +that of subjecting us by force to their own categories and rankings +to their social laboratories, to their ever-inflating bank, to their +Greco-Roman morality, and to their commercial restrictions. I would +ask them to allow us the faculty of judging of their plans, and not to +oblige us to adopt them if we find that they hurt our interests or are +repugnant to our consciences. + +To presume to have recourse to power and taxation, besides being +oppressive and unjust, implies further, the pernicious assumption that +the organized is infallible, and mankind incompetent. + +And if mankind is not competent to judge for itself, why do they talk so +much about universal suffrage? + +This contradiction in ideas is unhappily to be found also in facts; +and whilst the French nation has preceded all others in obtaining its +rights, or rather its political claims, this has by no means prevented +it from being more governed, and directed, and imposed upon, and +fettered, and cheated, than any other nation. It is also the one, of +all others, where revolutions are constantly to be dreaded, and it is +perfectly natural that it should be so. + +So long as this idea is retained, which is admitted by all our +politicians, and so energetically expressed by Mr. Louis Blanc in +these words--"Society receives its impulse from power," so long as men +consider themselves as capable of feeling, yet passive--incapable of +raising themselves by their own discernment and by their own energy to +any morality, or well-being, and while they expect everything from the +law; in a word, while they admit that their relations with the State are +the same as those of the flock with the shepherd, it is clear that the +responsibility of power is immense. Fortune and misfortune, wealth and +destitution, equality and inequality all proceed from it. It is charged + +{48} + +with everything, it undertakes everything, it does everything; therefore +it has to answer for everything. If we are happy, it has a right to +claim our gratitude; but if we are miserable, it alone must bear the +blame. Are not our persons and property in fact, at its disposal? Is +not the law omnipotent? In creating the educational monopoly, it has +undertaken to answer the expectations of fathers of families who have +been deprived of liberty; and if these expectations are disappointed, +whose fault is it? + +In regulating industry, it has undertaken to make it prosper, otherwise +it would have been absurd to deprive it of its liberty; and if it +suffers, whose fault is it? In pretending to adjust the balance of +commerce by the game of tariffs, it undertakes to make commerce prosper; +and if, so far from prospering, it is destroyed, whose fault is it? +In granting its protection to maritime armaments in exchange for their +liberty, it has undertaken to render them self-sufficient; if they +become burdensome, whose fault is it? + +Thus, there is not a grievance in the nation for which the Government +does not voluntarily make itself responsible. Is it any wonder that +every failure threatens to cause a revolution? And what is the remedy +proposed? To extend indefinitely the dominion of the law, i.e., the +responsibility of Government. But if the Government undertakes to raise +and to regulate wages, and is not able to do it; if it undertakes +to assist all those who are in want, and is not able to do it; if it +undertakes to provide work for every laborer, and is not able to do it; +if it undertakes to offer to all who wish to borrow, easy credit, and is +not able to do it; if, in words that we regret should have escaped the +pen of Mr. de Lamartine, "the State considers that its mission is to +enlighten, to + +{49} + +develop, to enlarge, to strengthen, to spiritualize, and to sanctify the +soul of the people"--if it fails in this, is it not obvious that after +every disappointment, which, alas! is more than probable, there will be +a no less inevitable revolution? + +I shall now resume the subject by remarking, that immediately after the +economical part [4] of the question, and before the political part, a +leading question presents itself. It is the following: + +What is law? What ought it to be? What is its domain? What are its +limits? Where, in fact, does the prerogative of the legislator stop? + +I have no hesitation in answering, Law is common force organized to +prevent injustice;--in short, Law is Justice. + +It is not true that the legislator has absolute power over our persons +and property, since they pre-exist, and his work is only to secure them +from injury. + +It is not true that the mission of the law is to regulate our +consciences, our ideas, our will, our education, our sentiments, our +works, our exchanges, our gifts, our enjoyments. Its mission is to +prevent the rights of one from interfering with those of another, in any +one of these things. + +Law, because it has force for its necessary sanction, can only have the +domain of force, which is justice. + +And as every individual has a right to have recourse to force only in +cases of lawful defense, so collective force, so which is only the union + +{50} + +of individual forces, cannot be rationally used for any other end. + +The law, then, is solely the organization of individual rights that +existed before law. + +Law is justice. + +So far from being able to oppress the people, or to plunder their +property, even for a philanthropic end, its mission is to protect the +people, and to secure to them the possession of their property. + +It must not be said, either, that it may be philanthropic, so long as +it abstains from all oppression; for this is a contradiction. The law +cannot avoid acting upon our persons and property; if it does not secure +them, then it violates them if it touches them. + +The law is justice. + +Nothing can be more clear and simple, more perfectly defined and +bounded, or more visible to every eye; for justice is a given quantity, +immutable and unchangeable, and which admits of neither increase or +diminution. + +Depart from this point, make the law religious, fraternal, equalizing, +industrial, literary, or artistic, and you will be lost in vagueness and +uncertainty; you will be upon unknown ground, in a forced Utopia, or, +what is worse, in the midst of a multitude of contending Utopias, each +striving to gain possession of the law, and to impose it upon you; for +fraternity and philanthropy have no fixed limits, as justice has. Where +will you stop? Where is the law to stop? One person, Mr. de Saint Cricq, +will only extend his philanthropy to some of the industrial classes, and +will require the law to slight the consumers in favor of the producers. +Another, like Mr. Considérant, will take up the cause of the working +classes, and claim for them by means of the law, at a fixed rate, +clothing, lodging, food, and + +{51} + +everything necessary for the support of life. A third, Mr. Louis Blanc, +will say, and with reason, that this would be an incomplete fraternity, +and that the law ought to provide them with tools of labor and +education. A fourth will observe that such an arrangement still leaves +room for inequality, and that the law ought to introduce into the most +remote hamlets luxury, literature, and the arts. This is the high road +to communism; in other words, legislation will be--as it now is--the +battlefield for everybody's dreams and everybody's covetousness. + +Law is justice. + +In this proposition we represent to ourselves a simple, immovable +Government. And I defy anyone to tell me whence the thought of a +revolution, an insurrection, or a simple disturbance could arise against +a public force confined to the repression of injustice. Under such a +system, there would be more well-being, and this well-being would be +more equally distributed; and as to the sufferings inseparable from +humanity, no one would think of accusing the Government of them, for +it would be as innocent of them as it is of the variations of the +temperature. Have the people ever been known to rise against the +court of appeals, or assail the justices of the peace, for the sake of +claiming the rate of wages, free credit, tools of labor, the advantages +of the tariff, or the social workshop? They know perfectly well that +these matters are beyond the jurisdiction of the justices of the peace, +and they would soon learn that they are not within the jurisdiction of +the law quite as much. + +But if the law were to be made upon the principle of fraternity, if +it were to be proclaimed that from it proceed all benefits and all +evils--that it is responsible for every individual grievance and for +every social inequality--then + +{52} + +you open the door to an endless succession of complaints, irritations, +troubles, and revolutions. + +_Law is justice_. + +And it would be very strange if it could properly be anything else! Is +not justice right? Are not rights equal? With what show of right can the +law interfere to subject me to the social plans of Messrs. Mimerel, de +Melun, Thiers, or Louis Blanc, rather than to subject these gentlemen +to my plans? Is it to be supposed that Nature has not bestowed upon me +sufficient imagination to invent a Utopia too? Is it for the law to make +choice of one amongst so many fancies, and to make use of the public +force in its service? + +_Law is justice_. + +And let it not be said, as it continually is, that the law, in this +sense, would be atheistic, individual, and heartless, and that it would +mold mankind in its own image. This is an absurd conclusion, quite +worthy of the governmental infatuation which sees mankind in the law. + +What then? Does it follow that if we are free, we shall cease to act? +Does it follow that if we do not receive an impulse from the law, we +shall receive no impulse at all? Does it follow that if the law confines +itself to securing to us the free exercise of our faculties, our +faculties will be paralyzed? Does it follow, that if the law does not +impose upon us forms of religion, modes of association, methods of +education, rules for labor, directions for exchange, and plans for +charity, we shall plunge headlong into atheism, isolation, ignorance, +misery, and greed? Does it follow, that we shall no longer recognize the +power and goodness of God; that we shall cease to associate together, to +help each other, to love and assist our unfortunate brethren, to + +{53} + +study the secrets of nature, and to aspire after perfection in our +existence? + +_Law is justice_. + +And it is under the law of justice, under the reign of right, under +the influence of liberty, security, stability, and responsibility, that +every man will attain to the fullness of his worth, to all the dignity +of his being, and that mankind will accomplish with order and with +calmness--slowly, it is true, but with certainty--the progress ordained +for it. + +I believe that my theory is correct; for whatever be the question upon +which I am arguing, whether it be religious, philosophical, political, +or economical; whether it affects well-being, morality, equality, right, +justice, progress, responsibility, property, labor, exchange, capital, +wages, taxes, population, credit, or Government; at whatever point +of the scientific horizon I start from, I invariably come to the same +thing--the solution of the social problem is in liberty. + +And have I not experience on my side? Cast your eye over the globe. +Which are the happiest, the most moral, and the most peaceable nations? +Those where the law interferes the least with private activity; where +the Government is the least felt; where individuality has the most +scope, and public opinion the most influence; where the machinery of the +administration is the least important and the least complicated; where +taxation is lightest and least unequal, popular discontent the +least excited and the least justifiable; where the responsibility of +individuals and classes is the most active, and where, consequently, if +morals are not in a perfect state, at any rate they tend incessantly to +correct themselves; where transactions, meetings, and associations are +the least fettered; where labor, capital, and production suffer the +least from artificial + +{54} + +displacements; where mankind follows most completely its own natural +course; where the thought of God prevails the most over the inventions +of men; those, in short, who realize the most nearly this idea that +within the limits of right, all should flow from the free, perfectible, +and voluntary action of man; nothing be attempted by the law or by +force, except the administration of universal justice. + +I cannot avoid coming to this conclusion--that there are too many +great men in the world; there are too many legislators, organizers, +institutors of society, conductors of the people, fathers of nations, +etc., etc. Too many persons place themselves above mankind, to rule and +patronize it; too many persons make a trade of looking after it. It will +be answered--"You yourself are occupied upon it all this time." Very +true. But it must be admitted that it is in another sense entirely that +I am speaking; and if I join the reformers it is solely for the purpose +of inducing them to relax their hold. + +I am not doing as Vaucauson did with his automaton, but as a +physiologist does with the human frame; I would study and admire it. + +I am acting with regard to it in the spirit that animated a celebrated +traveler. He found himself in the midst of a savage tribe. A child had +just been born, and a crowd of soothsayers, magicians, and quacks were +around it, armed with rings, hooks, and bandages. One said--"This +child will never smell the perfume of a calumet, unless I stretch his +nostrils." Another said--"He will be without the sense of hearing, +unless I draw his ears down to his shoulders." A third said--"He will +never see the light of the sun, unless I give his eyes an oblique +direction." A fourth said--"He will never be upright, unless I bend his +legs." A fifth said--"He will not be able to think, unless I press his + +{55} + +brain." "Stop!" said the traveler. "Whatever God does, is well done; +do not pretend to know more than He; and as He has given organs to this +frail creature, allow those organs to develop themselves, to strengthen +themselves by exercise, use, experience, and liberty." + +God has implanted in mankind also all that is necessary to enable it to +accomplish its destinies. There is a providential social physiology, +as well as a providential human physiology. The social organs are +constituted so as to enable them to develop harmoniously in the grand +air of liberty. Away, then, with quacks and organizers! Away with their +rings, and their chains, and their hooks, and their pincers! Away with +their artificial methods! Away with their social laboratories, +their governmental whims, their centralization, their tariffs, their +universities, their State religions, their inflationary or monopolizing +banks, their limitations, their restrictions, their moralizations, and +their equalization by taxation! And now, after having vainly inflicted +upon the social body so many systems, let them end where they ought to +have begun--reject all systems, and try liberty--liberty, which is an +act of faith in God and in His work. + + + + +FOOTNOTES: + + +[Footnote 1: First published in 1850.] + +[Footnote 2: General Council of Manufactures, Agriculture, and Commerce, +6th of May, 1850.] + +[Footnote 3: If protection were only granted in France to a single +class, to the engineers, for instance, it would be so absurdly +plundering, as to be unable to maintain itself. Thus we see all the +protected trades combine, make common cause, and even recruit themselves +in such a way as to appear to embrace the mass of the national labor. +They feel instinctively that plunder is slurred over by being +generalized.] + +[Footnote 4: Political economy precedes politics: the former has to +discover whether human interests are harmonious or antagonistic, a fact +which must be settled before the latter can determine the prerogatives +of Government.] + + + + +INDEX + + Action, human. See Individualism; + + Mankind + + Agriculture analogy to society, 35 + Persian, 26 + Antiquity. See Greece; Rome + Authority. See Government + + Beggars, 11 + Billaud-Varennes, Jean Nicolas, 38 + Blanc, Louis competition, 45 + doctrine, 42, 43 + force of society, 47, 48 + labor, 42 + law, 50, 52 + Bonaparte, Napoleon, 41 + Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, 25, 26 + + Cabetists, 46, 47 + Capital displacement, 2 + Carlier, Pierre, 13 + Carthage, 32 + Charity, vii, 5, 17 + See also Wealth, equality of; Welfare + Classical studies, 25, 26, 36, 37, 38 + Collectivism, 2, 3 + See also Government + Communism, 18 + Competition + meaning, 45 + results, 45 + Condillac, Étienne Bonnot de, 35, 38 + Constituent Assembly, 24 + Conventionality, 37 + Crete, 28 + + Defense right of, 2, 3, 37, 49, 50 + Democracy, vi, 43, 44 + Democrats, 43 + Dictatorship, vii, 39, 40 + Disposition, fatal, 5, 37, 38 + Distribution, 33, 34 + Dole, 10, 11 + See also Welfare + Dupin, Charles, 13 + + Education classical, 26, 38 + controlled, 33 + Greek, 26 + + {57} + + {58} + + liberty in, 44 + free, 21, 22 + government provided, 22, 48 + Egypt, 25, 26, 27 + Elections, 43, 44 + See also Voting + Employment + assigned, 26 + See also Labor + Equality of wealth, 11, 20, 29, 36 + + Fénelon, François de Salignac de La + Mothe antiquity, 27, 29 + Telemachus, 27 + Force common or collective, 2, 3 + individual, 2, 3 + motive, of society, 40, 43 + See also Government; Law + Forced conformity, viii + Fourier, François Marie Charles, 41 + Fourierists, 46 + France revolutions, 47 + Fraternity legally enforced, 16, 17, 21, 22 + Fraud, 13, 14 + Freedom. See Liberty + French Revolution, 38 + public services, 10, 11 + purpose of, v relaxed, 35 + republican, 30, 39 + responsibility and, 3, 47, 48, 51 + results, 28 + stability, 31 + virtue, 39 + See also Communism, Socialism + + Greece education, 26 + law, 26, 27 + republic, 29, 30 + Sparta, 32, 36, 38 + Greed, 5 + + Happiness of the governed, 28 + History, 5 + Humanity lost, 19, 20 + + Imports. See Trade + Individualism, 3 + Industry, protected. See Protectionism + + Jobs. See Employment + Justice and injustice, distinction + between, 7 + generalized, 7 + immutable, 49, 50 + intentions and, 17, 18 + law and, 3, 6, 49 + reigning, 19 + General welfare, 19 + Government + American ideal of, v + corrupting education by, vi + democratic, 29, 43, 44 + education, 23, 48 + force, 2, 3 + function, 38 + monopoly, 45 + morality, 39 + motive force, 40, 43 + power, v, 47 + + Labor displaced, 4 + Land. See Property + Law + Cretan, 28 + defined, 2, 16 + + {59} + + Egyptian, 25, 26, 27, 28 + fraternity and, 17 + functions, 16, 31, 33, 49, 50 + Greek, 26, 28, 29 + justice and, 3, 4, 16, 51 + morality and, 7, 21 + motive force, 25 + object of, 19 + omnipotence, 44, 49 + Persian, 26 + perverted, v, 1, 5 + philanthropic, 17 + plunder and, 5, 13 + posterior and inferior, 2, 3 + respect for, 7, 9 + Rousseau's views, 31, 33, 38 + spirit of, 32 + study of, 25 + United States, 12 + See also Legislation + Lamartine, Alphonse Marie Louis de, + fraternity, 17 + government power, 48, 49 + Lawgiver, 38, 43 + Legislation conflict in, 32 + monopoly on, 5 + struggle for control of, 11, 12 + universal right of, 7 + See also Law + Legislator. See Lawgiver; Politicians + Lepéletier, Louis Michel de Saint Fargeau, 39 + Liberty competition and, 44, 45 + defined, 42 + denied, 44, 45 + described, 53 + education and, 44, 45 + individual, 3 + as power, 43 + returned to, 55 + seeking, 38 + + Life, faculties of, 1 + Louis XIV 27 + Lycurgus government, 30, 35, 36 + influence, 33, 40 + + Mably, Abbé Gabriel Bonnot de, 35, 39 + Mankind assimilation, 2 + concern for, 54 + degraded, 25 + divided, 23 + inert, 23, 25, 26, 28, 31, 35, 36, 38, 39, 42, 43, 44, 47 + inertia, 44 + as machine, 31 + nature of, 33 + violation of, 52 + + Melun, Armand de, 52 + Mentor, 28, 29 + Mimerel de Roubaix, Pierre Auguste + Remi, 52 + Monopoly, 5, 45 + Montalembert, Charles, Comte de, 13, 15 + Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondât, Baron de, 29, 31 + Morality law and, 21, 22 + Morelly, 41 + + Napoleon, 41 + Natural rights, v + Nature, gifts of, 1 + + Oliver de Serres, Guillaume Antoine, 29 + Order, 3 + Owen, Robert, 41 + Ownership. See Property + + Paraguay, 30 + Persia, 26 + + {60} + + Personality, 2 + Phalansteries, 55 + Philanthropy. See Charity + Plato republic, 30 + Plunder absence of, 16 + burdens of, 5, 6 + defined, 17 + general welfare and, 19 + extralegal, 13 + kinds, 13 + legal, v, ix, 6, 13, 22 + organized, 14 + origin of, 6 + partial, 15, 16 + socialistic, 13 + universal, 15, 16 + Politicians dreams of, 36 + genius of, 30 + goodness of, 25 + importance of, 22, 23 + responsibility of, 27 + social engineers, 22, 24, 32, 34, 37, 38, 40, 42, 44, 45 + superior, 46, 54 + Politics exaggerated importance of, 8 + and favors, vi + plunder through, vi + Poor relief. See Charity; Welfare + Power. See Government + Property man and, 2 + origin of, 5 + Protectionism, 18 + United States, 12 + Proudhonians, 46 + Providence, 55 + Public relief, 10, 20, 29 + + Raynal, Abbé Guillaume, 33, 35 + Religion, State, 22 + Rent seeking, vi, vii + Republic kinds of, 29 + virtues of, 39 + Revolt, 6 + Revolution, 47 + French, 38 + Rhodes, 32 + Rights individual, v, 2, 3 + Roberspierre, Jean Jacques + government, 38 + lawgiver, 40 + Rome virtue, 32 + Rousseau, Jean Jacques + disciples, 8, 9 + on the lawgiver, 31, 33 + + Saint-Cricq, Barthélémy, Pierre Laurent, Comte de, 50 + Saint-Just, Louis Antoine Léon de, 38 + Saint-Simon, Claude Henri, Comte de doctrine, 41 + Salentum, 27, 29 + Security consequences, 3 + Self-defense, 2, 37, 49, 50 + Selfishness, 5 + Serres, Oliver de, 29 + Slavery, + United States, viii, 12 + universality, 5 + Socialism confused, ix, 22 + defined, 14, 15 + disguised, 22 + experiments, 23, 24 + legal plunder, 13 + sincerely believed, 18 + social engineers, 22, 24 + refutation of, 15 + Socialists, vii + Society enlightened, 37 + + {61} + + experiments, 23 + motive force, 40, 43 + object of, 36, 37 + parable of the traveler, 54, 55 + + Solon, 33, 35 + Sparta, 32, 36 + Spoliation. See Plunder + State. See Government + Suffrage. See Universal suffrage + + Tariffs, vi, viii + Telemachus, 27 + Terror as means of republican government, 39, 40 + Theirs, Louis Adolphe + doctrine, 52 + education, 45 + Tyre, 32 + + United States, viii, 12 + Declaration of Independence, v + Universal suffrage demand for, 9, 43, 44, 46, 47 + importance of, 10 + incapacity and, 9 + objections, 9 + + Vaucanson, Jacques de, 54 + Vested interests, 13, 14 + Virtue and vice, 28, 30, 35, 36, 40 + Voting responsibility and, 9, 10 + right of, 10 + See also Universal suffrage + + Want satisfaction, 4 + Wealth equality of, 11, 21, 29, 36 + transfer of, vii + Welfare, 10, 20, 28 + + + + The law perverted! The law--and, in its wake, all the + collective forces of the nation. The law, I say, not + only diverted from its proper direction, but made + to pursue one entirely contrary! The law becomes + the tool of every kind of avarice, instead of being + its check! The law guilty of that very inequity which + it was its mission to punish! Truly, this is a serious + fact, if it exists, and one to which I feel bound to + call the attention of my fellow-citizens. + + --Frédéric Bastiat + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Law, by Frédéric Bastiat + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44800 *** diff --git a/44800-h.zip b/44800-h.zip Binary files differdeleted file mode 100644 index 9ebfe5b..0000000 --- a/44800-h.zip +++ /dev/null diff --git a/44800-h/44800-h.htm b/44800-h/44800-h.htm index b8b3456..600c6c8 100644 --- a/44800-h/44800-h.htm +++ b/44800-h/44800-h.htm @@ -1,4 +1,4 @@ -<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?> +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" @@ -7,7 +7,7 @@ <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> <head> <title> - The Law, by Frédéric Bastiat + The Law, by Frédéric Bastiat </title> <link rel="coverpage" href="images/cover.jpg" /> <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> @@ -36,44 +36,8 @@ </style> </head> - <body> - - -<pre> - -The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Law, by Frédéric Bastiat - -This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with -almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or -re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included -with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org - - -Title: The Law - -Author: Frédéric Bastiat - -Release Date: January 30, 2014 [EBook #44800] - -Language: English - -Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 - -*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAW *** - - - - -Produced by David Widger from page scans generously provided -by the Google Books Project, with a Creative Commons license -granted by the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, Alabama - - - - - - -</pre> +<body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 44800 ***</div> <div style="height: 8em;"> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> @@ -82,7 +46,7 @@ granted by the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, Alabama THE LAW </h1> <h2> - By Frédéric Bastiat + By Frédéric Bastiat </h2> @@ -98,7 +62,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> Ludwig von Mises Institute Auburn, Alabama <br /> <br /> Cover: Prise de la Bastille ("The Storming of the Bastille"); 1789.<br /> Painting by Jean-Pierre Hoiiel (1735-1813). <br /> Permission was obtained from the - Bibliothèque nationale de France for its use. <br /> <br /> Copyright © 2007 + Bibliothèque nationale de France for its use. <br /> <br /> Copyright © 2007 by the Ludwig von Mises Institute. Printed in China. <br /> <br /> Published by the Ludwig von Mises Institute <br /> <br /> 518 West Magnolia Avenue, Auburn, Alabama 36832 @@ -166,7 +130,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> </p> <p> Anyone building a personal library of liberty must include in it a copy of - Frédéric Bastiat's classic essay, "The Law." First published in 1850 by + Frédéric Bastiat's classic essay, "The Law." First published in 1850 by the great French economist and journalist, it is as clear a statement as has ever been made of the original American ideal of government, as proclaimed in the Declaration of Independence, that the main purpose of @@ -277,7 +241,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> tariffs. </p> <p> - Frédéric Bastiat died on Christmas Eve, 1850, and did not live to observe + Frédéric Bastiat died on Christmas Eve, 1850, and did not live to observe the convulsions that the America he admired so much would go through in the next fifteen years (and longer). It is unlikely that he would have considered the U.S. government's military invasion of the Southern states @@ -1329,7 +1293,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> which, in every other respect, I am the first to render justice. </p> <p> - With the astonishing credulity that characterizes the classics, Fénelon, + With the astonishing credulity that characterizes the classics, Fénelon, against the authority of reason and of facts, admits the general felicity of the Egyptians, and attributes it, not to their own wisdom, but to that of their kings: @@ -1362,7 +1326,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> such a manner." </pre> <p> - Fénelon's idyll on Crete is still more fascinating. Mentor is made to say: + Fénelon's idyll on Crete is still more fascinating. Mentor is made to say: </p> <pre xml:space="preserve"> All that you will see in this wonderful island is the @@ -2236,7 +2200,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> stop? Where is the law to stop? One person, Mr. de Saint Cricq, will only extend his philanthropy to some of the industrial classes, and will require the law to slight the consumers in favor of the producers. - Another, like Mr. Considérant, will take up the cause of the working + Another, like Mr. Considérant, will take up the cause of the working classes, and claim for them by means of the law, at a fixed rate, clothing, lodging, food, and <a name="link51" id="link51"></a> <span class="pagenum">51</span> everything necessary for the support of life. A @@ -2478,7 +2442,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> labor, <a href="#link42">42</a> law, <a href="#link50">50</a>, <a href="#link52">52</a> Bonaparte, Napoleon, <a href="#link41">41</a> - Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, <a href="#link25">25</a>, <a href="#link26">26</a> + Bossuet, Jacques Bénigne, <a href="#link25">25</a>, <a href="#link26">26</a> Cabetists, <a href="#link46">46</a>, <a href="#link47">47</a> Capital displacement, <a href="#link2">2</a> @@ -2494,7 +2458,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> Competition meaning, <a href="#link45">45</a> results, <a href="#link45">45</a> - Condillac, Étienne Bonnot de, <a href="#link35">35</a>, <a href="#link38">38</a> + Condillac, Étienne Bonnot de, <a href="#link35">35</a>, <a href="#link38">38</a> Constituent Assembly, <a href="#link24">24</a> Conventionality, <a href="#link37">37</a> Crete, <a href="#link28">28</a> @@ -2525,7 +2489,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> Equality of wealth, <a href="#link11">11</a>, <a href="#link20">20</a>, <a href="#link29">29</a>, <a href="#link36">36</a> - Fénelon, François de Salignac de La + Fénelon, François de Salignac de La Mothe antiquity, <a href="#link27">27</a>, <a href="#link29">29</a> Telemachus, <a href="#link27">27</a> Force common or collective, <a href="#link2">2, </a> <a href="#link3">3</a> @@ -2533,7 +2497,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> motive, of society, <a href="#link40">40</a>, <a href="#link43">43</a> See also Government; Law Forced conformity, viii - Fourier, François Marie Charles, <a href="#link41">41</a> + Fourier, François Marie Charles, <a href="#link41">41</a> Fourierists, <a href="#link46">46</a> France revolutions, <a href="#link47">47</a> Fraternity legally enforced, <a href="#link16">16</a>, <a href="#link17">17</a>, <a @@ -2625,7 +2589,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> universal right of, <a href="#link7">7</a> See also Law Legislator. See Lawgiver; Politicians - Lepéletier, Louis Michel de Saint Fargeau, <a href="#link39">39</a> + Lepéletier, Louis Michel de Saint Fargeau, <a href="#link39">39</a> Liberty competition and, <a href="#link44">44</a>, <a href="#link45">45</a> defined, <a href="#link42">42</a> denied, <a href="#link44">44</a>, <a href="#link45">45</a> @@ -2641,7 +2605,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> Lycurgus government, <a href="#link30">30</a>, <a href="#link35">35</a>, <a href="#link36">36</a> influence, <a href="#link33">33</a>, <a href="#link40">40</a> - Mably, Abbé Gabriel Bonnot de, <a href="#link35">35</a>, <a href="#link39">39</a> + Mably, Abbé Gabriel Bonnot de, <a href="#link35">35</a>, <a href="#link39">39</a> Mankind assimilation, <a href="#link2">2</a> concern for, <a href="#link54">54</a> degraded, <a href="#link25">25</a> @@ -2662,7 +2626,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> Remi, <a href="#link52">52</a> Monopoly, <a href="#link5">5, </a> <a href="#link45">45</a> Montalembert, Charles, Comte de, <a href="#link13">13</a>, <a href="#link15">15</a> - Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondât, Baron de, <a href="#link29">29</a>, <a + Montesquieu, Charles Louis de Secondât, Baron de, <a href="#link29">29</a>, <a href="#link31">31</a> Morality law and, <a href="#link21">21</a>, <a href="#link22">22</a> Morelly, <a href="#link41">41</a> @@ -2717,7 +2681,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> Providence, <a href="#link55">55</a> Public relief, <a href="#link10">10</a>, <a href="#link20">20</a>, <a href="#link29">29</a> - Raynal, Abbé Guillaume, <a href="#link33">33</a>, <a href="#link35">35</a> + Raynal, Abbé Guillaume, <a href="#link33">33</a>, <a href="#link35">35</a> Religion, State, <a href="#link22">22</a> Rent seeking, vi, vii Republic kinds of, <a href="#link29">29</a> @@ -2735,8 +2699,8 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> disciples, <a href="#link8">8, </a> <a href="#link9">9</a> on the lawgiver, <a href="#link31">31</a>, <a href="#link33">33</a> - Saint-Cricq, Barthélémy, Pierre Laurent, Comte de, <a href="#link50">50</a> - Saint-Just, Louis Antoine Léon de, <a href="#link38">38</a> + Saint-Cricq, Barthélémy, Pierre Laurent, Comte de, <a href="#link50">50</a> + Saint-Just, Louis Antoine Léon de, <a href="#link38">38</a> Saint-Simon, Claude Henri, Comte de doctrine, <a href="#link41">41</a> Salentum, <a href="#link27">27</a>, <a href="#link29">29</a> Security consequences, <a href="#link3">3</a> @@ -2812,7 +2776,7 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> fact, if it exists, and one to which I feel bound to call the attention of my fellow-citizens. - —Frédéric Bastiat</i> + —Frédéric Bastiat</i> </p> <div style="height: 6em;"> <br /><br /><br /><hr /><br /><br /> @@ -2827,381 +2791,6 @@ width="100%" /><br /></div> <br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /> </div> - - - - - - -<pre> - - - - - -End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Law, by Frédéric Bastiat - -*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LAW *** - -***** This file should be named 44800-h.htm or 44800-h.zip ***** -This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: - http://www.gutenberg.org/4/4/8/0/44800/ - -Produced by David Widger from page scans generously provided -by the Google Books Project, with a Creative Commons license -granted by the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Auburn, Alabama - - -Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions -will be renamed. - -Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no -one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation -(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without -permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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