 section 10 of essays on political economy this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org essays on political economy by Friedrich Bastia section 10 the law 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 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 which 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 the application of our faculties to these elements that the phenomena of assimilation and of appropriation by which life pursues the circle which 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 demagogue 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's 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 constituents or preserving elements of life elements each of which is rendered complete by the others and 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 rights and the common force cannot rationally have any other ends 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 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 overall 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 least responsible the most just and consequently the most solid government which 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 insured 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 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 a frost we should know it only by the inestimable blessing of safety it may further be affirmed that thanks to the non-intervention of the state in private affairs are once 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 which legislative measures occasion displacements which render so uncertain and precarious the very sources of existence and thus aggravate to such an extent the responsibility of governments unhappily law is by no means confined to its own department nor is it merely in some indifferent 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 a facing amongst rights that limit which 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 but accomplished and what has resulted from it the law has been perverted through the influence of two very different causes bear egotism and false philanthropy let us speak of the former self preservation and development is the common aspiration of all men in such a way that if everyone enjoyed the free exercise of his faculties and the free disposition of their fruits social progress would be incessant uninterrupted and 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 sacerdotal oppressions the universality of slavery the frauds and trade and the monopolies with which it's animals abound this fatal disposition has its origins in the very constitution of man in that primitive and universal and invincible sentiment which 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 yet 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 less burdensome and more dangerous than labor it is very evidence that the proper aim of law is to oppose the powerful obstacle of collective force to this fatal tendency 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 preponderating force it must finally place this force in the hands of those who legislate this inevitable phenomenon combined with the fatal tendency which 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 perpetuate 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 to 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 sees upon a legislative power 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 which 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 have faced 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 to 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 in 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 all justice from law it is sufficient then for the law to order in sanction plunder that it may appear to many consciences just and sacred slavery protection and monopoly fine 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 innovator 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 and not only with sole reference to free exchange to liberty property injustice 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 injustice which regulate French industry that in public pulpits salaried by the treasury the professor abstained rigorously from endangering in the slightest degree the respect due to the laws now in force so that if a law exists which sanctioned 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 which 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 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 preponderance I could prove this assertion in a thousand ways but I shall confine myself by way of illustration to bringing it to bear upon a subject which of late has occupied everybody's mind universal suffrage whatever may be thought of it by the adepts of the school of rosso 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 millions of inhabitants to make the right of suffrage universal 36 millions of electors should be reckoned the most extended system reckons only nine million 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 new review of the subject we may soon perceive the motive which causes the right of suffrage to depend upon the presumption of incapacity the most extended system of differing only in this respect from the most restricted by the appreciation of those conditions on which this incapacity depends and which constitutes not a difference in principle but in degree 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 everyone 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 motive 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 securities as regards the acts upon which his well-being and his 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 exhaust 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 which 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 rights 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 subjects of the greater or less 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 but if the fatal principle should come to be introduced that under pretext 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 agricultural the manufacturers the shipowners or artists and comedians then certainly in this case there is no class which may not pretend and with reason to place its hand upon the law which would not demand with fury its right of election and eligibility and which 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 affect 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 six hundred thousand 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 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 every one 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 which 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 become an instrument of injustice and if this fact occasions consequences so formidable to the united states where there is but one exception what must it be with us in europe where it is a principle a system m montelambere adopting the thought of a famous proclamation of m carlier said we must make war against socialism and by socialism according to the definition of m charles dupin he meant plunder but what plunder did he mean for there are two sorts extra legal and legal plunder as to extra legal 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 which systematically threatens the foundations of society besides the war against this kind of plunder has not waited for the signal of m montelambere or m 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 gendarmery prisons dungeons and scaffolds it is the law itself which 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 party's benefited the shame the danger and the scruple sometimes it places all this ceremony of magistracy police gendarmery 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 which is meant by m montelambere this plunder may be only an exceptional blemish in the legislation of a people and in this case the best thing that can be done is without so many speeches and lamentations to do away with it as soon as possible not withstanding 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 which 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 but 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 systemitizing of these arguments that legal plunder become 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 an infinite multitude of plans for organization tariffs protection prerequisites gratuities encouragements progressive taxation gratuitous instruction right to labor 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 which takes the name of socialism now socialism thus defined and forming a doctrinal body what other war would you make against it than a war of doctrine you find this doctrine false absurd abominable refute it this will be all the more easy the more false the more absurd and the more abominable it is above all if you wish to be strong begin by brooding out of your legislation every particle of socialism which may have crept into it and this will be no light work M. Montelambere 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 which we must make against socialism must be one which is compatible with the law honor and justice but how is it that M. Montelambere does not see that he is placing himself in a vicious circle you would oppose law to socialism but it is the law which 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 one when the few plunder the many two when everybody plunders everybody else three 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 partial plunder this is the system which prevailed so long as the elective privilege was partial a system which 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 everyone 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 which 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 organizations 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 encountering the most popular prejudice of our time it is not considered enough that law should be just 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 m d lamantine 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 underfoot legal plunder has two roots one of them as we have already seen is in human egotism the other is in false philanthropy end of section 10 recording by katie riley march 2010 section 11 of essays on political economy this is a liberbox recording all liberbox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit liberbox.org essays on political economy by frédéric bastia section 11 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 exception 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's ought to repress i say that plunder is still perpetrated and even in a social point of view under aggravated circumstances in this case 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 dissensions therefore whether i am believed or not i declare that i do not mean to accuse the intentions nor the morality of anybody i am attacking an idea which i believe to be false a system which 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 spirits or of fear who would call and question the sincerity of protectionism of socialism and even of communism which are one in 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 and by its universality in communism once it follows that of the three systems socialism is the most vague the most undefined and consequently the most sincere be it as it may to conclude that legal plunder has one of its roots in false philanthropy is evidently to put intentions out of the question 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 lawfully 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 which 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 which 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 lumber they cease to be men they lose their personality their liberty their property endeavor to imagine a form of labor imposed by force which is not a violation of liberty a transmission of wealth imposed by force which 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 cabinet a politician takes a view of society he is struck with the spectacle of inequality which presents itself he mourns over the sufferings which 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 later times affected through the medium of the laws he ought to ask himself whether granting the aspiration of all men after well-being and perfection 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 which 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 in a gation is there any one of these legal arrangements which 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 fountain once 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 prices for encouragement right to profit right to labor right to assistance right to instruction 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 which sheds light abroad which is peculiar to 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 of this kind of transaction i.e. let this kind of want satisfy itself freely or else force the will of the people in the matter and take from some of them sufficient to pay professors commissioned to instruct others gratuitously 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 forced and need i say how far it is of violence and absurd enterprise to introduce force in these matters as the results 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 supposes 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 which 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 theories upon one common hypothesis and it 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 moving spring in them that they are inert matter passive particles atoms without impulse at best a vegetation indifferent to its own mode of existence susceptible of receiving 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 scruple to imagine that he himself is under the names of organizer discoverer legislator instituter or founder this will and hand this universal spring 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 shaped his trees into pyramids parasols cubes cones vases espaliers to staffs or fans so the socialist following his chimera shapes poor humanity into groups series circles sub circles honeycombs or social workshops with all kinds of variations and as the gardener to bring his trees into shape once hatchets pruning hooks stalls and shears so the politician to bring society into shape once the forces which he can only find in the laws the law of customs the law of taxation the law of assistance and the law of instruction it is so true that the socialist look upon mankind as a subject for social combinations that if by chance they are not quite certain of the success of these combinations 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 and thus the chemist sacrifices some substances the agriculturalist some seed and a corner of his field to make trial of an idea but then think of the immeasurable distance between the gardener and his trees between the inventor and his machine between the chemist and his substances between the agriculturalist and his seed the socialist thinks in all sincerity that there is the same distance between himself and mankind it is not to be wondered at that the politicians of the 19th 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 which exist between the clay and the potter moreover if they have consented to recognize in the heart of man a principle of action and in his intellect a principle of discernment they have looked upon this gift of god as a fatal one and thought that mankind's under these two impulses tended fatally toward 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 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 toward 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 toward 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 motive 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 bassoe 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 everyone 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 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 bassoe 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 bassoe takes exception when dittorus accuses the egyptians of rejecting wrestling in 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 superintendent 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 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 fennelin reared in the study and admiration of antiquity and a witness of the power of louis the fourteenth fennelin naturally adopted the idea that mankind should be passive and that its misfortunes and its prosperity's its virtues and its vices are caused by the external influence which is exercised upon its by the law or by the makers of the law and thus in his utopia of selentum 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 telemakas 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 which characterizes the classics fennelin 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 which were covered every year without intermission with golden crops meadows full of flocks laborers bending under the weight of fruits which 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 which is governed by a wise king mentor afterwards desired me to remark the happiness and abundance which 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 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 fenland's idle on creed is still more fascinating mentor is made to say all that you will see in this wonderful island is the results of the laws of minors the education which 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 innervate 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 which go unpunished amongst other people in gratitude dissimulation and avarice as to pomp and dissipation there is no need to punish these for they are unknown in creed no costly furniture no magnificent clothing no delicious feasts no gilded palaces are allowed it is thus that mentor prepares his scholar to mold and manipulate doubtless with the most philanthropic intentions the people of ithica and to confirm him in these ideas he gives him the example of salentum it is thus that 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 the 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 Lesada men 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 we may see how by confounding all the virtues they showed their wisdom to the world like urges blending thefts 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 grand or and to glory the phenomenon which 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 like urges and although the former had peace for his object and the latter war they resemble each other in a 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 which he enjoyed 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 or once without our desires 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 face 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 materials to exercise the sagacity of lawgivers rosso 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 mechanism who invents the machine the former is merely the workman who sets it in motion and what part have meant 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 which exist between the agricultural writer and the agriculturalist the agriculturalist and the clot at what a vast height then is the politician placed who rules over legislators themselves and teaches them their trades 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 if the soil is poor and barren or the country too much confined for the inhabitants turn to industry and the arts whose productions 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 Athanians was literature that of Carthage and Tyree commerce of Rhodes naval affairs of Spargo 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 Cosio admit that it had no need of the legislator to gain its empire from the beginning 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 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 instituters conductors and manipulators of societies he is therefore very exacting with regard to them he who dares to undertake the institutions of the 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 partial and moral existence for the physical and independent one which we have all received from nature in a word he must deprive man of his own powers to give him others which are foreign to him poor human nature what would become of its dignity if it were entrusted to the disciples of Rousseau right now the climate that is the air and the soil is the first element for the legislature 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 towards degree of fertility it is more especially in the distribution of property that the wisdom of legislation will appear as a 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 new developments of reason but when you establish old people in a new country the skill consists in only allowing it those injurious opinions in 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 legislature who desires to purify the tone and the manners of the people if he has genius and virtue the lands and the men which are at his disposal will inspire his soul with a plan of society which a writer can only vaguely trace and in a way which 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 agriculture list 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 sands this is the way in which he must set about it every facility is open to the agriculture list 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 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 and of section 11 recording by katie riley march 2010