,,the ,,law ,by ,frdric ,bastiat ,ludwig von ,mises ,institute ,auburn1 ,alabama ,cover3 ,prise de la ,bastille 7,the ,storming of the ,bastille72 #aghi4 ,painting by ,jean-,pierre ,hoiiel 7#agce-ahac74 ,permission was obtained from the ,bibliothque nationale de ,france for its use4 ,copyright #bjjg by the ,ludwig von ,mises ,institute4 ,printed in ,china4 ,published by the ,ludwig von ,mises ,institute #eah ,west ,magnolia ,avenue1 ,auburn1 ,alabama #cfhcb ,,isbn3 #igh-a-icceej-ad-e ,this book is licensed under a ,creative ,commons license4 ,,foreword v ,anyone building a personal library of liberty must include in it a copy of ,frdric ,bastiat's classic essay1 ,the ,law4 ,first published in #ahej by the great ,french economist and journalist1 it is as clear a statement as has ever been made of the original ,american ideal of government1 as proclaimed in the ,declaration of ,independence1 that the main purpose of any government is the protection of the lives1 liberties1 and property of its citizens4 ,bastiat believed that all human beings possessed the ,god-given1 natural rights of individuality1 liberty1 property4 ,this is man1 he wrote4 ,these three gifts from ,god precede all human legislation4 ,but even in his time--writing in the late #ahdjs--,bastiat was alarmed over how the law had been perverted into an instrument of what he called legal plunder4 ,far from protecting individual rights1 the law was increasingly used to deprive one group of citizens of those rights for the benefit of another group1 and especially for the benefit of the state itself4 ,he condemned the legal plunder of protectionist vi tariffs1 government subsidies of all kinds1 progressive taxation1 public schools1 government jobs programs1 minimum wage laws1 welfare1 usury laws1 and more4 ,bastiat's warnings of the dire effects of legal plunder are as relevant today as they were the day he first issued them4 ,the system of legal plunder 7which many now celebrate as democracy7 will erase from everyone's conscience1 he wrote1 the distinction between justice and injustice4 ,the plundered classes will eventually figure out how to enter the political game and plunder their fellow man4 ,legislation will never be guided by any principles of justice1 but only by brute political force4 ,the great ,french champion of liberty also forecast the corruption of education by the state4 ,those who held government-endowed teaching positions1 he wrote1 would rarely criticize legal plunder lest their government endowments be ended4 ,the system of legal plunder would also greatly exaggerate the importance of politics in society4 ,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 politics4 ,bastiat was also wise enough to anticipate what modern economists call rent seeking and rent avoidance behavior4 ,these two clumsy phrases refer1 respectively1 to the phenomena of lobbying for political favors 7legal plunder71 and of engaging in political activity directed at protecting oneself from being the victim of plunder seekers4 7,for example1 the steel manufacturing industry lobbies for high tariffs on steel1 whereas steel-using industries1 like the automobile industry1 can be expected to lobby against high tariffs on steel74 vii ,the reason why modem economists are concerned about rent seeking is the opportunity cost involved3 the more time1 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 services1 which increases wealth4 ,thus1 legal plunder impoverishes the entire society despite the fact that a small 7but politically influential7 part of the society benefits from it4 ,it is remarkable1 in reading ,the ,law1 how perfectly accurate ,bastiat was in describing the statists of his day which1 it turns out1 were not much different from the statists of today or any other day4 ,the ,french socialists of ,bastiat's day espoused doctrines that perverted charity1 education1 and morals1 for one thing4 ,true charity does not begin with the robbery of taxation1 he pointed out4 ,government schooling is inevitably an exercise in statist brainwashing1 not genuine education2 and it is hardly moral for a large gang 7government7 to 7legally7 rob one segment of the population1 keep most of the loot1 and share a little of it with various needy individuals4 ,socialists want to play ,god1 ,bastiat observed1 anticipating all the future tyrants and despots of the world who would try to remake the world in their image1 whether that image would be communism1 fascism1 the glorious union1 or global democracy4 ,bastiat also observed that socialists wanted forced conformity2 rigid regimentation of the population through pervasive regulation2 forced equality of wealth2 and dictatorship4 ,as such1 they were the mortal enemies of liberty4 ,dictatorship need not involve an actual dictator4 ,all that was needed1 said ,bastiat1 was the laws1 enacted viii by a ,congress or a ,parliament1 that would achieve the same effect3 forced conformity4 ,bastiat was also wise to point out that the world has far too many great men1 fathers of their countries1 etc41 who in reality are usually nothing but petty tyrants with a sick and compulsive desire to rule over others4 ,the defenders of the free society should have a healthy disrespect for all such men4 ,bastiat admired ,america and pointed to the ,america of #ahej as being as close as any society in the world to his ideal of a government that protected individual rights to life1 liberty1 and property4 ,there were two major exeptions1 however3 the twin evils of slavery and protectionist tariffs4 ,frdric ,bastiat died on ,christmas ,eve1 #ahej1 and did not live to observe the convulsions that the ,america he admired so much would go through in the next fifteen years 7and longer74 ,it is unlikely that he would have considered the ,u4,s4 government's military invasion of the ,southern states in #ahfa1 the killing of some #cjj1jjj citizens1 and the bombing1 burning1 and plundering of the region's cities1 towns1 farms1 and businesses as being consistent in any way with the protection of the lives1 liberties and properties of those citizens as promised by the ,declaration of ,independence4 ,had he lived to see all of this1 he most likely would have added legal murder to legal plunder as one of the two great sins of government4 ,he would likely have viewed the post-war ,republican ,party1 with its #ej percent average tariff rates1 its massive corporate welfare schemes1 and its #be-year campaign of genocide against the ,plains ,indians as first-rate plunderers and traitors to the ,american ideal4 ,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 7or lack thereof7 of a free society 7as opposed to socialism74 ,he made a major contribution to this end himself with the publication of his book1 ,economic ,harmonies1 which can be construed as a precursor to the modern literature of the ,austrian ,school of economics4 ,there is no substitute for a solid understanding of the market order 7and of the realities of politics7 when it comes to combating the kinds of destructive socialistic schemes that plagued ,bastiat's day as well as ours4 ,anyone who reads this great essay along with other free-market classics1 such as ,henry ,hazlitt's ,economics in ,one ,lesson and ,murray ,roth-bard's ,power and ,market1 will possess enough intellectual ammunition to debunk the socialist fantasies of this or any other day4 ,thomas ,j4 ,di,lorenzo ,may #bjjg ,thomas ,di,lorenzo is professor of economics at ,loyola ,college in ,maryland and a member of the senior faculty of the ,mises ,institute4 ,,the ,,law #a #a ,the law perverted6 ,the law--and1 in its wake1 all the collective forces of the nation--the law1 ,i say1 not only diverted from its proper direction1 but made to pursue one entirely contrary6 ,the law become the tool of every kind of avarice1 instead of being its check6 ,the law guilty of that very iniquity which it was its mission to punish6 ,truly1 this is a serious fact1 if it exists1 and one to which ,i feel bound to call the attention of my fellow citizens4 ,we hold from ,god the gift that1 as far as we are concerned1 contains all others1 ,life--physical1 intellectual1 and moral life4 ,but life cannot support itself4 ,he who has bestowed it1 has entrusted us with the care of supporting it1 of developing it1 and of perfecting it4 ,to that end1 ,he has provided us with a collection of wonderful faculties2 ,he has plunged us into the midst of a variety of elements4 ,it is by #b the application of our faculties to these elements that the phenomena of assimilation and of appropriation1 by which life pursues the circle that has been assigned to it are realized4 ,existence1 faculties1 assimilation--in other words1 personality1 liberty1 property--this is man4 ,it is of these three things that it may be said1 apart from all demagogic subtlety1 that they are anterior and superior to all human legislation4 ,it is not because men have made laws1 that personality1 liberty1 and property exist4 ,on the contrary1 it is because personality1 liberty1 and property exist beforehand1 that men make laws4 ,what1 then1 is law8 ,as ,i have said elsewhere1 it is the collective organization of the individual right to lawful defense4 ,nature1 or rather ,god1 has bestowed upon every one of us the right to defend his person1 his liberty1 and his property1 since these are the three constituent or preserving elements of life2 elements1 each of which is rendered complete by the others1 and that cannot be understood without them4 ,for what are our faculties1 but the extension of our personality8 and what is property1 but an extension of our faculties8 ,if every man has the right of defending1 even by force1 his person1 his liberty1 and his property1 a number of men have the right to combine together to extend1 to organize a common force to provide regularly for this defense4 ,collective right1 then1 has its principle1 its reason for existing1 its lawfulness1 in individual right2 and the common force cannot rationally have any other end1 or any other mission1 than that of the isolated forces for which it is substituted4 ,thus1 as the force of an individual cannot lawfully touch the person1 the liberty1 or the property of #c another individual--for the same reason1 the common force cannot lawfully be used to destroy the person1 the liberty1 or the property of individuals or of classes4 ,for this perversion of force would be1 in one case as in the other1 in contradiction to our premises4 ,for who will dare to say that force has been given to us1 not to defend our rights1 but to annihilate the equal rights of our brethren8 ,and if this be not true of every individual force1 acting independently1 how can it be true of the collective force1 which is only the organized union of isolated forces8 ,nothing1 therefore1 can be more evident than this3 ,the law is the organization of the natural right of lawful defense2 it is the substitution of collective for individual forces1 for the purpose of acting in the sphere in which they have a right to act1 of doing what they have a right to do1 to secure persons1 liberties1 and properties1 and to maintain each in its right1 so as to cause justice to reign over all4 ,and if a people established upon this basis were to exist1 it seems to me that order would prevail among them in their acts as well as in their ideas4 ,it seems to me that such a people would have the most simple1 the most economical1 the least oppressive1 the least to be felt1 the most restrained1 the most just1 and1 consequently1 the most stable ,government that could be imagined1 whatever its political form might be4 ,for under such an administration1 everyone would feel that he possessed all the fullness1 as well as all the responsibility of his existence4 ,so long as personal safety was ensured1 so long as labor was free1 and the fruits of labor secured against all unjust attacks1 no one would have any difficulties to contend with in the ,state4 ,when #d prosperous1 we should not1 it is true1 have to thank the ,state for our success2 but when unfortunate1 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 frost4 ,we should know it only by the inestimable blessing of ,safety4 ,it may further be affirmed1 that1 thanks to the nonintervention of the ,state in private affairs1 our wants and their satisfactions would develop themselves in their natural order4 ,we should not see poor families seeking for literary instruction before they were supplied with bread4 ,we should not see towns peopled at the expense of rural districts1 nor rural districts at the expense of towns4 ,we should not see those great displacements of capital1 of labor1 and of population1 that legislative measures occasion2 displacements that render so uncertain and precarious the very sources of existence1 and thus enlarge to such an extent the responsibility of ,governments4 ,unhappily1 law is by no means confined to its own sphere4 ,nor is it merely in some ambiguous and debatable views that it has left its proper sphere4 ,it has done more than this4 ,it has acted in direct opposition to its proper end2 it has destroyed its own object2 it has been employed in annihilating that justice which it ought to have established1 in effacing amongst ,rights1 that limit which it was its true mission to respect2 it has placed the collective force in the service of those who wish to traffic1 without risk and without scruple1 in the persons1 the liberty1 and the property of others2 it has converted plunder into a right1 that it may protect it1 and lawful defense into a crime1 that it may punish it4 ,how has this perversion of law been accomplished8 ,and what has resulted from it8 #e ,the law has been perverted through the influence of two very different causes--naked greed and misconceived philanthropy4 ,let us speak of the former4 ,self-preservation and development is the common aspiration of all men1 in such a way that if every one enjoyed the free exercise of his faculties and the free disposition of their fruits1 social progress would be incessant1 uninterrupted1 inevitable4 ,but there is also another disposition which is common to them4 ,this is to live and to develop1 when they can1 at the expense of one another4 ,this is no rash imputation1 emanating from a gloomy1 uncharitable spirit4 ,history bears witness to the truth of it1 by the incessant wars1 the migrations of races1 sectarian oppressions1 the universality of slavery1 the frauds in trade1 and the monopolies with which its annals abound4 ,this fatal disposition has its origin in the very constitution of man--in that primitive1 and universal1 and invincible sentiment that urges it towards its well-being1 and makes it seek to escape pain4 ,man can only derive life and enjoyment from a perpetual search and appropriation2 that is1 from a perpetual application of his faculties to objects1 or from labor4 ,this is the origin of property4 ,but also he may live and enjoy1 by seizing and appropriating the productions of the faculties of his fellow men4 ,this is the origin of plunder4 ,now1 labor being in itself a pain1 and man being naturally inclined to avoid pain1 it follows1 and history proves it1 that wherever plunder is less burdensome than labor1 it prevails2 and neither religion nor morality can1 in this case1 prevent it from prevailing4 ,when does plunder cease1 then8 ,when it becomes more burdensome and more dangerous than labor4 ,it is #f very evident that the proper aim of law is to oppose the fatal tendency to plunder with the powerful obstacle of collective force2 that all its measures should be in favor of property1 and against plunder4 ,but the law is made1 generally1 by one man1 or by one class of men4 ,and as law cannot exist without the sanction and the support of a preponderant force1 it must finally place this force in the hands of those who legislate4 ,this inevitable phenomenon1 combined with the fatal tendency that1 we have said1 exists in the heart of man1 explains the almost universal perversion of law4 ,it is easy to conceive that1 instead of being a check upon injustice1 it becomes its most invincible instrument4 ,it is easy to conceive that1 according to the power of the legislator1 it destroys for its own profit1 and in different degrees amongst the rest of the community1 personal independence by slavery1 liberty by oppression1 and property by plunder4 ,it is in the nature of men to rise against the injustice of which they are the victims4 ,when1 therefore1 plunder is organized by law1 for the profit of those who perpetrate it1 all the plundered classes tend1 either by peaceful or revolutionary means1 to enter in some way into the manufacturing of laws4 ,these classes1 according to the degree of enlightenment at which they have arrived1 may propose to themselves two very different ends1 when they thus attempt the attainment of their political rights2 either they may wish to put an end to lawful plunder1 or they may desire to take part in it4 ,woe to the nation where this latter thought prevails amongst the masses1 at the moment when they1 in their turn1 seize upon the legislative power6 #g ,up to that time1 lawful plunder has been exercised by the few upon the many1 as is the case in countries where the right of legislating is confined to a few hands4 ,but now it has become universal1 and the equilibrium is sought in universal plunder4 ,the injustice that society contains1 instead of being rooted out of it1 is generalized4 ,as soon as the injured classes have recovered their political rights1 their first thought is not to abolish plunder 7this would suppose them to possess enlightenment1 which they cannot have71 but to organize against the other classes1 and to their own detriment1 a system of reprisals--as if it was necessary1 before the reign of justice arrives1 that all should undergo a cruel retribution--some for their iniquity and some for their ignorance4 ,it would be impossible1 therefore1 to introduce into society a greater change and a greater evil than this--the conversion of the law into an instrument of plunder4 ,what would be the consequences of such a perversion8 ,it would require volumes to describe them all4 ,we must content ourselves with pointing out the most striking4 ,in the first place1 it would efface from everybody's conscience the distinction between justice and injustice4 ,no society can exist unless the laws are respected to a certain degree1 but the safest way to make them respected is to make them respectable4 ,when law and morality are in contradiction to each other1 the citizen finds himself in the cruel alternative of either losing his moral sense1 or of losing his respect for the law--two evils of equal magnitude1 between which it would be difficult to choose4 ,it is so much in the nature of law to support justice that in the minds of the masses they are one and the same4 ,there is in all of us a strong disposition to regard what is lawful as legitimate1 so much so that many falsely derive #h all justice from law4 ,it is sufficient1 then1 for the law to order and sanction plunder1 that it may appear to many consciences just and sacred4 ,slavery1 protection1 and monopoly find defenders1 not only in those who profit by them1 but in those who suffer by them4 ,if you suggest a doubt as to the morality of these institutions1 it is said directly--,you are a dangerous experimenter1 a utopian1 a theorist1 a despiser of the laws2 you would shake the basis upon which society rests4 ,if you lecture upon morality1 or political economy1 official bodies will be found to make this request to the ,government3 ,that henceforth science be taught not only with sole reference to free exchange 7to liberty1 property1 and justice71 as has been the case up to the present time1 but also1 and especially1 with reference to the facts and legislation 7contrary to liberty1 property1 and justice7 that regulate ,french industry4 ,that1 in public lecterns salaried by the treasury1 the professor abstain rigorously from endangering in the slightest degree the respect due to the laws now in force4#b ,so that if a law exists that sanctions slavery or monopoly1 oppression or plunder1 in any form whatever1 it must not even be mentioned--for how can it be mentioned without damaging the respect that it inspires8 ,still further1 morality and political economy must be taught in connection with this law--that is1 under the supposition that it must be just1 only because it is law4 #i ,another effect of this deplorable perversion of the law is that it gives to human passions and to political struggles1 and1 in general1 to politics1 properly so called1 an exaggerated importance4 ,i could prove this assertion in a thousand ways4 ,but ,i shall confine myself1 by way of an illustration1 to bringing it to bear upon a subject which has of late occupied everybody's mind3 universal suffrage4 ,whatever may be thought of it by the adepts of the school of ,rousseau1 which professes to be very far advanced1 but which ,i consider #bj centuries behind1 universal suffrage 7taking the word in its strictest sense7 is not one of those sacred dogmas with respect to which examination and doubt are crimes4 ,serious objections may be made to it4 ,in the first place1 the word universal conceals a gross sophism4 ,there are1 in ,france1 #cf1jjj1jjj inhabitants4 ,to make the right of suffrage universal1 #cf1jjj1jjj electors should be reckoned4 ,the most extended system reckons only #i1jjj1jjj4 ,three persons out of four1 then1 are excluded2 and more than this1 they are excluded by the fourth4 ,upon what principle is this exclusion founded8 ,upon the principle of incapacity4 ,universal suffrage1 then1 means3 universal suffrage of those who are capable4 ,in point of fact1 who are the capable8 ,are age1 sex1 and judicial condemnations the only conditions to which incapacity is to be attached8 ,on taking a nearer view of the subject1 we may soon perceive the reason why the right of suffrage depends upon the presumption of incapacity2 the most extended system differing from the most restricted in the conditions on which this incapacity depends1 and which constitutes not a difference in principle1 but in degree4 #aj ,this motive is1 that the elector does not stipulate for himself1 but for everybody4 ,if1 as the republicans of the ,greek and ,roman tone pretend1 the right of suffrage had fallen to the lot of every one at his birth1 it would be an injustice to adults to prevent women and children from voting4 ,why are they prevented8 ,because they are presumed to be incapable4 ,and why is incapacity a reason for exclusion8 ,because the elector does not reap alone the responsibility of his vote2 because every vote engages and affects the community at large2 because the community has a right to demand some assurances1 as regards the acts upon which its well-being and its existence depend4 ,i know what might be said in answer to this4 ,i know what might be objected4 ,but this is not the place to settle a controversy of this kind4 ,what ,i wish to observe is this1 that this same controversy 7in common with the greater part of political questions7 that agitates1 excites1 and unsettles the nations1 would lose almost all its importance if the law had always been what it ought to be4 ,in fact1 if law were confined to causing all persons1 all liberties1 and all properties to be respected--if it were merely the organization of individual right and individual defense--if it were the obstacle1 the check1 the chastisement opposed to all oppression1 to all plunder--is it likely that we should dispute much1 as citizens1 on the subject of the greater or lesser universality of suffrage8 ,is it likely that it would compromise that greatest of advantages1 the public peace8 ,is it likely that the excluded classes would not quietly wait for their turn8 ,is it likely that the enfranchised classes would be very jealous of their privilege8 ,and is it not clear1 that the interest of all being one and the same1 some would act without much inconvenience to the others8 #aa ,but if the fatal principle should come to be introduced1 that1 under pretense of organization1 regulation1 protection1 or encouragement1 the law may take from one party in order to give to another1 help itself to the wealth acquired by all the classes that it may increase that of one class1 whether that of the agriculturists1 the manufacturers1 the ship owners1 or artists and comedians2 then certainly1 in this case1 there is no class which may not try1 and with reason1 to place its hand upon the law1 that would not demand with fury its right of election and eligibility1 and that would overturn society rather than not obtain it4 ,even beggars and vagabonds will prove to you that they have an incontestable title to it4 ,they will say3 ,we never buy wine1 tobacco1 or salt1 without paying the tax1 and a part of this tax is given by law in perquisites and gratuities to men who are richer than we are4 ,others make use of the law to create an artificial rise in the price of bread1 meat1 iron1 or cloth4 ,since everybody traffics in law for his own profit1 we should like to do the same4 ,we should like to make it produce the right to assistance1 which is the poor man's plunder4 ,to effect this1 we ought to be electors and legislators1 that we may organize1 on a large scale1 alms for our own class1 as you have organized1 on a large scale1 protection for yours4 ,don't tell us that you will take our cause upon yourselves1 and throw to us #fjj1jjj francs to keep us quiet1 like giving us a bone to pick4 ,we have other claims1 and1 at any rate1 we wish to stipulate for ourselves1 as other classes have stipulated for themselves6 ,how is this argument to be answered8 ,yes1 as long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true mission1 that it may violate property instead of securing it1 #ab everybody will be wanting to manufacture law1 either to defend himself against plunder1 or to organize it for his own profit4 ,the political question will always be prejudicial1 predominant1 and absorbing2 in a word1 there will be fighting around the door of the ,legislative ,palace4 ,the struggle will be no less furious within it4 ,to be convinced of this1 it is hardly necessary to look at what passes in the ,chambers in ,france and in ,england2 it is enough to know how the question stands4 ,is there any need to prove that this odious perversion of law is a perpetual source of hatred and discord1 that it even tends to social disorganization8 ,look at the ,united ,states4 ,there is no country in the world where the law is kept more within its proper domain--which is1 to secure to everyone his liberty and his property4 ,therefore1 there is no country in the world where social order appears to rest upon a more solid basis4 ,nevertheless1 even in the ,united ,states1 there are two questions1 and only two1 that from the beginning have endangered political order4 ,and what are these two questions8 ,that of slavery and that of tariffs2 that is1 precisely the only two questions in which1 contrary to the general spirit of this republic1 law has taken the character of a plunderer4 ,slavery is a violation1 sanctioned by law1 of the rights of the person4 ,protection is a violation perpetrated by the law upon the rights of property2 and certainly it is very remarkable that1 in the midst of so many other debates1 this double legal scourge1 the sorrowful inheritance of the ,old ,world1 should be the only one which can1 and perhaps will1 cause the rupture of the ,union4 ,indeed1 a more astounding fact1 in the heart of society1 cannot be conceived than this3 ,that law should have become an instrument of injustice4 ,and if this fact occasions consequences so formidable to the ,united #ac ,states1 where there is but one exception1 what must it be with us in ,europe1 where it is a principle--a system8 ,mr4 ,montalembert1 adopting the thought of a famous proclamation of ,mr4 ,carlier1 said1 ,we must make war against socialism4 ,and by socialism1 according to the definition of ,mr4 ,charles ,dupin1 he meant plunder4 ,but what plunder did he mean8 ,for there are two sorts3 extralegal and legal plunder4 ,as to extralegal plunder1 such as theft1 or swindling1 which is defined1 foreseen1 and punished by the penal code1 ,i do not think it can be adorned by the name of socialism4 ,it is not this that systematically threatens the foundations of society4 ,besides1 the war against this kind of plunder has not waited for the signal of ,mr4 ,montalembert or ,mr4 ,carlier4 ,it has gone on since the beginning of the world2 ,france was carrying it on long before the revolution of ,february--long before the appearance of socialism--with all the ceremonies of magistracy1 police1 gendarmerie1 prisons1 dungeons1 and scaffolds4 ,it is the law itself that is conducting this war1 and it is to be wished1 in my opinion1 that the law should always maintain this attitude with respect to plunder4 ,but this is not the case4 ,the law sometimes takes its own part4 ,sometimes it accomplishes it with its own hands1 in order to save the parties benefited the shame1 the danger1 and the scruple4 ,sometimes it places all this ceremony of magistracy1 police1 gendarmerie1 and prisons1 at the service of the plunderer1 and treats the plundered party1 when he defends himself1 as the criminal4 ,in a word1 there is a legal plunder1 and it is1 no doubt1 this that is meant by ,mr4 ,montalembert4 ,this plunder may be only an exceptional blemish in the legislation of a people1 and in this case1 the best thing #ad that can be done is1 without so many speeches and lamentations1 to do away with it as soon as possible1 notwithstanding the clamors of interested parties4 ,but how is it to be distinguished8 ,very easily4 ,see whether the law takes from some persons that which belongs to them1 to give to others what does not belong to them4 ,see whether the law performs1 for the profit of one citizen1 and1 to the injury of others1 an act that this citizen cannot perform without committing a crime4 ,abolish this law without delay2 it is not merely an iniquity--it is a fertile source of iniquities1 for it invites reprisals2 and if you do not take care1 the exceptional case will extend1 multiply1 and become systematic4 ,no doubt the party benefited will exclaim loudly2 he will assert his acquired rights4 ,he will say that the ,state is bound to protect and encourage his industry2 he will plead that it is a good thing for the ,state to be enriched1 that it may spend the more1 and thus shower down salaries upon the poor workmen4 ,take care not to listen to this sophistry1 for it is just by the systematizing of these arguments that legal plunder becomes systematized4 ,and this is what has taken place4 ,the delusion of the day is to enrich all classes at the expense of each other2 it is to generalize plunder under pretense of organizing it4 ,now1 legal plunder may be exercised in an infinite multitude of ways4 ,hence come an infinite multitude of plans for organization2 tariffs1 protection1 perquisites1 gratuities1 encouragements1 progressive taxation1 free public education1 right to work1 right to profit1 right to wages1 right to assistance1 right to instruments of labor1 gratuity of credit1 etc41 etc4 ,and it is all these plans1 taken as a whole1 with what they have in common1 legal plunder1 that takes the name of socialism4 ,now socialism1 thus defined1 and forming a doctrinal body1 what other war would you make against it than a #ae war of doctrine8 ,you find this doctrine false1 absurd1 abominable4 ,refute it4 ,this will be all the easier1 the more false1 absurd1 and abominable it is4 ,above all1 if you wish to be strong1 begin by rooting out of your legislation every particle of socialism which may have crept into it--and this will be no light work4 ,mr4 ,montalembert has been reproached with wishing to turn brute force against socialism4 ,he ought to be exonerated from this reproach1 for he has plainly said3 ,the war that we must make against socialism must be one that is compatible with the law1 honor1 and justice4 ,but how is it that ,mr4 ,montalembert does not see that he is placing himself in a vicious circle8 ,you would oppose law to socialism4 ,but it is the law that socialism invokes4 ,it aspires to legal1 not extralegal plunder4 ,it is of the law itself1 like monopolists of all kinds1 that it wants to make an instrument2 and when once it has the law on its side1 how will you be able to turn the law against it8 ,how will you place it under the power of your tribunals1 your gendarmes1 and of your prisons8 ,what will you do then8 ,you wish to prevent it from taking any part in the making of laws4 ,you would keep it outside the ,legislative ,palace4 ,in this you will not succeed1 ,i venture to prophesy1 so long as legal plunder is the basis of the legislation within4 ,it is absolutely necessary that this question of legal plunder should be determined1 and there are only three solutions of it3 #a4 ,when the few plunder the many4 #b4 ,when everybody plunders everybody else4 #c4 ,when nobody plunders anybody4 ,partial plunder1 universal plunder1 absence of plunder1 amongst these we have to make our choice4 ,the law can only produce one of these results4 #af ,partial plunder4 ,this is the system that prevailed so long as the elective privilege was partial2 a system that is resorted to1 to avoid the invasion of socialism4 ,universal plunder4 ,we have been threatened by this system when the elective privilege has become universal2 the masses having conceived the idea of making law1 on the principle of legislators who had preceded them4 ,absence of plunder4 ,this is the principle of justice1 peace1 order1 stability1 conciliation1 and of good sense1 which ,i shall proclaim with all the force of my lungs 7which is very inadequate1 alas67 till the day of my death4 ,and1 in all sincerity1 can anything more be required at the hands of the law8 ,can the law1 whose necessary sanction is force1 be reasonably employed upon anything beyond securing to every one his right8 ,i defy anyone to remove it from this circle without perverting it1 and consequently turning force against right4 ,and as this is the most fatal1 the most illogical social perversion that can possibly be imagined1 it must be admitted that the true solution1 so much sought after1 of the social problem1 is contained in these simple words--,,law ,,is ,,organized ,,justice4 ,now it is important to remark1 that to organize justice by law1 that is to say by force1 excludes the idea of organizing by law1 or by force any manifestation whatever of human activity--labor1 charity1 agriculture1 commerce1 industry1 instruction1 the fine arts1 or religion2 for any one of these organizings would inevitably destroy the essential organization4 ,how1 in fact1 can we imagine force encroaching upon the liberty of citizens without infringing upon justice1 and so acting against its proper aim8 ,here ,i am taking on the most popular prejudice of our time4 ,it is not considered enough that law should be just1 #ag it must be philanthropic4 ,it is not sufficient that it should guarantee to every citizen the free and inoffensive exercise of his faculties1 applied to his physical1 intellectual1 and moral development2 it is required to extend well-being1 instruction1 and morality1 directly over the nation4 ,this is the fascinating side of socialism4 ,but1 ,i repeat it1 these two missions of the law contradict each other4 ,we have to choose between them4 ,a citizen cannot at the same time be free and not free4 ,mr4 de ,lamartine wrote to me one day thus3 ,your doctrine is only the half of my program2 you have stopped at liberty1 ,i go on to fraternity4 ,i answered him3 ,the second part of your program will destroy the first4 ,and in fact it is impossible for me to separate the word fraternity from the word voluntary4 ,i cannot possibly conceive fraternity legally enforced1 without liberty being legally destroyed1 and justice legally trampled under foot4 ,legal plunder has two roots3 one of them1 as we have already seen1 is in human greed2 the other is in misconceived philanthropy4 ,before ,i proceed1 ,i think ,i ought to explain myself upon the word plunder4 ,i do not take it1 as it often is taken1 in a vague1 undefined1 relative1 or metaphorical sense4 ,i use it in its scientific acceptation1 and as expressing the opposite idea to property4 ,when a portion of wealth passes out of the hands of him who has acquired it1 without his consent1 and without compensation1 to him who has not created it1 whether by force or by artifice1 ,i say that property is violated1 that plunder is perpetrated4 ,i say that this is exactly what the law ought to repress always and everywhere4 ,if the law itself performs the action it ought to repress1 ,i say that plunder is still perpetrated1 and even1 in a social point of view1 under aggravated circumstances4 ,in this case1 #ah however1 he who profits from the plunder is not responsible for it2 it is the law1 the lawgiver1 society itself1 and this is where the political danger lies4 ,it is to be regretted that there is something offensive in the word4 ,i have sought in vain for another1 for ,i would not wish at any time1 and especially just now1 to add an irritating word to our disagreements2 therefore1 whether ,i am believed or not1 ,i declare that ,i do not mean to impugn the intentions nor the morality of anybody4 ,i am attacking an idea that ,i believe to be false--a system that appears to me to be unjust2 and this is so independent of intentions1 that each of us profits by it without wishing it1 and suffers from it without being aware of the cause4 ,any person must write under the influence of party spirit or of fear1 who would call into question the sincerity of protectionism1 of socialism1 and even of communism1 which are one and the same plant1 in three different periods of its growth4 ,all that can be said is1 that plunder is more visible by its partiality in protectionism1 #c and by its universality in communism2 whence it follows that1 of the three systems1 socialism is still the most vague1 the most undefined1 and consequently the most sincere4 ,be that as it may1 to conclude that legal plunder has one of its roots in misconceived philanthropy1 is evidently to put intentions out of the question4 #ai ,with this understanding1 let us examine the value1 the origin1 and the tendency of this popular aspiration1 which pretends to realize the general good by general plunder4 ,the ,socialists say1 since the law organizes justice1 why should it not organize labor1 instruction1 and religion8 ,why8 ,because it could not organize labor1 instruction1 and religion1 without disorganizing justice4 ,for remember1 that law is force1 and that consequently the domain of the law cannot properly extend beyond the domain of force4 ,when law and force keep a man within the bounds of justice1 they impose nothing upon him but a mere negation4 ,they only oblige him to abstain from doing harm4 ,they violate neither his personality1 his liberty1 nor his property4 ,they only guard the personality1 the liberty1 the property of others4 ,they hold themselves on the defensive2 they defend the equal right of all4 ,they fulfill a mission whose harmlessness is evident1 whose utility is palpable1 and whose legitimacy is not to be disputed4 ,this is so true that1 as a friend of mine once remarked to me1 to say that the aim of the law is to cause justice to reign1 is to use an expression that is not rigorously exact4 ,it ought to be said1 the aim of the law is to prevent injustice from reigning4 ,in fact1 it is not justice that has an existence of its own1 it is injustice4 ,the one results from the absence of the other4 ,but when the law1 through the medium of its necessary agent--force--imposes a form of labor1 a method or a subject of instruction1 a creed1 or a worship1 it is no longer negative2 it acts positively upon men4 ,it substitutes the will of the legislator for their own will1 the initiative of the legislator for their own initiative4 ,they have no need to consult1 to compare1 or to foresee2 the law does all that for them4 ,the intellect is for them a useless #bj encumbrance2 they cease to be men2 they lose their personality1 their liberty1 their property4 ,try to imagine a form of labor imposed by force1 that is not a violation of liberty2 a transmission of wealth imposed by force1 that is not a violation of property4 ,if you cannot succeed in reconciling this1 you are bound to conclude that the law cannot organize labor and industry without organizing injustice4 ,when1 from the seclusion of his office1 a politician takes a view of society1 he is struck with the spectacle of inequality that presents itself4 ,he mourns over the sufferings that are the lot of so many of our brethren1 sufferings whose aspect is rendered yet more sorrowful by the contrast of luxury and wealth4 ,he ought1 perhaps1 to ask himself whether such a social state has not been caused by the plunder of ancient times1 exercised in the way of conquests2 and by plunder of more recent times1 effected through the medium of the laws8 ,he ought to ask himself whether1 granting the aspiration of all men to well-being and improvement1 the reign of justice would not suffice to realize the greatest activity of progress1 and the greatest amount of equality compatible with that individual responsibility that ,god has awarded as a just retribution of virtue and vice8 ,he never gives this a thought4 ,his mind turns towards combinations1 arrangements1 legal or factitious organizations4 ,he seeks the remedy in perpetuating and exaggerating what has produced the evil4 ,for1 justice apart1 which we have seen is only a negation1 is there any one of these legal arrangements that does not contain the principle of plunder8 ,you say1 ,there are men who have no money1 and you apply to the law4 ,but the law is not a self-supplied #ba fountain1 whence every stream may obtain supplies independently of society4 ,nothing can enter the public treasury1 in favor of one citizen or one class1 but what other citizens and other classes have been forced to send to it4 ,if everyone draws from it only the equivalent of what he has contributed to it1 your law1 it is true1 is no plunderer1 but it does nothing for men who want money--it does not promote equality4 ,it can only be an instrument of equalization as far as it takes from one party to give to another1 and then it is an instrument of plunder4 ,examine1 in this light1 the protection of tariffs1 subsidies1 right to profit1 right to labor1 right to assistance1 free public education1 progressive taxation1 gratuitousness of credit1 social workshops1 and you will always find at the bottom legal plunder1 organized injustice4 ,you say1 ,there are men who want knowledge1 and you apply to the law4 ,but the law is not a torch that sheds light that originates within itself4 ,it extends over a society where there are men who have knowledge1 and others who have not2 citizens who want to learn1 and others who are disposed to teach4 ,it can only do one of two things3 either allow a free operation to this kind of transaction1 i4e41 let this kind of want satisfy itself freely2 or else preempt the will of the people in the matter1 and take from some of them sufficient to pay professors commissioned to instruct others for free4 ,but1 in this second case there cannot fail to be a violation of liberty and property--legal plunder4 ,you say1 ,here are men who are wanting in morality or religion1 and you apply to the law2 but law is force1 and need ,i say how far it is a violent and absurd enterprise to introduce force in these matters8 #bb ,as the result of its systems and of its efforts1 it would seem that socialism1 notwithstanding all its self-complacency1 can scarcely help perceiving the monster of legal plunder4 ,but what does it do8 ,it disguises it cleverly from others1 and even from itself1 under the seductive names of fraternity1 solidarity1 organization1 association4 ,and because we do not ask so much at the hands of the law1 because we only ask it for justice1 it alleges that we reject fraternity1 solidarity1 organization1 and association2 and they brand us with the name of individualists4 ,we can assure them that what we repudiate is not natural organization1 but forced organization4 ,it is not free association1 but the forms of association that they would impose upon us4 ,it is not spontaneous fraternity1 but legal fraternity4 ,it is not providential solidarity1 but artificial solidarity1 which is only an unjust displacement of responsibility4 ,socialism1 like the old policy from which it emanates1 confounds ,government and society4 ,and so1 every time we object to a thing being done by ,government1 it concludes that we object to its being done at all4 ,we disapprove of education by the ,state--then we are against education altogether4 ,we object to a ,state religion--then we would have no religion at all4 ,we object to an equality which is brought about by the ,state then we are against equality1 etc41 etc4 ,they might as well accuse us of wishing men not to eat1 because we object to the cultivation of corn by the ,state4 ,how is it that the strange idea of making the law produce what it does not contain--prosperity1 in a positive sense1 wealth1 science1 religion--should ever have gained ground in the political world8 ,the modern politicians1 particularly those of the ,socialist school1 found their different #bc theories upon one common hypothesis2 and surely a more strange1 a more presumptuous notion1 could never have entered a human brain4 ,they divide mankind into two parts4 ,men in general1 except one1 form the first2 the politician himself forms the second1 which is by far the most important4 ,in fact1 they begin by supposing that men are devoid of any principle of action1 and of any means of discernment in themselves2 that they have no initiative2 that they are inert matter1 passive particles1 atoms without impulse2 at best a vegetation indifferent to its own mode of existence1 susceptible of assuming1 from an exterior will and hand an infinite number of forms1 more or less symmetrical1 artistic1 and perfected4 ,moreover1 every one of these politicians does not hesitate to assume that he himself is1 under the names of organizer1 discoverer1 legislator1 institutor or founder1 this will and hand1 this universal initiative1 this creative power1 whose sublime mission it is to gather together these scattered materials1 that is1 men1 into society4 ,starting from these data1 as a gardener according to his caprice shapes his trees into pyramids1 parasols1 cubes1 cones1 vases1 espaliers1 distaffs1 or fans2 so the ,socialist1 following his chimera1 shapes poor humanity into groups1 series1 circles1 subcircles1 honeycombs1 or social workshops1 with all kinds of variations4 ,and as the gardener1 to bring his trees into shape1 needs hatchets1 pruning hooks1 saws1 and shears1 so the politician1 to bring society into shape1 needs the forces which he can only find in the laws2 the law of tariffs1 the law of taxation1 the law of assistance1 and the law of education4 ,it is so true1 that the ,socialists look upon mankind as a subject for social experiments1 that if1 by chance1 they #bd are not quite certain of the success of these experiments1 they will request a portion of mankind1 as a subject to experiment upon4 ,it is well known how popular the idea of trying all systems is1 and one of their chiefs has been known seriously to demand of the ,constituent ,assembly a parish1 with all its inhabitants1 upon which to make his experiments4 ,it is thus that an inventor will make a small machine before he makes one of the regular size4 ,thus the chemist sacrifices some substances1 the agriculturist some seed and a corner of his field1 to make trial of an idea4 ,but think of the difference between the gardener and his trees1 between the inventor and his machine1 between the chemist and his substances1 between the agriculturist and his seed6 ,the ,socialist thinks1 in all sincerity1 that there is the same difference between himself and mankind4 ,no wonder the politicians of the nineteenth century look upon society as an artificial production of the legislator's genius4 ,this idea1 the result of a classical education1 has taken possession of all the thinkers and great writers of our country4 ,to all these persons1 the relations between mankind and the legislator appear to be the same as those that exist between the clay and the potter4 ,moreover1 if they have consented to recognize in the heart of man a capability of action1 and in his intellect a faculty of discernment1 they have looked upon this gift of ,god as a fatal one1 and thought that mankind1 under these two impulses1 tended fatally towards ruin4 ,they have taken it for granted that if abandoned to their own inclinations1 men would only occupy themselves with religion to arrive at atheism1 with instruction to come to ignorance1 and with labor and exchange to be extinguished in misery4 #be ,happily1 according to these writers1 there are some men1 termed governors and legislators1 upon whom ,heaven has bestowed opposite tendencies1 not for their own sake only1 but for the sake of the rest of the world4 ,whilst mankind tends to evil1 they incline to good2 whilst mankind is advancing towards darkness1 they are aspiring to enlightenment2 whilst mankind is drawn towards vice1 they are attracted by virtue4 ,and1 this granted1 they demand the assistance of force1 by means of which they are to substitute their own tendencies for those of the human race4 ,it is only needful to open1 almost at random1 a book on philosophy1 politics1 or history1 to see how strongly this idea--the child of classical studies and the mother of socialism--is rooted in our country2 that mankind is merely inert matter1 receiving life1 organization1 morality1 and wealth from power2 or1 rather1 and still worse--that mankind itself tends towards degradation1 and is only arrested in its tendency by the mysterious hand of the legislator4 ,classical conventionalism shows us everywhere1 behind passive society1 a hidden power1 under the names of ,law1 or ,legislator 7or1 by a mode of expression which refers to some person or persons of undisputed weight and authority1 but not named71 which moves1 animates1 enriches1 and regenerates mankind4 ,we will give a quotation from ,bossuet3 ,one of the things which was the most strongly impressed 7by whom87 upon the mind of the ,egyptians1 was the love of their country4444 ,nobody was allowed to be useless to the ,state2 the law assigned to every one his employment1 which descended from father to son4 ,no one was permitted to have two professions1 nor to adopt another4 444 ,but there was one occupation which was #bf obliged to be common to all1 this was the study of the laws and of wisdom2 ignorance of religion and the political regulations of the country was excused in no condition of life4 ,moreover1 every profession had a district assigned to it 7by whom874444 ,amongst good laws1 one of the best things was1 that everybody was taught to observe them 7by whom874 ,egypt abounded with wonderful inventions1 and nothing was neglected which could render life comfortable and tranquil4 ,thus men1 according to ,bossuet1 derive nothing from themselves2 patriotism1 wealth1 inventions1 husbandry1 science--all come to them by the operation of the laws1 or by kings4 ,all they have to do is to be passive4 ,it is on this ground that ,bossuet takes exception when ,diodorus accuses the ,egyptians of rejecting wrestling and music4 ,how is that possible1 says he1 since these arts were invented by ,trismegistus8 ,it is the same with the ,persians3 ,one of the first cares of the prince was to encourage agriculture4444 ,as there were posts established for the regulation of the armies1 so there were offices for the superintending of rural works4444 ,the respect with which the ,persians were inspired for royal authority was excessive4 ,the ,greeks1 although full of mind1 were no less strangers to their own responsibilities2 so much so1 that of themselves1 like dogs and horses1 they would not have ventured upon the most simple games4 ,in a classical sense1 it is an undisputed thing that everything comes to the people from without4 ,the ,greeks1 naturally full of spirit and courage1 had been early cultivated by kings and colonies who had come from ,egypt4 ,from them they had #bg learned the exercises of the body1 foot races1 and horse and chariot races4444 ,the best thing that the ,egyptians had taught them was to become docile1 and to allow themselves to be formed by the laws for the public good4 ,,fenelon--,reared in the study and admiration of antiquity and a witness of the power of ,louis ,,xiv1 ,fenelon naturally adopted the idea that mankind should be passive1 and that its misfortunes and its prosperities1 its virtues and its vices1 are caused by the external influence that is exercised upon it by the law1 or by the makers of the law4 ,thus1 in his ,utopia of ,salentum1 he brings the men1 with their interests1 their faculties1 their desires1 and their possessions1 under the absolute direction of the legislator4 ,whatever the subject may be1 they themselves have no voice in it--the prince judges for them4 ,the nation is just a shapeless mass1 of which the prince is the soul4 ,in him resides the thought1 the foresight1 the principle of all organization1 of all progress2 on him1 therefore1 rests all the responsibility4 ,in proof of this assertion1 ,i might transcribe the whole of the tenth book of ,telemachus4 ,i refer the reader to it1 and shall content myself with quoting some passages taken at random from this celebrated work1 to which1 in every other respect1 ,i am the first to render justice4 ,with the astonishing credulity that characterizes the classics1 ,fnelon1 against the authority of reason and of facts1 admits the general felicity of the ,egyptians1 and attributes it1 not to their own wisdom1 but to that of their kings3 ,we could not turn our eyes to the two shores1 without perceiving rich towns and country seats1 agreeably situated2 fields that were covered every year1 #bh without intermission1 with golden crops2 meadows full of flocks2 laborers bending under the weight of fruits that the earth lavished on its cultivators2 and shepherds who made the echoes around repeat the soft sounds of their pipes and flutes4 ,happy1 said ,mentor1 is that people who is governed by a wise king4444 ,mentor afterwards desired me to remark the happiness and abundance that was spread over all the country of ,egypt1 where twenty-two thousand cities might be counted4 ,he admired the excellent police regulations of the cities2 the justice administered in favor of the poor against the rich2 the good education of the children1 who were accustomed to obedience1 labor1 and the love of arts and letters2 the exactness with which all the ceremonies of religion were performed2 the disinterestedness1 the desire of honor1 the fidelity to men1 and the fear of the gods1 with which every father inspired his children4 ,he could not sufficiently admire the prosperous state of the country4 ,happy said he1 is the people whom a wise king rules in such a manner4 ,fnelon's idyll on ,crete is still more fascinating4 ,mentor is made to say3 ,all that you will see in this wonderful island is the result of the laws of ,minos4 ,the education that the children receive renders the body healthy and robust4 ,they are accustomed1 from the first1 to a frugal and laborious life2 it is supposed that all the pleasures of sense enervate the body and the mind2 no other pleasure is presented to them but that of being invincible by virtue1 that of acquiring much glory444 there they punish three vices that go unpunished amongst other people--ingratitude1 dissimulation1 and avarice4 ,as to pomp and dissipation1 there is no need to punish these1 for they are unknown in ,crete4444 ,no costly furniture1 no magnificent clothing1 no delicious feasts1 no gilded palaces are allowed4 #bi ,it is thus that ,mentor prepares his scholar to mould and manipulate1 doubtless with the most philanthropic intentions1 the people of ,ithaca1 and1 to confirm him in these ideas1 he gives him the example of ,salentum4 ,so we receive our first political notions4 ,we are taught to treat men very much as ,oliver de ,serres teaches farmers to manage and to mix the soil4 ,,montesquieu-- ,to sustain the spirit of commerce1 it is necessary that all the laws should favor it2 that these same laws1 by their regulations in dividing the fortunes in proportion as commerce enlarges them1 should place every poor citizen in sufficiently easy circumstances to enable him to work like the others1 and every rich citizen in such mediocrity that he must work1 in order to retain or to acquire4 ,thus the laws are to dispose of all fortunes4 ,although in a democracy1 real equality be the soul of the ,state1 yet it is so difficult to establish that an extreme exactness in this matter would not always be desirable4 ,it is sufficient that a census be established to reduce or fix the differences to a certain point1 after which1 it is for particular laws to equalize1 as it were1 the inequality by burdens imposed upon the rich and reliefs granted to the poor4 ,here1 again1 we see the equalization of fortunes by law1 that is1 by force4 ,there were1 in ,greece1 two kinds of republics4 ,one was military1 as ,sparta2 the other commercial1 as ,athens4 ,in the one it was wished 7by whom87 that the citizens should be idle3 in the other1 the love of labor was encouraged4 ,it is worth our while to pay a little attention to the extent of genius required by these legislators1 that #cj we may see how1 by confounding all the virtues1 they showed their wisdom to the world4 ,lycurgus1 blending theft with the spirit of justice1 the hardest slavery with extreme liberty1 the most atrocious sentiments with the greatest moderation1 gave stability to his city4 ,he seemed to deprive it of all its resources1 arts1 commerce1 money1 and walls2 there was ambition without the hope of rising2 there were natural sentiments where the individual was neither child1 nor husband1 nor father4 ,chastity even was deprived of modesty4 ,by this road ,sparta was led on to grandeur and to glory4 ,the phenomenon that we observe in the institutions of ,greece has been seen in the midst of the degeneracy and corruption of our modern times4 ,an honest legislator has formed a people where probity has appeared as natural as bravery among the ,spartans4 ,mr4 ,penn is a true ,lycurgus1 and although the former had peace for his object1 and the latter war1 they resemble each other in the singular path along which they have led their people1 in their influence over free men1 in the prejudices which they have overcome1 the passions they have subdued4 ,paraguay furnishes us with another example4 ,society has been accused of the crime of regarding the pleasure of commanding as the only good of life2 but it will always be a noble thing to govern men by making them happy4 ,those who desire to form similar institutions will establish community of property1 as in the republic of ,plato1 the same reverence as he enjoined for the gods1 separation from strangers for the preservation of morality1 and make the city and not the citizens create commerce3 they should give our arts without our luxury1 our wants without our desires4 #ca ,vulgar infatuation may exclaim1 if it likes1 ,it is ,montesquieu6 magnificent6 sublime6 ,i am not afraid to express my opinion1 and to say3 ,what6 ,you have the gall to call that fine8 ,it is frightful6 ,it is abominable6 ,and these extracts1 which ,i might multiply1 show that according to ,montesquieu1 the persons1 the liberties1 the property1 mankind itself1 are nothing but grist for the mill of the sagacity of lawgivers4 ,,rousseau--,although this politician1 the paramount authority of the ,democrats1 makes the social edifice rest upon the general will1 no one has so completely admitted the hypothesis of the entire passiveness of human nature in the presence of the lawgiver3 ,if it is true that a great prince is a rare thing1 how much more so must a great lawgiver be8 ,the former has only to follow the pattern proposed to him by the latter4 ,this latter is the engineer who invents the machine2 the former is merely the workman who sets it in motion4 ,and what part have men to act in all this8 ,that of the machine1 which is set in motion2 or rather1 are they not the brute matter of which the machine is made8 ,thus1 between the legislator and the prince1 between the prince and his subjects1 there are the same relations as those that exist between the agricultural writer and the agriculturist1 the agriculturist and the clod4 ,at what a vast height1 then1 is the politician placed1 who rules over legislators themselves and teaches them their trade in such imperative terms as the following3 ,would you give consistency to the ,state8 ,bring the extremes together as much as possible4 ,suffer neither wealthy persons nor beggars4 #cb ,if the soil is poor and barren1 or the country too much confined for the inhabitants1 turn to industry and the arts1 whose productions you will exchange for the provisions which you require4444 ,on a good soil1 if you are short of inhabitants1 give all your attention to agriculture1 which multiplies men1 and banish the arts1 which only serve to depopulate the country4444 ,pay attention to extensive and convenient coasts4 ,cover the sea with vessels1 and you will have a brilliant and short existence4 ,if your seas wash only inaccessible rocks1 let the people be barbarous1 and eat fish2 they will live more quietly1 perhaps better1 and most certainly more happily4 ,in short1 besides those maxims which are common to all1 every people has its own particular circumstances1 which demand a legislation peculiar to itself4 ,it was thus that the ,hebrews formerly1 and the ,arabs more recently1 had religion for their principal object2 that of the ,athenians was literature2 that of ,carthage and ,tyre1 commerce2 of ,rhodes1 naval affairs2 of ,sparta1 war2 and of ,rome1 virtue4 ,the author of the ,spirit of ,laws has shown the art by which the legislator should frame his institutions towards each of these objects4444 ,but if the legislator1 mistaking his object1 should take up a principle different from that which arises from the nature of things2 if one should tend to slavery1 and the other to liberty2 if one to wealth1 and the other to population2 one to peace1 and the other to conquests2 the laws will insensibly become enfeebled1 the ,constitution will be impaired1 and the ,state will be subject to incessant agitations until it is destroyed1 or becomes changed1 and invincible ,nature regains her empire4 ,but if ,nature is sufficiently invincible to regain its empire1 why does not ,rousseau admit that it had no need of the legislator to gain its empire from the beginning8 #cc ,why does he not allow that by obeying their own impulse1 men would of themselves apply agriculture to a fertile district1 and commerce to extensive and commodious coasts without the interference of a ,lycurgus1 a ,solon1 or a ,rousseau1 who would undertake it at the risk of deceiving themselves8 ,be that as it may1 we see with what a terrible responsibility ,rousseau invests inventors1 institutors1 conductors1 and manipulators of societies4 ,he is1 therefore1 very exacting with regard to them4 ,he who dares to undertake the institutions of a people1 ought to feel that he can1 as it were1 transform every individual1 who is by himself a perfect and solitary whole1 receiving his life and being from a larger whole of which he forms a part2 he must feel that he can change the constitution of man1 to fortify it1 and substitute a social and moral existence for the physical and independent one that we have all received from nature4 ,in a word1 he must deprive man of his own powers1 to give him others that are foreign to him4 ,poor human nature6 ,what would become of its dignity if it were entrusted to the disciples of ,rousseau8 ,,raynal-- ,the climate1 that is1 the air and the soil1 is the first element for the legislator4 ,his resources prescribe to him his duties4 ,first1 he must consult his local position4 ,a population dwelling upon maritime shores must have laws fitted for navigation4444 ,if the colony is located in an inland region1 a legislator must provide for the nature of the soil1 and for its degree of fertility4444 ,it is more especially in the distribution of property that the wisdom of legislation will appear4 ,as a #cd general rule1 and in every country1 when a new colony is founded1 land should be given to each man1 sufficient for the support of his family4444 ,in an uncultivated island1 which you are colonizing with children1 it will only be needful to let the germs of truth expand in the developments of reason6444 ,but when you establish old people in a new country1 the skill consists in only allowing it those injurious opinions and customs which it is impossible to cure and correct4 ,if you wish to prevent them from being perpetuated1 you will act upon the rising generation by a general and public education of the children4 ,a prince or legislator ought never to found a colony without previously sending wise men there to instruct the youth4444 ,in a new colony1 every facility is open to the precautions of the legislator who desires to purify the tone and the manners of the people4 ,if he has genius and virtue1 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 trace1 and in a way that would be subject to the instability of all hypotheses1 which are varied and complicated by an infinity of circumstances too difficult to foresee and to combine4 ,one would think it was a professor of agriculture who was saying to his pupils ,the climate is the only rule for the agriculturist4 ,his resources dictate to him his duties4 ,the first thing he has to consider is his local position4 ,if he is on a clayey soil1 he must do so and so4 ,if he has to contend with sand1 this is the way in which he must set about it4 ,every facility is open to the agriculturist who wishes to clear and improve his soil4 ,if he only has the skill1 the manure which he has at his disposal will suggest to him a plan of operation1 which a professor can only vaguely trace1 and in a way that would be subject to the uncertainty of all hypotheses1 which vary and are complicated by an #ce infinity of circumstances too difficult to foresee and to combine4 ,but1 oh6 sublime writers1 deign to remember sometimes that this clay1 this sand1 this manure1 of which you are disposing in so arbitrary a manner1 are men1 your equals1 intelligent and free beings like yourselves1 who have received from ,god1 as you have1 the faculty of seeing1 of foreseeing1 of thinking1 and of judging for themselves6 ,,mably--7,he is supposing the laws to be worn out by time and by the neglect of security1 and continues thus73 ,under these circumstances1 we must be convinced that the bonds of ,government are slack4 ,give them a new tension 7it is the reader who is addressed71 and the evil will be remedied4444 ,think less of punishing the faults than of encouraging the virtues that you want4 ,by this method you will bestow upon your republic the vigor of youth4 ,through ignorance of this1 a free people has lost its liberty6 ,but if the evil has made so much way that the ordinary magistrates are unable to remedy it effectually1 have recourse to an extraordinary magistracy1 whose time should be short1 and its power considerable4 ,the imagination of the citizens requires to be impressed4 ,in this style he goes on through twenty volumes4 ,there was a time when1 under the influence of teaching like this1 which is the foundation of classical education1 everyone was for placing himself beyond and above mankind1 for the sake of arranging1 organizing1 and instituting it in his own way4 ,,condillac-- ,take upon yourself1 my lord1 the character of ,lycurgus or of ,solon4 ,before you finish reading #cf this essay1 amuse yourself with giving laws to some wild people in ,america or in ,africa4 ,establish these roving men in fixed dwellings2 teach them to keep flocks4444 ,endeavor to develop the social qualities that nature has implanted in them4444 ,make them begin to practice the duties of humanity4444 ,cause the pleasures of the passions to become distasteful to them by punishments1 and you will see these barbarians1 with every plan of your legislation1 lose a vice and gain a virtue4 ,all these people have had laws4 ,but few among them have been happy4 ,why is this8 ,because legislators have almost always been ignorant of the object of society1 which is to unite families by a common interest4 ,impartiality in law consists in two things1 in establishing equality in the fortunes and in the dignity of the citizens4444 ,in proportion to the degree of equality established by the laws1 the dearer will they become to every citizen4 ,how can avarice1 ambition1 dissipation1 idleness1 sloth1 envy1 hatred1 or jealousy agitate men who are equal in fortune and dignity1 and to whom the laws leave no hope of disturbing their equality8 ,what has been told you of the republic of ,sparta ought to enlighten you on this question4 ,no other ,state has had laws more in accordance with the order of nature or of equality4 ,it is not to be wondered at that the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries should have looked upon the human race as inert matter1 ready to receive everything--form1 figure1 impulse1 movement1 and life1 from a great prince1 or a great legislator1 or a great genius4 ,these ages were reared in the study of antiquity2 and antiquity presents everywhere--in ,egypt1 ,persia1 ,greece1 and ,rome1 the #cg spectacle of a few men molding mankind according to their fancy1 and mankind to this end enslaved by force or by imposture4 ,and what does this prove8 ,that because men and society are improvable1 error1 ignorance1 despotism1 slavery1 and superstition must be more prevalent in early times4 ,the mistake of the writers quoted above is not that they have asserted this fact1 but that they have proposed it as a rule for the admiration and imitation of future generations4 ,their mistake has been1 with an inconceivable absence of discernment1 and upon the faith of a puerile conventionalism1 that they have admitted what is inadmissible1 viz41 the grandeur1 dignity1 morality1 and well-being of the artificial societies of the ancient world2 they have not understood that time produces and spreads enlightenment2 and that in proportion to the increase of enlightenment1 right ceases to be upheld by force1 and society regains possession of herself4 ,and1 in fact1 what is the political work that we are endeavoring to promote8 ,it is no other than the instinctive effort of every people towards liberty4 ,and what is liberty1 whose name can make every heart beat1 and which can agitate the world1 but the union of all liberties1 the liberty of conscience1 of education1 of association1 of the press1 of movement1 of labor1 and of exchange2 in other words1 the free exercise1 for all1 of all the inoffensive faculties2 and again1 in other words1 the destruction of all despotisms1 even of legal despotism1 and the reduction of law to its only rational sphere1 which is to regulate the individual right of legitimate defense1 or to repress injustice8 ,this tendency of the human race1 it must be admitted1 is greatly thwarted1 particularly in our country1 by the fatal disposition1 resulting from classical teaching and common to all politicians1 of placing themselves beyond #ch mankind1 to arrange1 organize1 and regulate it1 according to their fancy4 ,for whilst society is struggling to realize liberty1 the great men who place themselves at its head1 imbued with the principles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries1 think only of subjecting it to the philanthropic despotism of their social inventions1 and making it bear with docility1 according to the expression of ,rousseau1 the yoke of public felicity as pictured in their own imaginations4 ,this was particularly the case in #aghi4 ,no sooner was the old system destroyed than society was to be submitted to other artificial arrangements1 always with the same starting point--the omnipotence of the law4 ,,saint-,,just-- ,the legislator commands the future4 ,it is for him to will for the good of mankind4 ,it is for him to make men what he wishes them to be4 ,,robespierre-- ,the function of ,government is to direct the physical and moral powers of the nation towards the object of its institution4 ,,billaud ,,varennes-- ,a people who are to be restored to liberty must be formed anew4 ,ancient prejudices must be destroyed1 antiquated customs changed1 depraved affections corrected1 inveterate vices eradicated4 ,for this1 a strong force and a vehement impulse will be necessary4444 ,citizens1 the inflexible austerity of ,lycurgus created the firm basis of the ,spartan republic4 ,the feeble and trusting disposition of ,solon plunged ,athens into slavery4 ,this parallel contains the whole science of ,government4 #ci ,,lepelletier-- ,considering the extent of human degradation1 ,i am convinced--of the necessity of effecting an entire regeneration of the race1 and1 if ,i may so express myself1 of creating a new people4 ,men1 therefore1 are nothing but raw material4 ,it is not for them to will their own improvement4 ,they are not capable of it2 according to ,saint-,just1 it is only the legislator who is4 ,men are merely to be what he wills that they should be4 ,according to ,robespierre1 who copies ,rousseau literally1 the legislator is to begin by assigning the aim of the institutions of the nation4 ,after this1 the ,government has only to direct all its physical and moral forces towards this end4 ,all this time the nation itself is to remain perfectly passive2 and ,billaud ,varennes would teach us that it ought to have no prejudices1 affections1 nor wants1 but such as are authorized by the legislator4 ,he even goes so far as to say that the inflexible austerity of a man is the basis of a republic4 ,we have seen that1 in cases where the evil is so great that the ordinary magistrates are unable to remedy it1 ,mably recommends a dictatorship1 to promote virtue4 ,have recourse1 says he1 to an extraordinary magistracy1 whose time shall be short1 and his power considerable4 ,the imagination of the people requires to be impressed4 ,this doctrine has not been neglected4 ,listen to ,robespierre3 ,the principle of the ,republican ,government is virtue1 and the means to be adopted1 during its establishment1 is terror4 ,we want to substitute1 in our country1 morality for self-indulgence1 probity for honor1 principles for customs1 duties for decorum1 the empire of reason for the tyranny of #dj fashion1 contempt of vice for contempt of misfortune1 pride for insolence1 greatness of soul for vanity1 love of glory for love of money1 good people for good company1 merit for intrigue1 genius for wit1 truth for glitter1 the charm of happiness for the weariness of pleasure1 the greatness of man for the littleness of the great1 a magnanimous1 powerful1 happy people1 for one that is easy1 frivolous1 degraded2 that is to say1 we would substitute all the virtues and miracles of a republic for all the vices and absurdities of monarchy4 ,at what a vast height above the rest of mankind does ,robespierre place himself here6 ,and observe the arrogance with which he speaks4 ,he is not content with expressing a desire for a great renovation of the human heart1 he does not even expect such a result from a regular ,government4 ,no2 he intends to effect it himself1 and by means of terror4 ,the object of the discourse from which this puerile and laborious mass of antithesis is extracted1 was to exhibit the principles of morality that ought to direct a revolutionary ,government4 ,moreover1 when ,robespierre asks for a dictatorship1 it is not merely for the purpose of repelling a foreign enemy1 or of putting down factions2 it is that he may establish1 by means of terror and as a preliminary to the operation of the ,constitution1 his own principles of morality4 ,he pretends to nothing short of extirpating from the country by means of terror1 self-interest1 honor1 customs1 decorum1 fashion1 vanity1 the love of money1 good company1 intrigue1 wit1 luxury1 and misery4 ,it is not until after he1 ,robespierre1 shall have accomplished these miracles1 as he rightly calls them1 that he will allow the law to regain her empire4 ,truly it would be well if these visionaries1 who think so much of themselves and so little of mankind1 who want to #da renew everything1 would only be content with trying to reform themselves1 the task would be arduous enough for them4 ,in general1 however1 these gentlemen1 the reformers1 legislators1 and politicians1 do not desire to exercise an immediate despotism over mankind4 ,no1 they are too moderate and too philanthropic for that4 ,they only contend for the despotism1 the absolutism1 the omnipotence of the law4 ,they aspire only to make the law4 ,to show how universal this strange disposition has been in ,france1 ,i had need not only to have copied the whole of the works of ,mably1 ,raynal1 ,rousseau1 ,fenelon1 and to have made long extracts from ,bossuet and ,montesquieu1 but to have given the entire transactions of the sittings of the ,convention4 ,i shall do no such thing1 however1 but merely refer the reader to them4 ,no wonder this idea suited ,bonaparte so well4 ,he embraced it with ardor1 and put it in practice with energy4 ,playing the part of a chemist1 ,europe was to him the material for his experiments4 ,but this material reacted against him4 ,more than half undeceived1 ,bonaparte1 at ,st4 ,helena1 seemed to admit that there is an initiative in every people1 and he became less hostile to liberty4 ,yet this did not prevent him from giving this lesson to his son in his will--,to govern is to diffuse morality1 education1 and well-being4 ,after all this1 ,i hardly need show1 by fastidious quotations1 the opinions of ,morelly1 ,babeuf1 ,owen1 ,saint ,simon1 and ,fourier4 ,i shall confine myself to a few extracts from ,louis ,blanc's book on the organization of labor4 ,in our project1 society receives the impulse of power4 ,in what does the impulse that power gives to society consist8 ,in imposing upon it the project of ,mr4 ,louis ,blanc4 #db ,on the other hand1 society is the human race4 ,the human race1 then1 is to receive its impulse from ,mr4 ,louis ,blanc4 ,it is at liberty to do so or not1 it will be said4 ,of course the human race is at liberty to take advice from anybody1 whoever it may be4 ,but this is not the way in which ,mr4 ,louis ,blanc understands the thing4 ,he means that his project should be converted into law1 and consequently forcibly imposed by power4 ,in our project1 the ,state has only to give a legislation to labor1 by means of which the industrial movement may and ought to be accomplished in all liberty4 ,it 7the ,state7 merely places society on an incline 7that is all7 that it may descend1 when once it is placed there1 by the mere force of things1 and by the natural course of the established mechanism4 ,but what is this incline8 ,one indicated by ,mr4 ,louis ,blanc4 ,does it not lead to an abyss8 ,no1 it leads to happiness4 ,why1 then1 does not society go there of itself8 ,because it does not know what it wants1 and it requires an impulse4 ,what is to give it this impulse8 ,power4 ,and who is to give the impulse to power8 ,the inventor of the machine1 ,mr4 ,louis ,blanc4 ,we shall never get out of this circle--mankind passive1 and a great man moving it by the intervention of the law4 ,once on this incline1 will society enjoy something like liberty8 ,without a doubt4 ,and what is liberty8 ,once for all3 liberty consists not only in the right granted1 but in the power given to man to exercise1 to develop his faculties under the empire of justice1 and under the protection of the law4 ,and this is no vain distinction2 there is a deep meaning in it1 and its consequences are imponderable4 ,for #dc when once it is admitted that man1 to be truly free1 must have the power to exercise and develop his faculties1 it follows that every member of society has a claim upon it for such education as shall enable his faculties to display themselves1 and for the tools of labor1 without which human activity can find no scope4 ,now1 by whose intervention is society to give to each of its members the requisite education and the necessary tools of labor1 unless by that of the ,state8 ,thus1 liberty is power4 ,in what does this power consist8 ,in possessing education and tools of labor4 ,who is to give education and tools of labor8 ,society1 who owes them4 ,by whose intervention is society to give tools of labor to those who do not possess them8 ,by the intervention of the ,state4 ,from whom is the ,state to obtain them8 ,it is for the reader to answer this question1 and to notice whither all this tends4 ,one of the strangest phenomena of our time1 and one that will probably be a matter of astonishment to our descendants1 is the doctrine which is founded upon this triple hypothesis3 the radical passiveness of mankind1--the omnipotence of the law1--the infallibility of the legislator3 this is the sacred symbol of the party that proclaims itself exclusively democratic4 ,it is true that it professes also to be social4 ,so far as it is democratic1 it has an unlimited faith in mankind4 ,so far as it is social1 it places mankind beneath the mud4 ,are political rights under discussion8 ,is a legislator to be chosen8 ,oh1 then the people possess science by instinct3 they are gifted with an admirable discernment2 their will is always right2 the general will cannot err4 ,suffrage cannot #dd be too universal4 ,nobody is under any responsibility to society4 ,the will and the capacity to choose well are taken for granted4 ,can the people be mistaken8 ,are we not living in an age of enlightenment8 ,what6 ,are the people to be forever led about by the nose8 ,have they not acquired their rights at the cost of effort and sacrifice8 ,have they not given sufficient proof of intelligence and wisdom8 ,are they not arrived at maturity8 ,are they not in a state to judge for themselves8 ,do they not know their own interest8 ,is there a man or a class who would dare to claim the right of putting himself in the place of the people1 of deciding and of acting for them8 ,no1 no2 the people would be free1 and they shall be so4 ,they wish to conduct their own affairs1 and they shall do so4 ,but when once the legislator is duly elected1 then indeed the style of his speech alters4 ,the nation is sent back into passiveness1 inertness1 nothingness1 and the legislator takes possession of omnipotence4 ,it is for him to invent1 for him to direct1 for him to impel1 for him to organize4 ,mankind has nothing to do but to submit2 the hour of despotism has struck4 ,and we must observe that this is decisive2 for the people1 just before so enlightened1 so moral1 so perfect1 have no inclinations at all1 or1 if they have any1 these all lead them downwards towards degradation4 ,and yet they ought to have a little liberty6 ,but are we not assured by ,mr4 ,considerant that liberty leads fatally to monopoly8 ,are we not told that liberty is competition8 and that competition1 according to ,mr4 ,louis ,blanc1 is a system of extermination for the people1 and of ruination for trade8 ,for that reason people are exterminated and ruined in proportion as they are free--take1 for example1 ,switzerland1 ,holland1 ,england1 and the ,united ,states8 ,does not ,mr4 ,louis ,blanc tell us again that competition #de leads to monopoly1 and that1 for the same reason1 cheapness leads to exorbitant prices8 ,that competition tends to drain the sources of consumption1 and diverts production to a destructive activity8 ,that competition forces production to increase1 and consumption to decrease--whence it follows that free people produce for the sake of not consuming2 that there is nothing but oppression and madness among them2 and that it is absolutely necessary for ,mr4 ,louis ,blanc to see to it8 ,what sort of liberty should be allowed to men8 ,liberty of conscience8--,but we should see them all profiting by the permission to become atheists4 ,liberty of education8--,but parents would be paying professors to teach their sons immorality and error2 besides1 if we are to believe ,mr4 ,thiers1 education1 if left to the national liberty1 would cease to be national1 and we should be educating our children in the ideas of the ,turks or ,hindus1 instead of which1 thanks to the legal despotism of the universities1 they have the good fortune to be educated in the noble ideas of the ,romans4 ,liberty of labor8 ,but this is only competition1 whose effect is to leave all products unconsumed1 to exterminate the people1 and to ruin the tradesmen4 ,the liberty of exchange8 ,but it is well known that the protectionists have shown1 over and over again1 that a man will inevitably be ruined when he exchanges freely1 and that to become rich it is necessary to exchange without liberty4 ,liberty of association8 ,but according to the socialist doctrine1 liberty and association exclude each other1 for the liberty of men is attacked just to force them to associate4 ,you must see1 then1 that the socialist democrats cannot in conscience allow men any liberty1 because1 by their own #df nature1 they tend in every instance to all kinds of degradation and demoralization4 ,we are therefore left to conjecture1 in this case1 upon what foundation universal suffrage is claimed for them with so much importunity4 ,the pretensions of organizers suggest another question1 which ,i have often asked them1 and to which ,i am not aware that ,i ever received an answer3 ,since the natural tendencies of mankind are so bad that it is not safe to allow them liberty1 how comes it to pass that the tendencies of organizers are always good8 ,do not the legislators and their agents form a part of the human race8 ,do they consider that they are composed of different materials from the rest of mankind8 ,they say that society1 when left to itself1 rushes to inevitable destruction1 because its instincts are perverse4 ,they presume to stop it in its downward course1 and to give it a better direction4 ,they have1 therefore1 received from heaven1 intelligence and virtues that place them beyond and above mankind3 let them show their title to this superiority4 ,they would be our shepherds1 and we are to be their flock4 ,this arrangement presupposes in them a natural superiority1 the right to which we are fully justified in calling upon them to prove4 ,you must observe that ,i am not contending against their right to invent social combinations1 to propagate them1 to recommend them1 and to try them upon themselves1 at their own expense and risk2 but ,i do dispute their right to impose them upon us through the medium of the law1 that is1 by force and by public taxes4 ,i would not insist upon the ,cabetists1 the ,fourierists1 the ,proudhonians1 the ,academics1 and the ,protectionists renouncing their own particular ideas2 ,i would only have them renounce the idea that is common to them all--viz41 #dg that of subjecting us by force to their own categories and rankings to their social laboratories1 to their ever-inflating bank1 to their ,greco-,roman morality1 and to their commercial restrictions4 ,i would ask them to allow us the faculty of judging of their plans1 and not to oblige us to adopt them if we find that they hurt our interests or are repugnant to our consciences4 ,to presume to have recourse to power and taxation1 besides being oppressive and unjust1 implies further1 the pernicious assumption that the organized is infallible1 and mankind incompetent4 ,and if mankind is not competent to judge for itself1 why do they talk so much about universal suffrage8 ,this contradiction in ideas is unhappily to be found also in facts2 and whilst the ,french nation has preceded all others in obtaining its rights1 or rather its political claims1 this has by no means prevented it from being more governed1 and directed1 and imposed upon1 and fettered1 and cheated1 than any other nation4 ,it is also the one1 of all others1 where revolutions are constantly to be dreaded1 and it is perfectly natural that it should be so4 ,so long as this idea is retained1 which is admitted by all our politicians1 and so energetically expressed by ,mr4 ,louis ,blanc in these words--,society receives its impulse from power1 so long as men consider themselves as capable of feeling1 yet passive--incapable of raising themselves by their own discernment and by their own energy to any morality1 or well-being1 and while they expect everything from the law2 in a word1 while they admit that their relations with the ,state are the same as those of the flock with the shepherd1 it is clear that the responsibility of power is immense4 ,fortune and misfortune1 wealth and destitution1 equality and inequality all proceed from it4 ,it is charged #dh with everything1 it undertakes everything1 it does everything2 therefore it has to answer for everything4 ,if we are happy1 it has a right to claim our gratitude2 but if we are miserable1 it alone must bear the blame4 ,are not our persons and property in fact1 at its disposal8 ,is not the law omnipotent8 ,in creating the educational monopoly1 it has undertaken to answer the expectations of fathers of families who have been deprived of liberty2 and if these expectations are disappointed1 whose fault is it8 ,in regulating industry1 it has undertaken to make it prosper1 otherwise it would have been absurd to deprive it of its liberty2 and if it suffers1 whose fault is it8 ,in pretending to adjust the balance of commerce by the game of tariffs1 it undertakes to make commerce prosper2 and if1 so far from prospering1 it is destroyed1 whose fault is it8 ,in granting its protection to maritime armaments in exchange for their liberty1 it has undertaken to render them self-sufficient2 if they become burdensome1 whose fault is it8 ,thus1 there is not a grievance in the nation for which the ,government does not voluntarily make itself responsible4 ,is it any wonder that every failure threatens to cause a revolution8 ,and what is the remedy proposed8 ,to extend indefinitely the dominion of the law1 i4e41 the responsibility of ,government4 ,but if the ,government undertakes to raise and to regulate wages1 and is not able to do it2 if it undertakes to assist all those who are in want1 and is not able to do it2 if it undertakes to provide work for every laborer1 and is not able to do it2 if it undertakes to offer to all who wish to borrow1 easy credit1 and is not able to do it2 if1 in words that we regret should have escaped the pen of ,mr4 de ,lamartine1 the ,state considers that its mission is to enlighten1 to #di develop1 to enlarge1 to strengthen1 to spiritualize1 and to sanctify the soul of the people--if it fails in this1 is it not obvious that after every disappointment1 which1 alas6 is more than probable1 there will be a no less inevitable revolution8 ,i shall now resume the subject by remarking1 that immediately after the economical part #d of the question1 and before the political part1 a leading question presents itself4 ,it is the following3 ,what is law8 ,what ought it to be8 ,what is its domain8 ,what are its limits8 ,where1 in fact1 does the prerogative of the legislator stop8 ,i have no hesitation in answering1 ,law is common force organized to prevent injustice2--in short1 ,law is ,justice4 ,it is not true that the legislator has absolute power over our persons and property1 since they pre-exist1 and his work is only to secure them from injury4 ,it is not true that the mission of the law is to regulate our consciences1 our ideas1 our will1 our education1 our sentiments1 our works1 our exchanges1 our gifts1 our enjoyments4 ,its mission is to prevent the rights of one from interfering with those of another1 in any one of these things4 ,law1 because it has force for its necessary sanction1 can only have the domain of force1 which is justice4 ,and as every individual has a right to have recourse to force only in cases of lawful defense1 so collective force1 so which is only the union #ej of individual forces1 cannot be rationally used for any other end4 ,the law1 then1 is solely the organization of individual rights that existed before law4 ,law is justice4 ,so far from being able to oppress the people1 or to plunder their property1 even for a philanthropic end1 its mission is to protect the people1 and to secure to them the possession of their property4 ,it must not be said1 either1 that it may be philanthropic1 so long as it abstains from all oppression2 for this is a contradiction4 ,the law cannot avoid acting upon our persons and property2 if it does not secure them1 then it violates them if it touches them4 ,the law is justice4 ,nothing can be more clear and simple1 more perfectly defined and bounded1 or more visible to every eye2 for justice is a given quantity1 immutable and unchangeable1 and which admits of neither increase or diminution4 ,depart from this point1 make the law religious1 fraternal1 equalizing1 industrial1 literary1 or artistic1 and you will be lost in vagueness and uncertainty2 you will be upon unknown ground1 in a forced ,utopia1 or1 what is worse1 in the midst of a multitude of contending ,utopias1 each striving to gain possession of the law1 and to impose it upon you2 for fraternity and philanthropy have no fixed limits1 as justice has4 ,where will you stop8 ,where is the law to stop8 ,one person1 ,mr4 de ,saint ,cricq1 will only extend his philanthropy to some of the industrial classes1 and will require the law to slight the consumers in favor of the producers4 ,another1 like ,mr4 ,considrant1 will take up the cause of the working classes1 and claim for them by means of the law1 at a fixed rate1 clothing1 lodging1 food1 and #ea everything necessary for the support of life4 ,a third1 ,mr4 ,louis ,blanc1 will say1 and with reason1 that this would be an incomplete fraternity1 and that the law ought to provide them with tools of labor and education4 ,a fourth will observe that such an arrangement still leaves room for inequality1 and that the law ought to introduce into the most remote hamlets luxury1 literature1 and the arts4 ,this is the high road to communism2 in other words1 legislation will be--as it now is--the battlefield for everybody's dreams and everybody's covetousness4 ,law is justice4 ,in this proposition we represent to ourselves a simple1 immovable ,government4 ,and ,i defy anyone to tell me whence the thought of a revolution1 an insurrection1 or a simple disturbance could arise against a public force confined to the repression of injustice4 ,under such a system1 there would be more well-being1 and this well-being would be more equally distributed2 and as to the sufferings inseparable from humanity1 no one would think of accusing the ,government of them1 for it would be as innocent of them as it is of the variations of the temperature4 ,have the people ever been known to rise against the court of appeals1 or assail the justices of the peace1 for the sake of claiming the rate of wages1 free credit1 tools of labor1 the advantages of the tariff1 or the social workshop8 ,they know perfectly well that these matters are beyond the jurisdiction of the justices of the peace1 and they would soon learn that they are not within the jurisdiction of the law quite as much4 ,but if the law were to be made upon the principle of fraternity1 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 #eb you open the door to an endless succession of complaints1 irritations1 troubles1 and revolutions4 ,law is justice4 ,and it would be very strange if it could properly be anything else6 ,is not justice right8 ,are not rights equal8 ,with what show of right can the law interfere to subject me to the social plans of ,messrs4 ,mimerel1 de ,melun1 ,thiers1 or ,louis ,blanc1 rather than to subject these gentlemen to my plans8 ,is it to be supposed that ,nature has not bestowed upon me sufficient imagination to invent a ,utopia too8 ,is it for the law to make choice of one amongst so many fancies1 and to make use of the public force in its service8 ,law is justice4 ,and let it not be said1 as it continually is1 that the law1 in this sense1 would be atheistic1 individual1 and heartless1 and that it would mold mankind in its own image4 ,this is an absurd conclusion1 quite worthy of the governmental infatuation which sees mankind in the law4 ,what then8 ,does it follow that if we are free1 we shall cease to act8 ,does it follow that if we do not receive an impulse from the law1 we shall receive no impulse at all8 ,does it follow that if the law confines itself to securing to us the free exercise of our faculties1 our faculties will be paralyzed8 ,does it follow1 that if the law does not impose upon us forms of religion1 modes of association1 methods of education1 rules for labor1 directions for exchange1 and plans for charity1 we shall plunge headlong into atheism1 isolation1 ignorance1 misery1 and greed8 ,does it follow1 that we shall no longer recognize the power and goodness of ,god2 that we shall cease to associate together1 to help each other1 to love and assist our unfortunate brethren1 to #ec study the secrets of nature1 and to aspire after perfection in our existence8 ,law is justice4 ,and it is under the law of justice1 under the reign of right1 under the influence of liberty1 security1 stability1 and responsibility1 that every man will attain to the fullness of his worth1 to all the dignity of his being1 and that mankind will accomplish with order and with calmness--slowly1 it is true1 but with certainty--the progress ordained for it4 ,i believe that my theory is correct2 for whatever be the question upon which ,i am arguing1 whether it be religious1 philosophical1 political1 or economical2 whether it affects well-being1 morality1 equality1 right1 justice1 progress1 responsibility1 property1 labor1 exchange1 capital1 wages1 taxes1 population1 credit1 or ,government2 at whatever point of the scientific horizon ,i start from1 ,i invariably come to the same thing--the solution of the social problem is in liberty4 ,and have ,i not experience on my side8 ,cast your eye over the globe4 ,which are the happiest1 the most moral1 and the most peaceable nations8 ,those where the law interferes the least with private activity2 where the ,government is the least felt2 where individuality has the most scope1 and public opinion the most influence2 where the machinery of the administration is the least important and the least complicated2 where taxation is lightest and least unequal1 popular discontent the least excited and the least justifiable2 where the responsibility of individuals and classes is the most active1 and where1 consequently1 if morals are not in a perfect state1 at any rate they tend incessantly to correct themselves2 where transactions1 meetings1 and associations are the least fettered2 where labor1 capital1 and production suffer the least from artificial #ed displacements2 where mankind follows most completely its own natural course2 where the thought of ,god prevails the most over the inventions of men2 those1 in short1 who realize the most nearly this idea that within the limits of right1 all should flow from the free1 perfectible1 and voluntary action of man2 nothing be attempted by the law or by force1 except the administration of universal justice4 ,i cannot avoid coming to this conclusion--that there are too many great men in the world2 there are too many legislators1 organizers1 institutors of society1 conductors of the people1 fathers of nations1 etc41 etc4 ,too many persons place themselves above mankind1 to rule and patronize it2 too many persons make a trade of looking after it4 ,it will be answered--,you yourself are occupied upon it all this time4 ,very true4 ,but it must be admitted that it is in another sense entirely that ,i am speaking2 and if ,i join the reformers it is solely for the purpose of inducing them to relax their hold4 ,i am not doing as ,vaucauson did with his automaton1 but as a physiologist does with the human frame2 ,i would study and admire it4 ,i am acting with regard to it in the spirit that animated a celebrated traveler4 ,he found himself in the midst of a savage tribe4 ,a child had just been born1 and a crowd of soothsayers1 magicians1 and quacks were around it1 armed with rings1 hooks1 and bandages4 ,one said--,this child will never smell the perfume of a calumet1 unless ,i stretch his nostrils4 ,another said--,he will be without the sense of hearing1 unless ,i draw his ears down to his shoulders4 ,a third said--,he will never see the light of the sun1 unless ,i give his eyes an oblique direction4 ,a fourth said--,he will never be upright1 unless ,i bend his legs4 ,a fifth said--,he will not be able to think1 unless ,i press his #ee brain4 ,stop6 said the traveler4 ,whatever ,god does1 is well done2 do not pretend to know more than ,he2 and as ,he has given organs to this frail creature1 allow those organs to develop themselves1 to strengthen themselves by exercise1 use1 experience1 and liberty4 ,god has implanted in mankind also all that is necessary to enable it to accomplish its destinies4 ,there is a providential social physiology1 as well as a providential human physiology4 ,the social organs are constituted so as to enable them to develop harmoniously in the grand air of liberty4 ,away1 then1 with quacks and organizers6 ,away with their rings1 and their chains1 and their hooks1 and their pincers6 ,away with their artificial methods6 ,away with their social laboratories1 their governmental whims1 their centralization1 their tariffs1 their universities1 their ,state religions1 their inflationary or monopolizing banks1 their limitations1 their restrictions1 their moralizations1 and their equalization by taxation6 ,and now1 after having vainly inflicted upon the social body so many systems1 let them end where they ought to have begun--reject all systems1 and try liberty--liberty1 which is an act of faith in ,god and in ,his work4 ,,footnotes3 ,footnote #a3 ,first published in #ahej4 ,footnote #b3 ,general ,council of ,manufactures1 ,agriculture1 and ,commerce1 #fth of ,may1 #ahej4 ,footnote #c3 ,if protection were only granted in ,france to a single class1 to the engineers1 for instance1 it would be so absurdly plundering1 as to be unable to maintain itself4 ,thus we see all the protected trades combine1 make common cause1 and even recruit themselves in such a way as to appear to embrace the mass of the national labor4 ,they feel instinctively that plunder is slurred over by being generalized4 ,footnote #d3 ,political economy precedes politics3 the former has to discover whether human interests are harmonious or antagonistic1 a fact which must be settled before the latter can determine the prerogatives of ,government4 ,,index ,action1 human4 ,see ,individualism2 ,mankind ,agriculture analogy to society1 #ce ,persian1 #bf ,antiquity4 ,see ,greece2 ,rome ,authority4 ,see ,government ,beggars1 #aa ,billaud-,varennes1 ,jean ,nicolas1 #ch ,blanc1 ,louis competition1 #de doctrine1 #db1 #dc force of society1 #dg1 #dh labor1 #db law1 #ej1 #eb ,bonaparte1 ,napoleon1 #da ,bossuet1 ,jacques ,bnigne1 #be1 #bf ,cabetists1 #df1 #dg ,capital displacement1 #b ,carlier1 ,pierre1 #ac ,carthage1 #cb ,charity1 vii1 #e1 #ag ,see also ,wealth1 equality of2 ,welfare ,classical studies1 #be1 #bf1 #cf1 #cg1 #ch ,collectivism1 #b1 #c ,see also ,government ,communism1 #ah ,competition meaning1 #de results1 #de ,condillac1 tienne ,bonnot de1 #ce1 #ch ,constituent ,assembly1 #bd ,conventionality1 #cg ,crete1 #bh ,defense right of1 #b1 #c1 #cg1 #di1 #ej ,democracy1 vi1 #dc1 #dd ,democrats1 #dc ,dictatorship1 vii1 #ci1 #dj ,disposition1 fatal1 #e1 #cg1 #ch ,distribution1 #cc1 #cd ,dole1 #aj1 #aa ,see also ,welfare ,dupin1 ,charles1 #ac ,education classical1 #bf1 #ch controlled1 #cc ,greek1 #bf #eg #eh liberty in1 #dd free1 #ba1 #bb government provided1 #bb1 #dh ,egypt1 #be1 #bf1 #bg ,elections1 #dc1 #dd ,see also ,voting ,employment assigned1 #bf ,see also ,labor ,equality of wealth1 #aa1 #bj1 #bi1 #cf ,fnelon1 ,franois de ,salignac de ,la ,mothe antiquity1 #bg1 #bi ,telemachus1 #bg ,force common or collective1 #b1 #c individual1 #b1 #c motive1 of society1 #dj1 #dc ,see also ,government2 ,law ,forced conformity1 viii ,fourier1 ,franois ,marie ,charles1 #da ,fourierists1 #df ,france revolutions1 #dg ,fraternity legally enforced1 #af1 #ag1 #ba1 #bb ,fraud1 #ac1 #ad ,freedom4 ,see ,liberty ,french ,revolution1 #ch public services1 #aj1 #aa purpose of1 v relaxed1 #ce republican1 #cj1 #ci responsibility and1 #c1 #dg1 #dh1 #ea results1 #bh stability1 #ca virtue1 #ci ,see also ,communism1 ,socialism ,greece education1 #bf law1 #bf1 #bg republic1 #bi1 #cj ,sparta1 #cb1 #cf1 #ch ,greed1 #e ,happiness of the governed1 #bh ,history1 #e ,humanity lost1 #ai1 #bj ,imports4 ,see ,trade ,individualism1 #c ,industry1 protected4 ,see ,protectionism ,jobs4 ,see ,employment ,justice and injustice1 distinction between1 #g generalized1 #g immutable1 #di1 #ej intentions and1 #ag1 #ah law and1 #c1 #f1 #di reigning1 #ai ,general welfare1 #ai ,government ,american ideal of1 v corrupting education by1 vi democratic1 #bi1 #dc1 #dd education1 #bc1 #dh force1 #b1 #c function1 #ch monopoly1 #de morality1 #ci motive force1 #dj1 #dc power1 v1 #dg ,labor displaced1 #d ,land4 ,see ,property ,law ,cretan1 #bh defined1 #b1 #af #ei ,egyptian1 #be1 #bf1 #bg1 #bh fraternity and1 #ag functions1 #af1 #ca1 #cc1 #di1 #ej ,greek1 #bf1 #bh1 #bi justice and1 #c1 #d1 #af1 #ea morality and1 #g1 #ba motive force1 #be object of1 #ai omnipotence1 #dd1 #di ,persian1 #bf perverted1 v1 #a1 #e philanthropic1 #ag plunder and1 #e1 #ac posterior and inferior1 #b1 #c respect for1 #g1 #i ,rousseau's views1 #ca1 #cc1 #ch spirit of1 #cb study of1 #be ,united ,states1 #ab ,see also ,legislation ,lamartine1 ,alphonse ,marie ,louis de1 fraternity1 #ag government power1 #dh1 #di ,lawgiver1 #ch1 #dc ,legislation conflict in1 #cb monopoly on1 #e struggle for control of1 #aa1 #ab universal right of1 #g ,see also ,law ,legislator4 ,see ,lawgiver2 ,politicians ,lepletier1 ,louis ,michel de ,saint ,fargeau1 #ci ,liberty competition and1 #dd1 #de defined1 #db denied1 #dd1 #de described1 #ec education and1 #dd1 #de individual1 #c as power1 #dc returned to1 #ee seeking1 #ch ,life1 faculties of1 #a ,louis ,,xiv #bg ,lycurgus government1 #cj1 #ce1 #cf influence1 #cc1 #dj ,mably1 ,abb ,gabriel ,bonnot de1 #ce1 #ci ,mankind assimilation1 #b concern for1 #ed degraded1 #be divided1 #bc inert1 #bc1 #be1 #bf1 #bh1 #ca1 #ce1 #cf1 #ch1 #ci1 #db1 #dc1 #dd1 #dg inertia1 #dd as machine1 #ca nature of1 #cc violation of1 #eb ,melun1 ,armand de1 #eb ,mentor1 #bh1 #bi ,mimerel de ,roubaix1 ,pierre ,auguste ,remi1 #eb ,monopoly1 #e1 #de ,montalembert1 ,charles1 ,comte de1 #ac1 #ae ,montesquieu1 ,charles ,louis de ,secondt1 ,baron de1 #bi1 #ca ,morality law and1 #ba1 #bb ,morelly1 #da ,napoleon1 #da ,natural rights1 v ,nature1 gifts of1 #a ,oliver de ,serres1 ,guillaume ,antoine1 #bi ,order1 #c ,owen1 ,robert1 #da ,ownership4 ,see ,property ,paraguay1 #cj ,persia1 #bf #fj ,personality1 #b ,phalansteries1 #ee ,philanthropy4 ,see ,charity ,plato republic1 #cj ,plunder absence of1 #af burdens of1 #e1 #f defined1 #ag general welfare and1 #ai extralegal1 #ac kinds1 #ac legal1 v1 ix1 #f1 #ac1 #bb organized1 #ad origin of1 #f partial1 #ae1 #af socialistic1 #ac universal1 #ae1 #af ,politicians dreams of1 #cf genius of1 #cj goodness of1 #be importance of1 #bb1 #bc responsibility of1 #bg social engineers1 #bb1 #bd1 #cb1 #cd1 #cg1 #ch1 #dj1 #db1 #dd1 #de superior1 #df1 #ed ,politics exaggerated importance of1 #h and favors1 vi plunder through1 vi ,poor relief4 ,see ,charity2 ,welfare ,power4 ,see ,government ,property man and1 #b origin of1 #e ,protectionism1 #ah ,united ,states1 #ab ,proudhonians1 #df ,providence1 #ee ,public relief1 #aj1 #bj1 #bi ,raynal1 ,abb ,guillaume1 #cc1 #ce ,religion1 ,state1 #bb ,rent seeking1 vi1 vii ,republic kinds of1 #bi virtues of1 #ci ,revolt1 #f ,revolution1 #dg ,french1 #ch ,rhodes1 #cb ,rights individual1 v1 #b1 #c ,roberspierre1 ,jean ,jacques government1 #ch lawgiver1 #dj ,rome virtue1 #cb ,rousseau1 ,jean ,jacques disciples1 #h1 #i on the lawgiver1 #ca1 #cc ,saint-,cricq1 ,barthlmy1 ,pierre ,laurent1 ,comte de1 #ej ,saint-,just1 ,louis ,antoine ,lon de1 #ch ,saint-,simon1 ,claude ,henri1 ,comte de doctrine1 #da ,salentum1 #bg1 #bi ,security consequences1 #c ,self-defense1 #b1 #cg1 #di1 #ej ,selfishness1 #e ,serres1 ,oliver de1 #bi ,slavery1 ,united ,states1 viii1 #ab universality1 #e ,socialism confused1 ix1 #bb defined1 #ad1 #ae disguised1 #bb experiments1 #bc1 #bd legal plunder1 #ac sincerely believed1 #ah social engineers1 #bb1 #bd refutation of1 #ae ,socialists1 vii ,society enlightened1 #cg #fa experiments1 #bc motive force1 #dj1 #dc object of1 #cf1 #cg parable of the traveler1 #ed1 #ee ,solon1 #cc1 #ce ,sparta1 #cb1 #cf ,spoliation4 ,see ,plunder ,state4 ,see ,government ,suffrage4 ,see ,universal suffrage ,tariffs1 vi1 viii ,telemachus1 #bg ,terror as means of republican government1 #ci1 #dj ,theirs1 ,louis ,adolphe doctrine1 #eb education1 #de ,tyre1 #cb ,united ,states1 viii1 #ab ,declaration of ,independence1 v ,universal suffrage demand for1 #i1 #dc1 #dd1 #df1 #dg importance of1 #aj incapacity and1 #i objections1 #i ,vaucanson1 ,jacques de1 #ed ,vested interests1 #ac1 #ad ,virtue and vice1 #bh1 #cj1 #ce1 #cf1 #dj ,voting responsibility and1 #i1 #aj right of1 #aj ,see also ,universal suffrage ,want satisfaction1 #d ,wealth equality of1 #aa1 #ba1 #bi1 #cf transfer of1 vii ,welfare1 #aj1 #bj1 #bh ,the law perverted6 ,the law--and1 in its wake1 all the collective forces of the nation4 ,the law1 ,i say1 not only diverted from its proper direction1 but made to pursue one entirely contrary6 ,the law becomes the tool of every kind of avarice1 instead of being its check6 ,the law guilty of that very inequity which it was its mission to punish6 ,truly1 this is a serious fact1 if it exists1 and one to which ,i feel bound to call the attention of my fellow-citizens4 --,frdric ,bastiat