phisms have been invoked? Those that you have
propagated for two centuries. With you they have talked about
_equalizing the conditions of labor_. With you they have declaimed
against ruinous competition. With you they have ridiculed the _let
alone_ principle, that is to say, _liberty_. With you they have said
that the law should not confine itself to being just, but should come to
the aid of suffering industries, protect the feeble against the strong,
secure profits to individuals at the expense of the community, etc.,
etc. In short, according to the expression of Mr. Charles Dupin,
socialism has come to establish the theory of robbery. It has done what
you have done, and that which you desire the professors of political
economy to do for you.

Your cleverness is in vain, _Messieurs Protectionists_, it is useless to
lower your tone, to boast of your latent generosity, or to deceive your
opponents by sentiment. You cannot prevent logic from being logic.

You cannot prevent Mr. Billault from telling the legislators, "You have
granted favors to one, you must grant them to all."

You cannot prevent Mr. Cremieux from telling the legislators: "You have
enriched the manufacturers, you must enrich the common people."

You cannot prevent Mr. Nadeau from saying to the legislators: "You
cannot refuse to do for the suffering classes that which you have done
for the privileged classes."

You cannot even prevent the leader of your orchestra, Mr. Mimerel, from
saying to the legislators: "I demand twenty-five thousand subsidies for
the workingmen's savings banks;" and supporting his motion in this
manner:

"Is this the first example of the kind that our legislation offers?
Would you establish the system that the State should encourage
everything, open at its expense courses of scientific lectures,
subsidize the fine arts, pension the theatre, give to the classes
already favored by fortune the benefits of superior education, the
most varied amusements, the enjoyment of the arts, and repose for old
age; give all this to those who know nothing of privations, and
compel those who have no share in these benefits to bear their part
of the burden, while refusing them everything, even the necessaries
of life?

"Gentlemen, our French society, our customs, our laws, are so made
that the intervention of the State, however much it may be regretted,
is seen everywhere, and nothing seems to be stable or