much as the rich
one, needs to go and come and to look after his affairs; he uses the
street, pavement, sidewalks, bridges, highways, and public fountains
quite as much; he equally benefits by the sweeping and lighting of the
public gardens. It may be claimed that, in certain respects, he derives
more benefits from all this; for he suffers sooner and more keenly when
bad roads stop transportation, arrest labor, and increase the cost of
food; he is more subject to contagion, to epidemics, to all physical
ills; in case of a fire, the risks of a workman in his garret, at the
top of steep, narrow stairs, are greater than those of the opulent
proprietor on the first story, in a mansion provided with a broad range
of steps. In case of inundation, the danger is more suddenly mortal for
the humble villager, in his fragile tenement, than for the gentleman
farmer in his massive constructions. Accordingly, under this heading,
the poor man owes as much as the rich one; the rich man, at least, owes
no more than the poor one; if, each year, the poor man cannot pay but
one franc, the rich one, each year, should not pay more than that sum
likewise.--The second advantage, on the contrary, is not equal for all,
but more or less great for each, according to what he spends on the
spot, according to his industrial or commercial gains, and according to
his local income. Indeed, the more perfect the public highway is, the
more are the necessities and conveniences of life; whatever is agreeable
and useful, even distant and remote, more within reach, and at my
disposition, in my very hands, I enjoy it to the utmost, the measure of
my enjoyment of it being the importance of my purchases, everything
I consume, in short, my home expenditure.[4106] If I am, besides,
industrial or in commerce, the state of the public highway affects me
even more; for my transportation, more or less costly, difficult and
slow, depends on that, and next, the receipt of my raw materials and
goods, the sale of my manufactures, the dispatch of my merchandise,
bought and sold, while the measure of this special interest, so direct
and so intense, is the annual sum-total of my business, or, more
strictly speaking, the probable sum of my profits.[4107] If, finally,
I own real estate, a house or land, its locative value increases or
diminishes according to the salubrity and convenience of its site,
together with its facilities for cultivating, selling, and distributing
its cr