argument, which has of late years become
conspicuous in economics, he connects another of primary importance. The
first condition of happiness, he says, is not 'equality' but 'security.'
Now you can only equalise at the expense of security. If I am to have my
property taken away whenever it is greater than my neighbour's, I can
have no security.[466] Hence, if the two principles conflict, equality
should give way. Security is the primary, which must override the
secondary, aim. Must the two principles, then, always conflict? No; but
'time is the only mediator.'[467] The law may help to accumulate
inequalities; but in a prosperous state there is a 'continual progress
towards equality.' The law has to stand aside; not to maintain
monopolies; not to restrain trade; not to permit entails; and then
property will diffuse itself by a natural process, already exemplified
in the growth of Europe. The 'pyramids' heaped up in feudal times have
been lowered, and their '_debris_ spread abroad' among the industrious.
Here again we see how Bentham virtually diverges from the _a priori_
school. Their absolute tendencies would introduce 'equality' by force;
he would leave it to the spontaneous progress of security. Hence Bentham
is in the main an adherent of what he calls[468] the '_laissez-nous
faire_' principle. He advocates it most explicitly in the so-called
_Manual of Political Economy_--a short essay first printed in 1798.[469]
The tract, however, such as it is, is less upon political economy proper
than upon economic legislation; and its chief conclusion is that almost
all legislation is improper. His main principle is 'Be quiet' (the
equivalent of the French phrase, which surely should have been excluded
from so English a theory). Security and freedom are all that industry
requires; and industry should say to government only what Diogenes said
to Alexander, 'Stand out of my sunshine.'[470]

Once more, however, Bentham will not lay down the 'let alone' principle
absolutely. His adherence to the empirical method is too decided. The
doctrine 'be quiet,' though generally true, rests upon utility, and may,
therefore, always be qualified by proving that in a particular case the
balance of utility is the other way. In fact, some of Bentham's
favourite projects would be condemned by an absolute adherent of the
doctrine. The Panopticon, for example, though a 'mill to grind rogues
honest' could be applied to others than rogues, and Bentha