it leave the signer the whole of his possessions; it adds to his
property; it does not encroach upon his labour; it only affects
exchange.... Such, according to the definitions of right and universal
practice, must be the social contract."[23]

Once it is admitted as an incontestable fundamental principle that the
contract is "the only moral bond that can be accepted by free and equal
human beings" nothing is easier than a "radical" criticism of the
"political constitution." Suppose we have to do with justice and the
penal law, for example? Well, Proudhon would ask you by virtue of what
contract society arrogates to itself the right to punish criminals.
"Where there is no compact there can be, so far as any external tribunal
is concerned, neither crime nor misdemeanour. The law is the expression
of the sovereignty of the people; that is, or I am altogether mistaken,
the social contract and the personal pledge of the man and the citizen.
So long as I did not want this law, so long as I have not consented to
it, voted for it, it is not binding upon me, it does not exist. To make
it a precedent before I have recognised it, and to use it against me in
spite of my protests is to make it retroactive, and to violate this very
law itself. Every day you have to reverse a decision because of some
formal error. But there is not a single one of your laws that is not
tainted with nullity, and the most monstrous nullity of all, the very
hypothesis of the law. Soufflard, Lacenaire, all the scoundrels whom you
send to the scaffold turn in their graves and accuse you of judicial
forgery. What answer can you make them?"[24]

If we are dealing with the administration and the police Proudhon sings
the same song of contract and free consent. "Cannot we administer our
goods, keep our accounts, arrange our differences, look after our common
interests at least as well as we can look after our salvation and take
care of our souls?" "What more have we to do with State legislation,
with State justice, with State police, and with State administration
than with State religion?"[25]

As to the Ministry of Finance, "it is evident that its _raison d'etre_
is entirely included in that of the other ministries.... Get rid of all
the political harness and you will have no use for an administration
whose sole object is the procuring and distribution of supplies."[26]

This is logical and "radical;" and the more radical, that this formula
of Proudhon's--