476 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



Revolution made of it a terrestrial ideal, of which the conse- 

 quences must be logically followed up ; it only remains to be seen 

 to what extent these consequences are to be carried. 



Tocqueville, in his book on Democracy, has admirably shown 

 the effect of the equalitarian principle in politics ; but he has not 

 pointed out with equal clearness the economic consequences it is 

 likely to entail ; and these precisely absorb, at the present day, the 

 attention of all those who can see and understand. 



The idea that all men have equal rights, though proclaimed 

 everywhere, has not yet taken root enough to become a living and 

 earnest conviction, resolute on action. To the upper strata of 

 society this idea is like a vague threat hanging over them ; to the 

 lower ones, like a light of hope in a distant future ; but being 

 incessantly repeated at workmen's congresses and meetings, it is 

 likely to diffuse itself through all classes, especially those whose 

 interest it is to believe it to be true. 



Now suppose this idea universally and ardently embraced in a 

 country in which the larger part of the land is in few hands, what 

 sentiment is it likely to give birth to among the masses ? They 

 will say : "If we are equal, how is it that a caste has perpetual 

 possession of the land, and that we are perpetually doomed to 

 support this caste by the produce of our labour ? Has God made 

 the land only that a privileged few shall enjoy it ? Property is 

 said to be the creature of labour. How is it, then, that we ever 

 behold idleness and opulence on one side, and labour and destitu- 

 tion on the other ? According to the laws of nature, he who works 

 ought to reap the fruits of the earth, whilst he who lives in idleness 

 should suffer hunger ; but does the perfection of social laws con- 

 sist in keeping the drone in abundance and the bees in distress ? " 



I will not carry the argument further ; it will be readily under- 

 stood. This was precisely the language held by the peasants who 

 revolted in Germany when Luther spoke evangelical equality to 

 the feudal society of the sixteenth century. These ideas may be 

 drowned in blood, as they were on that occasion, as they were in 

 France at the time of the Jacqueries ; but they will always revive 

 and redouble the danger to society in countries where inequality 

 appears like an institution conspicuous to the sight of all. 



