Montesquieu.—­“To sustain the spirit of commerce, it is necessary that all the laws should favour it; that these same laws, by their regulations in dividing the fortunes in proportion as commerce enlarges them, should place every poor citizen in sufficiently easy circumstances to enable him to work like the others, and every rich citizen in such mediocrity that he must work, in order to retain or to acquire.”

Thus the laws are to dispose of all fortunes.

“Although, in a democracy, real equality be the soul of the State, yet it is so difficult to establish, that an extreme exactness in this matter would not always be desirable.  It is sufficient that a census be established to reduce or fix the differences to a certain point.  After which, it is for particular laws to equalise, as it were, the inequality, by burdens imposed upon the rich, and reliefs granted to the poor.”

Here, again, we see the equalisation of fortunes by law, that is, by force.

“There were, in Greece, two kinds of republics.  One was military, as Lacedaemon; the other commercial, as Athens.  In the one it was wished (by whom?) that the citizens should be idle:  in the other, the love of labour was encouraged.

“It is worth our while to pay a little attention to the extent of genius required by these legislators, that we may see how, by confounding all the virtues, they showed their wisdom to the world.  Lycurgus, blending theft with the spirit of justice, the hardest slavery with extreme liberty, the most atrocious sentiments with the greatest moderation, gave stability to his city.  He seemed to deprive it of all its resources, arts, commerce, money, and walls; there Was ambition without the hope of rising; there were natural sentiments where the individual was neither child, nor husband, nor father.  Chastity even was deprived of modesty. By this road Sparta was led on to grandeur and to glory.

“The phenomenon which we observe in the institutions of Greece has been seen in the midst of the degeneracy and corruption of our modern times.  An honest legislator has formed a people where probity has appeared as natural as bravery among the Spartans.  Mr. Penn is a true Lycurgus, and although the former had peace for his object, and the latter war, they resemble each other in the singular path along which they have led their people, in their influence over free men, in the prejudices which they have overcome, the passions they have subdued.

“Paraguay furnishes us with another example. Society has been accused of the crime of regarding the pleasure of commanding as the only good of life; but it will always be a noble thing to govern men by making them happy.

“Those who desire to form similar institutions, will establish community of property, as in the republic of Plato, the same