Nearly all civil institutions were made for the benefit of the rich. If we peruse our books of law, we are startled at finding everywhere the confirmation of the fact. It could almost be said that a few people, after dividing the earth among themselves, ordained laws to fortify themselves against the multitude.
— NECKER (afterwards Minister of Finance under Louis XVI.),
Essay on the Corn-Laws, (1775),
Part III., Chap. 12, Oeuvres, Vol. I., p. 333.
As time permits, I sometimes do some additional research on the quotes and authors Crosby included in The Earth-for-All Calendar. This one took me into new territory: I couldn't find an English translation of this book online, but did find a French edition, which I put through Google's Translation function. If you've worked with Google Books, you know that the "plain text" version often has a lot of "scannos," which are relatively easy to straighten out if one knows the language. My grade-school French was of little help, so Google Translate worked with the as-is text. (If anyone who knows French wants to clean up that French text and put it through Google Translate again, I'm happy to share the file.)
Crosby included several other quotes in his book; they'll appear on their appointed dates. But here are some tantalizing bits and pieces -- with the untranslatable scannos left in place:
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Social institutions can not be any other basis; any law made for a Nation, must be rooted in the general good; when the force & ignorance deviate from this principle, are acts of despotism & d error, against which the reason & equity claim, these are the days of calamities which we expect the forward end.
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If there had been a company on earth, the prosperity of the state, and the greatest happiness of its Members, had been synonymous expressions.
But the formation of several companies disunited interest & affection between them soon compelled each to join the care of their happiness, caring nécesíàire for storage.
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But if it is shown that the Owners benefit by the increase in population, it is perhaps more difficult to reconcile with this same advantage the happiness of men who live by the labor of their hands because we just observed us themselves, it is by their number & their rivalry, they get rewarded for the narrowest necessary.
The population growth condemns, without doubt, to privations industrious class of citizens, but the impetuous appeal that nature has put between the sexes, and the love she inspires in them for the fruits of their union, are the cause of the increasing number of men on earth these sentiments dominate the poor and the rich; no law against it, & if it were possible, it would be barbaric. Any sentient being would rather share the bread with his wife & his children, to live alone most varied of aliments; thus stretches the population, and in extending it increases in a way inevitable number of wretches.
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