PART II.
SOPHISMS OF PROTECTION.
SECOND SERIES.
"The request of Industry to the government is as modest as that of Diogenes to Alexander: 'Stand out of my sunshine.'"-- BENTHAM.
I.
NATURAL HISTORY OF SPOLIATION.
Why do I give myself up to that dry science, political economy?
The question is a proper one.

All labor is so repugnant in its nature that one has the right to ask of what use it is.
Let us examine and see.
I do not address myself to those philosophers who, if not in their own names, at least in the name of humanity, profess to adore poverty.
I speak to those who hold wealth in esteem--and understand by this word, not the opulence of the few, but the comfort, the well-being, the security, the independence, the instruction, the dignity of all.
There are only two ways by which the means essential to the preservation, the adornment and the perfection of life may be obtained--production and spoliation.

Some persons may say: "Spoliation is an accident, a local and transient abuse, denounced by morality, punished by the law, and unworthy the attention of political economy." Still, however benevolent or optimistic one may be, he is compelled to admit that spoliation is practiced on so vast a scale in this world, and is so generally connected with all great human events, that no social science, and, least of all, political economy, can refuse to consider it.
I go farther.

That which prevents the perfection of the social system (at least in so far as it is capable of perfection) is the constant effort of its members to live and prosper at the expense of each other.
So that, if spoliation did not exist, society being perfect, the social sciences would be without an object.
I go still farther.

When spoliation becomes a means of subsistence for a body of men united by social ties, in course of time they make a law which sanctions it, a morality which glorifies it.
It is enough to name some of the best defined forms of spoliation to indicate the position it occupies in human affairs.
First comes war.