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these progressive advances which have been made towards opening a free course to personal desert , a new system should be established , in which the state * and not the family , should inherit accumulated property—and that this should be again appropriated according to the respective capabilities of individuals—property as the instrument of labour , passing from hands which have well employed it to those who best know how to do so after them ; that as at present the magistrate succeeds the magistrate , the statesman the statesman , the warrior the warrior , so in future the artist should succeed to the
artist , the learned to the man of learning , the artisan to the artisan , &c . History , they say , supports this system . She tells us that the various modes of classification which have followed each other , have always tended to weaken the principle of inheritance by blood , to replace it by that of inheritance by aptitude . By the laws of Caste , every thing was transmitted from father to
son , from the highest rank to the most inferior occupation . Nearer our own time , political fuuctions passed by inheritance , as dukes , barons , &c , were but public functionaries ; later , only certain dignities , rights , and honorary titles . In the most advanced European societies , one privilege chiefl y is still transmissible by the chances of birth—that of wealth . Public opinion is loudly expressed against the other remains of the feudal institutions , and it
belongs to sound reason to pronounce that this last must follow the fate of the rest ; that the same mode of transmission , virtually at least adopted for them , is also applicable to wealth . To abolish the present system of inheritance is no more to destroy property , than the abolition of castes was to destroy professions , or the overthrow of feudalism , the destruction of political functions . It is to extend to all men the rights hitherto reserved to a few ; it is to give to every one an inheritance , since all property becoming a function , a public trust , every labourer will succeed to a superior of his own
class . 1 he imputation of advocating a community of goods is disavowed : in an address to the Chamber of Deputies where such a charge bad been made , it is declared , that such an equal partition would be to their views an injustice more revolting than the unequal division first effected by the force of arms ; that the moral law they have been commissioned to teach , demands that " each one should be placed according to his capacity , and rewarded according- to his works . "
To effect changes such as are here contemplated , no other means are suggested but those of persuasion and conviction ; " it is not an overthrow , a revolution , which is desired ; it is an evolution , a radical change in sentiment and idea , and consequently in material interests . " We cannot here enter into the details of the plans by which these principles are to be brought into operation ; it will be enough to state that a national bank is suggested as the grand inheritor of all property , and that by means of its ramifications throughout society , estimates of the wants and caof the tne
pabilities people and consequent appropriations are to be made . paDumes ox people and consequent appropriations are to be made . " Education is naturally divided into two kinds—moral or general , and professional or specific ; the object of the former is to place the ideas and feelings in harmony with the end of society ; it takes up man from his cradle and accompanies him to the end of life . The more direct this education is in its influence the less necessary is the restrictive interference of legislation . The importance of education , always great , has become so , more and more , as social interests have become more complicated and the means of action improved . In ancient times each citizen , called to discuss the interests of the
community in public , was in a situation sufficiently elevated to understand the Connexion between his individual acts and the general interests ; but this did not ^ excuse him from a previous education , which gave him knowledge of that society of which he was a member ; nevertheless , behold the pomp of the Olympic Games , the mysteries , the religious ceremonies , the numerous class of priests , sibyls , augurs ; everywhere , a living instruction in the social destinies awakened enthusiasm and devotedness . This state of things is changed—a nation is no
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186 The Saint Simomtes .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), March 2, 1831, page 186, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2595/page/42/
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