PannomicU Fragments; Bowring, vol. III, p

94. Colony, p. 11. — Westm. Rev, n* IV, octobre 1824, art. X. Edinburgh Review, — DûposUion of Property by Will. — Primogeniture (article d*Au8tin) : So far... as happiness is theefTectof wealth, those institutions and customs are most to be praised, wbich most conciliate augmentation in the quantity of virealth with equality in the distribution of it Thèse ends are conciliated amongst the middling class in England as far as they can be. The proprietor being invested with the absolute dominion of his property wants no motive to industry and frugality, whiist the custoro, which happily obtains amongst that rational class, of leaving their property to their children with a view to equality, is perpetually operating to impart the advantages of wealth to a large portion of the community. — Un autre passage du même article montre combien les radicaux philosophiques se font peu dUlIusions sur la condition des « prolétaires » : ... To talk of men being exclusively the architects of their own ibrtunes is to talk idly. A roan who rises to opulence from abject poverty, is a remarkable man ; and institutions or customs are not to be adapted to remarkable men or to remarkable incidents, but to common men and the common course of events. In the common course of events, wealth is made by wealth ; a fortune is augmented but not created ; and the man who starts with drudge, lives and dies a drudge. — Cf. encore Wesimimter Review^ n* X. avril 1826, art. I, InstUulions of ancient Greecsy p. 291 : critique de la distinction des riches et des pauvres qui néglige la classe moyenne (article de Grote).

9ô. D*aprôs ce passage de VAnalysis (chap. xxi, sect. II, vol. II, p. 222), la classe moyenne descend assez bas, selon James Mill : In cases of extrême poverty, which alone are the cases hère understood; because, in the more raoderate cases of poverty...