16 and left, and mountains of law accumulite ~ith frightful .r rapidity. But what wre all theM laws at bottom? · The major portion have, but one object-to protect private property, i.e., wealth acquired by the exploitation of man by man. Their aim is to open out to capital fresh fields for exploitation, and to_sanction the new forms which that exploitation contin\rnlly assumes, as capital swallows up another branch of human activity,· raihvays, telegrapb_s, electric light, chemical industries, the expression of nian's though~ in literature and science, etc. The object of tpe rest of these laws is fundamen, tally the same. They exist to keep up the machinery of govern- •ment, which serves to secure to capita.I the exploitation and monopoly of the wealth produced. Magistrature, police, army, ·public instruction, finance, all serve one God-capital; ~ll have but one object--to facilitate the exploitation of the worker by the ca.pitalist. Apalyse all the laws pas.sed for the last eighty years, and you will find nothing but this. The protection of the person, which is put forward as the true mission of law, ()C()U-pie-san imperceptible -space amongst them, for, existing society, assaults upon the per~on, directly dictated by hatred and brutality, tend to disappear. Nowadays, if anyone is murdered, it is generally for the sake of robbing him; rarely from personal vengeance. But if this class of crimes and misdemeanours is continually diminishing, we certainly do not owe the change· to legislation. It is due to the growth of humani. taria.nis~ in our societies, to our increasingly social habits rather than to the prescriptions of our laws. Repeal to-morrow every law, dealing with the protection of the person, and tomorrow stop all proceedings for as.sault, and the number of attempts, dictated by personal vengeance a.nd by brutality, would not be augmented by one single instance. It will, perhaps, be objected that, during the last fifty years, a good many liber{ll laws have been enacted. But, if these•laws . are analysed, it will be discovered that this liberal legislation consists in the repeal of the laws bequeathed to us b/ the barbarism of preceding centuries. Every liberal law, every-r~dical programme, may be summed up in these words,· abolition of Jaws grown irksome to the middle-class itself, and return and . Biblioteca Gino Bianco I
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