On the injustice of revocations, annulments of treaties, etc., see Ganilh, I, 303.

Men get used to regaining quickly that which can be taken from them quickly. They strive to regain by cunning what has been taken from them by violence.

“In such an order of things,” says Bentham, Principes du Code Civil, Ch. 11, “there would be only one wise course for the governed, that of prodigality. There would be only one mad course, that of economy.” 196 See Ch. 9 and 10 of the same work.

The valley of Chamonix is protected from avalanches only by woods belonging to a host of individuals. If these woods were cut down, the valley of Chamonix would be covered with snow as another valley called “white path” [ sic ] was for the same reason. The ownership of these woods, however, being spread between a crowd of poor individuals, each one of these individuals must be all the more tempted to cut down his section of the wood in that the cutting down of this section would do no harm in isolation. It is clear that in such a case the government must intervene to counterbalance this individual tendency and that it has the right to restrain the free disposal of individual property. I do not know, however, whether it would be the duty of society to compensate the owners. Whatever the case, however, it is clear that this right derives from a local circumstance. It is the same with diverse restrictions of several kinds which it would take too long to talk about.

“This subjugation which forces the sovereign to take the law from his people is the last calamity which may befall a person of our rank.” 197

Hence it follows that the best constitutions are those in which the powers are combined in such a way that one can resist the branch of government which is oppressive, without resisting the whole government.