Commentary on Filangieri’s Work. Benjamin de Constant

      

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      COMMENTARY ON FILANGIERI’S WORK

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      BENJAMIN CONSTANT

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      This book is published by Liberty Fund, Inc., a foundation established to encourage study of the ideal of a society of free and responsible individuals.

      The cuneiform inscription that serves as our logo and as a design element in Liberty Fund books is the earliest-known written appearance of the word “freedom” (amagi), or “liberty.” It is taken from a clay document written about 2300 B.C. in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash.

      Translation, introduction, editorial matter, and index © 2015 by Liberty Fund, Inc.

      Frontispiece: Portrait of Benjamin Constant by Lina Vallier (fl. 1836–52), from the Musée du Château de Versailles. Photo credit: Gianni Dagli Orti/The Art Archive at Art Resource, NY.

      This eBook edition published in 2019.

      eBook ISBNs:

      978-1-61487-273-3

      978-1-61487-649-6

       www.libertyfund.org

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      Contents

      Introduction, by Alan S. Kahan

      Translator’s Note

      Commentary on Filangieri’s Work

Part One

CHAPTER ONE: Plan of This Commentary

CHAPTER TWO: From an Epigram by Filangieri against Improvement in the Art of War

CHAPTER THREE: On Encouragements for Agriculture

CHAPTER FOUR: On the Conversion of Rulers to Peace

CHAPTER FIVE: On the Salutary Revolution Which Filangieri Foresaw

CHAPTER SIX: On the Union of Politics and Legislation

CHAPTER SEVEN: On the Influence Which Filangieri Attributes to Legislation

CHAPTER EIGHT: On the State of Nature, the Formation of Society, and the True Goal of Human Associations

CHAPTER NINE: On Errors in Legislation

CHAPTER TEN: Some Remarks by Filangieri on the Decline of Spain

CHAPTER ELEVEN: On Filangieri’s Observations about France

       CHAPTER TWELVE: On the Decline Filangieri Predicted for England

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       Part Two

       CHAPTER ONE: Object of This Second Part

       CHAPTER TWO: On the Black Slave Trade

       CHAPTER THREE: On Population

       CHAPTER FOUR: Continuation of the Same Subject

       CHAPTER FIVE: On Malthus’s System Relating to Population

       CHAPTER SIX: Some Writers Who Have Exaggerated M. Malthus’s System

       CHAPTER SEVEN: On a Contradiction by Filangieri

       CHAPTER EIGHT: On the Division of Properties

       CHAPTER NINE: On the Grain Trade

       CHAPTER TEN: On Agriculture as a Source of Wealth

       CHAPTER ELEVEN: On the Protection Given Industry

       CHAPTER TWELVE: A New Proof of Filangieri’s Fundamental Mistake

       CHAPTER THIRTEEN: On Guilds and Masters

       CHAPTER FOURTEEN: On Privileges for Industry

       CHAPTER FIFTEEN: On Taxation

       Part Three

       CHAPTER ONE: On Criminal Prosecution Confided Exclusively to a Magistrate

       CHAPTER TWO: On Secret Indictments

       CHAPTER THREE: On Denunciation

       CHAPTER FOUR: New Thoughts on the Idea of Giving Each Citizen the Right to Prosecute

       CHAPTER FIVE: On the Right to Prosecute Given to Servants, When It Is a Question of Crimes against Society

       CHAPTER SIX: That the Prosecuting Magistrate Should Be Responsible, If Not for the Truth, at Least for the Legitimacy of the Accusation

       CHAPTER SEVEN: On Prisons

       CHAPTER EIGHT: On the Shortening of Legal Procedures

       CHAPTER NINE: On Defense Witnesses

       CHAPTER TEN: On Judgment by Juries

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       CHAPTER ELEVEN: On the Death Penalty

       CHAPTER TWELVE: On Convict Labor

       CHAPTER THIRTEEN: On Deportation

       Part Four

       CHAPTER ONE: On Education

       CHAPTER TWO: On Religion

       CHAPTER THREE: Of the Growth of Polytheism

       CHAPTER FOUR: On the Priesthood

       CHAPTER FIVE: On the Mysteries

       CHAPTER SIX AND LAST: Conclusion

       Index

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       Introduction

      Benjamin Constant’s Commentary on Filangieri’s Work (1822–24) discusses almost every important political and social question that Constant, one of the most important liberal thinkers of the nineteenth century, ever discussed. It bears on politics, economics, religion, and criminology. It contains extensive commentary on Montesquieu, Malthus, Turgot, and Adam Smith. It summarizes the mature views of an important writer who often changed his mind—and yet all this has not preserved the work from being out of print in French from 1824 until 2004, nor prompted anyone to translate it into English before now. While the Commentary has not been ignored by scholars, it has never received the attention given Constant’s Principles of Politics, his writings on religion, or his novel Adolphe. Why? The reasons owe something both to the character of the book and of its putative subject, the work of Constant’s not-quite-contemporary Gaetano Filangieri.

      Filangieri published the first volume of The Science of Legislation in 1780, when he was only 28. The fifth volume (of a projected seven) was unfinished when the author died of tuberculosis, in 1788. All the volumes were translated and acclaimed throughout Europe and even the Thirteen Colonies. Benjamin Franklin read Filangieri