But if, from these elevated contemplations, we, for a moment, descend to the political principles which have the greatest extent, we shall find there the influence of a truth on which I have already had occasion to dwell; but I shall now treat it in a different manner. The unequal division of property has introduced amongst men an authority very like that of a master over his slaves; we may even justly say, that in many respects the empire of the rich is still more independent; for they are not bound constantly to protect those from whom they require services: the taste and caprice of these favourites of fortune fix the terms of their convention with men, whose only patrimony is their time and strength; and as soon as this convention is interrupted, the poor man, absolutely separated from the rich, remains again abandoned to accidents; he is obliged then to offer his labours with precipitation to other dispensers of subsistence; and thus he may experience, several times in the year, all the inquietudes that must necessarily arise from uncertain recourses. Undoubtedly, in giving the support of the laws to a similar constitution, it has been reasonably supposed, that in the midst of the multiplied relations of social life, there would be a kind of balance and equality between the wants which oblige the poor to solicit wages, and the desires of the rich which engage them to accept their services; but this equilibrium, so essentially necessary, can never be established in an exact and constant manner, since it is the result of a blind concourse of combinations, and the uncertain effect of an infinite multitude of movements, not one of which is subject to a positive direction. However, since to maintain the distinction of property they were obliged to leave to chance the fate of the greater number of men, it was indispensably necessary to find some salutary opinion, proper to temper the abuses inseparable from the free exercise of the rights of property; and that happy and restoring idea could only have been discerned in an obligation of benevolence imposed on the will, and a spirit of general charity recommended to all men: these sentiments and duties, the last resource offered to the unfortunate, can alone mitigate a system, in which the fate of the most numerous part of a nation rests, on the doubtful agreement of the conveniences of rich with the wants of the poor. Yes, without the aid, without the intervention of the most estimable of virtues, the generality would have just reason to regret the social institutions, which, at the price of their independance, left to the master the care of their subsistence; and it is thus that charity, respectable under so many different views, becomes still an intelligent and political idea, which serves to blend personal liberty and the imperious laws of property.