[Footnote 2158: Rights of inheritance allowed to the descendants of a deceased person who never enjoyed these rights, but who might have enjoyed them had he been living when they fell to him.--Tr.] [Footnote 2159: Fenet, "Travaux du Code civil." (Report by Cambacèrés on the Code civil, August 9, 1793). The spokesman for the committee that had framed the bill makes excuses for not having deprived the father of all the disposable portion. "The committee believed that such a clause would seriously violate our customs without being of any benefit to society or of any moral advantage. We assured ourselves, moreover, that there should always be a division of property." With respect to donations: "It is repugnant to all ideas of beneficence to allow donations to the rich. Nature is averse to the making of such gifts so long as our eyes dwell on misery and misfortune. These affecting considerations have determined us to fix a point, a sort of maximum, which prohibits gifts on the part of those who have reached that point."] [Footnote 2160: Moniteur, XII., 730, (June 22, 1792), speech by Lamarque.--But this principle is encountered everywhere. "Equality, indeed, (is) the final aim of social art." (Condorcet, 'Tableau des progrès de l'esprit humain," II., 59.--"We desired," writes Baudot, "to apply to politics the equality which the Gospel awards to Christians." (Quinet, "Revolution Française, II., 407.)] [Footnote 2161: Buchez et Roux, XXXV, 296 (The words of Saint-Just.)--Moniteur, XVIII, 505 (Ordinance of the Paris Commune, Frimaire 3, year II). "Wealth and Poverty must alike disappear under the régime of equality."] [Footnote 2162: Ib. XXXV, 296 ("Institutions" by Saint-Just). "A man is not made for trades, nor for a workhouse nor for an alms-house; all this is frightful."--Ibid., XXXI., 312. (Report of Saint-Just, Ventôse 8, year II.) "Let all Europe see that you will not allow a miserable man on French territory!... Happiness is a new idea in Europe."] [Footnote 2163: Ib. XXXV, 296 ("Institutions" by Saint-Just.)] [Footnote 2164: Moniteur, XX, 444 ( Report by Barère, Floreal 22, year II). "Mendicity is incompatible with popular government."] [Footnote 2165: Ib., XIX., 568. (Report by Saint-Just, Ventôse 8, year II.)] [Footnote 2166: Ib., XX, 448 (Rapport by Barère, Floreal 22).] [Footnote 2167: Ibid., XIX., 568. (Report by Saint-Just, Ventôse 8, and decree of Ventôse 13.) "The Committee of Public Safety will report on the means of indemnifying the unfortunate with property belonging to the enemies of the Revolution."]