The legislator must necessarily choose between two systems, that
which lets it lie fallow, or that which enables it to be productive,
that which drives it away from, or that which rallies it round, the
public service. In every society which has lived for any length of
time, a nucleus of families always exists whose fortunes and
importance are of ancient date. Even when, as in France in 1789,
this class seems to be exclusive, each half century introduces into
it new families; judges, governors, rich businessmen or bankers who
have risen to the tope of the social ladder through the wealth they
have acquired or through the important offices they have filled; and
here, in the medium thus constituted, the statesman and wise
counselor of the people, the independent and able politician is most
naturally developed. - Because, on the one hand, thanks to his
fortune and his rank, a man of this class is above all vulgar
ambitions and temptations. He is able to serve gratis; he is not
obliged to concern himself about money or about providing for his
family and making his way in the world.
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