Excerpts from "The Law" - II

It is in the nature of men to rise against the injustice
of which they are the victims. When, therefore, plunder is
organized by law, for the profit of those who perpetrate
it, all the plundered classes tend, either by peaceful or revolutionary
means, to enter in some way into the manufacturing
of laws. These classes, according to the degree of
enlightenment at which they have arrived, may propose to
themselves two very different ends, when they thus
attempt the attainment of their political rights; either they
may wish to put an end to lawful plunder, or they may desire to
take part in it.

Woe to the nation where this latter thought prevails
amongst the masses, at the moment when they, in their
turn, seize upon the legislative power!

Bastiat - The Law(1850)

Bastiat's The Law can be found for free here and here, or at Amazon .

Other excerpts linked here: I, II, III, IV