"In a Christian tongue you asked, gentlemen, what was the true
system of society. A competitor[1] dared to maintain, and
believed that he had proved, that the institution of a day of
rest at weekly intervals is inseparably bound up with a political
system based on the equality of conditions; that without equality
this institution is an anomaly and an impossibility: that
equality alone can revive this ancient and mysterious keeping of
the seventh day. This argument did not meet with your
approbation, since, without denying the relation pointed out by
the competitor, you judged, and rightly gentlemen, that the
principle of equality of conditions not being demonstrated, the
ideas of the author were nothing more than hypotheses.

[1] "The Utility of the Celebration of Sunday," &c. By P. J.
Proudhon. Besancon, 1839, 12mo; 2d edition, Paris, 1841, 18mo.




"Finally, gentlemen, this fundamental principle of equality you
presented for competition in the following terms: THE
ECONOMICAL AND MORAL CONSEQUENCES IN FRANCE UP TO THE PRESENT
TIME, AND THOSE WHICH SEEM LIKELY TO APPEAR IN FUTURE, OF THE LAW
CONCERNING THE EQUAL DIVISION OF HEREDITARY PROPERTY BETWEEN THE
CHILDREN.

"Instead of confining one to common places without breadth or
significance, it seems to me that your question should be
developed as follows:--