Vol. 42, No. 10
10/01/2026
The Law, Rearmed
The Law, by Frédéric Bastiat. Appleton, Wisconsin: Western Islands Publishing, 2026 edition, 87 pages, paperback.
Frédéric Bastiat was dying when he wrote The Law. Tuberculosis had ruined his throat and silenced the finest polemicist in France. He had months left, and he knew it. He spent them on a pamphlet of 50 pages. He sent it out in June of 1850, and by Christmas Eve he was dead in Rome at 49. Men who can hear the clock ticking do not pad their prose. Not one sentence here is wasted, because the man who wrote it had none to waste.
He was writing into the wreckage of the Revolution of 1848. The Second Republic had rediscovered the oldest trick in politics: A majority will plunder itself so long as the plunder is announced in the language of compassion. Louis Blanc had his national workshops. The organizers had their theories. Fraternity, the gentlest of words, arrived in Paris with bayonets behind it. Bastiat watched his countrymen march into servitude singing hymns to progress, and he wrote to tell them what they were doing.
Premium Content
Sign in with your ShopJBS.org account to read the full article, or subscribe below for unlimited digital access.
Log In to Continue Reading
- 12 Issues Per Year
- Digital Edition Access
- Digital Insider Report
- Exclusive Subscriber Content
- Audio provided for all articles
- Unlimited access to past issues
- Cancel anytime
- Renews automatically
- 12 Issues Per Year
- Print edition delivery (USA) *Available Outside USA
- Digital Edition Access
- Digital Insider Report
- Exclusive Subscriber Content
- Audio provided for all articles
- Unlimited access to past issues
- Cancel anytime
- Renews automatically