ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the punishment appropriate to the class asserting that it must be the same for the highest to the lowest citizen. Every legitimate distinction whether in honor or wealth presupposes an anterior equality founded on the law, on which all subjects are equally dependent. One must suppose that men who have renounced their natural inclination to despotism have said: He who is more industrious will have greater honors, and his fame will reflect on his descendants; but if he who is happier or more honored hopes for more he must not violate the social compacts which elevate him above others. It is true that such decrees were never issued from an assembly of humankind, but they exist in the immutable relationships of things; they do not undermine those advantages supposedly produced by the nobility and prevent their inconveniences; they make strong laws that close off the paths to impunity of the privileged.
