In the second
you substitute everywhere the action of power for individual
initiative, which is contrary to the principles of political
economy and the constitution of society. Do you take a middle
course? It is favor, nepotism, hypocrisy, the worst of systems.
Suppose, now, that the marking be left to the manufacturer. I
say that then the marks, even if made obligatory, will gradually
lose their SIGNIFICANCE, and at last become only proofs of
ORIGIN. He knows but little of commerce who imagines that a
merchant, a head of a manufacturing enterprise, making use of
processes that are not patentable, will betray the secret of his
industry, of his profits, of his existence. The significance
will then be a delusion; it is not in the power of the police to
make it otherwise. The Roman emperors, to discover the
Christians who dissembled their religion, obliged everybody to
sacrifice to the idols. They made apostates and martyrs; and the
number of Christians only increased. Likewise significant marks,
useful to some houses, will engender innumerable frauds and
repressions; that is all that can be expected of them.
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