It would have been better to stick to the principles, to grant every possible repressive power but not to prohibit freedom.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 396 to 399 (in French)
April 8th, 1849

There was obviously some good reason for me to be surprised by the vote of Frédéric Bastiat in favour of the prohibition of the clubs. Less than a month after the vote on March 24th, to Bernard Domenger who was telling him how well the electorate received the news, he announces that “this vote is the only one I have on my conscience because it goes against all my principles”.

What today’s quote shows us is that, when it is necessary to prohibit something, it is absolutely necessary to focus on that particular thing and avoid shortcuts. The legislation is prohibiting clubs “the nature of which would be to disturb the peace” – it is then necessary to forbid “disturbing the peace” but the freedom to meet in a club should not be held in contempt. Prohibiting freedoms is a shortcut for which unintended consequences are too unforeseeable to be acceptable.