Don’t we look like this cook who, upon going out, said to the cat: “Look after the ortolans properly and, if the dog came, show your claws”.

Frédéric Bastiat
Complete Works, Volume 7, pages 289 to 297 (in French)
After 1840

In this sketch, Frédéric Bastiat delves into the issue of democratic control. According to him, the role of parliament is to be a force of opposition to the executive power and, as he will develop in his letter to Gustave Larnac in 1846 and his pamphlet Parliamentary Conflict of Interest in 1849, public servants (those having executive charges are considered here) should not be able to act as a Member of Parliament.

He criticizes here how naïve Alphonse de Lamartine was when opposing the legislation on incompatibilities arguing that it would be equivalent to raising suspicion on Members of Parliament who are supposedly men of honour. Frédéric Bastiat is ready to concede they are but he would prefer to make sure they are. He also shows how politicians may be elected in good faith but then fall in the trap of corruption that inappropriate institutions may favour. Man is fallible, as much as is the cat in today’s quote. Avoiding to lead him into temptation is the best known way to help him avoid falling for it.