LINGUET, Simon Nicolas Henri.

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Théorie des loix civiles, First edition of this controversial work opposing political reform in the run-up to the French Revolution. In arguably his major political work, Simon Nicolas Henri Linguet (1736-1794) argues that free workers are worse off than enslaved people in a market economy and that despotism is a more effective protector of the poor than liberalism - arguments which led to his execution under the Reign of Terror in 1794.The Théorie outlines a stinging attack on Montesquieu's theories on law and challenges physiocratic arguments, including their objection to grain regulation. This critique of Enlightenment liberalism influenced both the radical factions of the revolution and the thought of Karl Marx, who judged the Theorie "a very brilliant book" ("On Proudhon", p. 30).Linguet, a habitual controversialist, was among the most renowned lawyers in France during the 1760s and 1770s, until his attacks on other lawyers led to his expulsion from the bar in 1775. Initially a friend of the philosophes, he gradually came to reject much of their philosophy, including the argument that English liberties provide a model for France. Linguet sent a copy to Voltaire, who observed of his streak of nonconformity that "Paris too has its Jean-Jacques [Rousseau]" (quoted in Vyverberg, p. 476).Two distinct editions of Théorie have been identified with a London 1767 imprint. This edition runs to 507 and 532 pages and includes three pages of errata following the "Discours Préliminair

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