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Page 19
IV.--Theatres, Fine Arts.
Ought the State to support the arts?
There is certainly much to be said on both sides of this question. It
may be said, in favour of the system of voting supplies for this
purpose, that the arts enlarge, elevate, and harmonize the soul of a
nation; that they divert it from too great an absorption in material
occupations; encourage in it a love for the beautiful; and thus act
favourably on its manners, customs, morals, and even on its industry. It
may be asked, what would become of music in France without her Italian
theatre and her Conservatoire; of the dramatic art, without her
Th��tre-Fran�ais; of painting and sculpture, without our collections,
galleries, and museums? It might even be asked, whether, without
centralisation, and consequently the support of the fine arts, that
exquisite taste would be developed which is the noble appendage of
French labour, and which introduces its productions to the whole world?
In the face of such results, would it not be the height of imprudence to
renounce this moderate contribution from all her citizens, which, in
fact, in the eyes of Europe, realises their superiority and their glory?
To these and many other reasons, whose force I do not dispute, arguments
no less forcible may be opposed. It might first of all be said, that
there is a question of distributive justice in it. Does the right of the
legislator extend to abridging the wages of the artisan, for the sake
of, adding to the profits of the artist? M. Lamartine said, "If you
cease to support the theatre, where will you stop? Will you not
necessarily be led to withdraw your support from your colleges, your
museums, your institutes, and your libraries? It might be answered, if
you desire to support everything which is good and useful, where will
you stop? Will you not necessarily be led to form a civil list for
agriculture, industry, commerce, benevolence, education? Then, is it
certain that Government aid favours the progress of art? This question
is far from being settled, and we see very well that the theatres which
prosper are those which depend upon their own resources. Moreover, if we
come to higher considerations, we may observe that wants and desires
arise the one from the other, and originate in regions which are more
and more refined in proportion as the public wealth allows of their
being satisfied; that Government ought not to take part in this
correspondence, because in a certain condition of present fortune it
could not by taxation stimulate the arts of necessity without checking
those of luxury, and thus interrupting the natural course of
civilisation. I may observe, that these artificial transpositions of
wants, tastes, labour, and population, place the people in a precarious
and dangerous position, without any solid basis."
These are some of the reasons alleged by the adversaries of State
intervention in what concerns the order in which citizens think their
wants and desires should be satisfied, and to which, consequently, their
activity should be directed. I am, I confess, one of those who think
that choice and impulse ought to come from below and not from above,
from the citizen and not from the legislator; and the opposite doctrine
appears to me to tend to the destruction of liberty and of human
dignity.
But, by a deduction as false as it is unjust, do you know what
economists are accused of? It is, that when we disapprove of government
support, we are supposed to disapprove of the thing itself whose support
is discussed; and to be the enemies of every kind of activity, because
we desire to see those activities, on the one hand free, and on the
other seeking their own reward in themselves. Thus, if we think that the
State should not interfere by taxation in religious affairs, we are
atheists. If we think the State ought not to interfere by taxation in
education, we are hostile to knowledge. If we say that the State ought
not by taxation to give a fictitious value to land, or to any particular
branch of industry, we are enemies to property and labour. If we think
that the State ought not to support artists, we are barbarians, who look
upon the arts as useless.
Against such conclusions as these I protest with all my strength. Far
from entertaining the absurd idea of doing away with religion,
education, property, labour, and the arts, when we say that the State
ought to protect the free development of all these kinds of human
activity, without helping some of them at the expense of others--we
think, on the contrary, that all these living powers of society would
develop themselves more harmoniously under the influence of liberty; and
that, under such an influence no one of them would, as is now the case,
be a source of trouble, of abuses, of tyranny, and disorder.
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