I searched Burke's "Reflections on the...." and the quotation isn't there.
The full text may be found at
ftp://english.hss.cmu.edu/English.Server/18th-Century/Burke-Reflections%20On
%20French%20Rev


-----Original Message-----
From: James Corsaro <[log in to unmask]>
To: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Wednesday, January 20, 1999 11:58 AM
Subject: Re: Search for Quotation on Property and Political Rights


>No idea, but it sounds like it might be from Sir Edmund Burke's, perhaps
his book, "Reflections on the Revolution in France?"
>
>Jim Corsaro
>
>James Corsaro
>Associate Librarian
>Manuscripts and Special Collections
>New York State Library
>Albany, NY 12230
>
>It is well said that each new child who comes into the world proves that
God  has not given up hope.
>(G. Easterbrook)
>
>
>>>> Hugh Mac Dougall <[log in to unmask]> 01/19 5:04 PM >>>
>At the head of Chapter 26 of his novel "The Redskins" (1846 -- about the
>New York Anti-Rent Wars), James Fenimore Cooper uses the following
>paragraph as an epigraph:
>
>        "If men desire the rights of property, they must take their
consequences;
>distinction in social classes. Without the rights of property civilization
>can hardly exist; while the highest class of improvements is probably the
>result of the very social distinctions that so many decry. The great
>political problem to be solved, is to ascertain if the social distinctions
>that are inseparable from civilization can really exist with perfect
>equality in political rights. We are of opinion they can; and as much
>condemn him who vainly contends for a visionary and impracticable social
>equality, as we do him who would deny to men equal opportunities for
>advancement.
>                                        Political Essay"
>
>Can anyone identify the quotation?
>
>
>Hugh C. MacDougall
>Secretary/Treasurer
>James Fenimore Cooper Society
>8 Lake Street, Cooperstown, NY 13326-1016
><[log in to unmask]>
><http://library.cmsu.edu/cooper/cooper.htm>
>