The kings of Syria, abandoning the plan laid down by the founder of the empire, refolved to oblige the Jews to conform to the manners of the Greeks; a refolution

that gave the most terrible fhocks to their government.

THIS

CHA P. XIV.

Charles XII.

'HIS prince, who depended entirely on his own ftrength, haftened his ruin, by forming defigns that could never be executed but by a long war; a thing which his kingdom was unable to fupport.

It was not a declining ftate he undertook to fubvert, but a rifing empire. The Ruffians made ufe of the war he waged against them, as of a military school. Every defeat brought them nearer to victory; and lofing abroad, they learned to defend themselves at home.

Charles, in the deferts of Poland, imagined bimfelf mafter of the univerfe; here he wandered, and with him in fome measure wandered Sweden; while his capital enemy acquired new ftrength against him, locked him up, made fettlements along the Baltic, destroyed or fubdued Livonia.

Sweden was like a river, whofe waters are cut off at the fountain-head, in order to change its courfe.

It was not the affair of Pultowa that ruined Charles. Had he not been destroyed at that place, he would in another. The cafualties of fortune are easily repaired; but who can be guarded against events that inceffantly arife from the nature of things.

But neither nature nor fortune were ever fo much against him as he himself.

He was not directed by the actual fituation of things, but by a kind of model he had formed to himself; and even this he followed very ill. He was not an Alexander; but he would have been Alexander's best foldier.

Alexander's project fucceeded, because it was prudently concerted. The bad fuccefs of the Perfians,

in their feveral invafions of Greece, the conquefts of Agefilaus, and the retreat of the ten thousand, had fhown to demonftration the fuperiority of the Greeks in their manner of fighting, and in the arms they made use of; and it was well known that the Perfians were too proud to be corrected.

It was no longer poffible for them to weaken Greece by divifions: Greece was then united under one head, who could not pitch upon a better method of rendering her infenfible of her fervitude, than by flattering her vanity with the deftruction of her hereditary enemy, and with the hopes of the conqueft of Afia.

An empire cultivated by the most industrious nation in the world, that tilled the lands through a principle of religion; an empire abounding with every conveniency of life, furnished the enemy with all neceffary means of fubfifting.

It was easy to judge by the pride of those kings, who in vain were mortified by their numerous defeats, that they would precipitate their ruin by being fo forward to hazard battles; and that flattery would never permit them to doubt of their grandeur.

The project was not only wife, but wifely executed. Alexander, in the rapidity of his conquefts, even in the fire of his paffions, had, if I may prefume to ufe the expreffion, a flash of reafon by which he was directed, and which those who wanted to make a romance of his history, and whofe minds were more debauched than his, could not conceal from pofterity.

CHA P. XV.

New methods of preferving a conqueft.

WHEN a monarch has conquered a large country,

he may make use of an admirable method, equally proper for moderating defpotic power, and for preserving the conqueft; it is a method practifed by the conquerors of China.

In order to prevent the conquered nation from falling into defpair, the conquerors from growing infolent and proud, the government from becoming military, and to contain the two nations within duty, the Tartar family now on the throne of China has ordained, that every military corps in the provinces fhould be compofed half of Chinese and half of Tartars, to the end that the jea loufy between the two nations may keep them within bounds. The courts of judicature are likewife half Chinese, and half Tartars. This is productive of several good effects. 1. The two nations keep one another in awe. 2. They both preferve the civil and military power, and one is not deftroyed by the other. 3. The conquering nation may spread itfelf without being weakened and loft. It is likewife enabled to refift civil and foreign wars. The want of fo wife an institution as this, has been the ruin of almost all the conquerors that ever exifted.

CHA P. XVI.

Of conquefts made by a defpotic prince.

WHEN a conqueft happens to be vaftly large, it fuppofes a defpotic power; and then the army difperfed in the provinces is not fufficient. There fhould be always a trusty body of troops around the prince, ready to fall inftantly upon any part of the empire that might chance to waver. This military corps ought to awe the reft, and to ftrike terror into those who, through neceffity, have been intrufted with any authority in the empire. The emperor of China has always a large body of Tartars near his perfon, ready, upon all occafions. In India, in Turkey, in Japan, the prince has always a body-guard, independent of the other regular forces. This particular corps keeps the difperfed troops

in awe.

CHAP. XVII.

The fame fubject continued.

WE have obferved, that the countries fubdued by a defpotic monarch ought to be feodary. Hiftorians exhauft themfelves in extolling the generofity of thofe conquerors who reftored to the throne the princes they had vanquished. Extremely generous then were the Romans, who made kings in all parts, in order to have inftruments of flavery *. A proceeding of that kind is abfolutely neceflary. If the conqueror intends to preferve the conquered country, neither the governors he fends will be able to contain the fubjects within duty, nor he himself the governors. He will be obliged to ftrip his ancient patrimony of troops, in order to fecure the new. All the miseries of the two nations will be common: the civil war of one will communicate itself to the other. On the contrary, if the conqueror reftores the legitimate prince to the throne, he will have a ne ceffary ally, by the junction of whofe forces his own will be augmented. We have a recent inftance of what has been here faid in Shah Nadir, who conquered the Mogul, feized his treasures, and left him the poffeffion of Indoftan.

* Ut haberent inftrumenta fervitutis et reges,

I

BOOK XI.

Of the Laws that form political Liberty, with regard to the Constitution.

CHA P. I.

A general idea.

MAKE a diftinction between the laws that form political liberty with regard to the conftitution, and those by which it is formed in respect to the citizen. The former fhall be the fubject of this book; the latter I fhall examine in the next.

CHA P. II.

Different fignifications given to the word Liberty

THERE is no word that has admitted of more

various fignifications, and has made more different impreffions on human minds, than that of Liberty. Some have taken it for a facility of depofing a perfon on whom they had conferred a tyrannical authority; others, for the power of choofing a perfon whom they are obliged to obey; others, for the right of bearing arms, and of being thereby enabled to ufe violence; others, for the privilege of being governed by a native of their own country, or by their own laws *. A certain nation for a long time thought, that liberty confifted in the privilege of wearing a long beardt. Some have annexed this name to one form

* I have copied, fays Cicero, Scevola's edict, which permits the Greeks to terminate their differences among themselves according to their own laws; this makes them confider themselves as a free people.

+ The Ruffians could not bear that the Czar Peter fhould obligs them to cut it off.