it is enlarged or diminished, according to particular circum

stances.

The Russian nobility have indeed been reduced to slavery by the ambition of one of their princes; but they have always discovered those marks of impatience and discontent, which are never to be seen in the southern climates. Have they not been able for a short time to establish an aristocratical government? Another of the northern kingdoms has lost its laws; but we may trust to the climate that they are not lost in such a manner as never to be recovered.

CHAP. IV.

The Consequences resulting from this.

WHAT we have now said is perfectly conformable to history. Asia has been subdued thirteen times; eleven by the northern nations, and twice by those of the south. In the early ages it was conquered three times by the Scythians; afterwards it was subdued once by the Medes, and once by the Persians; again by the Greeks, the Arabs, the Moguls, the Turks, the Tartars, the Persians, and the Afghans. Í mention only the Upper Asia, and say nothing of the invasions made in the rest of the south of that part of the world, which has most frequently suffered prodigious revolutions.

In Europe, on the contrary, since the establishment of the Greek and Phenician colonies, we know but of four great changes; the first caused by the conquest of the Romans; the second by the inundation of barbarians, who destroyed those very Romans; the third by the victories of Charlemain; and the last by the invasions of the Normans. And if this be rightly examined, we shall find, even in these changes, a general strength diffused through all the parts of Europe. We know the difficulty which the Romans met with in conquering Europe, and the ease and facility with which they invaded Asia. We are sensible of the difficulties the northern nations had to encounter in overturning the Roman empire; of the wars, and labours of Charlemain; and of the several enterprizes of the Normans. The destroyers were incessantly destroyed.

CHAP. V.

That when the People in the North of Asia, and those of the North of Europe made Conquests, the effects of the Conquest

were not the same.

THE nations in the north of Europe conquered as freemen; the people in the north of Asia conquered as slaves, and subdued as others only to gratify the ambition of a master.

The reason is, that the people of Tartary, the natural conquerors of Asia, are themselves enslaved. They are incessantly making conquests in the south of Asia, where they form empires; but that part of the nation which continues in the country, find that they are subject to a great master, who, being despotic in the south, will likewise be so in the north, and exercising an arbitrary power over the vanquished subjects, pretends to the same over the conquerors. This is at present most conspicuous in that vast country called Chinese Tartary, which is governed by the emperor, with a power almost as despotic as that of China itself, and which he every day extends by his conquests.

We may likewise see in the history of China, that the emperors *sent Chinese colonies into Tartary. These Chinese are become Tartars, and the mortal enemies of China; but this does not prevent their carrying into Tartary the spirit of the Chinese government.

A part of the Tartars who were conquerors, have very often been themselves expelled; when they have carried into their deserts that servile spirit, which they had acquired in the climate of slavery. The history of China furnishes us with strong proofs of this assertion, as does also our ancient history.†

From hence it proceeds that the genius of the Getic or Tartarian nation, has always resembled that of the empires of Asia. The people in these are governed by the cudgel; the inhabitants of Tartary by whips. The spirit of Europe has ever been contrary to these manners; and in all ages what the people of Asia have called punishment, those of Europe have deemed the most outrageous abuse.‡

*As Vouty V. emperor of the fifth Dynasty.

The Scythians thrice conquered Asia, and thrice were driven from thence. Justin, 1. 2.

This is no way contrary to what I shall say in the 28th book, chap. 20, concerning the manner of thinking among the German nations, in respect to the cudgel; let the instrument be what it will, the power or action of beating was always considered by them as an affront.

The Tartars who destroyed the Grecian empire, established in the conquered countries, slavery and despotic power; the Goths, after subduing the Roman empire, founded monarchy and liberty.

I do not know whether the famous Rudbeck, who in his Atlantica has bestowed such praises on Scandinavia, has made mention of that great prerogative which ought to set this people above all the nations upon earth; namely, this country's having been the source of the liberties of Europe; that is, of almost all the freedom which at present subsists amongst mankind.

Jornadez, the Goth, called the north of Europe, the forge, of the human race.* I should rather call it the forge where those weapons were framed, which broke the chains of southern nations. In the north, were formed those valiant people, who sallied forth and deserted their countries, to destroy tyrants and slaves, and to teach men that nature having made them. equal, reason could not render them dependent, except where it was necessary to their happiness.

CHAP. VI.

A New physical Cause of the Slavery of Asia, and of the Liberty of Europe.

IN Asia they have always had great empires; in Europe these could never subsist. Asia has larger plains; it is cut out into much more extensive divisions by mountains and seas; and as it lies more to the south, its springs are more easily dried up; the mountains are less covered with snow; and the rivers being not so large, form more contracted barriers.+

Power in Asia, ought, then, to be always despotic: for if their slavery was not severe, they would soon make a division inconsistent with the nature of the country.

In Europe, the natural division forms many nations of a moderate extent, in which the ruling by laws is not incompatible with the maintenance of the state: on the contrary, it is so favourable to it, that without this, the state would fall into decay, and become a prey to its neighbours.

Humani generis officinam.

The waters lose themselves, or evaporate before or after their streams are united.

It is this which has formed a genius for liberty; that renders every part extremely difficult to be subdued and subjected to a foreign power, otherwise than by the laws and the advantage of commerce.

On the contrary, there reigns in Asia a servile spirit, which they have never been able to shake off: and it is impossible to find, in all the histories of that country, a single passage which discovers a freedom of spirit; we shall never see any thing there but the excess of slavery.

CHAP. VII.

Of Africa and America.

THIS is what I had to say of Asia and Europe. Africa is in a climate like that of the south of Asia, and is in the same servitude. America being lately destroyed and repeopled by the nations of Europe and Africa, can now scarcely display its genuine spirit; but what we know of its ancient history is very conformable to our principles.

CHAP. VIII.

Of the Capital of the Empire.

ONE of the consequences of what we have been mentioning, is, that it is of the utmost importance to a great prince to make a proper choice of the seat of his empire. He who places it to the southward, will be in danger of losing the north; but he who fixes it on the north, may easily preserve the south. I do not speak of particular cases. In mechanics there are frictions by which the effects of the theory are frequently changed or retarded; and policy has also its frictions.

*The petty, barbarous nations of America, are called by the Spaniards Indios Bravos, and are much more difficult to subdue than the great empires of Mexico and Peru.

BOOK XVIII.

OF LAWS IN THE RELATION THEY BEAR TO

THE NATURE OF THE SOIL.

CHAP. I.

How the Nature of the Soil has an Influence on the Laws. THE goodness of the land, in any country, naturally establishes subjection and dependance. The husbandmen, who compose the principal part of the people, are not very jealous of their liberty; they are too busy and too intent on their own private affairs. A country which overflows with wealth is afraid of pillage, afraid of an army. "Who is there that forms this goodly party ?" said Cicero to Atticus,* "are they the men of commerce and husbandry? Let us not imagine that these are averse to monarchy, these to whom all governments are equal, as soon as they bestow tranquillity."

Thus, monarchy is more frequently found in fruitful countries, and a republican government in those which are not so; and this is sometimes a sufficient compensation for the inconveniences they suffer by the sterility of the land.

The barrenness of the Attic soil established there a democracy; and the fertility of that of Lacedæmonia an aristo-. cratical constitution. For in those times, Greece was averse to the government of a single person; and aristocracy had the nearest resemblance to that government.

Plutarch says, that the Cilonian sedition having been appeased at Athens, the city fell into its ancient dissensions, and was divided into as many parties as there were kinds of land in Attica. The men who inhabited the eminences, would, by all means, have a popular government; those of the flat, open country, demanded a government composed of the chiefs; and they who were near the sea, desired a mixture of both.