their whole conduct, renders the magiftrate a quiet spectator; he thinks that God has already done every thing, and that he himself has nothing to do.

CHAP. XII.

Of the Laws against Suicide.

We do not find in hiftory that the Romans ever killed themselves without a caufe; but the English deftroy themfelves moft unaccountably; they destroy themselves often in the very bofom of happiness. This action among the Romans was the effect of education; it was connected with their principles and customs: Among the English it is the effect of a * distemper; it is connected with the phyfical ftate of the machine, and independent of every other caufe.

In all probability it is a defect of the filtration of the nervous juice; the machine whofe motive faculties are every moment without action, is weary of itself; the foul feels no pain, but a certain uneafinefs in exifting. Pain is a local thing, which leads us to the defire of feeing an end of it; the burden of life is an evil confined to no particular place, which prompts us to the defire of ceafing to live.

It is evident, that the civil laws of fome countries may have reasons for branding fuicide with infamy; But in England it cannot be punished without punishing the effects of madness.

CHA P. XIII.

Effects arifing from the Climate of England.

In a nation fo diftempered by the climate as to have a difrelish of every thing, nay even of life, it is plain that the government

It may be complicated with the fcurvy, which, in fome countries efpecially, renders a man whimfical and unfupportable to himfelf. See Pirard's voyages, part 2. chap. 27.

Book XIV. government moft fuitable to the inhabitants, is that in which they cannot lay their uneafinefs to any fingle perfon's charge, and in which, being under the direction rather of the laws than of the prince, they cannot change the government without fubverting the laws themfelves.

And if this nation has likewife derived from the climate a certain character of impatience, which renders them incapable of bearing the fame train of things for any long continuance; it is obvious that the government above mentioned is the fitteft for them. This character of impatience is not very confiderable of itself, but it may become fo when joined with courage.

It is quite a different thing from levity, which makes people undertake or drop a project without caufe; it borders upon obstinacy, because it proceeds from fo lively a fenfe of mifery, that it is not weakened even by the habit of fuffering.

This character in a free nation is extremely proper for difconcerting the projects of tyranny *, which is always flow and feeble in its commencements, as in the end it is active and lively; which at first only ftretches out a hand to aflift, and exerts afterwards a multitude of arms to opprefs.

Slavery is ever preceded by fleep. But a people who find no reft in any fituation, who conti u lly explore every part, and feel nothing but pain, can hardly be lulled to fleep.

Politics are like a smooth file, which cuts flowly, and attains its end by a gradual and tedious progreffion. Now, the people of whom we have been speaking, are incapable of bearing the delays, the details, and the coolnefs of negociations: In these they are more unlikely to fucceed than any other nation; hence they are apt to lofe by treaties what they obtain by their arms.

CHAP

*Here I take this word for the defign of fubverting the established power, and efpecially that of democracy This is the fignification in which it was understood by the Greeks and Romans..

CHAP. XIV.

Other Effects of the Climate.

OUR ancestors the ancient Germans lived under a climate, where the paffions were extremely calm. Their laws decided only in fuch cafes where the injury was visible to the eye, and went no further. And as they judged of the outrages done to men from the greatnefs of the wounds, they acted with no other delicacy in respect to the injuries done to women. The law of the Germans on this fubject is very extraordinary. If a perfon uncovers a woman's head, he pays a fine of fifty fous; if he uncovers her leg up to the knee, he pays the fame; and double from the knee upwards. One would think that the law measured the infults offered to women as we measure a figure in geome try; it did not punish the crime of the imagination, but that of the eye. But, upon the migration of a German nation into Spain, the climate foon found a neceflity for different laws. The law of the Vifigoths inhibited the furgeons, to bleed a free woman, except either her father, mother, brother, fon, or uncle was prefent. As the imagination of the people grew warm, fo did that of the legiflators; the law fufpected every thing, when the people grew fufpicious.

These laws had therefore a particular regard for the twở fexes. But in their punishments they feem rather to humour the revengeful temper of private perfons, than to exercife public juftice. Thus in moft cafes they reduced both the criminals to be flaves to the offended relations, or to the injured husband; a free born woman † who had yielded to the embraces of a married man, was delivered up to his wife to difpofe of her as fhe pleased. They obliged the flaves if they found their mafter's wife in adultery, to bind her, and carry her to her husband; they even perVOL. I. mitted

Chap. 58. § 1. and 2.

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t Law of the Vifigoths, book 3. tit. 4. $ 9. Ibid. book 3. tit. 4. § 6.

mitted her children to be her accufers, and her flaves to be tortured in order to convict her. Thus their laws were far better adapted to refine even to excefs, a certain point of honour, than to form a good civil administration. We muft not therefore be surprised if count Julian was of opinion, that an affront of that kind ought to be expiated by the ruin of his king and country; We must not be furprifed if the Moors, with fuch a conformity of manners, found it so easy a matter to settle and to maintain themselves in Spain, and to retard the fall of their empire.

CHAP. XV.

Of the different Confidence which the Laws have in the People, according to the Difference of Climate:.

THE people of Japan are of fo ftubborn and perverse a temper, that neither their legiflators nor magiftrates can put any confidence in them: They fet nothing before their eyes but judges, menaces, and chastisements; every step they take is fubject to the inquifition of the civil magistrate. Thofe laws which out of five heads of families, establish one as a magiftrate over the other four; thofe laws which punish a family, or a whole ward for a fingle crime; those laws, in fine, which find no one innocent where there may happen to be one guilty; are made with a defign to implant in all the people a distrust of each other, and to make every one the inspector, witness, and judge of his neighbour's conduct.

On the contrary the people of India are mild †, tender, and compaffionate. Hence their legiflators repose a great confidence in them. They have established ‡ very few punishments; these are not fevere, nor are they rigoroufly executed. They have fubjected nephews to their uncles, 1and

Law of the Vifigoths, book 3. tit. 4. § 13.

+ See Bernier, tom. 2. p. 140.

See in the 14th collection of the edifying letters, p. 403. the principal laws or customs of the inhabitants of the peninfula on this fide the Ganges.

and orphans to their guardians, as in other countries they are fubject to their fathers; they have regulated the fucceffion by the acknowledged merit of the fucceffor. They feem to think that every individual ought to place an entire confidence in the good nature of his fellow-fubject.

They infranchise their flaves without difficulty, they marry them, they treat them as their children *: Happy climate, which gives birth to purity of manners, and produces a lenity in the laws!

I

BOOK XV.

IN WHAT MANNER THE LAWS OF CIVIL SLAVERY ARE RELATIVE TO THE NATURE OF THE CLIMATE,

CHAP. I.

Of civil Slavery.

SLAVERY, properly fo called, is the estabishment of a right which gives to one man fuch a power over another, as renders him abfolute mafter of his life and fortune. The state of flavery is in its own nature bad. It is neither useful to the mafter nor the flave; not to the flave, because he can do nothing thro' a motive of virtue; not to the mafter, becaufe, by having an unlimited authority over his flaves, he infenfibly accuftoms himself to the want of all moral virtues, and from thence grows fierce, hafty, fevere, choleric, voluptuous, and cruel,

In defpotic countries, where they are already in a ftate of political flavery, civil flavery is more tolerable than in other governments. Every one ought to be fatisfied in

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thofe

This is perhaps what made Diodorus say, that in the Indies there was neither mafter nor flave.