overcome than in their own country. The fame was obferved of the Romans; the fame of the Carthaginians; and the fame will always happen to every power that fends armies to distant countries, in order to reunite, by dint of difcipline and military power, those who are divided among themselves by political or civil interefts. The ftate finds itself weakened by the diforder that ftill continues, and more fo by the remedy.

The Lord of Coucy's maxim is an exception to the general rule, which difapproves of wars against distant countries. And this exception confirms likewife the rule, because it takes place only in respect to those by whom such wars are undertaken.

CHAP. IX.

Of the relative force of States.

ALL grandeur, force and power are relative.

Care therefore must be taken, that in endeavoring to increase the real grandeur, the relative be not diminished. About the middle of the reign of Louis XIV, France was at its highest pitch of relative grandeur. Germany had not yet fuch great monarchs as it has fince produced. Italy was in the fame ftate. England and Scotland were not yet formed into one united kingdom. Arragon was not joined to Caftile; the diftant parts of the Spanish monarchy were weakened by it, and weakened it in their turn; and Mufcovy was as little known in Europe, as Crimtartary.

CHAP. X.

Of the Weakness of neighboring States.

W HENSOEVER a fate lies contiguous to an

other that happens to be in its decline, the former ought to

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take

take particular care not to precipitate the latter's ruin, because this is the happieft fituation imaginable; nothing being fo convenient for one prince as to be near another who receives for him all the rebuffs and infults of fortune. And it feldom happens, that, by fubduing such a state, the real power of the conqueror is as much increafed as the rela tive is diminished.

OF LAWS IN THE RELATION THEY BEAR TO OFFENSIVE FORCE.

CHAP. I.

Of offenfive Force.

OFFENSIVE force is regulated by the law of nations, which is the political law of each country, confidered in its relation to every other.

CHA P. II.

Of War.

THE life of government is like that of man. The latter has a right to kill in cafe of natural defence; the former has a right to wage war for their own prefervation.

In the case of natural defence I have a right to kill, because my life is, in refpect to me, what the life of my antagonist is to him: In the fame manner a ftate wages war, because its preservation is equally juft with that of any other state.

Among

Among citizens the right of natural defence does not imply a neceffity of attacking. Inftead of attacking they need only have recourfe to proper tribunals. They cannot therefore exercise this right of defence but in sudden cafes, when immediate death would be the confequence of waiting for the affiftance of the laws. But, among focieties, the right of natural defence carries along with it fometimes the neceffity of attacking; as, for inftance, when one nation fees that a longer peace will enable another to destroy her, and that to attack that nation inftantly is the only way to prevent her own destruction.

From thence it follows, that fmall focieties have oftener a right to declare war than great ones, because they are oftener in the cafe of being afraid of deftruction.

The right therefore of war is derived from neceffity and ftrict juftice. If those who direct the confcience or counfels of princes do not hold by this, all is undone : When they proceed on arbitrary principles of glory, conveniency and utility, torrents of blood will overfpread the earth.

But, above all, let them not avail themselves of any fuch idle plea as the glory of the prince : His glory is nothing but pride; it is a paffion, and not a legitimate right.

It is true, the fame of his power might increase the ftrength of his government; but it might be equally in creafed by the reputation of his justice.

CHA P. III.

Of the Right of Conquests

FROM the right of war comes that of conquest ; which is the confequence of that right, and ought therefore to follow its fpirit.

The right the conqueror has over a conquered people, is directed by four forts of law; the law of nature, which makes every thing tend to the prefervation of the species; the law of natural reafon, which teaches us to do to others what we would have done to our felves; the law that forms political focieties, whofe duration nature has not limited; and, in fine, the law derived from the nature of

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the

the thing itself. Conqueft is an acquifition; acquifition carries with it the spirit of prefervation and use, and not of deftruction.

A conquered nation is treated by the conqueror, one of the four following ways. Either he continues to rule them according to their own laws, and affumes to himself only the exercise of the political and civil government; or he gives them a new political and civil government; or he deftroys and difperfes the fociety; or, in fine, he exterminates the inhabitants.

The firft way is conformable to the law of nations now followed; the fourth is more agreeable to the law of nations followed by the Romans: In refpect to which I leave the reader to judge how far we have improved upon the ancients. We must here give due praise to our modern times, to our present réafon, to our religion, philofophy and manners.

The authors of our public law, guided by ancient hiftories, without confining themselves to cafes of ftrict neceffity, have fallen into very great errors. They have adopted tyrannical and arbitrary principles, by fuppofing the conquerors to be invefted with I know not what right to kill From thence they have drawn confequences as terrible as the very principle, and established maxims which the conquerors themfelves, when poffeffed of the leaft grain of fense, never prefumed to follow. It is a plain cafe, that when the conqueft is completed, the conqueror has no longer a right to kill, because he has no longer the plea of natural defence and selfpreservation.

What has led them into this miftake, is, that they imagined a conqueror had a right to deftroy the fociety; from whence they inferred that he had a right to deftroy the men that compose it; a wrong confequence from a falfe principle. For from the deftruction of the fociety it does not at all follow, that the people who compofe it ought to be alfo deftroyed. Society is the union of men, and not the men themselves; the citizen may perifh, and the man remain.

From the right of killing in cafe of conqueft, politicians have drawn that of reducing to flavery; a confequence as ill grounded as the principle.

There is no fuch thing as a right of reducing people to flavery, but when it becomes neceffary for the prefervation

of

of the conqueft. Prefervation, but never fervitude, is the end of conqueft; though fervitude may happen sometimes to be a neceffary means of prefervation.

Even in that cafe it is contrary to the nature of things, that the flavery fhould be perpetual. The people enflaved ought to be rendered capable of becoming fubjects. Slavery in conquefts is an accidental thing. When, after the expiration of a certain space of time, all the parts of the conquering state are connected with the conquered nation, by cuftoms, marriages, laws, affociations, and by a certain conformity of fpirit; there ought to be an end of the flavery. For the rights of the conqueror are founded entirely on the want of those very things, and on the eftrangement between the two nations which prevents their confid ing in each other,

A conqueror therefore, who reduces the conquered people to flavery, ought always to referve to himself the means (for means there are without number) of restoring them to their liberty.

Thefe are far from being vague and uncertain notions. Thus our ancestors acted, thofe ancestors who conquered the Roman empire. The laws they made in the heat of fire, action, impetuofity and the pride of victory, were afterwards foftened; thofe laws were fevere, but they rendered them impartial. The Burgundians, Goths and Lombards, would always have the Romans continue a conquered people; but the laws of Euric, Gundebald and Rotharis, made the Romans and Barbarians fellow citizens.#

CHA P. IV,

Some Advantages of a conquered People.

INSTEAD of inferring fuch fatal confequences from the right of conqueft, politicians would have done much better to mention the advantages which this very right may fometimes give to a conquered people; advantages

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See the code of Barbarian Laws, and book 28.