they give the name of Peace to this general effort of alt againft all. Thus Europe is ruined to that degree, that were private people to be in the fame fituation as the three moft opulent powers of this part of the world, they would not have neceffary fubfiftence. We are poor with the riches and commerce of the whole univerfe; and foon, by thus augmenting our troops, we fhall have nothing but foldiers, and be reduced to the very fame fituation as the Tartars.+

Great princes, not fatisfied with hiring or buying troops of petty ftates, make it their bufinefs on all fides to pay fubfidies for alliances, that is, almoft generally, to throw away their money.

The confequence of fuch a fituation is the perpetual augmentation of taxes; and the mifchief which prevents all future remedy, is, that they reckon no more upon their revenues, but go to war with their whole capital. It is no unusual thing to fee governments mortgage their funds even in time of peace, and to employ what they call extraordinary means to ruin themselves; means fo extraor dinary indeed, that fuch are hardly thought on by the moft extravagant young fpendthrift.

CHA P. XVIII.

Of an Exemption from Taxes.

THE maxim of the great eastern empires, of exempting fuch provinces as have very much suffered from taxes, ought to be extended to monarchical ftates. There are fome indeed where this maxim is eftablifhed; yet the country is more oppreffed than if no fuch rule took place; because as the prince levies ftill neither more nor less, the ftate becomes bound for the whole. In order to eafe a village that pays badly, they load another that pays better; the former is not relieved, and the latter is ruined. The people

All that is wanting for this, is to improve the new invention of the mili tia eftablished almoft over all Europe, and carry it to the fame excess as they do the regular troops.

True it is that this ftate of effort is the chief support of the balance, be caufe it checks the great powers./

people grow defperate between the neceffity of paying, for fear of exactions; and the danger of paying, for fear of new charges.

A well regulated government ought to fet afide for the first article of its expense a determinate fum for contingent cafes. It is with the public as with individuals, who are ruined when they live up exactly to their income.

With regard to an obligation for the whole amongst the inhabitants of the fame village, fome pretend,* that it is but reasonable, because there is a poffibility of a fraudulent combination on their fide: But whoever heard that upon mere fuppofitions we are to establish a thing in itself un juft and ruinous to the state?

CHA P. XIX.

Which is moft fuitable to the Prince and to the People, the_letting out to Farm, or the Adminiftration of the Revenues?

THE administration of the revenues is like the conduct of a good father of a family, who collects his own tents himself with economy and order.

By the adminiftration of the revenues the prince is at liberty to prefs or to retard the levy of the taxes, according to his own wants, or to thofe of his people. By this he faves to the ftate the immenfe profits of the farmers, who impoverish it a thousand ways. By this he spares people the mortifying fight of fudden fortunes. By this the money collected paffes through few hands, and goes directly to the treasury, and confequently makes a quicker return to the people. By this the prince avoids an infinite number of bad laws extorted from him continually by the importunate avarice of the farmers, who pretend to offer a prefent advantage for regulations pernicious to pofterity. As the moneyed man is always the most powerful, the farmer renders himself arbitrary even over the prince him. felf; he is not the legislator, but he obliges the legiflator to give laws.

In republics, the revenues of the ftate are generally under administration. The contrary practice was a great deVOL. I.

Q

*See a treatife on the Roman finances, chap. 8.

fect in the Roman government:* In defpotic governments, the people are infinitely happier where this administration is eftablished; witness Perfia and China. The unhappieft of all are those where the prince farms out his feaports and trading cities. The hiftories of monarchies a bounds with mifchiefs done by the farmers of the rev

enues.

Nero, incenfed at the oppreffive extortions of the publicans, formed a magnanimous, but impoffible project of abolishing all kinds of impofts. He did not think of an adminiftration of the revenues, but made four edicts; that the laws enacted against publicans, which had hitherto been kept fecret, fhould be made public; that they fhould not pretend to any thing which they had omitted to demand in the term of a year; that there fhould be a prætor eftablifhed to judge their pretenfions without any formality; and that the merchants fhould pay no duty for their veffels. Thefe were the bright days of that emperor.

CHAP. XX.

Of the Farmers of the Revenues.

ALL is loft when the lucrative profeffion of taxgatherers becomes likewise, by means of the riches with which it is attended, a poft of honor. This may do well enough in defpotic ftates, where their employment is oftentimes a part of the functions of the governors themfelves. But it is by no means proper in a republic; fince a custom of the like nature deftroyed the people of Rome. Nor is it better in monarchies; nothing being more oppofite to the spirit of this government. All the other orders of the ftate are diffatisfied; honor lofes its whole value; the flow and natural means of diftinction are no longer regarded; and the very principle of the government is fubverted.

It

*Cæfar was obliged to remove the publicans from the province of Asia, and to establish there another kind of administration, as we learn from Dio and Tacitus informs us, that Macedonia and Achaia, provinces left by Auguftus to the people of Rome, and confequently governed purfuant to the ancient plan, obtained to be of the number of those which the emperor governed by his officers.

+ See Sir John Chardin's travels through Perfia, tom. 6.

It is true indeed that scandalous fortunes were raised in former times; but this was one of the calamities of the fifty years war. These riches were then confidered as ridiculous; now we admire them.

Every profeffion has its particular lot. The lot of those who levy the taxes is wealth, and the recompence of wealth is wealth itself. Glory and honor fall to the fhare of that nobility, who neither know, fee, nor feel any other happiness than honor and glory. Refpect and efteem are for those minifters and magiftrates, whose whole life is a continued fucceffion of labor, and who watch day and night over the happiness of the empire.

OF LAWS AS RELATIVE TO THE NATURE OF THE CLIMATE.

CHA P. I.

General Idea.

İF it be true that the character of the mind and

the paffions of the heart are extremely different in different climates, the laws ought to be relative both to the difference of those paffions, and to the difference of those characters.

СНАР. II.

Of the difference of Men in different Climates.

A COLD air* conftringes the extremities of the

external fibres of the body; this increases their elasticity,

1 2

and

*This appears even in the countenance: In cold weather people look thinner,

and favors the return of the blood from the extremities to the heart. It contracts thofe very fibres; confequently it increases alfo their force. On the contrary a warm air relaxes and lengthens the extremes of the fibres; of course it diminishes their force and elafticity.

People are therefore more vigorous in cold climates. Here the action of the heart and the reaction of the exa tremities of the fibres are better performed, the temperature of the humors is greater, the blood moves freer towards the heart, and reciprocally the heart has more power. This fuperiority of ftrength muft produce a great many et. fects; for inftance, a greater felfconfidence, that is, more courage; a greater fenfe of fuperiority, that is, lefs defire. of revenge; a greater opinion of fecurity, that is, more franknefs, lefs fufpicion, policy and cunning. In short, this must be productive of very different characters. Put a man in a clofe warm place, and he will, for the reasons above given, feel a great faintnefs. If under this circumftance you propofe a bold enterprife to him, I believe you will find him very little difpofed towards it: His prefent weakness will throw him into a defpondency of foul; he will be afraid of every thing, becaufe he will feel himself capable of nothing. The inhabitants of warm countries are, like old men, timorous; the people in cold countries are, like young men, brave. If we reflect on the latef wars, which are more prefent to our memory, and in which we can better diftinguish fome flight effects that escape us at a great distance of time; we fhall find that the northern people tranfplanted into fouthern countries, did not perform fuch great feats as their countrymen, who fighting in their own climate, poffeffed their full vigor and courage.

This ftrength of the fibres in northern nations is the cause that the coarseft juices are extracted from their aliments. From hence two things refult: One, that the parts of the chyle of lymph are more proper, by reason of their large furface, to be applied to, and to nourifh the fibres : The other, that they are lefs proper, because of their coarseness, to give a certain fubtility to the nervous juice.

We know it fhortens iron.

+ Thofe for the fucceffion to the Spanish monarchy. For infance to Spain.

Thofe