5.17. 17. Of Presents.
It is a received custom in despotic countries never to
address any superior whomsoever, not excepting their kings, without
making them a present. The Mogul
[51]
never receives the petitions of his subjects if they come with empty hands.
These princes spoil even their own favours.
But thus it must ever be in a government where no man is a citizen;
where they have all a notion that a superior is under no obligation to
an inferior; where men imagine themselves bound by no other tie than the
chastisements inflicted by one party upon another; where, in fine, there
is very little to do, and where the people have seldom an occasion of
presenting themselves before the great, of offering their petitions, and
much less their complaints.
In a republic, presents are odious, because virtue stands in no need
of them. In monarchies, honour is a much stronger incentive than
presents. But in a despotic government, where there is neither honour
nor virtue, people cannot be determined to act but through hope of the
conveniences of life.
It is in conformity with republican ideas that Plato
[52]
ordered those who received presents for doing their duty to be punished with
death. "They must not take presents," says he, "neither for good nor
for evil actions."
A very bad law was that among the Romans
[53]
which gave the magistrates leave to accept small presents
[54]
provided they did not exceed one hundred crowns in the whole year. They who
receive nothing expect nothing; they who receive a little soon covet more, till at
length their desires swell to an exorbitant height.
Besides, it is much easier to convict a man who knows himself
obliged to accept no present at all, and yet will accept something, than
a person who takes more when he ought to take less, and who always finds
pretexts, excuses, and plausible reasons in justification of his
conduct.
Footnotes
[51]
"Collection of Voyages that Contributed to the Establishment of
the East India Company," i, p. 80.
[53]
Leg. 6, 2; Dig. ad leg. Jul. repet.
