University of Virginia Library

Search this document 
The Spirit of the Laws

  
[title page]
expand section 
The Translator to the Reader
  
CONTENTS
expand section 
PREFACE
  
ADVERTISEMENT

expand section1. 
Book I. Of Laws in General.
expand section2. 
Book II. Of Laws Directly Derived from the Nature of Government.
expand section3. 
Book III. Of the Principles of the Three Kinds of Government.
expand section4. 
Book IV. That the Laws of Education Ought to Be in Relation to the Principles of Government.
expand section5. 
Book V. That the Laws Given by the Legislator Ought to Be in Relation to the Principle of Government.
expand section6. 
Book VI. Consequences of the Principles of Different Governments with Respect to the Simplicity of Civil and Criminal Laws, the Form of Judgments, and the Inflicting of Punishments.
expand section7. 
Book VII. Consequences of the Different Principles of the Three Governments with Respect to Sumptuary Laws, Luxury, and the Condition of Women.
expand section8. 
Book VIII. Of the Corruption of the Principles of the Three Governments.
expand section9. 
Book IX., Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to a Defensive Force.
expand section10. 
Book X. Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to Offensive Force.
expand section11. 
Book XI. Of the Laws Which Establish Political Liberty, with Regard to the Consti- tution.
expand section12. 
Book XII. Of the Laws That Form Political Liberty, in Relation to the Subject.
expand section13. 
Book XIII. Of the Relation Which the Levying of Taxes and the Greatness of the Public Revenues Bear to Liberty.
expand section14. 
Book XIV. Of Laws in Relation to the Nature of the Climate.
expand section15. 
Book XV. In What Manner the Laws of Civil Slavery Relate to the Nature of the Climate.
expand section16. 
Book XVI. How the Laws of Domestic Slavery Bear a Relation to the Nature of the Climate.
expand section17. 
Book XVII., How the Laws of Political Servitude Bear a Relation to the Nature of the Climate.
expand section18. 
Book XVIII. Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to the Nature of the Soil.
expand section19. 
Book XIX. Of Laws in Relation to the Principles Which Form the General Spirit, Morals, and Customs of a Nation.
collapse section20. 
Book XX. Of Laws in Relation to Commerce, Considered in its Nature and Distinctions.
expand section20.1. 
1. Of Commerce.
expand section20.2. 
1. Of the Spirit of Commerce.
 20.3. 
3. Of the Poverty of the People.
collapse section20.4. 
4. Of Commerce in different Governments.
  
[section]
  
Footnotes
expand section20.5. 
5. Of Nations that have entered into an economical Commerce.
 20.6. 
6. Some Effects of an extensive Navigation.
 20.7. 
7. The Spirit of England with respect to Commerce.
 20.8. 
8. In what Manner economical Commerce has been sometimes restrained.
expand section20.9. 
9. Of the Prohibition of Commerce.
 20.10. 
10. An Institution adapted to economical Commerce.
 20.11. 
11. The same Subject continued.
expand section20.12. 
12. Of the Freedom of Commerce.
 20.13. 
13. What it is that destroys this Liberty.
expand section20.14. 
14. The Laws of Commerce concerning the Confiscation of Merchandise.
expand section20.15. 
15. Of seizing the Persons of Merchants.
 20.16. 
16. An excellent Law.
expand section20.17. 
17. A Law of Rhodes.
expand section20.18. 
18. Of the Judges of Commerce.
expand section20.19. 
19. That a Prince ought not to engage himself in Commerce.
 20.20. 
20. The same Subject continued.
expand section20.21. 
21. Of the Commerce of the Nobility in a Monarchy.
expand section20.22. 
22. A singular Reflection.
 20.23. 
23. To what Nations Commerce is prejudicial.
expand section21. 
Book XXI. Of Laws in relation to Commerce, considered in the Revolutions it has met with in the World.
expand section22. 
Book XXII. Of Laws in Relation to the Use of Money.
expand section23. 
Book XXIII. Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to the Number of Inhabitants.
expand section24. 
Book XXIV. Of Laws in relation to Religion Considered in Itself, and in its Doctrines.
expand section25. 
Book XXV. Of Laws in Relation to the Establishment of Religion and its External Polity.
expand section26. 
Book XXVI. Of Laws in Relation to the Order of Things Which They Determine.
expand section27. 
Book XXVII. Of the Origin and Revolutions of the Roman Laws on Successions.
expand section28. 
Book XXVIII. Of the Origin and Revolutions of the Civil Laws among the French.
expand section29. 
Book XXIX. Of the Manner of Composing Laws.
expand section30. 
Book XXX. Theory of the Feudal Laws among the Franks in the Relation They Bear to the Establishment of the Monarchy.
expand section31. 
Book XXXI. Theory of the Feudal Laws among the Franks, in the Relation They Bear to the Revolutions of their Monarchy.

collapse section Collapse All | Expand All expand section
previous section1. Of Feudal Laws. The Spirit of the Laws
next section

30.1. 1. Of Feudal Laws.

I should think my work imperfect were I to pass over in silence an event which never again, perhaps, will happen; were I not to speak of those laws which suddenly appeared over all Europe without being connected with any of the former institutions; of those laws which have done infinite good and infinite mischief; which have suffered rights to remain when the demesne has been ceded; which by vesting several with different kinds of seignory over the same things or persons have diminished the weight of the whole seignory; which have established different limits in empires of too great extent; which have been productive of rule with a bias to anarchy, and of anarchy with a tendency to order and harmony.

This would require a particular work to itself; but considering the nature of the present undertaking, the reader will here meet rather with a general survey than with a complete treatise of those laws.

The feudal laws form a very beautiful prospect. A venerable old oak raises its lofty head to the skies, the eye sees from afar its spreading leaves; upon drawing nearer, it perceives the trunk but does not discern the root; the ground must be dug up to discover it. [1]

Footnotes

[1]

Quantum vertice ad oras Æthereas, tantum radice ad Tartara tendit -- Virgil.

previous section1. Of Feudal Laws. The Spirit of the Laws
next section