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The Spirit of the Laws

  
[title page]
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The Translator to the Reader
  
CONTENTS
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PREFACE
  
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Book I. Of Laws in General.
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Book II. Of Laws Directly Derived from the Nature of Government.
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Book III. Of the Principles of the Three Kinds of Government.
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Book IV. That the Laws of Education Ought to Be in Relation to the Principles of Government.
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Book V. That the Laws Given by the Legislator Ought to Be in Relation to the Principle of Government.
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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.
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1. Of the Simplicity of Civil Laws in different Governments.
 6.2. 
3. In what Governments and in what Cases the Judges ought to determine according to the express Letter of the Law.
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3. Of the Manner of passing Judgment.
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5. In what Governments the Sovereign may be Judge.
  
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Footnotes
 6.5. 
5. That in Monarchies Ministers ought not to sit as Judges.
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6. Of a single Magistrate.
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7. Of Accusation in different Governments.
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8. Of the Severity of Punishments in different Governments.
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9. Of the ancient French Laws.
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10. That when People are virtuous few Punishments are necessary.
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11. Of the Power of Punishments.
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12. Insufficiency of the Laws of Japan.
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13. Of the Spirit of the Roman Senate.
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14. Of the Roman Laws in respect to Punishments.
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15. Of the just Proportion between Punishments and Crimes.
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16. Of the Rack.
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17. Of pecuniary and corporal Punishments.
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18. Of the Law of Retaliation.
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19. Of the Punishment of Fathers for the Crimes of their Children.
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20. Of the Clemency of the Prince.
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Book VII. Consequences of the Different Principles of the Three Governments with Respect to Sumptuary Laws, Luxury, and the Condition of Women.
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Book VIII. Of the Corruption of the Principles of the Three Governments.
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Book IX., Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to a Defensive Force.
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Book X. Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to Offensive Force.
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Book XI. Of the Laws Which Establish Political Liberty, with Regard to the Consti- tution.
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Book XII. Of the Laws That Form Political Liberty, in Relation to the Subject.
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Book XIII. Of the Relation Which the Levying of Taxes and the Greatness of the Public Revenues Bear to Liberty.
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Book XIV. Of Laws in Relation to the Nature of the Climate.
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Book XV. In What Manner the Laws of Civil Slavery Relate to the Nature of the Climate.
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Book XVI. How the Laws of Domestic Slavery Bear a Relation to the Nature of the Climate.
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Book XVII., How the Laws of Political Servitude Bear a Relation to the Nature of the Climate.
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Book XVIII. Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to the Nature of the Soil.
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Book XIX. Of Laws in Relation to the Principles Which Form the General Spirit, Morals, and Customs of a Nation.
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Book XX. Of Laws in Relation to Commerce, Considered in its Nature and Distinctions.
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Book XXI. Of Laws in relation to Commerce, considered in the Revolutions it has met with in the World.
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Book XXII. Of Laws in Relation to the Use of Money.
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Book XXIII. Of Laws in the Relation They Bear to the Number of Inhabitants.
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Book XXIV. Of Laws in relation to Religion Considered in Itself, and in its Doctrines.
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Book XXV. Of Laws in Relation to the Establishment of Religion and its External Polity.
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Book XXVI. Of Laws in Relation to the Order of Things Which They Determine.
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Book XXVII. Of the Origin and Revolutions of the Roman Laws on Successions.
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Book XXVIII. Of the Origin and Revolutions of the Civil Laws among the French.
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Book XXIX. Of the Manner of Composing Laws.
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Book XXX. Theory of the Feudal Laws among the Franks in the Relation They Bear to the Establishment of the Monarchy.
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Book XXXI. Theory of the Feudal Laws among the Franks, in the Relation They Bear to the Revolutions of their Monarchy.

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Footnotes

[6]

"Discourse on the First Decade of Livy," Book i., 7.

[7]

This is well explained in Cicero's oration "Pro Cæcina," towards the end, 100.

[8]

This was the law at Athens, as appears by Demosthenes. Socrates refused to make use of it.

[9]

Demosthenes, "De Corona," p. 494, Frankfort, 1604.

[10]

See Philostratus, "Lives of the Sophists," Book i., "Life of Æschines."

[11]

Plato does not think it right that kings, who, as he says, are priests, should preside at trials where people are condemned to death, to exile, or to imprisonment.

[12]

See the account of the trial of the Duke de la Valette. It is printed in the "Memoirs of Montresor," tome ii, p. 62.

[13]

It was afterwards revoked. See the same account, ii. p. 236. It was ordinarily a right of the peerage that a peer criminally accused should be judged by the king, as Francis II in the trial of the Prince of Cond, and Charles VII in the case of the Duc d'Alenon. To-day, the presence of the king at the trial of a peer, in order to condemn him would seem an act of tyranny. — Voltaire.

[14]

Annals, xi. 5.

[15]

Ibid., xiii. 4.

[16]

"Histories," v.

[17]

The same disorder happened under Theodosius the younger.

[18]

"Secret History."

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