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.
expand section20. 
Book XX. Of Laws in Relation to Commerce, Considered in its Nature and Distinctions.
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.
collapse section26. 
Book XXVI. Of Laws in Relation to the Order of Things Which They Determine.
 26.1. 
1. Idea of this Book.
 26.2. 
2. Of Laws divine and human.
expand section26.3. 
3. Of civil Laws contrary to the Law of Nature.
expand section26.4. 
4. The same Subject continued.
expand section26.5. 
5. Cases in which we may judge by the Principles of the civil Law in limiting the Principles of the Law of Nature.
expand section26.6. 
6. That the Order of succession or Inheritance depends on the Principles of political or civil Law, and not on those of the Law of Nature.
expand section26.7. 
7. That we ought not to decide by the Precepts of Religion what belongs only to the Law of Nature.
expand section26.8. 
8. That we ought not to regulate by the Principles of the canon Law Things which should be regulated by those of the civil Law.
expand section26.9. 
9. That Things which ought to be regulated by the Principles of civil Law can seldom be regulated by those of Religion.
 26.10. 
10. In what Case we ought to follow the civil Law which permits, and not the Law of Religion which forbids.
 26.11. 
11. That human Courts of Justice should not be regulated by the Maxims of those Tribunals which relate to the Other Life.
 26.12. 
12. The same Subject continued.
expand section26.13. 
13. In what Cases, with regard to Marriage, we ought to follow the Laws of Religion; and in what Cases we should follow the civil Laws.
expand section26.14. 
14. In what instances Marriages between Relatives shall be regulated by the Laws of Nature: and in what instances by the civil Laws.
expand section26.15. 
15. That we should not regulate by the Principles of political Law those Things which depend on the Principles of civil Law.
expand section26.16. 
16. That we ought not to decide by the Rules of the civil Law when it is proper to decide by those of the political Law.
expand section26.17. 
17. The same Subject continued.
expand section26.18. 
18. That it is necessary to inquire whether the Laws which seem contradictory are of the same Class.
expand section26.19. 
19. That we should not decide those Things by the civil Law which ought to be decided by domestic Laws.
 26.20. 
20. That we ought not to decide by the Principles of the civil Laws those Things which belong to the Law of Nations.
 26.21. 
21. That we should not decide by political Laws Things which belong to the Law of Nations.
expand section26.22. 
22. The unhappy State of the Inca Athualpa.
collapse section26.23. 
23. That when, by some Circumstance, the political Law becomes destructive to the State, we ought to decide by such a political Law as will preserve it, which sometimes becomes a Law of Nations.
  
[section]
  
Footnotes
expand section26.24. 
24. That the Regulations of the Police are of a different Class from other civil Laws.
expand section26.25. 
25. That we should not follow the general Disposition of the civil Law, in things which ought to be subject to particular Rules drawn from their own Nature.
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 section2. That a confederate Government ought to be composed of States of the same Nature, especially of the republican Kind. The Spirit of the Laws
next section

9.2. 2. That a confederate Government ought to be composed of States
of the same Nature, especially of the republican Kind.

The Canaanites were destroyed by reason that they were petty monarchies, that had no union or confederacy for their common defence; and, indeed, a confederacy is not agreeable to the nature of petty monarchies.

As the confederate republic of Germany consists of free cities, and of petty states subject to different princes, experience shows us that it is much more imperfect than that of Holland and Switzerland.

The spirit of monarchy is war and enlargement of dominion: peace and moderation are the spirit of a republic. These two kinds of government cannot naturally subsist in a confederate republic.

Thus we observe, in the Roman history, that when the Veientes had chosen a king, they were immediately abandoned by all the other petty republics of Tuscany. Greece was undone as soon as the kings of Macedon obtained a seat among the Amphyktyons.

The confederate republic of Germany, composed of princes and free towns, subsists by means of a chief, who is, in some respects, the magistrate of the union, in others, the monarch.

previous section2. That a confederate Government ought to be composed of States of the same Nature, especially of the republican Kind. The Spirit of the Laws
next section