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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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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.
 11.1. 
1. A general Idea.
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2. Different Significations of the word Liberty.
 11.3. 
3. In what Liberty consists.
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4. The same Subject continued.
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5. Of the End or View of different Governments.
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6. Of the Constitution of England.
 11.7. 
7. Of the Monarchies we are acquainted with.
 11.8. 
8. Why the Ancients had not a clear Idea of Monarchy.
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9. Aristotle's Manner of Thinking.
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10. What other Politicians thought.
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11. Of the Kings of the heroic Times of Greece.
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12. Of the Government of the Kings of Rome, and in what Manner the three Powers were there distributed.
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13. General Reflections on the State of Rome after the Expulsion of its Kings.
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14. In what Manner the Distribution of the three Powers began to change after the Expulsion of the Kings.
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15. In what Manner Rome, in the flourishing State of that Republic, suddenly lost its Liberty.
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16. Of the legislative Power in the Roman Republic.
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17. Of the executive Power in the same Republic.
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19. Of the Government of the Roman Provinces.
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20. The End of this Book.
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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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11.7. 7. Of the Monarchies we are acquainted with.

The monarchies we are acquainted with have not, like that we have been speaking of, liberty for their direct view: the only aim is the glory of the subject, of the state, and of the sovereign. But hence there results a spirit of liberty, which in those states is capable of achieving as great things, and of contributing as much perhaps to happiness as liberty itself.

Here the three powers are not distributed and founded on the model of the constitution above-mentioned; they have each a particular distribution, according to which they border more or less on political liberty; and if they did not border upon it, monarchy would degenerate into despotic government.

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