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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.
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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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1. Idea of this Book.
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2. Of Laws divine and human.
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3. Of civil Laws contrary to the Law of Nature.
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4. The same Subject continued.
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5. Cases in which we may judge by the Principles of the civil Law in limiting the Principles of the Law of Nature.
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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.
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7. That we ought not to decide by the Precepts of Religion what belongs only to the Law of Nature.
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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.
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9. That Things which ought to be regulated by the Principles of civil Law can seldom be regulated by those of Religion.
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10. In what Case we ought to follow the civil Law which permits, and not the Law of Religion which forbids.
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11. That human Courts of Justice should not be regulated by the Maxims of those Tribunals which relate to the Other Life.
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12. The same Subject continued.
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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.
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14. In what instances Marriages between Relatives shall be regulated by the Laws of Nature: and in what instances by the civil Laws.
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15. That we should not regulate by the Principles of political Law those Things which depend on the Principles of civil Law.
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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.
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17. The same Subject continued.
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18. That it is necessary to inquire whether the Laws which seem contradictory are of the same Class.
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19. That we should not decide those Things by the civil Law which ought to be decided by domestic Laws.
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20. That we ought not to decide by the Principles of the civil Laws those Things which belong to the Law of Nations.
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21. That we should not decide by political Laws Things which belong to the Law of Nations.
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22. The unhappy State of the Inca Athualpa.
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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.
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24. That the Regulations of the Police are of a different Class from other civil Laws.
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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.
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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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previous section22. Of Things that strike at Liberty in Monarchies. The Spirit of the Laws
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12.22. 22. Of Things that strike at Liberty in Monarchies.

Liberty often has been weakened in monarchies by a thing of the least use in the world to the prince: this is the naming of commissioners to try a private person.

The prince himself derives so very little advantage from those commissioners that it is not worth while to change for their sake the common course of things. He is morally sure that he has more of the spirit of probity and justice than his commissioners, who think themselves sufficiently justified by his nomination and orders, by a vague interest of state, and even by their very apprehensions.

Upon the arraigning of a peer under Henry VIII it was customary to try him by a committee of the House of Lords: by which means he put to death as many peers as he pleased.

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