The Arabs and Tartars are nations of herdsmen and shepherds. The Arabs
find themselves in that situation of which we have been speaking, and
are therefore free; whilst the Tartars (the most singular people on
earth) are involved in a political slavery.
[8]
I have already given
reasons for this
[9]
and shall now assign some others.
They have no towns, no forests, and but few marshes; their rivers
are generally frozen, and they dwell in a level country of an immense
extent. They have pasture for their herds and flocks, and consequently
property; but they have no kind of retreat, or place of safety. A khan
is no sooner overcome than they cut off his head; his children are
treated in the same manner,
[10]
and all his subjects belong to the
conqueror. These are not condemned to a civil slavery, for in that case
they would be a burden to a simple people, who have no lands to
cultivate, and no need of any domestic service. They therefore add to
the bulk of the nation; but instead of civil servitude, a political
slavery must naturally be introduced among them.
It is apparent that in a country where the several clans make
continual war, and are perpetually conquering each other; in a country
where, by the death of the chief, the body politic of the vanquished
clan is always destroyed, the nation in general can enjoy but little
freedom; for there is not a single party that must not have been often
subdued.
A conquered people may preserve some degree of liberty when, by the
strength of their situation, they are in a state that will admit of
capitulating after their defeat. But the Tartars, always defenceless,
being once overcome, can never be able to obtain conditions.
I have said, in chapter 2, that the inhabitants of cultivated plains
are seldom free. Circumstances have occurred to put the Tartars, who
dwell in uncultivated plains, in the same situation.
