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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

12. The Same Subject Continued

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

14. In What Instances Marriages between Relatives Should Be Regulated by the Laws of Nature; and in What Instances by the Civil Laws

15. That We Should Not Regulate by the Principles of Political Law Those Things Which Depend on the Principles of Civil Law

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

17. The Same Subject Continued

18. That It Is Necessary to Inquire Whether the Laws Which Seem Contradictory Are of the Same Class

19. That We Should Not Decide Those Things by the Civil Law Which Ought to Be Decided by Domestic Laws

20. That We Ought Not to Decide by the Principles of the Civil Laws Those Things Which Belong to the Law of Nations

21. That We Should Not Decide by Political Laws Things Which Belong to the Law of Nations

22. The Unhappy State of the Inca Athualpa

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

24. That the Regulations of the Police Are of a Different Class from Other Civil Laws

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

Book XXVII.

1. Of the Origin and Revolutions of the Roman Laws on Successions

Book XXVIII. Of the Origin and Revolutions of the Civil Laws among the French

1. Different Character of the Laws of the Several People of Germany

2. That the Laws of the Barbarians Were All Personal

3. Capital Difference between the Salic Laws, and Those of the Visigoths and Burgundians

4. In What Manner the Roman Law Came to Be Lost in the Country Subject to the Franks, and Preserved in That Subject to the Goths and Burgundians

5. The Same Subject Continued

6. How the Roman Law Kept its Ground in the Demesne of the Lombards

7. How the Roman Law Came to Be Lost in Spain

8. A False Capitulary

9. In What Manner the Codes of Barbarian Laws, and the Capitularies Came to Be Lost

10. The Same Subject Continued

11. Other Causes of the Disuse of the Codes of Barbarian Laws, as well as of the Roman Law, and of the Capitularies

12. Of Local Customs. Revolution of the Laws of Barbarous Nations, as well as of the Roman Law

13. Difference between the Salic Law, or That of the Salian Franks, and That of the Ripuarian Franks, and other Barbarous Nations

14. Another Difference

15. A Reflection

16. Of the Ordeal or Trial by Boiling Water, Established by the Salic Law

17. Particular Notions of Our Ancestors

18. In What Manner the Custom of Judicial Combats Gained Ground

19. A New Reason of the Disuse of the Salic and Roman Laws, as Also of the Capitularies

20. Origin of the Point of Honour

21. A new Reflection on the Point of Honour among the Germans

22. Of the Manners in Relation to Judicial Combats

23. Of the Code of Laws on Judicial Combats

24. Rules Established in the Judicial Combat

25. Of the Bounds Prescribed to the Custom of Judicial Combats

26. On the Judiciary Combat between One of the Parties and One of the Witnesses

27. Of the Judicial Combat between One of the Parties and One of the Lords' Peers. Appeal of False Judgment

28. Of the Appeal of Default of Justice

29. Epoch of the Reign of St. Louis

30. Observation on Appeals

31. The Same Subject Continued

32. The Same Subject Continued

33. The Same Subject Continued

34. In What Manner the Proceedings at Law Became Secret

35. Of the Costs

36. Of the Public Prosecutor

37 In What Manner the Institutions of St. Louis Fell into Oblivion

38. The Same Subject Continued

39. The Same Subject Continued

40. In What Manner the Judiciary Forms Were Borrowed from the Decretals

41. Flux and Reflux of the Ecclesiastic and Temporal Jurisdiction

42. The Revival of the Roman Law, and the Result Thereof. Change of Tribunals

43. The Same Subject Continued

44 Of the Proof by Witnesses

45. Of the Customs of France

Book XXIX. Of the Manner of Composing Laws

1. Of the Spirit of a Legislator

2. The Same Subject Continued

3. That the Laws Which Seem to Deviate from the Views of the Legislator Are Frequently Agreeable to Them

4. Of the Laws Contrary to the Views of the Legislator

5. The Same Subject Continued

6. The Laws Which Appear the Same Have Not Always the Same Effect

7. The Same Subject Continued. Necessity of Composing Laws in a Proper Manner

8. That Laws Which Appear the Same Were Not Always Made through the Same Motive

9. That the Greek and Roman Laws Punished Suicide, but Not through the Same Motive

10. That Laws Which Seem Contrary Proceed Sometimes from the Same Spirit

11. How to Compare Two Different Systems of Laws

12. That Laws Which Appear the Same Are Sometimes Really Different

13. That We Must Not Separate Laws from the End for Which They Were Made: of the Roman Laws on Theft

14. That We Must Not Separate the Laws from the Circumstances in Which They Were Made

15. That Sometimes It Is Proper the Law Should Amend Itself

16. Things to Be Observed in the Composing of Laws

17. A bad Method of Giving Laws

18. Of the Ideas of Uniformity

19. Of Legislators

Book XXX. Theory of the Feudal Laws among the Franks in the Relation They Bear to the Establishment of the Monarchy

1. Of Feudal Laws

2. Of the Source of Feudal Laws

3. The Origin of Vassalage

4. The Same Subject Continued

5. Of the Conquests of the Franks

6. Of the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks

7. Different Ways of Dividing the Land

8. The Same Subject Continued

9. A Just Application of the Law of the Burgundians, and of That of the Visigoths, in Relation to the Division of Lands

10. Of Servitudes

11. The Same Subject Continued

12. That the Lands Belonging to the Division of the Barbarians Paid No Taxes

13. Of Taxes Paid by the Romans and Gauls, in the Monarchy of the Franks

14. Of What They Called Census

15. That What They Called Census Was Raised Only on the Bondmen and Not on the Freemen

16. Of the Feudal Lords or Vassals

17. Of the Military Service of Freemen

18. Of the Double Service

19. Of Compositions among the Barbarous Nations

20. Of What Was Afterwards Called the Jurisdiction of the Lords

21. Of the Territorial Jurisdiction of the Churches

22. That the Jurisdictions Were Established before the End of the Second Race

23. General Idea of the Abbé Du Bos' Book on the Establishment of the French Monarchy in Gaul

24. The Same Subject Continued. Reflection on the Main Part of the System

25. Of the French Nobility

Book XXXI. Theory of the Feudal Laws among the Franks, in the Relation They Bear to the Revolutions of their Monarchy

1. Changes in the Offices and in the Fiefs. Of the Mayors of the Palace

2. How the Civil Government Was Reformed

3. Authority of the Mayors of the Palace

4. Of the Genius of the Nation in Regard to the Mayors

5. In What Manner the Mayors Obtained the Command of the Armies

6. Second Epoch of the Humiliation of Our Kings of the First Race

7. Of the Great Offices and Fiefs under the Mayors of the Palace

8. In What Manner the Allodial Estates Were Changed into Fiefs

9. How the Church Lands Were Converted into Fiefs

10. Riches of the Clergy

11. State of Europe at the Time of Charles Martel

12. Establishment of the Tithes

13. Of the Election of Bishops and Abbots

14. Of the Fiefs of Charles Martel

15. The Same Subject Continued

16. Confusion of the Royalty and Mayoralty. The Second Race

17. A Particular Circumstance in the Election of the Kings of the Second Race

18. Charlemagne

19. The Same Subject Continued

20. Louis the Debonnaire

21. The Same Subject Continued

22. The Same Subject Continued

23. The Same Subject Continued

24. That the Freemen Were Rendered Capable of Holding Fiefs

25. The Principal Cause of the Humiliation of the Second Race. Changes in the Allodia

26. Changes in the Fiefs

27. Another change Which Happened in the Fiefs

28. Changes Which Happened in the Great Offices and in the Fiefs

29. Of the Nature of the Fiefs after the Reign of Charles the Bald

30. The Same Subject Continued

31. In What Manner the Empire Was Transferred from the Family of Charlemagne

32. In What Manner the Crown of France Was Transferred to the House of Hugh Capet

33. Some Consequences of the Perpetuity of Fiefs

34. The Same Subject Continued

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PREFACE

IF amidst the infinite number of subjects contained in this book there is anything which, contrary to my expectation, may possibly offend, I can at least assure the public that it was not inserted with an ill intention: for I am not naturally of a captious temper. Plato thanked the gods that he was born in the same age with Socrates: and for my part I give thanks to the Supreme that I was born a subject of that government under which I live; and that it is His pleasure I should obey those whom He has made me love.

I beg one favour of my readers, which I fear will not be granted me; this is, that they will not judge by a few hours' reading of the labour of twenty years; that they will approve or condemn the book entire, and not a few particular phrases. If they would search into the design of the author, they can do it in no other way so completely as by searching into the design of the work.

I have first of all considered mankind; and the result of my thoughts has been, that amidst such an infinite diversity of laws and manners, they were not solely conducted by the caprice of fancy.

I have laid down the first principles, and have found that the particular cases follow naturally from them; that the histories of all nations are only consequences of them; and that every particular law is connected with another law, or depends on some other of a more general extent.

When I have been obliged to look back into antiquity, I have endeavoured to assume the spirit of the ancients, lest I should consider those things as alike which are really different; and lest I should miss the difference of those which appear to be alike.

I have not drawn my principles from my prejudices, but from the nature of things.

Here a great many truths will not appear till we have seen the chain which connects them with others. The more we enter into particulars, the more we shall perceive the certainty of the principles on which they are founded. I have not even given all these particulars, for who could mention them all without a most insupportable fatigue?

The reader will not here meet with any of those bold flights which seem to characterise the works of the present age. When things are examined with never so small a degree of extent, the sallies of imagination must vanish; these generally arise from the mind's collecting all its powers to view only one side of the subject, while it leaves the other unobserved.

I write not to censure anything established in any country whatsoever. Every nation will here find the reasons on which its maxims are founded; and this will be the natural inference, that to propose alterations belongs only to those who are so happy as to be born with a genius capable of penetrating the entire constitution of a state.

It is not a matter of indifference that the minds of the people be enlightened. The prejudices of magistrates have arisen from national prejudice. In a time of ignorance they have committed even the greatest evils without the least scruple; but in an enlightened age they even tremble while conferring the greatest blessings. They perceive the ancient abuses; they see how they must be reformed; but they are sensible also of the abuses of a reformation. They let the evil continue, if they fear a worse; they are content with a lesser good, if they doubt a greater. They examine into the parts, to judge of them in connection; and they examine all the causes, to discover their different effects.

Could I but succeed so as to afford new reasons to every man to love his prince, his country, his laws; new reasons to render him more sensible in every nation and government of the blessings he enjoys, I should think myself the most happy of mortals.

Could I but succeed so as to persuade those who command, to increase their knowledge in what they ought to prescribe; and those who obey, to find a new pleasure resulting from obedience -- I should think myself the most happy of mortals.

The most happy of mortals should I think myself could I contribute to make mankind recover from their prejudices. By prejudices I here mean, not that which renders men ignorant of some particular things, but whatever renders them ignorant of themselves.

It is in endeavouring to instruct mankind that we are best able to practise that general virtue which comprehends the love of all. Man, that flexible being, conforming in society to the thoughts and impressions of others, is equally capable of knowing his own nature, whenever it is laid open to his view; and of losing the very sense of it, when this idea is banished from his mind.

Often have I begun, and as often have I laid aside, this undertaking. I have a thousand times given the leaves I had written to the winds: I, every day, felt my paternal hands fall. I have followed my object without any fixed plan: I have known neither rules nor exceptions; I have found the truth, only to lose it again. But when I once discovered my first principles, everything I sought for appeared; and in the course of twenty years, I have seen my work begun, growing up, advancing to maturity, and finished.

If this work meets with success, I shall owe it chiefly to the grandeur and majesty of the subject. However, I do not think that I have been totally deficient in point of genius. When I have seen what so many great men both in France, England, and Germany have said before me, I have been lost in admiration; but I have not lost my courage: I have said with Correggio, "And I also am a painter."

ADVERTISEMENT

1. For the better understanding of the first four books of this work, it is to be observed that what I distinguish by the name of virtue, in a republic, is the love of one's country, that is, the love of equality. It is not a moral, nor a Christian, but a political virtue; and it is the spring which sets the republican government in motion, as honour is the spring which gives motion to monarchy. Hence it is that I have distinguished the love of one's country, and of equality, by the appellation of political virtue. My ideas are new, and therefore I have been obliged to find new words, or to give new acceptations to old terms, in order to convey my meaning. They, who are unacquainted with this particular, have made me say most strange absurdities, such as would be shocking in any part of the world, because in all countries and governments morality is requisite.