Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/129

Rh of wealth, prudent and insensible regulations should be made; but no confiscations, no agrarian laws, no expunging of debts, these are things that are productive of infinite mischief.

The laws ought to abolils the right of primogeniture among the nobles, to the end that by a continual division of the inheritances their fortunes may be always upon a level.

There should be no substitutions, no powers of demption, no rights of Majorasgo, or adoption. The contrivances for perpetuating the grandeur of families in monarchical governments, ought never to be employed in aristocracies.

After the laws have compassed the equality of families, the next thing they have to do, is to preserve a proper harmony and union amongst them. The quarrels of the nobility ought to be quickly decided; otherwise the contests of individuals become those of families. Arbiters may terminate, or even prevent the rife of disputes.

In fine, the laws must not favour the distinctions raised by vanity among families, under pretence that they are more noble or ancient; pretences of this nature ought to be ranked among the weaknesses of private persons.

We have only to cast our eyes on Sparta; there we may see how the Ephori contrived to check the foibles of the kings, as well as those of the nobility and of the common people. Rh