Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/186

134 could not be satisfied in any other manner, secondly, after condemnations they might pay damages and interest , and then the corporal was changed into a pecuniary punishment.

N China fathers are punished for the crimes of their children. This was likewise the custom Peru ; a custom derived from the notion of despotic power.

Little does it signify to say that in China the father is punished for not having exerted that paternal authority which nature has established and the laws themselves have improved. This still supposes that there is no honor among the Chinese. Amongst us, parents whose children are condemned to punishment, and children whose parents have undergone the like fate, are as severely punished by shame, as they would be in China by the loss of their lives.

LEMENCY is the peculiar characteristic of monarchs. In republics whose principle is virtue, it is not so necessary. In despotic Rh