Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/234

182 Such has been the origin of those regulations which nave been so greatly extolled. They wanted to make the laws reign in conjunction with despotic power; but whatever is joined with the latter loses all its force. In vain did this arbitrary sway, labouring under its own misfortunes, desire to be fettered; it armed itself with its chains, and is become still more terrible.

China is therefore a despotic state, whose principle is fear. Perhaps in the earliest dynasties, when the empire had not so large an extent, the government might have deviated a little from this spirit: but the case at present is otherwise. Rh