Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/399

Rh If a law, which preserves the chastity of slaves, be good in those states where an arbitrary power bears down all before it, how much more will it be so in monarchies, and how much more still in republics?

The law of the Lombards has a regulation which ought to be adopted by all governments. "If a master debauches his slave's wife, the slave and his wife shall be restored to their freedom." An admirable expedient, which without severity lays a powerful restraint on the incontinency of masters.

The Romans seem to me to have erred on this head. They allowed an unlimited scope to the master's lusts, and, in some measure, denied their slaves the privilege of marrying. It is true, they were the lowest part of the nation; yet there should have been some care taken of their morals; especially as in prohibiting their marriage, they corrupted the morals of the citizens.

HE multitude of slaves has different effects in different governments. It is no grievance in a despotic state, where the political slavery of the whole body takes away the sense of civil slavery. Those who are called freemen, in reality are little more so than they who do not come within that class; and as the latter, in quality of eunuchs, freedmen, or slaves, have generally the management of all affairs, the condition of a freeman and that of a slave are very nearly allied. This makes it therefore almost a matter of Rh