Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/406

354, in not adding the loss of safety to that of liberty.

T is easy to perceive that many slaves in a republican government create a necessity of making many free. The evil is, if they have too many slaves, they cannot keep them in due bounds; if they have too many freedmen they cannot live, and must become a burthen to the republic: besides it may be as much in danger from the too great number or freemen, as from the too great number of slaves. It is necessary therefore that the laws should have an eye to these two inconveniencies.

The several laws and decrees of the senate made at Rome, both for and against slaves, sometimes to limit, and at other times to facilitate their infranchisement; plainly shew the embarrassment in which they found themselves in this respect. There were even times in which they durst not make laws. When under Nero they demanded of the senate a permission for the masters to reduce again to slavery the ungrateful freedmen, the emperor declared that they ought to decide the affairs of individuals, and to make no general decree.

Much less can I determine what ought to be the regulations of a good republic in an affair of this kind; this depends on too many circumstances. Let us however make some reflections.

A considerable number of freedmen ought not suddenly to be made by a general law. We know that amongst the Volsinienses the freedmen becoming Rh