Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/434

382 know but of four great changes; the first caused by the conquest of the Romans; the second by the inundation of barbarians who destroyed these very Romans; the third by the victories of Charlemain; and the last by the invasions of the Normans. And if this be rightly examined, we shall find, even in these changes, a general strength diffused through all the parts of Europe. We know the difficulty which the Romans met with in conquering Europe, and the ease and facility with which they invaded Asia. We are sensible of the difficulties the northern nations had to encounter in overturning the Roman empire; of the wars, and labours of Charlemain; and of the several enterprizes of the Normans. The destroyers were incessantly destroyed.

HE nations in the north of Europe conquered as freemen; the people in the north of Asia conquered as slaves, and subdued others only to gratify the ambition of a master.

The reason is, that the people of Tartary, the natural conquerors of Asia, are themselves enslaved.

They are incessantly making conquests in the south of Asia, where they form empires; but that part of the nation which continues in the country, find that they are subject to a great master, who being despotic in the south, will also be so in the north, and exercising an arbitrary power over the conquered subjects, pretends to the same over those who are Rh