Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/439

Rh Plutarch says, that the Cilonian sedition having been appeased at Athens, the city fell into its ancient dissensions, and was divided into as many parties as there were kinds of territory in Attica. The men who inhabited the eminences, would by all means have a popular government; those of the plain, demanded a government composed of the chiefs; and they who were near the sea, were for a government made up of both.

HESE fertile countries are always plains, where the inhabitants are unable to dispute against a stronger body: they are then obliged to submit, and when they have once submitted, the spirit of liberty cannot return; the wealth of the country is a pledge of their fidelity. But in mountainous countries, as they have but little, they may preserve what they have. The liberty they enjoy, or, in other words, the government they are under, is the only blessing worthy of their defence. It reigns therefore more in mountainous and difficult countries, than in those which nature seems to have most favoured.

The mountaineers preserve a more moderate government; because they are not so liable to be conquered. They defend themselves easily, and are attacked with difficulty; ammunition and provisions are collected and carried against them with great expence, for the country furnishes none. It is then more difficult to make war against them, a more hazardous enterprize; and all the laws that Rh