Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/446

394, cannot be united; and the barbarians are commonly small nations capable of being united. The first are generally nations of hunters; the second of herdsmen and shepherds. This appears plain in the north of Asia. The people of Siberia cannot live in bodies, because they cannot find subsistence; the Tartars may live in bodies for some time, because their herds and flocks may for a time be re-assembled. All the clans may then be re-united, and this is done when one chief has subdued many others; after which they may do two things, either separate, or set out with a design to make a great conquest in some empire in the south.

S these people do not live in limited and circumscribed boundaries, many causes of strife arise between them; they dispute the uncultivated land, as we dispute about inheritances. Thus they find frequent occasions for war, in defence of their hunting, their fishing, the pasture for their cattle, and the taking of their slaves; and having no territory, they have many things to regulate by the law of nations, and but few to decide by the civil law.

HE division of lands is what principally increases the civil code. Amongst nations Rh