Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/455

Rh only property they had. The Franks after their conquests, acquired new possessions, and continued to call them Salic lands.

When the Franks lived in Germany, their wealth consisted of slaves, flocks, horses, arms, &c. the house and the small portion of land adjoining to it, were naturally given to the male children who were to dwell there. But afterwards when the Franks had by conquest acquired large divisions of land, they thought it hard, that the daughters and their children should be incapable of enjoying any part of them. They introduced a custom of permitting the father to recall his daughter, and her children. They silenced the law; and it appears that these recalls were frequent, since they were entered in the formularies.

Amongst all these formularies I find one of a singular nature. A grandfather recalled his grandchildren to succeed with his sons and daughters. What then became of the Salic law? In those times either it could not be observed, or the continual use of recalling the daughters had made them regard their ability to inherit, as a case authorized by custom.

The Salic law had not in view a preference of one sex to the other, much less had it a regard to the perpetuity of a family, a name, or the transmission of land. These things did not enter into the heads of the Germans; it was purely a law of œconomy which gave the house, and the land dependent on the house, to the males who should dwell in it, and to whom it consequently was of most service. Rh