Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/462

410 is not there a subject of ridicule. To corrupt or be corrupted, is not called a point of fashion; or a manner of spending life: there are few examples in this populous nation of the violation of conjugal faith."

This was the reason of the expulsion of Childeric: he shocked their rigid virtue, which conquest had not had time to corrupt.

ARBARIANS who do not cultivate the earth, have, strictly speaking, no jurisdiction, and are, as we have already said, rather governed by the law of nations, than by civil laws. They are therefore always armed. Thus Tacitus tells us, "that the Germans undertook no affairs either of a public or private nature, unarmed." They gave their opinion by a sign with their arms. As soon as they could carry them, they were presented to the assembly; they put a javelin into their hands: from that moment they were out of their infancy; they had been a part of the family, now they became a part of the republic. Rh