Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/498

446 Should this nation on some occasions become the center of the negotiations of Europe, probity and good faith would be carried to a greater height than in other places; because the ministers being frequently obliged to justify their conduct before a popular council, their negotiations could not be secret; and they would be forced to be, in this respect, a little more honest.

Besides, as they would in some sort be answerable for the events which an irregular conduct might produce, the surest, the safest way for them, would be to take the straightest path.

If the nobles were formerly possessed of an immoderate power, and the monarch had found the means of abasing them by raising the people; the point of extreme servitude must have been that between humbling the nobility, and that in which the people began to feel their power.

Thus this nation have been formerly subject to an arbitrary power, on many occasions preserves the stile of it, in such a manner, as to let us frequently see upon the foundation of a free government, the form of an absolute monarchy.

With regard to religion, as in this state every subject has a free will, and must consequently be either conducted by the light of his own mind or by the caprices of fancy; it necessarily follows that every one must either look upon all religion with indifference, by which means they must be led to embrace the established religion; or that they must be zealous for religion in general, by which means the number of sects must be encreased.

It is not impossible but that in this nation there may be men of no religion, who would not Rh