Page:Montesquieu - The spirit of laws.djvu/61

Rh particular cases in which this applied.

They should be adapted in such a manner to the people for whom they are made, as to render it very unlikely for those of one nation to be proper for another.

They should be relative to the nature and principle of the actual, or intended government, whether they form it, as in the case of political laws, or whether they support it, as may be said of civil institutions.

They should be relative to the climate of each country, to the quality of the soil, to its situation and extent, to the manner of living of the natives, whether husbandmen, huntsmen, or shepherds: they should have a relation to the degree of liberty which the constitution will bear; to the religion of the inhabitants, to their inclinations, riches, number, commerce, manners, and customs. In sine, they have relations amongst themselves, as also to their origin, to the intent of the legislator, and to the order of things on which they are established, in all which different lights they ought to be considered.

This is what I have undertaken to perform in the following work. These relations I shall examine, since all these together form what I call the Spirit of laws.

I have not separated the political from the civil laws, for as I do not pretend to treat of laws, but of their spirit, and as this spirit consists in the various relations which the laws may have to different things, it is not so much my business to follow the natural order of laws, as that of these relations and things. Rh