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CHAP. XI.: Of the Manners of a conquered People. - Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Complete Works, vol. 1 The Spirit of Laws [1748]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 1.

Part of: Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols.

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CHAP. XI.

Of the Manners of a conquered People.

IT is not sufficient, in those conquests, to let the conquered nation enjoy their own laws; it is perhaps more necessary to leave them also their manners, because people in general have a stronger attachment to these than to their laws.

The French have been driven nine times out of Italy, because, as historians say, of their insolent familiarities with the fair sex. It is too much for a nation to be obliged to bear, not only with the pride of conquerors, but with their incontinence and indiscretion: these are, without doubt, most grievous and intolerable, as they are the source of infinite outrages.

[]See Puffendorf’s Universal History.