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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow CHAP. XIX.: That we should not decide those Things by the civil Law, which ought to be decided by domestic Laws. - Complete Works, vol. 2 The Spirit of Laws

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CHAP. XIX.: That we should not decide those Things by the civil Law, which ought to be decided by domestic Laws. - Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Complete Works, vol. 2 The Spirit of Laws [1748]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 2.

Part of: Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols.

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CHAP. XIX.

That we should not decide those Things by the civil Law, which ought to be decided by domestic Laws.

THE law of the Visigoths enjoins, that the slaves of the house shall be obliged to bind the man and woman they surprize in adultery, and to present them to the husband and to the judge: a terrible law, which puts into the hands of such mean persons the care of public, domestic, and private vengeance!

This law can be no where proper but in the seraglios of the East, where the slave who has the charge of the inclosure, is deemed an accomplice upon the discovery of the least infidelity. He seizes the criminals, not so much with a view to bring them to justice, as to do justice to himself, and to obtain a scrutiny into the circumstances of the action, in order to remove the suspicion of his negligence.

But, in countries where women are not guarded, it is ridiculous to subject those who govern the family, to the inquisition of their slaves.

This inquisition may, in certain cases, be at the most a particular domestic regulation, but never a civil law.

[]Law of the Visigoths, lib. iii. tit. 4. sect. 6.