The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• The Spirit of Laws.
• Book XX.: Of Laws In Relation to Commerce, Considered In Its Nature and Distinctions.
• Chap. I.: Of Commerce.
• Chap. II.: Of the Spirit of Commerce.
• Chap. III.: Of the Poverty of the People.
• Chap. IV.: Of Commerce In Different Governments.
• Chap. V.: Of Nations That Have Entered Into an œconomical Commerce.
• Chap. VI.: Some Effects of an Extensive Navigation.
• Chap. VII.: The Spirit of England, With Respect to Commerce.
• Chap. VIII.: In What Manner the œconomical Commerce Has Been Sometimes Restrained.
• Chap. IX.: Of the Prohibition of Commerce.
• Chap. X.: An Institution Adapted to œconomical Commerce.
• Chap. XI.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XII.: Of the Freedom of Commerce.
• Chap. XIII.: What It Is That Destroys This Liberty.
• Chap. XIV.: The Laws of Commerce Concerning the Confiscation of Merchandises.
• Chap. XV.: Of Seizing the Persons of Merchants.
• Chap. XVI.: An Excellent Law.
• Chap. XVII.: A Law of Rhodes.
• Chap. XVIII.: Of the Judges of Commerce.
• Chap. XIX.: That a Prince Ought Not to Engage Himself In Commerce.
• Chap. XX.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XXI.: Of the Commerce of the Nobility In a Monarchy.
• Chap. XXII.: A Singular Reflection.
• Chap. XXIII.: To What Nations Commerce Is Prejudicial.
• Book XXI.: Of Laws Relative to Commerce, Considered In the Revolutions It Has Met With In the World.
• Chap. I.: Some General Considerations.
• Chap. II.: Of the People of Africa.
• Chap. III.: That the Wants of the People In the South Are Different From Those of the North.
• Chap. IV.: The Principal Difference Between the Commerce of the Ancients and the Moderns.
• Chap. V.: Other Differences.
• Chap. VI.: Of the Commerce of the Ancients.
• Chap. VII.: Of the Commerce of the Greeks.
• Chap. VIII.: Of Alexander. His Conquest.
• Chap. IX.: Of the Commerce of the Grecian Kings After the Death of Alexander.
• Chap. X.: Of the Circuit of Africa.
• Chap. XI.: Of Carthage and Marseilles.
• Chap. XII.: The Isle of Delos. Mithridates.
• Chap. XIII.: Of the Genius of the Romans As to Maritime Affairs.
• Chap. XIV.: Of the Genius of the Romans With Respect to Commerce.
• Chap. XV.: Of the Commerce of the Romans With the Barbarians.
• Chap. XVI.: Of the Commerce of the Romans With Arabia, and the Indies.
• Chap. XVII.: Of Commerce After the Destruction of the Western Empire.
• Chap. XVIII.: A Particular Regulation.
• Chap. XIX.: Of Commerce After the Decay of the Roman Power In the East.
• Chap. XX.: How Commerce Broke Through the Barbarism of Europe.
• Chap. XXI.: The Discovery of Two New Worlds, and In What Manner Europe Is Affected By It.
• Chap. XXII.: Of the Riches Which Spain Drew From America.
• Chap. XXIII.: A Problem.
• Book XXII.: Of Laws In Relation to the Use of Money.
• Chap. I.: The Reason of the Use of Money.
• Chap. II.: Of the Nature of Money.
• Chap. III.: Of Ideal Money.
• Chap. IV.: Of the Quantity of Gold and Silver.
• Chap. V.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. VI.: The Reason Why Interest Was Lowered One Half After the Conquest of the Indies.
• Chap. VII.: How the Price of Things Is Fixed In the Variation of the Sign of Riches.
• Chap. VIII.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. IX.: Of the Relative Scarcity of Gold and Silver.
• Chap. X.: Of Exchange.
• Chap. XI.: Of the Proceedings of the Romans With Respect to Money.
• Chap. XII.: The Circumstances In Which the Romans Changed the Value of Their Specie.
• Chap. XIII.: Proceedings With Respect to Money In the Time of the Emperors.
• Chap. XIV.: How the Exchange Is a Constraint On Despotic Power.
• Chap. XV.: The Practice of Some Countries In Italy
• Chap. XVI.: The Assistance a State May Derive From Bankers.
• Chap. XVII.: Of Public Debts.
• Chap. XVIII.: Of the Payment of Public Debts.
• Chap. XIX.: Of Lending Upon Interest.
• Chap. XX.: Of Maritime Usury.
• Chap. XXI.: Of Lending By Contract, and the State of Usury Amongst the Romans.
• Chap. XXII.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Book XXIII.: Of Laws In the Relation They Bear to the Number of Inhabitants.
• Chap. I.: Of Men and Animals, With Respect to Multiplication of Their Species.
• Chap. II.: Of Marriage.
• Chap. III.: Of the Condition of Children.
• Chap. IV.: Of Families.
• Chap. V.: Of the Several Orders of Lawful Wives.
• Chap. VI.: Of Bastards In Different Governments.
• Chap. VII.: Of the Father’s Consent to Marriage.
• Chap. VIII.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. IX.: Of Young Women.
• Chap. X.: What It Is That Determines to Marriage.
• Chap. XI.: Of the Severity of Government.
• Chap. XII.: Of the Number of Males and Females In Different Countries.
• Chap. XIII.: Of Sea-port Towns.
• Chap. XIV.: Of the Productions of the Earth Which Require a Greater Or Less Number of Men.
• Chap. XV.: Of the Number of Inhabitants With Relation to the Arts.
• Chap. XVI.: The Concern of the Legislator In the Propagation of the Species.
• Chap. XVII.: Of Greece, and the Number of Its Inhabitants.
• Chap. XVIII.: Of the State and Number of People Before the Romans.
• Chap. XIX.: Of the Depopulation of the Globe.
• Chap. XX.: That the Romans Were Under a Necessity of Making Laws, to Encourage the Propagation of the Species.
• Chap. XXI.: Of the Laws of the Romans Relating to the Propagation of the Species.
• Chap. XXII.: Of the Exposing of Children.
• Chap. XXIII.: Of the State of the World After the Destruction of the Romans.
• Chap. XXIV.: The Changes Which Happened In Europe, With Regard to the Number of the Inhabitants.
• Chap. XXV.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XXVI.: Consequences.
• Chap. XXVII.: Of the Law Made In France to Encourage the Propagation of the Species.
• Chap. XXVIII.: By What Means We May Remedy a Depopulation.
• Chap. XXIX.: Of Hospitals.
• Book XXIV.: Of Laws As Relative to Religion, Considered In Itself, and In Its Doctrines.
• Chap. I.: Of Religion In General.
• Chap. II.: A Paradox of Mr. Bayle’s.
• Chap. III.: That a Moderate Government Is Most Agreeable to the Christian Religion, and a Despotic Government to the Mahometan.
• Chap. IV.: Consequences From the Character of the Christian Religion, and That of the Mahometan.
• Chap. V.: That the Catholic Religion Is Most Agreeable to a Monarchy, and the Protestant to a Republic.
• Chap. VI.: Another of Mr. Bayle’s Paradoxes.
• Chap. VII.: Of the Laws of Perfection In Religion.
• Chap. VIII.: Of the Connection Between the Moral Laws and Those of Religion.
• Chap. IX.: Of the Essenes.
• Chap. X.: Of the Sect of Stoics.
• Chap. XI.: Of Contemplation.
• Chap. XII.: Of Penances.
• Chap. XIII.: Of Inexpiable Crimes.
• Chap. XIV.: In What Manner Religion Has an Influence On Civil Laws.
• Chap. XV.: How False Religious Are Sometimes Corrected By the Civil Laws.
• Chap. XVI.: How the Laws of Religion Correct the Inconveniencies of a Political Constitution.
• Chap. XVII.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XVIII.: How the Laws of Religion Have the Effect of Civil Laws.
• Chap. XIX.: That It Is Not So Much the Truth Or Falsity of a Doctrine Which Renders It Useful Or Pernicious to Men In Civil Government, As the Use Or Abuse of It.
• Chap. XX.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XXI.: Of the Metempsychosis.
• Chap. XXII.: That It Is Dangerous For Religion to Inspire an Aversion For Things In Themselves Indifferent.
• Chap. XXIII.: Of Festivals.
• Chap. XXIV.: Of the Local Laws of Religion.
• Chap. XXV.: The Inconveniency of Transplanting a Religion From One Country to Another.
• Chap. XXVI.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Book XXV.: Of Laws As Relative to the Establishment of Religion and Its External Polity.
• Chap. I.: Of Religious Sentiments.
• Chap. II.: Of the Motives of Attachment to Different Religions.
• Chap. III.: Of Temples.
• Chap. IV.: Of the Ministers of Religion.
• Chap. V.: Of the Bounds Which the Laws Ought to Prescribe to the Riches of the Clergy.
• Chap. VI.: Of Monasteries.
• Chap. VII.: Of the Luxury of Superstition.
• Chap. VIII.: Of the Pontificate.
• Chap. IX.: Of Toleration In Point of Religion.
• Chap. X.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XI.: Of Changing a Religion.
• Chap. XII.: Of Penal Laws.
• Chap. XIII.: A Most Humble Remonstrance to the Inquisitors of Spain and Portugal.
• Chap. XIV.: Why the Christian Religion Is So Odious In Japan.
• Chap. XV.: Of the Propagation of Religion.
• Book XXVI.: Of Laws, As Relative to the Order of Things On Which They Determine.
• Chap. I.: Idea of This Book.
• Chap II.: Of Laws Divine and Human.
• Chap. III.: Of Civil Laws Contrary to the Law of Nature.
• Chap. IV.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. V.: Cases In Which We May Judge By the Principles of the Civil Law, In Limiting the Principles of the Law of Nature.
• Chap. VI.: That the Order of Succession Or Inheritance Depends On the Principles of Political Or Civil Law, and Not On Those of the Law of Nature.
• Chap. VII.: That We Ought Not to Decide By the Precepts of Religion, What Belongs Only to the Law of Nature.
• Chap. VIII.: That We Ought Not to Regulate By the Principles of the Canon Law, Things Which Should Be Regulated By Those of the Civil Law.
• Chap. IX.: That Things Which Ought to Be Regulated By the Principles of Civil Law, Can Seldom Be Regulated By Those of Religion.
• Chap. X.: In What Case We Ought to Follow the Civil Law Which Permits, and Not the Law of Religion Which Forbids.
• Chap. XI.: That Human Courts of Justice Should Not Be Regulated By the Maxims of Those Tribunals Which Relate to the Other Life.
• Chap. XII.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XIII.: In What Cases, With Regard to Marriage, We Ought to Follow the Laws of Religion; and In What Cases We Should Follow the Civil Laws.
• Chap. XIV.: In What Instances Marriages Between Relations Should Be Regulated By the Laws of Nature; and In What Instances By the Civil Laws.
• Chap. XV.: That We Should Not Regulate By the Principles of Political Law, Those Things Which Depend On the Principles of Civil Law.
• Chap. XVI.: That We Ought Not to Decide By the Rules of the Civil Law, When It Is Proper to Decide By Those of the Political Law.
• Chap. XVII.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XVIII.: That It Is Necessary to Enquire, Whether the Laws Which Seem Contradictory, Are of the Same Class.
• Chap. XIX.: That We Should Not Decide Those Things By the Civil Law, Which Ought to Be Decided By Domestic Laws.
• Chap. XX.: That We Ought Not to Decide By the Principles of the Civil Law, Those Things Which Belong to the Law of Nations.
• Chap. XXI.: That We Should Not Decide By Political Laws, Things Which Belong to the Law of Nations.
• Chap. XXII.: The Unhappy State of the Ynca Athualpa.
• Chap. XXIII.: That When, By Some Circumstance, the Political Law Becomes Destructive to the State, We Ought to Decide By Such a Political Law As Will Preserve It, Which Sometimes Becomes a Law of Nations.
• Chap. XXIV.: That the Regulations of the Police Are of a Different Class From Other Civil Laws.
• Chap. XXV.: That We Should Not Follow the General Disposition of the Civil Law, In Things Which Ought to Be Subject to Particular Rules Drawn From Their Own Nature.
• Book XXVII.: Of the Origin and Revolutions of the Roman Laws On Successions.
• Chap. I.
• Book XXVIII. Of the Origin and Revolutions of the Civil Laws Among the French.
• Chap. I.: Different Character of the Laws of the Several People of Germany.
• Chap. II.: That the Laws of the Barbarians Were All Personal.
• Chap. III.: Capital Difference Between the Salic Laws and Those of the Visigoths and Burgundians.
• Chap. IV.: In What Manner the Roman Law Came to Be Lost In the Country Subject to the Franks, and Preserved In That Subject to the Goths and Burgundians.
• Chap. V.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. VI.: How the Roman Law Kept Its Ground In the Demesne of the Lombards.
• Chap. VII.: How the Roman Law Came to Be Lost In Spain.
• Chap. VIII.: A False Capitulary.
• Chap. IX.: In What Manner the Codes of Barbarian Laws, and the Capitularies Came to Be Lost.
• Chap. X.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XI.: Other Causes of the Disuse of the Codes of Barbarian Laws, As Well As of the Roman Law, and of the Capitularies.
• Chap. XII.: Of Local Customs. Revolution of the Laws of Barbarous Nations, As Well As of the Roman Law.
• Chap. XIII.: Difference Between the Salic Law, Or That of the Salian Franks, and That of the Ripuarian Franks, and Other Barbarous Nations.
• Chap. XIV.: Another Difference.
• Chap. XV.: A Reflection.
• Chap. XVI.: Of the Ordeal, Or Trial By Boiling Water, Established By the Salic Law.
• Chap. XVII.: Particular Notions of Our Ancestors.
• Chap. XVIII.: In What Manner the Custom of Judicial Combats Gained Ground.
• Chap. XIX.: A New Reason of the Disuse of the Salic and Roman Laws, As Also of the Capitularies.
• Chap. XX.: Origin of the Point of Honour.
• Chap. XXI.: A New Reflection Upon the Point of Honour Among the Germans.
• Chap. XXII.: Of the Manners Relative to Judicial Combats.
• Chap. XXIII.: Of the Code of Laws On Judicial Combats.
• Chap. XXIV.: Rules Established In the Judicial Combat.
• Chap. XXV.: Of the Bounds Prescribed to the Custom of Judicial Combats.
• Chap. XXVI.: Of the Judiciary Combat Between One of the Parties, and One of the Witnesses.
• Chap. XXVII.: Of the Judicial Combat Between One of the Parties, and One of the Lord’s Peers. Appeal of False Judgment.
• Chap. XXVIII.: Of the Appeal of Default of Justice.
• Chap. XXIX.: Epoch of the Reign of St. Lewis.
• Chap. XXX.: Observations On Appeals.
• Chap. XXXI.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XXXII.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XXXIII.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XXXIV.: In What Manner the Proceedings At Law Became Secret.
• Chap. XXXV.: Of the Costs.
• Chap. XXXVI.: Of the Public Prosecutor.
• Chap. XXXVII.: In What Manner the Institutions of St. Lewis Fell Into Oblivion.
• Chap. XXXVIII.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XXXIX.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. Xl.: In What Manner the Judiciary Forms Were Borrowed From the Decretals.
• Chap. Xli.: Fiux and Reflux of the Ecclesiastic and Temporal Jurisdiction.
• Chap. Xlii.: the Revival of the Roman Law, and the Result Thereof. Change In the Tribunals.
• Chap. Xliii.: the Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. Xliv.: of the Proof By Witnesses.
• Chap. Xlv.: of the Customs of France.
• Book XXIX.: Of the Manner of Composing Laws.
• Chap. I.: Of the Spirit of a Legislator.
• Chap. II.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. III.: That the Laws Which Seem to Deviate From the Views of the Legislator, Are Frequently Agreeable to Them.
• Chap. IV.: Of the Laws Contrary to the Views of the Legislator.
• Chap. V.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. VI.: That Laws Which Appear the Same, Have Not Always the Same Effect.
• Chap. VII.: The Same Subject Continued. Necessity of Composing Laws In a Proper Manner.
• Chap. VIII.: That Laws Which Appear the Same, Were Not Always Made Through the Same Motive.
• Chap. IX.: That the Greek and Roman Laws Punished Suicide, But Not Through the Same Motive.
• Chap. X.: That Laws Which Seem Contrary, Proceed Sometimes From the Same Spirit.
• Chap. XI.: How We Are to Judge of the Difference of Laws.
• Chap. XII.: That Laws Which Appear the Same, Are Sometimes Really Different.
• Chap. XIII.: That We Must Not Separate Laws From the End For Which They Were Made. of the Roman Laws On Theft.
• Chap. XIV.: That We Must Not Separate the Laws From the Circumstances In Which They Were Made.
• Chap. XV.: That Sometimes It Is Proper the Law Should Amend Itself.
• Chap. XVI.: Things to Be Observed In the Composing of Laws.
• Chap. XVII.: A Bad Method of Giving Laws.
• Chap. XVIII.: Of the Ideas of Uniformity.
• Chap. XIX.: Of Legislators.
• Book XXX.: Theory of the Feudal Laws Among the Franks, In the Relation They Bear to the Establishment of the Monarchy.
• Chap. I.: Of Feudal Laws.
• Chap. II.: Of the Source of Feudal Laws.
• Chap. III.: The Origin of Vassalage.
• Chap. IV.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. V.: Of the Conquests of the Franks.
• Chap. VI.: Of the Goths, Burgundians, and Franks.
• Chap. VII.: Different Ways of Dividing the Land.
• Chap. VIII.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. IX.: A Just Application of the Law of the Burgundians and of That of the Visigoths In Relation to the Division of Lands.
• Chap. X.: Of Servitudes.
• Chap. XI.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XII.: That the Lands Belonging to the Division of the Barbarians Paid No Taxes.
• Chap. XIII.: Of Taxes Paid By the Romans and Gauls, In the Monarchy of the Franks.
• Chap. XIV.: Of What They Called Census.
• Chap. XV.: That What They Called Census Was Raised Only On the Bondmen, and Not On the Freemen.
• Chap. XVI.: Of the Feudal Lords Or Vassals.
• Chap. XVII.: Of the Military Service of Freemen.
• Chap. XVIII.: Of the Double Service.
• Chap. XIX.: Of Compositions Among the Barbarous Nations.
• Chap. XX.: Of What Was Afterwards Called the Jurisdiction of the Lords.
• Chap. XXI.: Of the Territorial Jurisdiction of the Churches.
• Chap. XXII.: That the Jurisdictions Were Established Before the End of the Second Race.
• Chap. XXIII.: General Idea of the Abbé Du Bos’ S Book On the Establishment of the French Monarchy In Gaul.
• Chap. XXIV.: The Same Subject Continued. Reflection On the Main Part of the System.
• Chap. XXV.: Of the French Nobility.
• Book XXXI.: Theory of the Feudal Laws Among the Franks, In the Relation They Bear to the Revolutions of Their Monarchy.
• Chap. I.: Changes In the Offices and In the Fiefs. of the Mayors of the Palace.
• Chap. II.: How the Civil Government Was Reformed.
• Chap. III.: Authority of the Mayors of the Palace.
• Chap. IV.: Of the Genius of the Nation In Regard to the Mayors.
• Chap. V.: In What Manner the Mayors Obtained the Command of the Armies.
• Chap. VI.: Second Epocha of the Humiliation of Our Kings of the First Race.
• Chap. VII.: Of the Great Offices and Fiefs Under the Mayors of the Palace.
• Chap. VIII.: In What Manner the Allodial Estates Were Changed Into Fiefs.
• Chap. IX.: How the Church-lands Were Converted Into Fiefs.
• Chap. X.: Riches of the Clergy.
• Chap. XI.: State of Europe At the Time of Charles Martel.
• Chap. XII.: Establishment of the Tithes.
• Chap. XIII.: Of the Election of Bishops and Abbots.
• Chap. XIV.: Of the Fiefs of Charles Martel.
• Chap. XV.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XVI.: Confusion of the Royalty and Mayoralty. the Second Race.
• Chap. XVII.: A Particular Circumstance In the Election of the Kings of the Second Race.
• Chap. XVIII.: Charlemaign.
• Chap. XIX.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XX.: Lewis the Debonnaire.
• Chap. XXI.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XXII.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XXIII.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XXIV.: That the Freemen Were Rendered Capable of Holding Fiefs.
• Chap. XXV.: The Principal Cause of the Humiliation of the Second Race. Changes In the Allodia.
• Chap. XXVI.: Changes In the Fiefs.
• Chap. XXVII.: Another Change Which Happened In the Fiefs.
• Chap. XXVIII.: Changes Which Happened In the Great Offices, and In the Fiefs.
• Chap. XXIX.: Of the Nature of the Fiefs After the Reign of Charles the Bald.
• Chap. XXX.: The Same Subject Continued.
• Chap. XXXI.: In What Manner the Empire Was Transferred From the Family of Charlemaign.
• Chap. XXXII.: In What Manner the Crown of France Was Transferred to the House of Hugh Capet.
• Chap. XXXIII.: Some Consequences of the Perpetuity of Fiefs.
• Chap. XXXIV.: The Same Subject Continued.

CHAP. XVII.

Particular Notions of our Ancestors.

IT is astonishing that our ancestors should rest the honour, fortune, and life of the subject, on things that depended less on reason than on hazard; and that they should incessantly make use of proofs incapable of convicting, and that had no manner of connexion either with innocence or guilt.

The Germans who had never been subdued* , enjoyed an excessive independence. Different families waged war† with each other, to obtain satisfaction for murders, robberies, or affronts. This custom was moderated, by subjecting these hostilities to rules; it was ordained that they should be no longer committed but by the direction and under the eye‡ of the magistrate. This was far preferable to a general licence of annoying each other.

As the Turks in their civil wars look upon the first victory as a decision of heaven in favour of the victor; so the inhabitants of Germany in their private quarrels, considered the event of a combat as a decree of Providence, ever attentive to punish the criminal or the usurper.

Tacitus informs us, that when one German nation intended to declare war against another, they looked out for a prisoner who was to fight with one of their people, and by the event they judged of the success of the war. A nation who believed that public quarrels could be determined by a single combat, might very well think that it was proper also for deciding the disputes of individuals.

Gundebald* , king of Burgundy, gave the greatest sanction to the custom of legal duels. The reason he assigns for this sanguinary law, is mentioned in his edict. “It is, says he, in order to prevent our subjects from attesting by oath, what they are not certain of, nay, what they know to be false.” Thus, while the clergy† declared that an impious law which permitted combats; the Burgundian kings looked upon that as a sacrilegious law, which authorized the taking of an oath.

The trial by combat had some reason for it founded on experience. In a military nation, cowardice supposes other vices; it is an argument of a person’s having deviated from the principles of his education, of his being insensible of honour, and of having refused to be directed by those maxims which govern other men; it shews, that he neither fears their contempt, nor sets any value upon their esteem. Men of any tolerable extraction seldom want either the dexterity requisite to co-operate with strength, or the strength necessary to concur with courage; for as they set a value upon honour, they are practised in matters, without which this honour cannot be obtained. Besides, in a military nation, where strength, courage, and prowess are esteemed, crimes really odious are those which arise from fraud, artifice, and cunning, that is, from cowardice.

With regard to the trial by fire, after the party accused had put his hand on a hot iron, or in boiling water, they wrapped the hand in a bag, and sealed it up: if after three days there appeared no mark, he was acquitted. Is it not plain, that amongst people inured to the handling of arms, the impression made on a rough or callous skin by the hot iron, or by boiling water, could not be so great, as to be seen three days afterwards? And if there appeared any mark, it shewed that the person who had undergone the trial was an esseminate fellow. Our peasants are not afraid to handle hot iron, with their callous hands; and, with regard to the women, the hands of those who worked hard, might be very well able to resist hot iron. The ladies* did not want champions to defend their cause; and in a nation where there was no luxury, there was no middle state.

By the law of the† Thuringians, a woman accused of adultery was condemned to the trial by boiling water, only when there was no champion to defend her; and the law of the‡ Ripuarians admits of this trial, only when a person had no witnesses to appear in his justification. Now a woman, that could not prevail upon any one relation to defend her cause, or a man that could not produce one single witness to attest his honesty, were, from those very circumstances, sufficiently convicted.

I conclude, therefore, that under the circumstances of time in which the trial by combat and the trial by hot iron and boiling water obtained, there was such an agreement between those laws and the manners of the people, that the laws were rather unjust in themselves than productive of injustice, that the effects were more innocent than the cause, that they were more contrary to equity than prejudicial to its rights, more unreasonable than tyrannical.

[* ]This appears by what Tacitus says, omnibus idem babitus.

[† ]Velleius Paterculus, lib. ii. cap. 18. says, that the Germans decided all their disputes by the sword.

[‡ ]See the codes of Barbarian laws, and in respect to less ancient times. Beaumanoir on the custom of Beauvoisis.

[* ]Law of the Burgundisns, chap. 45.

[† ]See the Works of Agobard.

[* ]See Beaumanoir on the custom of Beauvoisis, chap. 61. See also the law of the Angli, chap. 14. where the trial by boiling water is only a subsidiary proof.

[† ]Tit. 14.

[‡ ]Chap. 31. sect. 5.