BOOK XVIII.: OF LAWS IN THE RELATION THEY BEAR TO THE NATURE OF THE SOIL.

CHAP. I.: How the Nature of the Soil has an Influence on the Laws.

THE goodness of the land, in any country, naturally establishes subjection and dependence. The husbandmen, who compose the principal part of the people, are not very jealous of their liberty; they are too busy and too intent on their own private affairs. A country which overflows with wealth is afraid of pillage, afraid of an army. “Who is there that forms this goodly party? said Cicero to Atticus Lib. 17. ^†610; are they the men of commerce and husbandry? Let us not imagine that these are averse to monarchy, these, to whom all governments are equal, as soon as they bestow tranquility.”

Thus monarchy is more frequently found in fruitful countries, and a republican government in those which are not so; and this is sometimes a sufficient compensation for the inconveniences they suffer by the sterility of the land.

The barrenness of the Attic soil established there a democracy; and the fertility of that of Lacedæmonia an aristocratical constitution. For, in those times, Greece was averse to the government of a single person; and aristocracy had the nearest resemblance to that government.

Plutarch says Life of Solon. ^†611, that, the Cilonian sedition having been appeased at Athens, the city fell into its ancient dissensions, and was divided into as many parties as

there were kinds of land in Attica. The men who inhabited the eminences would, by all means, have a popular government; those of the flat open country demanded a government composed of the chiefs; and they who were near the sea desired a mixture of both.

CHAP. II.: The same Subject continued.

THESE fertile provinces are always of a level surface, where the inhabitants are unable to dispute against a stronger power: they are then obliged to submit; and, when they have once submitted, the spirit of liberty cannot return; the wealth of the country is a pledge of their fidelity. But, in mountainous districts, as they have but little, they may preserve what they have. The liberty they enjoy, or, in other words, the government they are under, is the only blessing worthy of their defence. It reigns, therefore, more, in mountainous and rugged countries, than in those which nature seems to have most favoured.

The mountaineers preserve a more moderate government, because they are not so liable to be conquered. They defend themselves easily, and are attacked with difficulty; ammunition and provisions are collected and carried against them with great expence, for the country furnishes none. It is, then, a more arduous, a more dangerous, enterprize, to make war against them; and all the laws that can be enacted for the safety of the people are there of least use.

CHAP. III.: What Countries are best cultivated.

COUNTRIES are not cultivated in proportion to their fertility, but to their liberty; and, if we make an imaginary division of the earth, we shall be astonished to see, in most ages, desarts in the most fruitful parts, and great nations in those where nature seems to refuse every thing.

It is natural for a people to leave a bad soil to seek a better; and not to leave a good soil to go in search of a worse. Most invasions have, therefore, been made in countries which nature seems to have formed for happiness; and, as nothing is more nearly allied than desolation and invasion, the best provinces are most frequently depopulated; while the frightful countries of the North continue always inhabited, from their being almost uninhabitable.

We find, by what historians tell us of the passage of the people of Scandinavia along the banks of the Danube, that this was not a conquest, but only a migration into desart countries.

These happy climates must, therefore, have been depopulated by other migrations, though we know not the tragical scenes that happened.

“It appears, by many monuments of antiquity, says Aristotle Or he who wrote the book De mirabilibus. ^†612, that the Sardinians were a Grecian colony. They were formerly very rich; and Aristeus, so famed for his love of agriculture, was their law-giver. But they are since fallen to decay; for the Carthaginians, becoming their masters, destroyed every thing proper for the nourishment of man, and forbade the cultivation of

the lands on pain of death.” Sardinia was not recovered in the time of Aristotle, nor is it to this day.

The most temperate parts of Persia, Turkey, Muscovy, and Poland, have not been able to recover perfectly from the devastations of the Tartars.

CHAP. IV.: New Effects of the Barrenness and Fertility of Countries.

THE barrenness of the earth renders men industrious, sober, inured to hardship, courageous, and fit for war: they are obliged to procure by labour what the earth refuses to bestow spontaneously. The fertility of a country gives ease, effeminacy, and a certain fondness for the preservation of life. It has been remarked, that the German troops, raised in those places where the peasants are rich, as, for instance, in Saxony, are not so good as the others. Military laws may provide against this inconvenience by a more severe discipline.

CHAP. V.: Of the Inhabitants of Islands.

THE inhabitants of islands have a higher relish for liberty than those of the continent. Islands are commonly of a small Japan is an exception to this, by its great extent as well as by its slavery. ^†613 extent; one part of the people cannot be so easily employed to oppress the other; the sea separates them from great empires; tyranny cannot so well support itself within a small compass; conquerors are stopped by the sea; and the islanders, being without the reach of their arms, more easily preserve their own laws.

CHAP. VI.: Of Countries raised by the Industry of Man.

THOSE countries which the industry of man has rendered habitable, and which stand in need of the same industry to provide for their subsistence, require a mild and moderate government. There are principally three of this species; the two fine provinces of Kiang-nan and Tcekiang in China, Egypt, and Holland.

The ancient emperors of China were not conquerors. The first thing they did to aggrandize themselves was what gave the highest proof of their wisdom. They raised from beneath the waters two of the finest provinces of the empire; these owe their existence to the labour of man: and it is the inexpressible fertility of these two provinces which has given Europe such ideas of the felicity of that vast country. But a continual and necessary care, to preserve from destruction so considerable a part of the empire, demanded rather the manners of a wise, than of a voluptuous, nation; rather the lawful authority of a monarch, than the tyrannic sway of a despotic prince. Power was, therefore, necessarily moderated in that country, as it was formerly in Egypt, and as it is now in Holland, which nature has made to attend to herself, and not to be abandoned to negligence or caprice.

Thus, in spite of the climate of China, where they are naturally led to a servile obedience, in spite of the apprehensions which follow too great an extent of empire, the first legislators of this country were obliged to make excellent laws, and the government was frequently obliged to follow them.

CHAP. VII.: Of human Industry.

MANKIND, by their industry, and by the influence of good laws, have rendered the earth more proper for their abode. We see rivers flow where there have been lakes and marshes: this is a benefit which nature has not bestowed; but it is a benefit maintained and supplied by nature. When the Persians Polybius, l. 10. ^†614 were masters of Asia, they permitted those, who conveyed a spring to any place which had not been watered before, to enjoy the benefit for five generations; and, as a number of rivulets flowed from mount Taurus, they spared no expence in directing the course of their streams. At this day, without knowing how they came thither, they are found in the fields and gardens.

Thus, as destructive nations produce evils more durable than themselves, the actions of an industrious people are the source of blessings which last when they are no more.

CHAP. VIII.: The general Relation of Laws.

THE laws have a very great relation to the manner in which the several nations procure their subsistence. There should be a code of laws of a much larger extent for a nation attached to trade and navigation than for people who are content with cultivating the earth. There should be a much greater for the latter than for those who subsist by their flocks and herds. There must be a still greater for these than for such as live by hunting.

CHAP. IX.: Of the Soil of America.

THE cause of there being such a number of savage nations in America is, the fertility of the earth, which spontaneously produces many fruits capable of affording them nourishment. If the women cultivate a spot of land round their cottages, the maiz grows up presently; and hunting and fishing put the men in a state of complete abundance. Besides, black cattle, as cows, buffaloes, &c. thrive there better than carnivorous beasts. The latter have always reigned in Africa.

We should not, I believe, have all these advantages in Europe, if the land were left uncultivated; it would scarcely produce any thing besides forests of oaks and other barren trees.

CHAP. X.: Of Population, in the Relation it bears to the Manner of procuring Subsistence.

LET us see in what proportion countries are peopled where the inhabitants do not cultivate the earth. As the produce of uncultivated land is to that of land improved by culture, so the number of savages in one country is to that of husbandmen in another: and, when the people who cultivate the land cultivate also the arts, this is also in such proportions as would require a minute detail.

They can scarcely form a great nation. If they are herdsmen and shepherds, they have need of an extensive country to furnish subsistence for a small number; if they live by hunting, their number must

be still less, and, in order to find the means of life, they must constitute a very small nation.

Their country commonly abounds with forests; which, as the inhabitants have not the art of draining off the waters, are filled with bogs; here each troop canton themselves, and form a petty nation.

CHAP. XI.: Of savage and barbarous Nations.

THERE is this difference between savage and barbarous nations; the former are dispersed in clans, which, for some particular reason, cannot be joined in a body; and the latter are commonly small nations, capable of being united. The savages are generally hunters; the barbarians are herdsmen and shepherds.

This appears plain in the North of Asia. The people of Siberia cannot live in bodies, because they are unable to find subsistence; the Tartars may live in bodies for some time, because their herds and flocks may, for a time, be re-assembled. All the clans may then be re-united; and this is effected when one chief has subdued many others; after which they may do two things, either separate, or set out with a design to make a great conquest in some southern empire.

CHAP. XII.: Of the Law of Nations among People who do not cultivate the Earth.

AS these people do not live in circumscribed territories, many causes of strife arise between them; they quarrel about waste land as we about inheritances. Thus they find frequent occasions for war, in disputes relative either to their hunting, their fishing,

the pasture for their cattle, or the violent seizing of their slaves; and, as they are not possessed of landed property, they have many things to regulate by the law of nations, and but few to decide by the civil law.

CHAP. XIII.: Of the civil Law of those Nations who do not cultivate the Earth.

THE division of lands is what principally increases the civil code. Amongst nations where they have not made this division there are very few civil laws.

The institutions of these people may be called manners rather than laws.

Amongst such nations as these, the old men, who remember things past, have great authority: they cannot there be distinguished by wealth, but by wisdom and valour.

These people wander and disperse themselves in pasture grounds or in forests. Marriage cannot there have the security which it has amongst us, where it is fixed by the habitation, and where the wife continues in one house: they may, then, more easily change their wives, possess many, and sometimes mix indifferently, like brutes.

Nations of herdsmen and shepherds cannot leave their cattle, which are their subsistence; neither can they separate themselves from their wives, who look after them. All this ought, then, to go together; especially, as, living generally in a flat open country, where there are few places of considerable strength, their wives, their children, their flocks, may become the prey of their enemies.

Their laws regulate the division of plunder, and have, like our Salique laws, a particular attention to theft.

CHAP. XIV.: Of the political State of the People who do not cultivate the Land.

THESE people enjoy great liberty. For, as they do not cultivate the earth, they are not fixed, they are wanderers and vagabonds; and, if a chief should deprive them of their liberty, they would immediately go and seek it under another, or retire into the woods, and there live with their families. The liberty of the man is so great, among these people, that it necessarily draws after it that of the citizen.

CHAP. XV.: Of People who know the Use of Money.

ARISTIPPUS, being cast away, swam and got safe to the next shore; where, beholding geometrical figures traced in the sand, he was seized with a transport of joy, judging that he was amongst Greeks, and not in a nation of barbarians.

Should you ever happen to be cast, by some adventure, amongst unknown people, upon seeing a piece of money, you may be assured that you are arrived in a civilized country.

The culture of lands requires the use of money. This culture supposes many inventions and many degrees of knowledge; and we always see ingenuity, the arts, and a sense of want, making their progress with an equal pace. All this conduces to the establishment of a sign of value.

Torrents and eruptions It is thus that Diodorus tells us the shepherds found gold in the Pyrenean mountains. ^†615 have made the discovery that metals are contained in the bowels of the earth.

When once they have been separated, they have easily been applied to their proper use.

CHAP. XVI.: Of civil Laws among People who know not the Use of Money.

WHEN a people have not the use of money, they are seldom acquainted with any other injustice than that which arises from violence; and the weak, by uniting, defend themselves from its effects. They have nothing there but political regulations. But, where money is established, they are subject to that injustice which proceeds from craft; an injustice that may be exercised a thousand ways. Hence they are forced to have good civil laws, which spring up with the new practices of iniquity.

In countries where they have no specie the robber takes only bare moveables, which have no mutual resemblance. But, where they make use of money, the robber takes the signs, and these always resemble each other. In the former, nothing can be concealed, because the robber takes along with him the proofs of his conviction; but, in the latter, it is quite the contrary.

CHAP. XVII.: Of political Laws amongst Nations who have not the Use of Money.

THE greatest security of the liberties of a people, who do not cultivate the earth, is, their not knowing the use of money. What is gained by hunting, fishing, or keeping herds of cattle, cannot be assembled in such great quantity, nor be sufficiently preserved, for one man to find himself in a condition to corrupt

many others: but when, instead of this, a man has a sign of riches, he may obtain a large quantity of these signs, and distribute them as he pleases.

The people who have no money have but few wants; and these are supplied with ease, and in an equal manner. Equality is then unavoidable; and from hence it proceeds that their chiefs are not despotic.

CHAP. XVIII.: Of the Power of Superstition.

IF what travellers tell us be true, the constitution of a nation of Louisiana, called the Natches, is an exception to this. Their Edifying Letters, 20th collection. ^†616 chief disposes of the goods of all his subjects, and obliges them to work and toil according to his pleasure. He has a power like that of the Grand Signior, and they cannot even refuse him their heads. When the presumptive heir enters into the world, they devote all the sucking children to his service during life. One would imagine that this is the great Sesostris. He is treated in his cottage with as much ceremony as an emperor of Japan or China.

The prejudices of superstition are superior to all others, and have the strongest influence on the human mind. Thus, though the savage nations have naturally no knowledge of despotic tyranny, still they feel the weight of it. They adore the sun; and, if their chief had not imagined that he was the brother of this glorious luminary, they would have thought him a wretch like themselves.

CHAP. XIX.: Of the Liberty of the Arabs and the Servitude of the Tartars.

THE Arabs and Tartars are nations of herdsmen and shepherds. The Arabs find themselves in that situation of which we have been speaking, and are therefore free; whilst the Tartars (the most singular people on earth) are involved in a When a khan is proclaimed, all the people cry, That his word shall be as a sword. ^†617 political slavery. I have already given reasons Book XVII. c. 5. ^†618 for this, and shall now assign some others.

They have no towns, no forests, and but few marshes; their rivers are generally frozen, and they dwell in a level country of an immense extent. They have pasture for their herds and flocks, and consequently property; but they have no kind of retreat or place of safety. A khan is no sooner overcome than they cut off his We ought not, therefore, to be astonished at Mahomet, the son of Miriveis, who, upon taking Ispahan, put all the princes of the blood to the sword. ^†619 head; his children are treated in the same manner, and all his subjects belong to the conqueror. These are not condemned to a civil slavery; for, in that case, they would be a burthen to a simple people, who have no lands to cultivate and no need of any domestic service. They therefore add to the bulk of the nation; but, instead of civil servitude, a political slavery must naturally be introduced amongst them.

It is apparent, that, in a country where the several clans make continual war, and are perpetually conquering each other; in a country, where, by the death of the chief, the body politic of the vanquished clan is always destroyed; the nation in general can

enjoy but little freedom; for there is not a single party that must not have been often subdued.

A conquered people may preserve some degree of liberty, when, by the strength of their situation, they are in a state that will admit of capitulating after their defeat. But the Tartars, always defenceless, being once overcome, can never be able to obtain conditions.

I have said, in chap. II. that the inhabitants of cultivated plains are seldom free. Circumstances have occurred to put the Tartars, who dwell in uncultivated plains, in the same situation.

CHAP. XX.: Of the Law of Nations as practised by the Tartars.

THE Tartars appear to be mild and humane amongst themselves, and yet they are most cruel conquerors: when they take cities, they put the inhabitants to the sword, and imagine that they act humanely, if they only sell the people or distribute them amongst their soldiers. They have destroyed Asia, from India even to the Mediterranean; and all the country, which forms the East of Persia, they have rendered a desart.

This law of nations is owing, I think, to the following cause. These people having no towns, all their wars are carried on with eagerness and impetuosity: they fight whenever they hope to conquer; and, when they have no such hope, they join the stronger army. With such customs, it is contrary to the law of nations that a city, incapable of repelling their attack, should stop their progress. They regard not cities as an association of inhabitants, but as places made to bid defiance to their power. They besiege them without military skill, and expose themselves

greatly in the attack; and therefore revenge themselves on all those who have spilt their blood.

CHAP. XXI.: The civil Law of the Tartars.

FATHER Du Halde says, that, amongst the Tartars, the youngest of the males is always the heir, by reason, that, as soon as the elder brothers are capable of leading a pastoral life, they leave the house, with a certain number of cattle given them by their father, and build a new habitation. The last of the males, who continues at home with the father, is then his natural heir.

I have heard that a like custom was also observed in some small districts of England: and we find it still in Brittany, in the dutchy of Rohan, where it obtains with regard to ignoble tenures. This is doubtless a pastoral law, conveyed thither by some of the people of Britain, or established by some German nation. By Cæsar and Tacitus we are informed that the latter cultivated but little land.

CHAP. XXII.: Of a civil Law of the German Nations.

I shall here explain how that particular passage of the Salique law, which is commonly distinguished by the term, The Salique Law, relates to the institutions of a people who do not cultivate the earth, or, at least who cultivate it but very little.

The Salique Tit. 62. ^†620 law ordains, that, when a man has left children behind him, the males shall succeed to the Salique land in prejudice to the females.

To understand the nature of those Salique lands, there needs no more than to search into the usages or customs of the Franks, with regard to lands, before they left Germany.

Mr. Echard has very plainly proved that the word Salic is derived from Sala, which signifies a house; and, therefore, that the Salique land was the land belonging to the house. I shall proceed farther, and examine into the nature of the house, and of the land belonging to the house, among the Germans.

“They dwell not in towns, says Nullas Germanorum populis urbes babitari satis notum est, ne pati quidem inter se junctas sedes; colunt discreti, ut nemus placuit. Vicos locant, non in nostrum morem connexis et cobærentibus æaifictis; suam quisque domum spatio circumdat. De moribus Germanorum. ^†621 Tacitus, nor can they bear to have their habitations contiguous to those of others; every one leaves a space or small piece of ground about his house, which is inclosed.” Tacitus is very exact in this account; for many laws of the The law of the Allemands, c. 10. and the law of the Bavarians, tit. 10. §. 1. and 2. ^†622 barbarian codes have different decrees against those who threw down this inclosure, as well as against such as broke into the house.

We learn, from Tacitus and Cæsar, that the lands cultivated by the Germans were given them only for the space of a year; after which they again became public. They had no other patrimony but the house, and a piece of land within the This inclosure is called cortis, in the charters. ^†623 inclosure that surrounded it. It was this particular patrimony which belonged to the males. And, indeed, how could it belong to the daughters? they were to pass into another habitation.

The Salique land was, then, within that inclosure which belonged to a German house; this was the only property they had. The Franks, after their

conquests, acquired new possessions, and continued to call them Salique lands.

When the Franks lived in Germany, their wealth consisted of slaves, flocks, horses, arms, &c. The habitation and the small portion of land adjoining to it were naturally given to the male children who were to dwell there. But afterwards, when the Franks had, by conquest, acquired large tracts of land, they thought it hard that the daughters and their children should be incapable of enjoying any part of them. Hence it was that they introduced a custom of permitting the father to settle the estate, after his death, upon his daughter and her children. They silenced the law; and it appears that these settlements were frequent, since they were entered in the formularies. See Marculfus, l. 2. form. 10. & 12. Append. to Marculf. form. 49. and the ancient formularies of Sirmondus, form 22. ^†624

Amongst these formularies I find one Form. 55. in Lindembroek’s collection. ^†625 of a singular nature. A grandfather ordained by will that his grandchildren should share his inheritance with his sons and daughters. What, then, became of the Salique law? In those times, either it could not be observed, or the continual use of nominating the daughters to an inheritance had made them consider their ability to succeed as a case authorized by custom.

The Salique law had not in view a preference of one sex to the other; much less had it a regard to the perpetuity of a family, a name, or the transmission of land: these things did not enter into the heads of the Germans; it was purely an economical law, which gave the house, and the land dependent thereon, to the males who should dwell in it, and to whom it consequently was of most service.

We need here only transcribe the title of the allodial lands of the Salique law, that famous text, of which so many have talked, and which so few have read.

“If a man dies without issue, his father or mother shall succeed him. 2. If he has neither father nor mother, his brother or sister shall succeed him. 3. If he has neither brother nor sister, the sister of his mother shall succeed him. 4. If his mother has no sister, the sister of his father shall succeed him. 5. If his father has no sister, the nearest relation by the male side shall succeed. 6. Not De terrâ verò Salicâ in mulierem nulla portio hereditatis transis, sed boc virilis sexus acquirit; boc est, filii in ipsâ hereditate succedunt. Tit. 62. §. 6. ^†626 any part of the Salique land shall pass to the females; but it shall belong to the males; that is, the male children shall succeed their father.”

It is plain that the first five articles relate to the inheritance of a man who dies without issue; and the sixth to the succession of him who has children.

When a man dies without children, the law ordains that neither of the two sexes shall have the preference to the other, except in certain cases. In the two first degrees of succession, the advantages of the males and females were the same; in the third and fourth, the females had the preference; and the males in the fifth.

Tacitus points out the source of these extravagances: “The sister’s Sororum filiis idem apud avunculum quam apud patrem honor. Quidam sanctiorem arctioremque hunc nexum sanguinis orbitrantur, & in accipiendis obsidibus inagis exigunt, tanquam ii & animum firmiùs & domum latiùs teneant. De moribus Germanorum. ^†627 children, says he, are as dear to their uncle as to their own father. There are men who regard this degree of kindred as more strict, and even more holy. They prefer it when they receive hostages.” From hence it proceeds that

our earliest historians See, in Gregory of Tours, lib. 8. c. 18. and 20. and lib. 9. c. 16. and 20. the rage of Gontram at Leovigild’s ill treatment of Ingunda his niece, which Childebert her brother took up arms to revenge. ^†628 speak in such strong terms of the love of the kings of the Franks for their sisters and their sisters children. And, indeed, if the children of the sister were considered, in her brother’s house, as his own children, it was natural for these to regard their aunt as their mother.

The sister of the mother was preferred to the father’s sister; this is explained by other texts of the Salique law. When a Salique law, tit. 47. ^†629 woman became a widow, she fell under the guardianship of her husband’s relations; the law preferred to this guardianship the relations by the females before those by the males. Indeed, a woman, who entered into a family, joining herself with those of her own sex, became more united to her relations by the female than by the male. Moreover, when Ibid. tit. 61. §. 1. ^†630 a man killed another, and had not wherewithal to pay the pecuniary penalty, the law permitted him to deliver up his substance, and his relations were to supply the deficiency. After the father, mother, and brother, the sister of the mother was to pay, as if this tie had something in it most tender. Now, the degree of kindred which imposes the burdens ought also to confer the advantages.

The Salique law enjoins, that, after the father’s sister, the succession should be held by the nearest relation male; but, if this relation was beyond the fifth degree, he should not inherit. Thus a female of the fifth degree might inherit to the prejudice of a male of the sixth: and this may be seen in the Et deinceps usque ad quintum genuculum qui proximus fuerit in bereditatem succedat. Tit. 56. §. 3. ^†631 law of the Ripurian Franks, (a faithful interpreter of the

Salique law,) under the title of allodial lands, where it closely adheres to the Salique law on the same subject.

If the father left issue, the Salique law would have the daughters excluded from the inheritance of the Salique land, and determined that it should belong to the male children.

It would be easy for me to prove that the Salique law did not absolutely exclude the daughters from the possession of the Salique land, but only in the case where they were debarred by their brothers. This appears from the letter of the Salique law; which, after having said that the women shall possess none of the Salique land, but only the males, interprets and restrains itself, by adding,
“that is, the son shall succeed to the inheritance of the father.”

2. The text of the Salique law is cleared up by the law of the Ripurian Franks, which has also a title Tit. 56. ^†632 on allodial lands very conformable to that of the Salique law.

3. The laws of these barbarous nations, who all sprung from Germany, interpret each other, more particularly as they all have nearly the same spirit. The Saxon Tit. 7. §. 1. Pater aut mater defuncti, filio non filiæ bereditatem relinquant; §. 4. qui defuntius, non filios, sed filias, reliquerit, ad eas omnis bereditas pertineat. ^†633 law enjoined the father and mother to leave their inheritance to their son, and not to their daughter; but, if there were none but daughters, they were to have the whole inheritance.

4. We have two ancient formularies In Marculfus, l. 2. form. 12. and in the Appendix to Marculfus, form. 49. ^†634 that state the case in which, according to the Salique law, the daughters were excluded by the males; that is, when they stood in competition with their brother.

5. Another formulary Lindembroek’s collection, form. 55. ^†635 proves that the daughter succeeded to the prejudice of the grandson; she was therefore excluded only by the son.

6. If daughters had been generally debarred, by the Salique law, from the inheritance of land, it would be impossible to explain the histories, formularies, and charters, which are continually mentioning the lands and possessions of the females under the first race.

People Ducange, Pithou, &c. ^†636 have been wrong in asserting that the Salique lands were fiefs. 1. This head is distinguished by the title of allodial lands. 2. Fiefs at first were not hereditary. 3. If the Salique lands had been fiefs, how could Marculfus treat that custom as impious, which excluded the women from inheriting, when the males themselves did not succeed to fiefs? 4. The charters which have been cited, to prove that the Salique lands were fiefs, only shew that they were freeholds. 5. Fiefs were not established till after the conquest, and the Salique customs existed long before the Franks left Germany. 6. It was not the Salique law that formed the establishment of fiefs, by setting bounds to the succession of females, but it was the establishment of fiefs that prescribed limits to the succession of females and to the regulations of the Salique law.

After what has been said, one would not imagine that the perpetual succession of males to the crown of France should have taken its rise from the Salique law. And yet this is a point indubitably certain. I prove it from the several codes of the barbarous nations. The Salique law Tit. 62. ^†637 and the law of the Burgundians Tit. 1. §. 3. tit. 14. §. 1. & tit. 51. ^†638 debarred the daughters from the right of

succeeding to the land in conjunction with their brothers; neither did they succeed to the crown. The law of the Lib. 4. tit. 2. §. 1. ^†639 Visigoths, on the contrary Amongst the Ostrogoths, the crown twice devolved to the males by means of females; the first time to Athalaricus, through Amalasuntha, and the second to Theodat, through Amalafreda. Not but that the females of that nation might have held the crown in their own right; for Amalasuntha reigned after the death of Athalaricus; nay, even after the election of Theodat, and in conjunction with that prince. See Amalasuntha’s and Theodat’s letters, in Cassiodorus, lib. 10. ^†640, permitted the daughters to inherit the land with their brothers; and the women were The German nations, says Tacitus, had common customs, as well as those which were peculiar to each. ^†641 capable of inheriting the crown. Amongst these people, the regulations of the civil law had an effect on the political.

This was not the only case in which the political law of the Franks gave way to the civil. By the Salique law, all the brothers succeeded equally to the land; and this was also decreed by a law of the Burgundians. Thus, in the kingdom of the Franks, and in that of the Burgundians, all the brothers succeeded to the crown, if we except a few murders and usurpations, which took place amongst the Burgundians.

CHAP. XXIII.: Of the regal Ornaments among the Franks.

A people who do not cultivate the land have no idea of luxury. We may see, in Tacitus, the admirable simplicity of the German nations: they had no artificial elegancies of dress; their ornaments were derived from nature. If the family of their chief was to be distinguished by any sign, it was no other than that which nature bestowed. The kings of the Franks, of the Burgundians, and the Visigoths, wore their long hair for a diadem.

CHAP. XXIV.: Of the Marriages of the Kings of the Franks.

I have already mentioned, that, with people who do not cultivate the earth, marriages are less fixed than with others, and that they generally take many wives. “Of Prope soli barbarorum singulis uxoribus contenti sunt. De morib. German. ^†642 all the barbarous nations the Germans were almost the only people who were satisfied with one wife, if we except Exceptis admodum paucis, qui non libidine, sed ob nobilitatem, plurimis nuptiis ambi