In this case, the state would no longer be a monarchy, but a kind of republican, not a free government. But since the person to whom the executive power is entrusted cannot abuse them without bad advisers, and as they have the laws as ministers, the laws favour them as subjects; These men can be investigated and punished. An advantage that this government has over that of Gnide, where the law did not allow the Amymones34 to be held accountable, even after their administration, and therefore the people could never obtain satisfaction for the wounds inflicted on them. His masterpiece, L`Esprit des lois, appeared in 1748 in 22 editions within 18 months of its publication. For the historically-minded jurist, laws were not abstract rules, but necessary relations derived from nature. He fully accepted Locke`s sensationalist psychology and followed the lineage of the Sicilian Giambattista. It can be said that commercial laws improve morals, for the same reason that they destroy them. They corrupt the purest morality; this was the object of Plato`s complaints: and we see every day that they polish and refine the most barbarous. [1] It was a very funny sight in the last century to see the impotent efforts of the English to establish democracy.
As those involved in the management of public affairs lacked virtue, their ambition was fuelled by the success of the boldest of its members, the spirit of one faction was suppressed only by that of one faction, the government was constantly changing: the people were astonished by so many revolutions, fought everywhere for a democracy without being able to find it. After a series of turbulent movements and violent convulsions, they were finally forced to resort to the very government they had so abominably banned. They should relate to the nature and principles of any government; if they form it, as one might say of political laws; or if they support it, as in the case of civil institutions. This virtue can be defined as love of the laws and our country. Since this love requires a constant preference for the public over private interest, it is the source of all private virtues. Under the former, the prince or magistrate enacts temporary or perpetual laws and amends or repeals laws already promulgated. By the second, it makes peace or war, sends or receives messages, establishes public security and anti-invasion. With the third, he punishes criminals or determines disputes that arise between individuals. The latter is called the judiciary and the other simply the executive branch of the state. There is no word that has given more different meanings and left more different impressions on the human spirit than that of freedom. Some considered it a relief to depose a person to whom they had given tyrannical authority; others for the power to harass a person they must obey; others for the right to bear arms and thus to be able to use force; Others impose a fine for the privilege of being ruled by a native of their own country or by their own laws.
One nation in particular has long thought that freedom consisted in the privilege of wearing a long beard. Some have attached this name to a form of government, to the exclusion of others: those who had republican tastes have applied it to this government; Those who loved a monarchical state gave it to monarchies. Thus they have all applied to government the name of liberty which best corresponds to their own customs and inclinations: and just as in a republic men are not so constant and so present on the instruments of the evils of which they complain, and so the laws are less so, It is usually attributed to the republics. and denied to monarchies. Just as in democracies the people seem to do what they want very closely, freedom has been placed in this kind of government, and the power of the people has been confused with their freedom.> The spirit of commerce creates in the mind of man a certain sense of exact justice, which, on the one hand, opposes theft. and, on the other hand, those moral virtues that forbid us to always strictly observe the rules of private interest and that tolerate us to neglect this for the benefit of others. But how could a hereditary power be tempted to pursue its own particular interests and forget those of the people; It is true that while they may derive a unique benefit from corruption, as in the laws governing supplies, they have no role in legislation other than the power of rejection and not that of solution. Law in general is human reason, inasmuch as it governs all the inhabitants of the earth: the political and civil laws of each nation should be only the particular cases in which human reason is applied. It is true that in democracies, people seem to do what they want; But political freedom is not unlimited freedom. In governments, that is, in societies governed by the rule of law, freedom can only consist in the power to do what we want and not to be forced to do what we do not want. The law that imprints on us the idea of a Creator and inclines us to Him is the first in the sense, but not in the order, of the laws of nature. Man in a state of nature would have the capacity to know before acquiring any knowledge.
It is clear that his early ideas were not speculative in nature; He would think of preserving its essence before investigating its origin. At first, such a person would feel nothing in himself but helplessness and weakness; his fears and apprehensions would be exaggerated; As can be seen in the examples (it was necessary to prove it) of savages found in the forests,2 who trembled at the movement of a leaf and flew away from all shadows. In April 1728, Montesquieu embarked with Berwick`s nephew, Lord Waldegrave, as a travelling companion on a long voyage through Europe, during which he kept a diary. His travels took him to Austria and Hungary and a year to Italy. At the end of October 1729, accompanied by Lord Chesterfield, he went to England, where he became a Freemason and was admitted to the Horn Tavern Lodge at Westminster. He remained in England until the spring of 1731, when he returned to La Brède.[19] Externally, he seems to have established himself as a squire: he changed parks in the English style, inquired about his own genealogy and asserted his seigneurial rights. [18] But he worked continuously in his study, and his reflections on geography, laws, and customs during his travels became the main sources of his major works on political philosophy of the time.[18] [20] [21] He then published Reflections on the Causes of Roman Greatness and their Decline (1734), one of his three best-known books. It is considered by some scholars to be a transition from Persian letters to his masterpiece The Spirit of Law, originally published anonymously in 1748 and translated into English in 1750. It developed rapidly and profoundly influenced political thought in Europe and America. In France, the book was received with malice by supporters and opponents of the regime. The Catholic Church banned The Spirit – along with many other works by Montesquieu – in 1751 and included it in the Index of Forbidden Books. It has received the highest praise from the rest of Europe, especially the UK.
But if the legislative branch in a free government has no right to remain the executive, it has the right and should have the means to verify how its laws have been applied; an advantage that this government has over Crete and Sparta, where the Cosmi and Ephori are not responsible for their administration. If monsters are governed by the general laws of motion or by a particular movement, we cannot determine it. Be that as it may, they have no more intimate relationship with God than the rest of the material world; And sensation is of no use to them other than in the relationship they have either with other special beings or with themselves. Laws, in their most general sense, are the necessary relations arising from the nature of things. In this sense, all beings have their laws: the Godhead1 Its laws, the material world its laws, the intelligences superior to man, its laws, animals its laws, human beings its laws. De l`esprit des loix (1748; The Spirit of the Laws) has acquired immense influence. It was an ambitious treatise on human institutions and a pioneering work of anthropology and sociology. Believe in an ordered universe – because “how could blind fate produce intelligent beings?” Montesquieu examined the varieties of natural law, the different customs, the laws,.
The third important contribution of L`Esprit du droit was the field of political sociology, which Montesquieu is often more or less invented.
