Cover
Table of Contents
Author's Preface
Preliminary Observations
Book I Of Laws in General
Book II Of Laws Originating Directly from the Nature of the Government.
Book III Of the Principles of the Three Forms of Government.
Book IV The Laws Relating To Education, Should Be Congenial with the Principles of the Government.
Book V Laws Formed by the Legislature Should Be Consistent with the Principles of the Government.
Book VI Consequences of the Principles of Different Governments, in Relation to the Simplicity of Civil and Criminal Laws, the Forms of Juridical Proceedings, and the Apportionment of Punishments.
Book VII Consequences of the Different Principles of the Three Forms of Government, Relative to Sumptuary Laws, to Luxury, and to the Condition of Women.
Book VIII Of the Corruption of the Principle in Each of the Three Forms of Government.
Book IX Of Laws Relative to the Defensive Force.
Book X Of Laws Relative to the Offensive Force.
Book XI. Of the Laws Which Establish Public Liberty, In Relation to the Constitution.
Book XI, Chap. I Is the Problem Solved, As To the Best Means of Distributing the Power of Society, So As to Be Most Favorable to Liberty?
Book XI, Chap. II How Can the Proposed Problem Be Solved?
Book XII Of Laws that Establish Political Liberty in Relation to the Citizens.
A REVIEW. On the Twelve First Books of the Spirit of Laws.
Book XIII Of the Relation Which Taxes, and the Amount of the Public Revenue, Have to Public Liberty.
Books XIV-XVII Of Laws In Relation To Climate....
Book XVIII Of Laws in Relation to the Nature of the Soil.
Book XIX Of Laws in Relation to the Principles Which Form the General Dispositions, Morals, and Manners of a Nation.
Books XX-XXI Of Laws in Relation to Commerce, Considered in its Nature and Different Forms....
Book XXII Of Laws in Relation to the Use of Money.
Book XXIII Of Laws in Relation to Population.
Books XXIV-XXV Of Laws in Relation to a Religious Establishment its Practical Operation, and Doctrines....
Book XXVI Of Laws in Relation to the Nature of Things Upon Which They Decide.
Books XXVII-XXVII Of the Origin and Revolutions of the Roman Laws on Succession....
Book XXIX Of the Manner in Which Laws Should Be Composed.
Books XXX-XXXI Theory of the Feudal Laws Among the Franks, Relative to the Establishment of Monarchy....
APPENDIX
Observations on the Twenty-Ninth Book of the Spirit of Laws, by M. Condorcet
Letters of Helvetius, Addressed to President Montesquieu and M. Saurin, On Perusing the Manuscript of The Spirit of Laws
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A Commentary and Review of Montesquieu's "Spirit of Laws"

To Which Are Annexed, Observations on the Thirty-First Book, by the late M. Condorcet: and Two Letters of Helvetius, On the Merits of the Same Work
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  • | A Commentary and Review of Montesquieu's "Spirit of Laws"
Tracy, Antoine Louis Claude Destutt de
(1754-1836)
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Editor/Trans.
Thomas Jefferson, trans.
First Pub. Date
1811
Publisher/Edition
Philadelphia: William Duane
Pub. Date
1811
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Book XXVI

Of Laws in Relation to the Nature of Things upon which They Decide.

XXVI.1

Under a title sufficiently enigmatical, all this book is reduced to a single point; that we should not decide on a question by the same motives which induced the determination of another question of quite a different nature. This is too evident for any one to attempt to deny it. I shall not occupy myself therewith, inasmuch as all decisions on numerous objects, which are made upon the authority of precedents or examples, are in fact prejudgments; or judgments given upon evidence that has nothing to do with the subject: at least this is my manner of seeing things, conformable to the principles already established, in treating of the different articles to which these objects relate. If I were to discuss them again, it would be a useless repetition; and when principles are established, it is not necessary to examine one after another every particular case. Having therefore no new instruction to draw from this book, I shall pass to another.

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