$v«' I r 0>M, X*1 fyxmll Hmemtg ptog BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND THE GIFT OF Henri? W. Sage 1891 ^Jg^fe^ ?^ l/js/oy Cornell University Library The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924006773653 ■v« ■,■■:.■ THE ROMANES LECTURE, 1904 tMontesquieu BY SIR COURTENAY ILBERT K.C.S.I., CLE. DELIVERED IN THE SHELDONIAN THEATRE, OXFORD JUNE 4, 1904 OXFORD AT THE CLARENDON/PRESS 1904 ¥ ^//y, A.\%x6>2>4- HENRY FROWDE, M.A. PUBLISHER TO THE HNIVEESITV OF OXFORD LONDON, EDINBURGH NEW YORK MONTESQUIEU When Sainte-Beuve sat down, in the year 1852, to write a causerie about Montesquieu, he gave as a reason for not having dealt with the subject before that Montesquieu belonged to the class of men whom one approaches with apprehension on account of the respect which they inspire, and of the kind of religious halo which has gathered round their names. This was written more than fifty years ago, and the language reflects the glamour which still attached to Montesquieu's name during the first half of the nine- teenth century. That glamour has now passed away. Not that Montesquieu has died, or is likely to die. But he is no longer the oracle of statesmen ; his Spirit of Laws is no longer treated by framers of constitutions as a Bible of political philosophy, bearing with it the same kind of authority as that which Aristotle bore among the schoolmen. That authority ended when the greater part of the civilized world had been endowed with parliamentary and representative institutions framed more or less on the model which Montesquieu had described and had held up for imitation. The interest which attaches to him now is . of a different order. It is literary and historical. He lives as one of the greatest of French writers, and his Considerations on the Greatness and Decay of the Romans are still read as a school classic by French boys and girls, much as the masterpieces of Burke are, or ought to be, a 2 4 Montesquieu. read iri English schools. To the student of political history he is known as the source of ideas which exercised an influence of incomparable importance in the framing of constitutions both for the old and for the new continent. And for the student of political science, his work marks a new departure in methods of observation and treatment. The Spirit of Laws has been called the greatest book of the eighteenth century: its publication was certainly one of the greatest events of that century. If it were necessary for me to offer an apology for taking Montesquieu as my subject to-day I might plead, first, that no student of history or of political or legal science can afford to disregard one who has been claimed, on strong grounds, as a founder of the comparative method in its application to the study of Politics and of Law; next, that some recent publica- tions 1 have thrown new and interesting light both on his character and on his methods of work ; and lastly that one cannot return too often to the consideration of a really great man. Moreover, it may be suspected that, in this country at least, and at the present day, Montesquieu belongs to the numerous class of authors whom everybody is supposed to know but whom very few have read. It will, of course, be impossible for me to do more than touch on a few of the aspects of such a many-sided man. Let me begin by reminding you of the leading dates and facts in Montesquieu's life, so far only as is necessary for the purpose of ' placing ' him historically 2 . 1 The Collection Bordelaise referred to in note 2. a The fullest life of Montesquieu is that by L. Vian, Histoire de Montesquieu, Paris, 1878. But it is inaccurate and uncritical, and Montesquieu. 5 Charles Louis de Secondat was born in 1689, a y ear after the Revolution which ended the Stuart dynasty, five years before the birth of Voltaire, 100 years before the outbreak of the French Revolution. He died in 1755, four years after the publication of the first volume of the French Encyclopedia, the year before the Seven Years' War, five years before George III came to the throne, and seven years before Rousseau preached to the world, in the first chapter of his Social Contract, that man is born free and is everywhere in chains. His birth-place was the Chateau of La Brede, a thirteenth-century castle some ten miles from Bor- deaux 1 . Thus he was a countryman of Montaigne, has been severely criticized by M. Brunetiere {Revue des deux Mondes, 1879). The best contemporary appreciation of Montes- quieu is by the Marquis d'Argenson (Me'moires, p. 428, edition ot 1825). The standard edition of Montesquieu is that by Laboulaye in 7 vols., Paris, 1873-9. This must now be supplemented by the 'Collection Bordelaise,' which contains further materials supplied by the Montesquieu family, and which includes Deux opuscules de Montesquieu, 1891 : Melanges inedits de Montesquieu, 1892: Voyages de Montesquieu, 2 vols., 1894: Pensees et fragments ine'dits, 2 vols., 1899, 1901. The literature on Montesquieu is very extensive. A list of books, articles, and e'loges relating to him will be found in an appendix to Vian's Histoire. Among subsequent works the first place is taken by M. Sorel's Montesquieu in the series called Les grands ecrivains francais, a little book of which I can only speak with the most respectful admiration. Reference may also be made to Oncken, Zeitalter Friedrichs des Grossen, i. 80, 457 : Taine, Ancien Regime, pp. 264, 278, 339 : Janet, Histoire de la science politique, vol. ii : Faguet, Dix-huitieme siecle : Faguet, La politique compare'e de Montesquieu, Rousseau et Voltaire : Brunetiere, Etudes critiques sur Fhistoire de la litte'rature francaise, 4me serie : Flint, The Philoso phy of Histor y, 262-79 ; Sir Leslie Stephen, English Thought in the Eighteenth Century, i. 186 : Henry Sidgwick, The Development of European Polity : Sir F. Pollock, History^ oj the Science \of Politics. "^Sixteen and a half miles by railway. 6 Montesquieu. with whom he had many affinities. His family was noble, and belonged to that more modern branch of the nobility which had acquired its fortunes from the exercise of judicial or financial functions, and which was known as the noblesse de la robe. Therefore he was a member of one of the two privileged classes which under the old regime owned between them some two- fifths of the soil of France, and were practically exempt from all the burdens of the state. On his mother's death he was sent as a boy of seven to the Oratorian College at Juilly near Meaux, and remained there eleven years. He then studied law, and in 1714, at the age of twenty-five, was made coun- sellor of the Parlement of Bordeaux, that is to say member of the Supreme Court of the province of Guienne. In the next year he married a Protestant lady. The following year, 1716, made a great difference in his fortunes. His uncle died, and he succeeded to the barony of Montesquieu, to a considerable landed property, and, above all, to the dignified and lucrative post of President a Mortier, or Vice-President, of the Parlement of Bordeaux, a post which the uncle had acquired by purchase, and which the nephew retained until he parted with it to another purchaser in 1726. His judicial duties were such as to leave him a good deal of leisure. After the fashion of his time he dabbled in physical science. The papers which he read before the newly established Academy of Bordeaux were of no scientific value, but they influenced his sub- sequent political speculations, and supplied a sufficient excuse for his election during his English visit to a fellowship in our Royal Society 1 . His real interests 1 He was elected February 12, 1729 (old style). Proposed by Montesquieu, 7 lay neither in law nor in physics, but in the study of human nature. His first book, the Persian Letters, appeared in 1721. He resigned his judicial office in 1726, and became a member of the Acade'mie franfaise at the beginning of 1728. The next three years were spent in travel, and his travels ended, with a stay of nearly two years in England. The Grandeur et decadence des Romains appeared in 1734, and the Esprit des lots in 1748. He died, as I have said, in I 755 : His personal appearance is known to us from the excellent medallion portrait by Dassier, executed in 1752. Aquiline features, an expression, subtle, kindly, humorous. He was always short-sighted, and towards the end of his life became almost entirely blind. ' You tell me that you are blind,' he writes to his old friend Madame du Deffand, in 1752 : ' Don't you see we were both once upon a time, you and I, rebellious spirits, now condemned to darkness? Let us console our- Dr. Teissier and recommended by M. Ste-Hyacynthe and the President (Sir Hans Sloane). He refers to his reception in a letter to Pere Cerati, dated London, March i, 1730 (new style). Among the documents of the Royal Society is the copy of a letter from Montesquieu to Sir Hans Sloane, dated Paris, August 4, 1734, and enclosing copies of his book on the Grandeur et decadence des Romains. The M. Ste-Hyacynthe, who figures as Montesquieu's backer, must have been the 'Themiseul de Ste-Hyacinthe, the half-starved author of the Chef-d'oeuvre d'un inconnu, who, after having served, if we may believe Voltaire, as a dragoon during the persecution of the French Protestants, had crossed over to England, there had been converted, had translated Robinson Crusoe, and, though always a destitute wanderer, had been nominated a member of the Royal Society of London ' (Texte, Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the Cosmopolitan Spirit in Literature, translated by J. W. Matthews, p. 18). The English translation of this book embodies additions to, and corrections of, the original work. 8 Montesquieu. Selves by the thought that those who see clearly are not for that reason luminous 1 .' The three books to which Montesquieu owes his fame are the Persian Letters, the Considerations on the Greatness and Decay of the Romans, and the Spirit of Laws. Of these the first appeared during the Regency, that period of mad revel which followed the gloomy close of Louis XIV's reign. The second was published under the ministry of that aged and suspicious despot, Cardinal Fleury, when it was safer to speculate about ancient history than about contemporary politics or society. The last appeared under the rule of Madame de Pompadour, when the Encyclopaedists had begun that solvent work of theirs which prepared the way for the French Revolution. It should be added that all the three books were published anonymously, and printed in foreign countries, the first two at Amsterdam, the last at Geneva. In order to trace the origin and development of Montesquieu's conceptions, and the course and ten- dency of his thoughts, the three books must be read consecutively, and must be supplemented by what we I know of his studies and experiences during their '■ preparation. For this knowledge very interesting additional materials have been supplied by the recent i 1 The Earl of Chariemont, who, as a young man, made a tour through the South of France, either in 1755, or in the latter part of 1754 (the dates are not quite clear), has left a delightful description of a visit which he and a friend paid to Montesquieu at La Brede. He found, instead of a ' grave, austere philosopher,' a ' gay, polite, sprightly Frenchman,' who took his visitors for a walk through his grounds, and being unable to find the key of a padlocked three- foot bar, solved the difficulty by taking a run and jumping over it. — Hardy, Memoirs of Earl of Chariemont, i. 60-73. Montesquieu. 9 publication of the manuscripts which had for many years been preserved in the family archives of the Montesquieu family. They include the journals of travel which Sainte-Beuve said he would sooner have than the Spirit of Laws, and the three quarto- volumes of Pensees in which Montesquieu stored materials for his/ published works. The Persian Letters supply a clue to the plan of the Spirit of Laws, and contain the germs of many of the ideas which were subsequently developed in that book. They are the work of a young man. They profess to be written, and were probably composed or sketched, at different dates between 171 1 and 1720 J , that is to say, 1 The view that the composition of the Letters extended over several years is confirmed by internal evidence. The correspon- dence changes in character as it goes on. Compare for instance the apologue of the Troglodytes in Letters xii to xiv with the speculations as to the origin of republics in Letter cxxxi, or with the comparative view of the political development and character- istic features of different European states in Letters cxxxiii to cxxxvii. The Troglodytes are a community that perished through disregard of the rules of equity, but was restored to prosperity by two wise survivors who preached that justice to others is charity to ourselves. After the lapse of some generations their descen- dants, finding the yoke of republican virtue too hard, ask for a king, and are reproved for doing so. The apologue is interesting because it contains phrases which recur and ideas which are developed in the Spirit of Laws. But it is very youthful and abstract. Between the date of the Troglodyte letters and that of the later letters the writer had read much, observed much, and reflected much. Or compare again the story of the travellers and the rabbit with the. later observations on the advantage of having more than one religion in a state and on the duty of respecting and tolerating each. The lively personal sketches become more rare: more space is devoted to the discussion of serious problems such as the causes and effects of the decrease of population in Europe since the flourishing days of the Roman Empire. The writer is no longer content with noting and criticizing : he begins to draw io Montesquieu. during the last four years of Louis XIV's reign, and the first five years of the Regency, and they describe the impressions of three Persians who are supposed to be travelling in Europe at that time. There is an elder, Usbek, who is grave and sedate, a younger, Rica, who is gay and frivolous, and a third, Rhedi, who does not appear to have got further westward than Venice. The device was not new, but it had never been employed with such brilliancy of style, with such fine irony, with such audacity, with such fertility of sugges- tion, with such subtlety of observation, with such profundity of thought. And it was admirably adapted for a writer who wished to let his mind play freely on men and manners, to compare and contrast the religious, political and social codes of different coun- tries, to look at his manifold subject from different points of view, to suggest inferences and reflections, and to do all this without committing himself to or making himself responsible for any definite proposition. Any dangerous comment could be easily qualified by a note which explained that it merely represented the Mahommedan or the Persian point of view. \ There were a great many dangerous passages. There was the famous letter about the Two Magicians, conclusions. In short, the feuilletonist is ripening into the philo- sophical historian and the political philosopher. But at this stage his political philosophy has perhaps not advanced beyond the point indicated by a passage in Letter lxxxi. ' I have often set myself to think which of all the different forms of government is the most conformable to reason, and it seems to me that the most perfect government is that which guides men in the manner most in accordance with their own natural tendencies and inclinations.' Montesquieu. ii which nearly cost Montesquieu his election to the Academy. ' The king of France is the most powerful prince in J Europe. He has no gold mines, like his neighbour the king of Spain, but he has greater riches because he draws them from an inexhaustible mine — the vanity of his subjects. He has undertaken and carried on great wars without funds except titles of honour to sell, and, through a prodigy of human pride, his troops have found themselves feared, his fortresses built, his fleets equipped. Moreover he is a great magician. His empire extends to the minds of his subjects : he makes them think as he wishes. If he has only one million crowns in his treasure chest and he wants two, he has merely to tell them that one crown is equal to two, and they believe it. If he has a difficult war to carry on and has no money, he has merely to put it into their heads that a piece of paper is money, and they are con- vinced at once. But this is no such marvel, for there is another still greater magician, who is called the Pope, and the things which he makes people believe are even . more extraordinary.' Then there was the description of the old king, with his minister of eighteen, and his mistress of eighty 1 , surrounded by a swarm of invisible enemies, whom, in spite of his confidential dervishes, he could never discover. There were many references to religion, / mostly irreverent, though not with the fierce and bitter irreverence of Voltaire. Usbek finds imperfect and tentative approximations to Mahommedanism in many of the Christian dogmas and rites, and ascribes to the 1 The references, of course exaggerated, were to Barbezieux and Mme de Maintenon. 12 Montesquieu. finger of Providence the way in which the world is being thus prepared for general conversion to the creed of Islam. About diversities of ceremonial belief he has naturally much to say. 'The other day I was eating a rabbit at an inn. Three men who were near me made me tremble, for they all declared that I had committed a grievous sin, one because the animal was impure, and the second because it had been strangled, and the third because it was not a fish. I appealed to a Brahmin, who happened to be there and he said, ' They are all wrong, for doubtless you did not kill the animal your- self.' ' But I did.' ' Then your action is damnable and unpardonable. How did you know that your father's vsoul has not passed into that poor beast ? ' Neither the burning question of the Bull Unigenitus 1 , nor Law and his scheme, is left untouched. S He pursues a somewhat less dangerous path, though still a path paved with treacherous cinders, when he sketches, after La Bruyere's manner, contemporary social types, the 'grand seigneur' with his offensive manner of taking snuff and caressing his lap-dog, the man ' of good fortunes,' the dogmatist, the director of consciences who distinguishes between grades of sin, and whose clients are not ambitious of front seats in Paradise, but wish to know how just to squeeze in. There are also national types, such as the Spaniard, whose gravity of character is manifested by his spectacles and his moustache, and who has little forms of politeness which would appear out of place in France. The captain never beats a soldier without 1 Horace Walpole complained once that he found life in England so dull that he must go to Paris and try and amuse himself with the Bull Unigenitus. Montesquieu. 13 asking his permission ; the inquisitor makes his apology before burning a Jew. In a more serious vein is the description, so often quoted, of the ruin and desolation caused by the trampling of the Ottoman hoof. No law, no security of life or property : arts, learning, naviga- tion, commerce, all in decay. ' In all this vast extent of territory which I have traversed,' says the Persian after his journey through Asia Minor, ' I have found but one city which has any wealth, and it is to the presence of . Europeans that the wealth of Smyrna is due.' / The success of the Persian Letters was brilliant and instantaneous 1 , and Montesquieu at once became a leading personage in Parisian society. He took lodg- ings in the most fashionable quarter 2 , paid his devotions to Mile de Clermont at Chantilly, was a favourite guest at the salon of the Marquise de Lambert, and through these influences obtained, though not without a struggle, a seat in the Academy. But he was dis- satisfied with his reception there, and made up his mind to travel. In the year 1728, when Montesquieu set out on his