Montesquieu: How the Laws of Domestic Slavery Relate to the Climate

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* NOW - Buy this resource online! Click here * How the Laws of Domestic Slavery Bear a Relation to the Nature of the Climate1. Of domestic Servitude.2. That in the Countries of the South there is a natural Inequality between the two Sexes.3. That a Plurality of Wives greatly depends on the Means of supporting them.4. That the Law of Polygamy is an affair that depends on Calculation.5. The Reason of a Law of Malabar.6. Of Polygamy considered in itself.7. Of an Equality of Treatment in case of many Wives.8. Of the Separation of Women from Men.9. Of the Connection between domestic and political Government.10. The Principle on which the Morals of the East are founded.11. Of domestic Slavery independently of Polygamy.12. Of natural Modesty.13. Of Jealousy.14. Of the Eastern Manner of domestic Government.15. Of Divorce and Repudiation.16. Of Repudiation and Divorce amongst the Romans. FOOTNOTES
   1. "Mahomet married Cadhisja at five, and took her to his bed at eight years old. In the hot countries of Arabia and the Indies, girls are marriageable at eight years of age, and are brought to bed the year after." -- Prideaux, Life of Mahomet. We see women in the kingdom of Algiers pregnant at nine, ten, and eleven years of age. -- Laugier de Tassis, History of the Kingdom of Algiers, p. 61.
   2. See Jornandes, De Regno et tempor. success., and the ecclesiastic historians.
   3. See Leg. 7. Cod., De Jud�is et C�licolis, and Nov. 18, cap. v.
   4. In Ceylon a man may live on ten sols a month; they eat nothing there but rice and fish. Collection of Voyages that Contributed to the Establishment of the East India Company, ii, part 1.
   5. Dr. Arbuthnot finds that in England the number of boys exceeds that of girls; but people have been to blame to conclude that the case is the same in all climates.
   6. See Kempfer, who relates that upon numbering the people of Meaco there were found 182,072 males, and 223,573 females.
   7. Father Du Halde, History of China, iv, p. 4.
   8. Albuzeir-el-hassen, one of the Mahometan Arabs who, in the ninth century, went into India and China, thought this custom a prostitution. And indeed nothing could be more contrary to the ideas of a Mahometan.
   9. Collection of Voyages that Contributed to the Establishment of the East India Company, i.
   10. See Francis Pirard, 27. Edifying Letters, coll. iii, x, on the Malleami on the coast of Malabar. This is considered as an abuse of the military profession, as a woman, says Pirard, of the tribe of the Bramins never would marry many husbands.
   11. This is the reason why women in the East are so carefully concealed.
   12. Life and Actions of Justinian, p. 403.
   13. Laugier de Tassis, History of the Kingdom of Algiers.
   14. See Pirard, Voyages, 12.
   15. Exod., 21. 10, 11.
   16. "It is an admirable touch-stone, to find by oneself a treasure, and to know the right owner; or to see a beautiful woman in a lonely apartment; or to hear the cries of an enemy, who must perish without our assistance." -- Translation of a Chinese piece of morality, which may be seen in Du Halde, iii, p. 151.
   17. Collection of Voyages that Contributed to the Establishment of the East India Company, ii, part II, p. 196.
   18. In the Maldivian isles the fathers marry their daughters at ten and eleven years of age, because it is a great sin, say they, to suffer them to endure the want of a husband. See Pirard, 12. At Bantam, as soon as a girl is twelve or thirteen years old, she must be married, if they would not have her lead a debauched life. Collection of Voyages that Contributed to the Establishment of the East India Company, p. 348.
   19. Voyage to Guinea, part II, p. 192. "When the women happen to meet with a man, they lay hold of him, and threaten to make a complaint to their husbands if he slight their addresses. They steal into a man's bed, and wake him; and if he refuses to comply with their desires, they threaten to suffer themselves to be caught in flagranti."
   20. Mahomet desired his followers to watch their wives; a certain Iman, when he was dying, said the same thing; and Confucius preached the same doctrine.
   21. It does not follow hence that repudiation on account of sterility should be permitted amongst Christians.
   22. They took them again preferably to any other, because in this case there was less expense. Pirard, Travels.
   23. Solis, History of the Conquest of Mexico, p. 499.
   24. Romulus.
   25. This was a law of Solon.
   26. Mimam res suas sibi habere jussit, ex duodecim tabulis causam addidit. -- Philipp, ii. 69.
   27. Justinian altered this, Nov. 117, cap. x.
   28. Book ii.
   29. Book ii. 4.
   30. Book iv. 3.
   31. According to Dionysius Halicarnassus and Valerius Maximus; and five hundred and twenty-three, according to Aulus Gellius. Neither did they agree in placing this under the same consuls.
   32. See the Speech of Veturia in Dionysius Halicarnassus, viii.
   33. Plutarch, Romulus.
   34. Ibid.
   35. Indeed sterility is not a cause mentioned by the law of Romulus: but to all appearance he was not subject to a confiscation of his effects, since he followed the orders of the censors.
   36. In his comparison between Theseus and Romulus.
   37. Book xxiii, 21.