MONTESQUIEU MONTE VIDEO. 



45 



possession, remorse, ami a growing attachment to 

 Mme. de MainU'iion finally overcame his passion, 

 and the frequent quarrels of the two ladies finally 

 estranged his affections from Mme. de Montespan. 

 She rarely appeared at court after IG85, and, in 

 1691, she entirely quitted it. Her last years were 

 devoted to religious exercises, acts of benevolence 

 and penitence. She died in 1707. 



MONTESQUIEU, GHARLES DE SECONDAT, (baron 

 de la Bre'de et de,) was descended from a noble fami- 

 ly of Guienne, and was born Jan. 18, 1689, at the 

 castle of Bre'de, near Bourdeaux. When only twenty 

 years old, this philosophical genius collected materials 

 for his Esprit des Lois. An uncle, who was presi- 

 dent of the parliament of Bourdeaux, left him his 

 property and office. In this sphere of action, Mon- 

 tesquieu tried to be useful in various ways. In the 

 academy which was formed at Bourdeaux, he del i vered 

 many excellent lectures on history, sought to attract 

 attention to the natural sciences, in his time almost en- 

 tirely neglected, and, for that purpose, projected the 

 plan of a Histoire physique de la Terre, ancienne et 

 moderns, (which, however, as his efforts were after- 

 wards turned in other directions, was never finished), 

 &c. In 1721, he came before the public with his Let- 

 ires Persanes, which he had begun in the country, and 

 finished in the leisure hours that his business left him. 

 This work, profound under the appearance of levity, 

 announced a distinguished writer. It gives a most 

 lively and correct picture of French manners : with 

 a light and bold pencil, he portrays absurdities, pre- 

 judices, and vices, and lias the skill of imparting to 

 all an original character. All his letters are, how- 

 ever, not of equal value : some contain paradoxes and 

 coarse satires against the reign of Louis XIV. 

 These letters introduced Montesquieu into the French 

 academy, although this society was by no means 

 spared in them ; and cardinal Fleury, justly offended 

 at the Persian's mockery of the Christian religion, 

 opposed his reception. The discourse which he de- 

 livered on the occasion of his admission, in 1728, was 

 short, but energetic, and rich in ideas. In order to 

 collect materials for his great work, the Esprit des 

 Lois, he resigned his office in Bourdeaux, in 1726, and, 

 after his reception into the academy, began to travel 

 through Germany, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, Hol- 

 land, and England. In the last country, he spent 

 about two years, and was made member of the royal 

 society of sciences in London. The result of his ob- 

 servation was, that Germany was the place to travel 

 in, Italy to reside in for a time, England to think in, 

 and France to live in.* After his return to his 

 chateau la Brede, he finished his work Sur les Causes 

 de la Grandeur et de la Decadence des Romains, which 

 first appeared in 1734. His acute remarks and ex- 

 cellent delineations gave to this trite subject the inte- 

 rest of novelty. The lofty spirit which shines in this 

 book is still more conspicuous in the Esprit des Lois, 

 which appeared in 1748. In this work, which exhi- 

 bits the laws of states, in their broad connexion with 

 the other elements of public life, the author dis- 

 tinguishes three forms of government, the democra- 

 tic, the monarchical, and the despotic, and shows that 

 the laws must correspond to the principles of these 

 forms. The distinction is of great importance, and 

 leads the author to a great variety of deductions. 

 The style, without always being correct, is energetic. 

 This work may be termed a code of national law, 

 and its author may be termed the legislator of the 

 human family : we feel that it emanates from a liberal 

 heart, regarding the whole human race with affection. 



* He was often accustomed to say, jocosely, of his own con- 

 duct in his travels, " In France, I was the friend of every body ; 

 in England, of nobody; in Italy, I had to compliment every 

 one, and in Germany, drink every where.*' 



In consideration of these sentiments, Montesquieu 

 may be forgiven for labouring to reduce every thing 

 to a system ; ascribing to climate and physical causes 

 too much influence over the morals ; for the irregu- 

 larity of his work as a whole, and for having too often 

 drawn general inferences from single cases. But it 

 has been justly complained that we find in this chef 

 d'ceuvre many excessively long digressions respecting 

 the feudal laws ; also the testimony of travellers of 

 doubtful credit ; paradoxes instead of truths, and 

 jests instead of reflections. He has therefore been 

 accused of indefiniteness, forced expressions, and 

 want of connexion. It is, however, undeniable, that 

 this book is for the philosopher a storehouse of inves- 

 tigations ; and no one has ever reflected more pro- 

 foundly than Montesquieu on the nature, foundation, 

 manners, climate, extent, power, and peculiar charac- 

 ter of states ; on the effects of rewards and punish- 

 ments ; on religion, education, and commerce. To 

 a criticism by the abbe Bonnaire, Montesquieu replied 

 in his Defense de I' Esprit des Lois. He died at 

 Paris, Feb. 10, 1755, at the age of sixty-six years. 

 Although economical by nature, he could be gener- 

 ous, as in the well-known instance of his bounty at 

 Marseilles, where he gave his purse to a young boat- 

 man, and secretly appropriated a considerable sum to 

 release the father of the unhappy man, who had fal- 

 len into the hands of Barbary corsairs. It was not 

 discovered till after Montesquieu's death that he was 

 the liberator of the captive. A note respecting the 

 remittance of a sum of money to a banker, found by 

 his executors among his papers, led to the discovery 

 of this act of liberality. It has given occasion to the 

 drama Le Bienfait anonyme. His mildness, good 

 humour, and courteousness, were always equal ; his 

 conversation easy, instructive, and entertaining. 

 After his death, a collection of his works was pub- 

 lished at London, in 1759, (3 vols., 4to). In 1788, 

 there appeared a good edition (in 5 vols.), to which 

 must be added a volume of CEuvres Posthumes, that 

 appeared in 1798. The most complete editions are 

 those of Basle, of 1779, in 8 vols., and of Paris, 

 1796, in 5 vols. They contain several other works 

 of Montesquieu, such as the Temple de Guide, a kind 

 of poem in prose. A history of Louis XI., which 

 he had composed, was lost, being burned by the 

 author by mistake. Under the name of Charles 

 d'Outrepont, Montesquieu has unveiled the soul of a 

 tyrant, in a conversation between Sulla and Eucrates. 

 Of his Lettres familieres, which appeared in 1767, 

 several are interesting. In his twenty-sixth year, 

 Montesquieu married, and the fruits of this marriage. 

 were one son and two daughters. The first published 

 a romance, in 1783, Arsace and Ismene, which was 

 probably written by Montesquieu, in his younger 

 years, and, perhaps, intended originally as Grimm 

 suggests, to form an episode in the Lettres Persanes. 

 To his grandson, the baron Montesquieu, who died 

 without children, at London, July 27, 1824, Napoleon, 

 from respect to the author of the Esprit des Lois, 

 restored the property of his grandfather, which had 

 been confiscated during the revolution. 



MONTE VIDEO, or CISPLATINO; a republic of 

 South America, between Brazil on the east and north, 

 Paraguay on the north-west, and Buenos Ayres on the 

 west, washed by the Uruguay, the Rio de la Plata, and 

 the Atlantic. It was declared an independent repub- 

 lic, by a treaty between Buenos Ayres and Brazil, in 

 1828. See Banda Oriental. 



MONTE VIDEO, or S. FELIPE; capital of the 

 republic of Monte Video, on the northern bank of the 

 Rio de la Plata, near its mouth; lat. 34 54' S.; Ion. 

 56 14' W. ; 120 miles north-east of Buenos Ayres. 

 Near the port rises the mountain from which it de- 

 rives its name, and on which there is a light-house 



