SECT. III.] POLITICAL CONDITIONS. 357 



Barthes 1 says, that political conditions chiefly determine the 

 manners and the national character; the climatic conditions 

 determine the physical peculiarities ; and, if both co-exist un- 

 changed for several centuries, a race is produced which, if it 

 remains unmixed, may perpetuate itself in other climates, and 

 under different political relations. Passy, on the other hand, 

 has endeavoured to prove, 2 that though the power of political 

 and social institutions may promote or retard national progress, 

 it is not determined by them, inasmuch as the same institutions 

 constantly change among the same people. At any rate, we 

 cannot but recognise in climate, mode of life, density of popu- 

 lation and its intermixture with foreign elements, and the de- 

 velopment of mental activity, powers which are but remotely 

 governed by laws, whilst they undoubtedly influence the forma- 

 tion and efficacy of the latter. 



The security of private property is the most important of all 

 legal institutions, and the very basis of civilization. Its origin 

 among primitive peoples and its development depend chiefly on 

 the relations between the mode of life and the necessities of the 

 population, and the area and natural conditions in which they 

 live. Among the Indians of Magna the aggregation of a 

 number of people in the same spot was the main cause of the 

 establishment of landed property. 3 Among the Indians on the 

 Orinoco, fisheries, hunting districts, &c., are common property 

 of the tribe, but the land becomes private property as soon, 

 and so long, as it is cultivated. 4 As the Northern Nicobares 

 are more densely populated than the Southern, private pro- 

 perty is better defined in the former, where boundary stones 

 are placed, which is not the case in the latter. 5 Considering 

 the deficiency of water in Australia, it is not surprising that 

 the natives lay claim to the water of the rivers, near which 

 they live. 6 Next to occupation and long exclusive possession, 

 it is the labour expended which gives origin to private pro- 



1 " Nouv. elemens de la sc. de I'homme," ii, p. 274, 1806. 



2 " L'Instit./' ii, p. 19, 1845. 



3 Poppig, " E-eise in Chile, Peru, und auf d. Amazonenstr.," ii, p. 374, 1835. 



4 Gilii, " Nachr. v. Lande Guiana," p. 327, 1785. 



5 Steen Bille, " Bericht iiber d. Reise der Galathea," i, p. 288, 1852. 



6 Mitchell, " Three Exped. into the Interior of E. Australia," p. 304, 1838. 



