MONTESQUIEU, m5N't's-kye', CHARLES DE SECONDAT, Baron de in Brede et de (1689-1755). One of the most celebrated politico-philosophical writers of France. lie was born January 18.1689, at his father's Cifiltean of Brede, near Bordeaux, of a distinguished family of Guienne and one noted for the number of eminent lawyers it pro duced. He was a brilliant. versatile scholar, illu minating his solid legal attainments by an ardent love of the classics and of science. in 1714 he was appointed a Councilor of the Parlement of Bordeaux, and two years after president of the Parlement. He eared nothing, how ever, for the routine of legal practice or for the requirements of official duty, and as his fortune was ample he was enabled to gratify his taste for study, travel, and observa tion without hindrance. Be was a good deal of a skeptic NO free thinker and loose in his morals, but in the field of politics he was the clearest thinker of his time. his first published work was his famous Lettres persanes (1721). in which, in the character of a Persian, he ridicules, with exquisite humor and perspicuous criticism, the religious, political. social, and literary life of his countrymen. Although lie did not spare the Academy in these letters, he was made a member of it in 172S. In 1726 Montesquieu resigned his office in the Parlement of Bordeaux, and spent some years in foreign countries. In England he spent two 3-ears, during winch he was much in the company of Lord Chesterfield and other distinguished personages. De was frankly an admirer of the English political system, a fact which appears in his great contribution to polit ical science. After his return to France he pub lished his Conside'rations stir les closes He in grandeur et de in dr'eadenee des Romains (1734), a masterly review of Roman history. It was fol lowed after a long interval by his Dialogues de Syne, et fl'Euerate, et de Lysituaque IS), published under an assumed name. in which the motives and feelings of a despot are skillfully analyzed. In the same year appeared his great work, on which lie had been engaged for twenty years, the Esprit des lois. in which he attempted to discover the relation between the laws of different countries and their local and social cir cumstances. The hook proved immensely popular.
The Esprit des lois is one of time classics of political science, one of the path-breaking works iu establishing the science of polities upon an his torical rather than an o priori basis. It has assured Montesquieu a place among the foremost political philosophers of all \V about adopting Voltaire's hyper-eulogistie criticism, that "when the human race had lost their charters, Montesquieu rediscovered and restored them" it may be said that it was the first work in modern times in which the questions of civil liberty were ever treated in an enlightened and systematic manner. The Esprit des Lois, next to Locke's Essay on Go•unndef. was probably the political work best known to the statesmen of the American Revolution and early constitutional period. and its inlluenee was narked in the dis cussions attending the adoption of the Constitu tion. It was bitterly attacked in Montesquieu's own day for its radical attitude in regard to the Church and religion, and for its alleged Anglo mania, but it was admired by the reform party in France and by the Moderates of the French Revolution. though not popular in France in later days. It is divided into thirty-one parts. The first eight deal with laws in general, their nature and principles; the next five with laws relating to offense and defense, political liberty, and taxation; the next twelve with laws in re lation to climate, soil, manners and enstmns, commerce, population, and religion; the twenty sixth deals with laws in their relation to the affairs which they determine; the remaining five hooks, relating to Roman, French, and feudal law, are a kind of historical supple ment. AlontesqUiell died in Paris, February 10, 1755. The collective editions of his works are numerous. The best is that of Laboulaye in 7 vols. (Paris. 1875-79). All of his important works have been translated in numerous editions. The best short work on Mont4.squieti is Sorel, Montesquieu, trans. by !Masson (London. 1887) ; the standard authority is Vian, Ilis(oire de la i'ir et des wurrcs de 31 onlesquioli (Paris, 1879). There are good essays by Domnie, ltrunetiere, and Zevort. Consult. also. Lowell, Ere of the French rotation (lio,ton. 1802).