Book VIII.
Chap. 19.selves in that general situation, of which we have been speaking, and are therefore free: whilst the Tartars (the most singular people on earth) are involved in a[1] political slavery. I have already given some reasons[2] for this, and shall now give others.
They have no towns, they have no forests, and but few marshes; their rivers are almost always frozen, and they dwell in an immense plain. They have pasture for their herds and flocks, and consequently property; but they have no kind of retreat, or place of safety. A Khan is no sooner overcome than they cut off his[3] head; his children are treated in the same manner, and all his subjects belong to the conqueror. These are not condemned to a civil slavery; they would in that case be a burthen to a simple nation, who have no lands to cultivate, and no need of any domestic service. They therefore augment the nation; but instead of civil slavery, a political one must naturally be introduced amongst them.
It is apparent, that in a country where the several clans make continual war, and are perpetually conquering each other; in a country, where by the death of the chief, the body politic of the vanquished clan is always destroyed, the nation in general can enjoy but little freedom: for there is not a single party that must not have been a very great number of times subdued.
A conquered people may preserve some degree
- ↑ When a Khan is proclaimed, all the people cry: that his word shall be as a sword.
- ↑ Book XVII. c. 5.
- ↑ We ought not therefore to be astonished at Mahomet the son of Miriveis, who, upon taking Ispahan, put all the princes of the blood to the sword.
