English lands, not indeed in Old England, but in the New England which was growing up beyond the seas. When Washington talked about the Lycian republic we may be sure he was quoting directly, or indirectly, from the Spirit of Laws. From the same book Hamilton and Madison in the Federalist drew arguments for federation and for the division between legislative, executive, and judicial powers[1]. And later on, Thomas Jefferson, a statesman bred in a widely different school of thought, had a curious commentary on the Spirit of Laws prepared for him by a peer of France, who was a member of the French Institute and of the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia[2].
In England the spirit of Montesquieu found its fullest and most glorious expression in Burke, both when in his earlier years he was protesting against monarchical infringements of the British constitution, and when in his later years he was denouncing the tyranny of the French Convention.
From the language used by Sir Henry Maine in the famous fourth chapter of his Ancient Law one might infer that in his own country Montesquieu's influence was at once eclipsed by that of Rousseau. But such an inference would be erroneous. Montesquieu, Voltaire, and Rousseau, different as were their methods
- ↑ See Letters 9 (A. Hamilton) and 47 (Madison),and Bryce's American Commonweatlh, part i, ch. xxv.
- ↑ Destutt de Tracy. His curious commentary is really an attempt to rewrite the Spirit of Laws from the commentator's point of view.
which the birthplace of that great writer (great with all his faults) [forbade him to enjoy].
'I could make an immense book upon the defects of Montesquieu—I could make not a small one upon his excellences. It might be worth while to make both, if Montesquieu could live.'
