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cover
The Complete Works of Montesquieu. Electronic Edition.
cover
Volume I.
Body
BOOK XVIII.: OF LAWS IN THE RELATION THEY BEAR TO THE NATURE OF THE SOIL.
CHAP. V.: Of the Inhabitants of Islands.

CHAP. V.: Of the Inhabitants of Islands.

THE inhabitants of islands have a higher relish for liberty than those of the continent. Islands are commonly of a small†613 extent; one part of the people cannot be so easily employed to oppress the other; the sea separates them from great empires; tyranny cannot so well support itself within a small compass; conquerors are stopped by the sea; and the islanders, being without the reach of their arms, more easily preserve their own laws.

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