"He who is judge of all the earth, shall not He do right ?." Abraham had said when interceding with God for the righteous shut up in Sodom.
The success of the _Lettres persanes_ was great; Montesquieu had said what many people thought without daring to express it; the doubt which was nascent in his mind, and which he could only withstand by an effort of will, the excessive freedom of the tone and of the style scared the authorities, however; when he wanted to get into the French Academy, in the place of M.de Sacy, Cardinal Fleury opposed it formally.

It was only on the 24th of January, 1728, that Montesquieu, recently elected, delivered his reception speech.

He at once set out on some long travels; he went through Germany, Hungary, Italy, Switzerland, Holland, and ended by settling in England for two years.

The sight of political liberty had charmed him.

"Ambassadors know no more about England than a six months' infant," he wrote in his journal; "when people see the devil to pay in the periodical publications, they believe that there is going to be a revolution next day; but all that is required is to remember that in England as elsewhere, the people are dissatisfied with the ministers and write what is only thought elsewhere.