But XVII.

or about nine pounds fterling, the common ftand- CHAP. ard perhaps of the impofitions of Gaul. this calculation, or rather indeed the facts from whence it is deduced, cannot fail of fuggefting two difficulties to a thinking mind, who will be at once furprised by the equality, and by the enormity of the capitation. An attempt to explain them may perhaps reflect fome light on the inte refting fubject of the finances of the declining empire.

I. It is obvious, that, as long as the immutable. constitution of human nature produces and maintains fo unequal a divifion of property, the most numerous part of the community would be deprived of their fubfiftence, by the equal affeffment of a tax from which the fovereign would derive a very trifling revenue. Such indeed might be the theory of the Roman capitation; but in the practice, this unjuft equality was no longer

18 In the calculation of any sum of money under Constantine and his fucceffors, we need only refer to the excellent difcourfe of Mr. Greaves on the Denarius, for the proof of the following principles; t. That the ancient and modern Roman pound, containing 5256 grains of Troy weight, is about one twelfth lighter than the English pound, which is composed of 5760 of the fame grains. 2. That the pound of gold, which had once been divided into forty eight aurci, was at this time coined into seventy-two fmaller pieces of the fame denomination. 3. That five of thefe aurei were the legal tender for a pound of filver, and that confequently the pound of gold was exchanged for fourteen pounds eight ounces of filver, according to the Roman, or about thirteen pounds according to the English, weight. 4. That the English pound of filver is coined into fixty-two fhillings. From thefe elements we may compute the Roman pound of gold, the ufual method of reckoning large fums, at forty pounds fterling, and we may fix the currency of the aureus at fomewhat more than eleven fhillings.

felt,

CHAP. felt, as the tribute was collected on the principle
XVII. of a real, not of a perfonal impofition. Several

indigent citizens contributed to compofe a fingle
head, or fhare of taxation; while the wealthy pro-
vincial, in proportion to his fortune, alone repre-
fented several of thofe imaginary beings. In a
poetical request, addreffed to one of the laft and
moft deferving of the Roman princes who reign-
ed in Gaul, Sidonius Appollinaris perfonifies hist
tribute under the figure of a triple monster, the
Geryon of the Grecian fables, and intreats the
new Hercules that he would moft graciously be
pleased to fave his life by cutting off three of his
heads 191.
'The fortune of Sidonius far exceeded
the customary wealth of a poet; but if he had
pursued the allufion, he must have painted many
of the Gallic nobles with the hundred heads of
the deadly Hydra, fpreading over the face of the
country, and devouring the fubftance of an hun-
dred families. II. The difficulty of allowing an
annual fum of about nine pounds fterling, even
for the average of the capitation of Gaul, may be
rendered more evident by the comparison of the
present state of the fame country, as it is now go-
verned by the abfolute monarch of an induftrious,
wealthy, and affectionate people. The taxes of
France cannot be magnified, either by fear or by

181 Geryones nos effe puta, monftrumque tributum,
Hic capita ut vivam, tu mihi tolle tria.

Sidon. Apollinar. Carm. xiii. The reputation of Father Sirmond led me to expect more fatisfaction than I have found in his note (p. 144.) on this remarkable passage. The words, fuo vel fuorum nomine, betray the perplexity of the commentator.

flattery,

flattery, beyond the annual amount of eighteen CHA P.
millions fterling, which ought perhaps to be XVII.
fhared among four-and-twenty millions of inha-

bitants 182. Seven millions of thefe, in the ca-
pacity of fathers, or brothers, or husbands, may
discharge the obligations of the remaining multi-
tude of women and children; yet the equal pro-
portion of each tributary subject will scarcely rise
above fifty fhillings of our money, instead of a
proportion almost four times as confiderable,
which was regularly imposed on their Gallic an-
cestors. The reafon of this difference may be
found, not fo much in the relative scarcity or
plenty of gold and filver, as in the different ftate
of fociety in ancient Gaul and in modern France.
In a country where perfonal freedom is the pri-
vilege of every fubject, the whole mafs of taxes,
whether they are levied on property or on con-
fumption, may be fairly divided among the whole

182 This affertion, however formidable it may feem, is founded on the original registers of births, deaths, and marriages, collected by public authority, and now depofited in the Contrôle General at Paris. The annual average of births throughout the whole kingdom, taken in five years (from 1770 to 1774, both inclusive), is, 479,649 boys, and 449,269 girls, in all 928,918 children. The province of French Hainault alone furnishes 9906 births; and we are affured, by an actual enumeration of the people, annually repeated from the year 1773 to the year 1776, that, upon an average, Hainault contains 257,097 inhabitants. By the rules of fair analogy, we might infer, that the ordinary proportion of annual births to the whole people, is about 1 to 26; and that the kingdom of France contains 24,151, 868 perfons of both sexes and of every age. If we content ourselves with the more moderate proportion of 1 to 25, the whole population will amount to 23,222,950. From the diligent refearches of the French government (which are not unworthy of our own imitation), we may hope to obtain a still greater degree of certainty on this jmportant fubject.

body

XVII.

CHA P. body of the nation. But the far greater part of the lands of ancient Gaul, as well as of the other provinces of the Roman world, were cultivated by flaves, or by peafants, whofe dependent condition was a lefs rigid fervitude 183. In fuch a state the poor were maintained at the expence of the masters, who enjoyed the fruits of their labour; and as the rolls of tribute were filled only with the names of those citizens who poffeffed the means of an honourable, or at least of a decent fubfiftence, the comparative fmallnefs of their numbers explains and juftifies the high rate of their capitation. The truth of this affertion may be illuftrated by the following example:

The

Edui, one of the most powerful and civilized tribes or cities of Gaul, occupied an extent of territory, which now contains above five hundred thousand inhabitants, in the two ecclefiaftical diocefes of Autun and Nevers 184: and with the

183 Cod. Theod. I. v. tit. ix, x, xi. Cod, Justinian. I. xi. tit. lxiii. Coloni appellantur qui conditionem debent genitali folo, propter agriculturam fub dominio poffefforum. Auguftin. de Civitate Dei,

1. x. c. i..

184 The ancient jurisdiction of (Auguftodunum) Autun in Burgundy, the capital of the dui, comprehended the adjacent territory of (Noviodunum) Nevers. See d'Anville, Notice de l'Ancienne Gaule, p. 491. The two diocefes of Autun and Nevers are now composed, the former of 610, and the latter of 160 parishes. The registers. of births, taken during eleven years, in 476 parishes of the fame province of Burgundy, and multiplied by the moderate proportion of 25 (fee Meffance Recherches fur la Population, p. 142.), may authorife us to affign an average number of 656 perfons for each parifs, which being again multiplied by the 770 parishes of the diocefes of Nevers and Autun, will produce the fum of 505,120 perfons for the extent of country which was once poffeffed by the dui.

probable

probable acceffion of those of Châlons and Ma- CHA P. çon 185, the population would amount to eight XVII. hundred thousand fouls. In the time of Constantine, the territory of the Ædui afforded no more than twenty-five thoufand heads of capitation, of whom seven thousand were discharged by that prince from the intolerable weight of tribute 185 A juft analogy would feem to countenance the opinion of an ingenious hiftorian 187 187, that the free and tributary citizens did not furpass the number of half a million; and if, in the ordinary adminiftration of government, their annual payments may be computed at about four millions and a half of our money, it would appear, that although the fhare of each individual was four times as confiderable, a fourth part only of the modern taxes of France was levied on the

Imperial province of Gaul. The exactions of Conftantius may be calculated at feven millions fterling, which were reduced to two millions by the humanity or the wifdom of Julian.

185 We might derive an additional supply of 301,750 inhabitants from the dioceies of Châlons (Cabillonum) and of Maçon (Matifs); fince they contain, the one 200, and the other 260, parishes. This acceffion of territory might be justified by very fpecious reafons. 1. Châlons and Maçon were undoubtedly within the original jurifdition of the dui. (See d'Anville Notice, p. 187. 443.). 2. In the Notitia of Gaul, they are enumerated not as Civitates, but merely as Cafira 3. They do not appear to have been epifcopal feats before the fifth and fixth centuries. Yet there is a paffage in Euinenius (Panegyr. Vet. viii. 7.) which ery forcibly deters me from extending the territory of the Ædui in the reign of Constantine, along the beautiful banks of the navigable Saône.

186 Eumenius in Panegyr. Vet. viii. 11.'

127 L'Abbé du Bos Hift, Critique de la M. F. tom, i.

p. 121.

But