not so much in the relative scarcity or plenty of gold and
silver, as in the different state of society, in ancient Gaul and
in modern France. In a country where personal freedom is the
privilege of every subject, the whole mass of taxes, whether they
are levied on property or on consumption, may be fairly divided
among the whole 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 slaves, or by peasants, whose
dependent condition was a less rigid servitude. ^183 In such a
state the poor were maintained at the expense of the masters who
enjoyed the fruits of their labor; and as the rolls of tribute
were filled only with the names of those citizens who possessed
the means of an honorable, or at least of a decent subsistence,
the comparative smallness of their numbers explains and justifies
the high rate of their capitation. The truth of this assertion
may be illustrated by the following example: The Aedui, one of
the most powerful and civilized tribes or cities of Gaul,
occupied an extent of territory, which now contains about five
hundred thousand inhabitants, in the two ecclesiastical dioceses
of Autun and Nevers; ^184 and with the probable accession of
those of Chalons and Macon, ^185 the population would amount to
eight hundred thousand souls. In the time of Constantine, the
territory of the Aedui afforded no more than twenty-five thousand
heads of capitation, of whom seven thousand were discharged by
that prince from the intolerable weight of tribute. ^186 A just
analogy would seem to countenance the opinion of an ingenious
historian, ^187 that the free and tributary citizens did not
surpass the number of half a million; and if, in the ordinary
administration of government, their annual payments may be
computed at about four millions and a half of our money, it would