96 On the Comparative Population of the World, 



present the indolence of the inhabitants, and the inefficiency of 

 the government, that the Peninsula is the most constant and the 

 most extensive importer of grain in Europe. The cultivation 

 of the soil is everywhere neglected, and the excessive prevalence 

 of monastic institutions has tended still further to diminish the 

 propagation of the human species. 



Italy, -which, at first view, seems to present the greatest facili- 

 ties for comparison, is that part of Europe concerning which 

 the controversy is attended with the greatest difficulties. The 

 notices on this subject afforded by the Roman writers, though 

 numerous, and given sometimes with apparent precision, are 

 yet so perplexing and contradictory, that it is very difficult to 

 arrive at any satisfactory conclusion. By some modern authors, 

 ancient Rome is estimated to have contained four millions of 

 inhabitants. Others compute its population as low as one mil- 

 lion. Mr. Hume, on comparing the various authorities, thinks 

 it may have contained about as many inhabitants as modern 

 London ; a calculation which appears to me, after an attentive 

 examination, to be rather below than above the truth. ^Eliau 

 enumerates eleven hundred and ninety-seven cities in Italy, but 

 many of them were probably small towns or villages. The pro- 

 vincial cities, though several of them large and opulent, did not, 

 I conceive, equal in number and size the cities of modern Italy. 

 From every appearance, the rural population probably excelled 

 on the contrary side. Agricultural pursuits seem to have been 

 as fashionable among the higher classes of the ancient Romans, 

 as they are at present in Great Britain. From the statements 

 of Columella, as well as from the general spirit of encouragement 

 to such pursuits, there can be no doubt that agriculture had 

 arrived at peculiar perfection. An immense number of slaves 

 was employed in these occupations, all of whom were nourished 

 on a very moderate allowance of corn and vegetables only. 

 There was little of that desolating luxury which, in modern 

 times, appropriates so large a proportion of the earth to the 

 production of animal food. Fish and game, as appears from 

 the description of Horace and Juvenal, were the chief dainties 

 of the wealthy. The middle and lower ranks, both in Italy and 

 Greece, seem to have subsisted almost entirely on bread, vege- 

 tables, and fruit — a circumstance which, combined with the 



